Page 28 of Mr. Darcy’s Victorious Bride

The Earl almost smiled. It was not warm. "You have learned politics."

Had he truly learned them so well? The Earl was the second gentleman to offer the same assessment. "Indeed," he returned. "I only hope I have learned them well enough."

At the door the Earl said, "Richard. The Bennet girl. You said she was not ruined."

"She was not."

"And the story. A fever. Visiting her aunt."

"Established. Mrs. Bennet has told half of Meryton."

"Mrs. Bennet. The woman who cannot keep a secret." The Earl nodded slowly. "Then the story will hold. The one useful quality of a woman with a loose tongue is that everyone believes her. Tell her nothing further."

They went down through the cold marble hall, under portraits of Fitzwilliam ancestors in varying attitudes of disapproval, and out into the damp gray square.

Richard breathed out. "He agreed because Graves insulted him. Not because Elizabeth was branded. Because a Chancery Lane solicitor had the audacity to meddle in the Lords' own proceedings. It makes me want to put my fist through something!"

"And observe what we have bought," Darcy said. "A lawful inquiry by a man of business. She hired him to make Elizabeth vanish, and we both know it."

"I know. Today the family's interests and justice happen to share a road. I will take it." Richard put on his hat. "I ride for Meryton this afternoon. Mrs. Darter first. I will look in at Netherfield on my way back." A pause. "Also I want to see whether Miss Maisie has bitten anyone else."

"Elizabeth keeps a tally. I am told it grows."

"That is my girl!"

Richard gave a short, tired laugh. They parted at the corner of the square.

Darcy took a hackney east to Gracechurch Street. His man was waiting in the Gardiners' hall, back from Pemberley with an answer.

Darcy knew his sister's hand. He carried the letter upstairs unopened, to the narrow room the Gardiners had given him. He sat on the edge of the bed a full minute before he broke the seal.

Dear Brother,

You did right. I am only sorry you carried it alone so long, and for my sake. You would not have spoken of it unless he had done it again. Is she safe, whoever she is? Tell me she is safe. I know what she believes of herself this week, because I believed it of myself for a year. If her family would permit it, I should like to write to her. Pray do not decide for me that it would be too painful. I am tired of being spared.

Your loving sister, G.

Darcy read it twice. Then he put his hand over his eyes and sat without moving for some while. Heavens, when had she grown up? He had been so busy protecting a child of fifteen that he had missed her leaving.

He had begun his marriage trying to protect Elizabeth, and had nearly lost her to the protecting. He had spent this week trying to protect them all. Letters, carriages, evidence, bargains in his uncle's study. And all the while they had been doing this. Georgiana asking to be told. Lady Catherine dragging speech back one syllable a night. Mrs. Darter ordering Graves out of her shop.

He was not saving them. He was trying to keep up. How could a man not stand in awe?

That evening, in the Gardiners' parlor, Darcy wrote to Elizabeth. Plainly, completely, without the protective omissions that had nearly cost them everything.

The evidence is secured with Mr. Thornton, whose temperament suggests a man who has survived worse than Mr. Graves. He has a safe, a watchman, and a story about rats in his filing room that I will tell you when I am home.

Graves has called on Mrs. Darter in person and warned her against testifying. Richard rides to Meryton to see her. The Earl has agreed to spare my aunt if she gives the Crown a sworn deposition, and his price is that she be called a victim. I accepted. I am not proud of it, and I will not pretend otherwise to you.

I find myself wanting to tell you that all will be well, and I do not, because I promised you the plain truth. Graves is bolder than I expected, the Earl is colder than I remembered, and I am tired. I miss you. I am worse at all of this without you beside me, and I ask you to note that I have admitted it in writing, which you may hold over me for as long as you see fit.

He sealed it for his groom to carry to Netherfield at first light. Nothing that touched the case went by the post now.

Then he sat while the fire burned down, turning Graves over in his mind. A word to a dressmaker. A stranger at a stable gate. Each move bolder, and each one answered with defiance. Graves would not accept defiance. He would raise the price.

The evidence sat in Thornton's offices behind a safe and a watchman.

And Darcy thought: what does Graves do if the fence will not give? He does not climb it. He finds someone inside to open the gate.