Chapter Fifty-Six
W hen Elizabeth did not return by the next day, Mr. Darcy was frantic with worry. She had asked him not to look for her, but he knew it was simply impossible for him to obey her stricture.
Where could she be? It was one thing to want to leave Lady Anne in the dust behind her, but what about him, her husband! He loved her, she loved him! Surely she could not, would not, simply leave him? Would she?
But perhaps her coach had overturned, and she lay helpless on the road? The images that filled his head left him gasping in terror.
“Think, man, think!” he ordered himself.
Longbourn! Perhaps she has gone home – yes, home to Longbourn, as the home he had provided for her had proven so very unlike a true home! How could he discover this without alarming her family?
Finally, he wrote:
Bingley,
Do not read this aloud to Mrs. Bingley!
As the result of a grievous misunderstanding, Elizabeth left Pemberley yesterday in the coach. I do not know where she was headed. I beg you to tell me if she arrives in Meryton. Say nothing of this to anyone, as I do not want her family worried if there is no cause.
I need not tell you how deeply afraid I am.
Darcy
He rang for a footman and asked that it be sent by the swiftest rider; the messenger was to await a reply.