“With whom has he gone?” Lady Catherine asked the odious ladies who had announced this information as though they thought it quite ordinary for people to be running off to Gretna Green.
“A lady by the name of Elizabeth Bennet.”
“I know Miss Bennet. She is a very inferior person.”
“She is indeed,” Miss Bingley said in heartfelt agreement.
“This is not to be tolerated.”
Miss Bingley nodded in agreement with this statement also.
“He must be fetched back at once.”
This statement also met with a display of fervent approval.
“I shall go after them myself.” Lady Catherine turned sharply about and left the room abruptly.
Although affronted by this lack of manners, Miss Bingley heartily approved of such decisive action. Lady Catherine could be counted upon to make it clear to Mr. Darcy that he must have nothing more to do with the Bennets. He would not be able to go against the wishes of his aunt. It was a pity that she had not come along earlier, but everything would soon be set right. This was an excellent turn of events.
Mrs. Hurst looked at the door with a bemused expression. “It occurs to me, Caroline, that Lady Catherine may have formed the impression that Mr. Darcy has eloped with Miss Eliza.”
“I am sure she did, Louisa, and a very good thing too. I expect she will have a great deal to say to Miss Eliza, and to her nephew, after which she will bring him back here.”
“Oh, I see,” Mrs. Hurst said. “It is fortunate that she turned up today.”
“Oh, very fortunate indeed. Our plan is going to work out after all. Now we just have to take care of Charles. Where on earth has Mr. Hurst gotten to?”
As Miss Bingley got up to look out of the window for the errant gentleman, Georgiana was astonished to see Lady Catherine striding toward the front door.
“Were you wanting to see me?” she asked, hurrying down the last few stairs. “We were not expecting you.”
Her aunt stopped at turned about. “I wrote that I was going to be at Matlock this week,” she said, as though that was sufficient for them to have been sitting in wait for her. “Thank goodness I came when I did. I understand that your brother has taken leave of his wits and gone off to Gretna Green.”
“After Miss Lydia,” Georgiana revealed without quite thinking what she was saying.
“Miss Lydia? Who is Miss Lydia? I was told that he was with Miss Elizabeth Bennet.”
“He is with Miss Elizabeth. Miss Lydia is her sister, and they are following her.”
“Both girls are eloping?”
“No, not both of them.”
But Lady Catherine paid no attention to the answer. “What a foolish, headstrong girl Miss Bennet is!” she cried. “Copying the example of a sister who has no idea of proper behaviour.”
“She is not copying her,” Georgiana said, but her defence of Elizabeth fell on deaf ears.
Lady Catherine’s mind was already made up, and she was not the sort of person to change it easily. “I should have guessed that girl was not to be trusted,” she said. “I would have expected Darcy to know better, however. I suppose he fell prey to her allurements. There was something deplorably flirtatious about her manner.”
“He has not fallen prey to anything,” Georgiana said hopelessly. “He is just trying to help.”
“Help? By causing the ruination of his family! I do not call that helpful.”
“He is doing Miss Bennet a service,” Georgiana clarified.
“A very great service indeed,” Lady Catherine shouted. “One beyond anything which she deserves. I will not stand for it. A nephew of the Earl of Matlock to marry such an insignificant girl. It is not to be tolerated. I am going to put a stop to this.”
“There is nothing to stop,” Georgiana said.
“Of course there is.”
“They are not eloping.”
“Why else would anybody go to Gretna Green except to elope?”
“To stop an elopement.”
“Exactly! And that is what I going to do.”
With that, Lady Catherine exited the house. Georgiana went after her, but without any hope of being heard. When her aunt had a bee in her bonnet, she would listen to nobody. So it was. Lady Catherine gave orders to her coachman to return to Matlock House at top speed, and she was away, leaving Georgiana staring at the rapidly disappearing coach in dismay. Now she had one more thing to worry about. Could she possibly overtake her aunt in order to give her brother a warning before the angry lady descended upon him and Miss Bennet with her complaints and insults?
She went back inside and attended to her original purpose, this time requesting haste and the best horses. When that was done, she ran into Mr. Hurst returning at last from his fishing. He had apparently taken his time in answering the summons.
“What took you so long?” Mrs. Hurst cried, coming out of the morning room.
“I had a fish to reel in,” was his excuse.
“It must have been a very difficult fish,” she snapped irritably. “You are lucky the horses are not here yet.”
“What horses?”
“The ones that are being fetched from Lambton. We are leaving as soon as the carriage can be harnessed.”
“For Scarborough?”
“No, for Netherfield. We have to stop my brother from marrying Miss Bennet.”
“Is he still going on about that penniless girl? I thought you and Caroline had put a stop to that business.”
“We did, but now he wants to marry her because her sister has eloped. That should have convinced him to give up the acquaintance completely, but he is behaving quite erratically. So is Mr. Darcy for that matter. Neither of them can see that the Bennets ought to be ostracized from society.”
“I do not see any need for so much fuss about an elopement,” Mr. Hurst said. “One of my sisters eloped. One of my cousins too, now that I think of it. Neither of them has been ostracized.”
“Which sister?” Mrs. Hurst cried. “Why have I never heard this?”
Georgiana had to turn away to hide her smile.
CHAPTER 14
As Lady Catherine’s carriage barrelled along the road in accordance with her instructions, she was muttering to herself about the temerity and audacity of Miss Bennet, whom she had so graciously acknowledged in the spring. Now she understood that the ungrateful girl had all along been planning to get her claws into Darcy. So many recollections came back to her with new interpretations.
In particular, there was an evening when Miss Bennet had been playing the pianoforte at Rosings. Not satisfied with capturing Colonel Fitzwilliam’s attention, she had stolen Darcy away from his relatives as well.
She had been too benevolent at the time, Lady Catherine now realized. It had been a mistake to assume that there was nothing significant in their conversation. The girl had fooled her as well as her nephew.
She wondered how often he had visited at the parsonage. It did seem that he had gone out a great deal more than he usually did on his visits to Rosings. He must have arrived there this year already under the influence of Miss Bennet’s wiles.
Arriving back at her brother’s house in excellent time, she stormed inside and called for her maid to be fetched at once.
“We are going away for a few days,” she said to the anxious woman. “You must pack as quickly as possible.”
“Which dresses will you be requiring ma’am?”
“I do not care,” Lady Catherine shouted. “Just throw anything into a case!”
Her maid blinked in astonishment. Lady Catherine de Bourgh, daughter of an earl and relict of one of England’s most distinguished baronets, never asked for her things to be chosen indiscriminately or thrown into a case.
“And hurry,” her mistress cried.
The maid ran off to do as instructed.
This commotion drew the attention of the entire household. Familiar with Lady Catherine’s temper, servants quickly made themselves scarce. The
earl, safely ensconced in his library, went over to the door and listened, but he ventured no further. His sons, Lord Brampton and Colonel Fitzwilliam, being young and reckless, stepped out of the billiards room to see what the matter was.
Lady Matlock reluctantly rose from the sofa on which she had been reclined with a novel and came to find out what had annoyed her sister-in-law this time. It was probably nothing of great import, as it usually was with Catherine’s outbursts, but it was better to know immediately if something needed to be sorted out.
The answer to her query was far from anything she had anticipated.
“Darcy has eloped!” Lady Catherine cried. “With an entirely unsuitable girl. An upstart nobody from Hertfordshire.”
Lady Matlock looked at her in confusion. “Darcy was not in Hertfordshire. He is at Pemberley.”
“Not any more. He is on the way to Gretna Green. With the young lady who was staying with my parson at Easter.” Lady Catherine looked at Colonel Fitzwilliam. “You will remember her as a most impertinent girl.”
The colonel automatically discounted Miss Lucas, who had been much too quiet to give his aunt any idea of impertinence, and assumed that his aunt must be speaking of Miss Elizabeth Bennet. His own opinion was very different from hers, however. He remembered an attractive lady with lively manners, whose company had been delightfully enjoyable. If Darcy married her, then he would be a lucky man. Except for the wrath which would fall upon him, but that was not so bad a price to pay for having such a wife.
“Do you mean Miss Bennet?” he asked, thinking that there must be some confusion about Gretna Green. Although lively, she had never behaved improperly. He could not imagine her behaving in this fashion. Nor should she have needed to. Her parents could not have any objections to Darcy.
“Of course I mean Miss Bennet,” his aunt shouted. “There were no other impertinent girls visiting at Easter.”
“She did not strike me as the type of person to elope.”
“She is exactly that type of person. Oblivious to propriety and very ambitious. I believe she would do anything to gain a wealthy husband.”
The colonel again disagreed. In his opinion Miss Bennet was far from being the kind of person to do anything for a wealthy husband. Indeed, he believed her perfectly capable of turning down an eligible gentleman like his cousin if that was her preference. She was not improper either. Her manners had been quite ladylike.
He saw the uselessness of arguing that point, however, and came at the matter from a different perspective. “Darcy would never elope,” he said confidently. “You know that he is all about propriety.”
“She has bewitched him.”
There was something bewitching about Miss Bennet’s eyes, the colonel recalled. Darcy really was very lucky. If he really was going to marry Miss Bennet. This elopement business did not sound at all like him. Of course there was the matter of Lady Catherine’s insistence that he should marry Anne. Perhaps he had eloped in order to settle things before the inevitable confrontation with his aunt. He might have even feared that she would forbid the marriage.
“I am going to stop this marriage,” Lady Catherine said. “Darcy cannot be allowed to throw himself away on this girl.”
“No, of course not,” Lady Matlock now contributed. “He must remember what he owes to his family.”
From behind the door, Lord Matlock agreed, but he did not feel any need to add his voice to his wife’s or offer any encouragement to his sister. It seemed that she had everything well in hand, as was usually the case. There was no reason for him to join in a frantic chase to the border, which she might suggest if he put in an appearance.
He continued to listen in until Lady Catherine left, declaring that she would return victorious, and then he went back to the chair where he had been comfortably dozing. Lady Matlock returned to her novel, equally pleased that Catherine had not expected her to do anything. The summer was for resting and recuperating after the season, not for such violent activity as chasing a pair of elopers.
Neither of them heard their sons’ conversation.
“Lend me your phaeton,” Colonel Fitzwilliam said to his brother. “I need to go to Gretna Green.”
“For what purpose? Are you planning to elope as well? Or do you intend to help our aunt stop Darcy?”
“Stop him? I mean to help him. In the phaeton, I can easily pass Lady Catherine on the road and warn him that she is on her way.”
“I trust that this Miss Bennet is neither impertinent nor ambitious.”
“She is very lively, which our aunt would describe as impertinent, but definitely not ambitious. I am certain that she would not marry Darcy for his money. Indeed, I think only love would tempt her to take on our cousin.”
“He has been rather more broody than usual of late.”
They looked at each other and cried in unison, “He must be in love.”
“He did seem particularly affected by her when we were in Kent,” the colonel added.
“You do think that she will make him happy?”
“Better than any other lady. I am certain of it.”
“Then take the phaeton. Tell Darcy I wish him well. Just not while our aunt is listening.”
CHAPTER 15
The gardener’s boy had been quite happy to follow his instructions. On one of her previous visits to Pemberley, Miss Bingley had been very critical of the new flower beds which he had helped to lay out. Today it gave him great pleasure to saunter along to Lambton, even turning down the offer of a ride in a passing wagon. Requesting the worst of the horses available gave him further satisfaction. The ostler was both confused and insulted, but an explanation quickly soothed ruffled feathers.
“Oh, that Miss Bingley,” he said, having his own reasons to share their dislike for the lady. “Well, I don’t say as I have any bad horses, but there’s a pair that’s been a bit off lately. You’d best be having those. I’ll just get one of the boys to give them a good brushing first. Nice and slow like.”
This was done and then the horses were led back at a snail’s pace. Meanwhile Miss Bingley was pacing back and forth, her cheeks growing redder as her impatience increased. Georgiana and Mrs. Annesley made small talk to pass the time, but it was an uncomfortable task. Mr. Hurst was in a bad mood because his fishing had been spoiled, and Mrs. Hurst was in a bad mood because he was.
The arrival of the horses at last was just as welcome to those who had desired the delay as to those who were in a great hurry to leave.
“I do not think I could have tolerated another minute of their company,” Georgiana said as she stood waving goodbye. “I was quite relieved when the horses did arrive. Anyway, Mr. Bingley has a good lead now, and it will soon grow wider if Mr. Hurst dawdles at the inns like he did on the journey here.”
“I hope it will grow very wide,” Mrs. Annesley said. “I had a quick word with the postilions about increasing the delay. Scheming is not something I usually do, but in the current circumstances, I felt that it was justified.”
“I think it is quite forgivable in this instance,” Georgiana said.
Their horses arrived quite expeditiously, and the ladies departed not long afterwards, stopping briefly in Lambton to arrange for the letter to be sent express to Miss Bennet. They were comfortably accommodated in Mr. Darcy’s post-chaise with two footmen at the back and two outriders travelling alongside. Lady Catherine herself would have approved of such propriety if she had any idea of their journey.
“I suppose my aunt will be well ahead of us by now,” Georgiana said as they made their way on to the first turnpike. “We are not likely to reach Gretna Green before her unfortunately. I would have liked to give my brother an advance warning, but that cannot be done. He will be astonished when she shows up accusing him of eloping.”
They made up the rear of a parade of vehicles all travelling toward Gretna Green. Between them and Lady Catherine, there was Colonel Fitzwilliam, who was steadily gaining upon his aunt. Further ahead, the Gardiner’s
carriage had reached the main road to Scotland. Along it, several couples, who were as yet strangers, were travelling to the border in varying degrees of speed. One pair was in a great hurry; a second was wanting to be dashing along, but the ricketiness of an ancient carriage was an impediment; a third was in no hurry at all and had made frequent stops to see the sights on the way.
In the opposite direction, Mr. Bingley had just completed a change of horses and was congratulating himself on making excellent time. Well behind him, Miss Bingley was leaning out of the window and asking the nearest postilion why they were going so slowly.
While he was making a plausible excuse, the carriage was overtaken by the express rider with the letter to Jane Bennet.
At Longbourn, she was playing with the Gardiner children and finding the youthful company an happy distraction from the disappointment which still occupied a place at the back of her mind.
Further south, in Brighton, Lydia was having a very interesting conversation with Mr. Wickham.
CHAPTER 16
After joining the London road, Mr. Darcy and Mr. Gardiner began making enquiries at the tollgates, and one of these seemed promising. A young couple fitting the description of Mr. Wickham and Lydia had passed by less than an hour ago.
“Driving a curricle, they were,” the tollgate keeper said.
Mr. Darcy wished that he was driving his own in order to chase them, but then the man added, “Horses looked a mite tired to my eye.”
“We can catch them,” Mr. Darcy said with confidence. The curricle might have been a bit faster, but the chaise was making a good pace.
At their next change, he waved some money and commanded, “The very best horses, and as quickly as possible.”
Elizabeth was very glad of having Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner to counteract any impression that she and Mr. Darcy were racing to the border.
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