“Mr. Smithson!” she gasped.
The man’s face was twisted in fury, his coat torn at the shoulder. He did not speak—only thrashed and kicked against his captors.
“What were you doing near the nursery?” Mr. Gardiner demanded.
Smithson glared. “None of your business.”
“It most certainly is my business!” Gardiner snapped. “That’s my family’s private quarters! You were not invited to this house—nor were you permitted upstairs!”
Mrs. Gardiner looked like she might faint.
Darcy stepped forward, his voice low and dangerous. “Why were you here?”
Still Smithson said nothing.
“I am sending for the constable,” Mr. Gardiner said. “You will answer for this attempt to harm my children.”
“Sir William is the magistrate, and he is here tonight,” Elizabeth reminded her uncle. “We should have him join us as well.”
At that, Smithson gave a violent jerk and broke free. One of the footmen slipped on the polished floor, and in the next instant, Smithson was bolting for the door. Guests in the corridor cried out in alarm, but he was gone before anyone could react.
“Get after him!” Mr. Gardiner bellowed, but it was already too late.
Everyone stood frozen in stunned silence. Mrs. Gardiner clutched her husband’s arm, white-faced. Kitty peeked nervously from the doorway.
Mr. Gardiner clenched his fists. “That man will pay for this.”
Chapter 12
The chaos naturally caused the card party to end early. Darcy could tell Elizabeth wished to remain at Stoke House with her aunt and uncle, but Mr. Gardiner insisted that she return to Netherfield.
“It is much too dangerous for you here, Lizzy. I need to know you are safe with your friends.”
“But what about my aunt and the children?” she protested.
Darcy cleared his throat. “If I may be so bold, sir, I should like to offer the use of a few footmen and stable hands from Netherfield. I shall send them over in the carriage as soon as we arrive.”
Mr. Gardiner’s shoulders sagged in relief. “Normally I would tell you not to wake them at this hour, but I value my family’s safety too much to refuse. We still have not finished fully staffing the property, and our servants are spread a bit thin.”
“We shall leave immediately, then, so they may come as quickly as possible.”
With that, Darcy escorted Elizabeth to the carriage, where the Hursts were already waiting on one of the benches. As soon as the door closed behind him, Darcy tapped the roof with his cane. “Quickly, please,” he called out.
Along the way, Mrs. Hurst fretted and whimpered, while her husband patted her hand in an attempt to keep her calm. Darcy looked down at Elizabeth, who sat next to him on the seat. A small part of him thrilled at their close proximity, but he tampered down the feeling and asked her, “Are you quite all right, Miss Elizabeth?”
Looking up at him with wide, solemn eyes, she whispered, “I simply do not understand what Mr. Smithson would want with my cousins. They are quite young and unable to give him any information about the fire or what occurred. And to attempt to enter the nursery in the middle of the night! There was no need—”
She froze, her words cutting abruptly off as she went pale. “What if he was not after them?”
“What do you mean?” he frowned. “It is not as if the man accidentally went there instead of, say, your uncle’s study. Everyone knows that children of an estate are usually kept in the upstairs rooms.”
“No, not the wrong room; the wrongchildren. What if he were looking for Benjamin?”
The pieces clicked together in Darcy’s brain. “The baby you found in London? But is he not staying at Longbourn?”
“Yes, but what if Mr. Smithson did not know that? In our conversation the other day, he asked where Benjamin was. I told him that the Gardiners had offered to take him, but before I could explain that he was at Longbourn instead, I was interrupted.”
Darcy thought furtively back to the interrogation he had witnessed. “I do believe you are right.”
