Elizabeth narrowed her eyes. “What of him?”
Her aunt wetted her lips, drawing in a careful breath. “Well, I am sure he feels responsible for you. He was… rather distressed, when he came to the house this afternoon. I can well imagine that… naturally, after the fear of what might be, the exertion of searching for you… well, any man might be…”
“Emotional?” Elizabeth scoffed. “You do not know Mr. Darcy.”
“Certainly he was relieved,” her aunt pressed. “It would be quite expected for a gentlemen to… express himself with some… vehemence…”
“Aunt,” Elizabeth sighed, “what are youasking?”
Mrs. Gardiner swallowed. “Has he given you… too many assurances? More than… your connection would warrant?”
Elizabeth stiffened slightly, her pulse stuttering. But then she forced a smile, shaking her head. “No,” she said softly. “That is not the case.”
Her aunt studied her carefully, her expression warm but curious.
Elizabeth swallowed past the sudden tightness in her throat. “He has done only what we originally agreed upon,” she insisted. “No more, and certainly no less. I will have to find a way to thank him for his kindness someday. As a friend.”
Mrs. Gardiner was silent for a long moment before she reached up, brushing a stray curl from Elizabeth’s forehead. “Perhaps,” she said gently, “he has already received his thanks.”
Elizabeth blinked, but before she could respond, her aunt squeezed her hands once more. “You should rest, my dear. We will speak in the morning.”
Elizabeth nodded, allowing herself to sink into the bed as Mrs. Gardiner moved toward the door.
But as the door clicked shut and the fire flickered in the dim room, Elizabeth could not shake the quiet ache in her chest.
She did not want to leave this house.
She did not want to leavehim.
Chapter Thirty
“Well?” the earl demandedas he strode into the study. “I have been receiving reports all night, but I would rather hear it from you. What in Heaven’s name happened?”
The air in the room shifted with his arrival. His heavy footfalls echoed over the wooden floor as he removed his gloves and handed them off to the waiting servant. His gaze swept across the room, landing on each of them in turn, his expression expectant and unyielding.
Darcy shot to his feet. “What happened, Uncle, is that Miss Bennet was abducted under false pretenses, smuggled about the city, and nearly—” He stopped, his hands clenched into fists. His breath came too fast, his pulse hammering in his ears. “She might have been killed! That is what happened.”
Lord Matlock met his fury with an impassive expression, nodding toward Richard. “Give me the details.”
Richard stepped in front of Darcy. “You will not get anything rational out of him just now, I am afraid. We told you that Miss Bennet had disappeared this afternoon, and it turned out that our worst suspicions were true. She was mistaken for some other person and taken to the warehouses where, as you were suspecting, they had been holding French prisoners destined for the cargo holds. And from there, she was moved twice before we found her.”
The earl shook his head. “And then what? A fight? I see no blood on your knuckles. The Runners I sent said nothing of any altercations. They just handed her to you?”
“No,” Darcy said. “There was no one guarding her.”
The earl narrowed his eyes. “Theyletyou take her. Something is amiss.”
“I think not, Father,” Richard put in. “The docks were overrun with your men, and we saw evidence that there had been men in the building mere moments before we arrived. I think you scattered them. It made matters rather clean for recovering Miss Bennet, but somewhat the worse for ratting out the root of the trouble in the future. You know as well as I do this was more than simple piracy.”
Darcy exhaled sharply. “More than piracy? It was targeted. They thought she was one of them, some contact meant to receive that bloody key and letter.”
“Because someone in Gardiner’s house was a contact,” Richard reminded him. “I think it was a woman. That was how they mistook Miss Bennet in the first place.”
The earl rubbed a hand over his jaw. “So, it was exactly as I feared.”
Darcy turned on him, barely restraining himself. “What you feared? Uncle, you set this entire thing in motion, did you not? You placed Miss Bennet under scrutiny, used her connection to Gardiner to draw the rats out of hiding, and all the while, you knew she was innocent.” His voice dropped, low and lethal. “She was in real danger. Andyoudid nothing to prevent it!”
The earl did not flinch. “I did what was necessary.”
