Page 22 of Leave Her Wild
“Fifteen. Just as it was with Georgiana,” his mind announced. He had turned from Miss Elizabeth Bennet when she was but fifteen, for he had thought her too young to know the marriage bed and the responsibilities of Pemberley, but Wickham would have thought Darcy foolish for not seducing the young woman. George Wickham had left more than one “girl” with child. Instead of having a woman he desired, Darcy had been honorable, and now he was stuck with a woman he was coming to despise.
“Who paid the girl’s dowry or did Mr. Wickham not marry her?” he snapped.
“Uncle Gardiner,” Miss Kitty explained, “and Papa paid Mr. Wickham’s debts in Meryton and purchased a lieutenancy in the Regulars. Mr. Wickham and Lydia are in Newcastle.”
It all now made sense, but he had fallen for the lure of Miss Bennet’s beauty. He could not call off the wedding without naming Jane Bennet as a “tart,” but, if he married her, he would forever be strapped with Mr. Wickham.
“I cannot discuss this with any equanimity at this moment, but we must speak again, Miss Bennet, before we call upon Mr. Williamson tomorrow,” he ordered.
They all remained perfectly quiet until Mr. Farrin pulled the coach before the house, and Fitzwilliam stepped down to assist the ladies to the ground. Each hurried inside.
“Are you coming in, Darcy?” his cousin asked with a hint of concern.
“It would do me well to assist Mr. Farrin with the team. Leave the front door unlocked. I will lock it when I return to my quarters.”
“Your honor says you must marry Miss Bennet,” Fitzwilliam warned.
“If this deception was purposeful, I will chance the rumors!” Darcy growled. “To hell with all of them!” As his cousin closed the door and gave Mr. Farrin instructions, Darcy buried his face in his hands. “Damn her,” he growled, and he was not referring to Miss Bennet. Despite their “antagonism,” Darcy had thought Miss Elizabeth the most honest woman he had ever encountered. Now, he was not so confident. She had kept the family secret also.
Chapter Nine
Elizabeth had enjoyed her time with her father and Mary, but her mind was never very far removed from Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy. She cursed her lack of self-control. When she heard the carriage return sooner than expected, she rolled over as carefully as she could so as not to wake Mary. Quietly, she listened as the others passed the door to Mary’s room. Jane’s steps were quick, and her door closed behind her. Elizabeth thought that Kitty paused in indecision before Mary’s door before also hurrying into her quarters.
Mrs. Bennet must have been talking to herself. “Never have I witnessed such rudeness!”
Whether her mother’s complaint indicated Mr. Darcy or the Lucases, Elizabeth did not know, but clearly all had not gone well with the evening out. “Just as I suspected!” she thought.
She heard both Kitty and the colonel go further down the hall and enter their respective rooms. Elizabeth waited to hear Mr. Darcy’s return to his room, which was her quarters across the hall, but, evidently, he had not entered the house with the others.
Standing as quickly and as quietly as she could, she claimed her robe, but not her house shoes. Carefully, she eased the door open and closed it behind her before tiptoeing to Jane’s quarters. There she let herself into the room. Elizabeth paused to gain her bearings, but a muffled sob relayed where to find her sister. “I am well, Mama,” Jane assured on a sob.
“It is not Mama,” Elizabeth said softly. “I believe our mother sneaked into Papa’s quarters to relate the tale of this evening.”
“I can speak to it in one word,” her sister said with a hiccup of emotions. “Misery.” Jane gave up her protest and broke into tears in earnest.
Elizabeth rushed forward to pull her sister into her embrace. “Shush, my dear one.” She held Jane while her sister sobbed uncontrollably. After several minutes, Elizabeth asked, “Might you tell me what occurred?”
“It was a disaster,” Jane whined. “First, Lady Lucas suggested that she would write to Charlotte of my engagement to Lady Catherine’s nephew. You know as much as I do that the grand lady disapproved of you as Charlotte Collins’s friend after your refusal to marry Mr. Collins. Obviously, how much would the woman despise my marrying her nephew?”
Elizabeth did not wish to say the words, but she repeated them, nevertheless. “Mr. Darcy is not one to permit others to sway his opinions.”
“I would have thought so also, but then Maria spoke of Lydia’s marriage to Mr. Wickham. Did you realize Mr. Darcy knew Mr. Wickham?”
“When Mr. Wickham was pretending to woo me, the lieutenant spoke of how Mr. Darcy was jealous of how much the elder Mr. Darcy preferred Wickham over his own son,” Elizabeth admitted. She had wanted to believe Wickham’s tales, for had not Mr. Darcy found her repulsive. Yet, even through her own prejudice, she noted the “holes” in Mr. Wickham’s story, especially when Captain Denny warned her to question everything Lieutenant Wickham said.
“I knew nothing of it,” Jane declared.
“Assuredly you did not. When Lydia eloped, I was sorry I had not explained the reasons for my change of heart to Papa. Perhaps he could have warned Lydia away from the man.”
Jane said sadly, “Lydia was determined to be the first of us to marry.”
“Mr. Darcy will see all that in the morning. He tends to become angrier if he thinks someone meant to betray him,” Elizabeth explained. “Obviously someone in his past operated in a dishonest manner, coloring all his interactions now.”
“How is it that you so easily recognize his faults?” Jane asked.
Elizabeth wished to say she had taken the man’s measure years before, but, instead, she said, “Mr. Darcy is the classic Claudio inMuch Ado About Nothing.He initially believes the most ridiculous ideas, for he wishes to protect himself against society’s rebukes. You must call the gentleman out when he acts as such. He lost his mother when he was quite young, and I do not believe his father was the same after Lady Anne’s passing. Mr. Darcy has had no models to reflect upon his softer side.”
“How do you know this, and I do not?” Jane asked.
