Page 112 of A Debt Inherited

“How else may I be of service, sir?”

Bennet looked down at the folded letter, then at the map beneath his hand. Darcy would most likely be at Pemberley, but Town was closer.

Delay had already cost him too many hours.

“Have John made ready for London,” he said.

Hill’s eyes sharpened. “Darcy House, sir?”

“Yes. He is to ride as an express and wait for an answer.”

“And if Mr Darcy is not there?”

Bennet touched the cover of Cowper’s The Task. “Then we must not learn it too late. Send Thomas north to Pemberley.”

Hill bowed. “Yes, sir.”

“Hill.”

The man stopped at the door.

“You remain here.”

“Yes, sir.”

“No one enters. No one leaves without my order. If Wickham returns before nine to-morrow, he waits outside the gate.”

Hill’s mouth hardened. “Yes, sir.”

Bennet looked once more at the ransom note.

“And Hill?”

“Sir?”

“No livery.”

Hill understood at once. “No livery.”

Chapter 42

Redbourn Heath, that morning

Elizabeth knew when Mr Wickham had gone. His voice had always filled more space than it deserved, and when the last sound of his horse died beneath the trees, the air beyond the door altered. No laughter. No polished phrases. No careless cruelty made elegant by practice. Only the old timbers, the horse beyond the yard, and Mr Kerr’s tread upon the ground.

She stood beneath the shuttered casement with her hands raised, testing the edge where wood met frame. The shutter gave nothing. Whoever had fixed it had done so from without, and done it well.

Elizabeth lowered her arms before they trembled.

Her wrists still bore the marks of the cord. The skin had reddened where hemp had bitten, and each motion reminded her that freedom of hands and liberty were not relations. She rubbed one wrist with the opposite thumb, then stopped. Habit wasted strength as surely as panic.

The latch outside moved.

She stepped back from the wall.

The bar lifted. The door opened, and Mr Kerr stood upon the threshold with a fresh flagon in one hand and a small parcel wrapped in cloth in the other. He looked first at the casement, then at her.

“You have found it sound,” he said.