Page 6 of Infamous Relations

“Out with it, man, for God’s sake!” Darcy barked impatiently.

“Darcy, Miss Bennet has been in an accident.” He was watching for it, saw Darcy sway on his feet and grabbed his elbow to guide him into a chair. “I told you to sit down, you fool.”

“Elizabeth,” Darcy whispered, and the look he turned on his cousin was agonised. “Is she – is she…” he couldn’t bear to say the word.

“She lives, but she is gravely wounded. I am just returned from sending Expresses to her family, summoning them to her side. I found her, Darcy, fallen in a stream along one of the lanes, bleeding from a nasty head wound.”

Darcy had gone very white about the lips. He lifted his fingers to his eyes, pressed on his closed eyelids for a moment. “What – what has been done?”

“I brought her here for Mrs. Collins to attend to and summoned the doctor. I daresay Dr. Trent is with her now.”

“This is my fault,” Darcy said despairingly.

“Do not be ridiculous, how could it possibly be your fault?” Fitzwilliam scoffed.

“She must have been distracted after seeing me…” Perhaps she was reading the letter, Darcy thought, but he did not speak of the letter aloud. Doing so would irrevocably compromise Elizabeth in Fitzwilliam’s eyes, and he would demand Darcy marry her. Elizabeth would be put in an untenable situation, and he would not do that to her.

Colonel Fitzwilliam shook his head impatiently, and just then Maria Lucas came hurrying back into the house, a basket in her hands.

“Miss Lucas!” he hailed her as she passed the parlour door.

“Oh! Colonel – and Mr. Darcy!” Maria startled to see them both there, bobbed a hasty curtsy.

“Have you news of Miss Bennet?” Fitzwilliam asked.

“Not yet, sir, I have not seen her since the doctor went up to Rosings to get ice. I have here ointments and medicine he sent me for…”

“Quickly, then, go on up, and I pray you, let us know if there is any news,” Fitzwilliam requested, and Maria nodded nervously.

“I will come back down directly to report to you on her condition, sir!” she promised, scurrying towards the stairs.

Darcy dropped his head into his hands, and Fitzwilliam turned to see him tearing at his hair. Hesitating only a moment, he crossed swiftly to his cousin and put a hand on Darcy’s shoulder.

“She will be well, Darcy, I am sure of it. Mrs. Collins is a fine, competent woman who will no doubt nurse her friend devotedly, and you know well how good a doctor Trent is. You pay the man a very fine salary to ensure he stays here close to Anne, as we both know!”

“What shall I do if she dies?” Darcy said brokenly into his hands.

“None of that, now,” Fitzwilliam said bracingly, his heart breaking for the cousin who was also his closest friend. “Miss Bennet shall be perfectly fine and tramping the lanes again as is her wont very soon, I do not doubt it. Come now, Darcy, buck up. Mrs. Collins may have need of us and you will do Miss Bennet no good to sit here and go into a decline over her, no matter how much you love her.”

“I am very obvious, am I not?” Darcy sighed and looked up at his cousin.

“I’m afraid so. But I must commend you on your excellent taste,” the colonel said, straight-faced. “She will make a very fine Mistress of Pemberley.”

Darcy’s mouth tightened, and he was about to tell Fitzwilliam that could never be, no matter how much he wished for it, that his own selfish, boorish behaviour had forever set Elizabeth against him, when light feet pattered down the stairs and Mrs. Collins entered the parlour.

Chapter Five

“Charlotte!” Maria scratched at the bedchamber door.

“One moment!” Charlotte called, hastily checked Elizabeth over again. She had dressed her friend in a warm nightgown that buttoned right up under her chin, swathed her in blankets. The bruising around her mouth could not be hidden, but surely that could be attributed to her fall just as easily as the cut on her head, still bleeding sluggishly under the wet cloth Charlotte had placed over it.

“Yes, Maria?” Charlotte opened the chamber door, nodded as Maria thrust the basket forward. “Thank you, my dear!” She had already burned Elizabeth’s dress on the fire; it had served to warm the room nicely. “Ah, good, this is the ointment for her head, it will stem the bleeding, though Doctor Trent advised me to wait until he returned to apply it.”

“Poor Lizzy!” Maria approached the bed anxiously. “And both the gentlemen so worried about her!”

“Both gentlemen?” Charlotte queried.

“Yes, the colonel and Mr. Darcy are both downstairs in the parlour, Colonel Fitzwilliam asked me to go down directly with a report on how Lizzy does; what should I say, Charlotte? Oh, she looks so dreadfully pale!” Maria wrung her hands.