Chapter Twelve
Darcy stared at his cousin in total and utter disbelief as the colonel concluded his explanation.
“I still don’t understand why you felt it necessary to offer for her yourself,” he said finally.
“I’d already acknowledged our engagement publicly.” Fitzwilliam’s jaw jutted out in a slightly pugnacious attitude. “I am a man of my word, Darcy.”
“I never for a moment doubted it, but this general offering for her certainly gave you an out!”
“Oh come, Darcy! Lewes had a granddaughter older than Lydia, and fully intended to give her a marriage in name only, giving her his house in Richmond. She’s young and lively, she wants to have children one day, not be tied to an aging military man for the next however many years.
” Fitzwilliam gave Darcy a penetrating look.
“I appreciate your concern for me, but the truth is, I have never been in love. I like Lydia very much, and I think I could probably fall in love with the woman she could grow up into, given good principles and role models. I like her a good deal better than the spoiled society maidens Mother has attempted to foist on me these last few seasons, at least, and the time is coming when I should have to accept one of them. Or have you forgotten that my brother has no son?”
Darcy huffed out a breath and shook his head slowly. “I presume you have written to your parents, and your brother?” he said finally.
“Indeed, but they are all in Scotland, at Heatheridge. They’ll be a week or more getting here, though I hope they’ll arrive before the wedding. The first banns will be called on Sunday.”
“Here?” Darcy asked.
“That was the original plan, though Mrs Bennet is pressing to have them called in Hertfordshire as well, so Lydia can be married from her home. Doing so might cut down further on any gossip, especially if my family are seen to be supportive.”
Darcy understood what his cousin was asking. He wasn’t at all sure Fitzwilliam was making a wise choice, even if it was a noble one, but he did respect that it was his cousin’s choice to make.
“Of course I will support you,” he said, “and I might be able to be of use, too. Bingley is at Pemberley at the moment, and if I write to him, I am sure he can be easily persuaded to meet us at Netherfield and open the place up again. It’s only a few miles from Longbourn.”
Fitzwilliam stared at him, brow furrowing. “Didn’t you expend a lot of effort to remove Bingley from some unsuitable connection in Hertfordshire just last autumn?”
Darcy winced, realising his cousin didn’t know the full truth of that situation. “About that... there’s something you should know. The unsuitable connection... was Miss Jane Bennet.”
Fitzwilliam said “Oh,” three times in succession, each time in vastly different tones as his quick mind raced through the implications of what he had just been told, and then he said a curse word Darcy hadn’t heard him use since they were foolish boys at Eton attempting to shock their tutors. “I told Miss Elizabeth!”
“I know you did,” Darcy said, “and she tore into me quite severely for my interference, too, which I well deserved.”
“Well, that explains why you were in so foul a mood when we left Kent. It’s all my fault!”
Darcy opened his mouth to tell his cousin the rest of it, confess to the disastrous failed proposal too, but in the end closed it again. Fitzwilliam had his own burdens to carry just now, and Darcy was hopeful all might yet come about with Elizabeth.
“Tell me what is to be done with Wickham,” he asked instead, “and just how much money you have laid out to buy up his debts, because that is not your burden to bear. You must allow me to relieve you of it.”
“He is secured in gaol, under guard by loyal men from my regiment, and permitted no visitors from the militia. He has nothing to bribe his gaolers with, and they are predisposed to think ill of him since I have let it be known that Wickham was attempting to charm Lydia in an attempt to get at me.”
Darcy stared at his cousin. “You think that was his motive?”
Fitzwilliam frowned. “What else could it be? Oh, he would love to get under your skin as well, but I did not think he was aware of your attachment to Miss Elizabeth... especially since you can barely acknowledge it to yourself. Or were you more obvious in your attentions in Hertfordshire than you were in Kent?”
Darcy flushed red and mumbled something incoherent. His cousin was far too astute. He saw the twinkle in Fitzwilliam’s eye, and scowled in response.
“I shall take that as a negative. I hope my telling her about your interference with Bingley’s courtship of her sister - not that I had any idea it was her sister - has not put too much of a spoke in your plans, whatever they are.
” Fitzwilliam was definitely teasing now.
“But I do not think Wickham had her in mind in any way when he tried to get Lydia to run away with him.”
“I should still like to question Wickham before you have him taken... wherever you’re having him taken.
What do you have in mind for him?” Darcy asked finally, trying to steer the subject away from his courtship of Elizabeth, and feeling suddenly grateful he hadn’t told Fitzwilliam the whole disastrous truth.
“The colonies,” Fitzwilliam said cheerfully. “I plan to offer him a ticket to the Americas and a hundred pounds in his pocket, and make it clear it’s a one-time, one-way offer. If he ever darkens England’s shores again, he’ll spend the rest of his life in the Fleet.”
“You should just let him rot in prison. Save the expense,” Darcy said coldly.
“I considered it. Unfortunately, there would be rather too many opportunities in the Fleet for him to open his mouth and speak to unsavoury characters who might then decide they have information others would pay to keep quiet. I can’t keep him in solitary confinement until after Georgiana is safely married, Darce.
Better to get him out of England, an ocean away, sure in the knowledge that he can’t come back. ”
“You don’t think he might just... send a letter back? Tell someone?” Darcy worried.
“A parting shot?” Fitzwilliam shrugged. “To be completely honest, I doubt he would bother to spend the postage - you have to pay to send a letter from America. Why risk our wrath, when there is unlikely to be any potential profit in it for him? And who would he tell, that anyone might find credible?” He leaned forward and pointed out, “Even Wickham himself would have difficulty selling the story among the Ton, Darce, and you know it. Second-hand, it’s mere hearsay from a bitter man who was never part of Society in the first place. ”
Darcy did know it, which was why he hadn’t tried to pursue Wickham after the man left Ramsgate.
He hadn’t even been afraid Wickham would slander Georgiana’s name in Hertfordshire; the story hardly reflected well on Wickham, after all.
His biggest fear was that one day, Georgiana would find herself face to face with the man again and fall apart, and if Wickham was sent to America, that danger was forever removed.
“Very well,” he said finally, “I will defer to you, though perhaps I might offer a useful contact... putting Wickham on a military ship might give him a little too much opportunity to talk to officers who do move in our circles, but a merchant ship does not offer the same dangers.”
“Have you gone into shipping then, cousin?” Fitzwilliam raised a brow.
“Not I, but Mr Gardiner. Mrs Bennet’s brother, who I met at Pemberley in Miss Elizabeth’s company and who has accompanied us to Brighton to see of what service he can be to the family. He runs an import and export business out of Cheapside in London.”
“Now that is a useful contact, indeed! He knows all?” Fitzwilliam asked.
“He does, or at least, as much as I knew before this latest escapade.”
“Which is quite enough. Let us speak to him as soon as may be, then. Honestly, the sooner we have Wickham away from these shores, the happier I shall be!”
They nodded at each other in perfect agreement, and Darcy, thinking the conversation was done, turned for the door. His cousin’s voice stopped him in his tracks.
“Darcy... this Mr Gardiner. Is this the connection of the Bennet family to which you objected so strongly you thought it necessary to detach Bingley from Miss Bennet?”
Darcy winced, but he should have known Fitzwilliam would ask the question sooner rather than later.
His cousin was about to tie himself to the family, after all.
Turning to face Fitzwilliam, he squared his shoulders and debated with himself.
Was it really wise, or even kind, to tell his cousin that the Bennet connection he had thought most likely to bring disgrace on the family was Miss Lydia?
Or should he tell a different truth?
“The greatest objection I had to Bingley’s marrying Miss Bennet was that I should be unable to escape further acquaintance with Miss Elizabeth,” he confessed, “and at the time, I was quite desperate to never see her again lest I take leave of all my senses.”
Fitzwilliam’s eyes widened, and then he began to laugh heartily. Clapping Darcy on the shoulder, he choked out, “I shall look forward to welcoming you as a brother one day soon then, cousin!”
“Do not count your chickens before they are hatched,” Darcy warned. “Come on, let us go and consult with the others. You have my support for this marriage, and in dealing with Wickham however you must; let that be enough for now.”
They exited the study into the narrow hallway, but before they could re-enter the parlour, footsteps on the stairs made them look around, to discover the three Bennet sisters descending.
Darcy was surprised to see Lydia’s expression light up as she caught sight of Fitzwilliam, but not with the silly, flirtatious glances she had been wont to offer to the militia officers in Meryton.
This was a shy, sweet, genuine smile, and Darcy began to feel a little more hopeful that perhaps, his cousin hadn’t made an enormous mistake.