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“I was missing you, William,” she said seductively.

“How much longer is required to respond to your correspondence?” she asked as she gave him an inviting look.

Her husband stood and put his head out of his study door instructing the footman on duty to make sure that unless it were a life-or-death emergency no one was to disturb them.

He then locked the door and turned to his beautiful duchess.

“How I love you,” he growled as he became fully aroused, “I think that it is time we discovered how strong my desk is, my Lizzy.” Darcy swept his arm across his desk pushing his papers to one side.

Luckily his ink pot was not sent flying, and he moved it to a shelf then took his wife in his arms and perched her on the edge.

“Love me, William!” she instructed, and her husband complied with relish.

~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~

Lord James Bennet sat in the coach with his parents and younger sisters, his eyes closed as the largest and most comfortable of the Hertfordshire carriages bore them south toward Meryton.

He was a very happy young man as he had learnt that a year would be cut off his waiting time to declare himself to the woman that he loved above all others; the only one he had ever had tender feelings for as a man does a woman, Lady Georgiana Darcy.

He remembered with pleasure their conversation in the drawing room at Pemberley which still filled him with joy.

“Mama,” Georgiana said, “Mary, Kitty, and I have been talking.”

“This cannot be good,” Lizzy teased.

“What is it, Sweetling?” Lady Anne asked.

“As you know, Mary and Kitty turned eighteen in March of this year.” Lady Anne nodded that she did. “Loretta will be the same age in August, and they had planned to have their come out together during the little season.”

“Yes, we know all of this,” her mother stated, “pray tell me what are you getting at, Georgie?”

“As I will be seventeen in November, would you, William, and Richard allow me to have my come out in the season of 1813?” Fearing that her courage may fail her with all eyes on her now, Georgiana proceeded at all speed. “Would you allow me to have my come out with Kitty, Mary, and Retta?”

“Mary and Kitty, you know that this will mean that your come out will be delayed by two to three months, do you not?” Lady Sarah asked her youngest offspring.

“We do, Mama,” Kitty responded. “Georgie asked us before Uncle Sed passed, and we discussed it with Retta, and the three of us decided to wait for Georgie so we could all come out together. Retta asked Aunt Priscilla, and she has no objection as long as everyone else agrees. We decided that before Uncle’s funeral was not a time to bring the request to you. ”

“Please Mama, William, Richard?” Georgiana requested, her blue eyes wide and beseeching as she looked at each in turn.

“Let us confer, Georgie,” her brother said kindly. The three had a quiet conversation where they agreed that with the maturity and self-confidence that Georgie now exhibited, and the vast changes to the positive in her, that there was no reason to make her wait an extra year.

“As long as Sarah and Priscilla agree, you have our permission, Georgie.” Lady Anne had barely got the words out when to belie her maturity she squealed like a schoolgirl and threw herself into her brother’s arms. Three very happy young girls departed to Georgiana’s sitting room to start making plans.

Darcy asked James to join him in the corner, having not missed the pleasure on his brother-in-law’s face when permission was granted to bring her come out forward by one year.

“None of us have missed the clear preference that you and Georgie have for one another, James,” Darcy said quietly.

“Richard, my mother, and I all agree that we want her to experience a season before anyone declares for her.” James nodded as he understood what his brother was saying and why.

“If at the end of her first season you both feel as you do now, then you may request a courtship from her, which I will consider after I have you and your family investigated to make sure that you would be appropriate and deserving of my sister!” Darcy joked, producing a huge grin from James.

They shook hands as the restriction was understood and accepted.

James again smiled to himself. In less than a year he would be allowed to request a courtship. He would use the time to learn all of his present and future duties, and prepare Netherfield for the woman that he prayed would be its mistress in the not too far distant future.

~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~

The courier had slowed per his Grace’s instruction, spending the night at an Inn about halfway between Pemberley and Liverpool thus he arrived early in the morning the following day, having left the inn before sunup.

As soon as he dismounted, he handed the pouch containing his Grace’s instructions to Mr. Wrightfield.

After reading the Duke’s instructions, the manager made his way to one of the line’s ships that was to sail for Dublin with the tide.

He handed the packet of missives to the captain with expressed instructions to get them into the hands of Captain Beauclerk on the Coastal Trader as she was set to depart Dublin the day after the Wander docked.

Wrightfield noted the urgency in the missives that went both directions and remembered well his instruction to make sure that young Tony was sent to his Grace post haste.

Were he a truly compassionate man he would feel sorry for those who had attempted to hurt the Duke’s daughter, but his compassion was reserved for those who led a life without crime.

These particular individuals had no idea what was going to befall them at some point in the not-too-distant future, and he would be glad to assist in any way that was asked.

~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~

The three cohorts were sitting around a table at the Happy Leprechaun in Bundoran. Johanna álvarez was maintaining her facade as the ‘grieving mother’ while in company with others.

“Why must we wait longer, Clay?” Karen Younge whined with her oft repeated complaint.

“We ‘ave bin ‘ere for jus longer than a month, we need to be patient sister,” he said with no small amount of exasperation. “I knows that you want to avenge your ‘dear’ George, but if we depart too soon and are caught? Then what vengeance will you ‘ave?”

“Listen to your brother, Mrs. Younge,” Johanna soothed. As much as she disliked the woman and knew that she was as much a ‘Mrs.’ as Johanna was the Queen, she was needed. Possibly only as a diversion, but needed none the less.

“I suppose that you are right,” she said petulantly. “I just miss my dear…” Her brother and Johanna both ignored her speech as they had heard the same from her many times over.

‘ Oh, to see your face if you learned the truth ,’ Johanna thought to herself. ‘ I know, I will tell her right before I have her killed and tossed into the sea! ’ The thought of dispatching the delusional woman engendered warm feelings in Mrs. álvarez, ones that likened to happiness, even.

“Those three who were kicked off that ship have proved to be very useful,” Johanna opined as she changed the subject.

“They ‘ave,” Younge agreed, “Pity I have no room on my crew for them.

‘O knows, could be we will find a use for them anyway even if we’ll be cramped when we leave.

Them three would be very ‘andy with what we need to do.” He mused.

“From what me sister ‘as told us, the woman may ‘ave some large footmen with ‘er, and they’s would be able to get rid of them.” he said as if killing someone in his way was just a matter of course, again showing his lack of any decent feelings.

“So we will take her from the Prig’s estate in Derbyshire,” Karen Younge stated.

“That will accomplish two aims, we will have the whore, and the prig will be hurt. If my George could have been with us to witness our triumph, it would have filled him with pride.” Johanna turned her head and coughed so that the delusional woman would not see her roll her eyes at her ridiculous speech.

“Yes, as we have discussed many times,” Johanna responded, trying her best to keep the exasperation out of her voice, “that is the last place that they will expect the woman to be harmed. They are toffs and will be nice, soft targets thinking that they are safe in their homes.”

“You know this is best, sister,” Younge added. Karen Younge nodded her agreement, like she had every other time they had discussed their plans. She smiled as she thought of the pleasure that she would take when she slowly killed the woman that killed her George.

~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~

A few days later a company messenger delivered the packet of missives to Captain Beauclerk on the day before he was to set sail for his normal run along the Irish coast. He saw there was one letter for him and another one sealed and directed to ‘ Mrs. Johanna álvarez, the Happy Leprechaun, Bundoran .’ He broke the seal on the missive for himself and scanned to the signature, starting when he saw that it was from his Grace the Duke of Hertfordshire.

he quickly returned to the top of the missive to ensure he read it in the proper order in case there were tasks with dependencies.

23 June 1812

Pemberley, Derbyshire

Captain Beauclerk,

Your missive and the young Mr. álvarez are much appreciated. I laud you for the quick thinking in the way that you handled leaving three of Mr. Clements’s for surveillance.

From your report and what young Tony has told us, we have a good idea what the misanthropes are planning, but we do not want to leave anything to chance. To that end we ask the following:

You will notice that there is a letter addressed to Mrs. álvarez. Please have one of your officers take it to the inn after you dock in Bundoran and let it be known that you were handed the missive during your stop in Ballycastle and requested to deliver it.

Next, I am sure that Clements set up a way to communicate with his men.

We want our men to capture this McLamb and his two accomplices a day or two before your ship docks.

They are to be delivered, alive, in individual crates when the outgoing cargo is loaded.

They should be well drugged with laudanum so that they will not draw any attention or move around when they are brought on board.

My son-in-law, Lord Richard Fitzwilliam, would like to ‘talk’ to the men that murdered his man.

There will be no objection if they are not in perfect condition when they arrive.

They are to be ‘shipped’ to the former colonel’s estate, Brookfield, in Derbyshire in the custody of a contingent of guards to make sure that they do not have an opportunity to escape.

Please have me notified at my estate, Longbourn, in Hertfordshire, once they arrive in Liverpool.

My family and I wish to thank Mr. Tetley for his observation of the criminals’ ship. We also thank you and your crew members who are helping us in this matter.

Lord Thomas Bennet

Duke of Hertfordshire

The captain whistled. If the band of criminals did not deserve everything that was coming their way, then he did not know who would.

~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~

Lady Marie Fitzwilliam was beyond happy.

The previous day Dr. Granger had confirmed her state.

It had been a day of both joy and sorrow.

She and Andrew had said goodbye to the Bennets as they left for Longbourn, which had made Marie a little sad as it would be some months before she saw all of them again.

After the doctor examined her and confirmed her state, she was ecstatic.

She and Jane would birth their children within two to three months of each other and the cousins would all grow up near one another.

Once Lizzy and Amy were in the family way, the group of cousins would expand rapidly.

Marie and Jane could never keep secrets from one another, so when Marie told Andrew that she wanted to inform Jane, was in fact impatient to, she sat at her escritoire in her chambers and wrote her sister a note.

They would see each other at Pemberley in a week, but Marie wanted to send a footman that very day.

Once she had completed her missive, she descended the main stairs to request that Mr. Payton have a footman or groom take it to Brookfield and hand it to her sister.

Mayhap she was dreaming of her babe or sharing her joy with her sister, but she missed the eighth step from the bottom and tumbled down the remaining steps landing forcefully directly on her belly as the butler and footmen stood frozen in horror for a moment before they sprang into action.

A footman was dispatched to summon the master who was meeting with his steward and stablemaster in the stables.

Another was sent to inform Mr. Granger that his services were required urgently.

In a matter of minutes Andrew sprinted into the foyer where a chilling sight greeted him, his unconscious wife lying prostrate on her front, seemed to be bleeding from two places.

One where her head had hit the marble floor and a second from the area of her most private area.

Her husband was sure that Marie had just had a miscarriage, and he had no idea how he was going to break the news to her.