Page 10

“What will you do now? Return to Pemberley alone?”

“I have no choice. I intend to return for a short period before I must travel to Edinburgh.”

“Why Edinburgh?”

“You may recall that Grandmother Darcy left me a small estate there, and I have not the time, nor the inclination, to manage it. Selling it will replenish some of Pemberley’s funds that Anne wasted gambling.”

Richard looked flabbergasted. “Anne gambled?”

“She had begun to take money out of my strongbox. I keep funds enough in it to pay my servants for several months at a time. From the looks of it, she was using the money to wager on the horses with a man who used to be her father’s bookmaker.”

“Did you inventory the Darcy jewels? She might have plundered those as well to serve her purposes.”

“In truth, when Lady Catherine was pressing me to draw up a marriage contract, I was compelled to make it clear in that contract that Anne would have no access to the Darcy jewels. After all, I believed she was to die in mere weeks. I explained to our aunt that they were hidden away after Mother died and would not be accessed again until Georgiana reached her majority. Anne ended up wearing her grandmother’s wedding ring, though our aunt was livid that I would not give her Mother’s.”

“That was a brilliant ploy on your part.”

“I do not know that brilliant is the word I would use, but I could not bear to give Mother’s wedding ring to a woman I did not like.”

“Still, I wonder at her knowing where you kept your strongbox. Surely, you did not let her see you put it away?”

“Give me credit for not being that foolish! Frankly, I believe she got her hands on the keys to open my study and found the box I kept hidden in my desk.”

Suddenly William said, “Enough of that! I hoped I might convince you to agree to accompany me back to Pemberley and then to Scotland. With Georgiana lost to me, your attendance could help to keep me sane.”

Richard laughed. “Me help keep you sane? I never thought to hear those words from you.”

“Just blame it on a desperate plea for company.”

“As you wish,” Richard replied, smiling wryly. “Now, as for accompanying you, it will depend on whether General Lassiter has great need of me. I have accumulated some leave that I can take, as long as it does not interfere with anything important. When do you plan to leave town?”

Picking up a letter from the pile on his desk, William replied, “This was delivered this morning. Lord Morgan is in town, and I am to call on him at his townhouse tomorrow at noon. I cannot leave until I meet with him.”

“How in the world did Morgan know you were in London?” Suddenly, Richard thought better of his question. “Never mind. I imagine you must keep in touch if you are teaching him how to manage Netherfield.”

“Yes. We try to talk at least once a month.”

Richard stood. “What say we meet at White’s tomorrow for dinner? By then I should know if I can accompany you to Pemberley straightaway or perhaps follow shortly thereafter.”

“I have not been in White’s for over a year. Anne forbade me from attending, certain that bids on how long our marriage would last were being placed. I imagine she was correct, but still, I have missed seeing some of my friends.”

“Then we shall have to remedy that! Now, I shall leave and let you finish your affairs. Tomorrow! Do not forget!” Richard called as he exited the room.

Morgan’s Townhouse

The next day

“Come in, Darcy!” David Morgan cried, coming to his feet as William appeared in the doorway of his study.

Noting how much younger Morgan looked than he had when he called at Darcy House asking for advice, William’s thoughts turned to the only thing he could credit. Marriage certainly agrees with you.

Morgan was not a handsome man—too short and stocky to look elegant in his clothes. And though he had kind grey eyes and a ready smile, he was balding and had a ruddy complexion like his father. As he reached forward to shake his hand, William wondered, not for the first time, why a woman as beautiful as Jane Bennet had agreed to marry Morgan. Then, he recalled that she had little choice.

“I appreciate that you have come. I know this is a bad time for you … what with Mrs. Darcy’s sudden death.”

William sighed heavily. “David, I am sorry that after overindulging in whiskey that evening, I burdened you with the sorry state of my marriage. In any case, knowing what you do about my disastrous marriage, surely you cannot think I am mourning Anne.”

“Make no mistake! I have no illusions there, my friend. What I assumed you might be mourning are the eighteen months of your life spent in misery of the severest kind. From what you told me, your wife would have preferred you dead, were it not for the fact that she could no longer make you miserable.”