Darcy nodded. He would much rather his cousin had continued adamant in the belief there was naught troubling afoot. As it was, the doubt flickering over his countenance tied his stomach in knots. “I must get to Pemberley,” he announced, reaching for the bell pull.
“You cannot mean this instant?”
“I can, and I do.”
Fitzwilliam stepped in front of him, preventing him from summoning anybody. “Darcy, be reasonable. I grant you, this does not look good, but all of it could be perceived in a different light. There is no need to do something as foolhardy as rushing off to Pemberley in the dark on the basis of one addled letter and a few spurious suspicions.”
“Only they are not few, and they seem ever less spurious. I cannot think of one good reason for half the occasions Bingley has shown up at my door in the last year. He has followed Elizabeth halfway around the country and back, invariably appearing in places we have told him we will be, always contrary to the plans he has previously claimed and never with any real purpose.”
“He could as easily have been followingyouabout as Elizabeth. You have ever spent a good deal of time together.”
“If that were the case, he would be here and not at Pemberley with her.”
“No, I cannot believe it,” Fitzwilliam said, shaking his head. “Not of Bingley. He would not be so devious as to impose upon your hospitality if it were the case. If, indeed, he was attracted to her at one time, we must assume he has overcome it.”
A dreadful feeling of nausea accompanied Darcy’s next remembrance.
“Even were she to revert to the sweet girl you thought smiled too much, she would not be the woman I want.”
He rubbed a hand over his face.
“You are inclined to think otherwise?” his cousin enquired.
He took a deep breath, for it was strangely difficult to speak. “When I urged him to give the idea of going to Nova Scotia more thought, he replied—and I quote: ‘I have done nothing but think on it whilst I have sat here watching you have everything I want, knowing I shall never have it.’ I assumed he referred to my general contentment.”
Fitzwilliam’s eyebrows rose. “I should like to say he might have been, but there is only so long I can continue to defend him without looking a churl. I suppose we might credit him withsomemorals for attempting to extricate himself from the wreckage and take himself off to another country.”
Darcy gave a bitter laugh. “Oh, yes, he was all benevolence in that regard—until Elizabeth suggested he stay, and he abandoned all his plans in an instant. At another word from her, he would probably stay forever.”
“Yes, well, she would never ask it, and you would never allow it, so pray waste no time brooding on it. Besides, did not Ashby say something this morning about him being gone by the time you got back?”
“What does Ashby know?” Darcy turned and snatched up the poker to unleash some of his anger upon the fire.
“That is precisely what he said of you.”
When Fitzwilliam said nothing more, Darcy looked over his shoulder, and upon seeing his cousin’s brow contracted into his deepest frown yet, turned fully to face him. “What is it?”
“Nothing dire—only, now that I recall what Ashby said, I think you have less reason to be concerned.”
“And what did he say?”
“That Jane wrote to Philippa last week to inform her Bingley was taking her to—hold fire, is Jane with child?”
Every sinew in Darcy’s body went taut. “Not to my knowledge. Why?”
Fitzwilliam said nothing, only paled and stared at him in alarm.
“What did Ashby say, Fitzwilliam?”
“As best I recall he said, ‘He is taking the Hertfordshire chit andbuggering off to Nova Scotia.’” He swallowed. “Then he said something along the lines of it making more sense to find a different girl who was not already with child when he got there.”
All the air left Darcy’s lungs in one violent exhalation.
Fitzwilliam looked at him with an expression of horror that presumably matched his own. “Bloody hell, Darcy, I thought he was talking about Jane. He might have been. Are you absolutely certain she is not with child?”
It was possible, Darcy supposed. Yet, it was many weeks since she and Bingley were last in company, and he had not received the impression from him that they were often in the same room before that. Was it possible that since reading Elizabeth’s letter they had reconciled and agreed to go away together? The alternative did not bear thinking about. He tossed the poker aside, sending plumes of ash into the air from where it landed in the grate. “I am for Farley House. I would speak with Jane. Will you accompany me?”
“Try and stop me.”
