Chapter 16
The first good news he had received since his arrival at Hertfordshire reached Darcy at dawn. An express had arrived, according to the sleepy butler and alert valet who were at his door. As Darcy opened the message, he realised that Richard must have sent the express close to midnight.
The news was directions to a cottage located between Hatfield and St Albans. Richard included a brief note from his father that was designed to ensure cooperation from the servants serving as Elizabeth’s guards.
Richard promised him that he was setting out even in the dead of night, along with the company of three soldiers he trusted with his life, and that they would almost certainly find the cottage before Darcy could. If all went well, Richard wrote, they would meet on the Hatfield and Reading Turnpike.
Darcy penned a note to Georgiana and gave a series of orders to Mr Seymour: to have a stablehand saddle Beorht and two other mounts; to wake Travers and Barnes, asking them to ready themselves for a day in the saddle; and to request that Cook pack food and drink for the three riders.
Then he worked with Cooper to ready himself.
Although he gave the orders rapidly and hurried through an abbreviated dressing and grooming routine, Darcy felt no true need for speed.
Certainly Richard and his men had already rescued Elizabeth and were even now approaching Netherfield—still far away, but getting closer every minute—and suddenly Darcy’s mental picture failed him.
Would Richard have thought to take an extra mount for Elizabeth?
Would she be able to sit side-saddle in a regular saddle, or would Richard ensure that the extra horse had a side saddle?
Richard likely did not know how insecure Elizabeth felt about riding.
He pictured Richard putting Elizabeth on his own horse, and holding her firmly with one strong arm—
Darcy felt a stab of jealousy that was absurd, under the circumstances, but he despised his mind’s-eye image of Elizabeth riding with Richard!
He would not allow his own travel to be slowed by a carriage, but Darcy determined, as he strode to the stables to mount Beorht and ride out with his two footmen, that he would have a carriage follow them on the turnpike.
He gave the appropriate orders before leading Travers and Barnes away from Netherfield and towards his love.
Unfortunately, they did not come across Richard and his friends escorting Elizabeth home.
They reached what must surely be the cottage, and Darcy’s heart was in his throat.
He was attempting not to catalogue through all the reasons he had not met a triumphant Richard and a grateful Elizabeth on his way to her known location.
First things first, he had to discover if this was, truly, the spot to which he had been directed. He knocked at the door. An older man—someone possibly in his late fifties or his sixties—came to the door, looked him over quickly, and hazarded a guess. “Mr Darcy?”
“Yes! Is—” Darcy meant to ask about Elizabeth, not Richard, but before either name could pass his lips, a sealed letter was pressed upon him. He looked at the imprint in the red wax and the distinctive bold handwriting. It was from Richard.
Miss Bennet broke out of her confinement yesterday. All I can say is of course she did—she is not the sort of maiden who waits around to be rescued!
Darcy laughed, despite the high stakes. All he could think was, “That is my Elizabeth, all right!”
We have one witness who saw her from afar, walking southbound, but later, when the rider was near, she was nowhere to be seen.
He assumed the lady he saw was hiding in the wheat field.
We will therefore search southwards, but I hope Miss Bennet does not hide from us.
I will have to think of some clever way of letting her know that we are friends, not foe.
I suggest that, if you have searchers calling out for a potentially hiding Miss Bennet, that you not call out her name, as that might lead to sullying her reputation.
Perhaps have a call-out that will be recognisable to her but not to others.
By the way, have Maurice show you how Miss Bennet broke out. It will take you thirty seconds, perhaps less, to see it. Honestly, you will hardly dare to believe it!
— Richard
P.S. Is there some good reason Miss Bennet might have headed southwards, to London, rather than northwards, towards her home?
Darcy’s thoughts flashed upon the Gardiners, whom Elizabeth saw as the best of her family, who she used as models of comportment. Of course she would wish to go to London!
He turned to the man and asked, “Maurice?”
“Yes, sir. Would you like to see the lady’s room, sir, and how it was she left?”
“Yes, please.”
Darcy peered into the small room. There was very little furniture and no indication of comfort here, but other than the slightest smell of urine, it seemed clean.
Maurice walked to the window, which looked to be entirely and oddly an empty aperture.
Darcy looked outside and then down—and he saw that Elizabeth had somehow destroyed part of the wooden window frame, sending the glass panes and window slats falling down, and had rid the window of seven out of eight iron bars. How on earth?
As he turned away from the window, Darcy spotted a book of poetry lying on the cot. It was the volume Elizabeth had carried all the way to Derbyshire on her travels with her aunt and uncle. Darcy scooped it up with a tender smile, putting it into the pocket of his coat.
But he had no time for memories, right now. “I must leave a note,” Darcy said. “Can you provide me with paper and ink?”
The older man did so promptly—and it occurred to Darcy that his cooperative attitude was a bit surprising, given the circumstances.
He had not even had to show the note from the earl to gain cooperation—but of course Richard no doubt had such a letter from his parents, as well, and had prepared the ground.
When he wished to be, Richard could be…persuasive.
Darcy wrote instructions for his carriage driver, when he arrived, and he gave it to Maurice with careful instructions.
Then he spoke to Travers and Barnes, explaining the situation in a few swift words.
“I will travel southwards, as that is the most likely chance to locate the lady who has been stolen away from her family. However, I should like you two to travel the other direction. Take turns calling out, ‘Elizabeth! We are seeking the missing carriage companion of F. D., G. D., and Mrs A.’ We will not be calling out her surname in an effort to keep her reputation intact.”
Explaining what to do if they found Elizabeth—how to ensure her comfort and respectability while also alerting the other searchers to their success—Darcy finished his instructions with the words, “If you have not found Miss Elizabeth by the time you reach Essendon, stay at the inn and wait for word from me there.”
“Yes, sir,” Travers said.
After replenishing his water from the cottage well, Darcy eagerly mounted Beorht and headed south.