“Extra for the third, ya know,” the hackney driver informed Mr. Darcy.
“Just drive. The Cock and Bull on Whitechapel High Street.”
Upon reaching the inn, Wickham’s story was confirmed. The innkeeper greeted Wickham with a frown, taking down a dirty sheet of paper on which he had figured how much was owed to him for the young woman’s food. “She took quite a bit of food with her when she left,” the innkeeper complained.
“Which way did she go?” Mr. Darcy asked, urgently.
At this, the innkeeper turned a bit red. “Well, she asked which way was Gracechurch Street…”
“And?”
“I was a bit upset, you understand, about the food not being paid for.”
“AND?” Darcy roared, utterly frustrated.
It was so unexpected that the innkeeper flinched and answered at once. “I pointed her in the opposite direction.”
“You what? You pointed that young girl deeper into Whitechapel?” Mr. Darcy could not believe his ears.
“Not proud of it,” the man whispered. “A bit worried now, to tell the truth. I got a daughter her age, and I - ”
“Have you heard anything of her?”
“Not a word.”
“When was this?”
“Hold on.” The man closed his eyes and thought hard. Finally he opened them again and said, “Second week in August. Dunno, the eighth, the ninth?”
The Colonel turned to Mr. Darcy. “Well, at least we know what direction she took.”
Returning to the hackney, the Colonel said, “You were telling the truth, Wickham.”
“I told you I was! Now keep your promise and let me go.”
“My word is my bond,” the Colonel said, equably. He bodily lifted Wickham out of the hackney and set him on his feet in the street. “I have let you go.”
“But my hands are tied! My feet!”
“I said nothing about untying you,” the Colonel said. “Only that I would let you go.”
And with that, the two men climbed into the hackney and gave the driver the direction to Matlock House. “I will prize that look of shock on his face to my dying day,” the Colonel told his cousin.
“As will I, Richard. I wonder if he will be able to return to Mrs. Younge’s boarding house.”
“More likely, he will be set upon by ruffians for nothing more than the boots he wears,” the Colonel grinned wolfishly. “This is, after all, Whitechapel.”
***
When Mr. Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam returned to Matlock House, Georgiana was waiting for them. “Brother!” she cried, throwing her arms about his neck.
“Georgiana!” he laughed. “I take it you are glad to see me?”
“As you are to see me, of course!” she teased him.
Indeed, he wasveryglad to see her. After a most distasteful morning spent in unpleasant surroundings, he was much relieved to be in a lovely home, surrounded by his family. He winced, thinking now that poor Miss Lydia must have been ingreat distress at having been brought to the Cock and Bull. She was certainly not accustomed to such lodgings; for all the girl’s many faults, she had not merited such treatment. And now it appeared that she had gone even deeper into the slums of Whitechapel. It was unimaginable that such a thing could happen to a well-born young woman. And it was all his fault! He closed his eyes for a moment, feeling shame and anxiety.
“What is it, Brother?” Georgiana was looking at him anxiously.
