Page 8 of A Maid of No Consequence (Pride and Prejudice Variation)

DISSATISFIED WITH THE WORLD

S heffield walked into Darcy’s study three days later and announced there was someone in the kitchen waiting to speak to the master. “A servant, sir. She works for Lord and Lady Pollard.”

Elizabeth!

Almost before the butler could finish, Darcy was out the door and striding towards the kitchen.

Alas, rather than finding the lady he anticipated, a thin girl with hair the colour of straw sat at the table, a cup of tea in her hand.

When she looked up at Darcy, he could see the distress in her eyes.

She stood up so quickly, she almost spilled her tea.

“Oh, sir, Mr Darcy, sir!” Her eyes wide, hands shaking, she set her cup on the table.

Cook approached, wiping a few drops of spilled tea with her apron. “Mr Darcy, sir, this is Sarah. She works at?—”

“Yes, I know. Did Elizabeth send you?”

Sarah reached into her apron pocket and pulled out a card. “Is this yours, sir?”

Darcy took the card and nodded. “What has happened?”

“She’s gone, sir.”

“What do you mean, gone?”

“The lady of the house was screaming at Eliza and then she started pulling her by the hair. She put her out of the house and said she is not wanted back. And sir, I don’t know where she is!”

The girl began to cry. Darcy pulled out his handkerchief and handed it to her.

Through hiccupping sobs, Sarah continued. “She’s my only friend, sir. Please, can you find her? She has nothing, no clothes or coin—nothing! Your card was in her book by the bed and I thought, maybe you are a friend, and maybe you would help?”

“You did the right thing coming to me,” Darcy told the girl, pulling out coins from his pocket and handing them to her. Glancing at the cook, he said, “Please give her a warm meal, Mrs Hodge, and whatever else she needs.”

Turning back to Sarah, he enquired, “Are you safe at Pollard House?”

The girl hesitated before nodding. “Yes sir. Reggie is there, and he makes sure I am.”

“Good,” Darcy replied, and then in a gentle tone, added, “I appreciate your bravery in coming to find me. If you at any time, feel unsafe, in any way, you are to come here. If you hear anything, anything at all, about Elizabeth, please come, or send word.”

“Yes sir, thank you, sir.” She wiped at her eyes. “Please sir, just find her. She’s my only friend. ”

“She is my friend too, Sarah.”

His cousin quickly heeded Darcy’s summons, arriving within the hour. Darcy was in his study, his mood as dark as the rug he was pacing, when Fitzwilliam entered. Shutting the door firmly behind him, he asked, “Do you have any idea where she might have gone?”

Darcy shook his head in frustration. “She has no money, no extra clothes, no food?—”

“Any chance she left London?”

“No, she is here somewhere. I feel it.” He stopped pacing and closed his eyes. “Her world here is small. She walks, she posts letters... Otherwise I do not know.”

He turned to his cousin. “I scarcely have had time to discover what has happened with her in the past five years. We have had precious little time together to learn about her life and become reacquainted.”

“Then think further back in your conversations you had with her at Netherfield, or Rosings. Surely there was something, some family or connexion?—”

Darcy crossed his arms and thought back to things Elizabeth had said to him, people and places she might have mentioned. “Yes, she has family in town. Greene, perhaps? No—it was Gardiner. In trade, in Cheapside.”

Fitzwilliam clapped him on the shoulder. “Let us go find them.”

Darcy stilled, sobering as he recalled a more recent conversation.

“What is it?”

“We will not find them,” he said, sighing. “I believe they are the aunt and uncle who died in the same accident as her parents.”

They were both silent for a minute until Fitzwilliam said, “There must still be some connexion to them if we can only find their residence.”

Again, Darcy searched his memory and came up with the name of the street Caroline Bingley had so scorned as the residence of Elizabeth’s relations.

“Gracechurch Street.”

“Do you think she will be there?”

“Yes, even if only because if she is not, I am out of ideas.”

Darcy did not send in his card, nor when they arrived at Gracechurch Street an hour later, did he walk up to the front door. Instead, he opened the gate and went down the stairs to the servants’ entrance, knocking firmly at the door as Fitzwilliam arrived hard on his heels.

A young maid peeked out, looking surprised to see two well-dressed gentlemen. “Yes, sir?”

“I am here to see Miss Elizabeth Bennet. Might she perhaps be on the premises?”

“There is no Elizabeth here, sir.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, sir.” And the girl began to close the door. Darcy, frustration mounting, put his foot in its path.

“Wait! I would have you?—”

“Mr Darcy?” Elizabeth’s voice came from within. The door opened further and she appeared, looking up at them wanly. “And the colonel. What do you do here? ”

Darcy could hardly contain the relief he felt on seeing her appear before them.

Without seeming ungentlemanly, he quickly observed Elizabeth for visible signs that she had been hurt.

Gratified that there were no fresh marks or bruises, he continued as calmly as he could.

It would do no good to respond in the manner his heart was urging him, by pulling her close and embracing her, never to let her go.

“We came to find you.” He could not help the earnestness in his voice.

“Your friend Sarah came to me and said you had gone missing.”

Elizabeth drew a breath and said, “As you see, I am here, and I am well.”

A much older woman with a large collection of keys attached to her person came to stand beside Elizabeth.

“Mr Darcy, I am Mrs Partridge. If you and the other gentleman would come in, sir.” She led them into the kitchen, where some of the servants were having tea, and offered to take their hats and gloves.

“My office is just through those doors.” She gestured to her left. “You are welcome to come in, so that we may sit.”

“Thank you. You are very kind.”

Once they were settled in the small room, Elizabeth spoke. “I am well and I thank you for coming. I am curious how you found me. Was it Sarah?”

“She has been worried.” He looked over to Mrs Partridge, unsure whether he should continue.

“Mrs Partridge knows of my situation, and she and Alice have been kind enough to provide me a place to stay temporarily.”

“It was nothing, dear.” She looked between Elizabeth and the two gentlemen. “I would do anything for Miss Bennet. I have known her since she was a wee girl.” There was true affection in her eyes.

Elizabeth reached over and pressed the housekeeper’s hand. “I am truly grateful. You see, Mrs Partridge, Alice, and a few other servants have remained with the house since its sale to its new owners. I am so grateful at their kindness for taking me in until I can find another position.”

“Why did you not come to Darcy House? I had specifically given you my direction.” Darcy could hear his own frustration in his voice.

“That may have been difficult, in her position,” Fitzwilliam suggested. “And yet, we are here because your friend, Sarah, saw Darcy’s calling card. So, in a roundabout way, Cousin, that was probably best.”

Elizabeth smiled softly at Fitzwilliam and then back to Darcy. “I did not mean to frighten anyone.”

“I am much relieved you are safe,” Darcy said. “We all are.”

“Can you tell us what happened?” Fitzwilliam asked. “We heard Lady Pollard had put you out after an altercation of sorts.”

“Lady Pollard has despised me from the day she realised I was working in her home. I had been hired by the earl as a governess, the same position I had held previously with another family, but when she discovered who had been hired, she persuaded his lordship that I was unfit for the position.”

“Unfit for your position?” Darcy felt a surge of anger on her behalf.

“I was not well-educated, as you know.” Elizabeth gave him a rueful smile.

“I had very little in the way of a proper lady’s accomplishments.

But I have done my best and helping children is a service I enjoy.

Lady Pollard disparaged my family and my lack of any formal education, and used it to persuade her husband that she was doing me a kindness in even allowing me to remain as a maid.

I was grateful at the time, for it had not been easy for me to secure a new position. ”

“You had a prior position?”

Elizabeth nodded. “I was governess with the Richmond family for four years, until the children no longer needed me. I began at Pollard House earlier this year. If I had been turned out of a good house in such a short time, my chances for finding another position would be difficult, especially as it neared the end of the Season.”

“A ‘good house’,” scoffed Fitzwilliam.

“Lady Pollard has a wide circle of acquaintances and threatened to tell each and all that I was caught stealing if I dared to leave and try to find a position elsewhere. I knew I was trapped but I found that if I stayed out of her way, I could manage the work. What has been the most difficult, however, has been her quick temper.”