Kitty had the good sense to look at her parents and said nothing. Bennet looked to his wife as they communicated silently. It was something new and rather disconcerting to their daughters, especially the youngest.
“Kitty may join her sisters; she is but months away from coming out after all. You, Lydia, will remain at home,” Fanny stated.
“Why may Kitty go and I may not?” Lydia demanded as she stood. “I am the lively one, I want to see the officers.” She stamped her foot to emphasise her point.
“This kind of behaviour is the exact reason you are not allowed to join your sisters,” Bennet stated firmly. “Would you like to have more allowance taken from you?” Lydia closed her mouth with a clack. Bennet looked to his second-to-youngest daughter. “Kitty, you will remain next to one of your older sisters at all times and there will be no chasing or flirting with anyone, much less officers. If you contravene my restrictions, you will be in for another year and if you are good, I may take you to a review at the end of your additional year.”
“You have my word, Mama and Papa, I will be a good girl,” Kitty vowed.
Lydia glowered at Kitty and so much wanted to demand she remain home and not go into Meryton if she could not, but she was not willing to risk the loss of more allowance.
“I would like to join you,” a fully recovered Jane added.
Mary looked to Mr. Collins who nodded. “Mr. Collins and I will join the walking party as well,” Mary stated.
After donning their outerwear, the five walkers set off to cover the mile into Meryton at an easy pace. Jane, Elizabeth, and Kitty walked ahead while Mary, who had accepted his arm when it was offered, walked with Mr. Collins a little behind her three sisters.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Denny, Wickham, and one more man who had been recruited to join the regiment alighted from the post carriage at the Red Lion Inn in Meryton. Denny hailed Captain Sanderson who led the other man to the encampment while he showed Wickham the town.
As he walked next to Denny, Wickham noticed the market town was no different than several he had visited—and in which he had left debts behind him—in England. It looked to be somewhat smaller than Lambton, which was only five miles from the entrance to Pemberley.
Anytime Pemberley’s name came up in his thoughts, Wickham could not but scowl. Damn that prig! By an accident of birth, he got everything while he, who in his estimation was much more deserving, got nothing!
What had all of his fawning over the late Robert Darcy purchased him? Not a satellite estate, or a significant sum. No, a paltry one thousand pounds and a recommendation to the Kympton livingifhe took Orders.
The last thing he wanted to do in the world was to take Clerical Orders or take orders from anyone else. He would not suffer as a curate for one year so he could qualify, and besides, he had no taste for making sermons and caring for the welfare of others.
Darcy had paid him three thousand pounds for the living, and Wickham had foolishly signed a document decrying any further claim to said living. With four thousand pounds burning a hole in his pocket, for just over two years Wickham had lived well until he lost the last of the money.
He was not to blame. The cards had not gone his way and the men guarding the hells he gambled in were too astute for him to successfully cheat. He had heard the incumbent at Kympton had passed away not long after all the money was gone.
He wrote to the prig claiming the living old Mr. Darcy had meant for him as a way to pressure the son into paying him more for the living. After all, another five or ten thousand pounds would be nothing to his former friend.
But no, the damned bastard had refused, citing the inconvenient document Wickham had been tricked into signing. Luckily, Karen Younge had taken him in and when he saw the advertisement for a companion for Miss Georgiana Darcy, the plan to acquire her dowry and revenge himself on Darcy had been hatched. However, other than a broken nose and a punch in his belly for his troubles, it had come to nothing.
It was all Darcy’s fault he had to run from those after him and been reduced to enlisting in the militia. If only he would be able to see Darcy, how he would issue a well-deserved set down.
“You see Wickham, there are pretty girls here,” Denny stated as he cocked his head toward Maria Lucas walking with her older sister.
“The younger one is pretty, I will grant you, but the other one is old and plain,” Wickham replied softly.
“Come, allow me to introduce you,” Denny offered and Wickham nodded.
“Miss Lucas, Miss Maria, how do you do?” Denny stopped in front of the Lucas sisters and executed a bow.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
The four Bennet sisters and Mr. Collins were about to split up, when Elizabeth spied Charlotte and Maria speaking to an officer and another man not in uniform. Having not seen her friend for some time, she directed the group of walkers over to where the Lucas sisters and the two men were standing and talking. When they neared, Elizabeth saw the man who was not an officer was rather handsome, he was tall, almost as tall as Mr. Darcy, with light brown hair, and had slate blue eyes.
“Well met,” Charlotte stated. “Jane, are you well again?”
“I am very well, thank you,” Jane averred. “Charlotte, would you introduce the gentlemen to us, please.”
Wickham could not believe the array of beauty before him. Yes, they were older than he preferred, guessing the youngest was around sixteen, but for such beauty, he would make an exception.
Charlotte performed the office of introducing the Lieutenant and Mr. Wickham to the Bennet sisters, and in turn, Jane introduced their cousin to the Lucases and the two men.
