Chapter 26 #2
“David, are you out of your mind? Why are you telling me all this now, when you know perfectly well I hardly sleep a few hours a night? Is this your way of offering me support and comfort?”
“Blast! Please forgive me, my friend. I never thought that…I did not mean that…Damn, I am such an idiot!”
Half an hour later, David still had not succeeded in redirecting Darcy’s attention to other subjects of conversation. Their discussion was rather dull and only served to make the time pass until the ladies’ return.
An impromptu opening of the library door and a livid Bingley entering the room animated them—more than they would have wished.
∞∞∞
“Bingley? What happened?” Bingley emptied a glass of wine in one swallow and then indicated for David to fill his glass again. Darcy took the glass from his hand before David could comply.
“Bingley, calm yourself and tell us what on earth is wrong with you? Did something happen to your wife or son? Elizabeth and Cassandra are there—
Bingley interrupted him and barely managed to reply. “It is about Caroline—I got a note from her.”
The other two gentlemen watched in silence as Bingley re-filled his own glass and started pacing the room while answering them.
“My steward said the note arrived quite late last night, but he did not know who brought it; of course, I did not open it until you left—a couple of hours ago. How could I have known it was an important letter? It was from Caroline; I barely recognised her handwriting. She sent word they have been in town for six weeks, but she was not allowed to speak to me. She begged me to come to see her, and I went, but Markham—he is out of his mind—he refused to allow me to speak to her. He demanded that I tell him how I discovered their whereabouts. I tried to enter by force, but I could not. I need to enter, even if I have to defy Markham. I will call him out if need be. He cannot keep my sister imprisoned, even if she is his wife—can he? I must see her immediately. She begged me to come to her, but Markham would not let me,” Bingley repeated, moving desperately around the room, looking from Darcy to the colonel with a lost expression on his face.
“Bingley, come and sit down. Let us speak rationally.” Darcy grabbed his arm and forced him to take a seat.
“I have no time to sit, Darcy—I must leave immediately.”
“There is nowhere you can go for the moment, Bingley. You cannot enter Markham’s house by force, and fighting with him would be a foolish thing to do. We will find a more reasonable way.”
“You were not calm and reasonable when your wife was involved, Darcy,” Bingley replied sharply. “You fought Markham yourself, remember?”
Darcy ignored the offensive tone. “I did fight Markham, but I did not have a wife and a newborn son at the time, Bingley. You cannot afford being hurt for behaving impulsively. Let us consider this situation wisely.”
“I know neither of you care much about her, but she is my sister,” Bingley whispered. “I have not forgotten how poorly she behaved in the past, but she is in a dangerous situation—I am certain of it. And I cannot abandon her—I simply cannot.”
He handed the note to Darcy in a defeated gesture of helpless despair. Darcy glanced at it, looked at David, and finally turned to Bingley.
“So, it appears that Miss Bingley—I mean Lady Markham—is in town now. You are right to be worried, Bingley—such a pleading note is hardly her style. She must be quite desperate to send it.”
“See? See? You agree with me!”
“I do…and do not worry; nobody will abandon your sister, Bingley. We will find a way to speak to her.”
Darcy rang for his servant and sent him to fetch his attorney; in the meantime, he wrote a note to the elder Lord Markham, asking for an urgent audience. He also sent word to Mr Gardiner, requesting his attendance, and then turned his attention back to his companions.
“We shall consider the situation carefully. Though I understand your sister’s difficulties, we must not forget about Mrs Bingley and Elizabeth—we cannot allow any of this to affect them. As for Cassandra—she probably will be overcome with anger.”
“You are right Darcy—you are right, of course. I do not want Jane to discover anything. She would be devastated with worry,” Bingley said while the colonel nodded in agreement, obviously agitated himself.
“Of course we must keep this private, but I cannot help saying it sounds more silly than dangerous to me,” the colonel intervened.
“It sounds like he is keeping her prisoner, but that is ridiculous. I mean no offence, Bingley, but why would a man like Markham keep your sister hidden? He has little to gain from her except her dowry, which I doubt is important enough to justify such a ruckus.”
“I do not know, Colonel! I could not speak reasonably with him; I doubt he has any sense remaining in him. He kept saying I should bring Darcy and Fitzwilliam to beg him to see Caroline. It is as though he has become obsessed with you.”
“The first thing we have to do is search for Markham’s companions,” Darcy directed.
“He is not the sort of man to stay alone all these months. I also believe we should talk to the earl; I shall do that myself. If we are to speak to Markham, we should have his father with us. Perhaps he will make his son more reasonable.”
“He has never been reasonable when it came to his sons. I doubt he will have much influence on that lunatic.” The colonel was becoming more irritated with each passing moment.
“I shall speak to the earl; do not bother yourself. Now let us establish the details; we need a strategy for approaching Markham,” said Darcy.
“I cannot believe we are planning strategies for Markham,” the colonel burst out.
“This is quite ludicrous! Here is my strategy: break the door down, put Markham on the floor, beat him senseless and take your sister out of the house; after that, let him come and search for her if he wants. If we are lucky, he will be so drunk that he will not remember what happened.” Darcy looked at him with reproach, but Bingley’s face lit slightly.
“Well, if there are not many servants around, we could try that approach. Colonel, Darcy, I am sorry to give you so much trouble. Perhaps I should go and solve it on my own.”
“Oh shut up, Bingley,” said the colonel. “That is not what I meant. It is not your fault. This stupid Markham has been an annoyance for years. We must do something about him.”
“Yes we must.” Darcy was serious and decided. “As I said, let us prepare our strategy.”
∞∞∞
It was almost dinnertime, and Cassandra took a final look at her image in the mirror; she was pleased with her appearance and, with a smile, waited to see the approval in her husband’s eyes—as usually happened.
She wondered what was taking him so long to prepare himself.
He returned home just minutes before, apologised briefly and went to change, promising he would join her presently.
She was worried as his entire behaviour was changed, and his disposition, she had noticed, was quite poor.
She was determined not to hesitate a moment before asking him about the nature of his unexpected business with Darcy, which had kept both of them out the entire afternoon.
Something was not well; she could sense that.
A few moments later, David entered her room, took her hands and gently made her sit while he spoke softly. Despite his caring voice, each of his words threw her deeper and deeper into her nightmare.
“Surely you are mocking me, sir! You cannot seriously consider confronting Markham in order to see Caroline Bingley! You have no right to do that! You gave me your word! You promised me!”
“Cassandra, please calm yourself.” He tried to embrace her, but she pulled away in a rage. “I promised I would never lie to you, that I would never keep anything from you. That is why I am here talking to you.”
“You are twisting your own words, sir!”
“No, I am not, my dear.”
“Do not dare patronise me, Colonel. You are not a man of your word; that is all I can say!”
“My love, I promise nothing bad will happen. We are only going to talk.”
“How dare you do this. How dare you promise me again.”
She fought so hard against her tears that her voice lost all its strength.
“I am making you this promise as I am certain I shall keep it. I shall return before you even know it.”
She was pacing the room, and he stopped her, encircling her in his arms. Her fears and despair turned into rage, and she continued to accuse him of betraying her until she concluded she should not have married him at all.
Her words were offensive and hurtful, but David gave them no consideration.
He could feel her fear, and for a moment, he wondered whether it was fair to put others’ troubles before his wife’s peace of mind.
“I have never cared about Caroline Bingley, and I thought you felt the same, but apparently I was wrong. You clearly are more concerned with her than you are about me.”
“My dear, that statement does not even deserve a reply; you know as well as I do how unfair it is. I am not concerned about Caroline either—why should I be? But Bingley is deeply worried for her—she is his sister, after all. And Bingley will go and deal with Markham. What should I do, Cassandra? Should I hide to keep myself safe? Would that truly please you? Would I be worthy then of your affection? Bingley is my friend, and we were there for him as he worried about his wife and child. Should we then abandon him in this trying situation?”
“No, of course not! But Bingley should not expose himself either! What we should do is to hire 100 people to go with Bingley—perhaps from the army or the militia. He should wait outside while they bring Caroline out. I will pay for those 100 men. I will pay for anything necessary to help Bingley!”