Pride and Prescience

Twenty-Four

London

21 December, 18—

My dear friend,

I confess myself surprised by your ignorance of the tales circulating about Mr. Hurst, for I know you to be far better acquainted with him than I. Perhaps that intimacy is precisely why the story has not reached your hearing. Or is it that the new bridegroom has ears only for the sound of his lady’s voice?

Regardless, I am happy to oblige your request for information. The report first came to me by way of a peer whom I consider a reliable source. I have since heard it repeated by others, leading me to believe it has attained the status of common knowledge amongst the regulars at White’s.

As you know, Hurst has long frequented the club’s card rooms. During this past season, Beau Brummell himself, short a fourth for whist, invited Hurst to join a high-stakes game. Hurst, cup-shot and not nearly the player he thinks himself, lost famously. But he was flattered by Brummell’s notice and bitten by the gambling bug. In a vain attempt to court the Beau’s favor, Hurst returned nightly for more high-stakes cardplay. Brummell, of course, has no use for one as dull as Hurst and never repeated his invitation to the bow window, but Hurst found other high-flyers willing to endure his company for a chance to take his money. When Hurst began voweling his debts, he found himself unwelcome among the green baize brotherhood and took to entering wagers in the betting book. Even in this form of speculation, however, few will now accept a challenge from him.

Bearing in mind your desire for discretion, I have taken the liberty of making a few cautious enquiries into the extent of Hurst’s losses. General consensus estimates his debts in excess of eighty thousand pounds. At least a dozen gentlemen held IOUs bearing his signature until last month, when Mr. Lawrence Kendall (you will recall him from our last dinner party) bought up the notes, relinquished by most at reduced value in despair of ever collecting the full sum from Hurst.

That is all I know of the matter. Do return to London soon with your charming wife. Lady Chatfield and I were both taken with Mrs. Darcy, and hope to enjoy the pleasure of your company often. I am yours, etc., etc. —

James, Lord Chatfield

1Elizabeth handed the letter back to Darcy. “Eighty thousand pounds! Can he ever hope to make good half that sum?”

“If he depletes his own inheritance and Mrs. Hurst’s settlement entirely, he will still fall short of the full debt.” Darcy refolded the letter and put it in his breast pocket. It had arrived in the morning post; once everyone else had left the breakfast parlor, he’d lost no time sharing its contents with Elizabeth. He had thoughts of his own about the news but was eager to hear her opinion.

“And Mr. Kendall now his chief creditor!”

Darcy found that bit of intelligence equally shocking — and alarming. Hurst would almost be better off dealing with a moneylender. At least they would know such a man’s motivation. “Kendall’s interest in Hurst’s financial affairs can have no good purpose.”

A servant entered to clear the breakfast dishes. Darcy rose. “Come, let us walk.” The cough he and Kendall had heard outside the billiards room yesterday had reminded him that no room of a great house was truly private. Moreover, he had not seen Kendall since their game ended; Darcy’s valet had lost track of him, so nobody knew where the weasel skulked. If he and Elizabeth kept moving as they talked, no one could overhear more than a brief snatch of conversation.

They headed for the staircase. Weak daylight struggled through the windows, casting a dreary pallor over the hall. Last night’s storm had abated, but ponderous clouds blotted out the sun, and an atmosphere of gloom pervaded the entire household.

“What do you think Kendall wants?” she asked in a loud whisper.

“To use his power over the Hursts to force Bingley’s hand. He has already threatened Bingley with public scandal in the form of a court battle if he does not comply with his demands. The ability to ruin Hurst provides still more artillery in the war he seems bent on waging against the family.”

“Charles won’t surrender his rightful inheritance, Caroline stole his daughter’s beau, and now Louisa’s husband owes him a fortune. No wonder he won’t leave Netherfield — maintaining all his grievances against the Bingleys keeps him too busy to travel.” She stopped at the first-floor landing and looked down the passage to the blackened east wing. “Perhaps very busy indeed.”

He caught her meaning. “The link to Hurst provides yet more reason to suspect Kendall of orchestrating the family’s recent troubles. Though yesterday he gave me to understand that it was he, not Parrish, who ended the courtship with Miss Kendall. He accused the American of being far too forward in his attentions.”

“Regardless,” Elizabeth said, “Mr. Kendall has a connection to every branch of the Bingley family, and doesn’t wish any of them well. Do you think he pressures Hurst for payment yet?”

Darcy recalled Kendall goading Hurst at dinner two nights previous, and their talk of stakes in the billiards match he and Bingley had interrupted. “He plays some sort of cat-and-mouse game with Hurst. I do not believe the rest of the family knows of Hurst’s debt. In addition to demanding payment, he may also be threatening to expose Hurst to his wife or to Bingley.”

They turned their footsteps toward the west gallery. Like most of Netherfield’s furnishings, the majority of the artwork there belonged to the landlord. But a few Bingley portraits, including one of the late Charles Bingley, hung on the walls. Elizabeth studied the painting of Bingley’s father. “Kendall cannot touch Bingley’s estate to collect Hurst’s debt, can he?”

“Legally, no. But Bingley could decide to settle the debt to protect the family honor.”

“And so Kendall gains Bingley’s fortune after all. Assuming Bingley acts to save his sister from disgrace, which, given his nature, is entirely probable. But for argument’s sake let’s say he does not — is there no other way Kendall can get at Bingley’s fortune through Hurst?”

“Only if Hurst somehow gained possession of it first. If the money came to him as a gift, for example—”

“Or as an inheritance.”

All feeling within him resisted even contemplating that possibility. Yet circumstances forced his reason to acknowledge it. Jane and Bingley had almost perished in the fire, and the blaze’s origin was starting to seem less and less accidental. Darcy had questioned Jane’s maid upon her return to Netherfield, and learned that she had not set out the silver-buttoned gown or any other that night — which meant that either the injured Jane had risen in the middle of the night from her laudanum-induced slumber to pull it from the armoire, or someone else had.

“If Jane and Bingley passed away,” he said, “the Hursts would inherit half the family fortune.”

“And with Caroline out of the way, they would inherit it all.”

They moved on, through the newly relocated family quarters. Darcy could scarcely believe they discussed something so appalling as a murder plot against his oldest friend, let alone one that encompassed two women as well. “I think last night proved Mrs. Parrish is the cause of her own misfortunes.”

“An advantageous coincidence for Kendall. If she manages to do herself in, she spares him the trouble. And if she doesn’t, the death of a madwoman can easily be made to look accidental.”

Darcy thought the connection too tenuous. He had to concede Kendall possessed sufficient intelligence and deviousness to contrive such a scheme, but did he possess the subtlety to execute it? Beyond that, no evidence existed to suggest that Caroline was in danger from anyone other than herself. “We may be confusing the matter by trying to include Mrs. Parrish in the design. Even if the Hursts inherit only half of Bingley’s estate, it is still a sizable sum.”

“Large enough to satisfy Kendall’s greed?”

“Large enough to satisfy Hurst’s debt.”

“And provide Kendall the triumph of gaining at least part of his late associate’s fortune.”

Her line of reasoning was logically sound, but unsupported. “My dear, we can never prove Kendall’s guilt with circumstantial facts alone. We cannot verify that Kendall was in the neighborhood before Bingley’s carriage accident, nor that he was anywhere but his own room when the fire started. So unless someone comes forward who saw him in a place he should not have been—”

“Or unless he had help. Could Kendall have coerced Hurst into collusion?”

“Hurst is a weak man. But I cannot reconcile myself to the idea of him deliberately harming Bingley.”

“Yes — it would require him to get up off the sofa.” They mounted a side staircase. “I have never observed anything in his conduct that would indicate affection or regard for Bingley, let alone Jane. Meanwhile, Hurst has never known want or even had to contemplate supporting himself. The threat of losing everything could well induce him to take actions he otherwise would not, especially with a bully like Kendall directing him.”

She lapsed into silence as they walked down the secondstory hall, until they had passed Kendall’s new chamber and approached the center staircase. “In fact,” she continued, “as much as we dislike Mr. Kendall and would love to blame him for all our friends’ adversity, it is not inconceivable that Hurst acts alone. He fancies himself more intelligent than he really is — that’s how he got himself done up in the first place, thinking he could outplay his whist opponents and devise witty wagers.”

They found themselves back on the first floor again, and wandered into the damaged east wing. It was eerily quiet in this part of the house, and cold, the whole wing having not been heated since the fire. Although servants had made temporary repairs to shore up the walls and ceilings in the burned-out rooms, Mr. Morris had decided yesterday to begin the formal restoration work after the new year. Until then, the wing stood dreary, drafty, and deserted.

She paused in front of what remained of the master suite. Behind her, the door stood ajar. “Murdering Bingley and Jane provides an oh-so-clever solution to Hurst’s problems. We have trouble imagining him capable of it not because he has too much honor, but too much cowardice. Their deaths make his life easier — and ease motivates Hurst above all else — but he hasn’t the fortitude to witness it happening. So rather than risk a direct confrontation, he resorts to indirect means like tampering with carriages. He couldn’t even cause his victims immediate harm while they lay defenseless in a drugged sleep — instead, he set fire to Jane’s dress across the room and made his exit before the flames reached them.”

Darcy had spent far more time in Hurst’s company than had Elizabeth. Her assessment of him was based on a few weeks’ total exposure, spread over more than a year, with little direct interaction. Yet she had captured his character with accuracy. Hurst was lazy, unresourceful, disengaged from the family. Were Darcy suddenly stripped of his fortune, he would find some honest means of supporting his wife and any children God blessed them with, even if it meant lowering himself to earn a living as a common farmer. He could not say the same of Hurst. His way of life threatened, unable to imagine another one, and unwilling to expend any effort toward his own maintenance, Hurst must be in a panic. And men in a panic made bad choices.

Repugnant as the idea was, he had to consider both Hurst and Kendall as suspects. But suspects in what? He had no proof that the Bingley family’s troubles were anything other than a string of unfortunate, but unrelated, accidents.

“I should speak more with Hurst and Kendall before we explore this any further.”

“Then take care that you do it before somebody winds up dead.”

As they turned to head back to the main part of the house, a draft from the master suite caught Darcy’s neck. He approached the gaping door, intending to pull it closed. Instead he stopped short.

“We’re too late.”