Chapter 8 From Hunsford to the High Seas #2
“I’ve purchased his debts. If a woman must leave and is willing to work, I offer a position at Pemberley. A year or two in service on my estate, and they can leave with a character reference that will see them hired anywhere they like.”
Mr Darcy’s solution was a good one for any young lady used to working.
Of course, there was something that both men were forgetting. Elizabeth asked, “What does your sister want to do?”
The man sighed. “She’d like to keep the babe. Can’t fault her for that, but it means we’ve got to find enough money to set her up as a widow where no one knows her, instead of just enough money to get her married before it becomes obvious.”
The sun slid below the horizon, leaving the grey of twilight. Other voices began to call out, perhaps readying the boat to leave.
Mr Darcy shifted. “My bank has a standing order that any withdrawal greater than one hundred pounds requires either an account of what it is for or an investigation. Even if I withdraw it in person, the authorities will be notified, and the risk to your family is considerable. May I propose an alternative, Mister...?”
“Mr Smith, to you.”
Mr Darcy nodded. “Mr Smith, then. I know a proprietor who is opening an inn. He is the son of one of my tenants and is seeking a wife. I can recommend your sister as a widow with limited support. I will even make good the sum Wickham owes you, and a small dowry for your sister.”
That was far more generous than needed. Mr Smith seemed to think so as well. “What is it you want in exchange?”
“Promise you will not hurt Miss Bennet.” Mr Darcy drew himself up, conveying confidence that Elizabeth could only admire.
“Come with me to the War Office in London and testify that Mr Wickham tried to incite you to kidnap me for ransom, but you warned me instead. The debts I hold will show motive, and no one need know the truth.”
Elizabeth blinked. “That is a rather detailed plan for so sudden a circumstance.”
Mr Darcy turned his head. “I have held Wickham’s debts for years, but this is the first time he has descended to criminal behaviour that I can prove with the testimony of witnesses. Charming a girl with empty promises is unfortunately not against the law.”
Mr Smith still looked suspicious. “Why the War Office?”
“Wickham is an officer of the militia, however minute honour he gives his uniform. I had already approached his colonel, but Colonel Forster did not credit me with honesty. In such circumstances, I could pass the situation to the War Office to find Colonel Forster’s superior without suspicion.
Conduct Unbecoming an Officer is an offence for which he can be court-martialled. ”
Another man approached. “We can sail to London before dawn.”
Perhaps all hope was not lost. “My uncle Gardiner has warehouses by the docks. If your sister acts as a companion, we can claim that I wished to warn my family of Mr Wickham’s true nature urgently and accepted a kind offer of transportation after your warning of the proposed kidnapping.”
Mr Smith turned to another man. “Run. Tell her to pack a bag. Be quick about it. We’re not lingering while we have the tide and wind.”
Mr Darcy was hauled to his feet, and Elizabeth lifted somewhat more considerately. Then they were escorted below decks. “You’ll forgive us for not risking you running off until the bargain is upheld.”
At least the situation afforded them some privacy to speak freely.
Hopefully, Mr Darcy would be as reluctant to speak of the ordeal as Elizabeth was, and Miss Smith would be willing to ensure that they were chaperoned the entire time.
“Are you well, Mr Darcy? I am not sure there is much I can do for the bruises now, but do you have any other injuries?”
Mr Darcy shook his head. “Some soreness and numbness from having my arms bound for so long. The bruises are my own fault.”
“Surely they are the fault of whoever struck you.”
He looked away. “When you were knocked unconscious, reason was the last thing on my mind, and they were forced to go to greater lengths to subdue me.”
She found it oddly charming. Not that Elizabeth had any great like of brutish men who saw violence as an answer, but the thought of someone so regulated losing control because of her....
Well, there was a reason that Gothic novels were so popular, despite the widespread public disapproval from dour matrons.
Given the circumstances and the dire straits of her questionable future, Elizabeth would take what amusement and whimsy she could get.
She smiled at him. “Then I must thank you for your protection. We were rudely interrupted, but as this is likely to be the most privacy we will have for some time, why did you come to the parsonage?”
He hesitated. “Perhaps it will comfort you to know that I came to ask you to marry me. I will not repeat the speech I had planned, not here, but I want you to know that my hand is yours.”
Elizabeth was speechless, and her silence stretched so long that Mr Darcy frowned.
“My love comes as a surprise to you?”
Love? How could it be anything but a surprise to me?
But she could not risk alienating her ally and protector.
The Smiths might very well deliver Mr Darcy to London without her.
Elizabeth did not voice her demurrals but choked them down in favour of something more politic.
“I confess that it does. You may have conversed more with me than anyone outside Mr Bingley’s party.
Still, it does not follow that I expected marriage when every interaction seemed designed to show how far above my humble society you are. ”
Really, she had no idea what he could have been thinking, since he had already boasted to his cousin about separating Mr Bingley from Jane.
But…if Elizabeth were Mrs Darcy, perhaps that was one connection that no one could object to.
The Bennets had certainly not shown themselves off to their benefit at the Netherfield ball, and men were quick to credit each other with a greater role than they had played in reality, especially if Colonel Fitzwilliam had been trying to convince Elizabeth of his cousin’s noble character.
Elizabeth tried to wriggle her hands past her hips. Once that was accomplished, she considered the next step in freeing herself and sighed. “Forgive me, Mr Darcy, if you see anything improper.”
He looked away, then looked back. “I hope you will forgive my watching all the same, in the hopes of replicating the feat.”
Elizabeth blushed as she lifted her legs in the air, gravity exposing stockinged ankles and calves, then folded them as tightly as possible, to bring her arms around to her front.
Mr Darcy attempted to manage the same, but his greater height made it impossible.
Elizabeth couldn’t help softening towards him.
“If I manage to untie my own hands, I shall see about yours.”
“Colonel Fitzwilliam credited you with being the means of separating Mr Bingley from a most unsuitable match. May I ask why, since you apparently do not see me as unsuitable?”
Mr Darcy frowned lightly. “My friend falls in love quickly, but frequently. His sisters may claim that he falls out of love just as quickly, but they do not see what he is like with a broken heart. From what I observed, Miss Bennet did not return his feelings. I did not wish to see him in a marriage of unequal affection, and his honour would soon be engaged, with the way your mother was declaring them all but betrothed. I hoped that the sooner they parted, the sooner he would recover.”
From a man’s perspective, Elizabeth supposed that it made sense, however little she liked it. The knot she was working on came loose, and her hope bloomed. “Jane is wary of showing too much encouragement until she knows a gentleman’s character beyond a doubt.”
Charlotte, who had received an offer of marriage from a farmer before Sir William was knighted and none after, professed that a lady should show more affection than she felt to encourage a suitor.
Jane, whose beauty attracted unworthy men as well as worthy ones, was more cautious.
Elizabeth could not attribute blame to either view.
Mr Darcy nodded. “If I was mistaken in believing that you expected my address, I can be equally mistaken in my interpretation of your sister’s feelings.
If it comforts you, Bingley has not recovered, and I have spent far too many afternoons at our club listening to him try to convince himself that it would be wrong to return, if it would place pressure on her to accept him. ”
That spoke well of Mr Bingley. “I shall be sure to tell Jane when I see her. We know but trifles of him, after all.”
The last knot came undone, and the ropes fell away. “If you are able to roll over without injuring yourself, sir, I shall see about your bonds.”
He did so, his voice muffled as Elizabeth worked. “Mr Bingley is the sort of man I would not mind Georgiana marrying, were she not barely fifteen, and had she expressed any interest. He can stand his ground when he chooses, but he does not go looking for fights, as some do.”
Well, perhaps Jane and Mr Bingley would gain their second chance if she were to marry Mr Darcy.
It was a small consolation, weighed against a lifetime with a near-stranger, but in such interesting times, one needed to take comfort in the small joys.
For others, if not for themselves, a pessimistic disposition would not improve her situation.
If he had begun arrogantly at the parsonage, she might have refused him even after all they had been through—but the man who fought for her and bargained for her safety did not resemble the tyrant she had imagined.