Page 28 of Mr Darcy Gets Angry

“What has happened?” Mr Gardiner asked impatiently. He looked from Elizabeth to Darcy, yet discerned little more than shadows.

They travelled in complete darkness, for no eye should see who departed in haste from the house of the Duke of Devonshire.

From the instant Darcy beckoned Mr Gardiner to follow, until the carriage departed, only a few minutes elapsed, and not a word was spoken.

Mr Winston attended them to the carriage; there he whispered in Darcy’s ear so low that not a syllable was caught, and Mr Gardiner’s anxiety rose to an incredible height.

“I dislike travelling in the darkness,” he said, when no answer came from them.

“Do not worry, sir! We shall stop for the night,” Darcy finally spoke. “There is a small settlement less than eight miles distance. I think it is called Polegate. It is better that we do not pass the night in Eastbourne.”

Elizabeth wondered again when he had planned such details of their journey, and rejoiced that the gentleman seated beside her was indeed her future husband. They remained next to one another, no longer mindful of decorum, for they felt as though they had been married for many years.

“Tell me, I pray you,” Mr Gardiner pleaded. “I am dying to know what has happened. Is the colonel all right? Mr Winston murmured to me that he heard him leaving.”

Darcy nodded and sighed, the only sigh of the immense burden he still carried on his soul.

“I understand that you succeeded in convincing him?”

“I wish it were so simple,” Darcy replied. “The evidence we discovered in Mrs Avery’s chamber was overwhelming and cannot be denied. There was intelligence copied from his official documents, or perhaps imparted to them in the course of friendly discourse.”

“Stop, stop,” Elizabeth murmured, making Darcy slightly smile for the first time that evening.

“We may speak aloud,” he said, and kissed her hand, assured that her uncle would not take offence at their intimacy; for they had passed through events so dramatic that between them there already prevailed other rules, more comprehensive and serene.

Elizabeth nodded and joined him in smiling. They were already beyond the town, and the clatter of the horses’ hooves would in any case have drowned the conversation.

“I do not imagine the colonel speaking lightly of his duty. No!” Elizabeth said with conviction. “Mrs Avery copied the documents he brought home to examine, and the maps.”

“Then Miss Henry is innocent?” asked Mr Gardiner; yet in his voice there was a note of vexation, if not of anger, for the upright man within him could not conceive that she might be forgiven by the colonel.

In any case, she was guilty—more or less—and a man such as the colonel could not continue to love a woman of that kind.

Again, silence engulfed that narrow space. Only the sound of the carriage wheels and the horses’ breath was heard.

“I do not know precisely how far she was entangled in this dreadful tale. Miss Henry is an intelligent lady. I cannot believe she was a blind instrument. Perhaps she did not know the full extent of the treachery, yet she knew enough to render her guilty.”

“I grieve for the Colonel, but I rejoice that it is at an end.”

“For us, Uncle, it is at an end, while Colonel Fitzwilliam must pass the most wretched night of his life. I trust that his superiors will perceive the affair precisely as it was. He is innocent beyond any doubt.”

“Unfortunately, he must prove his innocence while at the same time exposing the conspiracy. After all, Miss Henry was his—”

“Mistress,” Elizabeth said, and she blushed in the dark—not for Miss Henry’s state, but for her own.

At any moment, she might have agreed to become Darcy’s mistress .

No shame, no hesitation. They were soon to be married, yet if any mishap delayed their plans, she desired that man to be her first. He was a man of a higher order, one who would accept her yielding as the purest token of love and esteem.

“My cousin has gone to confer with his superior. He will present all the papers we have brought him, which have come into his possession this afternoon, with honesty. Our part is of no account.”

“I agree,” Mr Gardiner said at last, comprehending their hasty departure. “Now, however, I wish each of you to relate his part, that we may gain a complete view of all that has taken place.”

Elizabeth and Darcy agreed. They had been too deeply engaged until then not to know every detail.

“Elizabeth! Begin, if you please, from the moment you were left alone with the colonel,” Mr Gardiner said, glad that the darkness hid his vivid curiosity, which he found slightly inappropriate for such a dramatic occasion.

Yet, for the first time in his life, he found himself in the middle of such an adventure.

Elizabeth closed her eyes for a few seconds to gather the recollections which still disturbed her spirit.

“I have not much to tell. Though our conversation lasted almost an hour, it was broken by long pauses and returns, for the poor colonel was hard to convince that the woman he wished to make his wife had deceived him. I laid before him only those particulars related to her family, and the circumstance that her father, still living, was a Frenchman. It was only at the end that I showed him Sophia’s letter, together with the papers from Mr Phillips.

Yet even so, he still hoped they might be just omissions, rather than deliberate falsehoods contrived for a purpose.

I could see how he strove to excuse her behaviour to himself, so that he might forgive her.

“Had not Fitzwilliam appeared with proofs undeniable of her treachery, he might perhaps have hesitated still; for he still desired to speak with her, and I fear that, had he reached her, she might have persuaded him of her innocence. Yet in my discourse, there was no mention of the betrayal of country and of king. When Fitzwilliam placed the documents in his hands, all within him fell. His only thought thenceforth was to hasten to his superiors and reveal the plot. The Frenchman must be seized, and he did not delay, forgetting both love and his private designs.”

“Yes, he did not falter for an instant,” said Darcy, his voice full of pride. “I do not believe that love may vanish so, in a moment; yet, when confronted with treachery, his affections became utterly unimportant.”

Darcy remained silent. The recollection of those moments when he confronted his cousin with the proofs of treachery pained him almost physically.

It was not only shock painted on the colonel’s face, but an immense sorrow, mingled with frustration and fury, for the betrayal spread in so many directions.

The wrath that had accompanied Darcy through those dreadful days rose again with renewed force.

Elizabeth laid her hand upon his arm, seeking to impart to him something of the composure she was striving to recover, chiefly for his sake.

She continued to speak, that he might have a moment’s respite.

“It was hard to make him perceive that Emmeline had misled him concerning her family. I doubt that he believed me whilst I spoke only, but her mother’s letter, followed by the deeds of sale of the house signed by Mr Henry, planted doubt in his heart.

Though the things he discovered were not yet very grave, they sufficed…

I do not know what else I can tell you. My part was insignificant—”

“Not so,” returned Darcy with force. “It was you he listened to. Had I appeared with the tale, he would have turned me from his door, with the letter or with any other proof.”

“The papers discovered in Mrs Avery’s chamber would in any case have revealed everything…in the end,” added Mr Gardiner.

“But what a shock for my poor cousin, to have learnt the truth so suddenly, to behold those papers before anything else. To have the proof of treachery from the very beginning. Elizabeth guided him more gently towards the dreadful conclusion brought by Mrs Avery’s copies.

Such treachery might have destroyed him outright, but Elizabeth led him with smaller steps to that frightful certainty. ”

“Heavens, what wickedness, so cunningly laid,” murmured Elizabeth. “How did you find the documents? Was it dangerous?”

Darcy and Mr Gardiner gave a low laugh in the darkness, but without the least mirth.

“Winston had the decisive share, as I have told you. When he arrived in Eastbourne, he learnt that the Duke’s house had in fact been divided into lodgings to let.”

“Now I see,” Elizabeth said. “It would indeed have been strange for Miss Henry to have been a genuine guest in the Duke’s own household. A hired lodging is another matter. And then?”

“Upon his arrival, Winston hired an apartment also, and began his enquiries. The easiest path is ever through the servants. My men drank ale with the colonel’s orderly, who, of course, was well acquainted with the two maids attending Miss Henry and Mrs Avery.

And money, as ever, soon unloosed their tongues.

In little time, Mr Winston had the substance, and in the evening was invited to sup with the colonel and the ladies—”

“Oh indeed?” exclaimed Mr Gardiner. “That is most skilful.”

“And I believe he understood the whole at that supper. The next day, when the ladies went for a walk and the colonel to the garrison, he entered their rooms, and it was not hard to find Mrs Avery’s hiding-place.

After I left you, I had a long discussion with Winston to prepare the next steps, and soon after, we went to Miss Avery’s room.

Under her gaze, astonished at first, then alarmed, amidst her cries, Mr Winston drew forth the box and placed in my hands the documents with which I went down to the colonel.

Mr Winston remained, with one of the servants, to keep guard, whilst Mr Gardiner—”