Page 100 of His Pride and His Prejudice

“Yes,” Elliot said. “Please apologise for us to Miss Darcy. Say that urgent business calls us home immediately. Conceal the unhappy truth as long as it is possible. I know it cannot be long.”

Darcy readily assured Elliot of his secrecy, again expressed his sorrow for the distress the news had brought them, and in the next minute was away on a borrowed horse from the innkeeper and was back in Pemberley within the hour.

He wondered as he made the short journey to Pemberley whether he should have taken Elliot aside, offered some comfort, some consolation, but the time would come for them to share such things, and it was not yet. Besides, Darcy was a man who was always minded to action before anything else, and when a plan formed within him, he was apt to simply get it done and then consider the nature of it after the fact.

So resolved, he strode into Pemberley and demanded, “I need you both,” as he came upon Bingley and Fitzwilliam in one of the apartments, cards and drinks in hand.

“At this hour?” Charles asked.

“We have urgent business,” Darcy said. “Pack a bag.”

“Where are we going?” Fitzwilliam asked, but he stood immediately.

“To London,” Darcy said and quickly he told them the whole of it, this time including what had happened the previous year with Georgiana. Fitzwilliam as Georgiana’s guardian was well aware of it, but Charles knew only the briefest of what had happened, and he threw his cards on the table in disgust once he understood the whole.

“Wickham should have been dealt with last year! Shipped him off abroad somewhere or some such thing!”

“Yes,” Darcy agreed. “I regret not doing so now, but at the time, Georgiana?—”

“Her protection was paramount,” Fitzwilliam said, “we could risk no scandal to her reputation.”

“As it is,” Darcy said, “Louis Bennet faces a similar scandal.”

“The only option now is for them to marry,” Fitzwilliam said, and Darcy nodded his agreement.

“Too many people are aware of what has happened. Colonel Forster?—”

“He is a reliable chap,” Fitzwilliam said, “and would keep his counsel.”

“His very young wife would not,” Darcy added. “Besides, there are others in the regiment who are aware, not to mention whoever they have seen in London. No, it is a marriage and a mating or nothing now. It is the only way to save Louis, and therefore Elliot’s reputation.”

“And Jack’s,” Bingley said softly.

“Indeed.”

Fitzwilliam looked at them both, and he started as he realised exactly what was happening. Despite his dark mood, Darcy almost laughed.

“You are going to make Elliot an offer,” Fitzwilliam said, and it was not a question.

Bingley laughed. “He already did, old chap! Elliot Bennet refused him!”

Fitzwilliam was all astonishment. “Refused?”

“I am hopeful he now has a change of heart,” Darcy said.

“And you, Bingley?” Fitzwilliam demanded.

“I too am hopeful that not all is lost with his brother, Jack.”

“Even though you willingly abandoned him?”

“Yes.”

Fitzwilliam sighed even as he picked his jacket up from the back of his chair. He noted that Bingley had almost a winning hand and would likely have fleeced him for another shilling on top of what he had already taken tonight so maybe this interruption was not a bad thing, especially as Fitzwilliam did not have another shilling to give him! His pockets were completely to let!

“So, we are to go careering off to London in the dead of night,” he said. “To save the brother of the men you both love? The brother who has been completely selfish and unthinking of his entire family?”

“Indeed.”

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