Page 147 of The Long Road Back to Yesterday

Fitzwilliam rose. “Begin today and notify me if you encounter any obstacle.”

Kendall closed his notebook and stood. “I shall send word as soon as there is something worth reporting.”

After the solicitor left, Fitzwilliam went upstairs and found Georgiana in her sitting room with Jenny.

Several lengths of fabric lay across the sofa, and Georgiana was examining a piece of pale muslin.

She looked up when he entered. “Is Mr. Kendall gone?”

“Yes. The investigators will begin looking for Wickham today.”

Jenny gathered the fabric. “Shall I leave you, miss?”

“Yes, Jenny. We have finished.”

The maid carried the material into the adjoining room.

Georgiana waited until the door closed. “I pray they will find him soon.”

“We know he is likely to be in Hertfordshire by May, so I am hopeful, sweetling.”

“I should like another companion.”

Fitzwilliam had not expected this. “You need not have one until you are ready.”

“I know, but I do not want Mrs. Younge to take that from me as well. I liked having someone with whom I could go shopping or visit a gallery when you were occupied.”

“Then we shall find someone.”

“This time I should like to meet her before you employ her.”

His mouth curved. “That seems a reasonable precaution.”

“And perhaps Aunt Helen might help us.”

“A valuable precaution.”

Fitzwilliam bent and kissed her forehead. “I shall speak with her.”

During the days that followed, Darcy House settled into a routine that would have appeared ordinary to anyone outside it.

Georgiana spent several afternoons with Lady Helen and began the search for a new companion. Fitzwilliam divided his time between estate business, meetings with Kendall, and the reports beginning to arrive from the investigators.

Wickham was not difficult to trace.

His debts provided a trail.

Unpaid accounts with tailors and bootmakers, money owed to innkeepers and landlords, and private notes given to acquaintances gave the investigators a trail of creditors whose claims they could purchase and pursue against Wickham.

His gaming debts were useful for a different reason, revealing where he spent his time and how quickly his money disappeared. The investigators followed him through lodgings in London and then farther north, speaking with men who remembered his charm rather more favorably than they remembered his habit of paying what he owed.

Fitzwilliam read every report.

Kendall began approaching those creditors whose claims could lawfully be assigned. He did so through intermediaries, leaving Darcy’s name out of the negotiations wherever possible.

By the end of the first week, some of Wickham’s debts were under Fitzwilliam’s control.

Richard came to Darcy House one evening with the information Fitzwilliam had requested from the War Office. They sat in the study while Georgiana practiced in the music room across the hall.