Page 57 of Till Death Us Do Part: Book 2
“It was not like me, but it was important. She came along willingly enough. I am not a beast, and I did not drag her there. I have thought about it a great deal, and I am convinced she was not afraid of me.”
“You or anyone else, as far as I can tell.”
Darcy laughed. “Yes! I believed at the time, and still do, that she was curious. She wanted to know what I would say, even if only to throw it back in my face. She wanted to hear my side of the story, so she went along reluctantly. I was holding her wrist, but otherwise at a perfectly proper distance when her mother started screaming. I fear I panicked. There is no other way to put it. I panicked. I was an inch from screaming like a frightened child. To be so careful, for so many years, and be trapped with such a simple trick.”
He thought silently for a while, staring at the floor, and finally said, “I believe I harmed her—bruised her wrist. Of course, I did not do so deliberately, but that hardly signifies when I outweigh her by five stone. Her mother’s voice hit me likecannon fire. It is loud and screechy at best, but she let it out loud enough to call the hounds from three estates away.She wanted a show!”
He paused a moment, fiddling with his teacup, and thought back to that encounter, trying to pull every reluctant detail from his admittedly fragmented memory. He wondered if his memory had always been spotty, or if part of the encounter had never come back from his fever.
“Mrs Bennet was like a gambler, down to her last shilling and willing to throw that and everything they own into one roll of the dice. I have no idea if she thought through what would go wrong if I just left and stayed away, as I did for a week, but shedidknow the entire debacle was nothing short of an attack on both me and her daughter.”
Longman leaned back. “In that situation, I suppose you panicked, and I would allow that any man might have done so, but—”
“You need not say it. I had a month to make things right. I had the ride from Meryton to Hatfield to make things right. I had all the time in the world to make things right. I could have listened to her when she tried to tell me. I am aware of just how badly I ruined this, but all the same, I would like to fix it if I can.”
“Some things cannot be fixed, but—” Longman replied, then he thought about it for a time, then continued, “as far as I can tell, nearly all marriages nearly come to blows from time to time. There was more than one instance in my early marriage where I thanked the fates that I am a groom and not a woodcutter,” he said with a smile to his wife, who chuckled along.
He looked back at Darcy. “You are married, son. You said the vows. Your wife also said hers.Till death us do partwas meant for just exactly this situation. You owe it toyourself, you owe it toher,to try to make this right.”
“I fully intend to, with my last breath if necessary, but I will not drag her back against her will. I will either convince her of my worth or set her free. I just want to talk to her, even if for only a few minutes.”
Mrs Longman was happy enough that the young man had come to his senses, that he was taking responsibility, and his heart seemed to be in the right place at last, so she was satisfied.
She reached over and squeezed his arm. “I suppose you need to go to London to find someone to help find her. There are men who do that sort of thing.”
“Eventually. I will try to find a good investigator, and of course there are the Bow Street Runners—but first I must visit Meryton. I hope against hope she is there. I remember she was very close to her sisters, especially the eldest. The family will probably not admit to it, even if they do know where she is, but I hope one of them will be willing to send her a note. It is my only real hope at the moment.”
Longman said, “She never mentioned sisters, or anything about her family for that matter, but I never read too much into it. She had other things to talk about, and discussing her family with a groom would be unusual.”
“Jennings says she never received any letters. She told the postmaster to not even bother sending anything from Hertfordshire,” Darcy replied glumly. “I wonder if that was because she felt she could not afford the postage, or because she had had a falling out with her family. She would certainly have been angry with her mother, if nobody else, and she seemed entirely prepared to take her father to task before the wedding. Lack of funds for postage would explain cutting the post down to an absolute minimum, while a break in the family would be more likely to explain cutting it to nothing.”
Longman just shrugged, no closer to understanding than his friend was. Darcy did not expect a warm welcome at Longbourn, but it had to be done.
Mrs Longman asked, “When do the two of you leave?”
“If we leave before lunch, we could be to Meryton the day after tomorrow,” Longman suggested.
Darcy did not argue. Longman was as good a companion as he could ask for. He was stablemaster for all Darcy properties, so travelling to London, or on trips to sell, purchase, or lease horses was commonplace. There were places where Richard or Bingley was better because they could get into the drawing rooms and parlours, but other places where Longman was better because he could dig into the servant classes. For that moment, Richard was occupied, and Bingley was probably tearing his hair out, so Darcy decided it would be just the two of them until they learned more.
Longman got up from the table and gave his wife an affectionate kiss on the cheek.
“I will make you something to stave off hunger. If you do not mind my saying so, you need to build your strength back. You seem about half-recovered at best.”
Darcy chuckled. “Yes, ma’am. I will not pretend I am up for two days on horseback, much as I would like to be. We will take the carriage and our horses, and I will try to ride two hours at a time until I get back up to scratch.”
Mrs Longman nodded and bustled off to the kitchen to prepare a basket. She knew they could buy anything they wanted along the way, except no amount of money would buy them one of her meat pies or pastries, which were obviously superior.
Both men were in the carriage an hour later, with Omega and Hercules trailing behind.
They spent the first several hours strategizing, followed by stretches of riding for an hour or two. Darcy felt like he had beentrampled every time he came off a two-hour ride, but he knew it was the only way he would ever get back into some semblance of condition.
He found that, at least with the riding, at the end of the day, first at a nondescript inn halfway to Meryton, and second in Hatfield, he could fall into bed exhausted, which was something of an improvement over crying.
21.Longbourn
“Mr Darcy! Mr Darcy! Where’s Lizzy?”
Darcy halted Omega just inside the gates of Longbourn when he heard the rather loud questions from one of the younger Bennet sisters. He could not have named her on a bet and did not think he could have done so even before typhus.
