Sighing, Elizabeth rose and pulled him up with her. “Was that Kirby listening, or Bingley’s man wondering when we can leave?”
“Probably the latter. I will order my carriage. If the point is to have you followed and kidnapped, we might as well get their attention.”
She might have said she would lower her hood and wave, but Darcy did not want her playfulness now.
“Can you endure this?” he asked after ringing the bell.
“Canyou?” Darcy would have to be just as brave as she would need to be. He nodded. “Will you meet Markle and get the excise officers to arrest him?”
“Of course.”
“Then I can endure it to secure our safety, and to stop a murderer,” she said firmly. “I am confident this will work.”
“I can see that you are, and it is as good a plan as we can make in the short time we have, but the thought of you luring out Markle still feels like the blood in my own veins is being spilt.” Darcy then took her face in his hands and gave her a fierce kiss goodbye.
“Didyou have a pleasant time with my cousins’ children?” Darcy asked Kirby as they stood in the entrance hall Friday morning. He flinched at the sound of a shriek and a crash from above. Five children were running about in his drawing room as though it were a garden.
“I suppose, but I did not get to go to Gunter’s.”
Darcy tousled Kirby’s hair. “I walked the square before everyone arrived and saw Conway. You would have had to walk straight past him.” Conway had remained in place while Fitzwilliam went to Gracechurch Street to follow Elizabeth. His worry for her felt like a sickness, but what he could do now was ensure that Kirby was safe. Any moment of inactivity was sure to lead him into a wretchedness of worry.
He pulled Kirby aside because the carriages had been called and it was time for him to leave. “Do you remember what will happen now?”
“I stand next to you to block me from view of the square then join while the other children run onto the pavement and I get into his lordship’s carriage to Curzon Street,” he recited. “I sit on the floor to be certain no one sees me.”
“My footman George will meet you there, and then the two of you are going to Sheffield. Mr Gates and his family expect you in three days.” To his surprise, Kirby sighed. “I will be down by thetime you have a holiday, and you can come to Pemberley and eat me out of house and home.”
Kirby nodded, but still looked forlorn.
“What is the matter?” Darcy asked. “Do you not want to be free from your uncle and go to school?” Darcy feared Kirby’s ties to home, however awful that home was, might be too strong to break.
“I do, but what about Nan?”
Darcy did not correct him. From him, it was almost as though Nan had become an affectionate nickname. “What about her?” He smiled down at Kirby so as not to worry him.
Last night, carriages from the party at Berkeley Square had moved along, and it would not have been difficult for someone watching to see a woman leaving number eight Charles Street and follow her to Cheapside.
“She is going to let my uncle snatch her so you can draw him out.”
His smile fell. How had he guessed, unless he had been listening at the door after Darcy sent him away? “It is nothing a little boy needs to worry about.”
Kirby drew himself up to his full four feet seven inches of height. “What kind of life do you think I had in Shoreham, Mr Darcy?”
“My apologies.” Kirby’s years had passed very differently from those of the children romping upstairs. He had seen violence and crime and a shameful amount of neglect. “You are perfectly right, Master Kirby.”
Kirby set his shoulders and nodded curtly, and Darcy refused to laugh. “Nan gets taken on purpose. You get the excise officers, and they arrest my uncle for killing their man, and then we are all safe. It makes sense, but are you sure I should leave? I can be there when my uncle brings Nan to trade. You might need me.”
This little boy and Elizabeth were the bravest people he knew. “You are courageous, but Miss Bennet and I want to put it out of anyone’s power to return you to your uncle.”
Kirby tugged down his cap and sighed again. “My uncle needs me in his gang. I don’t care one way or the other for free trading, but I don’t want to hurt people. He is a wicked man,” he added in a whisper. “You and Nan are brave to stand up to him.”
Kirby had not witnessed his uncle killing Steamer in a fit of rage, but he had seen the bloody aftermath, and Darcy now wondered if Kirby had witnessed the brutal stoning of the revenue man. Or, worse, he might have been forced to participate. He would not ask him the question. Kirby deserved to think about the future.
“Do you want to know a secret?” Darcy knelt down to look Kirby in the eye. “I am terrified that something might happen to Miss Bennet and that I won’t be there to help her. But once you are away, she and I are going to make certain your uncle never hurts anyone again.”
The boy gave him a solemn nod. “And then the next time we come to town, it will be safe to get ices.”
This time, Darcy did laugh. “It will be perfectly safe to go anywhere you like.” There seemed a good chance Kirby Ramer could now live a life like any other twelve-year-old boy. Darcy heard the drawing room door open, and the noise spilled into the hall just as the front door opened with the servant to say that the carriages had arrived.
