Page 33 of He Taught Me to Hope (Darcy and the Young Knight’s Quest #1)

Thoughts of the men in her life drifted from one to the other and eventually tended towards Mr. Darcy.

He promised me he would always be there for me.

Were those just words? Even if he spoke in sincerity, what right have I to lay claim to those words after having rejected his offer of marriage in favour of another?

Though he did not know exactly what was afoot, Ben knew enough to know all was not right.

The smile he so treasured in his mother’s face, no longer shone in her eyes.

It had been that way for a while. He sensed his mother was quite disheartened.

Having children of his own age to play with was a novelty for young Ben.

Unlike the twins, he liked his cousins very much.

However, if his mother was not happy, then he was not happy; even though he tried his best to put on a cheerful face whenever he was in company, as did she.

Throughout each day, he would seek her out and endeavour to distract and amuse her from her steady perusal of the papers, as though she was in search of something. Though what that might be, he could not imagine.

“Are you happy, Mama?” Ben asked one day, as he brushed his tiny fingers along her face.

“Of course I am happy, Ben,” she began, setting the papers aside to welcome him into her lap. “I shall always be happy, as long as I have you.”

“But you do not seem very happy. You have not seemed happy since King Arthur left Camelot.”

“You mean to say, since Mr. Darcy left Kent?” Elizabeth corrected her son.

“Yes exactly. You know Mr. Darcy lives here in town, do you not?”

“Indeed, it is a fact that I can hardly contest, seeing as how you have chosen to remind me almost every day since our own arrival in town.”

“I miss him dreadfully. Surely, you must miss him as well,” he declared wistfully. “What say you to the two of us calling on him in the morning? ”

“Aside from the fact that it would be a grave impertinence for an unescorted single woman to call on a gentleman, I have no idea where he lives. I suspect his home is far, far away, way across the other part of town.”

Ben scurried down from his mother’s lap, “Wait here for a moment. I shall only be a short while.”

Soon enough, Ben returned to the study and handed his mother the card his friend had given him. Elizabeth took the card in hand and looked it over. She made a mental note of the illustrious address. “Where did you get this?”

“Mr. Darcy gave it to me. You see, Mama, we have an invitation to call on him. He will not view it as impertinence, for you will not be unescorted. I will escort you!”

Elizabeth handed the card back to her son. “I grant you Mr. Darcy was simply being kind, and he offered his card to you as a keepsake. It would be most inappropriate for either of us to call on Mr. Darcy, for reasons I fear you are too young to comprehend.”

Elizabeth suspected something was amiss, for the household was unusually quiet for that time of the day.

“Where is Ben?” began she. “I am surprised not to have seen him since breakfast. He is not with his cousins,” she informed her aunt, after having checked to find the other children in their rooms. “Would you happen to know of his whereabouts?”

“Did he not accompany you to the park?” Mrs. Gardiner asked, looking up from her mending. “When I did not find him with the other children earlier, I reckoned he must have been with you.”

“No, he did not join me on my walk. I, too, was of the mind he was enjoying himself with his young cousins, and I did not wish to interrupt.” The alarm that rang out in her voice was accompanied by a tightness in her chest. “My God, what if he has gone missing?”

“Lizzy, please calm down. He has to be around here somewhere. We shall find him,” her aunt beseeched .

After an hour or so of searching the house from top to bottom, every room, every nook and cranny, and then some of his favourite out-of-door spots, Elizabeth’s anxiety heightened.

Ben’s propensity to go off on his own while they resided at Longbourn Village had never been a matter of true concern, for he never ventured beyond the estate and was well-known enough that she was comfortable of his safety.

Even his habit of venturing as far as Rosings Park during their stay in Hunsford had been of no great concern.

It suddenly dawned on her that Ben had spoken of little else since learning they were coming to town than his desire to see Mr. Darcy.

Would he actually endeavour to discover Mr. Darcy on his own?

Now panic-stricken, the prospect of her young child, not yet six years of age wandering the streets of London alone, struck her as forcefully as a bolt of lightning.

The darkness that promised to blanket the sky did nothing to bring to mind notions of impropriety, or concerns for her own safety.

Without giving a thought to anything, other than her son out there alone and afraid, Elizabeth donned her coat and headed for the door.

She ran down the steps, and raced up the street, not bothering to stop and catch her breath until she had managed to hail a hackney coach.