Chapter 32
It had been six days since the first letter had arrived from Lieutenant, or rather now Mr Wickham, because he had been marked as a deserter and had therefore lost the right to that title.
Mr Wickham’s last letter had instructed that a candle was to be left in the window of the top floor’s most westerly room, on the evening once the funds were available, and instructions would arrive to deliver them on the morrow.
Jane had agreed to be delivered back to Longbourn to help manage the situation there, and ensure that no word of Lydia’s situation escaped Longbourn.
The evening was but four hours away, and Elizabeth was eager to see the candle lit and Lydia one step closer to home, but the candle was never to be set alight, for the clatter of hoofs marked the arrival of a hired hackney cab.
Elizabeth ran to the window, joined by her aunt and Jane, while their father and uncle went to the door to see who was arriving.
Elizabeth saw a young man step down. He had sandy brown hair, was of slight figure and stature, and was dressed in clothing that marked him as a man of class, if not wealth.
He turned to the cab and helped a young woman down, who looked to be a maid, and then reached a hand up a second time.
Elizabeth's breath came out in a gasp, which was shared by her aunt.
She turned and ran immediately to the entrance of the house.
She arrived just as she saw Lydia being grabbed in an embrace by their father!
Elizabeth reached out as if to take her, but her father shook his head, “Not on the street,” he said. “Let us all get inside.”
Once inside, Mr Bennet released his youngest daughter into the arms of her elder sisters, and the safekeeping of her aunt, leading the young man to Mr Gardiner’s study and the maid to the care of his housekeeper.
Lydia was pale and shaking but seemed physically unharmed. Mrs Gardiner called for a hot bath to be made up for her and a hot chocolate too, which brought a faint smile to Lydia’s lips.
The hot bath and chocolate having arrived, Mrs Gardiner sent her maid away, and instead she, Jane and Elizabeth helped Lydia undress.
Elizabeth had thought it merely a kindness, but later she realised that her aunt had been inspecting Lydia to ensure she was uninjured.
Elizabeth had seen some bruising on her arm and on one of her sides.
When her aunt had questioned her, the entire story began to come out, broken only by the occasional sob.
“I was in the garden, and Miss Farnsworth had asked to be excused as the bright light had given her an ache of the head. She was not gone for more than ten minutes when Lieutenant Wickham arrived with another man,” she said.
“I did not know who the other man was at the time, but Lieutenant Wickham called him Young,” she said.
“Lieutenant Wickham doffed his hat at me and sought entrance into the garden, expressing that he had something he wished to discuss with Papa. But he did not,” she said, her eyes seeking those of her sisters’.
“I am not full sure what happened next, but I believe that Mr Young must have hit me over the head.” Jane gasped at this, but did not interrupt, and Lydia continued without pause.
“I cannot recall anything but waking up in a dirty carriage with a head so sore I was sure I should die,” she said, and a sensation of fondness went through Elizabeth, for it reminded her so much of Lydia’s dramatic pronouncements whenever she had hurt herself as a little girl.
But a frown overtook her face not a moment later, because her little sister had been in real danger, and that hit on the head might have ended in tragedy.
“I tried to speak to demand that he release me, but he had a cloth tied around my mouth. If he had not, I would have screamed for help, but I could not. We travelled for many hours, I knew not where, and I fell asleep for a time. The next time I awoke, I was at an inn, not like the inn at Meryton, Lizzy,” she said.
“It was dank and dark, and it smelled so bad, I know not of what, I am glad to say. They brought me inside by the back door, and a woman was awaiting me. Some tension left her aunt’s body, which Elizabeth had not known she had been holding.
“She named herself Mrs Young,” she said. “When first I saw her, I thought I was saved, but it was not so; she was the sister of the second man.”
“It was so cold, Lizzy,” she said, “It was not even a proper bedchamber; I think it might have been a closet for the cleaning supplies. It smelled something fierce,” she said, her nose crumpling in remembrance. “Mr Wickham took my hair,” she said, then started to cry in earnest once more.
In truth, at her relief at seeing Lydia safe, she had not thought of the locks of hair which Mr Wickham had sent them. Lydia had hair of the same thickness and strength as Elizabeth’s own, and only on close inspection could she see where it had been hacked off.
“It is not so bad, dearest,” she assured. “Once you have had it washed, and finished your bath, I will make it up for you, and you will see,” she said with a gentle smile at her little sister.
“Why did Papa not come for me, Lizzy?” she asked when she finally got out of the bathtub, having had the hot water topped up twice.
Elizabeth was devastated by the heartbreak in her young sister’s voice.
Now dressed and with her hair styled, she looked almost herself once again, except for the look in her eyes.
“We didn’t know where to find you, my dear,” her aunt replied, Elizabeth’s throat having tightened with tears, being unable to respond.
“He said he took my hair because Papa had refused to give him the money he requested,” she said in a voice which Elizabeth could only just hear.
“He said he heard around Meryton that the Bennets had come into a fortune, but that Papa must not love me as he was not willing to pay to get me back,” she said, and her crying got even worse.
“Lieutenant Wickham,” Lydia said, but halted. “He is not Lieutenant Wickham anymore, is he? Mr Da.., Mr de Grey told me that he has been named a deserter, so he is now Mr Wickham. I did not elope with him,” she told them, “I would never do such a thing,” she said.
“We know, Lydia. We knew as soon as he sent the first letter,” Elizabeth assured.
“He told me that he had sent a letter asking Papa for money, but that Papa had refused. I did not believe him, but he did.”
“He asked for fifty thousand pounds,” Elizabeth said.
“Fifty thousand pounds? How did he think that Papa was to get such an amount of money?” she asked.
“Your father and uncle were in the process of gathering the funds, and they paid a smaller amount in good faith to ensure your safety,” their aunt explained.
“Papa was to pay fifty thousand pounds for me?” she asked, her voice high in shock.
“He would pay anything to have you back safe, Lydia,” Elizabeth said, and her aunt nodded in agreement.
“So how did you come to be in the company of the gentleman who returned you do us?” Elizabeth finally voiced the question that had only been waiting for the opportunity to ask.
“They..., he was looking for me,” she said.
“He and some other gentlemen heard that Mr Wickham had taken a young lady, and being from Derbyshire, they knew of Mr Wickham and his wickedness, and felt sure that they could locate him, and they did,” she said.
“And they located me as well, and Mr de Grey volunteered to see me safely back to my uncle’s home. ”
“They are the best of men,” Lydia said, looking at Elizabeth, with an expression which Elizabeth could not decipher.
“I would pay anything to see you safe, my love,” her father said, coming into the room, now that she was properly attired.
It was only then that Elizabeth saw the strain the last few days had taken on him.
He was nearly as pale as Lydia. He and her uncle had been so reassuring in their conviction that Lydia would be brought home safe that Elizabeth had not questioned that it might not be so.
But seeing her father now, she understood fully for the first time that they might never have got her back.
She raised a hand to her own mouth to suppress a cry; no good would come from her crying now.
A fleeting thought crossed her mind that she was like one of Mr Darcy’s, or really Shakespeare's, na?ve women who believed whatever their fathers or husbands told them.
“It takes time to get the sums Mr Wickham requested together,” he told her. “That is the only reason it was not paid in full the moment he asked for it.” Lydia ran into her father’s arms again, and he patted her back awkwardly.