All Hallow's Eve (52 page)

He continued to stare at her after he finished speaking, but in a differen
tly from the
way the other men
had
.
His stare was not at all disrespectful. It was almost
expectant
, as if he wanted to gain her approval.
Elizabeth thought about what she could say or do to find out why this was.

“You are different
from
the others, Julian.”

“What d’ya mean?”

“You are more respectful of my situation
, and I must say that I appreciate it
.
”

Julian’s eyes smiled, though his features did not.
“Thank ya, ma’am.”
He
sat down across from her at the table and
blushed a little.
“Ya
look at lot like
me sista’, Am
y
.”

“
Oh?
How old is Amy
?”

His features darkened. “She was
twenty-
five
when she died
o’ the influenza
three years ago
, ma’am
. ’Twas jus’ ’er and me left, so I took on ’er daughter
as me own
child
.
Alone
,
Emily would
’ave
end
ed
up on the
street
bein’
a
...
” Julian
cleared his throat
. “
S’cuse me, but ya gotta agree t
hat’s no
t a
life
that I’d want
fer
’er
.
I
’ll be
tak
in’
’er away from London, ma’am, and find some
’onest
work out in the country somewheres—and git
Emily away from...
”
He stopped short, remembering
to
who
m he was speaking
, but his brooding glance at the door told Elizabeth that he wanted to take his niece far away from one of the other men, possibly even Wickham.
“Well, she’s
ten
now, but
looks
older.
It worries me.
”

“Is that how you became involved in this?”

Julian nodded.
“That be why I needs the money.
A
nd
I owed Wickham fer doin’ me a
favour
, too
. I ’ope we
be
even
afta’ this
, but if we ain’t, we’ll be goin’ anyhow
.”

Elizabeth
thought
,
B
oth
Denny and Julian
felt they
owed Wickham—is that how all these men became part of
his
“gang”?

Denny never did anything truly wrong;
al
though he helped Wickham look appealing to young ladies,
until recently,
he did not truly know what the
Olc
did to them once
it
had
gained
their trust
, and once he did, he refused to help any longer
.

On the other hand, Julian and these men must know
that
what they do
for Wickham
i
s wrong.
Cher-nog
probably ha
s
people willing to do many different
degrees
of misdeeds
,
so that Wickham
will
remain quiet about their
s
.
This group
wa
s willing to kidnap a
lady;
does
it
have others willing to kill?

D
o
they not realize that every time they commit a crime, it
only
add
s
another indiscretion to the list of things
the
Olc
c
an
use to
keep
them
under
it
s
control
?
None of them
will
ever be
released
from their debt unless
I am
successful in ridding the world of
Cher-nog
.

A noise brought her out of her musings, and she discovered that Oliver had been correct.
Julian had put his head down on the table and had fallen asleep. She decided that she would use this time to work on loosening the ropes
, wondering
if
she
would
be told
when
Wickham
had
sen
t
the ransom letter
.

~%~

William walked briskly from the rear entrance of the bank to the stables with his case in hand
.
Securing the bag to his saddle,
he
was soon on his way.

He had been warned that there was a gang of highwaymen reported in the area
outside of London on the same road that he would need to
travel
. I
f anyone did
manage to
steal
the case
he carried, they would only find a small portion of the money he had withdrawn today
, for he carried the bag
as a decoy.
His trusted
banker had graciously
help
ed
William divide and
wrap the
majority
of the sum he had withdrawn
in
to
several
small
packages
,
which he
hi
d
on his pe
rson.
He was determined that
Elizabeth
would
not
have
to wait for him to ride to Town again to obtain the ransom money!

Perhaps he should have brought along a man to ride
with him as a deterrent to robbers
, but he
had
not wish
ed
to have anyone along
who
might slow his progress.
He
felt confident in the training he had been given by his wife
and father-in-law
; he
would be more than able to fight off any
highwaymen
along the road
who felt they
could
easily
part him from his money.

William
found
slight
amusement in
t
his
train of
thought
.
If one of his peers had told him s
everal weeks ago
,
while sitting
among
the
gentle
men
at
his club
in London
,
that
a
woman
would
train him to fight
properly
, how would he have reacted?

H
e
decided that he
would have been
highly
insulted
and was certain that his i
njured pride would have
demanded
that
he issue
a
challenge
, n
ot
to
a true du
e
l,
of course,
but to a
fencing
match at his club
,
to
prove
his superior
skill
s
.

While he knew his level of mastery in fencing was higher than most
could boast
,
when now
he would be
called upon to defend the woman he love
d
,
that skill
would be of little help.
A
highwayman would
certainly
not allow him to
remove his
foil
from his luggage for use against him
,
if
he had
even
brought one with him
, and
that weapon
would do very little against the longsword that they expected Wickham
to use.

H
e admitted to himself that h
is
fencing
abilities
had not helped
much when
training to use the longsword
or
dagger
either
;
Elizabeth’s patience and skill had
accomplished
that.
Her father, a man who
m
he had once thought of as nothing more than a country farmer, had trained him to fight
effectively
without weapons,
al
though
he knew that his wife could have done so as well.
William
now
felt
prepared for almost any situation
—except, of course, being possessed by
a
spirit!
He wondered if there
were
anything that could be used against that particular attack other than the herbs that they all had been wearing
of late
.

William marveled at how
greatly
he had changed from the man
he
had been
when
entering Hertfordshire
the first time
!
He could not have guessed that most of what
he
had
been introduced to
after meeting
Elizabeth
had even existed.
H
ow
could he be anything but t
hankful?
He had gained so much!

A
turn in the road
revealed
the inn where he would change horse
s
,
and
William pushed his mount
a little harder.

Chapter 1
7

“Mr. Darcy! Thank goodness you have returned safely!” Miss Bingley exclaimed as William entered the sitting room.
So anxious
was he
for news of Elizabeth
,
he had not even changed
out of
his riding clothes
before presenting himself to his host
.

When
William had
followed the
butler
’s direction as to
where
he could find
Bingley
,
he had not expected to find the entire household in the room as well.
In a distracted manner, William
surveyed
the occupants
’ expressions
as he
replied, “
Thank you, Miss Bingley.
Did you expect otherwise
?” No one would meet his eyes but Miss Bingley
.
William
stared at
Mr. Bennet
until he
met his
gaze
.
T
he older man nodded.

The knot in his
stomach
tightened; Elizabeth had
, indeed,
been
seized
!
With all the responsibilities he had taken on upon his father’s death, William had often felt as if the weight of the world rested upon his shoulders, but the reality of
this
situation pressed down more
heavily
upon him
than any
other
had done
before
.

Miss Bingley approached
hi
m
, eyeing his
dust-covered
clothing with a bit of a sneer to her upper lip
.
“
We were afraid for your life, Mr. Darcy.
There are
bandits
in the area!
The Bennet
s
’
driver had been
escorting
Miss Elizabeth
to
Longbourn to retrieve some item or other
when
the carriage
suffered
an accident.
He saw her taken away by two men!”

William
’s
eyes met Richard’s.
Richard seemed about to speak but then glanced at Louisa
who was sitting across from
him.
He stood and
walked to the window instead
.

William
swallowed hard, willing the bile rising in his throat to retreat.
His voice was hoarse when he
turned his head and
addressed Bingley, “What has been done?”

“
One of the men told the driver that we should
do nothing
,
or
Miss Elizabeth would be
harmed
. We must wait for word from them
,
”
Bingley replied
on cue
.
Most of the occupants of the room knew that
this
was a falsehood, but the concept was believable.
It would explain why they were doing nothing to find her.

Mrs. Bennet began to cry,
her hands flailing about
,
her
handkerchief
fluttering
through the air
.
“OH! My poor, poor Lizzy!
What shall become of
her
?
”

Mr. Bennet
placed a hand on her shoulder.
“
There, there,
Mrs. Bennet
.
G
irls, perhaps
it would be be
t
t
er
if
you
help
ed
your
mother
to
her rooms.”

As she was being escorted from the room, Mrs. Bennet stopped and placed a hand on William’s arm.
She looked into his eyes
—hers
were much calmer than her actions portrayed
—
and
squeezed his forearm in an attempt to reassure him
that all would be well
.
“You will pay the ransom for
my
Lizzy, will you not, Mr. Darcy?”
she asked loudly.

William
only nodded
and thought,
Yes, Mrs. Bennet, I have the mone
y,
hoping that the expression in his eyes answered her unspoken question.
He wished to discuss this openly
, not speak in code
; w
hy did the Hursts and Caroline have to be
in the room
upon his
arrival
?

Mrs. Bennet sway
ed a bit
,
and William’s hand reached out
and caught her elbow
to support her.
Her
glance to William
indicated it was part of an act.
He nodded slightly as Mr. Bennet moved close and took over as his wife
’s support.
The Bennet family
left the room
—William
guessed that they were in need
of
some privacy in the wake of this event
.

Walking over
to
Richard
, William asked softly, “When?”

“We only just returned from recovering the driver a half hour before you arrived.” Lowering his voice, he whispered, “Everything
has gone
according to plan.”

William shuddered, his only thought being,
Elizabeth is in the
Olc’s
lair.
He crossed to another window to prevent himself from saying more in present company.

That
Caroline
did not seem to feel the undercurrent of emotion in the room was clear when she
exclaimed in a triumphant manner
, “Perhaps you now
can
see
to
what my sister and I had referred when we arrived at Netherfield, Mr. Darcy
!
A lady travelling by carriage
alone
? It shows a decided lack of good breeding.
And now that she has been taken by these men
,
well, it seems th
ese kidnappers
have saved
you
from a most imprudent marriage.”

William turned from the window, his churning emotions being focused into anger at Caroline’s tactless audacity. “What?”

Caroline raised both her eyebrows high.
“
Surely
, you
will
not marry
Eliza
now
, Mr. Darcy! She is alone in
a
house with
six
men!
”

Louisa’s head snapped up
from examining her bracelets
and stared at her sister.

B
efore William could put
into
words
all that
he was feeling at her declaration,
Lord Reginald spoke up,
“I am curious, Mis
s Bingley;
why
you
would
say
that there
a
re
six
men
w
hen the
driver only mentioned
two
?
”

Caroline’s
shocked
features resembled
those of
a
codfish—
her
eyes bulged and
her
mouth
hung
open wide as she
struggled
to recover
her countenance
.
When she realized everyone in the room was waiting for
an
answer, she reordered
her features
in
to
an expression
of confusion.

Louisa covered her mouth with her hand.
“Caroline, what have you done?”

“Whatever do you mean, Louisa?”

Bingley stood.
“Caroline! You will explain how you seem to know where Miss Elizabeth is being held!”

She laughed nervously.
“I fail to understand why you think I
would
have such knowledge, brother.”

Bingley’s eyes narrowed. “Then
tell me
why you sa
id
that she would be in a house with six men?”

Louisa gasped.
“
Charles!
She
knew
!
That is why
she
made such a fuss
, insisting that we
return and remain at Netherfield
. S
he
knew
that Miss Elizabeth would be kidnapped!”
A
ll colour had drained from Louisa’s features.

William’s face
was red with suppressed
emotion;
his
balled fists were white with his effort to keep himself from wrapping
those same
hands around th
e
woman’s neck.
Noticing his cousin’s condition, Richard placed a restraining hand on his shoulder.

“Louisa,” Caroline smiled again, “you know very well that we returned to convince Charles to hold a ball
.
”

Louisa
shook her head
.
“D
o not believe
her
, Charles
!
”
H
er gaze
revisited
her sister. “
The reason we returned was because she
had me convinced that
she
wished to be close to Mr. Darcy
so that
she
could
persuade
him to
abandon the idea of
marr
ying
Miss Elizabeth
.
She wanted another
chance
at winning
hi
s affections
.”

Caroline feigned
surprise
. “Louisa!
I am shocked
!
H
ow could
my own sister speak such falsehoods
?
”

Louisa interrupted, “I will assist you in your schemes no longer
, Caroline
!
For selfish reasons of my own,
I went along with your plan
, b
ut I can see it now—you
knew
what would happen.
You wanted to be here
when
his fiancée was kidnapped, hoping to gain his
favour
by comforting him
!
Do you realize th
e danger that
you h
ave put Miss Elizabeth in
?
”

Caroline glanced in William’s direction, and she faltered at the sight
of his anger
.
Her nervous laughter
resumed
at an increased volume. “What an absolutely preposterous
charge
, Louisa!
They would have taken her whether they had spoken to me or not.
I will not listen to such slander!
”
She began to walk toward the door.