Chapter 20

The rest of their time in London was full. Lizzy was not crazy about attending all the soirees but realized that as Mrs. Darcy she was duty bound to help Mr. Darcy with his image among the Ton. The two of them managed to frustrate, annoy, and otherwise vex almost everyone with their refusal to become everyone's darling couple. Despite their active aggravation everyone seemed to love the new power couple.

Their foray into the nightlife of London went well enough until Darcy saw Richard and Anne sitting in a box halfway across the theater from him and Lizzy. He had to pick up something and throw it at his cousins. That something just happened to be a package of biscuits.

Anne saw him rear back and casually said, "Richard, incoming six o'clock."

Richard reached up and caught the incoming package. Despite having been thrown, the cookies were still remarkably intact. He opened it and began eating.

Darcy looked at Lizzy in a rather horrified fashion. "Did you bring those biscuits, Dear?"

She shook her head. "No, Dear. They were sitting there when we entered the box."
Darcy said a few rude words that he should not have uttered, bent over and kissed Lizzy, then rushed out of their box to go talk to Richard and Anne.

Richard was offering Anne the last biscuit when Darcy burst in on them. "Stop!" he gasped as he looked on in horrified fascination at the crumbs littering the front of Richard's uniform. He was totally aghast as he practically shrieked, "What the hell did you, inhale the damn package?"

Richard grinned as he stood up and brushed the crumbs off. "Mama is going to be livid when I tell her that you threw the butter biscuits she made for you halfway across the theater at me."

"Are you sure those biscuits were made by Aunt?"

Richard nodded. "Yes! I knew you were coming to the theater tonight and Mama rushed into the kitchen and bundled them up for Lizzy. She says that Lizzy needs to gain a few pounds so she can carry a baby properly."

Anne rolled her eyes, then shrugged when Richard playfully huffed at her. When Darcy cocked an eyebrow at their tomfoolery Anne expounded on the subject. "Mama is obsessed with fatting the two of us up like pigs for slaughter. She says women with a little extra weight breed better and she wants us to have at least two successful pregnancies before we stop putting buns in the oven."

Richard snorted. When Darcy shook his head in disbelief at their idiocy Richard was forced to explain his thought processes. "I personally think that if Anne can stay healthy we can make more than two babies. Or, we can have two at a time and have four or more."

Anne seemed to be quite pleased with whatever her idiot husband was saying about her being a baby making machine. She slid closer to him and smiled sweetly as she murmured, "That sounds lovely, darling." Then she giggled before adding, "At the least we can have a splendid time trying."

Darcy decided that he had spent enough time with the Fitzwilliams and needed to get back to his own wife. Before leaving he asked them to stop by Darcy house after the show. He and Lizzy had quite a bit to tell them. They agreed to do the social visiting thing and he made his way back to his dearly beloved.

The rest of the theater experience went as expected. Darcy did his best to behave but failed abysmally. He was good enough not to scream out loud when his beautiful, clever wife decided to give him a hand job since he was doing his best to follow the story and commented that Shakespeare's clowns on the stage were much more pleasant than watching Cousin Collins make a fool of himself. He almost lost it when she decided to toss her cloak over his lap and disappear beneath it. It must have been one of those things the ladies had on their bucket list of things to do since Colonel Fitzwilliam raised a glass to him when he casually glanced that way and did not see Mrs. Fitzwilliam…

They returned to Darcy House and spent the next few hours talking to Richard and Anne about the Kraft Family situation. Richard either nodded his head in understanding or flipped his hand out to interrupt Darcy with a question that needed clarified. The Fitzwilliams left Darcy House just as the early servants were waking. They did not have a workable plan to keep Winnifred Kraft from interfering in their lives, but they were working on a way to track her down and neutralize her.

The plans Darcy and Richard made became moot. Darcy came back from talking to the constable who handled his original kidnapping complaint to find Lizzy sobbing hysterically. She was sitting on the couch wrapped in Georgiana's arms, Georgiana rocking her and crying with her. He dropped to the floor on his knees in front of them and put a hand on each lady's shoulder. "What grieves you?" His voice shook with fear.

Lizzy handed him the letter she was clutching and crumpled up. "It came express about an hour after you left to talk to constable." Her voice was barely a whisper. "It is Lydia's writing."

He read the note. All it said was Lizzy and Wills needed to return to Longbourne. There was a crisis and they were needed. As he was processing the note another letter arrived. This one from Jane and Charles. It held the same sense of urgency. Bingley's note at the bottom had Darcy calling for his valet to get ready to return to Longbourne.

They were on the road within the hour. Lizzy clung to Darcy the whole way, crying softly between prayers that she would find the family safe and sound.

Her prayers went unheeded. Or, more precisely, they were too late to be of help. When the Darcy coach pulled to a stop in front of Longbourne Kitty raced out to greet them and usher them inside. Hill met them at the door and took their wraps before mumbling that the family was in the south parlor.

Kitty nodded her head and stepped forward to open the parlor door for them. Even through the closed door they could hear the sobbing of women in deep grieving. She turned to Lizzy and said, "Me, Mary and Lydia found this scene when we came in from visiting the Bobbet Farm. Mrs. Bobbet miscarried at six months and they were not well."

Lizzy could barely stand. Her heart was beating so fast she was ready to pass out. "Kitty!" was all she managed to say before Darcy reached out and finished opening the door. Her eyes immediately went to Mary and Lydia sitting together, clutching each other while tears poured down their faces. Her eyes took in the whole scene before she was grabbed by Kitty and she joined her sisters in wailing her grief to the world.

Darcy had enough sense to push Lizzy and Kitty toward a settee while grabbing Georgina before she passed out from horror. It was a macabre scene to see Mr. and Mrs. Bennet sitting on a sofa, leaning toward each other, obviously dead. The tea pot sat on the table before them. On the floor at their feet was the crumpled body of Thomas Gorden while the body of Winnifred Kraft sprawled on the floor next to a window where she had fallen from the chair she had been sitting in.

Darcy was barely able to function in all the destruction. However, his dedication to caring for others pulled him out of his horror and had him asserting control. "Has the magistrate been notified?" was his first question. That caused the ladies to focus on him and they began telling him everything they knew.

The story became clear after the undertaker came to remove the bodies. As Winnifred Kraft was being removed from the scene her reticule fell from her wrist and the presence of paper was detected. Darcy let Sir Lucas and the other prominent men from around Meryton lead the investigation as they wished to. He knew without reading the letter Winnifred had written out what she was going to say.

Winnifred had been in London and saw the newspaper where it was reported that Miss Helia Kraft had been hung by the neck until dead because she had offed a servant while attempting to murder the wife of a landed gentleman. She had been found guilty of several serious offenses but it was the charge of witchcraft which sealed her fate. Winnifred decided that since her family had been destroyed by the Bennets that the Bennets had to die also.

Darcy looked over at Lizzy and spoke. "Mrs. Darcy, we need to go upstairs to the nursery and make sure your small siblings are alive."

All four sisters jumped up and ran for the stairs. Lizzy was the first one up the steps and flung open the door to the nursery. She was across the room and flung the teapot out the window just as the nursemaid attempted to pour tea for the children. She could not help but shriek, "Stop!" as the youngsters started to dive into their afternoon tea.

All four of the younger children stopped and stared. Then the youngest two began wailing that they wanted their tea because they were hungry.

Lydia swept forward and began clearing up everything from the table, recognizing that Lizzy might be correct to think all of the food and drink prepared that morning might be poison. As she scooped the biscuits up she made Phillip and Edward show her their hands. The older girls swept the young ones up then and carried them out of the nursery.

Elizabeth clutched William to her as she made her way back downstairs. She went straight to Wills and pressed their child into him as his arms pulled the two close enough to make Lizzy's ribs protest. It took several minutes of the little family clinging together before Sir Lucas's voice penetrated their bonding.

The remains of the teapot would be sent to London and analyzed to determine the exact cause of death. Winnifred Kraft's suicide note was admitted as King's evidence of her guilt. The rest of the Bennet family would be free to carry on as soon as the estate was settled.

The funerals took several days to arrange. During that time Charles and Jane returned from their honeymoon and opened Netherfield Park. He and Darcy made most of the arrangements and when the funerals were over the Darcy family took the four younger sisters and three boys north to Derbyshire for an extended visit while Charles and Jane made sure Longbourne was once again safe for their siblings.

Author's Note: I would like to thank SaraLee for all her support. To those of you who enjoyed the story without leaving a review- I am pleased that I could make you smile or laugh. To the rest of you- I am pleased that I could make you happy also.