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The colonel was momentarily speechless. “Why, that little bleater! What was his excuse for leaving Darcy at such a moment?”

“I believe he was concerned for his sisters’ safety.”

“Surely his brother-in-law could have escorted them back to England? To have gone off and left his friend at a moment like this—it is ungentlemanly! I always thought Bingley was a commoner!”

Having been brought up as a gentleman, Mr Trevor agreed entirely, but as a servant, it was not his place to say so.

Swallowing his anger, Richard signalled Mr Trevor to let him inside. He approached the bed to find his cousin awake, looking like a refugee from a battlefield. Darcy’s valet, Finn, who had been massaging his master’s legs, replaced the covers and withdrew to a corner.

“Darce! How good it is to see you!” Richard said, grasping his cousin’s shoulder, but looking askance at his unfocused eyes and the bandages that swathed his head.

“Richard!” replied Darcy with a small smile, “I wish I could say the same.”

Richard, who had immediately regretted his thoughtless words, gave a false laugh and gently punched his cousin’s shoulder before withdrawing to sit on a chair that Mr Trevor had placed at Darcy’s bedside.

“Well! Mr Trevor tells me you have a hole in your skull the size of a guinea.”

“Not anymore. They have put me back together again like Humpty Dumpty, or perhaps like your mother’s soup tureen.”

Richard laughed. As youngsters, the two of them were culpable for breaking a piece of the countess’s precious Sèvres dinner service during a high-spirited spree. It had only been used as a vegetable dish ever since, being leaky as a sieve.

“Did they use staples?” asked Richard in awe.

Pushing the bandage aside, Darcy felt for the metal in the stubble on his head. “Yes, the doctor says he will attempt to pull them out once the skull has fused.”

Richard stood up to view the repair and repressed a shudder. He sat down again, at a loss for words. Looking around the room, he spotted the wheeled chair.

“So, you are having difficulty in walking?”

“Difficulty walking? I’d say I am having difficulty sitting, difficulty breathing!”

“But you still have feeling in your legs?”

“Yes, but I am as weak as a cat. The doctor thinks I might be able to walk again, if I am determined. He knows of a man who recovered from a similar injury and now gets about on two canes. It’s just...”

Darcy stopped, unable to go on.

Seeing his cousin was close to losing his composure, Richard signalled for Finn and Mr Trevor to withdraw. He grasped Darcy’s forearm in sympathy.

“I have ruined my life, Richard,” said Darcy bitterly. “All for a trip to a tawdry brothel! Perhaps it would be better if I stayed here in Vienna with Finn. You could return to London with the princess and Mr Trevor.”

“What nonsense is this?” asked Richard. “You must return to England! What of your estate? What of your sister?”

“How can I manage an estate now? Of what use can I be to Georgiana? Do you not see? Pemberley must be hers! You must ensure that she marries well, to someone who can manage the estate. One of her sons can take the Darcy name...”

“I’ll do nothing of the sort,” said Richard coldly. “You cannot expect her to take on such a burden when she is so ill-prepared for it. Don’t you see that she will be the target of every fortune hunter in England? It will be infinitely worse than the thirty-thousand-pound dowry that you have set aside for her. The mercenaries will cluster round her like flies to carrion.”

“Richard, I cannot go back. Not like this—a shadow of my former self! And to have everyone gossiping about me, knowing that I caught the malady in a brothel!”

“Do you really think Bingley would betray you thus?”

“Not Bingley, but I do not think that his sisters or Hurst will hold their tongues.”

The colonel pursed his lips. Then, springing up from the chair, he began to pace back and forward impatiently. “So, you intend to live as an exile, do you? Here, with Mr Finn? Have you thought how impossibly lonely that will be?”

“Yes, but I must bear it. It is either that or put another hole in my skull with a pistol. Did you bring one with you?”

“Stop!” barked Richard, as loud as if he had been on the parade ground. A china cup on the bedside commode rattled on its saucer. “You will return to England with me and the princess, and you will honour your patrimony. You still have a head on your shoulders, and while that is true, you are still the best person to manage your estate. We will return to London so that you can receive the best care during your rehabilitation. If you wish to exile yourself anywhere, then go back to Derbyshire afterwards. As to the gossip, if any of Bingley’s relatives are so stupid as to talk, then you can be assured that I will make them look like the lowly commoners that they are.”