Darcy rose with her and kissed her cheek, pleased anew to have such an excellent woman in his life. Elizabeth, he knew, had deduced that Georgiana must be bursting with questions, and left to reassure her, knowing they did not need her presencefor the interrogation. It was a perspicacious bit of reasoning; the girls would speculate, even if Georgiana knew of their concerns.
“Yes, Mr. Darcy?” asked the woman, no trace of trepidation staining her features. “You wished to speak to me?”
“Sit, Mrs. Younge,” said Lord Matlock, stepping in to assume the burden of the interrogation. “This interview will not be pleasant, nor will it be brief.”
While the woman might prefer to remain standing to keep some semblance of power, she seemed to understand she was not in control. When she was seated, the earl stood before her and laid out the facts as he understood them.
“Based on your insistence on the Ramsgate scheme and your behavior, especially toward the Bennet sisters, I engaged a man to investigate you. Though I will not say I was surprised at this late date, I discovered several pertinent facts about your background, the most important of which is that you represented yourself as a gentlewoman when you are not, and fabricated letters of recommendation you presented to my nephew.”
Had Darcy not been watching her, he might have missed the slight grimace from the woman at the mention of Ramsgate, furthering his opinion that she had made that last application unwillingly. What that portended, Darcy could not say, but the reaction, though minuscule, was significant in his mind.
“Given our knowledge now about your background, I must wonder what you meant by insisting on the Ramsgate holiday. What is your game, Mrs. Younge?”
The woman was cool—that much was irrefutable. One less certain of themselves might have devolved into angry denials, protests of innocence, or even exclamations of disbelief. Mrs. Younge did none of these, though she confessed nothing.
“I beg your pardon for contradicting you, Lord Matlock,” said she, “but I have no notion of your meaning. There must be some mistake.”
“Do you suppose I am witless?” growled Lord Matlock. “My man traced your history to the house you own on Edward Street, your marriage to a gamester, and through that to your origins near Manchester. What are you hiding?”
“You are mistaken.”
What followed was an hour of fruitless interrogation, in which each of them took a hand in questioning her but received no answers for their efforts. No matter how much they asked, cajoled, or even threatened, Mrs. Younge would confess to nothing, for she continued to protest her innocence against all evidence to the contrary. After a time of this, Lord Matlock became disgusted with her and called the butler into the room, instructing him to send for the Bow Street Runners.
When Mrs. Younge departed in their custody, he turned to the others in the room, an eyebrow raised in question. Darcy did not hesitate to respond.
“She is far more skilled in keeping her countenance than I expected, but I am certain she is lying.”
“That is without question, given what we know,” agreed Lord Matlock. “Do you have any observations to share?”
“When you mentioned Ramsgate the first time,” said Mr. Bennet, “she did not appear pleased with it.”
“I noticed the same,” said Darcy. “The last time she pushed the scheme, I had the distinct sense that she was acting contrary to her wishes in the matter.”
“Which suggests she was receiving outside pressure,” said Fitzwilliam. “That would further imply that she has a confederate and that their goal was to get Georgiana away from us.”
“Ransom?” asked Lord Matlock.
Fitzwilliam shrugged. “Ransom is a plausible explanation. Compromise to force a wedding may be another motivation. Had I any notion of a connection between them, I might almost expect Wickham to be up to his neck in this business.”
Lord Matlock considered this and shook his head. “I can ask the investigator to dig further to see if there is a connection, but he said nothing in the report.”
“It was nothing more than an idle thought,” said Fitzwilliam. “This is the sort of intrigue Wickham might contemplate, but there is no proof he is acquainted with Mrs. Younge.”
As Darcy did not know Wickham so well as the other two men, he could say nothing. However, he had a healthy respect for their knowledge and instincts, so he did not pursue the matter.
“The question is where that leaves us,” said Mr. Bennet.
“For the moment, with few answers,” was Lord Matlock’s curt reply. “The Runners will hold Mrs. Younge until she confesses, or we can have her transported for impersonating a gentlewoman.”
Fitzwilliam shook his head. “I would not advise that, at least until we exhaust all chance of inducing her to speak. We may even convince her it is in her best interest to tell us all in exchange for transporting her when the alternative is hanging.”
“I have little liking for abusing my authority in such a way,” said the earl. “Let us keep the notion in mind against greater need. For now, she can remain under the Runners’ watchful care.”
With that agreed, the two men excused themselves and departed. Upon mutual agreement, Darcy and Bennet made their way above stairs to find Elizabeth and the younger girls, for they would wish to know what they had discovered.
THE NEWS WAS OF NOsurprise to the girls, and while the situation caused some consternation, a little encouragement stiffened their spines. Kitty and Lydia were in no danger so far as they knew, but the news that Georgiana had been a potential target of the woman she had trusted to educate her came as a shock, even considering Georgiana’s ambivalence toward the woman.
“Do not worry, Georgiana,” said Kitty with all the confidence of a girl of seventeen. “Lydia and I will stay with you and ensure no one with ill intentions comes close.”
