Page 80 of One Night with Mr. Darcy
“Swimming, swimming, swimming!” said Willie. He didn’t always repeat his words anymore. In fact, it was much more rare that he would do so. The fact that he was meant that he must know that something was awry. He had sensed his mother’s tension about the day.
“Yes, darling,” said Elizabeth. “We are going swimming. You will swim only for a short time, though, and then you will go with Charlotte, who will take you to Richard, yes? As we talked about?”
Willie nodded, smiling brightly at her. “It’s a game.”
“Just a game, my sweet boy,” said Elizabeth, taking a deep breath. She caught the boy up in her arms, and then began wading into the lake.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
“WAIT, WHAT?” COLONELFitzwilliam made no move to take the wet and wriggling little boy who was being thrust into his arms.
“Oh, heavens, you have no idea what I’ve been through this day,” said Charlotte Lucas, glaring at him, eyes flashing. “I brought Mr. Collins out to see the lake, after I had ‘discovered’ Elizabeth out there attempting to drown them both. Then I sent him off for help. He will be back at any moment now, and you must take the child.”
“Where’s Elizabeth?” said the colonel.
Charlotte thrust the child against his chest. “Take him. You well know the financial arrangements that have been made for him and his new identity. You are his guardian now, executor of his estate, all of that. You made promises to her, now keep them.”
“Where is she?” said the colonel.
“She is in the lake, colonel,” said Charlotte.
“But…” Richard put his arms around the child, holding him against his chest. “She didn’t tell me this part of the plan. Charlotte, was her plan to drown herself?”
“Take the child, colonel,” said Charlotte. “I must get back and pull her out, mustn’t I?”
He slapped a hand against his forehead. “She wouldn’t. She would notdo awaywith herself. It’s not remotely like her.”
Charlotte swallowed. “I don’t think she shared the real plan, all of the plan, with anyone. I have no idea what she is planning to do with herself, now do I? I must getbackthere.”
“I need to help.” The colonel clutched Willie in his arms, but he lurched in the direction of the lake, away from the road where his carriage was waiting to take him and the child back to London. She hadn’t explained this, not at all. The idea was that Willie would be spirited off, he knew, and that Willie would become someone else, no longer William Collins II but William Forthsign, who owned a small estate and had a bank account full of money all funneled out of Rosings and into the boy’s new identity. Richard had helped with all of this, but he had thought… oh, he didn’t know… why hadn’t he thought of how she would accomplish this?
Obviously, for the boy to be able to get away, it made sense for no one to be looking for him. If Mr. Collins thought the boy was dead, for instance, that would stop anyone from seeking him out.
Elizabeth had faked her son’s death.
It was brilliant but horrible.
“You can’t help.” Charlotte’s voice was gentle. “If you come back with the boy, if Mr. Collins sees him, it was all for naught. You realize what she’s done, how hard she’s worked to put all this in place. Please go. You made her promises.”
“If I let her die, my cousin will never forgive me.”
“You will have rescued his son,” said Charlotte. “That will have to have counted for something.”
“She can’t be dead,” said the colonel.
“I don’t think it’s like her either,” said Charlotte. “But I am going over the plan, and it doesn’t make sense to me. She told me to pull her out of the lake and to pretend that she wasn’t breathing. But if I do that, Colonel, how does she get away? If she is only pretending to be dead, she is a body, and that body is evidence, and—I have to go back.”
“Go,” said the colonel, realizing—for the first time—that Charlotte Lucas was rather pretty. Maybe it took this situation to notice her, to see what she was made of. He chided himself. He had a wretched habit of schooling himself to ignore women entirely if they were not of the right consequence. He was likely missing all sorts of women out there…
Am I going to need to find a woman to help me raise Fitz’s son, since I am his guardian?
But no, Mr. Darcy would never allow that.
“Get her out of the lake,” said the colonel. “Don’t let her die.”
Charlotte nodded, furious and fierce. She picked up her skirts and dashed back off into the underbrush, back towards the lake.
The colonel looked down at Willie.
