The quickly written letter was then handed, closed over, sealed with wax and an official seal that General Fitzwilliam produced from his coat.
After he called to Becky, and handed the paper to her, General Fitzwilliam sat back in the thin chair that creaked under him with a moderately worried air.
“Ought I…” Elizabeth paused, and then she spoke quickly, in a single breath, to get the idea out.“Ought I perhaps stand trial for what he accuses me of?There was no money, and I can charge him with his attempt to violate me, and surely a jury would listen to me, and then that would be the end of the matter.”
“No.Too unsafe,” Darcy said sharply.“If you are captured by the law, we will pursue every avenue of that sort, and we shall destroy Lord Lechery’s name, and bring all his enemies out to court to testify as to his character, but a jury is a chancy thing.We are going to do this carefully and systematically.Your safety and your life matter more than any other consideration in this matter.”
“Too many blasted privileges for the titled,” General Fitzwilliam growled at them both.“Jury of his peers.We ought to be accusinghim.If England was as well governed as we pretend it is, my dear cousin would be hung by his neck till dead, but that is impossible.Even if a good accusation and case was made against him, he would be tried by the House of Lords, and I greatly doubt that my father and his ilk would be so hypocritical as to condemn him for what the rest of them do.”
Lachglass had been here below, in this house.He wanted to hang her.She needed to call on that strength in her again, to remain calm.Elizabeth made herself smile thinly at General Fitzwilliam.“A rather radical opinion you express now.I had not detected such attitudes in you when we conversed at Rosings those pretty years before.”
“Hmmph.Hadn’t had them, not yet.But even if I had… you’ve pounded the head of a peer in.Don’t pretend innocence, Miss Bennet.I salute you for it.But it gives me a courage to freely speak to you, as freely as I think — Darcy, could you give orders to have your carriage prepared?We’ll ride out to the docks soon as my men join us.”
Chapter Seven
Darcy paced back and forth and back again on the ground floor room of the house they had gathered in to wait for General Fitzwilliam’s soldiers.Anxiety ate at the back of his throat.He’d brought Elizabeth down, supporting her with his arm as she needed help still to get down the stairs.Now she sat pale faced but composed in a winged armchair that she made to look like a throne.
Elizabeth was astonishing, the way she could keep some sort of calmness at such a moment.
He could not.
It was three quarters of an hour after Richard sent his message out when ten soldiers on horseback clattered up to the entrance of Darcy’s house.They dismounted as a body.All of them wore the splendid red-coated uniforms of the British army, and they carried the long muskets of the infantry with them, in addition to pistols and cavalry sabers.A splendidly armed and well equipped group.
They entered the house, General Fitzwilliam embraced the young officer who led them, a lean young major with fine sideburns.“Excellent.Are you ready to defy law and order if you must?”
The officer smirked, “If Imust.”
“I’ll do my part to keep from getting the whole gang of us hung, but I make no promise.”
“Of course not, sir.”He grinned back and raised his eyebrows.
Darcy studied the officer, who had the uniform of a major.While Lord Lechery and General Fitzwilliam looked a little similar, looking at this man was like looking at one of Richard’s brothers.
“My aide de camp,” General Fitzwilliam introduced the officer to Darcy and Elizabeth, “Major Williams.”
Darcy shook the officer’s hand, while Elizabeth smiled and inclined her head.“A pleasure to meet you, Major Williams,” she said in her clear, pleasant voice.
“And likewise, madam.”He bowed smiling at the pretty woman, and Darcy had to suppress a jealous instinct.
General Fitzwilliam studied the group of his men with satisfaction.He then said to Darcy’s butler, “Around, around now.The carriage.”He stepped to the window and peered out again with a frown.“Our friend Mr.Blight is gone.I suspect he is reporting the arrival of the men to his slaver.”He clapped his hands.“Let’s move.Quick now.Battle waits for no man.”
Elizabeth had a decidedly amused smile.
“What entertains you?”Darcy quietly said to her.
“Just that I once considered you to be the one with the demanding, and commanding manner, and him to be the one who served at your leisure.”She smirked, mischievously so both dimples showed.“I clearly recall Colonel Fitzwilliam’s complaints upon how you put off the date of departure, which was a problem as you both travelled inyourcarriage.”
“I had a particular reason to desire to stay in the neighborhood, as you may recall.”Darcy smiled back, unable to resist her amusement.
“Now he is commandingyourcarriage.Such is the difference the rank ofGeneralmakes.”
“I hope, by Jove, I hope the General knows what he is about.”
“I as well,” Elizabeth replied.
“Rise, rise!”Colonel Fitzwilliam waved at them both.“Your conveyance awaits, Mrs.Benoit.”
Elizabeth took Darcy’s offered arm, and she tottered forward.Every moment Darcy watched her, worried that she would become sick again, or faint, or something else horrible.
