“As to your last, she has been told that more than once. I have impressed upon her that if she ever attempts a compromise, I will not support her, and I will cut her dowry by more than half. With regards to who will be mistress of the estate, I will request that my Aunt Hildebrand join us, which will accomplish two aims.” Seeing Darcy’s questioning look, Bingley expounded. “Caroline, who will demand to be myhostess but will be denied, will not gainsay our aunt. Also, I would prefer that my older sister, who would happily take the role and execute it with aplomb, not be forced into such a public role. You know how ignorant people make comments and judge her because of her birthmark, do you not?”
“Unfortunately, I do.”
“Speaking of sisters, where is Miss Darcy this summer?” Bingley queried.
“She is in Ramsgate with her companion. When Anna turned fifteen in March, I advertised for ladies who were qualified to be companions. I employed one, and about three weeks ago, in June, I took them to Ramsgate to my house opposite the beach. In fact, after our meeting I am taking Zeus and riding there. I will pass my coach with my valet in it on the way. It is a surprise for my sister, as I was to arrive in another sennight, but my business concluded much sooner than I expected.” Darcy stood, preparing to depart. “What date will you take up residence at the leased estate?”
“Monday, the thirtieth day of September, this year,” Bingley replied.
“In that case, my friend, I will arrive on the first Thursday in October. It will give you time as a family to get situated in your new home.” Darcy extended his hand. After the shake of their hands, he was off.
Bingley left White’s at a much more unhurried pace, greeting acquaintances as he did.
Darcy had not told his friend that part of his reason for wanting to get to Ramsgate sooner than he had told Anna he would be there, was that in the last almost fortnight, she had not written to him, and that was not normal for her. When they were separated, they wrote to one another at least once a week.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
‘Why oh why did I not invite Richard to join me? He would not have allowed the bastard to escape. But this is all my fault, is it not? I am the one who employed Mrs Younge without verifying her characters, and it was me who permitted her to take Anna to Ramsgate after only a few months in my employ,’ Darcy thought as he and his sister rode back towards London in the travelling coach. ‘Praise be that He directed me to Ramsgate a sennight before I intended to arrive.’
Darcy did not have to close his eyes to see everything that had occurred when he had arrived at his house in Ramsgate two days previously.
He had caught up to his coach at a rest stop about an hour out of the town. After a brief stop, he had decided to join Carstens, his valet, in the coach and left the postillion to follow on riding Zeus after the horse had adequate rest.
The ride to his house had been unremarkable; however as soon as he arrived, his suspicions had been heightened. There had been no footman on duty outside the front door. It was expressly against the instructions he had left before leaving Anna and Mrs Younge alone at the house with the staff and servants.
He was grateful that the Thompson brothers were on the back bench. The older brother had been a footman at Pemberley for five years and the younger only a year. However, both were large, with quick reflexes, and very brawny. If that were not enough, they were very loyal to the Darcys. In hindsight, he should have sent one of the brothers to the kitchen door, but rather, Darcy told them and Carstens to follow him.
The front door was not locked, so Darcy had pushed it open slowly. The butler obviously made sure that the hinges were well lubricated, as it made not a sound. His suspicions that all was not well screamed when he saw Mrs Younge looking through a doorthat was cracked open while she rubbed her hands together in glee.
“What is going on here?” Darcy had boomed.
The lady at the door went white as if she had seen a ghost and managed to call out, “George, run!”
Hearing the name ‘George’ Darcy’s blood went cold in his veins. He opened the door to find Anna on the floor, crying, and he saw the retreating back of the hated George Wickham as the miscreant used the servants’ door to escape the room.
While one Thompson brother was restraining Mrs Young, Darcy sent the other one and Carstens to attempt to apprehend Wickham.
When Anna calmed, she told William how the day after he left Ramsgate when she and Mrs Younge went for a walk, they had met George by chance, or so she had believed.
She told of how he began to call and how Mrs Younge encouraged her affections towards him. The worst of her tale was that she had not only agreed to marry the profligate seducer but to elope with him as well. She had thought only of the romance of presenting herself at Pemberley as the wife of William’s childhood friend and their late father’s godson.
At that moment, Darcy had understood that his judgement was far from infallible. When Richard said he was not doing Anna any favours by keeping her ignorant, his cousin had been right.
Just then, the older Thompson and Carstens had returned to report that their quarry had evaded them. They had not found a trace of him. It seemed he had had a horse waiting for him on the other side of the rear fence of the house. Darcy had told Thompson to have his brother bring Mrs Younge in.
By this time the woman’s colour had been restored and she looked almost defiant. “After the way you cheated George out of his inheritance, he was to take your mousy sister from you along with her dowry as revenge. You had better not have harmed him. I toldhim to report you to a magistrate…” Mrs Younge had closed her mouth when Darcy had let out a bark of derisive laughter.
“Are you insane? Given my wealth, properties, and income, what need have I to cheat anyone of anything? More than that, contrary to the man whose lies you believed, I am a man of honour. Had my father left Wicky a penny, he would have received it,” Darcy had bitten out. “Do you know that my father’s last favour to his former godson was sparing him from the gallows?”
“Y-y-you l-lie,” Mrs Younge had stammered.
“Unlike the man who fooled you into committing fraud and being party to his crimes, I have proof. That includes the agreement he signed in order to have my father release him. In it he signed acknowledging his crimes and that he was aware if he transgressed again, he would be arrested, tried, and hung. As you saw fit to be his compatriot, his crimes are now yours.” Darcy had stared at the woman who had lost all of her colour again and had begun to shake with fear.
“I did not know,” Mrs Younge wailed.
While the Thompsons watched the former companion, Darcy took Anna up to her chamber to see if anything was missing. As he suspected, almost all of the jewellery his sister had—pieces from their mother, some of the only things of hers Anna owned—were gone.
By the time he went downstairs again, the staff and servants had returned, telling of how Mrs Younge, whom Mr Darcy had put in charge—another mistake he made—had given them all a half day, and not for the first time. Darcy sent Anna’s maid up to her and made for the drawing room. There, a petrified Mrs Younge admitted she pilfered the items and gave them to George.
