Page 12 of Lord Lonbourn’s Daughter

Darcy pounded on the door.

“Open up!”

He was too exhausted to think clearly, or he would not have shouted on the street.

It was a good thing that all sensible people were still abed; not even the servants had awakened yet.

He gave the oak door another round of pounding until he almost fell into the entrance hall when the door finally opened.

The sleepy butler admitting him looked decidedly perturbed by his untimely intrusion.

“I need to speak to Lord Longbourn forthwith.”

“His lordship is sleeping, Mr Darcy,” the importuned butler had the nerve to inform him.

“Wake him up. Now!”

The butler stared wide-eyed at him. He should not have shouted.

“Look, it is of the utmost urgency that I speak to Lord Longbourn on a matter that cannot be delayed. He will thank me for waking him when I relate the matter to him.”

The butler nodded, shuffled his feet towards the stairs, and disappeared. Darcy pulled off his hat and ran his hand through his sweat-soaked hair, wondering when he would have time for a bath. It might be days. Who cared about that when Georgiana was missing?

Rapid descending footsteps reverberated through the entrance hall.

That was quick. The earl must be a light sleeper.

Darcy looked up, but it was not the Earl of Longbourn whom he espied on the stairs but his daughters.

Lady Elizabeth led the trio with a candle in her hand.

She was dressed in a robe with her hair hanging in a thick braid over her shoulder.

She took one look at him and gestured for him to follow her into her father’s study. Good heavens, her feet are bare! Her sisters remained fixed on the staircase, looking at him with anxious expressions.

“May I fetch you a tumbler of brandy?” Lady Elizabeth offered.

He nodded, trying not to look at her, but she was making it difficult to uphold gentlemanly behaviour.

She poured a generous amount and handed it to him.

“I shall bring you something to eat when my father arrives,” she promised.

“There is no need, Lady Elizabeth. I am perfectly comfortable.”

She appraised his person but made no comment.

“What is all this noise in the middle of the night?” Lord Longbourn’s voice boomed from the passage, and his daughter hastened to meet him.

“It is Mr Darcy who has come to see you on an urgent matter. His appearance suggests he has been riding all night…”

“Damnation, what could be the matter? Well, off to bed, girls. I shall inform you at a godlier hour when I know what is amiss. There is no need for all of us to be up all night. Shoo.”

Lord Longbourn entered the study similarly attired to Lady Elizabeth, who busied herself with lighting the candles.

The earl’s directive to return to bed did not seem to apply to his second daughter.

She halted to pour her father a tumbler of brandy before she hastened out of the study.

Lord Longbourn wasted not a moment to enquire what was afoot.

“What brings you here at this ungodly hour, Mr Darcy? Looking unusually haggard if I may say so.”

“I went to Ramsgate yesterday,” Darcy imparted before the earl could interrupt him.

“You have been back and forth to the Kent coast? No wonder you look the worse for wear.”

Darcy handed the earl the note he had found in the parlour at Ramsgate. He could see when the information sunk in as his lordship’s hands begun trembling in indignation.

“Bloody hell!” Lord Longbourn bellowed.

“My thoughts exactly,” Darcy confirmed.

“What has been done?” his lordship enquired.

Darcy gave Lord Longbourn a swift narrative of what he had accomplished in Ramsgate, ending his account with the description of the men, enquiring whether any of them sounded familiar to the earl.

His lordship replied dryly that he spent very little time in the seedier parts of town.

The descriptions of the malefactors fitted every brewer or blacksmith that had ever lived but none of his footmen nor driver.

Darcy had his suspicions about the Midlander, but it was too soon to draw any conclusions.

“The handwriting has a feminine touch, which might prove to be important,” Lord Longbourn contemplated whilst studying the note on his desk.

Lady Elizabeth returned with a tray of bread, cheese, and wine. She obviously harboured no qualms about venturing downstairs to the kitchen.

Darcy had told Lady Elizabeth there was no need to bring refreshments, but seeing the food, the ravenous gnawing of his stomach increased ten-fold. He could not remember when last he had eaten something.

“You cannot entertain our guest dressed like that, Lizzy,” Lord Longbourn admonished.

“You are in your night-shirt and robe,” the lady reminded her father.

“I am a man, Lizzy!”

Darcy agreed there was definitely a difference. Not once had his eyes wandered in the direction of his lordship’s feet… Had he not been so exhausted, he would have laughed aloud at that thought. Lady Elizabeth’s reply sobered his mirth like a bucket of icy water had been poured over his head.

“I am the dowdy one, remember.”

The lady’s musical laugh did not appease him this time.

“So, I doubt my reputation is in any danger. If Mr Darcy disclosed my poor manners, he would have to marry me. I am convinced my appalling attire will never be mentioned outside this room.”

She put a plate of victuals in front of him.

Her braid grazed his shoulder, and had not the circumstances been so dire he might have disgraced himself.

As it was, his good regulation was hanging by a thread until he noticed her trembling hands.

She gave no other outward appearance of distress but for her lips being somewhat taut and her eyes suspiciously misty.

Lady Elizabeth continued by performing the same service for her father, gasping as she lay her eyes on the note before him. She snatched it up before the earl had the wherewithal to conceal it.

“Merciful heaven! Can anything be done? Are they lost forever?” she whispered while her chin trembled and tears rolled down her cheeks.

“Now, now, Lizzy. Allow me to take that note before you destroy the evidence.”

Lord Longbourn took the piece of paper that was being crumpled in his daughter’s fist.

“Our situation is not hopeless. We must simply wait for instructions. I surmise we shall have to pay a substantial sum of money, and the girls will not be worth much if they have been harmed. Their abductors know that. They will not squander their assets by injuring the girls in any way. Do you understand what I am trying to tell you, Lizzy?”

“I think so…” Lady Elizabeth reluctantly allowed herself to be placated.

“The abductors took Mrs Younge with them to chaperon the girls, which suggests that we are not dealing with ruthless criminals.”

To praise the kidnappers left a foul taste in Darcy’s mouth, but he could not bear to see Lady Elizabeth so distraught.

“That is a comfort to know. What do we do next?”

“We wait, Lizzy. I am sure some form of communication will be forwarded when rumours reach them that Mr Darcy is back in town.”

“You cannot mean to sit idle and just wait, Papa! Surely there must be something that can be done?” she implored.

“The letter clearly states that we cannot notify the runners. Please enlighten me as to what means you believe we have missed,” his lordship growled.

Darcy supposed he did not appreciate his daughter’s tone of voice nor the incredulous expression on her countenance.

“The note mentions the runners but nothing about family. My cousin Colonel Fitzwilliam shares my guardianship of Georgiana, and he has army connections all over England. I intend to implore him to begin a covert investigation. He can travel all over the country in his occupation without raising suspicion. Ramsgate is full of officers that might know something. The colonel could follow any leads he may encounter by himself or hire trustworthy soldiers if the situation demands it. I must stay and wait, but he can go wherever he likes.”

“Excellent suggestion, Mr Darcy. Behind that imposing exterior of yours is a keen mind. Do you play chess?” Lord Longbourn quipped.

“Certainly.”

“When all this is over, I would like to challenge you to a game,” Lord Longbourn suggested.

Darcy nodded his acquiescence, the lack of sleep rendering him mute.

“You should go and inform your sisters, Lizzy. I am sure you will relate the disturbing news with more delicacy than I could muster.”

“Certainly, Papa.”

Darcy was appalled that the earl could heap the responsibility that rightly should be his onto Lady Elizabeth’s delicate shoulders. He knew they were delicate because her roomy nightgown had slipped off one of them.

“Let us summon your cousin,” Lord Longbourn suggested once his daughter had left.

Darcy sighed in exhaustion before he agreed. The half-hour wait until his cousin arrived was a struggle to keep awake.

Colonel Fitzwilliam oozed cold fury when he was apprised of the abductions in Lord Longbourn’s study.

“I am not too worried about my own daughters,” Longbourn admitted.

“It is obvious that Miss Darcy is the main target. Kitty and Lydia were unfortunate—being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Your sister’s fortune of thirty thousand pounds exceeds my daughters’ by ten thousand pounds.

I am relieved their additional assets are not known because I have no time to fend off mercenary suitors.

Which reminds me…I have delayed interrogating that Bingley fellow for long enough.

As soon as this matter is settled, I shall address the young buck vying for my eldest daughter’s notice. ”

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