Pride and Prejudice

backwater bumpkins

Darcy's POV

I stared out the window, doing everything possible to ignore the person sitting in the seat across from me who desired my attention. 

My focus on the buildings we were passing was broken when my phone in my suit coat pocket started vibrating. I pulled it out, and as soon as my eyes scanned the name, I immediately accepted the call. My gut clenched when I heard my sixteen-year-old sister's teary voice. "I'm pregnant Andrew."

"Georgianna." I expelled a breath, glancing at Caroline trying to figure out my response in a way that she wouldn't know what's going on. "I love you and I will always be there for you..." I tried to figure out what to say next in this situation.

"I know." She ended the call before I could say anything else.

I sat, stewing in the back seat. Her words swirled in my head, repeating over, and over. Pregnant, my sister was pregnant. 

I was going to make the man who had drugged and raped my sister wish he was never born.

"What did dear Georgianna have to say, William?" Caroline Bingley purred from across the seat in her skimpy dress. "I do hope she is alright and knows she can reach out to me if she needs anything." She gave a coy smile. "You are always so sweet to her William, saying you will be there and that you love her, I am sure that you would do the same for a wife."

I couldn't take it anymore so I cut her off, "She will be fine. Teenager struggles and stuff."

"Boys, boys, boys I am sure! Tell me, William, does she have a boyfriend? Or would she not confide something of that nature in her brother?"

I didn't answer.

My baby sister was pregnant. Not only was it horrible that she was raped but that now she has to have the baby of that man. Would she give it up for adoption or keep it?

I got there three hours too late. Georgianna's life has now been irrevocably changed because I was three hours too late.

I grimaced at the thought.

If she kept the baby then it would look bad on the family that Georgianna Darcy had a baby when she was a teenager, but if she gave the baby up for adoption then she would probably live the rest of her life wondering what if? Abortion is not an option. God! Please give her, and I peace with whichever decision she makes.

I felt the car slow down and realized we had arrived. From the front seat, Charles asked "Are you two ready? I know I am."

I met his eyes in the mirror. "Charles, you know I didn't want to come in the first place."

He grinned back at me, "Too bad, we get to meet all of Clifton's friends tonight."

Caroline's medically wrinkle-free, model face glowered at her perpetually cheerful brother. "Clifton's family is the only reason I am coming to this. Everyone else will be backwater bumpkins. Only in Dallas and Houston can you sometimes find anyone of our refinement in Texas. I can't get back to English society soon enough."

Charles unbuckled and turned in his seat to look at us. "Please, for my sake at least look like you are enjoying yourselves this evening."

Look like I am enjoying myself while also feeling like ripping a certain someone's head off? Sounds reasonable enough. Hopefully, I will never see him again. 

"Fine." Caroline huffed.