Chapter 16
They left in a single carriage, as Charlotte decided to remain at the parsonage and wait for their return. Still determined to leave Hunsford, she needed time to prepare for a long absence.
Mr Collins and the colonel set off on foot, whilst the carriage departed five minutes later, allowing them time to reach the mansion first.
As the carriage entered the park, the tension within it steadily mounted. Danger, uncertainty, and every dreadful possibility drove them into a state where fear and courage struggled constantly for mastery until determination finally prevailed.
Mr Collins had not exaggerated; a guard carrying a rifle stopped the carriage on the drive leading to the house.
Parker, seated beside the coachman, explained who the travellers were.
Even so, the man’s manner was so rough and hostile that Mr Bennet and Mr Bingley climbed down from the carriage to speak to him directly.
In the distance they could see the colonel talking to the second guard.
Lady Catherine knew how to choose her servants; their obedience was absolute.
Elizabeth and Georgiana pretended to be asleep whilst Mr Bennet explained who they were and why they had come at such an hour. His age, together with Georgiana’s presence as her ladyship’s niece, persuaded the guard to admit them. At the same moment, the other guard signalled his agreement.
Even so, he followed the carriage as far as the front door.
Only when he saw Mr Collins welcoming the supposed visitors did he appear satisfied.
Mr Bennet was certain that the wheels grinding over the gravel had made enough noise to wake anyone sleeping in the front rooms of the house.
Parker immediately jumped down and hurried to the servants’ entrance at the rear of the mansion to make sure no one left the house unnoticed.
Just as they had expected, an elderly servant, fully dressed and carrying a candle, opened the front door.
Fear crossed his face the instant he recognised the colonel, who now led the party.
He had served her ladyship for many years.
He repeatedly begged them to lower their voices, but they spoke deliberately loudly, determined that everyone in the silent house should know they had arrived.
His efforts proved useless. Barely ten minutes after they had been shown into the drawing room, Lady Catherine herself appeared.
She swept into the room intending to intimidate them, yet the company she found waiting caused her confidence to falter for a moment.
But she recovered almost immediately, too accustomed to commanding others to remain shaken for long, she launched into a furious attack upon the impertinent visitors who had disturbed both her house and her sleep.
There was no time for polite exchanges, nor even for her anger to run its course, because Georgiana stepped directly before her aunt with unmistakable determination.
There was a remarkable resemblance in the bearing of aunt and niece, and Elizabeth could not help admiring how, in the space of a single week, Georgiana had changed from a timid girl into a young lady.
“What are you doing here, miss?” Lady Catherine demanded. She looked from one face to another, trying to discover how much they knew.
“I have come to take my brother home, Aunt Catherine,” Georgiana answered, standing as tall as her aunt.
Elizabeth resolved to end her own torment.
She wanted only to see Darcy safe. Afterwards, there would be time enough to unravel every part of this dreadful story.
She scarcely heard the words exchanged between aunt and niece.
Recovering her composure, she moved to Georgiana’s side, wondering where the colonel had gone.
Lady Catherine’s fury shifted from her niece to Elizabeth.
“I do not remember inviting you here. Leave my house at once, or I shall have my servants throw every one of you out!”
But Elizabeth remained as calm as she had been the day Lady Catherine came to Longbourn to forbid her marriage. The old lady had not intimidated her then, and she intimidated her even less now.
“We shall willingly leave this house, madam, but only after we have found my future husband.”
“How dare you!” Lady Catherine shrieked. “You—common, ungrateful, vulgar girl, to come into my house and make demands! Darcy is here because he wishes to be!”
Silence filled the room; their search was over. Darcy was alive. Relief swept through them all, although they knew the struggle had not yet ended.
“Darcy came to Rosings because he realised he would be making a dreadful mistake by marrying you!” Lady Catherine cried, pointing her cane at Elizabeth as though she wished to strike her. In the end, however, it remained only a threat.
Georgiana stepped closer until she stood almost face to face with her aunt.
“Where is he? Where is my brother? Tell us immediately, or we shall search every room in this dreadful house until we find him.”
“You shall not take him away. This is his home now!” Lady Catherine screamed like a madwoman, and everyone present wondered whether she had finally lost her reason. “He married Anne,” she said at last, more quietly.
“He did not!” Georgiana cried. “No one can marry within a week when he is already betrothed to another lady. There are laws in this country, madam!”
At that moment the colonel hurried into the room. It was plain that he had been running.
“Come,” he called. “Come, all of you. I have found him!”
There was such joy in his voice that they knew at once they had found Darcy alive.
Lady Catherine raised her cane again, attempting to drive them from the room, but this time no one paid the slightest attention to her.
They rushed upstairs after the colonel towards a room on the first floor.
The old lady’s screams still echoed through the house when they reached the open doorway.
They ceased abruptly as the extraordinary sight before them came into view.
It was clearly a bedchamber. Upon an enormous bed lay Darcy, his eyes closed.
At the far side of the room stood Anne, dressed in a thin nightdress utterly unsuited to her frail, almost childish figure.
Whilst Georgiana and Elizabeth hurried to the bedside, Parker and Mrs Jenkinson helped Anne into a robe.
The poor girl offered no resistance. Mr Collins remained in one corner of the room, anxious to show that he wished no part in what was happening.
He had not yet decided where his loyalty lay, still hoping, impossibly, to remain faithful to both sides.
The colonel stood near the open windows, watching everything in silence.
He had thrown them open immediately after entering the room and trying unsuccessfully to wake Darcy.
The air inside had been almost unbreathable.
His whole body trembled with rage. His face had turned a dangerous shade of crimson, and his fists remained tightly clenched.
Elizabeth looked at him as she approached the bed.
One glance at his expression stopped her heart.
Then she saw Darcy, and everything else vanished.
Georgiana climbed onto the bed without even removing her shoes, whilst Elizabeth took Darcy into her arms from the opposite side. Both feared for him, for he seemed unconscious.
Darcy opened his eyes for only a moment. He smiled at Elizabeth, then turned the same smile upon Georgiana before sinking back into sleep.
With his eyes closed, he looked almost lifeless, and the sight was all the more alarming with him lying in Elizabeth’s arms. She raised her eyes to the colonel, silently pleading for help.
“He is sleeping,” the colonel said as he came to the bedside.
Yet it was no ordinary sleep. Despite all the commotion around him, Darcy remained in a state of profound oblivion.
“Miss Elizabeth,” the colonel said again, resting a gentle hand upon her shoulder. “It is perfectly clear that he is not in this bed of his own choosing.”
When Elizabeth gave no reply, he repeated, wanting to leave no room for doubt. “He has been drugged. Do you understand me, Miss Elizabeth?”
Elizabeth touched Darcy’s forehead and nodded, incapable of speaking.
The colonel could never have described the shock of finding his cousin in Anne’s bed.
It had been a hideous sight. Both of them were victims of a woman he could no longer think of as family.
He resolved that his father and brother would learn the whole truth, and that Lady Catherine would never again be allowed to exercise such power at Rosings.
Looking at Anne, his heart tightened. The poor girl lived under her mother’s dreadful influence, and he was determined to take her to London, to his father’s house, where she might at last be free.
Lady Catherine swept into the room once more, and her screaming began afresh. She raised her cane at Georgiana until the colonel snatched it from her hand and forced her into an armchair.
“What have you done to my brother?” Georgiana cried, trying to rouse Darcy.
“What is the meaning of this?” the colonel shouted at his aunt. “Have you entirely lost your senses? I can scarcely wait to tell my parents. Your judgement deserted you long ago!”
But Lady Catherine still believed she controlled both the situation and her house. “Leave my house!” she screamed.
“Can you not hear yourself? You sound like a madwoman. Worse still, like a criminal. What was your plan? To keep Darcy asleep forever? Did you never stop to consider what would happen when he recovered? In a week? A month? However long it took? Did you imagine he would quietly remain trapped in such a marriage? Every one of you has taken leave of your senses. You all belong in Bedlam. Fortunately, I did not bring my sword or my rifle, otherwise—”
His anger rose until even Lady Catherine could no longer shout over him. At last she fell silent.