Chapter 47 Two Weeks #2
They crossed the hall and entered Mr. Bennet's study without knocking.
He looked up from his book, his irritation at the intrusion giving way to astonishment at the sight of three of his daughters crowded into the room. Lydia was weeping noisily between Elizabeth and Mary, her face flushed and one hand pressed against the cheek Elizabeth had struck.
“What in heaven's name has happened?”
“Lydia arranged to meet Mr. Wickham alone on Oakham Mount.”
Lydia cried out. “I did not! Lizzy followed me and made a dreadful scene. She insulted Mr. Wickham and struck me!”
Mr. Bennet stared at his youngest daughter.
Elizabeth raised her voice enough to be heard. “I saw Lydia leave the house alone and followed her. Mr. Wickham was waiting beneath the trees on the mount. He tried to persuade me that his presence there was a coincidence, but Lydia herself admitted to the assignation.”
Lydia tried to shrug off Elizabeth’s hand and turned toward the door.
“Papa, what does a thirty-year-old man want with a fifteen-year-old girl? Answer me that.”
A movement at the study door caught Elizabeth’s attention.
Mrs. Bennet stood there with one hand against the frame, her mouth open in shock. Jane slipped quietly into the room beside her.
Elizabeth continued. “Had Mary not gone with me, Lydia would have left with him. She refused to return to the house, and it was all Mary and I could do to bring her home.” She looked directly at her father.
“Papa, understand me. If Lydia had gone with him, she would have brought ruin upon herself and every one of her sisters.”
“Oh, Lydia,” Mrs. Bennet whispered.
Lydia twisted toward her. “Mamma, I only wanted to see him! There is nothing wrong with that. He likes me, and Lizzy is jealous because no officer has ever admired her.”
Mrs. Bennet said nothing.
Her silence seemed finally to penetrate Lydia's anger.
Mr. Bennet rose slowly from behind his desk. “You left this house to meet a grown man alone?”
“He is not just a man. He is Mr. Wickham, and he is a gentleman.”
“A gentleman does not arrange secret meetings with fifteen-year-old girls.”
Lydia began crying harder. “Lizzy has ruined everything. He will never speak to me again.”
Mr. Bennet looked at her for a long time before turning to Elizabeth. “I confess I do not know what should be done with such a foolish girl, but we shall begin by returning her to the nursery.”
Lydia stopped crying long enough to stare at him.
“The nursery?”
“Yes. You are no longer out. You will wear your hair down as you did before your mother decided you were old enough to enter society, and you will not attend another assembly, dinner, card party, or gathering until I decide otherwise.”
“Papa!”
Mr. Bennet looked toward his wife. “You will find the gowns Lydia wore before she came out.”
“But, Mr. Bennet, she has outgrown them. Lydia has been out for nearly a year.”
“Then others will be made. They are to be suitable for a girl who is not yet out.”
Lydia's cries filled the study.
“You cannot do this to me! Everyone will laugh at me. Kitty is out, and I am taller than she is!”
“Your height has little bearing upon your judgment.”
Mrs. Bennet sank into a chair near the door. “Oh, Lydia. To meet an officer alone. What if someone had seen you?”
“That is precisely the difficulty,” Elizabeth said. “I saw her only because I happened to be sitting beside my window. Lydia has no compunction about running away when she wishes to do something forbidden. We cannot depend upon chance to prevent her doing it again.”
Mr. Bennet's expression changed.
Elizabeth stepped closer to his desk. “Papa, putting her in the nursery will accomplish nothing if she can simply leave it. Mr. Wickham is a grown man. He must be near thirty. What honorable purpose could he have in secretly meeting a child of fifteen?”
Mrs. Bennet covered her mouth with her hand and wept.
Mr. Bennet looked at Lydia, who had begun protesting again, and then at his wife.
“I have let you have your way with Lydia long enough, Mrs. Bennet. I should have acted when Elizabeth first came to me.”
Mrs. Bennet did not answer as Thomas Bennet rose to pull the bell.
When Hill appeared, he said, “Send John to me, and have someone take his place whenever he must leave his post. Lydia is to remain in the nursery. She may leave it only in the company of one of her elder sisters or a servant acting upon my instructions.”
Lydia stared at him in horror. “You are having a servant guard me?”
“I am preventing you from leaving this house to meet Mr. Wickham again.”
“You cannot keep me there forever!”
“I have no intention of doing so. You will remain under restraint until that man is removed from Meryton and is no longer a danger to you or to any other foolish girl who might believe a red coat and a handsome face sufficient evidence of honorable intentions.”
Lydia threw herself against Jane and began sobbing noisily. She lifted her head and looked at Elizabeth through her tears.
“I hate you. I hate you for doing this to me.”
Mr. Bennet rubbed his forehead before looking at Elizabeth and Mary. “Take your sister upstairs. I am much obliged to both of you for doing what I should have done before matters reached this pass.”
For a moment Elizabeth could only look at him.
Then she and Mary led Lydia from the study.
Upstairs, Lydia's fury returned. She railed against Elizabeth, Mary, her father, and finally the whole family as they took her into the nursery. She declared that Mr. Wickham loved her, that Elizabeth had driven him away, and that she would never forgive any of them.
Neither sister answered.
Lydia dropped into a chair and covered her face, her sobs filling the room.
Elizabeth and Mary left her there and closed the door.
John was already coming along the passage to take his place outside.
Mary waited until they were several steps away before speaking. “I can hardly believe Papa took such decided action.”
“Nor can I.”
Elizabeth looked back at the closed nursery door.
“Let us hope he continues to protect her until Mr. Wickham can be dealt with.”
* * *
Elizabeth returned to her bedchamber and found Georgiana's unfinished letter where she had abandoned it.
She sat at the desk and read the last few lines before taking up her pen.
My dear G,
I must add something that occurred while I was writing this letter. I happened to look from my window and saw LB leaving the house alone. My sister Mary and I followed her and found GW waiting for her on Oakham Mount, a secluded part of my father's estate.
I confronted him and ordered him to leave. I also warned him that his colonel would hear of an officer arranging a clandestine meeting with a girl of fifteen.
My father now understands the danger. LB has been returned to the nursery and is no longer permitted to go out. A servant will remain outside her door to prevent her from leaving the house without my father's permission.
Please share this with your brother. I fear for LB.
I hope I shall see you very soon, dear G. There is much I wish I could say that I dare not trust to a letter.
Your affectionate,
EB
Elizabeth sanded the page, folded it and sealed it, intending to send it with the morning post.
The dinner bell had already rung by the time she left her room. As she descended the stairs, she met Alice carrying a tray in the opposite direction.
“Is that for Lydia? Does John remain outside the nursery?”
“Yes, Miss. He has gone down to have his dinner, but Sam has taken his place until he returns.”
“Thank you, Alice.”
Jane and Mary were already in the drawing room when she entered. Kitty sat apart from them, unusually subdued.
“Where is Mamma?”
“She has gone to bed with a terrible headache,” Jane said. “Hill took her tea, but she says she cannot bear any light and wishes to be left alone. I think the scene with Lydia has affected her more than we realized.”
Kitty twisted her handkerchief between her fingers. “She has hardly spoken since Lydia came home.”
“Mamma has had a severe shock,” Jane said. “She will be better after she has rested.”
Mary said, “I do not believe Mamma understood before today what might come of encouraging Lydia to behave as she pleased.”
Jane looked to Elizabeth. “Do you think Mr. Wickham will speak of this incident? If people learn that Lydia arranged to meet him alone, they will assume the worst. She will be ruined, and the disgrace will fall upon all of us. None of us will escape it.”
The possibility had been troubling Elizabeth since they left Oakham Mount.
“If he wishes to be malicious, he might, but he would also have to explain why a man of his age was waiting alone for Lydia on Papa's estate. The story would do him little credit.”
“Then perhaps he has as much reason for silence as we do,” Jane said.
“I hope he sees it that way.”
The door opened, and Mr. Bennet entered.
“Your mother will not come down to dinner. Hill tells me her headache has become severe enough that she thinks Mr. Jones should see her, so I have sent for him.”
Jane rose. “I hope she is not so very ill. Mamma has suffered headaches before, but I have never known one to cause her to take to her bed like this.”
“Nor have I. There is little advantage in frightening ourselves before Mr. Jones has examined her.”
They went in to dinner, though little was eaten and even less was said.
Mr. Jones arrived before the table had been cleared.
Elizabeth heard his voice in the hall and then his footsteps upon the stairs. Mrs. Bennet's room lay above them, and for the next half hour every sound from that part of the house seemed unnaturally distinct.
At last Mr. Jones came downstairs. Mr. Bennet met him in the hall, with Jane and Elizabeth following.
“She tells me she has suffered a severe shock,” Mr. Jones said. “Her headache is considerable, but I see nothing at present that gives me cause to believe she is in immediate danger. She must be kept quiet tonight. No excitement, and no crowding about her bed.”
“May one of us sit with her?” Jane asked. “I do not like the thought of her being alone when she is so unwell.”