Chapter Seven
The storm had done its worst while the occupants of Longbourn all slept easy in the assurance of their success; they awoke to calmer skies, a thick blanket of snow on the ground, and a sense of quiet peace.
Georgiana had shared with Elizabeth, for Mrs. Annesley had slept in Mary’s room, and the bedchamber Lydia and Kitty shared was still in shambles after Elizabeth’s raid to retrieve her belongings.
Mr. Darcy had slept in the guest chamber at the end of the corridor, and Elizabeth idly wondered whether he was an early riser or preferred to sleep fashionably late.
Generally she woke just after dawn to take a leisurely morning ramble about the countryside, but she knew that would not be possible; she could only appreciate the beauty left in the wake of the snowstorm.
“Is it not utterly perfect?” Georgiana gazed out the window of Elizabeth’s bedchamber with a look of girlish awe at the wintry landscape.
“I am glad that there can be no reason for anyone to be coming or going near the house today, if only so we can enjoy the absolute perfection of untouched snow awhile longer.”
Elizabeth stood at her side, eyes wide in wonderment. “This is the most snow I have ever seen here in Hertfordshire! For your sake, Gigi, I shall have to curb my impulse to run outdoors and frolic in it. The sun is coming out, and I fear it shall soon melt away.”
“Oh,” Georgiana said, furrowing her brow before breaking into a wide grin. “Well… perhaps the picturesque scene would be improved if we were a part of it. Shall we dress and go downstairs? Surely you do not break your fast at such an early hour.”
“No, it will be at least an hour before Mrs. Hill prepares our repast. Last night I beseeched her to sleep until a gloriously decadent hour, if she possibly could—she has certainly earned it,” Elizabeth replied, resisting the urge to inquire after her new friend’s brother.
She liked Georgiana well enough for her own sake, and as much as she missed her sisterly intimacy with Jane, it was a balm to her spirits to enjoy such female companionship.
The two young ladies helped one another dress in their warmest apparel, and then they hastened out into the pristine expanse of snow.
Elizabeth laughed at the dull crunch beneath her feet, which sunk several inches into the snow as she ran across it, her balance wobbly and her arms flailing wildly as she attempted to keep pace with Georgiana.
“You must be far more accustomed to the snow than I am,” she said, her breath clouding in the air.
“We scarcely have more than an inch or two.”
Georgiana grinned as she extended a fur gloved hand to steady Elizabeth. “Winter at Pemberley is magnificent, Lizzy! We take sleigh rides, go ice skating on the pond, sometimes Lambton even has a snowman contest.”
“Is Lambton very near to Pemberley? My Aunt Gardiner grew up there; I had intended to visit there with her while in Derbyshire.”
“Not so close as Meryton to Longbourn—perhaps four or five miles. Oh, it is such a charming little village! I am sure you shall see it someday soon,” Georgiana cried, offering Elizabeth a significant look.
She was not wrong; it would not be much longer before Elizabeth’s family returned for her and they could all make the journey north together.
And yet, the gleam in Georgiana’s eyes seemed to imply more.
Elizabeth turned her face away to hide a smile as she and Georgiana trudged through the snow hand in hand. Before she could wonder what had come over her, Elizabeth blurted out, “I wish to ask you about what you told me in the carriage yesterday.”
Georgiana inhaled sharply. “I hoped you had forgotten all about my nonsensical babbling. You seemed so charming, and of course your situation was inherently endearing… and I do not have very many friends. Mrs. Annesley does her best with me, but I do not always know how to behave as society expects.”
“I have found no fault in your sweet and open manners—though I must object to your attempt at deflection,” Elizabeth quipped with a raised brow. “Tell me truthfully, does your brother really admire me? When he was a guest at Netherfield, I rather believed he despised me.”
“What? No!” Georgiana brought her hands to her face as she gasped. “He mentioned you several times in every letter he wrote to me while he stayed with Mr. Bingley.”
“To lament my perpetual impertinence?”
“He likes your impertinence!” Georgiana snorted with laughter and then winced. “He would probably prefer me to exercise more discretion, but if you really believed that he disliked you, I am glad I have disabused you of such a preposterous notion.”
“He likes my impertinence? I have been vastly insolent to him on many occasions—it is beyond eccentricity to enjoy such behavior as that—and I am sure I could never love a man who was out of his wits!” Elizabeth clapped a hand over her mouth.
They had not been talking about love—what was the matter with her?
“Oh, no! Will is the cleverest, most intelligent person I know,” Georgiana assured her. “He is also the kindest, most patient and generous man. I believe he esteems your honesty and authenticity as much as your other charms. Not everyone who seeks our friendship is always so genuine.”
“Such as a certain gentleman’s sisters, whom you mentioned yesterday,” Elizabeth teased.
Georgiana smiled sadly, her eyes drifting off into the distance as her countenance became pensive. “London society is full of Miss Bingleys; they are unpleasant, but generally harmless—at least, that is what our cousin Richard says. No, there are far worse villains than self-important heiresses.”
“I ought to know,” Elizabeth quipped, thinking of the brigands that had smiled to her face while planning to rob her family.
“You ought to know,” Georgiana repeated, furrowing her brow. She reached out and gripped Elizabeth’s hand tightly, drawing in a deep breath before slowly releasing it.
“Gigi, what is it?”
Georgiana’s lip quivered as she looked up at Elizabeth, but then she raised her shoulders and collected herself. “George Wickham. He… did he mention any connection to my family?”
“He did,” Elizabeth said with a sense of foreboding.
“He made some serious accusations against your brother, and I am ashamed to admit I believed him. I do not any longer—after learning that he is involved in this wicked scheme, I know better than to believe a single word he has ever said. I am mortified that I even defended him when….”
“Lizzy,” Georgiana cut her off, giving her hand a squeeze.
“You do not have to defend yourself—I know all too well what it is like to be deceived by his charms. I adored him in my childhood. He was a favorite of my father’s, and often a guest in the house.
He played with me when I was a girl. He always seemed so wonderful, but I had no idea what he was really like, not until last August.”
Elizabeth braced herself for something very dreadful, for the cheerful girl’s demeanor had turned ominous. “What happened?”
“I travelled to Ramsgate with a companion—a woman who managed to deceive even my brother. She and George Wickham conspired against me, against my brother. I thought he loved me! He wanted my dowry and revenge against Will.”
“Revenge? Surely your brother did not really cheat him,” Elizabeth murmured.
“Of course not—he would never! I did not know any of the particulars at the time, for I was only a child when our father died. But after… after Will saved me from making the stupidest decision a girl could ever make, he explained it all to me. He told me how he had known since his school days that George was selfish and debauched, that at first he had not wished to wound our father with this knowledge, and when he finally did tell him, Papa did not wish to hear the truth. When he died, he left George a sum of a thousand pounds, and recommended him for a living near Pemberley. I shudder to think what might have happened if that scoundrel had actually joined the church, but fortunately for every lady in Kympton, he declined it. He was given an additional three thousand pounds in compensation—Will showed me the documents. Within a few years, that money was gone, spent on such pastimes as we ladies are not meant to speak of.”
Georgiana’s lips twitched into a rueful smile, and she rolled her eyes even as silent tears streamed down her cheeks.
She wiped them away with the back of her gloved hands and continued her confession.
“I would have eloped with him, would have ruined my life, would have brought scandal and disgrace on Will and Pemberley and everything I hold dear. And Will had forgiven me all of it—he blames himself for all of it, though it was only his unexpected arrival in Ramsgate that prevented the entire disaster.”
The enormity of what Georgiana had told her washed over Elizabeth.
When she learned of Wickham’s involvement in the conspiracy to burglarize her home, she had considered every interaction she had ever had with him with a sense of revulsion and no little recrimination.
Now her thoughts turned darker as she recalled how he had smiled at all her youngest sister’s brazen flirtation, and how he had shamelessly attempted to tarnish not only Mr. Darcy’s character, but Georgiana’s.
“Good God, that is deplorable,” Elizabeth gasped. She wrapped her arms around Georgiana, who instantly returned her embrace. “I wonder you could even bear to be in the same village as that evil wastrel!”
When Georgiana drew away, the tender distress on her countenance had turned to steel. “I am not afraid of him. We know of his vile schemes, and soon Richard will know of them too—George should be afraid of us. I am glad I shall be present to see him brought to justice.”
“Brava,” Elizabeth cried, clapping her hands even as tears pricked her eyes. “You are a remarkable creature. Thank you for telling me your story, it cannot have been easy.”