Darcy ran across the room to grab his cousin around the waist and take his weight. The footman glanced up and down the hall to see if anyone noticed, shut the door quietly, calmly righted the chair, and climbed up to cut the officer down with a penknife. Darcy did not know whether to shout in frustration at the delay or offer sincere thanks for keeping his cousin’s disgrace secret. Seeing no evidence the delay was harmful, he held his peace.
Darcy and the footman, who introduced himself as Mr Barrow, laid the colonel on the bed and listened for signs of life. His breathing was ragged and uneven, but present. They both breathed a sigh of relief. The colonel might finish dying in the coming days or weeks, but it looked like he might yet survive the episode.
~~~
Some indeterminate time after her fall, Elizabeth woke with a start, confused and disoriented, head hurting abominably, and, truth be told, somewhat disappointed in herself. She had no idea whether she was more disappointed with her past or her future. The next several hours would be spent trying to help the people she loved in America—Anne and the servants—overcome a feeling of guilt they would no doubt entertain for quite some time, even though she was clearly uninjured and no harm was done. For a moment, since she was perfectly intact, she considered simply refraining from admitting the mishap; or at least, she might have done so had she not bled all over her best dress. The hope vanished when she brushed the hair out of her face and found it sticky and her neck coated in dried blood.
At length, Elizabeth started once again reflecting on her past, since the immediate future looked so bleak. The incident prompted her to think about bravery versus cowardice, and she was not impressed with the results.When and why had shegiven up the pianoforte?Why was her head the only part of her body to make any music in the past four years? In truth, that music had not been auspicious, but it had beensomething. She had lost one of her five senses, so why had she given up the other four without a fight? A pianoforte had keys that made music! The keys never moved, never changed, never sniggered or criticised, never whispered, never deviated from their purpose. They were always patient, always ready, always prepared to make music for anybody with the courage to learn and sit at the instrument. Every key made the same sound it would make if she could see it.
Elizabeth Bennet possessed a remarkable memory and a good ear for music; why, then, had she abandoned a beloved pursuit merely because it became difficult? Was it because the music so powerfully reminded her of what she had lost, when she had boasted so confidently to Mr Darcy of what she had gained? Why had she conceded the field without a struggle?
~~~
“Mr Darcy,” Barrow asked, “are you more inclined to speed or stealth when I go for the doctor, or do you prefer to dispense with him altogether?”
Darcy appreciated the man’s sensibility. “Speed will do, I believe, Mr Barrow. I would not spend the rest of my life regretting our actions today. Take my horse if it serves.”
Barrow bowed and departed for Hunsford. The doctor knew how to keep his mouth shut so long as his purse was open, so there would be no difficulty on that score. Mr Darcy seemed a generous man, and Barrow suspected he would prefer less gossip to more. He took a moment to speak to a few other trustworthy servants to ensure he could serve both goals at once. The doctor would return to Rosings through a side door and corridors kept empty. Once a quiet entrance was arranged,Barrow headed to the stables. Mr Darcy’s offer of his horse was tempting, but he decided on a comfortable old nag he frequently used to carry messages for Lady Catherine. Barrow had no doubt Mr Darcy would make things right when the time came, but there was little benefit in presuming too much or dealing with an unfamiliar animal.
Dr Barnes made good speed and attended Rosings within the hour, finding the colonel in as good a condition as might be expected for a man who hanged himself. The bed rope proved as effective as any other, and the doctor pronounced the intervention entirely timely, though nearly too late.
Two hours later found Barrow and two other footmen in Pemberley’s employ and sworn to secrecy. None of the men repented the change in status in the least. Lady Catherine was a much better employer since Miss Bennet had come for her brief stay, but all three men thought Mr Darcy likely to be a better master. Mrs Barrow was also from Derbyshire, so it would be like coming home.
Darcy eventually decided he must check on Jane and Bingley, so he left the colonel in the charge of his three new footmen and considered his course. He must keep the knowledge of his cousin’s actions as quiet as possible for any chance of averting a great scandal. He wondered if Lady Catherine should be one of those to know. He owed it to her as both the estate’s mistress and a close relation, but in the end, he lacked the heart to wound her once again. If she discovered his silence she would be vexed, but she had been vexed with him before and would be again. This might be a greater offence than most, but he would survive it. He simply could not add another burden to his aunt’s cares.
~~~
The first key Elizabeth pressed in four years was an ordinary note—Middle C, as it happened—or at least it would have beenhad the pianoforte not been so far out of tune as to make a stone-deaf codger cringe.It was a start.
Elizabeth attempted a scale. Despite her blindness, the keys remained where she remembered them. She could play a scale and pretend the only fault lay in the instrument’s tuning. Such excuses would not serve for long, but they would do for the moment.It was a start.
A half-hour or more of scales—up and down, left hand, right hand—and Elizabeth was as ready as she was likely to be. She attempted a child’s air, one she had taught her niece Gardiner, barely six years old, before she lost her sight. Her niece would have been appalled at both the instrument’s poor quality and Elizabeth’s want of precision, butit was a start.
For a half-hour, then an hour, then two and three, Elizabeth Bennet sat at the worst pianoforte she had ever heard and did her best to reclaim another fragment of her soul and equanimity.It was a start.
She would no longer surrender one sense to fear. She could and would play and sing again, and she would do it with pleasure… eventually. Perhaps, some day, she might be able to follow the advice she had given her sister, and could even address Mr Darcy with aplomb, or at least apologise for not allowing him to offer redress. Of course, she would have to do it by letter, written by Anne and passed stealthily through Lady Catherine, but she owed the man that much.
For the moment, Elizabeth resolved to exchange real courage for whatever had passed for it before. She sat at the pianoforte until sounds of approach echoed in the parlour, then quietly made her way to her room to tend to her head. She knew Hannah, the maid, would check on her nearly as soon as she entered, and could perhaps bandage her injury and help her make herself presentable before the rest of the house descendedinto panic. Such a plan was too optimistic by half, but it was all she had.
~~~
Before leaving to check on the hopefully engaged couple, Darcy determined he needed to get the colonel to Pemberley as soon as possible, and get his care under the direction of his own physician. He owned a hunting lodge that would do for the task, though there was also a perfectly suitable lodge a few miles away on the Rosings estate he could use if necessary. Darcy had no special concerns about the local Hunsford doctor, but that gentleman had not been attending the Darcy family for two generations. He would be more comfortable with his own physician, which suggested Derbyshire was the best place to be.
The colonel might also need a nurse for a time, but she would have to be trustworthy and silent. Richard’s commanding officer might know someone who acted in that capacity, or Darcy would have to ask someone else. The fewer people who knew what happened, the better.
He probably owed Jane Bennet the truth. As much as it would distress the lady, she was tougher than she looked, and honour demanded she know the entire story. Perhaps she would know someone trustworthy to act as nurse. He would make that decision later, though, as there was no hurry to acquaint anyone with the unpleasant situation. He tried not to consider too deeply whether that was kindness or procrastination.
Darcy chuckled. After a decade in the first circles of society, with all the finest families in England, the only people outside his family he truly trusted were Bingley, three footmen he had not met that morning, and the collective eldest three Bennet sisters. The two eldest were clearly beyond reproach in every way. He also judged Mrs Collins entirely trustworthy, but hewould never burden a wife with knowing something she could not share with her husband.
Darcy knew decisions made in anger were more likely to be wrong than right, so he resolved to defer his choices regarding his cousin for some time. Once Jane Bennet was happily married, there was no rush to do anything. While he had been tempted to let his cousin finish the job, he just could not allow any man to die by his own hand. Even Wickham would not have been allowed to continue had he been the one hanging. Right or wrong, the church condemned suicides to the lowest levels of Hell, and Darcy could not deliberately allow anybody that fate. If his cousin wanted to be dead so badly, he could go back to Spain or France and find a Frenchman willing do the honours.
The first step was to get him reasonably isolated and give him a chance to either calm down or reflect on his own behaviour. His cousin’s actions with Miss Bennet were so far out of character that Darcy would not be satisfied until he understood the reason; or at least could pretend he did.
The doctor recommended a nurse should be employed to tend the damage to the man’s neck and the injuries from the fight. He suggested someone with experience with life and death—perhaps a war nurse. Darcy sent an express to Fitzwilliam’s commander, both requesting some additional leave and asking if he could arrange for a nurse.
~~~
True to expectation, Hannah came in and threw a right proper fit at Elizabeth’s condition. Naturally, a fit of rage for Hannah was indistinguishable from an ordinary person’s tut-tutting over a child’s skinned knee, so Elizabeth could endure it. Hannah procured warm water and rags, cleaned away the blood, and washed the young lady’s hair.
