Mr. Goulding could imagine it too. “I think we should go to town earlier than usual this year,” he said with feeling.
His wife agreed with this suggestion. For the moment, however, she was looking forward to returning home and sharing this interesting piece of news with everybody in Meryton.
Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth had smooth travelling for a while, but there was another delay later that day. Between Penrith and Carlisle, they caught sight of yet another pair standing beside a carriage that was stopped at the side of the road.
“Here we go again,” he said, slowing the horses. “Unless they are an heiress and a fortune hunter, I am game for assisting this couple as well. That does seem to be our modus operandi, although I do not know how we shall accommodate them. The chaise is already crowded, and we shall never fit four people into a curricle.”
“I do not think these two are going to Gretna Green,” Elizabeth said, looking closely. “They appear rather old to be eloping.”
“They do,” he agreed. “It looks as though we do not have a pair of elopers this time. Just an ordinary married-couple.”
Mr. Darcy halted the curricle, and a middle-aged man hailed them cheerfully.
“It is good of you to stop,” he said, “but we are not in any need of assistance. I thought there was a problem with one of the carriage wheels; however, it turned out to be nothing.”
“Good morning,” the lady cried out in a friendly way. “Are you on your way to Gretna Green as well?”
“As well?” Mr. Darcy repeated.
“That is where we are going. To be married!” She was girlishly enthusiastic.
“Oh,” was all that Mr. Darcy could manage to say.
“You are thinking that we are much too old for an elopement,” the gentleman said jovially. “Well, we are, and we know it. The thing is that Margery and I tried to elope five-and-twenty years ago, but her father stopped us.”
“I cried for weeks afterward,” she said, “but my father would not change his mind. I had a great fortune, and George was practically penniless. Father said he was a fortune hunter.”
“Which I was not,” George said emphatically. “It was never anything but a love match between us, only her father did not think me good enough.”
“He made me marry somebody else in the end. My husband treated me well enough –”
“Thank goodness,” George interjected.
“– but I could not love him. I never forgot George. He was always in my heart.”
“I never married,” George told them. “I threw myself into business instead and made my fortune.”
She nodded. “Twice what I have, which is no small sum. It is a pity that my father is not alive to see what George made of himself. That would have shown him I knew how to choose a husband better than he did.” This was said rather forcefully.
“We found each other again a few weeks ago.”
“And it was love all over again.”
“From the first instant.”
“I am a widow now, with no children to consult, so we decided to get married at once.”
“We were going to do the business in a church, but then Margery had a great desire to make the trip to Gretna Green as we intended to do all those years ago.”
“To which George instantly agreed. He is such a romantic.”
“Anything for you my dear,” George said, smiling fondly at her.
“So you will not find us frowning upon you for eloping,” Margery concluded. “We understand what it is like.”
“That is kind of you, but we are not eloping,” Elizabeth said.
“Oh,” Margery said. “I though you must be, being on this road, and just the two of you.”
“We are going to Gretna Green in pursuit of her sister,” Mr. Darcy explained.
George and Margery both frowned at them now.
“To be there when she gets married,” Elizabeth hastily said. There was no point to alienating somebody who was travelling on the same route and might be encountered again.
The middle-aged pair resumed smiling.
“It is sweet of you to travel all this distance for her,” Margery said.
“You must have dinner with us this evening,” George urged them. “I suppose you will be stopping in Carlisle as well.”
“That is what we anticipate,” Mr. Darcy said. “It is not just the two of us, however. We are travelling with a number of other people.”
“The more the merrier,” George cried.
The other carriage arrived in a few more minutes. It came to a halt, and Mr. Gardiner again looked out to enquire what the trouble was.
“Nothing at all,” George said amiably, “but it was a lucky thing that we stopped, or else we would not have met your lovely niece and her friend.”
Although the side of the road was the oddest place for it, introductions were made, and Margery soon ferreted out that the two young couples were also going to be married. Upon learning that they had been rescued by her two new friends, she beamed upon Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth with the strongest approval.
“Do not say anything about disapproving of Lydia’s elopement,” Elizabeth whispered to her uncle while Margery was suggesting that they should all share a large wedding celebration.
Mr. Gardiner looked confused, but he nodded and whispered to his wife in turn.
“A bang-up celebration,” George said in happy agreement with his wife. “At my expense. I brought heaps of money just in case.”
“We are not robbing him,” Mr. Darcy whispered to Elizabeth.
She nearly burst out laughing and swatted him with her reticule. Then she saw Margery smiling indulgently at them, with a look which could easily be interpreted as the eagerness of a matchmaker. She blushed, thinking that her lax behaviour must be giving a shocking impression. In a short time, she had come to feel very much at ease with Mr. Darcy.
She glanced at him, wondering what he might be thinking of the liberty she had just taken, but he was looking remarkable content.
The dinner invitation was repeated and accepted, and then George offered to take one of the couples in their coach to lessen the crowding in the chaise. Clara and Edward changed vehicles, and they all resumed the journey northward.
“Imagine going to Gretna Green when it is entirely unnecessary,” Mr. Darcy said to Elizabeth. “That is not my idea of romantic.”
“What is your idea of romantic?” she enquired.
Mr. Darcy paused. “I do not exactly know,” he said after a moment. “I have never attempted anything of the sort. But I do not see any romance in travelling to Gretna Green when one might have a comfortable wedding at home.”
“You equate romance with comfort?”
“No, but I cannot equate it with a lack of comfort either.”
“What about the knight who rescues the heroine in stories? I do not suppose he is especially comfortable after riding a great distance, and then fighting his way to the damsel in distress.”
“But that is not romantic. It is heroic.”
“I expect it feels romantic to the poor girl who is sitting there waiting for someone to come and rescue her.”
“That is still not romance. It is relief.”
She laughed. “You are too practical, Mr. Darcy.”
“I do not think you are so impractical,” he responded. “You would not sit there and wait to be rescued. In your case, the hero might remain comfortably at home and wait for you to effect your own escape.”
“That seems like a poor sort of hero. The least he could do is come and watch me escape. You do seem to have a fixation with comfort.”
“I simply cannot see any reason to do what is not necessary. However, I promise that I would come and watch you make your escape. Who would want to miss the sight of you climbing from a window with your rope of knotted bedsheets?”
“Which would probably not reach the ground, and then as a man of honour, you would have to come to my rescue after all. You would not leave me dangli
ng there, I suppose.”
“Perhaps for a minute or two,” he said with a grin. “I would be curious to know if your own resourcefulness could get you out of your predicament.”
“Oh, a fine hero you are,” she said playfully, “standing around looking for entertainment at my expense.”
“Not just entertainment. A little delay would also serve to increase your gratitude when I did step in.”
“Just for that, I shall be determined to extricate myself if I am ever dangling at the end of some knotted sheets.”
“I am quite certain you could, but afterwards, you will still have to be grateful to me. You are forgetting that I am the one with the horse in this little tale.”
“Then I shall walk home.”
“It is a very long way.”
“Then I shall steal a horse from my captor.”
“If he has a horse to steal.”
“He must. How else did he get to this far away place of imprisonment?”
“By dragon?”
“Then I shall steal his dragon. Or better yet, I shall steal your horse and leave you to walk home.”
“Stubborn to the end.” He laughed. “But you would not really leave me there, would you? After all, I did ride all that way to fetch you.”
“I am confident that you could manage the dragon.”
“You seem to have a great deal of confidence in me.”
“Oh, I do. One thing that I have always thought of you is that you are very competent.”
“Competent and practical,” he said. “They are favourable attributes, but I do sound quite dull.”
“You need not worry,” she said. “I do not find you at all dull.”
That compliment filed him with gratification.
CHAPTER 19
The group travelled in a procession, and they all took rooms at the same inn upon reaching Carlisle. While the gentlemen sorted this out, Margery said to Elizabeth, “I am so pleased that you did stop for us, or else we should not have met that unfortunate young lady. I was outraged to hear her story. Her stepfather treated her as no better than a maid. Out of respect for his late wife, if nothing else, he should have taken better care of the girl.”
“It is a shocking situation,” Elizabeth agreed.
“Well, I intend to take on the obligations which he has disregarded,” Margery said with determination. “It is about time that Clara had some new clothes, and I shall enjoy helping her choose them. I would have liked to have a daughter, but alas that was not to be. It will be nice to have somebody to spoil.”
“It will be nice for her to be spoiled,” Elizabeth said. “She has obviously been very much put upon. She deserves to have some happiness for a change.”
“Indeed, she does. That is what George thinks as well. He said that she must not worry about anything now. She demurred, which shows that her mother taught her some proper manners. Edward protested as well, but I told him that if we buy her trousseau and settle a dowry upon her then it is no more than what her parents would have done if they could. I mean to treat her like an adoptive daughter, so he must just think of me like a mother-in-law.”
“A bit like a fairy godmother really,” Elizabeth said, thinking aloud.
“Oh, you are a dear girl,” Margery exclaimed. “That is just what I shall be like, and I expect to get a great deal of enjoyment out of it.”
“She must be talking of her plans for outfitting Clara,” George said, joining them. “Margery does enjoy purchasing new dresses.”
“It will be lovely to buy them for somebody with such a pretty figure,” she said.
“I think your figure is still as pretty as ever, my dear,” George said.
She smiled at him. “That is far from the truth, and well you know it, but you are a darling.”
With him still protesting that he was all honesty, they went upstairs with the rest of the group to tidy themselves up before dinner.
Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy were the first to return downstairs, where they found themselves in solitary possession of the best dinner parlour.
“It has been an eventful day,” he observed. “I am sorry that we have not yet found Lydia, but you must not despair. Even if we do not come across them tomorrow, I promise to do everything in my power to find them and get her properly settled.”
“I am not despairing,” she said. “There is a constant concern at the back of my mind, but it is offset by feeling confident that everything will be resolved. I have you to thank for that. You have done a good job of distracting me from my worries as well. I have enjoyed our conversations.”
“As have I. I do not know when I have enjoyed a journey more. Indeed, I am happy that I did –”
A young lady came flying through the open door. “You must hide us,” she cried.
A gentleman ran in after her. “Quick, into the cupboard,” he instructed her. He looked at Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth with an air of assurance. “I beg of you not to give us away. We are deeply in love.”
“Yes, very deeply in love,” the lady echoed, peering into the cupboard. “I hope there are no spiders. They frighten me dreadfully.”
“Hurry,” the gentleman said, pushing her.
She giggled, giving Elizabeth a reminder of Lydia.
He squeezed in after her and bowed to Darcy in a way which reminded him of Mr. Wickham. “Tell her father that nobody came in here, and you will have our eternal gratitude,” he said before closing the door.
“Did you think there was something avaricious in his look?” Mr. Darcy asked Elizabeth.
“I did indeed. Did you perceive a troubling naivety in her manner?”
“Yes, I did. And I believe that is a very expensive gown she is wearing. It would appear that we have an heiress on our hands.”
“And a fortune hunter.”
“Begging your pardon,” came a polite voice from the doorway, “but I believe my daughter just came running into this room.”
Mr. Darcy looked at Elizabeth. “I presume you will not mind if I give up this pair.”
“If you do not, I shall,” she replied.
In unison they pointed at the cupboard.
Elizabeth was further reminded of Lydia as the howling young lady was pulled out of the room by her remarkably patient father.
At the door, he paused and apologized for having disturbed them, again in a very polite manner, which confirmed their confidence in having done the right thing. The Gardiners, who had just arrived upon the scene, looked on with curiosity as the lady flapped her arms about in a desperate attempt to get away. Her father was not a large man, but he seemed to have a strong grip.
“He appears to be quite practised in the art of removing her,” Mr. Darcy observed to Elizabeth.
“I do think it was shabby of you to give us up,” the young man complained churlishly. He stalked past them and pushed his way past the Gardiners.
“Not a pair for our collection, I presume,” Mr. Gardiner said.
Mr. Darcy snorted with laughter. Elizabeth looked at him fondly. “An heiress and a fortune-hunter as far as we could tell,” she explained to her uncle. “And a rather polite father. Long-suffering, I am inclined to think.”
“Poor man,” Mr. Darcy said with feeling.
“Do not say anything to George and Margery,” Elizabeth warned. “In this instance, they might see the wisdom of taking the father’s side, but I would not count upon it.”
“They were once in the same situation,” Mr. Darcy explained. “Although I do believe George when he says that he was not interested in her fortune.”
“So do I,” Elizabeth said. “He is quite plainly besotted.”
“They are going to Gretna Green to be romantic.”
“Mr. Darcy cannot comprehend it. He thinks it impractical.”
“It is impractical,” Mrs. Gardiner agreed, “but ideas of romance vary widely.”
“They are a friendly pair at any rate,” Mr. Gardiner said.
“Oh, very friendly,” Elizabeth ag
reed. “Very talkative too, but I like them.”
“It was nice of him to want to give the others a wedding celebration.”
“Which will include Lydia if we find her. It may be a little awkward. They think that we are keen to attend her wedding.”
“We are in a way,” Mr. Darcy pointed out. “And I shall bribe Mr. Wickham not to say otherwise.”
The rest of the company joined them, and they were just sitting down to their meal when the door burst open.
“Déjà vu,” Mr. Darcy said to Elizbeth. Then he saw his cousin. “Are you eloping Richard?” He leaned his head to look each side of the colonel. “You seem to be lacking a lady.”
“Oh, very funny,” the colonel said. “I am not eloping. I have come to warn you that our aunt is on her way. She heard that you eloped with Miss Bennet, and she is determined to prevent the marriage.”
“You said you were not getting married,” the three couples said in unison.
“We are not eloping,” Mr. Darcy said. “How did she get that idea?”
“I do not know. She went to visit you at Pemberley, and she returned in a great huff, saying that you had gone to Gretna Green with Miss Bennet.”
“Well that much is true, but we are looking for Miss Lydia.”
“Who is Miss Lydia?”
“Miss Bennet’s sister. I shall explain later. Come and join us for dinner. If that is acceptable to you, of course,” he added, looking at the host of the occasion.
“Oh, the more, the merrier,” George cried. “Come and join us, young man.”
Their party did enjoy a merry time. The troubles which they might face on the morrow were put aside until then. The conversation was bright that evening, and friendships were furthered. Colonel Fitzwilliam was liked by everybody, and the knowledge that Mr. Darcy’s aunt was in hot pursuit caused great empathy toward him and Elizabeth.
In another inn, Lady Catherine had nobody’s empathy. Her quest had been guessed by the staff, and their good wishes were entirely with the unknown couple.
“I wonder if she means that handsome gentleman who changed horses a little while ago,” one maid said to another. “He had an aristocratic look to him.”
“He did, but if this is his aunt, his manners are nothing like.”
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