Darcy nodded, but rather than it be a beginning of a conversation between them, he turned to consult with his cousin.
After having his sole attention during this terrible experience, it was jarring for Darcy to speak to anyone but her. It was not that she was jealous of the colonel. She could not even name the feeling as she stood by herself with her thoughts. Darcy and his cousin were talking in low voices, but she heard, “tell the magistrate,” “Lady Catherine’s brandy,” and “smugglers to justice.”
It was a peculiar loneliness to see Darcy confiding in and making plans with someone other than her.
“Are you ready, Miss Bennet?” Colonel Fitzwilliam asked. She was confused, and must have looked it because he added, “You must not have been listening. I have hired a post chaise to take you back to Hunsford.”
“What?” she cried. “No, I do not want to go there! I cannot face her ladyship.”
Colonel Fitzwilliam nodded placatingly. “You need not, but Mrs Collins is desperate to see you. I had not thought so staid a woman could cry so hard when she learnt you had not eloped—” He looked at his cousin, coughed, and turned pink. “Well, when she learnt what truly happened. You will be glad to see a friend, will you not?”
Ignoring him, Elizabeth strode to stand before Darcy. “I do not want to stay in Kent at all. We wanted to go to London, did we not? I need to see my sister.” She forced Darcy to look at her, to hear her. For an instant, she saw in his eyes all the affection for her he had shown her only an hour ago. Then his former reserve took its place.
He nodded, even placing a condoling hand on her arm. She wished he had left it there for longer. “Miss Bennet needs to go to town,” he said over his shoulder. “She wants to be with her family. I can trust you to see her there safely?”
For a moment she was distracted by his calling her Miss Bennet and not Elizabeth and did not realise he was walking toward a saddled horse. “Wait!” she cried. “You are not coming with me?”
Was she truly going to part from Darcy here, in this inn yard with strangers watching, without another word? There was so much left to be said, to explain, and she was not ready to be away from him. Was he furious with her for trusting Wickham, and was all of his affection for her lost, or was he simply trying tokeep his cousin and the men from Rosings from knowing what they meant to each other?
What she thought they meant to each other.
“I cannot go to town yet,” he said, sounding sorry for it. “Fitzwilliam can take you. I need to report to a magistrate in Kent what has happened.”
Elizabeth frowned sceptically. “Do you really think in that area of Kent that the magistrate will issue a warrant to arrest Markle, or if he did, the constable would even arrest him?” Corruption and fear might make seeing justice done impossible.
“I have to try.”
She suppressed a sigh. Yes, she knew he did; his character would demand no less. Darcy was about to mount the horse when she held out her hand to stop him. “Do you hate me for believing Wickham?” she whispered.
“No.”
That hardly meant that Darcy still loved her. “Then why won’t you at least escort me to town? You could make a statement to the magistrate at any time.”
“I must deal with Lady Catherine,” he said in a pained voice. “She has to hear it from me that I know what she has done, and that I will tell the magistrate everything. And it would be a torture to you to have you return with me to Hunsford. You should be with your family.”
And Darcy should be with someone who cared about him after their trying ordeal. As angry as she was with him for leaving her, she felt his pain at the thought of confronting his aunt. “I am sorry you have to face her.”
He gave a sad smile. “Doing what is right rarely means doing what is easy.”
He bowed, but she stopped him again, scarcely believing he would walk away from her. “How can you leave me so easily?”she whispered. She hated how desperate she felt, especially when he looked to feel nothing.
Darcy leant down and spoke softly, looking directly into her eyes. “It is not easy at all.”
Elizabeth felt her heart clench, hoping that she was not too late to apologise, that she might still have a future with Darcy. They were standing near together, only a few inches separating their lips. “Will—will you come to town?” she stammered. “Will you come to Cheapside?”
“Yes.” His gaze moved down from her eyes to her mouth, and then looked to the side. His cousin was watching. Darcy leant back and held out his hand. Elizabeth took it, and Darcy brought it to his lips, then mounted the horse without another word.
Rosings Park was nowin sight. It had been just over two days since he and Elizabeth had been abducted from that very place in the lane he had just ridden past. Darcy had parted from Fitzwilliam with promises to join him in town by tomorrow. He could trust him to see Elizabeth returned to her family, but Darcy still thought of her the entire journey back to Hunsford.
He still felt a little betrayed by her, but Wickham was the one who deserved his fury. Elizabeth could only be accused of being ignorant and too trusting. He had not been calm enough to continue any conversation with her in Dartford, and certainly not while his cousin, his valet, and her ladyship’s coachman were watching.
It had hurt to be thought capable of such things after what they had been through together, but it was all a mistaken assumption on his side. He would put it to right as soon as Lady Catherine was dealt with.
Even as he rode into the paddock, talking with the men who returned with him, he desperately missed Elizabeth. Part of it might be from having been locked in a room together for days, having to always consider her and never being apart from her. But it was also because she had fallen in love with him. Their morning in the bed at the Bull and George was evidence enough of that, and now he did not know when exactly he would see Elizabeth again.
It was a strange, lonely feeling.
He needed to speak to the magistrate and explain the entire abduction. Before he could do that, he owed it to his aunt to tell her what he was going to do. It was not her fault they were assaulted, abducted, threatened, terrorised, but her duplicitous actions had led to it. It would be cowardly not to tell her he knew about her scheme and that he intended to lay it all bare.
