Lady Catherine cried, “He has abused me abominably. Laying his hands on me!”
“Richard,” cried Frederica in shock. “How could you do such a thing!”
Richard glared at her. “Once you hear why I did it, you will berate me for not doing more.”
Frederica crouched down by Lady Catherine’s chair and placed her hand on her aunt’s wrist. In a soothing, almost singsong voice, she said, “Pay no attention to Richard and Darcy. You know how foolish men can be, always angry about one thing or another. They do not understand what it means to be a lady or how hard we must strive every day. Perhaps I can explain it to them later when they are calmer.”
Lady Catherine’s head fell forward and she emitted a snore.
Frederica stood and brushed off her hands. “There. Now you can take her to her rooms. She will not awaken for half an hour or so. But you did not see me do that.”
“See what?” asked Richard blandly. “Freddie, you may have saved her life. I was within an inch of strangling her.”
“Within an inch?” asked Frederica. “It looked more like a hair’s breadth to me.”
Richard scooped up Lady Catherine in his arms. “I will take her upstairs and lock her in again. Maybe it will last a little longer this time.”
Darcy waited impatiently until his cousin returned a few minuteslater. “Why did Miss Bennet go back to London?” he demanded.
Richard put his finger to his lips for secrecy. “Come into the library and I will tell you there.”
What was all this secrecy? After the wasted trip to London, Darcy was in no mood for games.
“May I join you?” asked Federica.
“If you do not mind the sight of Darcy losing his temper,” Richard replied genially.
“My temper is already on edge,” Darcy warned as Richard closed the library doors behind him.
“As is mine, I assure you. First, allow me to reassure you Miss Bennet is quite well and is ensconced safely at the Dower House.” Richard opened a decanter and poured a generous glass of port. He offered it to Darcy. “Drink this.”
“I do not want a drink. It is barely noon.”
“You will need this if you want to hear the story.” Richard was using his commanding officer voice, so he was not going to give in.
Annoyed, Darcy took small sip and set the glass aside. “Now what happened?”
“Lady Catherine happened. As soon as you left, she convinced the servants to let her out of her rooms. She would not listen to me, so I left her with her pet parson who had come to call. I decided it was a good day for a very long ride. I had been out for a few hours when one of the grooms came looking for me. The stable master had sent him to tell me there was a distressed young lady at the stables looking for me, crying her eyes out.”
“Not Miss Elizabeth.” Darcy was certain of that. She would never be found sobbing in a stable.
“It was indeed Miss Bennet, begging me to loan her money for the stagecoach to London. She did not want to tell me why, but I insisted. Mr. Collins, following our aunt’s instructions, had named her a witch andcast her out of the house with nothing but the clothes on her back and without a penny to her name.”
Icy rage poured through Darcy. He did not know how he had ended up on his feet, his fists clenched. “I will kill him.”
“You will have to wait until he is well enough to walk and has recovered from losing a few teeth and assorted other injuries,” Richard said with satisfaction. “But he is not the only culprit. When Miss Bennet came here looking for me, she was told Lady Catherine had given orders she was not to be admitted nor to leave messages. That is how she ended up at the stables.”
Frederica’s eyes were wide. “Are you certain Lady Catherine actually asked him to do that?”
Richard nodded emphatically. “She admitted it to me, although it appears that the detail of burning all her possessions was added by Mr. Collins in the hope of earning Lady Catherine’s forgiveness for harboring Miss Bennet. Fortunately, Mrs. Collins managed to save a very few of her things by hiding them away, but if you have any spare clothing, Freddie, Miss Bennet might appreciate it. I took a few things of Anne’s for her, but they are too short.”
“She is at the Dower House, you say?” Darcy demanded
Richard nodded. “She wanted to go to London, but I convinced her this would be better, at least until Beltane. By the way, Darcy, I appropriated a few of the junior staff here and reassigned them to the Dower House. I told them you would dismiss them without a character if they breathed a word to Lady Catherine.”
Darcy wished he could dismiss Lady Catherine without a character. He could not speak to her now, not when his fingers itched to go around her neck. He would never forgive her for this.
“But why?” asked Frederica. “Why would she do such a terrible thing? She has always been difficult, but this is so much worse.”
