Suddenly, the boy tumbled out from Mr Bennet’s carriage, waving Mr Bennet’s pistol. “‘Ere, now. No waving that about, put it in the sack with the rest.” The highwayman holding Oliver waved at the bag with his pistol. “Ye know the rules. No guns for you. We don’t need ye goin’ off and killin’ folks, boy.”
The lad went about and quickly collected everyone’s valuables, as the ladies from the Darcy carriage wept in terror, and Colonel Fitzwilliam glared with loathing at the highwaymen.
“‘Ere, now! You all stay ‘ere and wait! If you come after, we’ll shoot you!” The man holding Oliver shouted.
Before the first man could push the boy away from him, the other man holding the Bennets announced, while still attempting to disguise his voice. “Just a moment, my friend. I believe we will take another guest with us this time.”
“Anotherransom?” the one holding the Darcy carriage scoffed.
“Something like that,” the man answered him with an evil glint to his eye.
“Yer gonna get us all killed, doing tha’. There’s no need!”
“No need foryou.You have no idea what my needs are,” he snarled. “Besides, we’ve killed no one. Everyone has made it home unharmed.” He eyed Georgiana with a strange look in his eye.
“You will take no one from this party while I am alive!” roared Colonel Fitzwilliam in a rage.
“Your death can be arranged, Fitzwilliam!” The highwayman returned hotly. In his distraction, he dropped whatever disguise he was attempting with his tones, then gave up entirely. “Georgie, you will come away with me, just as we planned, darling.”
The effect was immediate. Miss Darcy swooned, Colonel Fitwilliam’s eyes flew wide in rage, and suddenlyLydia bellowed, “George Wickham, you fiend!” as she pulled from her pocket the large piece of puddingstone she had found on the banks of the River Lea, then brought it downhardon the back of the villain’s head. The man crumpled instantly.
Colonel Fitzwilliam exploded into action faster than anyone might have ever thought possible. He spun and grasped the head of the highwayman close to him–who was gaping in shock at his wounded accomplice–and crushed the man’s skull against the frame of Darcy’s carriage.
It was quite astonishing, the speed at which the other man and the young boy abandoned Oliver and disappeared into the woods. Mr Bennet quickly relieved Mr Wickham of his pistol and pulled his kerchief down. It was instantly clear to everyone but Miss Jane that Lydia Bennet’s identification was correct.
Colonel Fitzwilliam was upon Wickham in an instant as Kitty and Mrs Annesley rushed to tend Georgiana.
“Wake up, damn you, so I can give you the beating you deserve!” Fitzwilliam shook the unconscious scoundrel like a rag doll, then dropped him back to the ground. Georgiana’s footman James darted forward and kicked Wickham in the ribs the moment he struck the ground.
“We have waited too long, James, but we must wait a little longer until he is conscious, before we beat him.” Fitzwilliam clapped the servant on the shoulder.
“That isifhe ever wakes up,” Mr Bennet observed. “Have you ever seen such a deep gash in a skull? Well… I am certainyou have,Colonel. But I have never seen one so bad that was not fatal. Is he even breathing?”
“Did I kill him?” Lydia squeaked. Miss Jane put her arm around her shoulders supportively.
“No, he is only unconscious,” Colonel Fitzwilliam stood and made his way to Georgiana. “James, Oliver, secure him, and the other. I will come to check their bonds in a moment.”
Mrs Annesley was on the ground next to Georgiana, whose head was in Kitty’s lap. “I do not have a vinaigrette, sir, they took my reticule!”
“It is all right, Mrs Annesley, we are not staying here, it is not safe.”Colonel Fitzwilliam scooped Georgiana into his arms and lifted her into the carriage as Kitty leapt in to help and support her. “Mr Bennet, where is the closest magistrate?”
“Flitwick Hall is perhaps a quarter hour back.” Mr Bennet looked up and down the lane. “I know Lucas better, but Sir Gregory Sayles is probably more intimate with the matter. The robberies all happened much closer to Ware than this, but I was of the impression there have been none for some weeks. The authorities insisted the villains had moved on, and no one believes Miss Jane’s appearance is related to the robberies, or we would not even have come.”
“This’un’s dead, sir. Won’t be needin’ no bonds.” Oliver brought the fate of the other robber to Fitzwilliam’s attention.
“Tie him to the back of Bennet’s carriage. James, you ride on the back of Darcy’s with Wickham. Do not allow him to escape. We finally have him properly this time.” Fitzwilliam did a sweep of the area, and once everyone was in the carriages, he boarded Darcy’s and the party began to move again.
The carriages were turned about, and travelled back to the previous turn in the road, which brought them to Flitwick Hall. The prisoner was taken into custody, Miss Darcy was tended and put in bed by Lady Sayles, who insisted that the poor ladies could not possibly travel any further that day. One of Flitwick Hall’s grooms was sent on horseback to Netherfield, to inform them that no one had been hurt, but their partyhadbeen robbed on the road–and the robbers caught–and so they would not return to Meryton until after breakfast the following day.
Colonel Fitzwilliam and Jamespersonallyattended Mr Wickham when he woke, and easily obtained the identification of his accomplices. Wickham was not even in possession of enough of his faculties to use the information to make his sentence less severe, his only object was to save himself from being beaten to death by the colonel and James, whose sister he had defiled years ago in Lambton.
Chapter Twenty-One
Tuesday 15 December1812
“Sir William Lucas, Mr Darcy, Mr Bingley, and Miss Elizabeth Bennet,” the butler of Flitwick Hall announced the following morning shortly after breakfast.
“Will!” Georgiana cried, jumping up from the settee once introductions had been made. “Will, you came!”
