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“Your other guest insisted the two of you were not to be disturbed.” Darcy looked at Caroline, silently questioning her presumptuousness with his staff. She did nothing to dispute the butler’s claims but rather confirmed it with an unapologetic smirk.
Thoroughly exasperated, Darcy returned his attention to his butler. “Did the young lady give her name?”
“Yes. She is a Mrs. Carlton.”
“Mrs. Carlton?” Darcy stepped into the grand hallway and espied Elizabeth standing a few feet away.
“Eliza—Mrs. Carlton, I beg your forgiveness. I pray you have not waited long. Please, come inside,” he offered as he stepped aside to allow her to enter the room before him.
“I am so sorry to intrude, sir,” she began immediately. “Your butler said you were not to be disturbed, but I insisted. Please forgive my intrusion.”
“Do not concern yourself. You are always welcome in my home,” he started. A closer look gave him to know she was merely putting on a brave face. Something was terribly wrong. “You remember Caroline, pardon, Miss Bingley.”
Her initial astonishment was met with Caroline’s unwelcoming countenance. Elizabeth immediately questioned if she had done the right thing in coming. The two women merely nodded at one another in feigned politeness.
Taking note of the tension, Darcy interjected, “Yes, well, Miss Bingley was just leaving.”
“Was I, Mr. Darcy?”
“Indeed, you were.” Refusing to grant her any cause to linger, perhaps to discover the purpose for Elizabeth’s visit, he declared, “Come, I will see you to the door. I shall only be a moment, madam,” said he to Elizabeth, before coaxing Caroline from the room.
Darcy returned a few moments later and apologised to Elizabeth that she was made to wait. The emotions she had fought to contain, after succumbing earlier in the hackney, now flowed with unbridled abandon. Through unrelenting tears and muddled words, she cried, “Mr. Darcy, it is Ben. He has left my aunt and uncle’s home in Cheapside. It has been many hours since any one last saw him.
“He has been asking to visit you. My immediate thoughts were he may have tried to venture here on his own.”
“I am sorry to say he is not here, but I will do all that is within my power to see you two reunited.” Darcy took Elizabeth into his arms to offer her some measure of comfort. A moment later, he continued. “First, I will notify my staff to be on the lookout for his possible arrival, and then I will accompany you back to Cheapside. Pray to God he has returned by then, but if not, I will organise a rescue party to scour the city in search of him.
“Please have a seat, whilst I pour you a glass of wine. It might help you relax whilst I summon my carriage.”
No sooner had Darcy helped Elizabeth to her seat, than the doors swung open, and in walked Colonel Fitzwilliam, with young Ben cradled in his arms.
He did not expect to see Elizabeth, of all people, there; yet, he whispered silent gratitude that she was. “Fear not, madam. The lad is merely sleeping. Exhausted, he wants for nothing more than a good night’s rest in a comfortable bed.”
“Praise the Lord,” Elizabeth uttered, crossing the room faster than even she could fathom, to gaze at her son. She smoothed his dark, unruly curls from his forehead and placed a light kiss thereupon.
Darcy quickly joined his cousin and Elizabeth, and accepted Ben into his arms. “I cannot thank you enough. Wait here until I return; there is an urgent matter I wish to discuss with you once I have settled this little fellow in a comfortable bed upstairs.”
Upon entering the hallway with Ben in his arms and Elizabeth by his side, he asked his butler to seek out his housekeeper so he might speak with her to arrange suitable accommodations for his guests and a nurse for Ben.
“Do not go to the trouble. I shall tend to my own son,” Elizabeth cried.
“This is no trouble at all. It is no less than I would expect that you wish to see to your son. However, you too are tired. You have suffered a horrid ordeal. I expect you to get some rest, as well, once you are assured of your son’s comfort.”
After settling Ben into bed in a comfortable apartment directly across the hallway from his own, Darcy spoke to his housekeeper with directives on how best to accommodate his unexpected guests. He then went in search of his cousin, whom he found helping himself to his best brandy.
Upon accepting the offering of a generous drink, Darcy said, “I did not wish to alarm Elizabeth by being overly cautious, but I have taken the liberty of summoning my personal physician to take a look at Ben. It may be excessive, but it will certainly give me peace of mind.
“It may very well be only a matter of exhaustion. On the other hand, there is no telling what Ben may have experienced wandering about alone and vulnerable for the greater part of the day. I am unwilling to overlook anything where the child is concerned.”
“I say that is a good idea. I did not wish to alarm her either, but the truth is some of the men in my regiment came across the child in a precarious situation.” Richard went on to explain how Ben had been involved in a scuffle with three or four older boys who all ran off when his men came across them. “Ben appeared to have been unscathed. Nonetheless, you are correct, one never knows, especially seeing as how he did not even stir when I attempted to rouse him to quit the coach, and he remains asleep even now.”
“How did your men know of a possible connection between you and the child?”
“As they were donned in their regimentals, young Ben asked if they knew of a Colonel Fitzwilliam. He even brandished your card to prove his connection to me by way of you.”
“I am eternally grateful to your men. You must bring them around to my club, as my special guests, so I might reward them.”
Richard was not apt to argue with Darcy’s gesture of gratitude. They sealed the deal with a handshake. Darcy’s thoughts immediately returned to Ben’s health. On a more sombre note, Darcy continued, “Pray tell, how was Ben’s behaviour when you and he first were united? Were there any signs of lethargy?”
