Two
London
Darcy
"Five investment losses! That is a great deal to have carried alone.
" Colonel Fitzwilliam set down the glass of port he had scarcely touched, all the easy humour that had greeted Darcy's arrival driven away by the better part of an hour's plain telling.
"You will recall I have not been wholly ignorant of matters such as this.
You told me yourself of the Ainsworth affair last spring, and of the wool contract before it.
I own I did not like the sound of either at the time. "
"You did not like it, and yet neither of us named it as I have finally allowed myself to name it tonight."
Darcy had found his cousin absent when he called that afternoon and had remained to await his return.
The waiting had done nothing to quiet his thoughts.
It had only given him longer to turn them over, until certainty settled where doubt had once been.
When at last his cousin returned and he began to speak, the words came with rather less restraint than he ordinarily permitted himself.
His own glass remained untouched upon the table between them. He found the relief of speaking the words aloud considerably less than he had hoped.
"For two years I persuaded myself that misfortune explained every loss as well as deliberate design.
Instead, I found that explanation grew harder to accept with every fresh instance rather than easier.
Grey named it plainly enough this morning.
I confess I had already half reached the same conclusion myself.
I wanted only another man's voice to say it before I trusted my own. "
"You shall have mine, then, and gladly, though I fear it will do little to comfort you.
" Fitzwilliam uncrossed his legs with deliberate care.
When he spoke again, the easy familiarity of the evening had given place to the measured consideration of an officer accustomed to weighing uncertain intelligence.
"There was a remark made at my club in July.
I thought nothing of it then. A gentleman lately returned from the Peninsula spoke of a merchant who had declined an investment, saying he had no wish to invite the sort of ill luck that seemed lately to attend your name.
" He shook his head slightly. "I remember thinking it a poor jest, and nothing more. "
He turned back to Darcy.
"I did not connect it with Ainsworth. I did not connect it with anything. Hearing you now... I cannot persuade myself it was merely idle talk. Neither, however, can I persuade myself, upon one evening's conversation, that we have seen the whole of the matter."
Darcy pressed his fingers briefly to his brow, weariness settling upon him in a manner the afternoon's waiting had done nothing to relieve. "I have considered every name I can produce, every disappointed tenant, every man who has ever thought himself injured by me, and none will answer for it."
"Then who can?"
Darcy was silent for a moment before shaking his head.
"That is precisely the difficulty. This is not the work of a man nursing some single grievance, Fitzwilliam.
It is too patient for that, too exact. Since my father's death five years ago, there has been one injury after another, each so ordered that it might pass for chance.
I cannot account for a single soul in England who would purchase such satisfaction at so great an expenditure of time. "
"Nor can I." Fitzwilliam's countenance was graver than Darcy had seen it since the darkest days of the previous summer. "I know no more than you who stands behind it, nor why, nor how long such a scheme has been at work, if indeed it is a scheme."
"You sound sceptical."
"Only slower to be persuaded than you have had the leisure to become.
" Fitzwilliam gave a slight shake of his head.
"Do not mistake composure for certainty, Darcy.
You have lived with these events for years.
I have only tonight been shown the pattern they make.
I do not dispute your reasoning. I ask only leave to examine it before I make it my own. "
Darcy inclined his head. "I had not mistaken the one for the other.
I am grateful enough for your steadiness tonight.
" His gaze drifted for an instant to the untouched glass upon the table before returning to his cousin.
"I confess I had hoped that speaking the whole of it aloud might give it some clearer shape.
Instead, it seems only larger than it did this morning.
I remain as much in the dark as ever, save that I no longer stand there alone. "
Fitzwilliam was quiet for a long moment before drawing a slow breath. "No, only less alone in your uncertainty."
Darcy gave a faint smile that vanished almost as soon as it appeared. "Which is more comfort than I had this morning."
Silence settled between them. At length Darcy spoke again, though his thoughts had plainly wandered elsewhere.
"Bingley has written twice these past weeks, pressing me to accompany him into Hertfordshire when he goes to take possession of the house he has lately engaged.
He has set his heart upon my spending the first month or two there with him before I return to Derbyshire.
Until this morning I had been considering how best to decline him. "
Darcy said no more, and his cousin regarded him steadily, waiting with the patience of one who knew there was something yet unsaid.
"Now I find I have little inclination to return immediately to Pemberley, or indeed to remain there, particularly after what Mr. Grey has told me this morning.
I believe I shall accompany Bingley after all.
A few weeks' absence may afford me the distance to consider these matters with a cooler judgment...
and perhaps spare Pemberley, for a time, whatever ill fortune seems lately to attend me there. "
Fitzwilliam looked at him searchingly. He seemed about to reply, then thought better of it.
"When do you mean to go?" he said instead.
"Towards the end of next month, I imagine. Bingley hopes to be settled before Michaelmas."
"Will you return to Pemberley before then?"
"No."
"Good." Fitzwilliam inclined his head, as though the answer confirmed something he had already hoped for.
"Accept Bingley's invitation, by all means, but remain in town a little while first. Spend some time with Georgiana.
She has had little enough of your company these past months, and I think the sight of her brother will do her good. "
Darcy's expression softened almost imperceptibly. His sister would indeed welcome his company. Whether she stood more in need of him than he did of her, he could not have said.
"Allow me until the week's end," Fitzwilliam continued.
"I have one or two acquaintances at the Admiralty to whom I may write.
They may discover whether the Meridian's captors were known upon that station, whether intelligence of her voyage had preceded her sailing, or whether some circumstance escaped notice in the first reports.
It may come to nothing. Even so, it is a line of inquiry not yet exhausted, and I would rather pursue it than sit idle while an unseen enemy enjoys the advantage. "
"Very well."
"Should they learn nothing, you shall go into Hertfordshire with an easier mind, knowing at least that every reasonable inquiry has been made. I shall write to you the moment I hear anything further."
Darcy inclined his head. When, some time later, he took his leave, he went directly to the London house where Georgiana and Mrs. Annesley presently resided, finding that, of all the company London might offer him, there was none he wished for so much as that of the sister who had known him before any of this had begun.