If only she would forgive him fully, he might have hope that she would grow to love him. He had taken liberties in taking her in his arms the other day, her fear and his desire to comfort her too strong, but though she did not recoil, hope seemed too great a risk… too painful a fall should she reject him.
Resting a hand on the elder sister’s shoulder, Lightcliffe showed no such compunction.
“What situation is that?” Aldry asked, the long silence at odds with the man’s measure of patience.
“Knock…” gulping Jane began again, “A knock came at the door, and seeing as the maid was attending to Mrs. Hill, I went to open the door. No one was there, but they had left… left.”
“Left what?” Lightcliffe asked softly as words deserted her.
“Here,” Elizabeth said as she held out a note, the pale paper stained with blood. “All that was left was this and a shattered pocket watch covered in blood.”
Snatching it, Lightcliffe scowled at the offending paper, the four men reading it with various degrees of anger.
Time is ticking, Darcy.
Your interference has cost you another thirty thousand.
A pity if it costs you more than money.
Throat aching, Darcy’s hands tightened at his sides;Wickham and whoever this man was went too far! Was Elizabeth not even safe at Longbourn?
“I had thought that man’s hand on my face horrid,” Elizabeth shuddered as her eyes fixed to the paper, “having them come to our home–to where my family is–and then having to dispose of that bloodied watch before Mamma returned was infinitely worse. What if it had been her or one of our sisters who had found it?”
Eyes widening and then narrowing at her words, Darcy’s breath came faster.He had known something more had happened on the road than she had claimed… He. They had.
Whirling toward Netherfield, Darcy began to calculate every asset he had.The price of Darcy House in London and his savings would more than suffice, but a sale would take far too long. He had almost seventy-thousand in the five percents, still, that left him twenty shy. If only he had not invested fifteen-thousand near the start of the year into that blasted glassworks factory–true, it earned considerable, but he could not retrieve the sum entire. No. For all his assets–two houses, forty-five tenant homes, animals, carriages, belongings–raising twenty-thousand without more time would prove next to impossible. Even the grand jewels his mother had set aside for the future mistress of Pemberley were locked away in Derbyshire. Were he to have a buyer immediately, the time-frame would be dear indeed.
“Darcy,” Elizabeth hurried, her racing footfalls behind him causing him to still. “I know what you are planning to do, but even you, with all your wealth, cannot expect to pay such a ridiculous sum. Money is nothing compared to the lives of our family, but only a madman would ask for sixty-thousand, let alone the ninety he raised it to! Either we buy him off with less or we do what we have been doing, discover who is behind all this before it is too late.”
Shoulders lowering, Darcy groaned,a lifetime filled with the ability to right almost every situation and unable to affect change now? Not for him. Or Elizabeth. Or his family.
A hand laid upon his arm, his eyes met hers, the confidence in her expression warming him. “We can do this,” she urged him, “youcan do this. I have no doubts… and never could.”
Squeezing her fingers, a soft smile formed on the faces of both, hope rising in Darcy though he had only moments before resolved against it.
When their families were safe once again, he would risk his heart and press his suit.
Though please,he prayed silently,let it prove successful. Let this hope not be in vain.
∞∞∞
One day later, with Mr. Bennet consulted, a plan was contrived to have Lord Lightcliffe installed at Longbourn. An unaccountable slip on their front steps, a thankfully obliging Mrs. Bennet eager for a single gentleman of fortune and rank to linger, and Lightcliffe’s new residence while away from London would be as they had desired.
However much he might have wished himself to play the part rather than Lightcliffe, Mrs. Bennet’s persisting rancor in regards to Darcy would permit no such outcome, for, as Elizabeth had admitted sheepishly, her mother would have carried him to Netherfield herself if it meant being rid of‘that proud Mr. Darcy.’
Thus, Darcy had agreed to Lightcliffe’s presence at Longbourn, the protection of a man with full knowledge of the situation and greater physical capability than Mr. Bennet necessary to assure the family remained safe. Still, Darcy could not deny his envy of Lightcliffe’s new lodgings–being able to be in the presence of the woman he fancied from sunrise to sunset.
“Oh, Lord Lightcliffe,” Mrs. Bennet fluttered about, several pillows and a stout warm broth pressed upon the gentleman as he rested on the settee. “Are you certain you require nothing else?”
“Nothing, save the company of yourself and your wonderful daughter Jane,” he assured her politely, her eyes wide as she listened, “a balm with which no earthly salve could compare.”
“Jane,” she rushed, pushing her daughter onto the stool beside Lightcliffe, “do sit. Lizzy. You must see the gentlemen home and have Lord Lightcliffe’s things sent here immediately.”
Nodding, Elizabeth acquiesced, her eyes dancing as she moved to obey her mother.
Darcy and the two other gentlemen taking their leave in turn, Mrs. Bennet’s departing words were polite if not of unusual brevity as she turned her attention back to Lightcliffe. The man, though less eager for the mother’s attention, beaming at the eldest Miss Bennet’s presence.
Arm offered to Elizabeth as soon as they were out the door, Darcy reveled at the feel of her hand upon his forearm, the boyish smirks of their companions ignored as they walked along.No amount of teasing could dampen his enjoyment.
