Previous Chapter: Chapter One

Did you miss the other posts about the Mr. Darcy’s Impertinent Daughters universe? Check them out here:

What Happens After Happily Ever After? / The Bingleys / Darcy & Lizzy’s Other Relatives / Hero John Ward / Mr. Darcy’s Impertinent Daughter

Everyone wanted a reminder of the family tree, so here’s a brief description of all the Darcy kids. I’m only including the inspiration pics for the younger ones because the older ones don’t really show up in this chapter.

Darcy Children

George Fitzwilliam: born in 1813, 23 in the first book and named after his Grandfather Darcy.

Malachi Bennet: born in 1815, 21 in book one. His name is Hebrew for angel.

Angelica Anne: We kick off the series with her coming out ball. She is 18 and nervous about the responsibilities of being Miss Darcy.

Seraphina Jane: 16 and caught somewhere between girlhood and adulthood. The name Seraphina is derived from seraphim, a class of angels.

Ariel Elizabeth: 14 and desirous of leaving the school room. Ariel means “lion of God” and is sometimes used as an alternate name for the angel Uriel in the Anglican faith.

Raphaela Grace: 12, goes by Rafie or Rafe. Non-stop energy and full of mischeif. Do NOT get on her bad side. Feminized form of Raphael, one of the archangels according to the Anglican church.

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Chapter Two

Angelica Darcy smiled at her gathered cousins and sister. The ladies had decided to take breakfast upstairs the morning after the ball. Now, they all piled into Angelica and Seraphina’s shared bedroom. The half dozen voices in her room merged into a frenzied talk of the ball and beaus. Deciding to take a morning walk lest a migraine begin, Angelica straightened her pelerine collar in the mirror before meeting her sister’s eyes and waving at her. 

“Well, where is Angelica going?” Alice Bingley asked Seraphina.

“I am taking my morning walk,” Angelica answered from the doorway while tying bonnet strings under her chin. Her glossy blonde hair was pulled back in a simple, but neat, bun. She did not have the patience this morning to curl or braid pieces to rest on either side of her face.

“Will you see the gentlemen?” Lavinia Hurst asked. “I heard from my father they were to go fishing this morning.”

“My intended path does not come near any fishing hole,” Angelica answered. “However, anyone is welcome to join me.” Silently, Angelica prayed that the others would decline. 

Lavinia and Alice’s attention had already moved on to the discussion about which Ward brother was most handsome. In contrast, the others appeared to be estimating the purse strings of the other young men invited to the house party at Pemberley. Seizing the moment and thankful that no one had decided to attend her, Angelica slipped out the door unnoticed.

Once on her favourite path, she took a deep breath of the fresh, country air. Her parents had instilled a love of the outdoors in her, often joking that she had loved the paths of Pemberley before she could even walk. Mrs. Darcy enjoyed telling others of an infant Angelica who could only be soothed in the dead of night by the fresh air and gazing up at the stars.

Angelica glanced up at the sky this morning. The stars may be gone, but the wanderlust they had inspired in her from her earliest memories were not. As much as she loved Pemberley, she longed to see more of the world. Her parents often wondered where she got it from, with murmurings now and then about some genetic trait from a troublesome relative. 

However, Mr. Darcy would come to Angelica’s defense. She did not merely wish to have adventure and travel; she had a keen interest in learning about different geographies and cultures. Angelica would not be an ignorant tourist left with no greater knowledge of her destinations than an English ballroom’s variances from an Italian one. She wished to see Rome’s ancient ruins, the waterways of Venice, and the French Riviera. She imagined traversing the alps of Switzerland. Perhaps she might even journey to India one day. Alas, there was no means of easy land travel, and she grew horribly seasick on ships. She could never tolerate more than a crossing of the Channel.

Proper young ladies, especially daughters of Mr. Darcy of Pemberley, did not trek across the globe. They were expected to sit at home…and do what Angelica had yet to determine. After the distant day that she would marry, she would obviously run a household. However, there was little enough to occupy a clever and intelligent young lady once potential suitors had gone. 

A sly smile grew across Angelica’s mouth. She had one thing most other ladies in her position did not: two adoring elder brothers. George and Malachi were meant to make a tour of Scotland, and Angelica had all her hopes set on going with them. 

Other misses her age probably spent the morning after their come-out ball sitting in a drawing room and smiling at foolish young swains. Angelica sniffed in distaste. She was in no hurry to wed, and there were months until the season began. She longed for one real adventure before being proper Miss Darcy in London and shown around the marriage mart. Her cousin Alice had her heart set on London balls. Even Jenny Bingley had declared them enjoyable, and she was probably the shyest person Angelica had ever met. Well, before seeing high society at its alleged best, Angelica preferred to see the wilds of the country with no more company than a book. 

Coming to her favourite clearing, Angelica shook out the blanket she had brought with her and set down upon it before focusing all of her attention on the pages she held. She had no notion of how long she had been sitting there until her stomach began to complain. Checking her watch, she saw that luncheon hour approached. She had not brought food with her as some of her cousins from the nearby village were coming to dine with the Darcy family. Angelica had just folded up her blanket and set her bonnet to rights when she heard a loud yowl some distance behind her in the woods.

“OWIE!!!” 

“Tommy?” Angelica cried to herself. What was he doing this far from the house by himself? Dropping her effects, she hitched up her skirt. She darted in the direction she had heard her not-so-baby-anymore-brother howling in pain. Branches slapped at her cheeks, and one tore her bonnet off, pulling her hair into disarray, but she did not care.

Before she could see Tommy through the thick bushes, she heard the decided whacking sound of fists hitting a body.

“I told you Rafe would avenge me!” Tommy yelled before cheering on the aggressor.

“Raphaela Grace Darcy, I do not know who you are striking, but cease at once!” Angelica called from the other side of a group of bushes. 

“Angie?” Angelica’s younger sister, Christiane, asked, her voice full of fright. Whether it was from the scene she had witnessed or from fear of Angelica tattling was uncertain.

Finally, Angelica reached her siblings and gasped at what she saw. Twelve-year-old Raphaela appeared to have tackled a young man and sat on his chest, pummelling him with her small fists. 

“That is for my brother!” She hit the man, who had begun to rise at the presence of Angelica, in the jaw. He grunted. 

“Rafie, no!” Angelica pulled at her sister’s shoulder. “You are setting a horrid example for the little ones!” 

“I am not!” she cried in anger. “They should defend themselves, Papa said so!” 

“But not like this!” Angelica struggled but wrapped her arms around her sister’s waist. She dragged Raphaela off the gentleman and pushed her sister to sit on the dirt path. “Now, behave!”

Next, Angelica turned her attention to the man, startling when he was already standing just behind her. “Are you well, sir?”

“I believe I can withstand the beating of a little girl, miss.”

Behind her, Raphaela made a noise. The man answered back with a snarl.

“What is your name, sir? I should like to know who is such a mighty man that he must make faces at my little sister.”

“John Ward, at your service.”

Angelica gave him a once over. Beyond his dusty and dirty clothing, hopelessly disarrayed by Raphaela’s pummelling, he was a handsome and tall man with dark hair and darker eyes. “You were at my parents’ ball last night. I danced with your elder brother.”

“I believe we may as well call it your ball. I have seldom seen the likes. So much attention showered on one privileged miss.”

“You must not spend much time in company, sir. There is nothing out of the ordinary about balls being held in honour of a lady’s come-out.”

He perused her from head to toe, causing Angelica’s cheeks to burn in embarrassment. Her usual impeccable attire and coiffure were destroyed. “A lady, is it?”

“That is Miss Darcy of Pemberley!” Tommy said while rushing to her side. “I think me and Chris can take him now that Rafe has injured him.”

“Injured?” Mr. Ward laughed. “Call off your guard dogs, madam.”

Angelica’s brows flew to her hairline. “They are not guard dogs, sir, but I assure you that my father has several. When he hears how you have treated his children, you will be chased off his property by the very best hounds Pemberley has. I would be surprised if you were accepted into any polite society after this display.”

“This display? Should I thank them for attacking me? I have heard much from your brother George about the great Darcy hospitality and beauties of Pemberley.” He paused a moment and assessed Angelica once more before flicking his eyes over her youngest siblings. “All I see is a motley gang of rapscallions left to roam the countryside like gypsy bandits and prey upon the unsuspecting. There is also an arrogant harridan who does not know she is destined to be on the shelf lest some man overcomes the natural disgust for her face enough to inquire after her fortune.”

Faintly, Angelica registered the cries of anger and disagreement from her siblings before her fist connected with Mr. Ward’s nose. “There is your injury, sir!” She spun on her heel and commanded her siblings. “Come along, children. Papa will want to know about this riffraff.”

She marched back to Pemberley with Tommy and Chris’s hands in hers while Rafe announced their coming to any and all with a victory song she invented. 

Hail to our victory!

Hail to our Angie!

She best the giant,

Now he’s compliant

Hail to our Angie!

Angelica had to smile a little at the song. Rafe was such an interesting mix of tomboy and musical prodigy. When her personality really began to emerge, it looked as though her parents were through having children. However, Tommy came along a few years later. 

Angelica’s anger began to fade as they drew closer to the house. “Tommy, why were you so angry with Mr. Ward?” 

“He hit me on the head with an apple.”

“What?”

“I was walking by a tree, and he threw an apple at me.”

“That does not make any sense. You saw him throw it?”

“No, but I saw him in the tree.”

Angelica stopped walking. “Rafe, did you see this?”

“No, Chris and I were picking flowers a few steps away. I turned when Tommy screamed. The man was in the tree, and the apple was on the ground.”

“And everyone assumed that meant Mr. Ward threw it purposefully at Tommy’s head?”

“I did not,” Chris said quietly. “But no one heard me.”

Angelica squeezed Christiane’s hand. “It is well, dearest.” Christiane might only be ten years old, but she lived up to the meaning of her name in addition to having more maturity than her next eldest sister. 

They resumed walking. Turning her attention to Tommy, Angelica said, “Is it not possible that the apple fell by itself? Or perhaps Mr. Ward was dropping it and did not see you walk by.”

Tommy looked at Angelica like she were an imbecile. “Who would drop an apple without making sure no one was around?”

Angelica sighed. “Anyone who was used to being by himself. You are always in the company of others, and so you must watch for them. Mr. Ward would not have been expecting someone to walk by, especially someone so small. You would have been hard to see or hear.”

“Well, I do not know why he was playing in the tree at all,” Rafe said defensively. “That is our favourite tree.”

“Is that what really upset you? Did you believe he hurt Tommy purposefully, or were you angry he was in your favourite tree?”

Rafe shrugged her shoulders. “If he would hurt Tommy, what would he do to the tree? If he would climb our tree without permission, then why should I suppose he would not hurt Tommy?”

“Because grown men do not go around hurting children. He did not fight back when you were hitting him.”

Rafe frowned for a minute. “Maybe not.” They had reached the side entrance to Pemberley. “But grown men also do not climb trees.”

“And grown ladies do not look like they have been trampled nearly to death by a gang of elephants after a walk in the woods, Miss Darcy!” the children’s governess Mrs. Annesley said. “Go inside and wash up,” she told the children, who immediately obeyed. 

Angelica attempted to smooth her hair as the others dashed up the stairs. “I heard Tommy screaming in the woods and ran off to find him.”

“And took no heed of the branches, I see,” Mrs. Annesley observed before sighing. “Well, you are not my charge anymore. I will leave it to you to sort things out with your parents. They are waiting on you. They are all in the drawing room, and your aunt Mary has come with your cousins.”

“Thank you,” Angelica whispered before rushing past the aging lady. 

Mrs. Annesley had first been her aunt Georgiana’s lady’s companion. Years later, she was hired to train up the young Darcy children. Mrs. Annesley could be gentle and loving, but firm and brooked no room for unruliness. Angelica knew the day the lady retired would bring great sadness to her parents. She also acknowledged that Mrs. Annesley would deserve a substantial stipend for surviving the eight Darcy children. 

Angelica raced through her toilette, bringing her middle sister Ariel into the room to assist her rather than calling for a maid. This escapade would hardly be the stuff to convince her parents that she could be trusted to travel with her brothers this summer. She would have to be on her best behaviour today and hope Mr. Ward did not tell her parents the truth about their interaction.

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What did you think of Angelica and Darcy’s youngest children? Are they more rambunctious than you expected? Angie and John are off to a rough start like Darcy and Elizabeth had, but there will be differences in their courtship.