All Hallow's Eve (10 page)

“
I apologize, Bingley, b
ut
sharing
that she is
pleasant and pretty does not clear up why she
requires four men to guard her!
”

“
We will
work in
a
group of f
ive, actually.
I admit to knowing more than any of you, but I am not certain how much I
am able to
share.
I will
add
that the guard
is
necessary.
”

“
Who is the fifth?
”
Bingley
moved to pour four
glasses of brandy
.

“
Mr. Bennet,
”
William announced.

“
Mr. Bennet
!
”
Bingley almost dropped the bottle
from
his hands.
“
But, he is an old man!
How can he
—”

“Bingley,” William interrupted
,
“
Mr. Bennet
is not as old as you
would
make him
out to be
!
H
e is also an expert in a
special
kind of sword fighting
that m
y father had once
begun
to teach to the three of us.
”
Gesturing toward
his cousins,
William
continued,
“
From what I
heard
from
my f
ather’s lips, Mr. Bennet
is
a much
better
swordsman
than
F
ather ever was
—and
that
is saying quite a lot!
It is actually a great
honour
to be trained by him and
be
accepted
to fight
alongside
him
.
Our training will begin
tomorrow at dawn.
Mr. Bennet
will work with us all day, every day
.
I
f
we are lucky
, we
shall
learn all
that
h
e
can
possibly
teach us
.
”

“
Why on earth do we need to train so hard, Will?
What is the rush?
”
Lord Reginald inquired.

“
In two weeks, George Wickham will
come into town with the militia.
”

“
Wickham!
”
Richard
growled
.
“
Leave
me alone with that
slime for
one minute
,
and he
will
cease
be
ing
a
threat
to
Miss Bennet
—
or
anyone else for that matter!
”

“
No, Richard,
we shall
leave Wickham
to himself
but
watch him
closely
.
From what I
was told
, he is working for someone, and we
must
find out who it is.
Even those who have passed on do not know
his identity
.
He has hidden himself from them somehow.
”

“
Why is Miss Elizabeth not being taken far away from here and hidden until we can find th
e leader
?
”
Lord Reginald queried.

“
There is too much at stake.
I
t is necessary that she be h
ere for them to make their move, or else they will try again at a later date, when we are not prepared.
”

“
I see, so w
e
must
make
them think
that
Miss Elizabeth
is being left
unprotected to lure them in?
”
Bingley was
obviously
incensed
by the idea
.

“
As long as I
live and
breathe,
Elizabeth will
never
truly
be left unprotected
, gentlemen, not for one moment!
T
hey will not touch her!
”
William
boomed angrily.

Richard
chuckled at his cousin’s
violent
reaction.
“
And
just
who is Miss Bennet to you,
William
?
”

“
This blasted secrecy
—
I
do not know how much I can tell you!
”
The knuckles on
William
’s c
losed fists began to turn white
.
“
I will
reveal
that no matter what
the situation
seems like
at present
, Miss Elizabeth Bennet will someday be my wife.
”

Bingley began to
choke on his brandy
.
“
Miss Elizabeth—
y
our
wife
?
”
Catching the look
of despair up
on his friend’s face, he
put some effort into
restraining
his
reaction
and continued more gently,
“
Darcy
,
I wish
that
I did not have to be the one to inform you
of this
, but you should know that
Miss Elizabeth
does not think very highly of
you
.
”

William
closed
his eyes and
uttered
softly—almost desperately
,
“
Was
everyone
aware of this but me?
”
He sighed deeply
and went on with great feeling,
“
Never the less, at some time in the future, Elizabeth
will
become my wife, and I will protect her as if she already were.
”

After a few moments of silence,
Lord Reginald
vowed,
“
Well, then
,
so shall we all.
”

The sound of the others’ concurrence followed.

“
Thank you for your support, gentlemen.
I am sorry, Bingley, but no matter how difficult it may prove to be, we must keep all
of this
from Hurst and your sisters.
”

Bingley nodded.

Noticing the time, the new arrivals decided they had best freshen up before it was time for dinner.
Bingley showed them to their rooms.

C
hapter
3

November
2
, 1811

The gentlemen arrived at Elizabeth’s meadow
,
as
William
had come to think of it
,
at
the break of day.
The sight that met their eyes when
entering
the clearing
made them
halt
their approach
.
Five
beautiful
ladies
, hair bound in long braids,
stood watching the
display of
colo
u
rs
advance
across the sky
.
Shocking the gentlemen, but also
capturing
the
ir attention
fully
,
the
lad
ies were
dressed in tightly f
itt
ed
trousers and lawn shirts.

Even from this distance,
William
could
barely
tear his eyes away from the way that Elizabeth’s
face shone with appreciation
as she watched
a new day dawning
, but t
he vision of the most beautiful woman he had ever seen dressed in trousers was
too tempting to resist
drinking in
as well.

After a minute or two
,
William
recalled
his surroundings
. He
became
more than
a little rankled
, realizing
that the other ge
ntlemen w
ould sur
e
ly
look at
his
future wife
in
the same
manner
,
al
though he doubted that Bingley had eyes for anyone other than Miss Jane Bennet.

T
his should not be happening!
It went against all he had been taught about propriety
.
Elizabeth was
his
,
and even though
her skin
was covered with material
, perhaps
even
m
ore so than the usual
afternoon or evening
gown
would conceal
on top
—
for
which he was grateful at the moment
—
no
other man should
ever
have had the opportunity to see the outline of her legs!
And neither should
he
for that matter—
at least
not until they were married.
These differing sets of
rules of
propriety were going to take a great deal of
effort to accept
.

“
Having them
near
by
wearing
trousers will be very
distracting!
”
observed
Lord Reginald
.

Richard
replied,
“
I am certain
that
is intentional. It is not only the trousers…
”
his voice trailed off.

“
Not only the trousers?
”
William
’s
question went unanswered. E
lizabeth turned around
,
and
he noticed
her
shirt was
not
buttoned
up to her neck, as he had hoped
.
Gentleman or not, he was still a man, and he
knew his eyes would be drawn
to her
charms
to see if he could catch a glimpse
as she moved
.
“
None of you are allowed to even
think
about looking at Miss Elizabeth!
”
he growled.

“
Or Miss Bennet
!
”
Bingley added forcefully.

“
Make a
point
of
indicating
which
sister
is which
during introductions
; as
the
y are all very beautiful, I
will
be content with fi
nding something to admire in the other three
, I am certain
,
”
Lord Reginald
replied.

“
Mr. Bennet is quite the strategist!
”
Richard
observed.

“
I have never seen wooden swords like
those
the ladies are holding, have you?
”
asked Bingley.

“
Those are wasters—a sort of training sword.
Un
cle Darcy had us use them when h
e
was conductin
g
our lessons
.
There are also shields
on the ground near them
.
W
ill we be learning shie
ld fighting
?
”
Lord Reginald
inquired
.

Richard
’s eyes widened
when he noticed how many weapons there were
.
“
Are the ladies
training with us
, Darcy
?
”

William
was still having some difficulty looking away from Elizabeth.
“
Mr. Bennet said they
would be here
,
but I d
o
not know
that
th
e ladies
will
be training with us.
”

“
It is not possible.
I will not fight against a lady!
”
Bingley exclaimed.

“
Oh, yes
,
you will, Mr. Bingley.
And so will you all!
”
Mr. Bennet’s voice came from behind them
, startling all the younger men,
instantly causing
them
to
wonder how much of their conversation he had
over
heard
.
“
Gentlemen, since we only have a fortnight before the
Olc
arrive, you will be spending a great deal of time here training.
There is
no time to conduct personal lessons for the four of you, so m
y daughters will be
pairing up
with you
and training
you
in our methods
.
I will be overseeing
all of
the
sessions
, making corrections and recommendations to your teachers
.
Eventually, you will learn how to fight as a group
of five, including myself
in the count
.
”

At the gentlemen’s expressions of
astonishment
, Mr. Bennet continued,
“
My daughters are a fully trained legionnaire
fighting group.
Of course, living with me, they have had extensive training
.
Jane and Elizabeth are experts in the art of swordsmanship
. They
will train Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy
,
exclusively.
Being younger,
Mary, Kitty
,
and Lydia have
uneven
abilities. Their
talents
run
in different areas
,
and they will alternate between instructing Lord Reginald and Colonel Fitzwilliam, teaching you the skills that they have mastered.

“
F
or the past year or so, no
one
new
has
sought
training.
Therefore, m
y daughters can also
use
this as
practice
—
fighting
against those
they do not know well
and
cannot anticipate
is always helpful
.
”
He could not help himself from chuckling as he walked past the group of
open-mouthed
gentlemen, throwing a gla
n
ce back at them.
“
Do not worry; I will not allow my
girls
to harm you.
”

“
Yes, yes—quite the strategist!
”
Richard
stated with a
touch
of awe in his tone.

As the gentlemen approache
d,
William
made the introductions.
It was str
ange watching the ladies curtsy, and
disconcerting that a movement
which
appeared
graceful while
they wore
skirts seemed
so very
awkward
while clad
in trousers.

William
could feel Elizabeth’s eyes upon him
. W
henever he dared to look
,
he could see they were dancing with amusement
—
especially
as her father said,
“
Gentlemen,
I assume you all have been well-taught in the art of fencing.
Here, you will learn a different style
of fighting
, using
dagger
s as well as longsword
s
.
I would like to see how well you perform
in a longsword match first,
to see where we should begin our lessons.

“
From previous experience,
I expect a great deal of unlearning will be
necessary
in order to
perform
well
with
this type of
sword
.
Therefore, as I have already informed my girls,
I will
adjust our usual rules
for points
required
to win
this first match
. G
entlemen are required to score five touches while the ladies
will need
fifteen to win.
”

The gentlemen’s expressions
betrayed
their aversion to
the
se
arrangements
.

“
Mr. Bennet, I understand the importance
and benefit
of being taught by
the best,
”
William
bowed
his head
slightly to Mr. Bennet,
“
and therefore
will
agree to engage in matches with the ladies
because it is your wish
, but
honour
prevents me from accepting an advantage in scoring.
I respectfully decline such an arrangement.
”