“Murray, I have not spoken to Lawson. Did you not tell him I wished to see him?” Darcy had summoned his footman to his study.

Murray looked about, in real concern. “No one has seen the lad today, sir. I have checked the boy’s quarters, the house, and the stables.”

“Mr. Steventon?” Darcy did not need to ask the question. Murray would understand.

“The steward reports not seeing Lawson since late yesterday afternoon.”

Darcy nearly groaned with frustration. He did not need another mystery. “Let me know the moment Lawson returns to the house, Murray. In this weather, he could not have gone far.”

“Yes, Mr. Darcy.”The man bowed and exited the room.


“Mr.Worth, I wondered where you were!” Elizabeth had found the solicitor sitting in a darkened library corner.

The man rose slowly to his feet, his mind engaged elsewhere. “I apologize, Mrs. Darcy. Did you have a concern I could address?”

“I thought that you might need some company.”

Worth gestured to a nearby chair. “I am afraid that Mrs. Jenkinson’s fate has affected me more than I anticipated.The lady was so happy when we last spoke. Now, she is no more. I am beyond distraction.”

“Mrs. Jenkinson seemed content to reunite with her husband and child. Her only concern seemed to be Miss de Bourgh.” Elizabeth watched the man’s expression. “It might be comforting to Miss Anne if you shared your feelings of loss. I barely knew the woman, and even though yours was a short acquaintance, you and the lady seemed to have an affinity for one another.”

Mr.Worth spoke softly.“I would have liked to have known Mrs. Jenkinson better.”

Elizabeth sat forward to press her point. “Miss de Bourgh spent the past ten years in Mrs. Jenkinson’s company. It might help Mr. Darcy’s cousin to speak of her friend with someone else who appreciated the lady.”

“You are very wise, Mrs. Darcy.” Worth seemed to relax a bit. “Does Mr. Darcy realize what a find he has in you, ma’am?”

Elizabeth stood to leave. “I remind Mr. Darcy of that fact daily, Mr. Worth.” She smiled. “I believe Miss de Bourgh hides in the music room, sir.”

“I will seek her out, Mrs. Darcy. Thank you for being so perceptive.”


“Miss de Bourgh.” Worth came quietly into the room. He paused upon seeing the hunched figure of Mrs. Jenkinson’s friend. He finally forced himself to approach the distraught Anne de Bourgh. “I thought it might help both of us if we could speak of Mrs. Jenkinson. Of course, if you prefer to remain alone, I will understand.” He edged forward, coming to where she sat curled up in the chair.

Anne quickly wiped her eyes and looked up in surprise. “Mr. Worth.”

He bowed low. “I apologize for disturbing your privacy, Miss de Bourgh.”

“You are not disturbing me, sir.” Anne thought of sitting up properly in the chair, but she rejected that automatic response. She was in mourning and needed to follow the promptings of her heart, not the stilted rules of etiquette.“I would appreciate your company, sir. Mildred Jenkinson meant the world to me, and I would like for you to know my friend as I did.”

Worth pointed to a nearby chair. “May I?”

Anne de Bourgh nodded her agreement.

For two hours, they sat together. Some tears came, but laughter also peppered the conversation. When a servant brought tea and cakes, compliments of Mrs. Darcy, neither seemed surprised.

“Mrs. Darcy thinks of everything,” Worth remarked as he took the tea she offered.

“My cousin chose the perfect woman for himself,” Anne observed. “I am afraid that I could never handle an estate the size of Pemberley. I am too faint-hearted.”

Worth looked disturbed. “Mildred Jenkinson believed in you, Miss de Bourgh. Although I knew that lady only a short time, I came to value her opinions. If Mrs. Jenkinson thought you capable, I would have the same opinion.”

Anne blushed. “I have had few opportunities to exercise my will over any situation. Speaking to the whole group this morning was the first time I can ever remember addressing more than two people at one time. Is that not the most ridiculous assertion to ever come from a woman’s mouth?”

Worth looked on in feigned amusement. This woman knew Lady Catherine’s censure always pressing upon her, holding her down. Yet he had brief sightings of the capable woman whom Mildred Jenkinson described so tenderly. “I would like to see you honor Mrs. Jenkinson’s memory by no longer hiding the real you. I believe the lady would smile down from heaven if she knew.”

Impulsively, Anne touched his hand. “Do you believe I can be that person, Mr.Worth?”

He brought her soft hand to his mouth and kissed the back of it. “I do, Miss de Bourgh, and while we are at Pemberley, I am going to make it my personal mission to help you find that woman.”


As his staff cleared the last course, Darcy looked up to see a very agitated-looking butler standing beside him. Darcy nodded, and the man leaned in to whisper his news. Darcy’s heart lurched, and he instinctively gripped the chair’s arms. His eye caught Elizabeth’s, and he told her with a nearly imperceptible shake of his head that they had more trouble.

Elizabeth rose to her feet. “Ladies, might I have the pleasure of your company in the drawing room. Let us leave the men to their port and cigars.”

The men saw the women to the drawing room and then retired to Darcy’s study.The door had barely closed before Darcy told the others what he knew.“Gentlemen, I need your assistance.The body of one of my younger footmen has been found outside. I would like for you to accompany me to where he lies and then to a room in the east wing. The light grows thin, and we should examine the scene first.”

They made haste, choosing to exit the house through the servants’ entrance rather than signaling trouble by leaving through the front door. It took only moments to find the body. The boy lay spread-eagled, face down, in the snow—his face buried in at least six inches of damp whiteness.

“Who found him?” Darcy asked Murray as he slowly turned the body over.

“Lucas saw something from the ballroom window. He was cleaning the wall sconces in there. When he investigated, this is what he discovered.”

Adam Lawrence knelt beside Darcy. “When was that exactly?”

“Less than a half hour ago, sir. Mr. Baldwin thought it best to handle this as discreetly as possible.”

“Thank you, Murray.” His footman stepped back to await other orders.

Worth walked back and forth along the edge of the house, examining the bushes and window casements. Meanwhile, Darcy and Lawrence took note of the young Lawson’s injuries. “He has some broken bones, but if he fell from the open window above, that would be consistent with his fall,” Lawrence mused aloud.

“As would the contusion on his forehead.”

They found nothing at the scene to tell them what had happened, so Darcy led the men to the room above. “These are the chambers where I thought I saw someone when we returned from Lambton that first night.” He held the door wide for the others.

The window standing fully wide made the room bitterly cold. However, nothing seemed out of place. They moved cautiously, each of them expecting some sort of evil to be lurking within, but the room was spotless, and everything was pristine.

“I see nothing unusual here,” Worth remarked as he circled to the left.

“Only the open window,” Stafford murmured.

Darcy crossed to where he could look out the opening. From that position, he could see the image of Lawson’s body still in the snow.“He evidently went out head first.There are no scratch marks on the sill, which would indicate that he was not fighting to keep from falling.”

“So you do not believe that someone threw him from the window?” Lawrence asked as he came to stand beside Darcy.

“I am not saying that, but I can attest to there being no struggle—no boot marks on the wall or the casing—nothing broken. It seems that he went out…willingly.”

“This may explain it.” Worth leaned over the bed to peer at a note lying open on the coverlet. Darcy and Lawrence joined him immediately. None of them touched the note, but their eyes searched the words for answers.


Mr. Darcy and My Pemberley Family,

I beg your forgiveness. I done evil and now I must pay. It is said that hell is full of good intentions, and although I intended to bring honor to me family’s memory, temptation and false pride led me astray. I took some of Pemberley’s treasures and sold them for me own benefit. I be jealous of what others had, and I took what I thought I deserved, but it be wrong to steal.To make matters worse, I lost the money in cards. It be a sad life, and I can stand it no longer. He that knows no guilt knows no fear.


“A suicide note?” Lawrence wondered aloud.

Worth moved to the window. “It would appear so.”

Darcy pocketed the confession, knowing he would need to add it to his extensive notes for the magistrate. “This would answer the question of the missing items and maybe even the intruder in Georgiana’s chambers, but it says nothing of the string rope or the arsenic.”

“It speaks of doing evil,”Worth observed before turning back to where Darcy stood. “Maybe that is what he meant.”

“I think I have as many questions as answers.” Darcy examined the window again before closing it. “We should rejoin the women; they will wonder what has kept us.”

“Are we speaking of this to the ladies?” Lawrence asked as he picked up the candle.

Darcy followed with a light of his own. “Do we have a choice at this juncture?”