Darcy and Elizabeth What If? Collection 1 (13 page)

Elizabeth had packed her bags in preparation for her journey to London. She ate a good breakfast with her aunt, uncle and cousins. Her uncle was looking much better than when they had arrived. He had grown in strength and had a much healthier colour. The sea air had agreed with him, and he had become more energetic in recent days. Elizabeth knew that Jane’s company would improve his condition even more, for who could not feel better with Jane?

Her little cousins, too, were looking forward to Jane’s stay. Jane was a great favourite with them. Elizabeth was loved because she would play with them in their livelier games, but Jane was loved for her calm patience and her ability to see the best in people – a particularly welcome characteristic when the children had been told off and needed someone to restore their belief in their own goodness.

‘You have a pleasant day for the journey,’ said Uncle Gardiner.

‘Yes, it couldn’t be better,’ Elizabeth agreed.

It was fine, but not too hot, which was a relief. She was to travel on the stagecoach and so the cooler weather would make the journey much more agreeable.

After their final embraces, Elizabeth set out with her aunt’s maid as a chaperone. But she did not make her way to the coaching inn straight away. Instead, she turned her steps towards Georgiana’s Ramsgate house, because she was determined to take a proper farewell of her friend.

She walked along the sea front and then turned left, heading towards the large and imposing house. She had not gone far when she saw a carriage travelling down the road at great speed. If it had been travelling more slowly she would not have noticed it, but her curiosity was aroused and she turned her head to watch it pass by. As she did so, she saw Georgiana sitting inside, looking white and frightened. Next to her was Mr Wickham, and in the seat opposite them was Mrs Younge.

Elizabeth and her maid exchanged anxious glances. Something was clearly wrong.

Elizabeth was closer now to Miss Darcy’s house than her aunt’s house, and so she decided to seek help at the nearer establishment. She hurried on, and when the footman opened the door, she said, ‘I must speak to Mr Darcy at once. Is he within?’

The footman said, ‘I’m sorry, miss, but I have orders not to admit you.’

‘This is an urgent matter and I must insist,’ said Elizabeth, stepping past him into the hall.

She looked up and saw that Mr Darcy was descending the stairs. His face became extremely arrogant when he saw her and he said, ‘Miss Bennet. I thought I made it clear —’

‘I must speak to you on a matter of urgency,’ said Elizabeth. ‘It concerns Miss Darcy.’

She relied on him not wishing to make a scene in front of the servants. He looked displeased, but as he could not fail to notice the curious face of the footman, he said curtly, ‘You had better come in.’

The footman opened the door to the drawing-room.

Elizabeth went in and Mr Darcy followed her.

He looked surprised to see that the room was empty and Elizabeth realised he had been expecting to see his sister there. But he quickly turned his attention to the matter in hand.

‘Now, Miss Bennet,’ he said, closing the door behind her and her maid. ‘You have come, I suppose, to say that you are a suitable friend for Miss Darcy.’

‘Insufferable man!’ she said. ‘I have come for nothing of the sort. I have just seen Miss Darcy in a carriage with Mr Wickham, heading out of town. Mrs Younge was with her but Miss Darcy looked frightened. I fear that Mr Wickham and Mrs Younge are in league and have abducted her.’

‘What fairy tale is this?’ he demanded.

But nevertheless, Elizabeth saw a hint of uncertainty in his eye and he glanced around the room again.

‘It is not fairy tale. I beg you, there is not a moment to lose. I have suspected a connection between Mr Wickham and Mrs Younge for some time. Oh, make haste! Order your carriage! You can catch them yet!’

‘The carriage has already been ordered for my journey to London,’ he said. ‘It will be at the door momentarily. If what you say is true . . . ’

He looked at her maid, as if to ask for confirmation of Elizabeth’s story, and the maid nodded.

‘Tell me, which way were they headed?’ asked Mr Darcy.

He was suddenly full of energy and Elizabeth felt a flood of relief as she knew he believed her.

‘North, along the London road,’ she said.

‘Then he has designs on her fortune and they are headed to Scotland, to marry over the anvil at Gretna Green.’ His brow furrowed in thought. ‘You had better come with me,’ he said decisively to Elizabeth. ‘You seem to know a great deal, and I must know everything if I am to save Georgiana. If there has been some collusion between Mr Wickham and Mrs Younge as you say, then they might stop overnight and I need to know everything in case it helps me to discover where they will stop.’

‘I cannot come with you!’ said Elizabeth, horrified he should even suggest such a thing.

‘On the contrary, you can and you must. You were planning to travel to London today anyway, my sister said so.’

‘Yes, I was, but —’

‘Then you will travel there with me in my carriage, and along the way you will tell me everything I need to know.’

‘It is most improper!’ exclaimed Elizabeth.

‘It is nothing of the kind. You have your maid with you to ensure your respectability, and as you are a friend of my sister, no one will think it odd that I should offer to take you to London when I am returning to London myself.’

‘You were not so keen to claim me as a friend of your sister yesterday,’ she remarked scathingly.

‘That was different.’

‘Because you did not need me then. Tell me, Mr Darcy, do you always use people in this shameful manner?’

‘I do not have time to bandy words with you. Will you come with me or won’t you?’ he demanded.

She was tempted to give him a sharp set-down but she was concerned about Georgiana and she was willing to do anything she could to help her friend.

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I will.’

The footman entered the room.

‘The carriage is ready, sir. You asked to be informed when it was at the door.’

‘Good. Tell my valet he must follow me with my valise on the stagecoach. I am in a hurry.’ He turned to Elizabeth. ‘Miss Bennet?’

He gave her his arm.

After a moment of surprise at this courtesy, she took it.

Her eyes widened as the contact produced a strange reaction in her. Heat radiated out from her hand where it rested on his arm.

She looked at him in surprise, but immediately looked away as she did not want him to know he had any effect on her. He was the proudest, most disagreeable man she had ever met, and the sooner his sister was found, the more pleased she would be, not just for Georgiana’s sake, but because then she would be rid of Mr Darcy.

He escorted her out of the house, down the steps and into the carriage, with her aunt’s maid following behind. He instructed the coachman to take the London road. The coachman’s eyebrows lifted and it was evident he thought they would be waiting for Miss Darcy. But he said nothing and Elizabeth realised he knew better than to question Mr Darcy about a change of plan. The footman, too, said nothing, merely closed the door of the carriage behind them and returned to the house.

‘Now,’ said Mr Darcy, as he settled himself back against the squabs. ‘You had better tell me everything. Hold nothing back. If you have been involved in this in any way, I will find out, so you had better tell me at once.’

‘
Involved in it
?’ demanded Elizabeth angrily. ‘What do you take me for?’

‘I take you for a young woman who has scraped an acquaintance with an heiress at a seaside resort,’ he remarked.

‘You are the most insufferable man I have ever met,’ she said. ‘Are you always so arrogant?’

‘Arrogant?’ he asked in surprise.

‘Yes. Arrogant, high handed, contemptuous and supercilious,’ she said with a spark in her eyes. ‘You declared me to be an unsuitable friend for your sister when you knew nothing about me, and now you have the effrontery to imply that I might have had something to do with your sister’s difficulties, when the fault lies squarely at your door.’

‘Miss Bennet, you go too far,’ he said, with an angry set of his mouth.

‘I do not go far enough. You sent your sister down to Ramsgate with only a companion and a few servants to protect her and keep her company, and then you wonder why she was vulnerable to the charms of a man like George Wickham!’

‘Charms?’ he said in disgust.

‘Yes, charms!’ she declared. ‘Georgiana —’

‘Miss Darcy to you!’ he said.

‘Georgiana,’ she said firmly, ‘is at an impressionable age. If a good looking man, with a good address, takes an interest in her and pays her compliments then of course she is going to regard him favourably, especially if he is an old family friend.’

‘He is nothing of the kind!’

‘As I have come to realise,’ said Elizabeth. She had suspected as much and Mr Darcy’s behaviour showed her that she had been right. ‘But if he is not an old family friend then why did Georgiana think he was? She must have had some reason for it.’

‘He was once admitted to our family circle,’ Mr Darcy conceded. ‘He was the son of my father’s steward and we grew up together. But he turned out wild and it is now some time since I have thought of him as a friend. He refused to apply himself to any profession and I washed my hands of him. Georgiana was well aware of it. Mr Wickham and I have not been friends for years.’

‘But it was not hard for him to persuade her otherwise,’ said Elizabeth. ‘What more natural than that a loving young lady, such as your sister is, should hope for a reconciliation and see it as inevitable when it happened? I doubt if Georgiana has ever held a grudge in her life.’

‘No. In that we are different, for my good opinion, once lost, is lost forever,’ he said, almost to himself.

‘That is very harsh,’ said Elizabeth in surprise.

He turned deep-set eyes on her and she saw that once again they were filled with a haughty disdain. They said, more clearly than words,
Who are you to judge me? Me, Fitzwilliam Darcy?

But Elizabeth was not quelled. She had a strong spirit, and it rose to every challenge.

‘A world without forgiveness would be a very hard place to live in. If every wrong is to be held against us forever, then what hope is there for any of us? We are none of us without fault.’

Mr Darcy did not reply, he merely looked at her with arrogant eyes.

‘But perhaps you are without fault,’ she said challengingly.

She wanted to pierce his arrogant armour and humble his pride. She had never met anyone like him before. He was so certain of everything, and she was sure he had never doubted himself or his opinions in his life.

And why should he? Brought up as a rich and powerful man, surrounded by lackeys who agreed with him all the time, and with only a younger sister who was in awe of him, there was no one to keep his pride in check.

In her own household, such pomposity would not have survived for five minutes. It would have been pricked before it had time to take root. But Mr Darcy, with no parents, and with a sister who was so much younger than him . . . Mr Darcy had no one to puncture his conceit.

‘We are none of us without fault,’ he said at last.

But he said it in such a way that it was clear he thought he did not have any faults, whatever he might say.

‘Then you, also, must have faults. Do you hope to correct them, and to be forgiven for them? Or do you perhaps think they are so insignificant that you do not need to correct them? Or perhaps you have such a low opinion of everyone else that you do not care if they are forgiven or not. Perhaps your own good opinion is sufficient for you.’

‘You seem to have a very decided view of me on such a short acquaintance,’ he remarked in some agitation.

She was glad to have pierced his armour, even in a small way.

‘Sometimes, a short acquaintance is enough.’ Her thoughts went to her first sight of Mr Wickham, bowing over Georgiana’s hand. ‘I knew that Mr Wickham was not to be trusted the moment I set eyes on him. There was something abut his manner which was overly familiar, and when Miss Darcy tried to introduce him to me, he interrupted her and took the introduction into his own hands.’

‘So that he could give a good account of himself, no doubt.’

Elizabeth nodded.

‘He introduced himself as a friend of the family,’ she said.

‘Whereas he is nothing of the kind. I thought only of Georgiana’s health and happiness when I sent her to Ramsgate. I did not know Wickham would follow her here!’

‘No, and you would never have known, if I had not advised your sister to tell you about it in her next letter.’

‘
You
advised her to tell me?’ he asked in surprise.

‘Yes. I had no right to tell her what to do, and so I could not tell her to forbid him the house, but I was suspicious of his attentions and I was sure you would like to know that he was here. So I suggested she mention his presence in her next letter. I felt sure you would know what to do about it.’