Page 24 of Saving Jane
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“Miss Bennet, what has occurred? I saw the lady approach you and my footman. Are you well?” he asked most solicitously.
“I am well sir, but I am perplexed,” she said before handing the letter to him. She saw his face turn dark when he read the direction.
Glancing at the footman, Darcy ordered, “Tell me all that you heard and saw.”
“Sir, I helped the young lady from the carriage, folded up the step and closed the door. Immediately when I heardthe woman’s voice behind me, I stepped forward to separate her from Miss Darcy’s visitor.”
“What did she say?” he asked the footman who swallowed hard.
“Mr Darcy, the lady was wearing full mourning with a heavy veil. I did not pay her any attention.”
Elizabeth looked at the footman and said, “Your man was most quick to come to my aid and I am unharmed. It would have been improper to approach someone in deep mourning in any case.”
“Sir,” the footman spoke up. “I thought that I recognized the woman’s voice–it sounded like Mrs Young who used to be with Miss Darcy.”
Now Darcy asked Elizabeth, “Miss Bennet, what did the woman say to you?”
“May we go inside first Mr Darcy?” Elizabeth asked. “The air is cold.”
“Yes of course,” he replied and led the way into the house. As soon as the door was closed, he turned to Elizabeth again.
She considered carefully before answering his question. “The lady called out and thrust the letter in my hands. She begged me to ask you to help someone named ‘George’. She said that he had been falsely accused and would hang. She insisted that only you could help him.”
While Elizabeth was speaking, Darcy examined the letter, his scowl growing deeper as he focused on Wickham’s name on the paper.
“Thank you, Miss Bennet,” he said. “Please go to my sister and enjoy your visit. I shall review the letter and see if I can make any determinations.”
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From her seat near the pianoforte, Miss Annesley asked, “Miss Bennet, will you tell us what distracts you so this afternoon?” Hearing her companion’s question, Georgiana stopped playing and looked up from keyboard.
Twisting around to face her hostess and the lady’s companion, Elizabeth sighed and explained. “Something very unusual happened in front of Darcy House when I arrived this afternoon.”
“Please tell us,” Georgiana asked, now curious.
“When I stepped from the carriage, a woman dressed in mourning approached me and gave me a letter she wanted me to pass along to Mr Darcy. She said that someone named ‘George’ was going to be hanged if Mr Darcy did not assist him.”
“What was her appearance? Her face?” asked Georgiana.
Elizabeth shook her head. “She wore a heavy mourning veil. I could only truly tell it was a woman by the tone of her voice.”
The door to the music room opened and Mr Darcy came in, the letter in his hand. Behind him in the hallway, Elizabeth noticed that the butler and housekeeper waited in attendance. Mr Darcy left the door open, an unusual occurrence in the house where the family highly prized their privacy.
“Brother, you are early. We shall not have tea for another half-hour,” Georgiana said, rising and approaching Mr Darcy to embrace him. Mrs Annesley and Elizabeth rose to curtsey.
“Forgive the intrusion sister, ladies, but I must speak with Miss Bennet about the lady outside the house this morning.”
“Elizabeth had just informed us of the meeting,” Georgiana informed her brother. “She does not gossip but Mrs Annesley recognized her spirits were not very high and asked her to tell us of her troubles.”
“I am sorry Georgiana,” Elizabeth apologised. “It was just so sudden and unusual. I do not know what to make of it.”
“Miss Bennet, did the woman call you by name?”
Elizabeth slowly nodded and watched Mr Darcy’s face grow sombre before he turned to his sister.
“Georgiana, this is very important. Think back to when Mrs Young was with us. Which maids or footmen did she befriend? Was there anyone she talked with regularly among the servants?”
