Page 137 of A Debt Inherited

Any man might say he came from her father. Mr Wickham had once looked injured by injustice while he arranged ruin with both hands. Mr Kerr spoke of old debts and called cruelty an accounting. A voice through wood could not become truth because she longed for it.

Beyond the door, she heard Mr Wickham. “That is more than one word.”

Elizabeth’s jaw tightened. He had delivered her into darkness, and yet counted words as if manners still governed the room.

A pause followed; then Mr Kerr’s voice came nearer. “Now we speak.”

The stranger answered at once. “We speak when Miss Bennet stands outside that door.”

Elizabeth drew a breath.

He had asked for her liberty first. Not money. Not terms. Not his own safety. Hers.

“No,” Mr Kerr said.

“Then you have no bargain.”

Mr Kerr moved; she knew his tread now. “You brought stones.”

A heavy sound hit the table.

Mr Wickham made some small sound; she could not tell whether alarm or anger.

The stranger said, “I brought what your messenger deserved.”

Her anger rose so swiftly that it steadied her better than hope had done. Mr Wickham deserved more than stones.

He deserved irons, plain and public.

Mr Kerr’s voice lowered. “And yet you came.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“To acquaint myself with your arrangements.”

Elizabeth shut her eyes. She did not know this man. She had never heard his name before.

Mr Wickham had fallen quiet. Mr Kerr’s answer came a beat too late. Whoever this stranger was, he had not entered the room as they had expected.

“Ten thousand pounds,” Mr Kerr said.

“Yes. For Miss Bennet’s release.”

Elizabeth’s stomach turned. The sum stood beyond reason.

“That was yesterday,” Mr Kerr said. “To-day it is thirty thousand. Your arrival has altered the account.”

Thirty thousand.

Ten thousand pounds would break Longbourn. Thirty thousand was not ransom, but malice dressed as arithmetic.

“A sensible amendment,” Mr Wickham said.

Elizabeth stared at the door as if she could strike him through it.

“My man of business can arrange the sum for only Miss Bennet,” the stranger said.