Chapter 20 #2
“I have it — a marriage licence for Mr Wickham and Lydia for our local church in seven days’ time. Since we already have Mr Deringham and Mr Wickham together to work out the marriage contract, I thought I would bring it straight here, Mr Darcy.”
“Excellent,” Darcy pronounced, his attention still half on the conversation they’d had before Mr Gardiner knocked at the door. “Do come and join us, Mr Gardiner. I think we have all the pieces in place for this wedding now.”
As Wickham was sent to find another chair, and Mr Gardiner showed the licence to Mr Deringham, Darcy’s mind wandered back to Ludlow.
What should he do now? His cousin must certainly be removed from Georgiana’s guardianship as quickly as possible.
That would mean an application to the courts and some credible explanation, the least sensational of which would be Lord Hexham’s debt and gambling.
Would that be enough to convince a judge?
Darcy would need Mr Deringham’s advice. If he could keep Georgiana’s name out of the matter, he would.
Perhaps this afternoon he would call on Mr Deringham at his offices and have this discussion privately.
It was as well that Wickham knew none of his plans, especially if he was likely to correspond with Ludlow…
With Mr Gardiner seated, Mr Deringham opened discussions on the marriage contract.
Darcy continued to let his mind drift. Having delivered Wickham to justice, there was little more for him to do in the rescue of Lydia Bennet.
These details were for others at the table, and Darcy would be guided by his solicitor and Mr Gardiner.
He did not really need to be in the room at all.
Pushing his chair back a little, Darcy retrieved the two messages from his pocket and broke open the seal on the first. He was astonished to find it contained a message from Elizabeth Bennet at Longbourn and enclosed two other notes in Georgina’s hand.
Even before Darcy read its contents, his heart was pounding, knowing that Elizabeth would never have taken such a bold step without excellent cause.
The words seemed to leap straight off the page and into Darcy’s mind, filling him with horror.
Jumping to his feet, he rushed from the room and out to his carriage.
What sensible and proper advice Elizabeth had given his sister for escape!
But would Georgiana be strong enough and brave enough to take it?
“Take the road north out of London,” Darcy ordered the coach driver as he leapt in and slammed the door after himself, not yet having any logical plan for where he should go and what he should do after that.
Should he drive towards Pemberley and ask for news at staging inns on the route?
Should he head for Gretna Green in the hope of heading Ludlow off, if he did try to take Georgiana there?
Perhaps he ought to go back to Darcy House and write urgent letters to Georgiana, Lady Catherine, and Elizabeth Bennet before he left London.
As he turned over these possibilities in his mind without decision, he remembered the second message received this morning and opened that too.
“God be praised!” he breathed as he read it and discovered it to be from Georgiana herself.
At Elizabeth’s instruction, Georgiana had left Pemberley in the middle of the night and was now on her way to Rosings with her maid. She wrote to him from a coaching inn where they stopped for the night and apologised for the poor script of her trembling hands.
Darcy banged on the roof of the carriage and changed his instructions to his driver.
“Take me to the offices of Moreton and Belling.”
Even in Mr Moreton’s absence, other partners or employees could arrange for armed men to meet Georgiana’s carriage on the road with a letter from Darcy and escort her to Rosings. Darcy would meet her there and escort her to London in person.
He calculated that Georgiana was eight hours ahead of Ludlow and might already be safe, but, as Wickham had noted, Ludlow was clearly a desperate man and not to be trusted. Darcy would provide all the security he could.
Once satisfied that four private guards were out on the road with the letter he had written at Mr Moreton’s empty desk, Darcy returned to Darcy House. He saw little point in rejoining the group in Wickham’s lodging house and certainly did not wish to explain his sudden departure to George Wickham.
Darcy had spent enough time on that wretched rogue in recent days, and their enforced closeness would not be over until the marriage was completed. Instead, he intended to spend the next hour writing to Elizabeth Bennet to express his extreme gratitude.
It was a task of considerable difficulty, for his own emotions could not be allowed to put her reputation at risk.
While her letter to him had the excuse of extreme urgency, his did not.
He must therefore take the utmost care to say nothing that could endanger her if it were seen.
The result must necessarily be a letter saying rather less than he might wish, but this could not be helped.
As he sat down at his desk in the study and took up his pen, Darcy wished with all his heart that this quick-thinking and resourceful woman was his wife. She was not, however, and likely never would be. Darcy must content himself with her friendship, likely mostly mediated by his sister.
Darcy wrote succinctly and circumspectly, thanking Elizabeth for her actions and informing her of Georgiana’s successful flight.
The latter could only be hinted at, but with Elizabeth’s quick wit, he had no doubt that she would understand his meaning.
He told her too that certain documents had come into his possession that should end all speculation around his birth — couched as “the recent unpleasant rumours” — and that he had discovered the party responsible.
Finally, he added that he would be applying to have Lord Hexham’s guardianship of Georgiana revoked.
In all of this, Darcy took care to say nothing Elizabeth might misconstrue as a distasteful renewal of his addresses.
He certainly avoided any mention of his role in Lydia’s rescue, lest she suspect ulterior motives.
Even if she would never see him as a potential husband, Darcy wanted very badly for Elizabeth Bennet to think as well of him as he did of her.
With deep chagrin, he thought back to Colonel Fitzwilliam’s joking words to Darcy before he left England, and what had come to pass. Darcy was indeed trying desperately, and likely hopelessly, to prove himself worthy of the woman he loved.
Less than a year had passed since that fateful conversation at Brooks’s. How proud and ignorant he had been then!