“They probably stopped in town for a rest. It is a long way to Scotland. It is not inconceivable that they left town unnoticed. They could be married already!”
Elizabeth sighed. In situations like this, the only decent thing to do was to flee north as quickly as possible and legitimise the union. It was a shame that Lydia had never seen reason.
What started as an outlandish idea soon became a solid plan. Elizabeth resolved that she would travel to London as soon as possible. In less serious circumstances, it would not be proper for her to join her father and uncle in their search. Now, though, she suspected such a course of action would pale in significance compared to what was about to befall them.
I shall take a servant with me, she thought. Not that it matters. This family is far past the point of maintaining a façade of decency. I must do anything in my power to find Lydia, before we are all cast into disgrace.
Chapter 3
Darcy worked hard to hide his shock. He reminded himself that he cared nothing for Miss Elizabeth Bennet. Whatever had befallen her family was unfortunate, but it was also none of his concern. Luckily for him, Bingley did an even poorer job of hiding his surprise, which distracted Caroline’s attention from Darcy.
“My goodness, Caroline,” Bingley gasped. “What has happened? Surely you are mistaken? Why, we have met that family many times. They are respectable.”
Caroline rolled her eyes. “Respectable? Dear brother, does your good nature know no bounds? Why, you must have noticed that the mother was thrilled by the prospect of tricking you into joining her family. I thought you had come to your senses about them!”
Bingley flushed, causing Darcy to wonder if his decision in late November still gave him pause. He hoped not.
“That is an unkind thing to say. Perhaps she is not the most discreet woman in the world, but she is kind and she welcomed me into her home with open arms.”
“Because she wanted your fortune,” Caroline cried, throwing her hands up. “My goodness, Charles, were you so blinded? How could you not see it? She saw you as an easy target and set about arranging a marriage to her daughter. It is lucky for all of us that you saw through it.”
“I did not—”
Darcy cut him off. Curiosity had gotten the better of him and he could no longer wait for the Bingleys to finish their squabbling in order to learn what had happened. He found himself hoping with all of his strength that it was one of the others and not Miss Elizabeth who had been disgraced.
“What disgrace has happened, Miss Bingley?”
She baulked, seemingly wrong-footed by the severity of his tone. Darcy did not care a jot. “I do not think—”
“I did not ask for your opinion,” he said, calm despite his growing fury. “I asked you what you had heard. Now, you must tell me or I shall have no choice but to ask you to leave my house at once.”
“Darcy!” Bingley gasped.
“I simply wish to ascertain the truth of the matter, Bingley.”
Bingley shrugged. “As do I.”
Caroline recovered her composure and smiled. “Ah, Darcy. I had forgotten your soft spot for that fine-eyed young lady.”
He pursed his lips.
“And how it displeases you to be teased!”
Darcy shifted in his seat. The impertinence of the woman! he thought.
He sighed, wringing his hands and refusing to prompt her again. Finally, Miss Bingley seemed to sense that he wasn’t going to play her game any longer.
She tittered. “I was only having a little fun. You must forgive me. You are rather serious, Darcy.”
He did not respond to this either. What could he say, after all? Darcy was wont to speak his mind; nothing more or less would do. And even he stopped short of voicing his opinion that Miss Bingley might have superior wealth and social standing, but she was half the lady Miss Elizabeth Bennet was.
“Oh, you are quite impossible,” Miss Bingley said, shaking her head. “Well, I must leave shortly. You are no fun at all. I shall tell you what I have learnt because I am not unkind. Miss Levine has it on good authority that one of the Bennet girls has run away with a young man!”
“Eloped, you mean?” Bingley asked.
Darcy tried to remain silent, mulling over the likelihood of this rumour being true. “Which sister was it?” he asked at last, no longer able to contain his curiosity.
Miss Bingley smirked. “The youngest one, I believe. Linda, I think her name was. Surely you remember her. A garrulous young thing, much too immature to be out. I said that to Louisa at the time, though I don’t know that we could have done anything about it. I blame the mother. So coarse. The poor dear girls never had a chance.”
It struck Darcy that Miss Bingley’s professed fondness for Miss Bennet had not been voiced once since their departure from Hertfordshire. It was almost as if it had been fabricated purely for the purpose of maintaining her brother’s favour and had disappeared just as quickly when it was no longer needed.
“And who is the gentleman?”
Miss Bingley shrugged, clearly disillusioned by their lack of enthusiasm. “I don’t know. Miss Levine wasn’t clear on that. A local lad from Hertfordshire, I presume.”
Darcy pursed his lips. “I am sure it shall be resolved. They were eloping for Scotland, I presume.”
Miss Bingley took the bait. He knew immediately that it was not good news: he could tell from the way her eyes lit up. “Well, it is not so much the fact that they have been sighted, but where they were seen! Miss Levine told me that the father and uncle were scouring London in an attempt to find them. Now, tell me this: would they have done that if the two were headed for Scotland?”
Darcy thought that they most certainly would not, but decency prevented him from agreeing. “Perhaps they have already married and they are in London to take care of other matters. Surely your friend is not so much of an intimate that she knows all the affairs of the uncle?”
“No, indeed,” Miss Bingley said. “But she heard from another friend who knows the Gardiners—that is the uncle’s family. According to Ginny Levine, the uncle had to postpone a trip he had planned because he was simply inundated with work. That was a little over a month ago. He has been detained in London ever since. Do you think a busy man like that would spend all his time in the less salubrious areas of town if he did not have a good reason?”
“Caroline!” Bingley interrupted. “How can you say such things?”
She shrugged. “I know it is a little indelicate, but I am simply repeating what I have heard. Oh, it is a terrible thing. It has been weeks now. I can only imagine the despair they are feeling. They shall be ruined in the eyes of society; disgraced. In fact, they probably already are given how far the story has spread by now. We all know that Miss Levine is incapable of keeping anything to herself.” She sighed and rubbed her forehead as if it hurt her to think about it. “As much as I feel for those poor dears, my main feeling is relief. Relief that you came to your senses and distanced yourself from that unfortunate young woman, Charles. Imagine if you had not? That would be your family now! My goodness, I need to sit down.”
Chapter 4
“Lizzy, you mustn’t.”
Elizabeth shook her head. She had decided. There was nothing to be done except to climb into the carriage and go. She sighed as she checked her things had all been brought out.
“Look, it makes sense. At least this way, our carriage will be in London. Father and I can return together when we find them. With any luck, we’ll have Lydia with us too.”
She lingered in the doorway, staring back at the house. It was funny: she should have been leaving Longbourn full of joy, not with a heavy heart. She had been due to leave a few weeks before on a journey north with her aunt and uncle. The Gardiners had arrived from London on the day before they were due to depart. They had all been brimming with excitement. Even Jane, who was due to take care of her young cousins, brightened considerably once the new arrivals came to Longbourn.
An expr
ess arrived late that evening. Their plans had changed at once. The Gardiners had returned to London the following morning and taken Mr. Bennet with them. Elizabeth and Jane had been in a perpetual state of uncertainty since then and had heard little news from their father.
Elizabeth sighed. Her dash to London might have been made slightly more tolerable had she convinced Jane to join her, but she couldn’t do that to her sister. Jane was such a sweet soul, and Lizzy did not doubt that gossip would soon spread about her as she joined the hunt for Lydia. She saw no reason to heap that shame on Jane—she’d have enough sorrow when she realised that no respectable gentleman would wish to marry her, regardless of her lovely countenance and wonderful kindness.
It was the burden of this knowledge that made Lizzy uncharacteristically quiet around her beloved sister.
“It will be quite alright. I shall have Sarah with me and we shall go to Gracechurch-street at once. No trouble will befall me, and with any luck, I shall be able to help father and our dear, kind uncle.”
Jane shook her head. “I shall tell mother. You must not do this, Lizzy.”
But even her sweet sister was faltering.
“Do not breathe a word of it,” Elizabeth said, taking her sister’s face in her hands. “Please. You know it has the potential to destroy her and she has been weakened already by Lydia’s disappearance.”
“Elopement.”
“Yes,” Elizabeth said. “Elopement. Perhaps I can persuade father to focus our search in the north.”
“You believe me?”
Lizzy winced. She was loath to lie to Jane, but this was different. This was a kindness. “Yes. Now, remember what I said. Tell our sisters and mother that I am gone to Oxford to visit Amelia Warren. Nobody will question it: I know for a fact she has not kept up correspondence with anyone in Meryton and they all think her an impossible snob. It shall not get back to them that I never had any intention of going to Oxford. And if I am seen in London? Well, what of it? You can tell them that it is not unusual for the ladies of Meryton to visit London to dine and dance and be seen.”
“You have thought of everything, haven’t you?”
Lizzy tried to smile confidently; to put her sister at ease. She couldn’t help but feel nervous. She had no idea what was to come, and the thought of searching the streets of London for any trace of Lydia filled her with dread at what she might find.
“I hope so,” she said, glancing around. Their mother was in her room, not having stirred all morning. Kitty and Mary were hidden away upstairs too. When they first heard the news, Mary had taken to delivering solemn sermons to them, until Lizzy made it quite clear that she had no interest or patience for their younger sister’s moralising.
“Well,” Lizzy said. “I should go. I want to get there when it is still early.”
“Good luck, Lizzy.”
Elizabeth smiled. She didn’t say it aloud, but in her mind she knew she needed every ounce of luck she could get.
Chapter 5
Fitzwilliam Darcy cast down his pen in frustration. This matter was taking up far too much of his time, and he was impatient to return to Pemberley. He loved being home on his estate in Derbyshire, especially when his younger sister was in residence. But already he had been detained in London for weeks more than he had intended. He was not in a happy frame of mind.
Nor could he free his mind of Miss Elizabeth Bennet. It was astonishing, really. He was sufficiently well-versed in the nuances of society to know exactly what would happen to the Bennet family in light of the youngest daughter’s folly.
He shuddered. Perhaps it was the fact that he had recently saved his sister from the same fate that was making it difficult for him to think rationally. After all, he barely knew the Bennets, having only encountered them while he was at Netherfield the year before. Even then, his regard for them was rather low. He found the mother coarse; the father ineffectual. The younger girls were silly, and he had dwelt long enough on the older girl’s character: she was kind and good-natured, but did not appear to have particular depth of feeling for anyone else.
And then there was Elizabeth. Unlike the others, Darcy couldn’t describe how he felt about her. She was quite unlike any other woman he had ever met. Oh, he wasn’t a fool; not some hopeless romantic willing to ignore convention and marry an inferior woman…
He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Was he?
It was absurd.
It was intolerable.
What would his father have thought?
Darcy groaned. No matter how well he knew what he should do, he could not stop thinking about how unfair it was that a woman of Miss Elizabeth Bennet’s spirit and mind should have her chances at a good life curtailed by events outside of her control.
He clenched his hands into fists and tried to continue reviewing the draft agreement. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t think of anything but her. He saw her clearly, as if time had stood still and they were still in the drawing-room at Netherfield House. She was such a wonderful contrast to women like Miss Bingley. He smiled to himself, not worrying about his face betraying his thoughts for he was quite alone in the room. He knew it was just a foolish fantasy, but he allowed himself to indulge it for a moment. After all, if she had been inferior before, that was nothing compared to how unsuitable she was now. No respectable gentleman would ever marry a lady whose sister had debased herself in such a way.
And yet something niggled at the back of his mind; something that told him his own beloved sister could have suffered society’s wrath were it not for his own quick actions.
He sighed and leant back in his chair, resigned to the fact that he would not be able to concentrate on anything else, no matter how hard he tried to forget Miss Elizabeth’s troubles.
Chapter 6
Elizabeth expected surprise when she arrived at her uncle’s house, but not the outright shock on her relations’ faces when she arrived at Gracechurch-street.
“Please,” she said, addressing them calmly. “Do not chastise me for coming. I have simply done what is right. I could no longer stand it. I must help you in any way I can. I know we all hold out hope that they have gone to Scotland, but the reality is…”
The sight of her father’s face made the words evaporate from her lips. His face had fallen; his usually gay eyes had none of their normal mischief. He had aged ten years in just a few short weeks.
“Father?” she whispered.
“You are right. They have not gone to Scotland, that much I am sure of. In terms of where they have gone, well I am afraid we are none the wiser.”
Lizzy frowned. “There has been no sign of them?”
He sighed. “There have been some sightings. We were confident at first, but we have followed every lead without success.”
“What do you mean?”
Her uncle groaned. “It seems your sister has many lookalikes in London. We have had people swear that they saw a couple matching their description in St. Giles. In Spitalfields. And just this morning in Clerkenwell. If these reports are to be believed, they are moving around London at an alarming rate.”
“I don’t understand. Shouldn’t we check all those places just in case?” Elizabeth asked, shrugging off her coat and joining them on the sofas. There was no time for pleasantries—none of them wanted to hear about her journey and she had no interest in describing it to them. They had not been expecting her, but disapproval of her actions seemed to have been superseded by the problem at hand. It made Elizabeth’s stomach coil with dread to think of it. She wished someone would just blurt out what they were thinking instead of pretending everything was fine. The last few weeks had been torture: she could not stand it any longer.
They all looked at each other, clearly none wishing to dishearten the others. Finally, her uncle cleared his throat.
“We have tried. I have combed every inch of Spitalfields with your father, but to no avail. We have concentrated our efforts in St. Giles now: a close associate of mine received
word that a young couple matching their descriptions has been seen in that area on a number of occasions.”
Lizzy leapt to her feet again, suddenly energised despite her long journey. “You’ve found them? What are we waiting for? We must go at once!”
“Oh, Lizzy,” her aunt said, shaking her head. “I got my hopes up just like you have now. They were seen there. But… Oh, tell her, Edward.”
Her uncle rubbed his eyes. It was clear that this affair was taking its toll on him too. “It was a trusted source who gave me the tip about Clerkenwell too. I do not know what to believe anymore.”
“But it narrows the area we need to search, surely!” Elizabeth cried, pacing the floor. “Let us go. Please. I am not tired. I shall spend all night searching if I must.”
A look passed between the other three; a certain weary, jaded look. Elizabeth looked from one to the other of them before she finally understood. They, too, must have gone through those very stages of hopefulness as she was experiencing now.
As if to confirm her realisation, her uncle nodded. “I can’t tell you how many evenings we spent, certain that that would be the occasion on which we found her.”
“Lizzy, dear,” her aunt said, taking her hands and shooting a quick look to the two gentlemen, who immediately stood and moved to the window. Mrs. Gardiner continued in a whisper. “I would not say this to your sisters, but you are a practical young woman. We do not know where they stay, but there are certain assumptions we must draw from the very fact of them remaining in London.”
Elizabeth’s heart plummeted. She had thought of this very thing herself, but thinking it was nothing compared to having someone else say those dreadful words aloud. She squeezed her eyes closed. “What hope is there for her, in that case? She does not have a penny to her name. If they have not married, we must suppose that… that…” she could not say it.
Mr Darcy to the Rescue: A Pride and Prejudice Regency Variation Page 2
