Chapter 22 #3
“I will write characters for both of you. I know what these toffs tell their housekeepers and butlers to look for in those to join their households. With my help, you will be employed without question,” Wickham responded.
“Then you will be good servants for a month or so while you learn all about the house and those who are resident. If you really want your revenge, it will be best gained through the young duchess. Can you imagine the pain you will cause when, after just being reunited with her daughter, said daughter is gone again, this time permanently?” It was obvious that his words had been sown on fertile ground by the looks on the twins’ countenances.
“What do you want us to do?” Karen Younge asked.
“As soon as you are established in the house you will get close to the young duchess. She is only around sixteen, so she will be easily manipulated. Karen, you will become a trusted maid who she will have accompany her as a chaperone, and Younge, you will make sure you get assigned to her carriage and to those who accompany her when she walks or rides,” Wickham laid out.
“Oy, I don’ ride,” Clay Younge objected.
He admitted to himself that he had not considered whether or not the simpleton could ride.
“In that case, you will make sure you are with her except when she rides,” Wickham said.
“Once she trusts you, then Karen, you will suggest that when she leaves the house with the large retinue, it must be stifling for her.
You will not try to force it, but once you have repeated it a few times, she will agree with you.
You two will get her to Hyde Park, where I will be waiting with a rented carriage near the Grosvenor Gate.
“We will take her to Edward Street and send a ransom demand. Once we are paid, I will take my share and then she is yours to do with what you will.” Of course, Wickham did not tell them that he would make off with Lady Bethany from Hyde Park and not go to Edward Street.
However, he intended to send an anonymous note to the runners telling them who the kidnappers of Lady Bethany were and where to find them.
His own plan was to compromise Lady Bethany that very day, making it so there would be no choice but to marry him. That she was still so young did not inhibit him; her age was an attraction.
“Wat ya think, Karen?” Clay Younge enquired.
“George has a good plan. We will both get what we want, so how can that be bad?” Karen Younge quizzed her brother. Then, she thought of something. “What names should we use? Do not forget that my mother worked for the Osbornes, so they will know the name Younge.”
“Karen, sixteen years have passed since then. They are like all toffs who do not even know the names of the servants in a room with them, never mind one from so far in the past,” Wickham opined.
“Also, for this to work, we need as few elements which are not true as possible. What do you think would happen if they discovered your true names, or one of you were addressed by the fake one and you did not recognise it? Trust me on this, as I have had much experience with these types. Using your own names will not be a problem.” Wickham thought of something.
“Your late mother was not named ‘Karen’, was she?”
“No, her name was Becky,” Karen Younge replied.
“In that case, all will be well,” Wickham declared with conviction. “You know I would never ask you to partake in a plan which will not work, do you not?”
“I trust you, George,” Karen averred. Seeing that George had nothing but honesty in his looks, and she was sure he was in love with her, Karen Younge could not conceive of her paramour prevaricating to her and Clay.
“You will see that we cannot fail in this,” Wickham claimed confidently.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
The Darcy and Fitzwilliam parents arrived at Leeds House an hour before the time they were all expected at St James’s Palace. They joined the Osbornes, Bennets, Bingleys, and Collinses in the main drawing room.
There was a palpable nervousness in the room as the time to face Their Majesties approached.
The palace was less than five hundred yards from Leeds House, and the walk was about five minutes; one did not walk to a palace.
Hence, everyone would board coaches, even though entering and exiting the conveyances would take more time than if everyone had walked.
Amelia, Fanny, and Bethany would have especially enjoyed the walk to burn off some of their nervous energy.
Bethany looked around the room. “I know Charlotte and Mary are at Darcy House, but were Andrew, Richard, Anne, and William not to join us?”
“No, Bethie dear,” Amelia replied. “The letter stated only Elaine and Reggie and Anne and Robert were to join us. We will see all your cousins when we return from the audience at the palace.”
Hilldale, Fitzwilliam, and Anne had walked across the green to Darcy House when the two sets of parents departed.
There they joined Conyers, Charlotte, Mary, Kitty, and Giana.
Charlotte and Mary had arrived at the Darcys’ house that morning.
Mary, like Kitty, was not out and would not be part of the group who would make for St James’s Palace, and Charlotte’s name had not been included in the summons.
At twenty minutes before the hour they were expected at the palace, the coaches were boarded. It took less than two minutes to arrive at their destination. Hence, by the time one of the major domos showed them into a parlour adjacent to the room they would enter, they had ten minutes to spare.