Free The Darcy Code by Elizabeth Aston

Lord Gosforth, who invited him into the library. Anna stopped on her way up the stairs and looked down into the hall. Mr. Vere looked up and gave her a fleeting smile.
    He really had a charming smile, and there was complicity in it. He was telling her that this time she would not be in the library eavesdropping.
    He was an interesting man, an intriguing man.
     
    Upstairs, in her bed chamber, Anna took off her hat and sat down by the window, still pondering on Mrs.. Fortescue. What was it that was niggling at her? She closed her eyes, forced herself to relive the scene she had witnessed at the rout, Mr. Standish tucking the paper into Mrs. Fortescue’s voluptuous bosom and then, with a skip, she was at Madame Girot's establishment –where Mrs. Fortescue was talking to Madame Girot, fluttering her pretty fan, laying it down, taking it up again.
    Fan! That was it, the fan.
    She sprang up and ran out of the room and down the stairs, in time to see the front door close behind Mr. Vere. Papa was standing there, talking to Henrietta, who must just have arrived. Anna had no time for her. She flew to the front door, the butler hastily stepped forward to open it, and she was outside, bounding down the steps.
    Henrietta called out to her and followed her out, asking what she was doing, what was the matter?
    Drat, there was Mr. Vere climbing into a hackney cab.
    Henrietta was beside her, burbling away, "I am so glad to see you, I thought you might be out making calls with your mama, but here you are. Pray, come back inside, you look so strange."
    Anna looked at Henrietta as though she had never seen her before. Thank God, here was another hackney bowling along the street. She waved it down, bundled Henrietta, speechless with astonishment, into the hackney cab, jumped in beside her and instructed the jarvie to follow Mr. Vere's cab.
    She sat tensed on the seat, while Henrietta, regaining her breath, began to utter cries of protest. "Have you taken leave of your senses, Anna? What on earth are you doing? Jumping into this horrid hackney, ugh, how it smells. What are you about?"
    Anna didn't reply, she was trying to see out of the tiny window, urging the driver on with her whole being.
    "Where are we going?" Henrietta demanded.
    Anna said, without turning her head, "I do not know. Oh, I do hope we catch him."
    "Catch whom?"
    "Mr. Vere, I have something of the utmost importance to say to him."
    Henrietta gave a shriek, "You cannot be chasing a man, the impropriety of it, and in a hackney cab."
    They were bowling down Haymarket, and then the cab driver slackened his pace. He leaned down to say, "Sorry, miss, there's so much traffic here, so many carriages and riders and other cabs I've lost sight of your cove."
    Anna thought for a moment, hesitated and then made up her mind. "Take me to Whitehall if you please, as fast as you can."
    Henrietta gave another shriek. " Whitehall ? You have run mad, where do you need to go in Whitehall ?"
    The truth of it was that Anna had no idea where to go in Whitehall , but that was where government offices were and therefore that was where she would find someone to speak to.
    It seemed an age before the hackney cab turned into Whitehall .
    "Which office would you be wanting?" the jarvie called down.
    "We will alight here, " Anna said. Then, realizing that she hadn't brought her purse, she said to Henrietta, " Quick, Henrietta, have you money to pay the jarvie?"
    Henrietta, speechless again with horror, silently produced the necessary coins, which Anna handed up to the cab driver. They stood in the street, two conspicuous young ladies, one hatless, attracting the stares and glances of people passing by. Henrietta gave a little moan of dismay.
    Then, oh, what a relief, Anna spied the tall figure of Mr. Darcy. He was turning into a doorway only a few yards away. "There, that's where we need to be," Anna said and hurried off towards the building, with a reluctant Henrietta, her face flushed with embarrassment,