Chapter 10
When Colonel Fitzwilliam told the two eldest Bennets that Mr Darcy had left to convey the body back to Derbyshire for burial as a final nod to his late father’s preference for his godson, Elizabeth had been sure that part of his reason for the precipitous departure had been his disgust with Lydia’s probable actions.
It did not change her burgeoning feelings for the man because she understood why he could not connect himself with a family who would be so disgraced.
Elizabeth believed it was no less than she deserved after the cruel way she had rejected him in Hunsford.
Why should she not feel the pain of his loss now?
Even though they had forgiven one another, and she had begun to think he could possibly be one of the best men she had ever met, it was only right that it was her turn to suffer in this way.
Rather than speak to Jane, which Elizabeth felt would have been selfish with everything going on at that moment, she kept her thoughts to herself. She washed her face and stiffened her spine; it was time to confront Kitty and Lydia. Elizabeth needed to hide her hurt from her family.
She plastered a smile on her face and joined Jane and Colonel Fitzwilliam in the drawing room. Elizabeth was unsurprised to see her mother present.
After hearing that the son of an earl, even a second son, was calling at her house, Fanny had quickly forgotten her pique aimed at Jane and, of course, Elizabeth, who had caused Jane to speak to her in that fashion.
Fanny was seated in her favourite chair, staring at the tall man in his regimentals.
Kitty and Lydia were also staring, but their heads were together as they whispered one to the other, interspersed with giggles.
Mary was in a corner, Fordyce’s Sermons in her hand, and as would be expected, Bennet was closeted in his study, ignoring his family.
“Have you been in battle?” Lydia asked as she batted her eyelashes at him.
“As I am in the regular army and not a pretend soldier like many in the militia, yes, I have ridden into battle more times than I care to remember,” Fitzwilliam returned. He noticed the last of the Bennet sisters enter the room. “Are you well, Miss Elizabeth?”
“Of course, she is well, but she is nothing to my Jane or even better, my Lydia who is pretty and lively,” Fanny cooed.
“Madam, I recently turned thirty. Why would you think I would want to look at a child who should never have been allowed out of the schoolroom?” Fitzwilliam responded.
Mother and youngest daughter looked outraged.
“I will be the first of my sisters to marry!” Lydia screeched. “I am not a child!” To make her point Lydia stamped her foot.
“And who, pray tell, will marry a silly little flirt?” Jane asked.
“Mr Wickham, of course. He made me swear I would keep our engagement secret until that awful Mr Darcy pays him the money he is owed. Then we will marry!” Lydia crowed triumphantly.
“I have succeeded where all my older sisters have failed. It is all because I listened to Mama when she taught me how to catch a man.”
“My daughter married, and to such a handsome man,” Fanny gushed.
“Lizzy, will you have Papa join us? He needs to hear this news,” Jane requested.
“Yes, of course, I will; I too think he must hear this.” Elizabeth left the room.
Hearing a knock on his study door, Bennet called out, “Enter.” His eyebrows rose when he saw Lizzy walk in, and she looked deadly serious. “Lizzy, what is it? Is one of your sisters hurt?”
“It is with regards to my sisters, Sir. If you never do anything for me again, please come with me to the drawing room without further explanation.”
Knowing that Lizzy would never say what she had unless it was something very serious, Bennet stood and, with growing trepidation, followed his second daughter to the mentioned room.
“Colonel, may I introduce my father to you?” Elizabeth requested on her return to the drawing room. He nodded to her. Elizabeth made the introduction.
“Papa, Lydia has just informed us that she thinks she is engaged to Mr Wickham.” As Jane spoke, Lydia nodded her head emphatically. “There are a few problems with her belief; chief among them is that Mr Wickham is dead.”
“NOOOO! YOU LIE!” Lydia screamed. “You are just jealous of…” She stopped in an instant when Jane delivered a ringing slap to her face.
Lydia was in such a state of shock that Jane had struck her, that rather than caterwaul, she stood silently, her eyes big, and open mouthed, staring at her eldest sister.
“Jane, why would you hit my poor baby?” Fanny demanded.
“Do you have any idea what your poor baby and possibly her next older sister have done? If word gets out, then, Mama, we are all ruined!” Jane hissed.
She turned to her shocked sister, who was holding her cheek where Jane’s hand had made contact.
“Do you know that the man was a seducer, that he used the exact same lines on three others of whom we are aware, just in Meryton!”
“No, no, no, he loves me! He even fought four men who slandered me and left that ugly, freckly Mary King for me because he loved me so much,” Lydia claimed.
“He fought no one,” Elizabeth returned. “Mr King hit him, and he took Mary away to save her from a lying, profligate seducer. Do you know what he told her? The same thing I am sure he told you: If you love me, then you will anticipate your vows with me. Tell me, Lydia, were those or were those not his words before you gave your virtue to him?”
“How dare you, Miss Lizzy. My Lydia would never…” Fanny began before Jane interjected.
“But Mother, were you not praising Lydia but minutes ago when she said she caught Mr Wickham by using what you taught her?” Jane turned to her father, whose pallor was decidedly chalky in colour.
“And you, Father, rather than check your wife and youngest daughters, you tease them and then lock yourself in your study. What did you think would happen?
“Mama’s excuse was she was not raised as a gentlelady, so she was not familiar with propriety, but what was your excuse, Father?”
Bennet did not recognise his eldest daughter. He remained quiet in his shock.
Lydia wanted to refute her sisters’ words, but Lizzy had recited what Mr Wickham had told her word for word.
How could this be? Had Mama not told her over and over and over again how being pretty and lively, combined with some flirting, was the way to win a man?
What had she done that was so wrong? She was not married, so at least she could not become with child.
Elizabeth turned to Kitty, who was shaking with fear and dread. Before she could speak, Mary did.
“We may draw from it this useful lesson,” Mary said self-righteously.
“The loss of virtue in a female is irretrievable; that one false step involves her in endless ruin; that her reputation is no less brittle than it is beautiful; and that she cannot be too much guarded in her behaviour towards the undeserving of the other sex.”
“Mary, do you really think the platitudes you recite from that drivel that Reverend Fordyce writes are what is needed now?” Jane enquired.
“You can recite his nonsense and quote the scriptures, but Sister dearest, as much as you know the words, you do not understand the meaning. Being a good Christian is what you do, not what you recite.”
Her mouth dropped open, and Mary was about to flee from the room.
“You will remain, Mary,” Bennet instructed. “Unless you have something helpful to add, please remain quiet.” He waited until his chastised middle daughter sat down. Bennet turned to Jane and nodded for her to continue.
“Kitty, did you surrender your virtue to Mr Wickham like Lydia did?” Jane asked.
“I never did that, and he was not interested in Kitty, only me!” Lydia insisted.
“I was not so bad as Lydia! Only she laid with Mr Wickham,” Kitty cried. “Mr Wickham used those words on me, but I was not attracted to him with his broken nose, and I knew that doing that was going too far, so I refused.”
“Kitty, you traitor!” Lydia screeched at Kitty’s confirmation she had been bedded by Mr Wickham. “He would have married me if Mr Darcy had not cheated him out of his inheritance.” Lydia was disconcerted when Colonel Fitzwilliam gave a bark of laughter.
“You mean the living. Read this, Miss Lydia.” Fitzwilliam handed her the document refuting Wickham’s lies.
“Did you forget about the others he manipulated like you?” Jane reminded her.
Lydia was silly, but she was not stupid. “No, this cannot be! If he lied to me about this, then…” Lydia burst into tears. “At least, I cannot become with child because we were not married,” she reasoned as she sniffled.
“How many times did you allow him to lie with you?” Bennet enquired coldly.
“Three times,” Lydia admitted with her head down.
“You stupid girl. You have had your courses; you could be with child already!” Fanny exclaimed in a panic.
“What have I done? What have I done? I was so scared of the entail that I wanted you girls married as soon as may be so Mr Collins would not be able to throw us into the hedgerows,” she wailed.
“Firstly, what are we to do with Lydia?” Elizabeth asked. “If she begins increasing and is not married, then we will all be ruined.”
“There is a solution that Darcy will fund. There is a convent[1] on the Derbyshire-Nottinghamshire border, the sisters of St Mary, who take in young women who have been set upon by men without the protection of wedlock,” Fitzwilliam related.
“We spoke of it before he left to take Wickham’s body for burial.
He is well aware that three of the other affected families are not well off.
Hence, he will pay for their transport and upkeep for five months.