Page 9 of London Holiday (Sweet Escapes Collection #2)
Chapter nine
“ I think the colonel’s advice to be sound, Mr Darcy.” The bespectacled little man of business gave the paper back into Darcy’s hands with a melancholy shake of his head. “I will, of course, issue any statement you please, but in my experience with these matters, I often find that the innocent party is harmed more greatly than his accuser. It is supposed that he speaks untruths in a vain attempt to ward off public scorn. Have you any proof at all, sir?”
Darcy emitted a long, silent growl, and shot his cousin a look which clearly swore damn you for being right . “The evidence you speak of does exist, but it may be difficult to procure. I intend rather to coerce a confession from my aunt, thereby clearing my character.”
The solicitor’s expression remained carefully neutral, but in his eyes flashed a condescending sympathy, almost pity, for Darcy’s obstinate simplicity. He risked a swift glance toward Fitzwilliam, then bent his greying head to scribble down some note. For his part, Fitzwilliam’s face was one of composed innocence, and he was studying the ceiling, the bookshelves, the casement—in short, everything but Darcy.
“Have you some different advice to offer?” Darcy asked, caring little who would answer.
Fitzwilliam held his hand toward the solicitor, who cleared his throat before speaking. “Mr Darcy, certainly you are aware of the repercussions….”
“The wording must be printed with care. I suggest only that we print a contradictory rumour, declaring the previous a mistake. I need not directly accuse my aunt of falsehood.”
“Come, Darcy, she will bring the matter to a point herself. You know our aunt—she will raise such pandemonium that you will be forced to either make your accusation public or withdraw your protest and capitulate. There is no saving face in this matter.”
“With all due respect, Mr Darcy, may I recommend preparing for just such an outcome?” the solicitor added his opinion. “It may not go as poorly as the colonel predicts….”
“And yet, it may,” sighed Darcy. “Very well. Have this sent to the papers to run in the morrow’s press, and I shall make what arrangements I am able. And post a letter to Mr Hodges and Mrs Reynolds at Pemberley, asking them to come to the London house at once to oversee the hiring of new staff.”
The solicitor bowed. “Of course, Mr Darcy.”
They departed the office together, Fitzwilliam whistling some crude battlefield tune and Darcy wishing his cousin on another continent. “Well, Darcy, are you for the house now to stare down the canon? I shall happily serve as your second if she chooses swords or pistols, but if it is to be a tongue lashing, I pray to beg off.”
Darcy sank into the cushion of his carriage with a sigh. “It must be done.”
“Aye, but only a fool arrives on the field without a weapon. Have you anything in your scabbard but your own sour temper?”
“You make me sound rather like an ogre. Do I not have every right to be offended by her actions? Shall I not insist on justice?”
Fitzwilliam stretched his Hessians across the carriage and lounged more comfortably in his seat. “In the First, we have a way of sorting the new recruits who will be shot first. It is always the rash, headstrong ones, indignant and fully assured of their right to justice. The clear-headed ones with a plan and some preparation tend to survive. ”
“I am not searching out the ‘plan’ of which you speak. I have already told you why that is impossible.”
“Well, I suppose it is your neck in the noose, after all.”
Darcy scowled in frustration and fell silent, staring out the window but still sensing Fitzwilliam’s laughing attentions on him. They rode on for several moments, with Darcy’s fingers drumming the cushion and Fitzwilliam’s toes tapping away to some cheerful tune of his own making.
At last, Darcy conceded. “Perhaps I shall search out this Mr Gardiner once more and learn what I can of his character.”
It seemed an eternity before the children’s nurse had all three of them properly bundled to set out for their airing. Had Elizabeth not already taken her constitutional, she might have begun to fret at the delay. The nurse appeared to consider it a slight against her abilities when Elizabeth offered to help, so she withdrew and bided her time with her sister. At last, she was informed that everyone was ready—the youngest in his pram and pushed by his nurse, the middle taking one of Elizabeth’s hands, and the eldest gaily twirling Cousin Elizabeth’s parasol.
“Where shall we go today?” she asked of them, ducking swiftly to avoid a terrible accident between the parasol and her bonnet. She hated the contraption and never used it at home, but in London, her aunt insisted, and she remembered it approximately half the time. It was but a small price to pay for the freedom of walking out, save when one of the children took charge of it.
Elizabeth gently reclaimed the item and asked her question again. “Do you prefer the fountain or the pond?”
Jenny, the younger, voiced her enthusiasm for the pond, but her elder sister Maddy had a special coin she wished to toss into the fountain. Thus, it was decided .
The children’s morning outing, it must be confessed, tended to be a far grander adventure when Cousin Elizabeth visited. This day being no exception, it was nearly two hours before the small party reversed their steps. The cranky toddler harassed his exhausted nurse in the fore, while Elizabeth with the two girls brought up the tail of their little procession. She was sauntering along merrily, humming a silly song to them, when one of them called her attention to something.
“‘Lisbeth, that man is staring at you.”
“I beg your pardon?” She turned about to identify the source of her cousin’s accusation. It was he , on the opposite side of the street, and looking as if he wished to cross over to her. “Oh! Not him again . Look away Maddy, he is not worth your trouble.”
“‘Lisbeth, he’s walking this way. I think he wants to talk to you.” Elizabeth ignored her cousin’s advice and walked on, head held high as if she had not heard.
He was not willing to permit such an easy escape. “Madam, a word, please, I beg you.”
Elizabeth sighed, drew a bracing breath, then turned to face him with her cousins’ small hands clasped within her own. Indeed, it was that same footman again, but this time he was attired rather lavishly, in a suit of clothes which might have accounted for half her father’s annual income. She arched an eyebrow. “I see that your circumstances have improved somewhat over the course of the morning.”
“Would that that were true,” he frowned. “I came to ask one more service of you, madam.”
There was a stirring to his left, and Elizabeth noted for the first time another man standing nearby. He also seemed to be dressed as a gentleman, though slightly more modestly. He may not have been so handsome as the footman, but he seemed to be surveying her with an open cheer which more than made up for any lack of symmetry to his features. Elizabeth gave a small curtsy in his direction, but as she was not properly introduced to the gentleman, it would be unladylike to speak to him. Somehow, it was less improper to speak to the ‘harmless’ footman whose bare feet she had seen, than to the pleasant-looking gentleman in his company.
She surveyed her ‘footman’ once more, wondering whom he had swindled and plundered to obtain such a vestment. “You do not appear to be in search of work any longer, and I presume you have been reunited with your…” she swept a significant glance toward the other man, “… employer . I am left to wonder what service I could possibly render you.”
He looked uncomfortable, fumbled with the silver handle of an extravagant walking stick in his hand, and spoke. “It is a simple matter of fact verification, madam. I have found it necessary to speak to the master of the house where I lodged last evening so that my whereabouts might be ascertained by one who holds an interest in the matter.”
Elizabeth glanced to the other gentleman again, but his carefully neutral expression revealed nothing. The taller man continued.
“Unfortunately, I have just learned that the master of the house is not at home, nor would any inform me of his whereabouts.”
“And therefore,” she supplemented, “you find it preferable to accost a lady and two children on the street in your search for information regarding him?”
“That is not precisely… I intend no offence, madam. But as you have placed it so bluntly; yes, I would wish to speak to Mr Gardiner, and I must do so urgently. May I trouble you for the information as to where he is to be found?”
Elizabeth began to grow suspicious. “If you will answer the question for me.”
He looked baffled. “Which question?”
“Why you are so determined to seek him instantly that you could not wait an hour or two, as an honest man would. And why a discharged footman—if you are indeed of such an honourable profession—should dare to continue asking after a man of good standing when he has no justifiable cause to be favourably received.”
At the word “footman,” the other gentleman appeared to snicker. Elizabeth shifted her eyes to him curiously, and he seemed to recover himself. “I beg your pardon, madam, for we have not been introduced.”
“I fear we are destined to remain strangers, then,” Elizabeth dipped her head courteously. “For there is none present to perform the office, and I am in the company of my young cousins. I am afraid, sirs, I must bid you a good day.” She turned her back with a serene smile, but all the while she could virtually feel that insolent glare following after her. It was the most satisfying thrill she had known all day.
He permitted her to escape for but a moment, and Elizabeth heard what sounded like muffled whispers exchanged between the two men. A throat cleared, and long heavy steps sounded behind her.
She turned again, causing him to draw up prematurely when he found himself almost upon her without warning. “May I ask what is so urgent? Your persistent reappearances and your sudden alteration in wardrobe do, you must know, seem suspicious. Are you a man to be trusted?”
“I am among the most trustworthy, I assure you.”
“Are you? I first encounter you under the influence of some intoxicant, staggering alone on the streets at night. In the morning you insult me, take off your shoes in public, and follow me everywhere I turn. Now I see that you are dressed in… excuse me… borrowed clothing, and have accumulated a sort of hanger-on. I am left to presume that you are some manner of fraud.”
His eyes widened in indignation. “Fraud! Madam, do you know to whom you speak?”
“That is precisely the problem, is it not? Perhaps I shall assume that you are in the company of your employer, who for some reason permits you to callously insult a lady on a public street. In that case, I do not wish to be introduced to him any more than I wish to know by which address one should call his hired man. Good day.” Elizabeth turned to walk away again, but this time she was stopped by a loud roar of laughter from the second gentleman.
“Oh! I must breach all rules of etiquette, madam, for you are a marvel, and well worth knowing better. I beg to be permitted to introduce myself to you. Colonel Fitzwilliam, at your service, and this rather gruff fellow here means no offence, I am sure.”
Elizabeth dipped her head. “Colonel Fitzwilliam. I have heard your name before.” She shifted a knowing smile to the other, then turned to her young cousin. “Now, Jenny, you must listen very carefully to me. Maddy, you as well. This gentleman here has quite seriously broken all protocol and brazenly introduced himself to me, without a proper escort or friend at hand to make the introduction as it should be done. A well-bred lady never listens, nor responds to such an audacious gentleman.
“It would be most discourteous of me to respond in kind with my name, which, as you know, is Elizabeth Bennet. It would be even more foolish and uncouth to remain standing here and accidentally continue the conversation with such a careless gentleman. He will no doubt ask my destination upon this walk, which is not my uncle’s warehouse on High Street, but your house on Gracechurch, for so long as I remain before returning to Hertfordshire, I desire to visit with my aunt and with you.
“And girls, there is one thing more which I must most seriously implore you to heed. No lady in her right mind would concede to the wishes of such a bold and foolish gentleman if he were to ask where her uncle was to be found later in the day, which I hope shall be escorting his family on a leisure outing to Vauxhall Gardens. He will, of course, bring his own manservant to accompany his family, so that we shall not be troubled by others seeking to take advantage of us .
“Such men do exist, you know. They may parade about in stolen finery and brandish their tin walking sticks so that a lady’s head is turned, but they are little more than snakes, my dear. A proper lady must learn the difference. There, now that we have spoken of etiquette for today, what do you think of seeing to some nice refreshment with Nurse? I see that she has already gone far ahead of us, and your brother is likely to have all the scones for himself if we do not make haste.”
The footman’s face had altered from mere impatience to affronted incredulity. His mouth had opened, his eyes had begun to spark, and that ridiculous fake walking stick twisted in his grip. Elizabeth graced him with one last little smile of victory and turned away.