Page 49 of The Countess and Her Sister

Elizabeth looked in horror at the other men in the room. Henry Tilney was already quite drowsy, while Richard, Sir Edward, and Mr. Bingley had assumed more recumbent positions.

“The tea,” Mr. Bingley said. “It tasted strange – blast, why did I drink it?”

“I was thirsty,” Mr. Tilney said with a dazed sigh.

“Fanny,” Sir Edward said softly, a look of painful betrayal on his face. “You drugged me?”

“It must be Mr. Darcy to go after her,” Mrs. Bennet said. “Lady Catherine said he will do his duty by Jane – he will do the right thing and marry her so there is not a scandal. They have but two hours on you – you may easily catch them up.”

Mrs. Bennet glanced up, not at the fire, Elizabeth realized with fury, but at the clock on the mantle.

She had stalled them, giving Jane’s captor a head start.

Elizabeth shuddered at the thought of Jane with that horrid beast. “After I told you what sort of man Captain Tilney is? You put her in a carriage alone with him? How could you?”

Mr. Bingley reeled, running from the room. “I think I am going to be ill.”

“I dosed him rather strongly,” Mrs. Bennet said. Her demeanor had completely altered; she had gone cold and cruel. She glared at Elizabeth. “Jane is safe enough – Captain Tilney is driving the carriage, and she is alone within. I told her Mr. Darcy would come for her – she has no cause to worry!”

“No cause to worry that she is being kidnapped ,” Elizabeth bellowed. “And she may yet believe her son has also been taken!”

Mr. Bingley staggered back into the room, looking a wreck in body and spirit. “Darcy, you must go get her!”

“I will do my best, but they have two hours’ advantage of me, and I may wear my horse ragged before I catch them up.”

“He is dangerous,” Georgiana cried. “You shall have to fight Captain Tilney, and he is not an honorable man!”

“Hush, spoilt child,” Mrs. Bennet hissed.

“Do you not know that your clever aunt has thought of everything? She gave him an unloaded pistol, and made sure he had no other weapons. She would not let any real harm befall Mr. Darcy, as much as she carries on about her forefathers’ dynasty!

It is only a little nudge in the right direction to make him marry Jane! ”

“A little nudge,” Elizabeth cried. “You would actually try to make amends with her, and then do the same thing again – worse!”

“She was never going to forgive me,” Mrs. Bennet spat. “I knew it when she took my girls, how you would turn them against me. Three years I have waited to see my own grandson! The Fitzwilliams can have her, and whatever befalls you, Lizzy, I am sure you shall deserve!”

Mr. Darcy strode forward with hellfire in his eyes and took Elizabeth’s hand in his as he addressed Mrs. Bennet.

“What shall befall her is that she, not Lady Jane, will become the mistress of Pemberley. We are engaged, Madam, so I cannot wed her sister, though I shall do what I can to recover her, and hope that Captain Tilney does not acquire any ammunition between here and Scotland.”

“You had best get going, Darcy,” Mr. Bingley said with a dizzy look of despair. “And congratulations.”

“I will go with you,” Elizabeth said, giving his arm a gentle tug.

“We will take a carriage – it may take longer to catch them up, but we have a hundred and fifty miles to overtake them. Perhaps if Jane knows rescue is coming, she may delay him or make some escape. We will say that you and I went to Gretna, that we could not wait to be wed – and Jane travelled with us for propriety.”

His stern expression gave way to a trace of hope. “Elizabeth, are you certain?”

“I am. I love you, and I trust nobody more than you at such a moment,” she said.

“Very good – now you had best get going!” Rebecca gave Mr. Darcy a little shove. “Go, go, we have everything in hand here, though I may murder Mrs. Bennet before the magistrate arrives.”

“Please, no,” Mary cried, rushing toward her mother. “I begged them for you. I begged and begged for them to see some good in you. Not Lydia, your favorite, nor Kitty. I spoke for you, and you have done this. How could you, mother?”

Elizabeth watched her sister with aching pity.

Mary had learned the same painful lesson as she and Jane had, years ago; she would never have wished such a thing on any of her sisters.

She clenched her fists until her fingernails cut into her hand.

She ought never to have relented; she was right to run mad with rage at her mother’s duplicitous request.

“We have all been horridly ill-used by Jane and Lizzy! They care more for fine society, and left us all to rot in the country, Mary! Well, you have fallen for their pretty promises of trinkets and gowns, I daresay, and good luck to you! I have had my revenge!”

Sir Edward took a few sluggish steps toward his sister.

He grabbed the back of the chair and began to drag it – and the screeching Mrs. Bennet – out of the room.

Lady Susan came to his aid in hauling the woman into the next room.

“I shall keep watch over her, since I am perhaps the least connected to this family matter. And I believe we shall have a nice little chat about our mutual acquaintance, Lady Catherine.”

Mr. Bingley shambled over and braced a hand on Mr. Darcy’s shoulder as he looked between Elizabeth and Rebecca.

“We must act quickly. I am in no condition to ride after Jane, much as I wish to. If you have any chance of catching them and getting her back, go now. We will make a plan to follow, and meet you in Scotland.”

Mr. Darcy nodded. “My family has an estate near Dumfries. We will wait a day for you in Gretna, if we recover Jane, and then go on to Blaeloch Manor.”

“As if we had planned it that way all along,” Rebecca agreed. “Off with you, we will keep the chaos at bay.”

Richard came and shook hands with Mr. Darcy. “She is my sister, and I ought to go with you – I could sleep in the carriage, for I dearly need to lie down….”

Elizabeth shook her head, infinitely preferring to go alone with her heroic beloved, rather than spend two days being mercilessly teased once her brother had his wits about him again. “You will weigh the carriage down, and slow us – we cannot spare a minute.”

Mr. Darcy gave Richard a look of high emotion and braced him by the shoulder. “There are other ladies that will need protecting. Come in the second carriage that gets away, rest yourself and be ready for anything.”

Richard nodded as he heaved himself onto the nearest chair with a look of weary anger. “My guns will have bullets for that bastard.”

Elizabeth embraced Rebecca and then threw herself into her mother’s embrace. “I know it is not what you wanted….”

“Your happiness will always be a delight to me, my dear girl,” Lady Augusta said. “Go and get Jane, and give her my love. I will see you in Scotland, and you will wear my mother’s pearls when you are wed over the anvil.”

Rebecca offered Elizabeth her dagger. “I ought not be tempted to use it. A hundred pounds if you stick it in Fred’s heart,” she snarled, not entirely in jest.

Elizabeth gave her sister a parting smile, casting one last glance about the parlor before Mr. Darcy scooped her up in his arms and carried her out of the room. “Come along Mrs. Darcy,” he whispered.

***

The parlor was in a state of chaos, and Rebecca’s rage cooled into wry amusement as she watched Mr. Bingley – she was rather proud of his valiant attempt to rally them, and she stepped in to assist him.

As Mr. Bingley had done before, Rebecca gave a shrill whistle.

She had not his stature, and held her mother’s hand as she stepped up onto a low table beside the sofa.

“We are in crisis, and we must organize ourselves immediately,” she said loudly, waiting until she held the attention of the ten other frantic people in the room.

The four gentlemen were looking as if they felt the effects of Mrs. Bennet’s drugged tea – heavily drugged, the harridan had said.

Rebecca did not think they would be of much use for very long, and she knew not when they might expect the magistrate.

She looked down at Mr. Bingley. “Get up and be heroic, sir, and Jane will hear of it,” she hissed.

Mr. Bingley clambered to his feet and stood beside her. “Yes, we must make ready to go after them. I daresay Richard and Tilney and Sir Edward and I shall need to have a lie down in the carriages. Ladies, you may wish to pack a bag, but some of us will just have to go in what we are wearing and….”

Rebecca cleared her throat. “Some of us will need to stay and speak with the magistrate – Mr. Bingley, Lady Gardiner, you especially have much to say. Sir Edward, are you willing to turn Mrs. Bennet over to the authorities?”

He looked over at Mary, who was weeping in the embrace of her sisters and Georgiana. Sir Edward sighed heavily. “For the sake of the girls, I hardly know what is right.”

Lady Augusta shook her head, silent tears spilling down her face. “She must certainly be banished from Montrose, and I would not burden your family with the care of her. She deserves to be punished – but she is Thomas’s grandmother. Will we tell him someday that she was hanged?”

Rebecca frowned “What else would be done with her?”

“My sister Mrs. Phillips is a widow now; I set her up in a little cottage in Brighton, and she is very happy there. She resides with a childhood friend who is her companion. I fear that Fanny may be a detriment to our sister’s quiet contentment.

This sad business will surely leave her bitter all her days. But I will ask my sister.”

“Have we ruled out bedlam so quickly?” Mr. Bingley’s voice was drowsy, and he gave his head a quick shake before slapping himself with either hand.