Chapter 30
“Has she been found?” Mr Bennet asked, as soon as he exited the carriage at Gracechurch Street, to which her uncle only shook his head sadly.
He had gone to Longbourn the very evening after the word of Lydia’s elopement had reached him.
He knew that Mrs Bennet needed to be reassured that he would find a way to make this right, and no simple letter would be sufficient.
“Colonel Forster arrived yesterday,” Mr Gardiner told him. “He confirmed that none of the company are aware of the elopement, and that from the discreet inquiries he has made, no one was aware of a romance between them.”
“That is well at least, if we can but find them; maybe it need never come out,” their father said. “I am sorry I missed him,” he said. “He left a letter for me at Longbourn, but then we passed on the roads him to London and me to Meryton.”
“Colonel Forster’s letter confirmed that he was sending two men he trusts to be silent, to ride the roads from Meryton towards Scotland. I take it there has been no sign of them?” he asked, and Mr Gardiner merely shook his head.
“What is to be done?” Elizabeth asked. “How are they even to be found?”
“I have sent my men to enquire at inns between Meryton and London,” Mr Gardiner replied.
“If they are not gone to Scotland, then London would be the next most-likely destination, for where else are they to remain so well hidden? I judged that you would not want the men from your estate to be alerted,” he said, and Mr Bennet confirmed this was so.
“But what could their purpose be to come to London?” Jane asked. It was the first time she had spoken since Elizabeth had returned from her walk. She was pale, and Elizabeth had held her hand most of the way to London, and it had been shaking, but so too had Elizabeth’s.
“He means to extort funds from me, I have no doubt,” their father replied.
“It is possible that some rumour of our good fortune reached him,” he said, addressing his brother.
Mr Collins heard this, and Elizabeth was surprised he evinced no curiosity about this good fortune.
She did not know that her father had already discussed it with him, and indeed, future plans for Longbourn.
“It will not be long until we will hear from him,” he said. “He means to get funds on the back of this elopement, you mark my words,” he said ostensibly to Jane, but really to them all.
The letter came two days later, but it was not the one they expected.
Rather than being a request for a generous dowry, being extortion dressed as romance, it was instead, a clear and unequivocal offer to return Lydia on the payment of fifty thousand pounds.
This was not an elopement; it was an abduction.
Having perused the letter and on re-reading it twice, he handed it to Jane and Lizzy.
“How is such a sum to even be raised?” Elizabeth asked. “He must be insane.”
But her father did not seem so poleaxed by the massive amount requested. “How long will it take, Edward?” he enquired of his brother, Gardiner.
“At least a week, Thomas, mayhap even two,” he replied, and Elizabeth’s mouth dropped open.
Could her father truly have so much money?
“It will need to be done discreetly to ensure that no rumours are borne from it. You are to bring the older girls to London for the season – if any talk starts, it will fall on them.”
“But why is he seeking such an amount?” Jane asked, not having fully comprehended the meaning of the letter. “Surely if he loves her, he would not be wishing for so very large a dowry.”
“It is not a dowry, my dear,” Mr Bennet said, patting Jane on the back while catching Elizabeth’s eye and seeing she had understood.
“This is not an elopement; it is a kidnapping,” and Mr Collins was just in time to catch Jane as she fainted away again, but being so slight a man, he nearly fell to the ground himself with the weight of her and would have, if not for Mr Bennet aiding him in time.