Re: Shepard and Darcy
"No, it was a mutual decision," Darcy assured her. Although he had brought it up, it wasn't something he'd had to talk her into. "She wanted you to come. We wanted you to," he added with a nod, in case she thought it had just been because he felt obligated or something. It really hadn't been like that.
He gave her a curious look as she started to explain further. He really hadn't expected it. She owed him no explanation at all, but he appreciated the effort, and it was pleasing to hear. "You do not have to apologise to me, but thank you," he told her after a moment. "My behaviour at the time was unpardonable. I can hardly think of it without embarrassment. There was a great deal of our conversation that I did not... could not understand," he admitted. There was a lot of the conversation that made a hell of a lot more sense given context, now that he understood more about Ashley's world and how it worked. "I should very much like for us to be able to move past it," he added.
Darcy followed her gaze, tilting his head a little as he tried to figure out what was going on their. Some little teasing, it seemed. He gave a sharp laugh at her comment, shaking his head a little. Apparently she had more in common with her daughter than he had realised. "Well, we both know how you appreciate a man in a red coat," he joked a little.