Colonel Fitzwilliam tapped Darcy on the shoulder as they passed the stairs, he pointed upwards, and then quickly hurried up the stairs, presumably to gather his pistols, and likely that batman he always took with him.
“I will be taking Elizabeth to Mr. Bennet’s house in Hertfordshire,” Darcy said to Lord Hartley. “From there it will be impossible for your father to seize her without a gaining a legal writ from Chancery, and if he succeeds in doing that before she is of age, I will make sure she that can flee the country until such time as she is old enough that he will have no legal right to control her. Go see if you can do to delay the whole. I fear that violence might follow if your father is too quick.”
“No, I am with you. I shall come with you.”
Darcy found the room next to the stables, where his coachman and one of the postillions he’d brought with himsat playing cards with Lady Catherine’s grooms and coachmen around a table with a dark cloth set over it. The setting sunlight shined through the window, and it looked as though his man was winning. “We are leaving now. Can you have the carriage ready in ten minutes? Go around to the parsonage across the park, and you shall pick me up from there.”
“What? Mr. Darcy—but I already exercised the horses this afternoon. Would it not be best if—”
“Quickly now. I depend on you coming around within fifteen minutes.”
Colonel Fitzwilliam and his soldier-servant stood right outside of the stables when Darcy stepped out of the room. Colonel Fitzwilliam gave Hartley a hard stare and then he handed Darcy a fine pistol. “Careful with that. Loaded. Do not point it at anyone who you do not wish to hurt—do not be precipitous. Can you promise to not use it unless there is no other option? Perhaps not even then. I hate to trust civilians with weapons, but you have always had a calm head. Now across the field, quick, the party was about to depart as I came down the stairs.”
Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam, followed by Lord Hartley and Colonel Fitzwilliam’s soldier-servant jogged across the park and reached the parsonage as they saw the collection of ten of Lady Catherine’s liveried footmen following the stride of Lord Rochester and Lady Catherine herself who were approaching via the avenue.
It was clear to Darcy that his carriage would not arrive until many minutes after the group had, and this filled him with a sort of anxiety.
He was deeply aware of the pistol in his pocket.
The parsonage looked completely ordinary, a garden with hedges about. Windows open to the warm spring air. A candle in one of the windows.
Darcy knocked hard on the door.
There was no answer.
The group approaching had come close enough that Lord Rochester and Lady Catherine could clearly see the group by the door.
Lord Rochester shouted, “Darcy, what are you about! What is the meaning of this. Bobby, why are you here?”
Darcy knocked again. “Elizabeth, my carriage will be here in a few minutes, and I shall convey you back to Mr. Bennet’s house.”
A minute later the door was flung open, Elizabeth boldly strode out. Mr. And Mrs. Collins stood small in the door frame behind her.
She held a small pistol in her hand that she pointed at Lord Rochester.
Chapter Eighteen
Once she’d parted Mr. Darcy after leaving the drawing room, that man, and the house, the heavy oak door of Rosings had slammed behind Darcy, and a cold gust of wind blew through Elizabeth’s dress. She had grabbed her coat from the rack but not put it on. It was evening, but the April season had advanced so far that the sun was still bright, making clouds glow reddish yellow.
She made it to the bottom of the stairs with Mary, who struggled into her own coat as she stepped down with her. “Lizzy, you should—”
Elizabeth’s nerve suddenly broke, and without a word she ran as fast as she could across the park. She wanted to be away. She was scared again. She’d reached halfway across the park before she looked back to see if Lord Rochester followed her.
Just Mary.
She hurried along at a fast walking pace, and seeing Elizabeth stop and look at her, she broke into a short jog. Mary gasped as she took Elizabeth’s arm. “Do wait for me. I do not thinkhecould move nearly so fast with that dragging leg.”
Elizabeth nodded silently.
She wished that she had asked Darcy to accompany her across to the parsonage, though she also felt safer knowing that Darcy was watchinghim.
Ne, was more than simplyhim,the man from her nightmares. Not yet though, not yet. She needed to feel safe before she could determine how to feel about how he was also her father, before she could decide how she felt about having a legitimate family, and that it was a very high born one. Before anything, she needed to be safe.
Mary gasped as Elizabeth pulled her along. “You are right to be scared of him, even if he is an earl.”
“I just want to be back under a friendly roof,” Elizabeth said.
They hurried along, not speaking again as they rushed.
