Page 85 of The Cheapside Runners
“Now that the secret is out, I suppose I should admit that you were right all along.”
“Ever wonder if you ever would have sucked it up and returned to Meryton,” Gardiner asked curiously.
“I have given that a great deal of thought. I am convinced that our love story was nearly inevitable,” he said, then took a sip and chuckled. “Odds are, had I not encountered her at that ball, I would have returned to Meryton to find her missing, and I would be in your drawing room right now begging you to put me out of my misery.”
The men laughed a bit, and Gardiner finally said, “The colonel had the right of it. You do have it bad. Any idea howshehas it… not that it is any business of mine?”
“You do not feel the guardian’s need to poke and pry?”
“I did not say that. Ididpoke and pry, but—”
His pause was noticeable, but Darcy felt prodding him along would be counterproductive. Mr Gardiner was no Caroline Bingley (or Darcy) to be easily spurned into making a costly mistake.
Gardiner finally said, “I suppose Elizabeth has her honesty policy in place, so you should know. She read a thirty-page report on you before your sister started the school. She knows a great deal more about your life than you know about hers.”
“I suppose you must have commissioned that about the time I returned to Cheapside?”
“I did.”
Darcy was not particularly distressed about it. He imagined there were dozens or hundreds of big reports about him lying all over London. Elizabeth had not mentioned it, but that was not surprising. Even for someone as brave as her, it was not an easy topic of conversation.
Gardiner said, “I shall save you the trouble of telling her you know, since it was all my doing.”
“There is no need. We have been surprisingly easy about sharing intimate details.”
“So, your courtship is progressing, how?” Gardiner asked, more out of curiosity than concern.
“It depends on where you set the beginning. If you start at the failed dinner engagement, it is inching along like a worm. If you start when I asked for a courtship, it proceeds at breakneck speed.”
“Many things in life are like that… slow and then fast. Think about stepping off a cliff. The first dozen yards are relatively peaceful, but the last dozen, far less so.”
They all laughed at possibly the worst analogy in history, which was saying something for a bunch of lunkheaded men.
“My business was like that,” Gardiner said pensively. “WhenLizzy came to me, I was just barely keeping my head above water. I had the idea but lacked contacts.”
“What happened?” Darcy asked curiously. He had always been fascinated by self-made men (or women, though they were harder to find). He was born the heir to centuries of tradition. Nothing he ever did in his life could compare because even if he made a new business from scratch, he would always have the backing of Pemberley.
“A lot of things, really. In business, as in much of life, success builds on success—though the converse is true for failure. I had a couple of clients of limited prosperity when Lizzy came. They were sufficiently wealthy to make tempting targets for the Wickhams of the world, but not enough to make me wealthy. Most thought my service was worth about the same as a couple of footmen, and you well know they are a penny a pound.”
“I can see that. I would not have engaged you at that point.”
“True, but when I saved your sister’s life and £30,000, I suppose you became a supporter?”
“Naturally.”
“Well, that is how it worked. Lizzybeggedme to allow her to earn her keep, so I had her act as a sort of companion. She had to disguise herself as a friend. When she could not get into some functions, she invented the servant’s disguise. I can assure you there is nothing more invisible in this world than a plain looking servant in livery. She was like a ghost.”
“I see.”
“The first time she clearly and unambiguously saved a girl from a rather nasty compromise attempt, things started looking up. We got more and better clients, she refined her disguise, she eventually started her school, and it just built from there. The two support each other now. I feed her school clients, and she makes my job far easier.”
“I salute you, sir,” the colonel replied jovially.
~~~~~
Gardiner turned his attention to the colonel. “I am curious. Are you to return to the continent?”
“I must if I want to make general, and I need that to avoid starving in the gutter when I retire. They make about three times what I do.”
