Chapter 17
CHAPTER 17
T here was a great deal of socialising between Netherfield and Longbourn over the next five days. Georgiana became very close to Elizabeth, and quickly. She also became very friendly with Mary and Kitty, although Lydia had lately become so difficult that she snubbed poor Georgiana quite scandalously. Lydia was in receipt of male attention on an almost daily basis, and she felt that her attention from the local redcoats quite eclipsed the notice that her sisters enjoyed from their “boring” suitors. Those men were unexciting, and Lydia pitied her sisters. She found Colonel Fitzwilliam quite dashing, until the old man turned as boring as the rest of them, and began lecturing her about the reduced circumstances in which army wives must raise their children. Even after visiting one of the officer’s wives and viewing the squalor in which she and her children lived, Lydia had nothing but excuses and explanations. She would marry an officer with some prospects. Her dashing preferred redcoat would have expectations. She was smarter than all of those other women, they had chosen wrongly, but it was nothing to do with her .
Caroline continued to be a problem for Darcy. She followed him everywhere in the house, outside of the house, she paid the stable hands to send her a note and prepare her horse whenever Darcy’s was called for, and the stable boys were paid to slow the preparations of his mount so she might change into her riding habit and catch him before he escaped. She ordered her maid to wake her at five every day, and met Darcy in the stables before his morning ride, ruining his chances for early morning walks with Elizabeth. She hung on his arm every time the young people walked out, and she never allowed Elizabeth anywhere near him. Lady Matlock steadily attempted to distract Caroline with her own attention, but as much as Miss Bingley had wished for her ladyship’s society, it paled in comparison with keeping Darcy away from Eliza Bennet.
On their second day in the village, Richard and Darcy visited Mr Phillips and asked him to collect Wickham’s debts from the merchants in the village, and also sent a message to Colonel Forster, requesting an appointment for the following afternoon. Upon leaving Phillip’s office, they spotted Wickham on the pavement some feet away, speaking to a man who was a stranger to them. When Wickham spotted them, he turned white. Richard smiled wolfishly at his prey, and Darcy doffed his hat mockingly. Mrs Phillips was close by the men at her window, as always, so Darcy turned away from the scene and addressed her.
“Mrs Phillips, do you know who that man is speaking to Lieutenant Wickham?” Darcy asked pleasantly.
“I hear tell his name is Huggins, sir. He is a tradesman who is rumoured to have some business in the area, though Mr Phillips has noted that he never seems to conduct any business that anyone knows of. He stays at the inn for a few days at a time here and there. My maid Molly insists that she heard Lieutenant Wickham speaking to the man in another language in an alley last week, but the innkeeper’s daughter swears the man is English.”
Darcy blessed Mrs Phillips at that moment. As unpleasant as he found gossip, there was something to be said for a connection who spilled everything they knew with just one light inquiry. “Is Wickham known to seek the man out often?” he asked easily.
“Well I’ve heard nothing of the men drinking or meeting together in the pub, but they’ve been seen many times speaking in the street,” Mrs Phillips observed. “Strange, is it not? How the man returns to Meryton so frequently, but no one knows what his business is.” The woman sounded put out, and Darcy could imagine that she was. Mrs Phillips was in the habit of knowing everything about everyone in Meryton, and a mysterious stranger would irk her. They turned back to the street, and unsurprisingly, Wickham and the mysterious stranger had vanished.
“Another language?” Richard said, eyebrows raised.
“The only language Wickham speaks is French. He was no scholar in school, and barely learnt to translate Latin or Greek. It was only because Mrs Wickham was French that he learned the language with any distinction, for she spoke it to him from his birth,” Darcy remarked.
“So Wickham has been seen speaking to a stranger, likely in French. I wonder what all that is about?” Richard wondered aloud.
“Perhaps we will find out tomorrow,” Darcy said hopefully, as the men went on their way.
The following morning arrived, and Elizabeth found Lydia weeping upon the back step, a valise by her side. “Lydia, what are you doing?” she asked.
“Leave me alone, Lizzy!” Lydia twisted away from her. “This is all your fault, yours and Mr Darcy’s! If he hadn’t brought that awful colonel who means to make trouble for Mr Wickham, he wouldn’t have to go away!”
“Lydia, what are you saying?” Elizabeth demanded, but her youngest sister wrenched away from her and escaped into the house. They nearly knocked over John, the family’s manservant, as Elizabeth rushed in behind her and forced her sister into their father’s study.
John, who was just going about his morning duties, followed her, and said, “What can I do, Miss Lizzy?”
“John, please stand over Lydia, and ensure she does not leave this room until I return,” Elizabeth instructed. Lydia burst afresh into stormy tears as her elder sister left to awaken their parents. Elizabeth hesitated in front of her mother’s door. She knew there was every possibility that her father may also lie inside, sleeping; she had learnt that lesson once in her youth. Elizabeth knocked on the door softly.
“A moment later, her mother opened the door in her dressing gown. “Lizzy, is someone ill?”
“No, Mama, but I just encountered Lydia at the back door with a valise,” Elizabeth explained. “I believe she was planning to run away with Mr Wickham. John is watching her in Papa’s study, but the two of you should come downstairs to learn what has happened before the rest of the house wakes.”
Mrs Bennet closed her door, and Elizabeth swiftly returned to the study. John removed to the hall and waited until Elizabeth heard her father outside the door. “Thank you, John, you may go about your morning, I am sorry your work was delayed.”
“Yessir, Mr Bennet, and I won’t say nothin' about Miss Lydia, she’s jus’ a silly child sir, I’m sure she din’t mean no harm. No point setting the village to gossip,” said John.
“I quite agree, John, and I appreciate that,” answered Mr Bennet as he ushered Mrs Bennet into the study, both in their dressing gowns, and closed the door.
“Lydia Harriet Bennet, what have you done!” cried Mrs Bennet upon seeing her youngest daughter in a chair with her valise at her side.
“Mama!” Lydia began sobbing and threw her arms about her mother’s neck.
“Lizzy, what is going on here?” her father demanded.
“I was leaving to walk to Oakham Mount as I do every morning, Papa, when I found Lydia crying outside. She said something about Mr Wickham leaving her, and it being Mr Darcy’s fault, and Colonel Fitzwilliam’s,” Elizabeth explained.
Thomas Bennet pulled his youngest from his wife by her arm, and sat her in a chair. He pulled a stool close and sat in front of her so that he could look into her eyes. “Speak.”
“Mr Wickham has gone away, and it is all Mr Darcy’s fault!” Lydia said, weeping.
“And what has any of this to do with you?” her father demanded.
“Mr Wickham has promised he would marry me, that we would go to Gretna before any of my sisters wed! But then Mr Darcy brought that horrid Colonel Fitzwilliam, who hates him and wishes to have him framed for a crime he did not commit, because none of them got along as boys! I was meant to go with him! But because Mr Wickham’s friend was afraid that Colonel Fitzwilliam would follow us, he would not allow Wickham to take me with him! Then poor Mr Wickham took my reticule, and pushed me out of the carriage!”
“Poor Mr Wickham! The man abandoned you and robbed you, and you call him poor Mr Wickham?” her father said in disbelief.
“It is Mr Darcy’s fault!” Lydia sobbed. “If he was not so intent on ruining all of Mr Wickham’s chances, he would not be so poor!”
“Who is this friend? One of the other soldiers?” her father demanded.
“He is a man of business who travels here and stays at the inn on occasion. Mr Wickham says they have business together. Wickham calls him Huggins,” Lydia said miserably. “I was to meet Mr Wickham at the end of the lane, but he had that man with him. He must not have known my dear Wickham was coming for me. Wickham helped me into the carriage, but then they began fighting, and the man refused to proceed if I remained. Wickham took my reticule and pushed me out of the carriage. And they just left me there!”
“Did anyone else know of your plans?” asked Mr Bennet forbiddingly.
“I did not even tell Kitty, she would be jealous, and she might have told!” Lydia said.
“And you will still not tell Kitty. You will tell no one of these events, Lydia Bennet,” said her father sternly. “From henceforth, you are no longer out. From now, until I decide on another alternative, you will accompany your mother everywhere. You will even sleep with her. You will spend all day in her presence, every day . I will not hear your voice in company. You will be seen and not heard. You will attend no events, and this will be in effect until further notice. At least two years, if not more, I should think.”
“You cannot do that!” Lydia shrieked. Suddenly, her mother slapped her, hard .
“How dare you! We are so close to being saved, so close to your sisters having security! So close to me being able to sleep at night without fear that you will have to become a trollop to survive! And you risk everything, your sister’s futures, their reputations, their happiness ! How dare you Lydia Bennet! I will have you know that I have been watching you, young lady, and I do not like what I have observed! I instructed you that a lively, happy girl would catch a husband! I never suggested that you kiss strange men on terraces, or attempt to compromise your own sisters in some sort of petty punishment! You are a wicked girl, Lydia Bennet. You will accompany me until we find a better alternative, and you will remain silent in company, or you will face consequences unlike anything you have ever encountered, young lady!”