Darcy had never been so conscious of the shape of a road.
The turnpike from Baldock back to Biggleswade impressed itself upon his mind as if he had ridden it daily. Four roads could carry Miss Bennet away. Two were likely, but the first would allow a carriage to disappear the quickest. That was the one his instinct told him was where he would find Elizabeth.
They reached the second road from Biggleswade, and with a brief exchange of salutations Mr. Bennet’s carriage turned onto it. Not thirty minutes farther on, Darcy saw the pollard willow and his own coach turned. He could not help watching both sides of the lane for any sign of the party he chased.
The inn Anders had mentioned was a squat, dank house another half hour from the turnpike. It sat back from the lane, smoke crawling from its chimneys as if reluctant to rise. The sight of it made his skin crawl. Surely Sir Reginald would not have taken Miss Bennethere.
Darcy stepped down. The yard was slushy underfoot; a thin boy threw straw before the stable door with more enthusiasm than success.
Inside, the air was thick with stale tobacco and a fire that smoked. A rail-thin woman stood behind her bar with a cloth in her hand, polishing a tankard that had no further need of attention. When she looked up and saw Darcy, she stiffened.
“Good day to you, madam,” he said. “I am in search of information regarding a lady who passed this way earlier today in a small dark coach.”
“We have many coaches upon this road of late,” the woman answered, her voice just a degree too loud. “So long as their money is good, I do not pry.”
“Did a small dark coach stop here to water or change horses today?”
Her eyes narrowed. “I would not know.”
A man by the hearth made an exaggerated cough that might have been a laugh. Another muttered something low, and a bench scraped the floor as bodies shifted, turning their attention more fully upon Darcy. He felt Anders behind him, silent and watchful. Johnson was outside, watching the door.
The woman leaned forward over her counter. “You speak like a magistrate.”
Darcy met her stare. “I would rather not send for one.”
Her mouth tightened. It was not fear he had touched, but calculation. Trouble was expensive; in places like this, it could ruin a woman’s business and her life.
Darcy reached into his pocket slowly, keeping the movement deliberate and open. He produced a single guinea and set it upon the counter with a soft clink.
“For your inconvenience,” he said.
She looked at the coin as though it were both insult and temptation. She did not touch it.
“We keep no book for names,” she said at last. “And I will not have folk saying I sell my customers.”
“I am not asking you to sell anyone,” Darcy said, his answer measured. “Only to save a lady from harm.”
The woman’s eyes flickered; she glanced toward the men by the hearth and then back again. “Harm,” she repeated. “What harm?”
Darcy kept his voice low. “The gentleman she travelled with is not her family. He has taken her under false pretences and without her father’s consent. If he is permitted to carry her on, there will be consequences that cannot be undone—not only for him, but for everyone who has helped him.”
Her hand twitched, as though she meant to snatch up the guinea, then stopped.
“You say she were taken,” she said carefully.
“Yes.”
“And you want me to help you catch him,” she returned, her voice still too loud—still meant for the room as much as for him. “So that he can come back and break my windows for it.”
Darcy did not flinch. “I will not have your windows broken.”
A few soft chuckles rose. “Oh, will you not?” one of the men called, openly amused now. “Hear that, lads? The gentleman’ll guard us.”
Darcy turned his head toward the sound, and allowed himself a small, almost courteous smile, nothing warm in it, nothing that invited familiarity. “I have no desire to engage with you at all,” he said. “Unless you make it necessary.”
The man blinked.
Darcy returned his attention to the woman. “I understand your caution,” he went on. “But I must know. Did a coach stop? Did it take on fresh horses? Which direction did it travel?”