Page 27 of Losing Lizzy
“What is there to discuss?” she hiccupped between gulps of air.
He turned her toward the table. “We will sit. You will eat before you become ill, and you, Mr. Sheffield, and I will decide how best to proceed.”
“How may I think of food when Lizzy Anne is in danger? I am not—”
“Hungry,” he finished her protest. “However, you require your strength. You will be of no use to Elizabeth Anne, to yourself, or to me, if you collapse. Eat for your daughter,” he instructed as he shoved her into a chair and placed a slice of toast before her on the plate. Taking up the knife he added butter and conserves. Meanwhile, Mr. Sheffield placed a cup of tea before her. “Just a few bites, love,” Darcy coaxed.
“Drink your tea, Elizabeth,” Sheffield instructed. “You require your wits about you.”
“I have my wits about me!” she huffed.
Chapter Ten
“I have my witsabout me!” she declared, fisting her hands in her lap, and it was all Darcy could do not to laugh aloud. If he was not mistaken, his dearest Elizabeth’s stubbornness had arrived. “How dare someone threaten Lizzy’s future!”
He handed the earlier message to Mr. Sheffield to read, while he cautioned, “Although I assume you believe, as I do, that my Aunt Catherine, is behind this threat, I must state unequivocally her ladyship is not the author of this note.”
“No,” Elizabeth hissed, “Lady Catherine is not the author.” She reached across the table to snatch the paper from where Darcy had left it on the table. “Your aunt has employed my cousin as her agent.”
“Mr. Collins?” he asked. “How can you be so certain?”
She held up the paper where he might view it again. “Mr. Collins often wrote to my father—times when he announced his visits to Longbourn—his crowing about winning Charlotte’s hand after my refusal—his warning me not to look above my station—and many more times than my father would have liked.” She frowned deeply. “You know enough of Mr. Bennet’s joy at the absurd to realize my father shared each of Mr. Collins’s letters with me. Sometimes, except for that last one, with the whole family. Look at each of Mr. Collins’s‘s’s.’ Mr. Bennet called them ‘a hangings’ because of how each nearly lies on its side and falls into the line of script below. And each of his‘l’s’ appear tobe crossed as if it were a‘t.’ Papa always said he did not know whether to think Mr. Collins too pretentious or not intelligent enough to include the correct letter formation.”
Darcy took the note from her fingers to study it more carefully. “If I recall correctly, Collins is left-handed. See the smears on the paper, as if someone would not allow him time for the ink to dry before demanding him to continue?” He refolded the note and placed it on the table. “It is your decision, Elizabeth.” He knew he risked his future—their future, for she had sent him away at Rosings Park, but, like then, he would protect her, no matter what it cost him. “Do you wish me to leave? I will understand, and, somehow, please know, I will discover a means, without anyone knowing, to send you the necessary funds to provide for you and Elizabeth Anne. I will never abandon my child.”
She turned to meet his steady gaze with one of her own. “If such was my choice, would you marry?”
“I will not,” he said with assurance. “Although we did not exchange vows, I pledged myself to you.” He prayed she felt the same.
Mr. Sheffield cleared his voice as if to say something, but Elizabeth shook him off. “What of an heir for Pemberley? Even if we were together, I may not be able to provide you an heir.”
“I should have been here days earlier, but when I arrived back in London after calling upon your father, I was delayed because Georgiana presented my cousin Fitzwilliam with a son. The line of succession can pass to Georgiana’s children.”
“Miss Darcy has married the colonel?” Elizabeth asked.
Darcy knew he frowned, and he explained. “Their joining would not have been my choice for my sister, but they appear satisfied. It is difficult for me to consider Miss Darcy is married. In my mind, she remains the girl who always followed me about.” He sucked in a quick breath to steady his composure. “Fitzwilliam interfered with Lord Matlock’s plans to marry Georgiana off to his oldest son, Roland, Lord Lindale.”
“As I thought,” Sheffield said softly. “I overheard twoconversations that had me wondering what his lordship had planned for Miss Darcy.”
Darcy explained, “From what Fitzwilliam said, my uncle thought to align our families, matching Georgiana with Lindale and Fitzwilliam with my Cousin Anne. Initially, the colonel was able to forestall those plans as the search for what was my fate remained unclear, and then invoking his authority as one of Georgiana’s guardians. When he feared my sister would be forced into an unwanted marriage while he was serving our King, the colonel resigned his commission and married his ward before Lord Matlock realized what Fitzwilliam had executed.”
He sighed heavily, “As Lindale has refused to marry Anne, I suspect my return to the ‘living’ has again brought my aunt hope I will make my Cousin Anne my wife.”
“I see,” she said in tones that had him desiring the same type of assurances from her: a statement she would never marry another, but she made no such promise. Instead, she said, “It is obvious you must leave Brighton.”
Darcy’s heart dropped. “If it is your wish.”
Puzzlement marked her features before a flush of color stained her cheeks. “I mean we must allow whoever is watching us to think I have sent you away, just as the person who ordered your removal has instructed. You will continue to search for Mr. Townsend, who I believe is more likely to have Lizzy than would Lady Catherine.”
He reminded her, “All I know from the earlier message is Townsend was supposedly from Kent. I have no idea where to begin my search.”
Sheffield cleared his throat to draw their attention. “Earlier, since saying Kent is a large shire, I have been thinking upon something Townsend said recently. Once, several weeks back, he was in the store, and we struck up a conversation about how it would be nice to have a day where one might go fishing. The weather of late has not been fit for much of any outside entertainments. I told him about fishing with my brothers in Cumbria when we were children and he mentioned somethingto the effect of how he enjoyed fishing along the islands off the Kentish shoreline. Said the fishing was better toward the Isle of Sheppey than it was near his home. I think he mentioned Tunbridge, or perhaps it was Tunbridge Wells. Then he quickly changed the subject, not talking about a favorite place or with whom he fished, as I had done. I thought it odd at the time, but, in retrospect, he likely realized what he had disclosed.”
“It is a place to start,” Darcy declared. “Thank you, Sheffield.” He glanced to his lady. “And what role will you play, Elizabeth? I doubt you plan to remain at home when our daughter is missing?”
She finally lifted the bread with the conserves from her plate to take a bite. “If Mr. Sheffield is well enough to accompany me, I mean to make a call upon Rosings Park.” She looked affectionately upon Darcy’s former valet, and Darcy knew a bit of jealousy again. She had shared more of herself with Sheffield than she had with him. Learning more of each other was another thing he had lost when he lost his freedom. “If you are not yet well enough, please do not think you must attend me. The confrontation I anticipate will be far from pleasant. I have enough funds set aside to hire a coach and driver, if necessary.”
Sheffield said adamantly, “We began this journey together, and I do not intend to desert you now. Lizzy Anne means too much to me not to continue. We will take my carriage.”
