Darcy, who had a better head for figures than his good friend, said, “that is not the worst of it. The man had the audacity to add that the debt is subject to a punitive rate of interest for every week it is not paid. Unfortunately, we had no choice but to leave before we had a chance to bargain with the man. But that is our starting position.”
Jane gasped. “But what is to be done then? We simply cannot afford… can we?”
“I have money,” Bingley said quietly. “Lydia’s dowry may have depleted it, but the last five years have been fortunate. I instructed my bankers to take a less conservative approach and it has paid off handsomely.” He cleared his throat. “Even so… Well, the amount owed as it stands is more than I could pay even if I were to liquidate this estate.”
“I cannot ask you to do that,” Jane gasped, taking her husband’s hand. “There must be an alternative.”
“Let Wickham be sent to debtor’s prison. He is incorrigible. Lydia can live with us if that is what you want.”
“There,” Jane said. “Do you see? Is any one of us opposed to Wickham going to prison if Lydia and the children are provided for?”
Elizabeth shook her head. “No. It is not that simple. If the debt is not paid, he will… We must find a way to compel him to accept a smaller payment.”
“But we cannot!” Bingley threw his hands up in despair. “Even if he forgives half the debt it is still more than I can realistically afford without casting my family into hardship. May God forgive me, but I am not about to do that for the sake of George Wickham.”
“It is not just for George Wickham,” Elizabeth said quietly.
Jane turned and frowned at her. Elizabeth looked to Mary for support. Finding none, she turned back to her elder sister. She hesitated. “Are you sure you are prepared to hear this?”
“Yes. Yes, of course.”
“Truly, Jane.” Elizabeth looked at Bingley. “It is almost incomprehensibly evil. It was hearing this that caused Mary to faint.”
“Perhaps, my darling, you had better leave and—”
“No, Charles. I feel rotten enough as it is for not accompanying you to dinner. You must tell me.”
“Very well,” Elizabeth whispered, closing her eyes rather than having to look at anyone. “Hardy’s wife… well, she is not his wife, and that is… Good gracious, it is a convoluted and horrible tale. That is the first surprise. Hardy is not married at all. He introduced that girl as his wife simply as a joke, she says. Perhaps that is all it was, but…” She shook her head. “It is worse than we thought. Mr. Hardy does not simply intend to throw Wickham into debtor’s prison if the debt is not paid. It is his intention to take the children if the debt cannot be paid. Presumably, this extends to Lydia too.”
“But we are the closest family they have!”
“He considers them security against the debt. And as such, he believes they will become his property should Wickham fail to pay.”
Jane gasped and went limp against the back of the sofa. Bingley was on his feet within seconds, calling for the housekeeper and the smelling salts. They stood frozen in their terrible reality until Jane was revived and helped up by the confused housekeeper. Mrs. Webster was a formidable woman who had taken a particular shine to her mistress. Therefore, she looked with disdain at those responsible for her fainting fit.
“I beg you speak gently in front of Mrs. Bingley,” she snapped before she slammed the door closed.
The others retook their seats and stared at each other in a dazed silence.
It was Elizabeth who finally broke it. “Do not speak gently in front of me,” she whispered. “The time for speaking gently has passed.” Uttering those horrible words aloud had made it all the worse. She was no longer preoccupied by the horror of a proposal from Hardy. All she could think of were her sister’s children. She had not seen them often, but they were her kin. She could not even imagine the horrors they would experience if Hardy was not paid. “Those poor children.”
“I understand your shock. I myself am utterly disgusted.” Bingley looked it too. She had never seen him so horrified. “We must pay him. We must find a way. Why…” he shook his head. “Why would they tell this to you and not to us?”
“I do not know,” she whispered. “It seemed to me that he had told her not to mention it, but she could not pass up the opportunity. Perhaps he had hoped to keep it as a bargaining tool if we objected to his terms. Yes, the more I consider it the more reasonable that seems. We went there with the expectation that we might compel him to accept a much lower amount. He had other ideas.”
“Well then we have no choice but to pay him! But I cannot… Does that mean he will not accept a reduced settlement?”
Elizabeth shook her head as a terrible truth finally dawned on her. “We cannot. What will happen a year from now when Wickham has built up more debt? You might be able to pay now, but you will not be able to pay then. We cannot ask you to pay more on Wickham’s account. For what will be left for you and my sister and your family. It is impossible.”
“We must try and negotiate.”
“It will not help us. Not now. My goodness, how can he get away with such threats? There must be something we can do.”
Bingley inhaled sharply and looked away. Darcy, on the other hand, had his eyes fixed on her as if he could not look away.
“It is not that simple, Miss Bennet. I have made subtle enquiries around town and he is not without allies.”
“Allies?”
He nodded. “Since we are speaking frankly… He is a wealthy man, but he has not come into his fortune by honest means. He does not have the same scruples as you or I.”
“That much is clear!”
“It is. But there are others like him. Many of them. Men more influenced by wealth than by any sense of morality. The man has a veritable army of such men in his employ. I am told that many of these were part of militia regiments before they disbanded. Hardy pays them generously and they offer their undivided loyalty in return.”
“What does that mean, exactly?”
He shook his head. “It means there is not a lot we can do. My first thought was to find those children and your sister and take them far away from James Hardy, but the more I look into him, the more I see that he has men everywhere. I am afraid it just would not work.”
“Well then what are you suggesting? That I marry him? Then I suppose I might exert some small amount of influence and at the very least I might persuade him not to lend money to Wickham again.”
“No,” Darcy snapped. “I was not suggesting anything of the kind. The man is a monster—surely you realise that.”
“I am better equipped to deal with a monster than my nieces and nephews are. There are four of them, by the way. The eldest twin boys are not even four years old. Can you imagine such a fate for them?”
“No. Just as I cannot imagine such a fate for you, Miss Bennet. How can you even consider agreeing to such a thing?” He took a deep breath and hissed the air out. “We must wait and see what he proposes. Perhaps he will agree to a reduced settlement. There is no sense in us speculating about some horrific set of circumstances that may never eventuate.”
One look at his face was all she needed to see that he was trying to shield her from reality. His expression said it all. She had never seen anyone so devoid of hope and warmth.
The worst thing was she was inclined to agree with some of what he had said. What else could they do besides wait?
Chapter Twelve
“He likes you, you know.”
Elizabeth looked at her sister. They had walked a hundred yards from the house in order for Jane to take some fresh air. She was bundled up in an old coat of Bingley’s and looked double her usual size. Jane had just attempted to discuss the problem of Hardy and Elizabeth had refused. She had seen first-hand the effect it had on her sister, and she had no wish to worry her further.
“Who does?” Elizabeth asked, thinking Jane must be referring to Hardy, whom she had just me
ntioned. The whole party had agreed to stop thinking about the matter until they received further word from Hardy, but that was proving impossible in practice. A week had passed now since that terrible evening at his home, and scarcely an hour had gone by in which her thoughts had not turned to the matter. Even when she was playing chess with Darcy she could not fully focus her mind and leave those thoughts behind.
Jane laughed and hugged the coat tighter around her. Elizabeth saw this and moved closer, wrapping her arm around her sister in case she was feeling the cold too keenly.
“Darcy, of course. I have seen it in his eyes. He is fond of you.”
Elizabeth laughed. “He is not. Oh, my dear, you are as much of an optimist as ever. Darcy has been very kind, but we both know that is purely on Bingley’s account.”
“When has he ever said such a thing?”
“He has not needed to.” She smiled. “It does not matter. He is helping us and I am grateful for it.”
Jane frowned. “I am not mistaken. I have seen it. Caroline is clearly taken with him, but he all but ignores her at dinner.”
“I would ignore her too,” Elizabeth said, laughing for the first time in days.
“Oh, Lizzy! Do not be cruel. She is kind, in her way.”
“Is she? Perhaps only to herself or those she deems worthy.”
Jane shook her head. “She is a complicated young woman.”
“You are too good.”
“I am far from it. Shall we walk to the orchard? I feel as if I have been cooped up inside for far too long.”
“No,” Elizabeth said decisively. “No, we will not. You have come far enough in this cold. We shall go back.”
* * *
They had not got even five steps inside the house when they encountered Mr. Darcy. He appeared flushed and agitated. Elizabeth’s first thought was that there must have been news. Not wanting to say anything in front of Jane, she helped her sister to the drawing-room and hurried back through the house to find Darcy.
Her heart sank when she saw he was not alone.
“Why are you racing around the house in such a fashion, Eliza? You shall fall and injure yourself.”
“I am not so infirm, Caroline, that I cannot walk without tripping up.”
“Even so.” Miss Bingley’s expression was pinched with disgust. “I feel it is rather uncouth behaviour for a young lady. Not that you are that young anymore.”
Elizabeth laughed. “You are my elder by six months. It seems strange that you should want to let that fact be known.”
Caroline flushed. “How impertinent.”
“I simply wished to bring it to your attention before you embarrassed yourself. You are only insulting yourself when you make reference to my age.”
Miss Bingley glanced at Darcy and opened her mouth to say something. A moment later, she appeared to change her mind. She stormed off at a pace that matched Elizabeth’s speed just moments before.
“I am sorry if I interrupted your conversation, Mr. Darcy.”
“On the contrary,” he grunted. “I am thankful for it.”
She spun around to face him. “Has there been news? I got the impression earlier when we returned that there had been.”
He looked blank. “News?”
“Yes of course. From Hardy.”
“No. No there has not. It has been scarcely a week.”
“Oh.” She recalled his sense of agitation earlier and wondered what had been its cause. She concluded that it must be something to do with his estate in Derbyshire.
“Would you like to walk with me?”
She looked up at him in surprise.
“I was planning to walk in the grounds when you came in the door. Would you join me?”
She nodded.
They went out. And to her surprise, their conversation did not even touch on the thing that was bothering her so. They spoke of his sister and her family. Of her sister Kitty, whom she had not seen in many months. They spoke of his journey and his life in Bengal. Of his cousin, Richard, whom he thought of as a brother and who had been the one to convince him to travel to Bengal and remain there for so long. They spoke of everything they could think of and even things they had never thought of before. They became so wrapped up in each other that they looked up an hour later and realised they had no idea where they were.
Chapter Thirteen
The following week passed even more slowly without any word from Hardy. All had kept their promise not to speak of their predicament until they knew more, but secretly each one of them was more consumed by the problem that they let on.
Bingley and his wife were naturally distracted by the imminent arrival of another child. Elizabeth spent the early part of the second week wondering why she had not given herself over to despair.
The reason, when she eventually landed on it, was something of a shock.
It was Darcy.
He was the one who had kept her spirits raised in those most troubling of times. They had fallen into a routine of sorts. They tended to arrive at the breakfast table at more or less the same time each morning. When that meal was finished, they would walk in the grounds for hours at a time, despite Miss Bingley’s shrill protests that their behaviour was scandalous in the extreme. No-one else paid them any heed—not even the Collinses, who did not have much to say about anything since the meeting with Hardy.
It had only been a matter of weeks, but Elizabeth’s opinion of Darcy had changed entirely. He was patient. He was kind. He was amusing in his way and his intelligence was unquestionable. And he was the noblest gentleman she had ever encountered.
She felt safe with him. Perhaps that was why she naturally gravitated towards him in those weeks. They did not speak of the threat hanging over her, but in his own way he was careful to reassure her that a solution would be found. She was a pragmatist, but even so, she could not help but be reassured by him.
* * *
Exactly two weeks after their dinner with Hardy, they met at the breakfast table as usual. Miss Bingley had begun to rise even earlier in the mornings and now tended to be the first to arrive in the breakfast parlour.
“Miss Bennet,” that young lady said sourly. “What a coincidence that you and Mr. Darcy have arrived within moments of each other yet again!”
“Yes it is,” she said absently, for they had never planned it so it could only be a coincidence as the lady said. “I think I shall walk to the village today.”
“Perhaps I shall join you,” Miss Bingley said quickly.
Elizabeth looked up in surprise. It was not Miss Bingley’s habit to walk in the grounds if she could reasonably avoid it. She was a rather indolent young woman, more inclined to gossip than to exercise. Anytime Elizabeth had invited her to walk outdoors, she had been met with a look of sour disbelief.
“Please do. It has been a long time since we walked together.”
“Will you join us, Mr. Darcy?” Miss Bingley asked. Her sour expression had been replaced by the sweet smile she reserved for him and her brother—and any other gentleman of a suitably high station.
Darcy cleared his throat. “I will not.”
“Why? You cannot have anything to attend to. You have already told me your man in Pemberley is so efficient you are not needed up there!”
Darcy flushed as he looked at Elizabeth. “It does not concern Pemberley. Even so, I am afraid I cannot accompany you. Please enjoy your walk.”
Elizabeth stood to leave feeling rather disappointed. She had expected the morning to proceed just like previous mornings. She was well aware that Miss Bingley had only invited herself on the assumption that Darcy would be walking as well. Now that young lady had no choice but to keep her word and accompany Elizabeth. And that, no doubt, would lead to her being even more bad-tempered and difficult than ever.
* * *
“Oh, Eliza! Can we not keep to the pathway around the house?”
Elizabeth strode on. The wind was up and even though it was not raining, the heavy rains the
night before meant the grass was still wet and soggy in places. “That would surely defeat the purpose. What is to be gained from walking in circles around the house?”
“Dry feet, for one thing,” Caroline replied, looking at her ruined shoes. “We shall catch our death of cold.”
“We shall not. We shall walk half a mile and then return. Mrs. Webster knows my routine and there shall be hot baths waiting for us. You must not worry about your health.”
But Miss Bingley would not be reassured. They did not even get two hundred yards when she wailed most alarmingly and stopped walking quite suddenly. “It is no use! I do not wish to go on in these conditions!”
“Well do not, then. I shall not force you to walk. You are the one who wished to join me.”
“Yes, but…” Caroline looked away.
It was all Elizabeth could do to stop herself from smiling. She was well aware of Miss Bingley’s sudden enthusiasm for walking.
“Please do not feel obligated to continue. I shall be perfectly fine alone.”
Miss Bingley needed no more prompting. She took off across the grass towards the house without uttering another word.
Elizabeth smiled and walked on. It was far more pleasant without Caroline’s incessant complaints. The wind died away a little and the relative warmth was welcome. She felt herself relax a little. She walked as fast as she could, somewhat enjoying the soft bogginess of the ground even though it would no doubt ruin her shoes.
“Miss Bennet!”
Elizabeth spun around, startled. She had not heard anyone approach, nor had anyone else been awake when they left the house.
Darcy loomed before her, his back tall and proud as he sat astride one of his coal-black stallions. Her heart hammered for far longer than it ought to have now that she had recovered from her fright.
“Mr. Darcy! I thought you were unable to walk out this morning.”
He looked away as a slight smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “I was mistaken.”
Darcy’s Second Chance Page 6