“But I possess the common license,” he added quickly. “And the marriage settlements have been signed.”
“That helps,” Richard said.
They fell silent for a moment.
“If she has been drugged,” Bingley said slowly, “we cannot take her far. Scotland would be impossible.”
Darcy nodded. “Gretna Green is too distant in her condition, so an elopement is out of the question.”
“Then we must consider where we might hide her,” Richard said.
“London?” Bingley suggested.
Darcy shook his head immediately. “The house there would be the first place I searched. Pemberley as well.”
“But she has relatives there,” Bingley responded. “Maybe the Gardiners—”
“Too obvious,” Richard interrupted.
They all fell quiet again for several minutes, then Lady Anne spoke. “Perhaps… Kent?”
Three heads turned toward her. “Rosings,” she added softly. “My sister, Catherine, is there.”
The room went very still.
Lady Anne shrank slightly beneath their sudden attention.
“Perhaps it is foolish,” she said quickly. “I only thought—if a betrothed wished to hide a girl from her family… sending her to the sister of the betrothed’s stepmother might not be a connection they would make.”
Richard leaned forward and kissed her cheek. “Aunt Anne,” he said warmly, “you are brilliant.”
She flushed at once. “I was only attempting to think in the opposite direction of London, Derbyshire, and Scotland,” she said modestly. “Somewhere southern that would not immediately appear connected to Darcy.”
Darcy’s mind raced.
Kent. Rosings. Lady Catherine.
It would indeed take time before anyone suspected such a place.
“Yes,” he said slowly. “Yes, that might delay discovery long enough.”
He rose abruptly.
“Lady Anne, pack what you can of your belongings and Georgiana’s.”
She blinked.
“You mean to take us with you?”
“I will not leave you at Netherfield without protection,” Darcy said firmly. “If I must leave to retrieve Elizabeth, you must come with me.”
Lady Anne nodded at once. “And it preserves a degree of propriety,” she added quietly.
Richard stood. “I will go with you as well, of course.”
Darcy did not argue.
“Are you taking the ladies with you to Longbourn tonight, then?” Bingley asked.
