by APRIL FLOYD
She had attempted to find what he had discussed with Mr. Darcy since their visit to Longbourn and still he managed to evade her best efforts.
Instead of going upstairs herself, she quit the parlor and went outside to walk the gardens as the spring sunshine had tempted since the morning.
An hour before dinner, Elizabeth came down to the parlor to find Mr. Darcy there with her grandfather. She looked about for his aunt and Miss de Bourgh, but neither lady was present.
“Grandfather,” she said, interrupting the two men as they stood close by the windows overlooking the drive to Netherfield, “where are the ladies?”
Mr. Darcy turned and Elizabeth could see he was most upset. His hair was disheveled and his cravat loosened. He certainly did not appear ready for dinner.
“Lizzy, Mrs. de Bourgh is at Longbourn in case her daughter returns there before dinner,” the earl said as he left Mr. Darcy’s side to stand beside her.
“What has happened to Miss de Bourgh? Where has she gone?” Elizabeth rushed past her grandfather and went to Mr. Darcy, her voice full of concern.
“We believe she has gone with Mr. Wickham. Hill was in the kitchen garden and saw Anne enter the little wood near the lane. She was dressed for dinner and so Hill thought nothing of her wandering. Only a little later, Hill recognized Mr. Wickham’s voice and Anne’s reply. She stood and saw them speaking in the lane. When my aunt came down a little later, Anne was not in the parlor nor in the lane. I have searched and called for her but to no avail,” Mr. Darcy explained.
His words left Elizabeth trembling with anger. “Did you not read my letter? I told you everything you should know about that man! Why would he come to call at Longbourn after all I wrote to you?”
Before she might say more, the earl took her arm. “Lizzy, now is not the time for blame! We must find the young lady before anyone else knows whether she has gone with Wickham.”
Colonel Fitzwilliam came in with the butler demanding to know where Miss de Bourgh had gone. “What is this Aunt Catherine has said? That Anne is gone with Wickham?”
Mr. Darcy addressed his cousin. “We do not know for certain Richard, but she was last seen speaking with him in the lane. Have you not seen him with the regiment?”
The colonel seemed thoughtful for a moment but then answered. “I do not recall, but it is not often I am in his presence of late. We have been training quite heavily. I cannot imagine he had the time nor the energy required to court any young ladies of Hertfordshire.”
“I do not believe Anne wished to court him. The last he came to Longbourn, I turned him out explaining that Anne was promised to another after he frightened her with his attentions. We have not seen him at Longbourn since,” Mr. Darcy said, the strain in his voice piercing Elizabeth’s heart.
She turned to the earl. “We must send your footmen after them, Grandfather. They know Wickham and his treacherous ways.”
Elizabeth then assured Mr. Darcy and the colonel. “I will go and sit with Mrs. de Bourgh, for she cannot be well after such a terrible thing.”
The earl called for his footmen and charged them to assist Mr. Darcy and the colonel with returning Miss de Bourgh safely and saving the wastrel Wickham for an audience with himself before handing the rake over to the magistrate. “You well know his history with our family. Put him in the stables when you have found him and send for me.”
“Now,” the earl said offering his arm to his granddaughter, “we shall go to Mrs. de Bourgh and sit with her so that she may be distracted from this terrible situation.”
Mr. Darcy bowed before the earl and thanked him profusely. “I am indebted to you, sir. Thank you for thinking of my aunt. I am afraid she will need Mr. Jones, the apothecary before all is said and done.”
The colonel joined Mr. Darcy and was soon introduced to the earl. “Thank you, your lordship, for your concern. I trust that you will allow us our part in teaching Wickham a lesson should he be found.”
“Why, of course Colonel! I think it is you he has wronged this time. I believe you are the man who would love and marry her.”
Elizabeth looked from the colonel to her grandfather. “How did you know?” she asked.
“A man who has been in love knows the look of another who is so afflicted, Lizzy. Two young men stand before me without the women they so desire to have for their wives. Let us go. Tell Miss Bingley to come along or wait here for us,” the earl said and quit the parlor calling for the butler to have his carriage brought round.
“See that you send into Meryton for Mr. Jones to go to Longbourn and see to Mrs. de Bourgh as well,” he told the butler while awaiting his granddaughter to join him.
Elizabeth blushed furiously as she stood before Mr. Darcy. Her grandfather had spoke quite plainly as was his way but she had not been ready for such discussion.
“I did read your letter,” Mr. Darcy said as the colonel quit the parlor to wait outside for his cousin and the earl’s footmen.
“Was it only after your cousin showed a fear of Mr. Wickham?” Elizabeth asked.
“It was. I thought it most unnatural for him to have fallen in love with Anne so soon and stranger still that he did not come to me with his ardor knowing it is the way those matters are handled.” Mr. Darcy sighed and looked away.
Elizabeth could see he was worried for his cousin. Before she might speak, he talked again of Wickham.
“We had dined together many times and he paid attention to my cousin, but I did not think he loved her. I ought to have seen he might seek her attention, especially after reading your letter.” Mr. Darcy said and quit the parlor before Elizabeth might say more.
When he reached the parlor door and Caroline came in, he turned to Elizabeth again. “I am sorry for the pain I caused you, dearest Elizabeth. Thank you for thinking of my aunt.”
Caroline was too shocked to speak after hearing the man use her friend’s Christian name and with an endearment. Mr. Darcy was too distracted by the disappearance of his cousin to notice the slight.
“Elizabeth,” Caroline said as she went to her friend, “have you and Mr. Darcy made amends? What is this business with his aunt, pray tell?”
Chapter 22
Elizabeth sat with Caroline in the parlor at Longbourn embarrassed by the attention her grandfather paid Mrs. de Bourgh. Certainly there was the concern for her missing daughter, but the two sat entirely too close on the small sofa across from Caroline.
“Mrs. de Bourgh,” her grandfather said, his voice filled with care, “surely your nephews will find Miss de Bourgh before any harm is done to her reputation.”
“You must call me Catherine, your lordship. I feel as though we know one another well enough,” Mrs. de Bourgh placed a hand to her hair and smiled sweetly at the earl.
Elizabeth coughed to cover the impolite noise that rose in her throat at the woman’s manipulation. Her daughter’s reputation was in certain danger in spite of her grandfather’s wish to lessen the severity of the situation and she sat there behaving as though the earl was paying a call out of admiration rather than one of Christian charity.
They had been at Longbourn for nigh on an hour and Elizabeth rose from her seat beside Caroline as her grandfather and Mrs. de Bourgh continued their copious flirtation. There was little she might do to intervene and her grandfather was quite old enough to do as he pleased.
“I must step outside for a moment,” she said and Caroline hurried to accompany her. Neither the earl nor Mrs. de Bourgh seemed to notice.
When Elizabeth was outside the front door of Longbourn, Caroline pushed past her and exclaimed over the earl’s behavior. “Lizzy, I do not recall your grandfather ever fawning over any woman before. Is his mind declining with age?”
“I hardly think so, Caro! What a thing to say! Though it is unsettling to see him so taken with Mrs. de Bourgh when he spoke of how handsome you were only a week ago,” Elizabeth looked up and down the lane, her mind on Miss de Bourgh.
“What do you mean he spoke of me? I
am only a year older than you. He could not have been serious.” Caroline seemed horrified at the notion.
Elizabeth sighed. “I should not have mentioned it in any case, but I am distracted with worry over Miss de Bourgh. You do not know how terrible Mr. Wickham can be in his treachery.”
Caroline sniffed and lifted her chin. “Be that as it may, the girl was foolish to go with him.”
“Perhaps she did not go willingly, Caro. She never seemed the passionate kind to me. On the contrary, she might have enjoyed Wickham’s attentions but Mr. Darcy said that she called for him when Mr. Wickham behaved in an ardent manner with her right there in their parlor.”
“Well, she is gone. What might we do about it?” Caroline dusted off her pristine skirts and Elizabeth turned and dashed off towards the small stable behind the home.
“Lizzy! Lizzy!” Caroline called as she followed her friend.
Elizabeth rode back to Netherfield, her mind working over the places Lieutenant Wickham might have taken Miss de Bourgh.
She had borrowed one of Mr. Darcy’s horses and ignored Caroline’s objections in order to gain time to consider what might have happened with Miss de Bourgh.
When she had walked around the garden and the area Hill had last seen Miss de Bourgh after tying the horse to a post beside the garden gate, Elizabeth was certain of her thoughts on Miss de Bourgh’s disappearance. Caroline had followed behind her with all sorts of questions and adamant censure, but Elizabeth could not be swayed from her sleuthing.
The sun had set, as they were well past the dinner hour, and darkness was falling quickly. Elizabeth dismounted and gave the reins to a stable boy who came out to meet her in Netherfield’s drive.
She went inside and to the writing desk in the parlor. Elizabeth took a piece of the cream stationary from the drawer and uncapped the ink bottle.
As the hour ticked by on the clock over the mantel, she had written all the places she could think of in the area where Wickham might have gone with Miss de Bourgh. It would not have been easy for them to escape notice in the small neighborhood.
Elizabeth rose at last and called for tea. Her stomach had objected since she sat to write and would no longer be ignored. Before she might sit by the fire and wait for her repast, Caroline entered the parlor with the earl and Mrs. de Bourgh.
Elizabeth had forgotten about her friend and grandfather at Longbourn. Caroline’s face showed that she did not appreciate the fact.
“Catherine will have dinner here and spend the night. I could not leave her alone at Longbourn for fear that Wickham might return and harm her. Have we any word on whether Miss de Bourgh is safely found?” the earl asked and escorted the missing lady’s mother to a seat on the sofa.
Elizabeth looked to Caroline and saw that she was as befuddled as ever by the pair and the earl’s use of Mrs. de Bourgh’s Christian name.
Caroline stared at the two lovebirds with her lashes lowered and whispered her irritation. “I have endured quite enough this evening, Eliza. While I would love to stay and witness this budding romance, I will eat in my rooms.”
Finding she could not argue her friend’s point, and hoping to escape after tea with her list that remained atop the writing desk, Elizabeth mouthed a sincere word of apology as her friend quit the parlor.
Turning to her grandfather and Mrs. de Bourgh, Elizabeth took a seat across from them and blew out a breath of relief as tea was brought in. “I am sorry but Miss Bingley wished to retire to her rooms.”
“Why, certainly she must be tired after traveling from Town. Poor thing,” Mrs. de Bourgh said as she surveyed the cold meats and cheese on the cart.
Elizabeth watched as her grandfather took a small plate and filled it with whatever Mrs. de Bourgh wanted. It was tedious to watch him point to each thing as though she were a child.
How on earth had the woman gone from wishing to push her daughter before the man to promoting herself in such a manner? Elizabeth could not countenance it another moment in the end.
“Grandfather, Mrs. de Bourgh,” she said as she stood and excused herself, “I think I may join Caroline upstairs. Please send for me if the colonel and Mr. Darcy return.”
Neither attempted to object and before Elizabeth had crossed the parlor to retrieve her list from the desk, the two were sitting closer with heads bent in a conspiratorial fashion.
Their mingled laughter caught Elizabeth at the parlor door as she made her escape. She turned round in apprehension that she was the source of their laughter. When she saw they were not even glancing in her direction, she left them to their seeming courtship.
As she climbed the stairs of Netherfield, she shook off thoughts of the unlikely pair for she could not begrudge her grandfather his preference. He was the family member she was most akin to in manner and thought. His obstinance was legendary where hers was only an irritation to her mother.
Once upstairs, she passed Caroline’s room and went quickly to her own. She had never meant to sit and dine with her friend, it was only an excuse to escape notice and don her riding habit to set off in the night with a footman in search of Miss de Bourgh.
She could not sit idly taking tea and thinking of her list while awaiting the return of Mr. Darcy and the colonel. Her grandfather would not approve of her riding off into the night so the distraction of Mrs. de Bourgh proved useful even in its annoyance.
A quarter of an hour later, Elizabeth slipped quietly down the stairs and found a footman on his way upstairs to retire for the evening. She stopped him and whispered her desire that he come with her on an errand.
The servant nodded his agreement and disappeared inside the ballroom with her. Their steps echoed in the large room but Elizabeth went confidently to the terrace doors and out into the night with the footman only a shadow behind her.
Rushing down the steps, she went to the stable where the groom was still minding his post. The stable boy was roused from his sleep in the hayloft and made to saddle two horses for Netherfield’s guest and the footman.
Soon, the pair had left the drive and rode down the lane toward Longbourn with purpose. Elizabeth was determined to check the first place on her list. While the horses were saddled, she inquired of the groom whether Bingley had any pistols on the premises and when the man questioned her, she sent him to retrieve one.
It was a small one, unlikely to cause any serious wounds if she used it on Wickham, but the presence of the cold metal against her leg gave her some comfort. The footman had been similarly armed, but with a larger model than her own.
As they passed Longbourn, Elizabeth nudged her horse to the right and left the lane for the field beyond the home. If her theory was correct, Mr. Wickham was hiding in plain sight with Miss de Bourgh.
Chapter 23
Mr. Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam rode in silent defeat, their path lit only by the inconstant light of a spring moon. Clouds obscured the face of the distant orb but the two men could still see well enough to know they were nearing Longbourn.
“I cannot think of her passing the night with him Darcy. I am torn in half at the idea of him hurting her. I care not if her reputation is ruined, I love her still and will marry her as soon as I am able. We must find her before morning light.”
His cousin’s tortured words only added to Mr. Darcy’s own regret and recrimination. “We will see whether Aunt Catherine has had any news and set out again, Richard. And when we find them, I will see that Wickham pays before we turn him over to the magistrate or Forster.”
The colonel agreed though he knew he would need restraint when handling the lieutenant lest he murder the man.
Mr. Darcy had told the colonel of Miss Bennet’s tale of how Wickham had harmed her family in strictest confidence. “I do not wish that information to become common knowledge and I share it now only to show what the man is capable of and his character.”
Colonel Fitzwilliam sighed heavily. “I feel responsible for introducing him to Anne. I knew he had run up some debts and told Colonel For
ster. He arranged for Wickham’s pay to be given over the course of months to some of the shopkeepers in Meryton. There are junior officers who do such things, but it is frowned upon.”
“Do not blame yourself, Richard. He seemed an amiable gentleman with a good sense of propriety until he frightened Anne with his passionate pleas that afternoon at Longbourn. We had no reason to think he might return for her…”
Mr. Darcy reined his horse in abruptly and fell silent as the sound of horses hooves in the distance near his home caught his attention. He and the colonel spurred their horses into action and raced ahead.
Elizabeth and her footman were halfway across the field when Mr. Darcy and the colonel caught them up. She could not see who gave chase at first and leaned down to grasp her small pistol.
Holding it steady in her hand out of view of the approaching horsemen, Elizabeth called out as the footman placed himself between her and the men. She noticed his hand was on his pistol as well.
“It is only us, Miss Bennet! Do not fear.” Colonel Fitzwilliam had removed his hat and Elizabeth breathed deeply in relief. Her heart was still racing as Mr. Darcy reined in his horse beside hers.
He noticed the pistol she held and nodded at it with approval. “At least you brought an armed footman along.”
The colonel shook his head at his cousin’s tease. He knew Darcy wanted to ask how she had managed to chase out into the darkness with only a footman. He would not be allowed to question her for Miss Bennet ignored him and lifted her chin in defiance.
“I thought about where they may have gone. I believe they cannot have left the area yet as Miss de Bourgh did not go willingly with Mr. Wickham,” she said and awaited Mr. Darcy’s reply.
She pulled her list from her pocket and presented it to Mr. Darcy. The colonel moved his horse closer to look over his cousin’s shoulder. The clouds had drifted away from the moon and provided them enough light to read her list. “How did you come to these conclusions, Miss Bennet?”