Chapter 27
They spent the next two days visiting the tenants to give them the warning that their wives and daughters should not be left by themselves while the neighboring party was in Staffordshire.
The families were very impressed that Mrs. Bingley would care so well for their health and safety, even to offering to send a man to assist if the tenant needed to be elsewhere during the day.
Jane worried if it was enough, but Yates reminded her that sometimes, information was all that could be offered.
“I shall take a few men out several times a day and see who is about,” he assured her as they rode in her little phaeton, and she was forced to be content as she had control of little else.
Three days later, at tea, Yates informed the ladies that the London party had been spotted that morning on the trout stream and he had given them the warning he had promised.
“Did they agree?” Jane asked, wide-eyed with hope.
“They laughed,” he admitted, with a twinkle of humor.
“At least until Lord Greenleigh recognized me as a Yates. He has been currying my father’s favor for years and was greatly displeased with his friends’ teasing.
He swore that they would obey your request and avoid disturbing any of your tenants and workers. ”
“Excellent!” Jane cried. “Perhaps all will be well then. At least we can hope, which was more than I dared to do this morning.”
“Is such behavior common amongst the Ton?” Mary asked, biting her lip with worry.
“I cannot claim that it is,” Yates shook his head.
“But there is a large portion of men in general who feel entitled to take what they want and those in the Ton have a greater ability to do so than others, so it likely seems so. A good man, such as your brother Darcy, would act the same be he a laborer or a king, while others, like Lord Greenleigh would do the same, only on the opposite end of the spectrum.”
“I can see that. Do you believe that Mr. Kirby is of the first case of the second, Jane?” she asked worriedly.
“From what I have seen and knowing that William gifted him not one but two livings, I would say he is of the first stamp. William is nothing if not thorough and would never make such a decision lightly and without a great deal of thought.”
“That is true,” Mary sighed. “I never worried about such things before, but after Charles… well, you know. I just find myself second guessing my judgements.”
“My husband was a very engaging man, though not a stalwart one, as we discovered. He never claimed to be more than he was though, Mary. I was blinded by affection and the pleasure of bringing such joy to my family that I did not bother to look deeper than his surface charm to see whether he had hidden depths or was as shallow as a saucer of spilt tea. Do not worry yourself over Mr. Kirby. I believe that you are a much better judge of character than I proved to be.”
“I hope so,” she sighed, sinking back into her revery as she gazed out the window.
∞∞∞
There was nothing to complain of for the first sen’night of the men’s visit and Jane began to relax, hopeful that nothing would come of it after all.
She sat in the study, going over the numbers in the estate accounts and enjoying the breeze which blew lightly through the open window, caressing her face and pulling at her hair.
It had been unseasonably warm the past several days and she was grateful for the storm the evening before which seemed to have driven away the heat.
She leaned back in her chair, stretching her arms high, and groaned.
No matter how much she enjoyed a well-balanced account, hours spent in one attitude bore a toll on her shoulders.
The sound of the door opening drew her attention, and she smiled welcomingly at her footman.
“Ma’am, there is boy here wishing to speak with you.” He bowed.
“Of course, John, show him in.”
The child stared about, wide-eyed at his surroundings, having never been to the big house before. Jane greeted him kindly and asked after his family, the Wards, one of her longtime tenants.
“I guess they is well,” the boy grinned, wiping his nose with the back of his sleeve. “I’ve been at me sister’s. Mama was that worried about her bein’ over yonder by themselves.”
“I see! That was very good of you, Henry, to come all this way to deliver a message.”
“Jacob let me ride his horse!” the boy exclaimed proudly.
“That was certainly an adventure. What have you to tell me young sir?”
He snickered. “One o’ them men you warned us about came around and caught Sally with the washin’.
She ran to the house and locked the door and the man was a bangin’ and yellin’ and brung me an Jacob from the barns.
We sent him off with a flea in his ear, but Jacob thought that you lot would like ta’ know. ”
“He was correct, Henry. Why do you not go to the kitchens for a treat and Mr. Yates and I will accompany you home to ensure that Sally is well. I am certain that the experience was quite unnerving for her.”
The boy had likely stopped listening at the mention of food as his eyes were glowing with excitement. Jane rang for a maid to show him the way and then went to see if Yates had returned from his rounds. She was in luck as he was just setting aside his hat and gloves as she entered the office.
“You shall need those once more, sir,” Jane declared, sweeping into the room. “A man approached Sally Williams less than an hour passed, and I was hoping that you would accompany me to make sure that she is well, as well as to travel to Greenleigh Park and rescind their access to Ivy Well.”
“Are you sure you wish to—”
“He chased her into her home! It is unacceptable and I shall tell them so!” Her eyes blazed, and she looked like an avenging angel with the light from the windows creating a glowing halo about her golden curls.
“I want all of the Nichols men with us then,” he capitulated. “I will not endanger you by allowing them in your presence without adequate and obvious protection.”
Jane thanked him for his consideration and hurried to retrieve her outerwear so as not to keep the horses waiting long.
They arrived at the steps at nearly the same time and Yates offered her his hand, assisting her to step up into her phaeton before taking a seat beside her, accepting the reins from the groom.
It was the first time that he had driven her out and she wondered what had changed and why it felt monumental.
She shook away the thought, determined to think of it later when she was more at leisure to contemplate the unusual behavior.
Followed by the three huge Nichols men, Yates set the horses to moving, his fierce frown echoing Jane’s feelings exactly.
They did not speak as they traveled and Jane watched the newly sprouted fields as she tried not to let the feelings of anger and impotence to swamp her.
It was outrageous that due to his station, the man would likely not suffer a single consequence for his attempted actions.
Never before had she been so angry at the plight of women.
Should they attempt to involve the law, poor Sally would likely lose her reputation, and nothing would be done to the man in any case, his position protecting him. She ground her teeth.
Yates shot her a glance before returning his attention to the path. “We will do what we can.”
Jane turned to face him. “How did you…”
“How could any feeling person not understand your current frustration? He will suffer not at all and yet the woman he attempted to accost will spend months with the whispers of her neighbors.”
“Yes! It is so very unfair!” Her eyes welled but she dashed away the tears before they could fall. “And seeing Amelie with her sweet Genevieve and knowing what Sally might have suffered… I am so very angry that such men exist!”
“An understandable sentiment.”
“Why then!” she cried, clenching her skirt in her fists. “Why does it continue?”
“When good men do nothing, evil persists,” he replied. “And unfortunately, those in power are determined to protect themselves and their cohorts. But when each of us does what we can, at least those in our sphere may be protected.”
She sniffed back her tears. “I do understand, but it is painful to think of what is happening just on the other side of the estate boundary and knowing that there is nothing to be done.”
He took the reins in one hand and reached for her hand with the other, bringing it to his lips. “Your kind heart does you credit.” He released her hand slowly, as if it was difficult to do.
Jane’s breath caught and she stared down at her tingling fingers, strangely wishing that she was not wearing gloves, though she did not look any deeper at the fleeting thought and refused to question why.
“Thank yo—” her words were cut off by the scream of a woman.
Jane and Yates shared a horrified look, and he whipped up the horses.
When they came around the barn, Jane gasped and covered her mouth with her hands.
A finely dressed man was holding Sally by her hair, while two of his companions were holding a nearly unconscious Jacob Williams between them.
The man had collapsed to his knees, his clothes torn and his face a swollen, bloody mess.
“Not so strong now, are you!” the man sneered, wrenching another cry from Sally’s lips as he forced her to her feet.
“And now you can watch while—” there was a thunderous boom and the man’s words were cut off, as if by a knife, as he dropped like a stone, the spray of blood from his neck a visible sign of his immediate expiration.
One of his friends across from him dropped Mr. Williams, grabbing his shoulder and bellowing as he fell to the ground.
Yates’ careful shot had hit the first man in the neck and continued on to bury itself in the shoulder of the other man.
The third man dropped their victim and reached for his own weapon but quickly changed his mind and dropped the gun to the ground when Yates used a second pistol and shot a bullet which took off the top of his ear.
“My ear!” he cried, attempting to staunch the bleeding with his hand. “You might have killed me!”
“Nonsense,” Yates growled. “I hit exactly where I meant to. Peter, ride for the magistrate. I have never met a more aggressively upright man; I would not be surprised if he does not hang them without even bothering with the assizes.”
The man squealed, kicking his shoulder-wounded friend as he hurried to their horses. The other man scrambled to follow, stumbling and swaying as he ran.
“You would not shoot a man in the back!” he cried as he missed his first attempt to swing himself into the saddle and fell back to the ground.
A second attempt got him on his horse, and he whipped it into a gallop, abandoning his friends without a thought.
The first man circled his fractious mount and took off after him, not even looking back to see if they were being pursued.
Sally rose on shaking legs and spit on the body beside her before shaking out her skirts and hurrying to her husband’s side.
“Are you going to let them go?” Sally cried, shaking with sobs as she dropped beside him and pulled his head into her lap.
“I will leave it up to you both,” Yates replied, assisting Jane from the phaeton and following beside her as she approached the young couple.
“It will cause much talk, and your reputation might be harmed,” Jane explained through numb lips, her eyes averted from the body.
“And they will likely receive only a slap on the wrist,” John footman added. “From the looks of it, the man who did most of the damage has paid the price for his actions.”
“And good riddance! But what if they return?” Sally sniffled, accepting Jane’s handkerchief to dab at the split lip and cut eyebrow on her poor husband’s face as he began to come round.
“If I judge correctly, they are even now demanding that their bags be packed posthaste and I doubt that they will remain in the county longer than an hour,” Peter footman answered, giving Yates a worshipful look. “Never seen shooting like that. I doubt that they would dare to face him again.”
“I shall leave Paul here with a pistol until we are sure that they have left the area,” Jane assured her. “Let John and Paul carry Mr. Williams to his bed while Peter goes for the doctor, Sally.”
She nodded but once the men had lifted her husband from her lap, she threw her arms about Jane and began to sob. “Thank you for coming! I was so terrified when they appeared again.”
“I hope their wounds fester,” Jane muttered, holding her tight.
She and Yates spent several hours comforting Sally and her husband and speaking with the magistrate and constable who had come to take the body.
Mr. Walters took one look at the condition of the Williams and immediately thanked Yates for stepping in and taking care of justice.
The gentlemen took the body with them to the Baron’s estate just to cover all of their bases, but when they arrived, the men had decamped an hour past, not even having their things packed before they took off in the Baron’s carriage, leaving their servants to follow them.
“True cowards, as we thought,” Yates remarked as he read the note when they arrived back at Ivy Well that evening. “Avoiding culpability, though I do not know what Mr. Walters might have been able to accomplish, at least through legal channels.”
“Am I wicked for being glad that you shot that man?” Jane whispered, looking down at her feet. “I am happy that he can no longer hurt others. It says in the bible that we should not kill, should not glory in death and destruction, and what is that, if not this?”
Yates took her hands in his. “I did not enjoy the act of killing another man, nor do I think that you gloried in it as you so aptly put it. I think what you are describing is the buoyant feeling you get from deep relief. You care deeply for others; it is part of who you are. The knowledge that by his death, an untold number of others will be spared his atrocities-- it is natural and just that you would rejoice in their safety.”