Page 41 of The Colonel's Ungovernable Governess
Though Edward did not wish to “waste” the time it would take for him to eat and allow his horse water and food, he nodded his agreement. He knew Elizabeth Darcy to be a sensible woman, even in times of distress.
A half hour later, Darcy ordered a stew and an ale for each of them before sitting at the table. “I had already planned to call on you, even before your note arrived. Just a bit later in the morning. Elizabeth had insisted there was something ill at William’s Wood.”
“How would Mrs. Darcy know there was a crisis with the children?” Edward asked with a frown. “I understand how perceptive she is and how caring.”
“Someday you will understand that women ‘sense’ things that we men would not think possible, especially when they are with child,” Darcy responded with a grin.
“Congratulations, Darcy,” Edward said with genuine happiness for his cousin, but he was again being left behind. “I know you considered the possibility.”
“We had. The midwife confirmed Elizabeth’s symptoms. Even so, the babe will not arrive for many months. For now, you have a need of my services.”
“I appreciate your loyalty. Of all the foolish choices. Father will be beside himself with the future of Lindale’s family. My brother’s marriage to the former Lady Babcock was meant to save the Babcock children and their mother. Now, Lady Annabelle’s actions will destroy it all.”
Darcy waited for the food to be set before them before he responded. “Your note said the young man’s name was ‘Bartholomew.’ Is that not the family name for Mr. Jennings’s wife?”
“The wife of the previous Lord Babcock’s brother? Jennings’s nephew is called ‘Bartholomew.’” Edward felt as if he had been thunderstruck. He had been wondering why he did not know the young man’s family. He had thought the unknown fellow’s surname was “Bartholomew,” not the man’s Christian name. The fellow was, in truth, a Marksham. Bartholomew Marksham. “Are you suggesting this was a plan set in motion by Jennings to set aside his late brother’s family so he might assume the Babcock title?”
“It makes little sense,” Darcy admitted between bites of the stew, “for even Annabelle’s ruin could not set aside Lord Vincent’s claim to the earldom. I think, with or without Lindale, that you and your father should put in the necessary request to name Vincent the earl and the Matlock earldom his guardian. They may not permit Lindale to stand as guardian, especially if anyone learns of his continued ‘illnesses,’ but you could be made guardian or Matlock, with you as the secondary choice. The boy should theoretically have multiple guardians, for he has a variety of needs, but, if he is not named the earl soon, he remains in danger.”
Edward returned his mug to the table. “God, I pray Miss Lambert does not suspect what we do. The chit will chase Annabelle to Easingwold.”
“Do you wish me to attempt to intercept her?” Darcy asked. “Accounting for time for meals and changing out the horses, she and the twins must be somewhere in Yorkshire along the road towards Northumberland and the border.”
Edward thought Darcy’s suggestion the most practical choice, but an inner voice said his cousin had hit on an idea that spoke of the drama surrounding the Jennings family. “The twins are traveling with Miss Lambert. Could all this have been a ploy to entice Vincent ‘home’?”
“To do what?” Darcy said with a frown.
Edward scrubbed his face with his dry hands. “I do not know, and you are completely aware how much I despise a puzzle box with a missing piece.”
Darcy placed his spoon down. “It sounds as if you are suggesting we should divide and conquer. One of us should cut across Yorkshire to intercept Miss Lambert and the children and the other should call at Easingwold to learn if Lady Annabelle is at her father’s estate.”
“I suppose I am,” Edward declared with a heavy sigh. “I should go to Easingwold. Jennings will not permit you to learn if Annabelle is within. He will attempt to prevent my entrance, but I will then charge his nephew with kidnapping. They will be forced to produce Annabelle to prove she is there of her own will. After that, who knows what to expect?”
“In my opinion, Jennings’s family has no right to claim the manor house designated for the earl nor the estate associated with the Babcock earldom. Was not Jennings allocated an estate of his own? Your family may be required to move, at a minimum, Lord Vincent back into the estate.”
“By my ‘family’ you mean me,” Edward asserted.
“Who else might there be? The child will require a guardian who Jennings fears.” His cousin paused before saying, “You may be required to marry Miss Romfield sooner rather than later.”
“What happens if the lady refuses to accept the guardianship of the children?” Edward asked. “It is one thing to take on a husband, but quite another to assume the care of two children and a young girl on the threshold of womanhood and in a neighborhood where half the citizenry is loyal to Jennings.”
Darcy appeared to want to argue further, but he said, “I am to finding them on the North Road. If I learn the young Jennings twins are already on their way to the family estate, I will follow.”
“Send word if you must follow them towards Scotland,” Edward said as he stood. “Be safe, Darcy. I do not wish to stand before Mrs. Darcy while she dresses me down for permitting you to know harm.”
His cousin grinned. “You have never met a more delightful termagant than is Elizabeth Darcy when she is defending family. A more adorable scold cannot be found.”
“Someday I will tell her what you said of her.” Edward spoke his farewells and departed the inn, nagged by a feeling of loneliness he could not quite shake. He was not customarily jealous of Darcy, even with his cousin’s wealth, for Darcy had often been from step with society and depended on Edward to lead the way. Now, though, Fitzwilliam Darcy had assumed the superior position in their relationship, again, not because of his cousin’s vast fortune, but because Darcy had found a woman who made him a better man. Elizabeth Darcy assisted Darcy in becoming comfortable with the path he must travel in life. Being “comfortable” had never been Edward’s forte. He performed his duties to his family and his country, but he saw no future where he could know happiness. He would walk any path he chose alone. He may have a wife at his side, but would that lady truly hold him in esteem or would she simply covet the idea of one day being a countess?
* * *
“Are you assured Mr. Bartholomew is associated with the Jennings family?” Jocelyn asked the innkeeper’s wife. They were in Yorkshire, and the children were exhausted. When they had departed Lincolnshire, Jocelyn had thought perhaps they would overtake Mr. Bartholomew and Annabelle, but they had heard nothing of the pair until this inn, about halfway across Yorkshire. The idea of continuing was proving a daunting one. The children sat at the same table as she, but their heads were down in enervation.
“Known the young fellow since he be a boy,” the woman declared. “He’s mother’s sister, that be Miss Carolyn Bartholomew, marry the youngest Jennings brother, Mr. Philip. I’s have an aunt in those parts. She be sickly and requirin’ someone to tend her durin’ the day when me uncle be out in the fields, and I lived with her nigh on seven years before she passed. The Bartholomew family who married into the Jennings’s one havin’ themselves no title, but the father be a landed gent. The younger Bartholomew girl set her sights first on the older brother, the earl, but he’d be already engaged to Lady Elaine. Cant recall her family name. I don’t know much more, but I did hear once that the second Bartholomew sister married herself a baron, or mayhap it was a baronet. Marcum or something similar. But when her time came to deliver, she upped and named her son ‘Bartholomew.’ My aunt wrote me about the fuss with the boy’s name, for some thought the boy not belong to the lady’s husband.”
Jocelyn slid a coin across the table. Once the woman returned to her duties, she asked Victoria, “Please speak truthfully of where Annabelle told you she was going.”
Victoria refused to raise her head, but her body tensed with an apparent wish to escape.
