Miss Lydia fidgeted. “Wickham, Denny, Chamberlayne… so many officers, I must have confused his name.”
Miss Mary lowered her book. “You distinctly said Mr. Wickham. He was not at the ball last night.”
All eyes turned to Miss Lydia. “He only refused Mr. Bingley’s invitation because he knew Mr. Darcy would cause a scene! He is a gentleman, and he had promised me a dance, so Mr. Denny showed me to the balcony where Mr. Wickham might keep his promise without offending those who have misused him so abominably.” She flipped a curl over her shoulder, exposing a roundish purple bruise on her throat.
Her parents noticed, but she was too indignant to realize her mistake until her father spoke. “Did he give you that mark on your neck?”
Eyes widening, Miss Lydia pulled her curl forward. “What? This? I must have been bitten by a mosquito while I was outside.”
“In November?” Mr. Bennet’s gaze turned to me. “Tell me what you saw, sir, so I might determine whether I ought to send for Mr. Wickham to demand an explanation… and perhaps an offer.”
This pleased Miss Lydia very much.
As it did Mrs. Bennet, who rubbed her hands together. “You must speak to him right away! Oh, what a proud mother I am to have a daughter engaged, and my youngest too!”
With the whole family present, I could not speak as plainly as I could have were it only Mr. Bennet listening, but they needed to be warned about Wickham. “I walked out on the balcony and heard Mr. Wickham suggest to a lady he had cornered on the balcony that they go to the gazebo, where they might have more privacy. I will leave it to you to imagine his intention. As someone who has known the man my whole life, I must add he has a reputation for making friends easily with his charm. Then he disappears, leaving behind debt, heartbreak, and ruin.”
Mr. Bennet sat upright. “He is a rake?” he asked.
At the same moment, Mrs. Bennet gasped, “He has no money?”
“He has been called that, Mr. Bennet… and I do not pretend to know the state of his financial affairs, only that I quit paying off his debts this last summer when he injured someone very dear to me,” I owned.
Longbourn’s master rubbed his hand over his face, ignoring Miss Lydia’s protests. “Did anyone else see what happened?”
“It was dark, and as Miss Mary mentioned, Wickham’s presence was not expected. Aside from me, Mr. Denny, and now the occupants of this room, I doubt anyone else knows.”
Face white, Mr. Bennet said in a low tone, “You prevented him from taking Lydia out to the gazebo.”
“He attacked George! He might have maimed him!” Miss Lydia pointed at me.
Elizabeth walked into the room then. Judging from her solemn expression, she had heard enough of her sister’s admission to shake her confidence in Wickham’s character. She handed my coat to me with a mumbled, “Thank you, Mr. Darcy.”
I could not don my coat without creating a spectacle, so I folded it on my lap and placed my hands on top. Elizabeth’s eyes widened at the sight of their greasy sheen. With an apologetic look, she slipped me her handkerchief.
Mr. Bennet addressed her. “Did you know of this last night, Lizzy?”
“I saw nothing.” She moved to sit near him, and I took advantage of her distraction to tuck her handkerchief inside the cuff of my shirt. I preferred my coat to be soiled rather than the delicate linen ruined by whatever it was on my hands.
“And yet you managed to send your sister home early.”
“She is determined to spoil my fun!”
Ignoring Miss Lydia, Elizabeth replied, “I chanced upon Mr. Darcy while he was searching Netherfield for you. He wished to speak to you and warn you about Mr. Wickham. Having heard he had decided not to attend, I was not convinced. But then I sawLydia in the withdrawing room boasting Mr. Wickham preferred her to me and she had danced with him out on the balcony. So I grabbed a glass of ratafia on a table nearby and poured it down the front of her dress.”
“You have always been jealous of me! George likes me more than you!”
Elizabeth took a deep breath.Had she set her sights toward Wickham? I did not want to believe it.
She spoke, her tone measured. “He told Mr. Bingley he would not attend the ball, and yet he sneaked onto the dark balcony to make inappropriate advances on you while breaking his promises to every other lady to whom he had also promised a dance. Mr. Wickham has told us many things, all of which cast him in a favorable light, but his behavior last night was not that of a gentleman.”
Miss Lydia’s face turned red. “He is one hundred times more of a gentleman than Mr. Darcy!”
“And yet it was Mr. Darcy who saved you from ruin and spared our family’s reputation with his quick action.”
Her blunt censure was logical. She spoke only facts, and yet my chest puffed with pride at her defense of me.
Mr. Bennet leaned forward, skin pale and voice grave. “I thank you for your service to my family, Mr. Darcy, but I must also inquire how you came to arrive in my kitchen with Lizzy looking as though she had been ravaged.”
