Chapter 32
When they arrived, Mrs. Bennet was in her element, graciously welcoming the first of the arrivals and directing the footmen to take their outwear while Elizabeth invited them to join the breakfast upstairs in the ballroom.
For many of the people, this was the first time they had been hosted at Pemberley, and they were in awe of the wealth of course, but also the warmth and welcome of the Darcy’s hospitality.
Watching the pleasure on the faces of every visitor made Jane so proud to be known as Elizabeth’s sister.
Lydia had still not appeared by the time that Mary and Kirby were announced and began circulating amongst their well-wishers and Jane began to worry that she was planning an entrance.
She was correct. Lydia stepped into the open doorway wearing a scandalously low cut, scarlet gown which was drowning in dyed lace.
Jane regretted standing so far from the door and hurried to head her off.
Lydia opened her mouth to exclaim who knows what, when suddenly a brawny arm snatched her back from the door and behind a large woman in her Sunday best. Jane laughed at the look on her sister’s face as the woman stuffed a lace fichu into her bodice as she whispered heated instructions to the girl.
Jane was still too far away to hear what was said, but it had a striking effect on Lydia for she flushed, bit her tongue, and quietly followed the woman into the room without any further attempts to draw attention to herself.
Jane was shocked that anything could divert the girl from her demands for attention.
It was several hours later that Mary and Kirby were able to escape to their carriage, a gift from the Darcys, to begin their travels north to spend a fortnight touring the lakes.
As their neighbors slowly took their leave, it was obvious that Lydia was nearly at the end of her patience, no matter the threats she had received.
Luckily, one good shake from Mrs. Timmons helped her to reach for previously unknown reserves of stoicism.
When the door closed behind the last of the visitors, the fichu came off and she screeched long and loud.
She finally took a breath once everyone was staring. “How could you employ a nurse for me!”
“I refused to allow you to embarrass Mary on her wedding day,” Elizabeth declared.
“I am not an embarrassment!” she bellowed, stomping her feet. “You are jealous that I married the man you truly wanted while you married for money!”
“Lydia Anne Wickham!” Jane cried. “How dare you say such a stupid thing? You well know that your husband is a scoundrel of the first order and only you were idiot enough to give yourself over to his care, or lack thereof.”
“Mama! How can you let them speak to me like this!” she demanded. “Especially after Jane was so jealous of me that she had my husband attacked by her steward and then burnt us both to mark us!”
“WHAT!?” Mrs. Bennet cried, completely forgetting her intentions of acting with poise. “How could you do such a thing to your sister? I do not know who you are anymore!”
“And even worse,” Lydia continued, gathering steam now that her mother was acting more like herself.
“Wickham’s looks were so ravaged that his commanding officer thought that they were bad for the regiment and sent him to fight on the front!
” She burst into crocodile tears as she reveled in the attention.
“What have you done? My poor dear Wickham!” Mrs. Bennet wailed. “How could you ruin such looks as he possessed! He was such a handsome man and now he shall die because of his ruined looks!”
Mr. Bennet leaned back in his seat with a glass of fine brandy as he enjoyed the ridiculousness of his ladies. Jane nodded toward him, drawing her sister’s attention to his sarcastic smirk.
Having reached her limit, Elizabeth marched to her father and slammed her hands onto the table. “Papa! You promised that you would inform Mama of what Lydia and Wickham had done. Is your prurient enjoyment truly worth such scenes?”
Mr. Bennet flushed.
“Papa! Tell her now!” Elizabeth demanded, arms akimbo.
“Mrs. Bennet, unfortunately your favorite is prevaricating a little.”
“Papa!”
“A great deal. Your dearest child is a thief, I am disappointed to say. She was found guilty and branded accordingly and it was only through Jane’s intervention that she was not hung from her neck until dead!”
Mrs. Bennet wailed like a banshee and then fainted back onto a settee.
Darcy explained to the ladies that Wickham’s actions had brought shame to the regiment and none of the gentry in Newcastle would allow the soldiers into their homes after such a popular man had returned from his leave marked as a liar and a thief, thus his colonel had transferred him to a fighting regiment to remove the reminder from the area.
Jane felt it was deserved, though she kept her thoughts to herself as Lydia was still moaning.
When Mrs. Bennet came to, after a liberal application of her salts, it was as if nothing had been said, and other than quickly changing the subject whenever Lydia attempted to speak of it again, she ignored it all.
After three or four attempts to redirect the conversation to herself, Lydia lost her mind.
“I hate you! I hate you all! No one in Newcastle likes me! They are snobbish and they ignore me and never invite me to anything now that Wickie has left! They hate me because I am beautiful and lively, just like my sisters do! I want to return to Meryton! Mama, you must make Mr. Darcy buy the Great House at Stoke, I do not mind the attics at all and Wickie would like the shooting, Mama!”
“Oh! Would that not be just the thing? Lydia back close where she belongs!” she exclaimed, turning her wide eyes on Darcy.
Elizabeth’s nostrils flared and she stepped between her husband and the rest before he could reply. “How dare you! You spoilt little brat! My husband already paid that vile seducer to marry you in order to save us all! The very dress you are wearing was paid for by his hard work and funds!”
“No, I believe I paid for that one,” Jane scoffed. “I specifically recall her pleading with me to help, as she had not enough funds to pay for their food, and then promptly wrote about the beautiful scarlet gown that she had just had made to match Wickham’s coat.”
Lydia rolled her eyes. “It is not as if your husband is not rich! It is only fair that you give me some as well! Mama said that it was your responsibility to save us all from the hedgerows!”
“And I would, and did, gladly help you when I thought you had no food, or if you had no roof over your head, but you do not have a problem with either! Your funds from William provide you with over ￡750 a year! And you live in the home he bought and he pays the servants!”
Mrs. Bennet’s mouth began to flap about like a fish out of water. “￡750! You told me that your pin money is ￡20!”
“She is guaranteed ￡20 a month!” Elizabeth snarled, still livid.
“Lydia!” Mrs. Bennet gasped, one hand clutching her chest and the other whipping about her lace handkerchief.
“What!” she harrumphed. “It is expensive to set up a household the way I deserve and to decorate and buy all of the things I wanted as a married woman. And you know that Papa refused to pay for any wedding clothes at all, even after you said that I could have whatever I wanted once I married!” She wiped away an imaginary tear but for once, her mother was not taken in by her histrionics.
Mrs. Bennet turned a fierce glare on her youngest. “I cannot believe that you would lie to your own mother!”
“Papa! You said that you would tell her!” Jane cried, eyes flashing in anger. “Did you not explain anything that had been done to bring about this travesty of a marriage?”
He shrugged and turned to his wife. “You cannot imagine that a daughter who you had encouraged all her life to take whatever she wished with no consequences, who has been arrested and found guilty of thievery, could lie to her mother to get more money?” Mr. Bennet drawled sarcastically.
“I do not need your derision, Mr. Bennet!” Mrs. Bennet scowled. “I never would have thought that a daughter of mine could behave so to her own dear mother!”
“Heaven forbid! Let her lie and steal from everyone one else but never you,” Mr. Bennet muttered.
“I gave up two dinner parties to send funds to you!” Mrs. Bennet continued to rage. “You had better not dare to show your face in Meryton! Just you wait until my sister and Lady Lucas hear of this!”
“Mama! Surely you see that you cannot spread such gossip without tarnishing the reputation of our entire family!” Elizabeth exclaimed.
“Truly, Mama!” Jane agreed.
“I do not care!” She stood firm. “Hattie will understand my outrage! None of you understand my feelings! None of you support me!”
Lydia was smirking at them all, arms folded which caused her breasts to rise well beyond her tiny bodice.
“I believe it is time for you to depart, Lydia.” Elizabeth declared, pointing at the door.
“Then you shall have to give me your carriage for I came in a post chase with the last of my funds!” Lydia gloated meanly. “And I shall need money for rooms and meals as well!”
“Yest more proof that association with Wickham has made her worse,” Jane whispered to Elizabeth, who could only shake her head in disbelief at the audacity of the girl.
“I shall give you six shillings and pay for a seat on the mail.” Darcy replied, waving for a servant to have a cart readied to take her to the post stop in Lambton.
“I shall just refuse to get out of the carriage and then you shall have to take me home!” Lydia declared.
“Then I shall send a footman on the cart and instruct him that he bodily remove you if need be,” he replied.
“You wouldn’t dare!” she screeched.
“You have disturbed my wife,” he replied in a quiet, steady voice which was somehow more threatening than all of her sisters’ berating had been. “I would dare much.”
She burst into tears, real ones this time. Mr. Bennet held his wife back from going to her to offer comfort. “You all hate me!” she sobbed.
“No, Lydia,” Jane answered for all of them.
“We despise your actions and do not wish for you to continue to act in a manner that is likely to end with you suffering or even in a hangman’s noose.
Just because we do not support or encourage your behavior does not mean that we hate you.
You think we are mean but teaching you that actions have consequences is the kindest thing that we, as your family, can do for you.
You are our sister, and we love you, but there must be boundaries. ”
“If you wish to continue in your lifestyle at my expense then do not appear to disturb my wife at any of our homes without an express invitation.” Darcy declared with finality.
“And if you think to imposition any of your sisters again, I will evict you both from the house and you will be required to shift for yourselves on your portion and whatever small income that Wickham may earn.”
“This is not fair! I hate you! I hate you all!” she screeched, snatching up a teacup and attempted to throw it at Elizabeth.
Darcy snatched it out of the air and set it aside, shocking her silent for just a moment until he stepped forward and scooped her up, throwing her over his shoulder, tantrum and all, and carrying her from the house.
Mrs. Bennet collapsed in a heap on a plush sofa and began to hyperventilate and cry out for her salts, “Oh, the flutterings and spasomings! My poor baby! Oh, what shall I do? My poor dear Lydia! How could you treat her so!” When no one appeared to comfort her, she lifted her head from her handkerchief and looked about the room at all of her family watching her with varying degrees of displeasure or disbelief on their faces.
“Do you not hear yourself at all?” Jane asked, her tone measured. “It is as if Lydia is still in the room. Not everything is about you, Mama.”
“None of you understand how difficult this is for me!” She wailed.
“Difficult for you?” Elizabeth blinked. “You created that monster, you and my father who refuses to rein in either of you.”
“How could you speak to me so? Jane? What has happened to you? It is not like you to—"
“Ma’am, apparently you too need to realize that actions, and inactions, have consequences.” Jane rose and gathered her reticule. “I will be returning home now, and I believe that I will need some time before we have contact once more, Mama. I will write when I am ready.”
She kissed Elizabeth and Kitty and went to the nursery to gather her daughter and young Master Davey Kirby, who was to visit while his parents were away on their wedding trip, while the carriage was readied.
Mrs. Bennet was left dumfounded on the sofa, wondering what on earth had happened to her sweet, complying daughter.
Jane was pleased to see, when she entered her equipage, that the Bennet carriage was also being brought round.
It appeared that Elizabeth had also had enough of her mother’s need for constant attention.
She only hoped that Kitty was not forced to return with her parents to soothe her mother’s nerves.
She was glad that Mary, as the most pious of the sisters, had not been in attendance as she would have likely made it all worse by declaring that the bible told children to honor their father and mother-- it also instructed parents not to anger their children, but she doubted that Mary realized that quite yet.