Chapter 14
Just when Louisa thought she was running in the wrong direction, she saw the lights of the house up ahead. She banged on the door with all her remaining energy, until the butler, who was about to retire, opened the door with the Duke’s two huge bodyguards on either side of him, pistols in hand.
Hurst, who had gone to see what the commotion was all about, was astounded to see the out-of-breath lady in the doorway. “Miss Bingley, what on earth is the matter?” It was then that he saw blood on her dress where she had tried to wipe Elizabeth’s head.
“My mother—and sister—attacked Elizabeth,” Louisa managed to blurt out between breaths.
“Where is she?” Hurst asked.
“An abandoned hunting lodge, near the border with Netherfield Park,” Louisa got out as her breathing began to settle. She told them that Longbourn’s coachman should be watching over her by now.
“I know where it is,” Nichols stated. Just then the Duke, Colonel, and Major, having dressed again, arrived at the door too.
“What is this?” the Duke asked. Hurst related what he knew, succinctly. Within minutes, with Nichols leading the way, the men were off. Neither Dragoon officer let a little thing like an injury keep them from joining the large group of men that rode out, for their family was in danger.
The coachman arrived at the old hunting lodge at about the same time as the Duke and his riders.
Lord William left the others to interrogate the man while he burst into the lodge.
He found his love—he admitted to himself that very night that he had fallen in love with Elizabeth Bennet—lying on the floor, thankfully covered with blankets.
He would allow no other man to touch her but picked her petite form up from off the floor. He allowed Biggs to hold her while he climbed up onto Zeus. Once he was seated, she was handed up to him. He sat her in front of him and with one hand held her close to his chest.
“Is there a doctor hereabouts?” the Duke asked.
“Yes, your Grace, Mr. Jones is both a physician and an apothecary. His sister is Miss Elizabeth’s companion,” Nichols informed his master.
“Have a man summon him with all speed,” the Duke ordered. Nichols sent a footman on his way to do the master’s bidding. The Duke and his two bodyguards took off for Netherfield, with Nichols trailing them.
It did not take long for Richard to get all the story from the coachman, including Mrs. Bennet’s lies, her seduction of him, and her threats. Miss Bingley had told some of the story, and what the man told matched what she had said.
Richard instructed him to wait an hour and then to return the manor house.
He was to tell the disgusting woman that the deed had been done, and, in the morning, come to Netherfield to collect Miss Bingley.
The man agreed without question, knowing well what could happen if he did not cooperate.
Soon, the rest of the men were on their way back to Netherfield.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
The Duke almost rode Zeus up the front stairs, but he stopped him at the base. She had to live; he was not willing to lose her, as now he had found the only woman he would ever love. He handed her down to Biggs and then retrieved her as soon as his feet were on the ground.
Miss Bingley, Lady Georgiana, and the housekeeper were waiting for him in the entrance hall. The former two could not hold their tears back when they saw him holding the limp body in his arms. “She lives,” he assured them.
“I have a chamber ready next to Lady Georgiana’s, your Grace,” Mrs. Nichols informed her master. The Duke carried her to the bedchamber and placed her gently onto the bed.
“Your Grace, we must undress her and prepare her for Mr. Jones,” Mrs. Nichols informed her master.
“Yes, of course,” the Duke said, a little embarrassed as he had not thought of moving since placing her on the bed.
“Oh my goodness!” Lady Georgiana exclaimed once they had Elizabeth undressed. She had large red welts on her legs and torso, and there were a few impressions of a lady’s dancing slipper, if one could use the term “lady” for one who perpetrated such evil.
Not long after, there was a knock on the door. It was Mr. Jones, who entered and asked Louisa and the housekeeper to remain as he examined Elizabeth. Georgiana joined her brother and the rest of the men waiting anxiously in the hall.
Less than an hour later, which seemed like an eternity to the Duke, Mr. Jones emerged. “What are you able to tell us, Mr. Jones?” the Duke asked nervously, hoping the news was not what he feared more than anything.
“She is unconscious but breathing normally. Her left forearm is broken; her left leg is fractured between the knee and ankle. It was not a complete break, fortunately. It looks like one of those—those females,” Mr. Jones could not bring himself to call them ladies, “stomped on her leg, and another on her arm. Thankfully, I do not detect any broken ribs, but that is not to say Miss Elizabeth’s injuries are not serious.
They are, but unless she develops an uncontrollable fever, I believe she will be well—in time. ”
“Should I summon my doctor and a surgeon from Town?” the Duke asked.
“It surely will not hurt, and a surgeon will be able to make sure her bones are set as they should be,” Mr. Jones replied.
“Hurst,” the Duke turned to his private secretary, “Have Mr. Bartholomew brought from London with all haste, and make sure he brings the absolute best surgeon with him.”
“Yes, your Grace,” Hurst headed to the study to write the notes. As it was a full moon, a courier would be dispatched that very night.
“We need to summon the magistrate,” the Duke stated.
“If I may, your Grace,” Louisa interjected, as she stepped out of her friend’s suite. “Elizabeth is conscious and requesting your presence. I believe she wants to address the subject you are talking of now.”
The last word was barely out of Miss Bingley’s mouth before the Duke was at Elizabeth’s bedside. “Please do not exert yourself; you need to rest,” William took her uninjured right hand and squeezed it.
Elizabeth winced with pain, almost sending the Duke charging toward Longbourn to claim justice on her behalf by his own hand. “I want them left alone until I can confront them. I want to see their faces when they see me and I have them arrested,” Elizabeth rasped.
“I do not know if you know this, but I am a distant cousin of the royals, meaning you are as well. What they committed was treason; they will go to the Tower for this,” he explained.
Louisa gasped, but then schooled her features. “They must pay the price they are due for what they have done! I have my family, and that is you, Lizzy!”
“From this moment forward you are a Bennet, Lulu. We will be able to acknowledge that openly once they are dealt with. I will not allow them to taint your name.” She turned her head slowly to her cousin.
“William, I have told Lulu, Miss Bingley, what I want done. I know I will be sleeping most of the time, but please make sure my sister receives all the help she needs,” Elizabeth beseeched.
“Anything for you, Elizabeth, anything!” the Duke exclaimed, and he meant it.
“Time for me to administer the laudanum, Miss Elizabeth, for you need to sleep so your body is able to heal,” Mr. Jones told her as he held a dose of the thick brown liquid to her lips which she drank. Once she was sleeping, a maid stayed while the rest vacated her bedchamber.
“What does my cousin want?” the Duke asked when all were seated in the family sitting room.
“Mrs. Bennet and her daughter do not know Lizzy’s writing.
I am to write a letter saying she has decided to make a three-month-long summer visit like she used to.
” No one missed how Miss Bingley refused to call them mother and sister.
“I will tell Mrs. Bennet Lizzy passed from her injuries and the coachman and I disposed of her body in the morning. She will see the letter as a way of explaining why Lizzy, or as they call her Cinder-Liza, is away from home.”
“Cinder-Liza?” Richard asked angrily. How he wished he and Wickham were allowed to go visit the two women and interrogate them, as he had done during his tenure in the army.
Louisa explained how the name came about.
It did nothing to curtail the desire of the men to ride to Longbourn and string the two perpetrators up in the nearest tree of sufficient height.
“I completely understand from the thunderous looks on your faces you would like nothing more than to punish those two right now.” All four nodded.
“Elizabeth wants things done her way, and, knowing her, I believe we should honour her wishes.”
The men reluctantly agreed after the Duke relayed the request she had made before sinking into a laudanum-induced sleep. “It will be as my cousin desires,” the Duke stated.
After wishing the men goodnight. Louisa accepted Mr. Hurst’s arm as he escorted her to her bedchamber, across the shared sitting room from her sister.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
“By now Cinder-Liza should be ruined!’ Caroline Bingley crowed.
“I am excited as well, Caroline;” her mother retorted, “however, we must be circumspect about what we say in this house, or anywhere in public. Let us wait for Louisa to return.”
Neither was aware Louisa was currently meeting with the Hills, telling them their mistress' plan, and enlisting their help. When she finished meeting with the Hills, she walked until she met the carriage in the lane. Once inside, the coachman drove them to Longbourn’s front door.
Knowing Mrs. Bennet and her daughter would be in their bedchambers, she plastered a smile on her face and entered her mother’s chambers when she heard her sister’s grating voice from within.
She made a show of looking up and down the hall to make sure there were no servants in the vicinity, as had been arranged with the Hills.
Louisa closed the door and with her finger to her lips, indicated that the other two should be quiet.