Page 28 of Undone

It is the first worthwhile lead we have uncovered in months, and I have no intention of letting it slip. I shall remain in London until I have followed it as far as it will carry me. You shall hear from me again the moment I have anything further.

Keep your spirits up, Darcy. For the first time in a long while, I believe we are making progress. If fortune continues to favour us, I hope to have something rather more substantial to place before you soon.

Your affectionate cousin,

Fitzwilliam”

Darcy lowered the letter slowly. It was little enough, yet more than they had possessed in months. At last there was proof theMeridianhad not been taken by chance.

Fitzwilliam's question lingered in his thoughts. Had he ever placed such knowledge in the confidence of a young fair-haired gentleman?

Before he could stop it, one face came unbidden to his mind.

He rejected the thought almost at once. It could not be. There was no reason that man should have known anything of theMeridian, nor any opportunity by which he might have learned it. The notion was absurd.

Besides, seven men had known the ship's route. The leak need not have come from his own affairs at all.

His thoughts turned instead to the merchant who had owned the cargo. Barely a week after news of theMeridian'sloss had reached London, the man had withdrawn from every future venture between them, confessing he had heard the same rumours that now followed the Darcy name and no longerwished to risk his fortune alongside it. The injustice of it still rankled. Darcy had never intended to recover so much as a shilling from him unless the goods themselves were found, yet the merchant had severed their connection without hesitation.

It was surely more likely that the indiscretion had come from that quarter. The merchant himself might have spoken too freely, or one of his clerks. It might equally have come from a member of theMeridian'screw. There were any number of explanations more probable than the first that had entered his mind.

Yet however firmly he reasoned against it, that first thought refused to be entirely dismissed. London was full of fair-haired young men, and still it lingered, unwelcome and inexplicable.

He laid the letter aside and reached for a fresh sheet of paper. Both Georgiana and Fitzwilliam required an answer, yet for several moments he did nothing but stare at the blank page before him.

Twelve

Longbourn

7th November, 1811

Elizabeth

Dinner at Longbourn was as lively an affair as breakfast, for it was the one meal at which the whole family gathered with leisure enough to recount the events of the day.

Rain had fallen almost without interruption for the last two days, depriving Elizabeth of her usual walks and, with them, any opportunity of seeing Mr. Darcy. Three days had now passed since they had last met upon Oakham Mount. Though the rain had at last ceased that morning, the ground remained too sodden, and the sky too uncertain, for venturing far from the house. She could only hope that the morrow would prove fairer, and that she might once again find herself upon the ridge in his company.

Lydia, who had found the confinement of the weather almost insupportable, was endeavouring to make up for lost time by talking enough for the whole household.

"Mrs. Hill says a new regiment has come to Meryton," Lydia declared with great animation. "She heard it from the butcher's boy this morning. I vow there must be at least a dozen handsome officers amongst them."

"And if there are not," Kitty replied with equal enthusiasm, "Lydia will discover them handsome all the same."

"I shall judge for myself," Lydia answered. "Perhaps we may go into Meryton tomorrow."

Mrs. Bennet was already smiling at the prospect when Mr. Bennet, who had thus far allowed the conversation to proceed without interference, laid down his knife and fork.

"I have received a letter this afternoon," he said, "which I believe will interest you all rather more than Lydia's officers, however handsome they may prove upon inspection."

The announcement succeeded at once in commanding every eye at the table. Mr. Bennet reached into the pocket of his coat and withdrew a letter, unfolding it with a deliberation Elizabeth recognised from long experience. Whenever her father possessed news he particularly enjoyed imparting, he never hurried to the telling of it.

"It comes from my cousin, Mr. Collins," he continued. "The letter is dated more than a fortnight ago, though it has only reached us this evening. From what I gather, the mail coach carrying the Kent post met with some accident upon the road, and these last days of heavy rain have delayed everything besides. My cousin's intentions, therefore, have travelled considerably longer than he ever intended."

"My goodness!" Mrs. Bennet exclaimed, setting down her fork with undisguised alarm. "That dreadful man who is to have Longbourn the moment you are in your grave, Mr. Bennet? What can he possibly want, writing to us now, when he has never troubled himself to do so before?"

Elizabeth's thoughts of Oakham Mount vanished at once. The name Collins was not one often spoken in the house, yet neither was it unfamiliar. Since childhood, she and her sisters had understood perfectly what the entail upon Longbourn meant, and that one day the estate must pass to the distant cousin none of them had ever met. Even Lydia and Kitty abandoned all discussion of officers to listen.

"He writes," said Mr. Bennet, "to inform me that he intends to visit us, and that, by his own reckoning, he should arrive tomorrow. Whether he still intends to do so, I cannot say, for the delay of his letter has left me no opportunity of replying that we shall be happy to receive him."