“Unsettled,” Mr. Darcy replied. “He does not fear for himself, but for all of you. And for Bingley, my cousin, and me, should we come to harm through him.”
“The Bennets are an obstinate lot,” she said when he paused.
He smiled. “I am learning as much. I had thought it was only you.”
“Oh no, Mr. Darcy,” she replied pertly, “I come from a long line of tenacious ancestors. Not unlike your own, I believe?”
“The Darcys are a most reasonable people,” he responded in his deep, solemn voice. “We have none of your mulishness.”
She shook her head. “But you are also a Fitzwilliam.”
He sniffed affectedly. “Ah, yes. That is where the bloodline breaks down.”
She laughed a little.
“May I ask . . .” He hesitated. “You are not afraid, I presume.”
Elizabeth grew serious. “I am anxious, of course, Mr. Darcy. I am not foolish. Fortunately, there are now seven men who shall reside at Longbourn whose first aim is to keep us all safe.”
“You are indeed well protected,” Mr. Darcy told her.
“However, if I may be of any assistance, I should like to help.”
Something flickered in his eyes. “I will promise you that.”
She nodded once, warming at this sign of his respect. “Thank you. That shall take the sting out of requiring an escort to go about my daily tasks.”
“Will you accept mine? Escort, that is. To breakfast?” he asked.
Elizabeth smiled and took his arm. “This is the sort of escort to which I shall never object.”
Chapter Twenty
“Hardimanwillgotothe tavern this evening,” Bennet informed them.
Walker nodded. “He takes work as a Bow Street Runner now and then. Should help us here.”
“Don’t call him that,” Josiah Anders warned, glancing over his shoulder at the door. “He’s a constable. They’re all of them constables at Bow Street. Particular about it.”
“Right,” Walker responded.
“I sent Hardiman and Isaac to the copse,” Fitzwilliam said just as Darcy was noticing their absence. “Hardiman wanted to view it again. They should be here very soon.”
Not a minute later, the two men joined them. Hardiman was silent after he greeted them all.
Darcy nodded. “Now that we are all here, we ought to run through everything from the beginning.”
“The problem is,” Bennet said, frustrated, “that we do not know when it began. Was it with Mr. Todd? Were there other failed attempts I simply did not notice? Is Wickham a part of this, or is his idiocy just a common sort of nuisance?”
“We begin from the first incident we are aware of,” Darcy said evenly.
“From the accident,” Fitzwilliam confirmed. “We had been here some weeks already. Wickham approached Darcy that night in a bid for funds, Darcy set him down publicly, and then Bennet spoke to the man’s colonel, Forster.” He detailed the night of the accident for the men who had just arrived.
Walker crossed his arms over his chest.
“Wickham approached me less than an hour before the accident,” Darcy said.
“It does not follow, however, that this Wickham was not involved in some other way or that his involvement did not predate that evening,” Hardiman mused.