The Darcy Cousins (16 page)

She was profoundly relieved when those wearing the long boots returned empty handed.

The third day the search broadened to include the village. Again, not the slightest trace of Anne was found.

Finally, with everyone who had participated in the search gathered in Lady Catherine's living room, Darcy delivered his verdict.

"We have done what we can in the immediate area. We would like to thank you all for the assistance you have given us, but we will have to begin searching farther afield now. To do so, we will have to make an entirely different assumption about Anne's disappearance. She was not so strong as to venture very far on her own. We therefore have to conclude," and here he looked at Lady Catherine,

"that Anne has been abducted for ransom."

Lady Catherine nodded.

"That is the conclusion I reached myself. I am willing to pay the ransom, of course, as long as they do not hurt her."

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"It is not the custom of abductors to harm their victims,"

said Gatley, "since their only goal is to obtain as much money as possible. If she is harmed, they will not receive the money."

"We will continue to search for her with the hope that some clue will help us reach her abductors. But now it is a waiting game," said Colonel Fitzwilliam. "We must wait for a note from them, which should be delivered soon."

But two days passed and no note came.

Six days had passed since Anne's disappearance, and they were no closer to knowing what had happened to her. Colonel Fitzwilliam could no longer stay away from his regiment and was forced to leave. The Darcys' plans to remove to London were postponed.

Lady Catherine had taken to her rooms and rarely came downstairs. But that particular afternoon, they were all gathered together for tea in the drawing room. Caroline and Elizabeth had both persuaded Lady Catherine to come down, saying it was not good for Lady Catherine to shut herself up alone.

They were soon to regret this kindly intervention.

The gathering was doomed from the start. When nerves are strung so tight, the smallest matter is likely to cause the strings to overextend.

In this case, it was Clarissa who stretched the string to breaking point.

For once, she did not intentionally provoke Lady Catherine. She did not knock over Lady Catherine's tea caddy intentionally. But the fact was, she had no business passing by the tea tray at that particular moment. She was not helping with passing the tea cups, and she was excluded from the tea circle, for she had her own coffee.

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But she rose--as she later explained to Georgiana--because she thought she saw something from the window--something white moving between the trees. She rushed to look out, hoping it was a clue to Anne's disappearance. On the way, she passed the table holding the tortoiseshell tea caddy and the water urn. Somehow, her dress caught on the caddy, and it toppled to the ground.

Lady Catherine always locked the caddy, as one generally did with such a precious commodity as tea. But she was planning to brew another batch, and so she had left it open for the moment, with the latch loosely fastened.

As the caddy toppled to the ground, the latch came undone, and the tea scattered all over the floor.

"Clumsy, clumsy child!" exclaimed Lady Catherine. "My Souchong tea all over the carpet! Do you realise how precious this tea is? No, you would not, of course, for was it not your fellow citizens from Boston who cast shiploads of tea into the ocean?" She tugged at the bell pull vigorously.

She directed the footman who appeared directly to his knees.

"Rescue what you can of it," she ordered. "We cannot allow it to go to waste."

Lady Catherine sat back in her chair and closed her eyes, as if the incident marked the end of her patience. Clarissa took the opportunity to move noiselessly past her. But, as if sensing her, Lady Catherine's eyes flew open. A vindictive look came into them.

"Do not think I am finished with you, young miss," she said.

"You have played enough games with me." She turned to the footman. "Get up," she said. "You may leave now."

The footman, who had been carefully collecting the leaves and placing them on the tray, rose and walked away.

"You may pick up the leaves," she said to Clarissa.

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A wave of general protest at this extraordinary demand rippled through the room.

"Do you think I do not know that you knocked over the tea deliberately? I have seen your sly looks when you thought I was not looking.

You have intended to do this for days now. Pick the leaves up."

Clarissa put her hands behind her back and, standing very tall, replied in a clear, defiant voice.

"I will not pick the tea leaves up, Lady Catherine. I apologise for knocking the caddy over, but it was an accident, and I will not pick it up."

"I have had quite enough of your brazenness," said Lady Catherine. "And I have had enough of your meddling. Because of you, my daughter is missing. It was you who urged her to take walks alone, and you who pressed her to escape the watchful eye of Mrs Jenkinson, even knowing full well that she might easily trip and fall. Behold the consequences! Because she was unprotected, she became an easy target. Had Mrs Jenkinson been there, Anne would never have been abducted. It is you, and you alone, who is responsible for everything that has happened. You have polluted the hallways of my residence and caused untold harm to my only child. I have been more than patient. Yet even now you defy me."

Lady Catherine straightened up in the manner of a judge who is about to pronounce judgment. "You are no longer welcome in this house. You must leave immediately."

At her words, Robert Darcy came to his feet immediately, anger written all over his face.

"Now you are going too far, Lady Catherine. You forget that she is my sister."

"I forget nothing, Mr Robert Darcy. And I meant every word I said."

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"Enough, Aunt," said Darcy, springing to his feet as well. "You are overwrought and do not know what you are saying. We will make allowances, given the unfortunate events that have recently transpired. But you cannot speak to my cousin in this manner."

"I will speak as I wish under my own roof!" replied Lady Catherine. "I do not need my sister's child to tell me how or how not to conduct myself. I hope you will not be foolish enough to continue in your defence of a young girl who has had only one goal since she arrived, and that is to turn my own daughter against me."

Darcy's face darkened. "Come, Lady Catherine," he said, maintaining control over his temper with difficulty. "Surely you do not mean to suggest that a mere child of seventeen could have such an influence over a lady of twenty-nine? If Anne is really so easy to persuade, then you can hardly blame Clarissa for it. It is patently absurd to suggest such a thing."

Lady Catherine stared coldly at Darcy.

"I am not accustomed to being addressed in this manner. I resent it exceedingly," she said. "You will cease your support of this unruly child at once."

"I have no intention of doing so," said Darcy, "Once again, Lady Catherine, these are exceptional circumstances. I am sure that in the normal course of things, you would realise that a mountain is being made out of a molehill. I suggest that we wait until tomorrow. By then, the whole thing will have blown over."

"I have given you my warning, Darcy," said Lady Catherine relentlessly. "As long as you continue to support the person who is responsible for my current unhappiness, then you leave me no choice in the matter. Do you withdraw your support?"

"No," said Darcy.

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Her ladyship paused to take a deep breath, then announced,

"You will see that I am perfectly capable of being reasonable. I will not require you to leave tonight. You will all arrange to leave Rosings by tomorrow morning."

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Chapter 13

Clarissa and Georgiana tried not to make their pleasure at leaving Rosings too apparent. For Georgiana, perhaps, the task was a little easier, for she was more accustomed to restraining herself. In vain, however, did she remonstrate with Clarissa, who ran excitedly down the stairs of the house and danced a jig as soon as they were outdoors, though they could have been easily seen through the tall windows.

"I know, I know, Georgiana, I ought not to be happy. Not when I caused a rift between my family and Lady Catherine. I feel terrible about that. And I feel even worse about Anne's situation.

My feelings are no reflection on her, I assure you. I'm consumed with worry about her. But I shall be so glad to go away. Anywhere in the world would be better."

She twirled round, stretching her arms out above her and looking up at the sky.

"I will be so glad to leave! You have no idea how much I have loathed living in this house, where I have been trapped since I arrived from Boston. If only I had never come! I have been on the verge of melancholy since the day I arrived. I certainly would have MONICA FAIRVIEW

understood Anne if she had decided to drown herself in a pond. I was quite ready to do it myself."

Georgiana was shocked by Clarissa's statement. Even the fact that she could think that way horrified her. "You must never say things like that! You know you cannot possibly mean them."

"But I do mean them. Not the part about the pond, perhaps, but about the melancholy." She paused and stared into the distance.

"You really do not know how it has been for me. At least at the beginning, I had Frederick here, and I could talk to him. But now he has gone, and I do not know when I will see him again. I really miss him."

Georgiana understood Clarissa's sentiments very well, for she had missed her brother for years, longing for the holidays to come so she could be reunited with him.

"It will become easier, with the passage of time," said Georgiana.

She hesitated, then added shyly, "And I hope you will come to see me as a sister one day, as I already see you."

With that Clarissa threw her arms around Georgiana, and, embracing her tightly, said she need not fear, for she already thought of her as not only a sister but a friend.

The young ladies would not have felt quite so guilty about being happy to leave if they had heard Elizabeth speak to Darcy.

Elizabeth was another person who was only too glad to be expelled from Lady Catherine's presence. For, as she told her husband later, she had had the most difficult time reining in her temper on several occasions.

"You have not heard half the things she said to me," said Elizabeth, all the petty moments surfacing now that she was free 146

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to express them. "Would you believe that she told me the boy was ill-favoured because he did not resemble the Darcy side of the family?"

Darcy's indignation at his aunt's behaviour rose rapidly to new heights.

"And listen to this," said Elizabeth, her eyes dancing now in anticipation of Darcy's reaction. "She told me that the name Lewis was not worthy of the dignity of an old family like the Darcys!"

"What?" said Darcy. "When I especially chose this name to honour Sir Lewis with an eye to appease my aunt?"

"I know. Really, Darcy, we are well out of here. I am glad, in a way, that this incident with Clarissa occurred. It was unfortunate for Clarissa, of course, but it was time we left, and you could never have left Rosings as long as Anne's fate was undetermined."

"Of course not," said Darcy. "But I cannot be happy about this schism. I am very reluctant to leave my aunt to her own devices under the circumstances."

"It is for the better," said Elizabeth firmly. "In London you can engage the services of someone who can make discreet enquiries.

You cannot engage the services of the Bow Street Runners without evoking a scandal, but some quiet questions in the right places from someone with experience in matters of this kind may well help us uncover the truth."

"You may be right," replied Darcy. "In any case, I can help you settle in London, and if nothing else can be unearthed, I will return here. My aunt will not turn me away, I am sure, particularly if I am here to help. With Robert and Caroline in London as well, you will not miss my company overmuch."

At this Elizabeth protested, stating archly that she would miss 147

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his company very much, but she understood well enough that he preferred Lady Catherine's company to her own.

The Darcys departed for London the next day without much ado. Lady Catherine did not emerge from her chamber at the last moment--as the young ladies had feared--miraculously contrite and begging them to stay.

"Though I had half hoped she would," whispered Clarissa, as their carriage rumbled down the long entrance and she knew they were safely away. "I would have felt better about the whole thing then."

As they passed the Hunsford parsonage, they caught a glimpse of Mr Collins, his nose pressed to the window.

"If it were not so early," said Elizabeth, with a half smile, "he would be running to Rosings by now to find out the reason for our early departure."

"Oh, he is quite capable of setting out for Rosings without even noticing the time," said Darcy.

Georgiana's pleasure in leaving Rosings would have been much stronger if it were not for two factors. The first was her anxiety over her cousin. She tried not to think of Anne locked up in some darkened room, left to her own devices, deprived of all forms of comfort. How would someone as delicate as she survive if treated brutally? Would her abductors realise that she was sickly and that she needed to be kept warm? Would they even care? Suppose she were to die as a result of their neglect?

The second was the knowledge that her fate and her cousin's hung in the balance. For what everyone knew, but no one mentioned, was that it would be impossible for the young ladies to 148

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fling themselves into the social activity in London until Anne was found. For Georgiana, whose Season had already been delayed one year because of the baby, the thought that it could be delayed once again weighed heavily on her spirits.