Pride and Prejudice accident

Mrs. Molly and Diana came back at noon. Seeing that no one else was there except Andrea, they thought that Mr. Ferguson and the others were out to discuss business, and Maria might still be with Mr. Collins , and found nothing wrong.But until dinner was over, Mr. Ferguson and the others still didn't come back, and they didn't send anyone to deliver a message. Even Maria didn't come back, and Andrea hid in the room again. Mrs. Molly felt that something was wrong, and she was in the living room After turning around a few times, he ran upstairs and knocked on the door.

"Anne, Anne, your father and none of them came back, nor did Maria, do you know where they went?" Mrs. Molly shouted as she knocked on the door.

Andrea was waiting in the house for news from Mr. Ferguson and the others, while anxiously praying that Maria would be safe and sound. When she heard Mrs. Molly's shout, Andrea was startled. Realizing that it is already eight o'clock in the evening, but there is still no news at all.

Andrea didn't dare to tell Mrs. Molly about Maria's kidnapping before. She hoped that Mr. Ferguson and the others could find Maria back at night, but now it seemed that she couldn't hide it.Andrea twisted the handkerchief, hesitated, and finally opened the door.

"Honey, why are your eyes swollen? You cried. What happened in the end, this house is weird." Mrs. Molly saw Andrea's crying swollen eyes very worried, she began to realize Something must have happened.

"Auntie, come in first." Andrea pulled Mrs. Molly to sit on the bed, she closed the door, and choked up before saying anything.

"Honey, what happened, why are you crying so sadly?" Mrs. Molly asked, she pulled Andrea to sit beside her, and wiped her tears with a handkerchief.

Andrea actually didn't want to cry, but she couldn't stop her tears. She really regretted it to death. It would be fine if Maria was fine. If something happened to her, Andrea really couldn't forgive her negligence. If only she had gone out with Maria at that time.

Andrea told Mrs. Molly about Maria, and Mrs. Molly was taken aback. She had only read about kidnapping in newspapers, but she never thought that such a thing would happen to her niece. .But Mrs. Molly is not the kind of woman who is crying, she calmed down quickly, looked at Andrea and comforted: "It's not your fault, Annie, you don't need to blame yourself, none of us thought it would happen For such a thing, we should calm down now, and believe that your father, uncle, and Mr. Darcy will bring Maria back safely."

"I know, but I'm really worried about Maria, she's always been timid, and she must be freaking out now."

Mrs. Molly hugged Andrea, patted her on the back and said, "Maria will be fine, everything will be fine, and she will come back fine."

Mr. Ferguson and Mr. Richard didn't come back until midnight. Mrs. Molly and Andrea were not asleep. They ran downstairs when they heard the noise. Mr. Ferguson and Mr. Richard were eating the food brought by the maid , both of them looked very tired.

"Dad, uncle, how is the situation, any news?" Andrea asked.

"For one thing, we at least know who did it." Mr. Ferguson said, taking a sip of tea.

Mrs. Molly came over and saw that everything on their plates was cold. She frowned and said to Mr. Richard, "These hams are cold. You should ask the maid to warm them up before serving them."

"No dear, we haven't eaten all afternoon, and we can't wait for the maid to heat up the stove." Mr. Richard waved his hand. They had been running around all afternoon, and they didn't even have time to catch their breath. They were so hungry I'm going to have a stomachache.

"You can't just eat cold ones, it will make you uncomfortable. I'll ask the maid to cook some hot soup." Mrs. Molly said, then turned around and ran to the kitchen to find the maid.

"Father, are Mr. Darcy and Mr. Collins home, too?"

"No, they asked us two old fellows to come back and have a rest. They are still looking. I just found out today how big London is, and we almost lost our legs." Mr. Ferguson finished the cold ham on the plate, said with a sigh.

"However, we can now confirm who captured Maria and Miss Lydia, but both of them are homeless, living in no fixed place, and their whereabouts have not been found yet." Mr. Richard thinks Those two kidnappers are simply crazy. There is no way to escape this kind of crude crime.

After a while, Mrs. Molly directed the maid to bring hot soup for Mr. Ferguson and Mr. Richard to eat. The two were really hungry, so they ate up the ham and bread served and drank a glass of soup each. Pots of soup feel full.

Mr. Ferguson breathed a sigh of relief, and seeing Andrea sitting in a corner of the sofa with her hair bowed in a daze, he walked over and patted her on the shoulder and said, "Annie, my dear, your eyes are as swollen as walnuts, you Go and take a break, we will have a hard time in the next few days, so we must take care of our health."

"Good dad, you and uncle should also have a good rest. Remember to rub your feet before going to bed. You have been walking for a day. If you don't massage your legs at night, your legs will definitely be uncomfortable." Andrea said.

"Understood. Anne, when Mr. Darcy comes tomorrow, you should thank him well. He specially found a colonel and asked him to borrow a dozen of his men to help him. This is a great honor."

"Well, I'll thank him. But Dad, can we afford that much money?"

"Honey, you don't have to worry about the money. Your father still has some savings, but he may have to borrow your dowry temporarily."

"It doesn't matter, as long as Maria is safe, it doesn't matter if I don't have a dowry."

"Your sister will be glad to know you're so worried."

It was past one o'clock when Andrea returned to the room. It was pitch black outside the window, and dogs barked in the distance from time to time. Andrea sat at the window with a quilt wrapped around her and watched the night outside.I thought to myself that Maria didn't know where she was now, whether she had eaten or not, and whether she was tied up.As long as Andrea thought that Maria might be crying in fear and suffering from hunger, she would feel very uncomfortable, wishing to arrest Wickham and the two kidnappers and beat them up.

A carriage passed by quickly on the street, and Andrea looked at the faint headlights that quickly disappeared, and thought of Mr. Darcy again.He and Mr. Ferguson had been busy all day together, and they must have had no time to eat. Mr. Ferguson and Mr. Richard looked very tired when they came back, and Mr. Darcy probably would not be much better.

Mr. Darcy was able to help, and to be honest, Andrea was really moved. When she read the original book, Andrea only thought that Mr. Darcy's help to find Lydia and Wickham who eloped was nothing more than a little effort, so I can't understand the reason why the Bennet family has changed their opinion of him so much, but now Andrea knows how difficult it is to find someone in this era of communication barriers. She can't get any information at all, and can only rely on manpower to find a needle in a haystack. Searching from place to place, if there is not enough manpower to help, the Ferguson family and the Bennet family alone may not be able to search the city of London in a month.

Andrea leaned against the window and fell asleep in a daze in the second half of the night. She was not woken up until Mr. Darcy and Mr. Collins rode over the next day.Andrea hurriedly changed her clothes and went downstairs. Mr. Darcy and Mr. Collins were sitting on the sofa to rest. Both of them looked very tired, with stubble on their faces and wearing yesterday's clothes clothing,.Mr. Collins leaned against the corner of the sofa, squinting his eyes and looked like he was about to fall asleep, while Mr. Darcy looked like he was trying to hold back his yawn*.

"Is there any news?"

Mr. Darcy took a sip of his strong coffee and said: "Yes, we found out that those two people bought a broken carriage and bought a lot of food, so we can be sure that they went to the suburbs of London, but in the end I still need to check where I went.”

"Fitzwilliam, didn't you rest last night? Did you eat? Do you want me to ask the maid to prepare some food?" Andrea asked.

"Your aunt has sent the maid to do it, and it will be ready in no time. We'll go out to find someone after eating."

"You and Mr. Collins had better have a rest after breakfast. Let my father and uncle go first. You look very tired."

"It's okay, Ms. Ferguson. The two of us will recover quickly after sitting for a while. The suburban area is too large. There are only more than 30 of us. It's a bit troublesome to find." Mr. Collins said after sitting up straight and yawning.

"Yes, we have nothing to do with each other. The most important thing is to find Maria and Miss Lydia as soon as possible." Mr. Darcy also said.

Andrea didn't try to persuade her anymore. She wanted to find Maria more than anyone else. If it was convenient, she wanted to find Maria with them. However, there are still many demands on girls in this era, and it is impossible for her to be It is allowed to run around with a group of men.

Soon the maid brought breakfast, and everyone sat down at the dining table and began to eat. Except for Andrea's two little cousins ​​who didn't know anything, everyone else was in a bad mood.Mrs. Molly looked at the mashed potatoes in the bowl and felt that she had no appetite. She put down her fork and asked, "What about the Bennet family, did they search together last night? Are they with you today or separately?"

"Mr. Bennet left with Mr. Ferguson and Mr. Richard last night. Mr. Gardiner didn't come home until midnight. After breakfast, we will meet them and go to the suburbs together." said Mr. Collins, wiping his mouth.

"Then the money matter has also been discussed?"

"Probably." Mr. Collins said vaguely. Yesterday when Mrs. Bennet heard that she had to prepare five thousand pounds at Gardiner's house, she kept saying that she had no money. Later, when Mr. Gardiner was looking for someone They also kept saying that if they couldn't find someone, their family wouldn't be able to come up with five thousand pounds for a while. As expected of siblings, the nagging Collins was very annoyed.

"What is rough, you have to prepare the money first, in case you can't find anyone, we can't rush to raise the money then. My dear, we can't buy that shop this time, so let's move the money out first Let’s go.” Mrs. Molly said, they usually don’t have much cash at home, and the money is used for business, and this time they prepared a sum of cash for buying a shop, and with the usual family reserves, it would be enough for [-] pounds .

"Now I don't have any intention of buying a shop. Prepare the money, and take care of the family affairs these few days." Mr. Richard said.

After breakfast, the gentlemen hurried out, and Andrea couldn't help, she watched the horses leave before entering the house.