Darcy pushed his empty plate away. “Evans said he took advantage of Wickham’s being sent away on an errand for Forster in London, just before Bingley’s ball. It would have been an easy thing to have him send the express from town.”
“And to contact the men who followed Vaughan back to St. Giles,” Hardiman remarked as he wandered into the room. “Good morning, everyone.”
They all responded politely.
“Evans followed you to town,” Hardiman confirmed, “but not until later in the day. He made sure to be elsewhere when you were attacked but wanted to be on hand afterward to remit the men’s pay and to confirm that the job was finished.”
“So that he could then collect his own payment from Theophilus Darcy.”
Elizabeth’s complexion was paler than Darcy liked, but she shook her head at his silent, concerned gaze.
Hardiman nodded. “Evans botched the job time and again. He is a better thief than a killer, for he was too concerned with being connected to that sort of crime, particularly as he knew that the two of you have family in the peerage.”
“Why did he leave Darcy alone so long after the first attempt?” Bennet inquired.
“Vaughan had the right of it,” Fitzwilliam explained. “Evans was sure that another such incident would be too suspicious. He believed the war itself would do Darcy in eventually with no further action on his part, and he says he told his employer as much. I would add he probably was concerned that his scheme had wounded a general.”
Bennet grunted in agreement. “Was Collins involved at all?”
Hardiman shook his head. “Your Mr. Collins has been oblivious to everything occurring around him, sir. He is rather focused on courting a Miss Lucas.”
Fitzwilliam growled.
Hardiman raised an eyebrow but continued. “From what the other prisoners said last night, they originally intended to attack outside of the solicitor’s office but changed their minds when the man watching the house learnt you were headed to St. Giles. If you were accosted outside of your solicitor’s office, there might be questions, but no one would think much of an attack in St. Giles other than to wonder what business you had in the neighbourhood.”
“Clever,” Darcy said.
“Pardon me, gentlemen, but how did the man watching the houseknowthat Mr. Darcy and Mr. Fitzwilliam would visit Corporal Vaughan in St. Giles?” Miss Elizabeth asked. “Would it not usually be the case that Mr. Vaughan would return to see him here at Darcy House?”
“A home question,” Fitzwilliam muttered.
Hardiman accepted a cup of coffee and sat down. “Mr. Vaughan has made several visits here, most to the servants’ entrance, and forgive me, Mr. Darcy, but your butler is not discreet.”
Darcy closed his eyes. “Lewis knew I planned to visit Vaughan after Connors if there was time. At least he was consistent and told Isaac and Josiah as well as those ruffians. Self-important dunce.”
“According to your housekeeper, he was reciting the direction in St. Giles as evidence of how far the house has fallen since the passing of Mr. Horatio Darcy. Nearly shouting it, I am afraid. If they did not overhear him, it would be nothing to get the information from a servant or anyone making a delivery to the house.”
Mr. Lewis was more than a dunce. That man would not remain on his staff another day.
Bennet harrumphed. “I admit I am surprised that Evans was so forthcoming.”
Hardiman looked down into his coffee and Fitzwilliam smiled. “Darcy convinced him,” his cousin said simply.
Bennet’s smile was very nearly feral.
Fitzwilliam glanced at Elizabeth, and said, “Darcy wisely pointed out that Evans was going to hang anyway, and would it not be better if he had a friend in London who might be willing to ensure that his last days were comfortable?”
Elizabeth’s brow creased. “Comfortable in what way?”
“There are many ways a man might spend his time more easily in Newgate,” Fitzwilliam said.
“The offer that pleased him best was to keep him from the company of the men he hired to attack us,” Darcy said calmly, reaching for a slice of the plum cake. “They now know that he lied to them about who we are. We have family in the aristocracy. Fitzwilliam is even the son of an earl. That was bound to bring them all a great deal of trouble, and had they known, they might not have agreed to perform the service.”
“Now that Evans has been imprisoned, I must ask why this picked up again once you were returned to England. How could Theophilus Darcy possibly hope to profit by Darcy’s demise?” Bennet said.
Fitzwilliam grunted. “It had to be revenge. The old man is no longer in the line of succession, for Darcy has written a new will and left his portion of the inheritance to his sister, with myself and my father as her trustees.”
“With a few stipulations—one that you must approve of any suitor for her hand and the second that she does not inherit at all if she marries a man such as Fane,” Darcy reminded his cousin.