“I understand!”
Darcy let go, and the vile man threw himself back in his seat with a scowl. His friend looked chastened, but the man who assaulted her was sullen. “All I did was touch her. She is all alone, is she not?”
Elizabeth never wanted to be on the receiving end of the look Darcy gave this dreadful man. His silent, foreboding glare was a sight to behold, and the man next to her finally dropped his gaze. Darcy had a great deal of presence, even when he was silent. There was an authority to him she suspected few people questioned.
The coach was tense and absolutely silent for another hour until the guard blew the horn at the next stop. They had about five minutes to wait while the horses were changed before they would be on their way again.
“Get out,” Darcy said in a low voice.
The first youth scrambled out of the coach, but the one who assaulted her cried, “What! Why? We cannot be abandoned here.”
“Get out, or I will make you get out, and then I will tell your fathers what dishonourable men you are.”
The man looked ready enough to argue, but his friend called for him to get out and said he was not about to suffer his father’s wrath because he was a fool. Elizabeth heaved a sigh of relief when the door closed behind them.
Darcy seemed to settle as well, and he said, “We are not likely topick up other travellers before daylight. However”—he shifted and moved to sit next to her—“I will not risk another confrontation with someone who thinks he can take advantage of you.”
She nodded, for some reason feeling tears in her eyes and a choking sensation in her throat. Nothing worse would have happened with Darcy here, and he threw them out of the mail coach. So why was she crying now? Fear and relief did strange things to people.
Wordlessly, he handed her a handkerchief. “I am sorry. I thought to give the impression we were not travelling together, so no one would remember a couple fleeing London. I never thought you would be assaulted in my presence.”
She was so eager to help Darcy the way he had been willing to help Lydia that she had not thought about what could happen on the journey. If they were separated, she had little money and no one knew where she was. She could not return home alone now, even if she changed her mind about helping Georgiana. There were wretched men who would take advantage of her if they had the chance.
“I was hasty,” she realised.
“By yelling at him?” he said, turning to her in surprise. “You had every right to tell him to stop. You could not have known what he would do, either.”
“No, I was impulsive to go to Ramsgate. I did not even want to, but at the last thought to accompany Kitty, and she did not need me. I was impulsive to ask you to help me recover Lydia, because in a few hours she would have walked back in the door alone. And I was impulsive to join you and travel in this public way.”
Darcy tossed his hat to the empty seat across from them and stretched out his legs. “It is done now, Miss Bennet. Impulsivity seems to run in your family, but since your assistance will preserve my sister’s reputation, I must thank you for it.”
The warm feelings she had been having toward him for rescuing her faded. “I beg your pardon?” she intoned. “Are you talking about Lydia?”
“She ran off with a man she knew for but a few weeks,” Darcy said. “Not that she deserves to be married to a man like Wickham,” he insisted, “but she chose to run off with him, if only he had taken her.”
Elizabeth felt herself growing angrier every moment. “What aboutyourfamily? You seem to be astute, but I would not say wise decision-making is a family trait.”
He gave her a look of haughty composure. “You mean my sister?” he said in surprise. “She is the victim of a blackguard!”
“Yes, she is, but, like Lydia, Georgiana alsochoseto run off with him.”
“It is hardly the same as the behaviour of your mother and sisters. Your family’s want of propriety showed me a disaster such as this was inevitable.”
He was afraid for Georgiana, and she had tried to sympathise with him, but now she lost all compassion in anger. “My mother wants us wed before my father dies because she cannot take care of us and my father will leave us nothing. Lydia is thoughtless and idle and was ripe to be taken advantage of. But Georgiana has no excuse to run off with the first man to show her interest. She is wealthy and well-connected and, in time, could have any worthy man for a husband, but she seems exceedingly eager for a man’s attention. Why is that?”
She saw him start at this, but he said nothing, and she continued, “Georgiana must have been meeting with Wickham or writing to him secretly while you were with her in Ramsgate. She hid that from you, and she hid her intention to elope. You must have told her to avoid Wickham, but she met him despite your guidance. And she clearly did not care that eloping with anyone, let alone Wickham, would wound you.”
“You have said quite enough,” he said in a cool voice. “We can make it clear we are travelling together, but, for both our sakes, let us pretend we are so accustomed to one another’s company that we can have nothing further to say.”
“Gladly!”
He withdrew his eye, and she shifted away from him, but not before tossing his handkerchief in his direction before she looked to the window.
The impropriety of Lydia’s and her mother’s conduct must hurt her credit, but Darcy seemed to think he and Georgiana were withoutflaws. His sister had eloped too. He might have good principles, he might be handsome and clever, but Darcy was all pride and rudeness.
She had to rely on him, however. They had to work together to keep Georgiana and her reputation safe, not to mention her own person while they were on this misadventure. But the sooner they recovered Georgiana, and she was rid of Darcy’s company, the happier she would be.
When Darcy woke up,it took him a moment to remember where he was. He rubbed his eyes in a vain attempt to force more wakefulness into his mind. They still had the mail coach to themselves, but surely now that it was day, more tickets would be sold to replace the two scoundrels who left them last night.
