Mary Simonsen - Mr. Darcy’s Bite

“Mr. Darcy,” Lizzy said, interrupting, “are you saying that you were bitten by a wolf in the forest and that this wild animal was trying to apologize for biting you?”

“That is close to what I am saying, but I need to add one other detail. It was not a wolf who bit me, but a werewolf.”

Lizzy now burst out laughing. “Shame on you, Mr. Darcy, for going on in such a way. Is this what I have to look forward to? Scary stories on the night of a full moon?”

Lizzy waited for Mr. Darcy to break out into his wonderful smile—to let her know that he had been teasing her—but he did not.

“Mr. Darcy, please tell me you are in jest.”

“I wish I could, but that would be a lie, and I promise that I shall never lie to you,” he said, and Lizzy could hear the tension in his voice. “Elizabeth, as a result of that bite, I became a werewolf.”

Darcy recounted for an ashen-faced Elizabeth the sequence of events that followed his being bitten in the Black Forest.

“As soon as I got back to the carriage, I told my father what had happened and showed him the bite mark. When he saw it, he was greatly relieved. ‘A mere scratch,’ he kept saying over and over as if to convince himself that it was impossible for his son to have ever been in danger of being harmed by a wild animal. But Herr Beck, our translator, was alarmed by the she wolf’s actions, insisting, quite correctly, that no true wolf would have acted in such a manner and informed my father that it was known that there were werewolves in the Black Forest. ‘Werewolves? Those are stories invented for the amusement of the uneducated,’ Papa insisted. Everything Herr Beck said was met with the same dismissive attitude by my father.

“When we arrived in Baden, Papa told me that nothing should be said to my mother. The reason we were in Baden was so that Mama might take the waters. Two years earlier, she suffered a miscarriage and had been in poor health since that time. We were traveling around Europe looking for a cure for her malaise and had been told that the waters at Baden were very beneficial for women who had weakened constitutions, and she did improve. Unfortunately, she died three years later after giving birth to a stillborn child.

“My father was deeply unsettled by what happened in the forest, and even though Herr Beck advised against it, Papa immediately began to make arrangements for our return to England. Although he had been hired for the purpose of serving as a guide and interpreter and not as a guardian of my person, my father accused Herr Beck of neglect, and he was dismissed. Despite being discharged, he continued to press my father about the bite. He provided him with the name of a doctor in Baden who was known to have treated wolf bites. It was only at my request that Papa finally agreed to visit with Dr. Philipp because the wound was not healing.

“As soon as the doctor heard my story, he told my father that there was no doubt that I had been bitten by a werewolf, and he knew exactly what would happen to me in the coming months. During the full moon of the first month, I would run a high fever, and my dreams would be overtaken by visions of running through forests and hunting game. At the time of the second full moon, some of the physical characteristics of the wolf would emerge, and a full transformation would take place with the arrival of the third full moon.

“After returning to England, everything happened exactly as Dr. Philipp said it would, and so before the third month, Papa and I went to a hunting lodge in the north of England, and that is where my first full transformation took place. I was not yet fourteen years old.”

Lizzy looked around for some place to sit down, but there was none, and she was afraid that if she moved, her knees would buckle underneath her. This was insane. There were no such things as werewolves. Had she fallen in love with a man who was given to flights of fantasy?

“Elizabeth, it is not as bad as you think. It wasn’t so much a bite as a scratch, and that does make a difference. You see, I only transform into a werewolf for two days, and then I am back to being Mr. Darcy.”

“You keep using that word, ‘transform.’ What does it mean?”

“It means I become a wolf. A big, black, wolf. Somewhat above average in size for a werewolf and with a very nice coat. You might prefer to think of me as a large dog rather than a werewolf,” he said, smiling weakly.

Lizzy was horrified by his story and started to walk backwards away from Mr. Darcy, moving in the direction of Pemberley, but Mr. Darcy reached out to stop her.

“That is the reason I had to leave Hertfordshire so often, the reason I must leave you now. This is where I need to be during my transformation, and tonight is a full moon. At dusk, the change will begin. I am sure, at this moment, you are thinking about how quickly you can leave Pemberley, but I would ask that you stay. While I am gone, Georgie and Anne will be with you to explain everything. We have arranged a signal. If you want to see me as a werewolf, they will light the candle in the window in a front bedroom, and I will come and introduce myself.

“If, however, there is no candle, I will remain in the woods, and I promise I will never see you again. You can go on with your life acting as if none of this happened. Whether or not we are together is now in your hands.” Mr. Darcy looked up into the sky. “Tonight is the eve of All Saints’ Day. At this time of year, the days are very short, and the sun will soon sink behind the hills. I must go.”

Mr. Darcy extended his arm, but as the pair walked to the manor house, not a word was exchanged between them.

Mr. Darcy walked with Lizzy as far as the house, but then excused himself and went off in the direction of the stables. When she entered the foyer, Georgiana and Anne were waiting for her, and both ladies could tell that Darcy’s revelation had completely shattered her composure. With all color drained from her face, Elizabeth looked as if she had just had the fright of her life, and she might very well have.

Georgiana looked to her twenty-five-year-old cousin, hoping that she would know what to say, but Lizzy spoke first.

“I just want to go to my room, so if you will excuse me.” She swept past them and went up the stairs.

Georgiana thought that they should go after her, but Anne discouraged her. “She needs time to think about what she has just learned. If we speak to her now, we might only make matters worse.”

“From the look on her face, I don’t think that is possible,” Georgiana said, and she felt tears welling up in her eyes. “Will loves her so much. If she rejects him, it will break his heart,” she said as the tears spilled down her cheeks.

“This is far from over,” Anne said with an optimism she did not feel, but for William’s sake, as well as Georgiana’s, she had to hope for a better outcome than one could reasonably expect at the moment.

Lizzy’s room was on the north side of the house, and although it was early afternoon, the room was already growing dark. She went to the bed and removed the ties holding the curtains open and climbed in as if she were crawling into a cave. She did not want to see anything that reminded her that she was in the home of Fitzwilliam Darcy, master of Pemberley, country gentleman, and werewolf.

She curled up into a tight ball and lay there as if paralyzed, and she felt as if her brain was frozen as well because she could not take in what she just heard. Mr. Darcy, a werewolf? But werewolves only existed in fright tales, such as those published by the Grimm brothers, and she only knew of their existence because Charlotte’s brothers loved to tell such stories and derived great pleasure from scaring the living daylights out of the Bennet sisters.

Lizzy lay in that position all afternoon, and when she heard Ellie, the maid, come into the room to ask if she planned to come down for supper, she pretended to be asleep. When she heard the door open again, she assumed it was Ellie. She had no idea how much time had elapsed, nor did she care.

“Elizabeth, it is Anne. May I please speak to you?” When Lizzy did not answer, Anne told her that she would sit quietly in a chair near the fireplace until she was ready to talk, but Lizzy desperately needed to use the chamber pot and asked Anne to come back in fifteen minutes. Maybe, possibly, in that span of time, she could compose herself enough to talk to Mr. Darcy’s cousin.

When Anne returned, she was carrying a candle, but Lizzy asked her to put it out. “I do not want any misunderstandings.”

At first Anne was confused by her response, but then she realized that Elizabeth was afraid that William would see the candle and interpret it as a sign that all was well.

“Do not worry about the candle,” Anne reassured her. “The arrangement William and I agreed upon was that a candle would be lit in a specific room on the south side of the house. A light in any other room would have no significance.”

Anne looked at Lizzy who was sitting in a chair with her legs pulled up underneath her and with her head resting on the arm of the chair. Because she had not bothered to undress, her frock was wrinkled from her having slept in it, and her hair had broken free of its ties and was an uncombed mess.

“Would you like for me to send for some tea?” Anne asked.

“No. I do not want anything.” But then she sat up. “Actually, I do want something. I want to return to Longbourn as soon as possible. I will say nothing of what I have learned here, but I cannot remain at Pemberley.”

“I understand, and I will speak to Mr. Jackson immediately to make the arrangements.”