Elizabeth narrowed her eyes at all three of them.
The twins met her scrutiny without flinching.
Lydia, to her credit, appeared only mildly guilty.
This was almost certainly a scheme.
The difficulty lay in determining its purpose.
Mr. Bennet did occasionally summon one of his daughters to the library. He also took considerable delight in allowing his younger sons to serve as messengers, knowing full well they regarded every errand as a mission of state.
Elizabeth exhaled.
“If this proves to be another emergency involving a missing dog, I shall have all three of you copying sermons until Twelfth Night.”
“We understand,” Thomas said solemnly.
Toby crossed two fingers behind his back.
Lydia kissed Elizabeth’s cheek. “Go on.”
Elizabeth made her way down the hall with growing suspicion. The library door stood closed. No sound emerged from within.
She knocked.
No answer.
That should have warned her more thoroughly than anything else.
She turned the handle and stepped inside.
The room was empty.
Or so she believed for approximately half a second.
Darcy stood near the hearth, gloves in one hand, an expression of such startled recognition on his face that Elizabeth’s suspicions were confirmed.
The door clicked behind her.
She turned.
The handle refused to turn. It was a double-keyed mechanism, and it took but a moment to ascertain that the key on the other side had been removed.
For one moment, Elizabeth could do nothing but stare at the polished wood.
Then she understood. Of course.
When she turned back to Darcy, he appeared equally astonished and more than a little alarmed.
“I was informed that Mr. Bennet wished to speak with me.”
Elizabeth gave a short laugh that hovered somewhere between embarrassment and surrender.
“And I received the same message.”
From beyond the door came the unmistakable patter of retreating feet, followed by Lydia’s muffled whisper.
“Run!”
