Chapter 15
Within two days of Wickham being taken into custody, three girls, one fifteen, and two fourteen years of age, had been found to have been tricked into surrendering their virtue to the scoundrel.
One was the smithy’s daughter, and as that man was braying for blood, Wickham was fortunate he was in the militia’s gaol cell.
The other fathers were no less angry, but they were not as big and strong as Paulson, the smithy.
Hattie Phillips had brought word of Mr Wickham’s arrest for his inability to pay his debts to her sister. Fanny had not shared the information with her husband or three daughters who remained at home with them.
On the first Wednesday of April, while the five Bennets at Longbourn were completing the morning meal, Hattie Phillips burst into the dining parlour, out of breath from practically running to the Bennet estate.
“Sister, Brother, girls. What news I have! Such an evil man. It was not bad enough that he planned to beggar the tradesmen in Meryton, but he has meddled with at least three girls.” Hattie fell into one of the chairs, her energy having been expended on her walk and then losing her breath as she told her news.
“Aunt Hattie, of whom do you speak?” Lydia demanded brashly.
“Did I not say his name? Why, it is none other than Mr Wickham who we all praised to the skies. He is a devil sent to ruin us all,” Hattie responded.
“You are wrong! George… Mr Wickham is a good, handsome, honest lieutenant in the militia. Now that the freckled Mary King is gone, he has been saved for his one true love,” Lydia insisted.
Up to this point, Bennet had looked on with his usual anticipation of being amused by vulgarity and silliness.
He remembered the times Jane and Lizzy had begged him to check his wife but, more importantly, his youngest two daughters.
They had claimed that Lydia, especially, would ruin them all.
He had laughed at them, but now, he was not so sure they had not been correct.
“Lydia, you will sit and be quiet!” Bennet ordered.
Fanny was about to defend her favourite when she saw the glint in her husband’s eye, which told her he would be unreasonable in this. She held her peace.
“Now, Sister, please tell us all,” Bennet requested.
“On Monday, Sir William checked the number of debts outstanding and owing to the shopkeepers because the regiment is to move in less than a fortnight. Many officers…” Hattie revealed that only one officer’s debts were excessive and how much they were.
Before she could continue, her youngest niece interpolated.
“If that hateful Mr Darcy had not cheated George out of his…” Lydia stopped when she realised she had called the handsome officer, George.
“We will discuss your familiarity with that man soon enough. Sister, please proceed,” Bennet stated.
“Colonel Forster cashiered him from the regiment and had him locked up,” Hattie continued.
“He is fortunate that he is under arrest because Mr Paulson would kill him if he could. Messrs Simkins and Johnson would assist him. It is not talk for young maidens, but you need to know how evil this man is.”
“He is not EVIL!” Then, Lydia remembered the word she did not understand. “What is ‘cashiered’?”
“Lydia Harriet Bennet, interrupt your aunt one more time, and I will gag you and tie you to your chair. Am I clear?” Bennet barked.
He saw his youngest quail and nod her head as she realised he was serious.
“‘Cashiered’ means that the man has been stripped of his rank and expelled from the militia.”
As much as she wanted to protest that Mr Wickham had to still be an officer, as she only wanted to marry a man in a scarlet coat, Lydia said nothing.
Seeing a nod from her brother-in-law, Hattie resumed her tale.
“Do you know what he did? While he was supposed to be courting Mary King, he was proposing marriage to young, innocent girls. According to what is known, he would tell the girls that if they loved him, they would anticipate their vows. He made this vile advance to more than the three girls, but they are the only ones we know of who agreed to gift him their virtues.”
All the while Hattie spoke; Bennet had been watching Lydia. He did not miss the anger, then the recognition, and finally the fear. “Mary and Kitty, leave us now!” he demanded.
Neither girl had seen their father so forceful before. Hence, they stood and wordlessly left the dining parlour.
Bennet rang for Hill. “Close the doors. Post a footman at the servants’ door, and you make sure no one approaches the door the family uses,” he ordered gruffly. When his wife started to speak, he held up his hand, giving her a hard look.
Fanny said nothing.
A few minutes later, Hill reported the footman was in place and that he would be where the master ordered. He pulled the door closed as he exited the room.
“Mr Bennet, what is this about?” Fanny enquired shrilly.
He ignored his wife and turned towards his youngest. “Lydia, did Mr Wickham propose marriage to you?” Bennet queried in a kindly voice.
Not able to speak, Lydia nodded.
“How wonderful!” Fanny exclaimed as she clapped her hands. “A daughter married at fifteen and before her older sisters, too.”
“Mrs Bennet, be quiet! Did you hear nothing of what your sister told us about that man? He offers marriage to gain that which no woman should give outside of the bounds of matrimony,” Bennet reminded his feather-headed wife.
“What has that to do with my Lydia…?” Fanny shut her mouth as she put the pieces together in her mind. “We are all ruined! Hill, my…”
“Mrs Bennet, be quiet while we discover if that is the case,” Bennet directed as he cut off her exclamation.
“Lydia, did Mr Wickham tell you that you needed to anticipate your vows to prove your devotion to him?” Bennet felt a cold chill travel down his spine when he saw his youngest nod. “When did you and how many times?”
“Do what, Papa?” Lydia asked with genuine confusion.
“Anticipate your vows, lie with a man,” Bennet stated dispassionately.
Not long ago, he had read the poem The Curse of Kehama by Robert Southby.
There was a line that read, ‘Curses are like young chickens: they always come home to roost.’ The curse in this case had been his indifference to the way his children were raised and his ignoring their behaviour, only to laugh at it.
“I do not know what that means, Papa,” Lydia responded, her eyebrows knitted. “I spoke to him after church on Easter Sunday, and we were supposed to meet on Monday to anticipate the vows. He never came to meet with me. Because he told me it was our secret, I could not ask anyone where he was.”
The relief that Bennet felt was palpable.
His youngest’s virtue was intact by pure chance.
No, it was better than that; it was because Sir William, a man Bennet sometimes made fun of, had, for some reason, perhaps pushed by the hand of God, investigated the debts held by members of the militia.
The miscreant’s arrest had saved Lydia, and by extension, her family, from ruin.
As soon as this meeting was over, Bennet resolved to ride to Lucas Lodge and tell his friend what an immeasurable service he had done for the Bennets.
“I made an error in allowing my daughters to be pushed out at fifteen, or, in Lydia’s case, before that age.
That stops now. As of this instant, Kitty and Lydia are back in.
They will return to the schoolroom, and they will dress as girls not out yet.
And Mrs Bennet, we will employ a governess to superintend their education,” Bennet decided.
“But, Mr Bennet…” Fanny tried to object and closed her mouth when her husband raised his hand and shot her a murderous look.
“You have taught this girl to chase men and flirt with them, and look where that almost got us! No, Mrs Bennet, the days of me allowing any of my daughters to behave outside of the bounds of propriety are at an end.” He turned to his shocked sister-in-law.
“Sister, you know that if one-word escapes about Lydia’s almost ruin, she and her sisters will be shunned.
This is one time you must keep a confidence. I will tell Phillips myself.”
Shaking herself from the shock of her youngest Bennet niece’s near ruin, Hattie stood.
“Brother and Sister, I will not breathe a word of this to another,” she vowed.
“I must take my leave. Although no one will hear about Lydia, Mr Wickham’s perfidy must be made known.
” With that, Hattie Phillips swept out of the room to make sure that not one drop of sympathy for the former lieutenant remained in the area.
Although she was silly, Lydia was not without intelligence.
She did not quite understand what would have been involved in ‘anticipating the vows’, but she had no doubt how bad life could get if she were considered ruined.
She had seen the butcher’s daughter, Penny, ostracised and sent away for being ruined.
That was not something Lydia wanted for herself, and for that matter, neither did she want it for her sisters.
Consequently, when she was ordered to the schoolroom, she went without complaint.
Kitty, when informed of her father’s pronouncement, was not so sanguine with it, but she also complied without verbalising her feelings.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Sitting in Sir William’s study, Bennet knew that had he not been seated, his legs would not have supported his weight.
On being shown in to see his friend, Bennet had begun to thank him for the great service Sir William had done for his family. His friend had grinned and told him to sit. Then, he had handed Bennet a missive, one in Lizzy’s hand!