Richard saw there was concern in his ward’s eyes too. “You have my word of honour that unless it is self-defence, I will not kill him,” Richard relented. “Retrieve the markers. I will take the copies which will be enough to have a bailiff join me and for the local magistrate to issue a writ of arrest, but we will need the originals for the court before he is sent to one of the prisons.”
“Sir William Lucas,” Darcy stated. He clarified when Richard looked at him questioningly. “The local magistrate. He lives at Lucas Lodge, barely a mile from the town.” He paused and decided he must be honest. “Wickham told some story to a local lady and she saw through it. I should have warned them, but I hid behind my tired old excuses for a reason not to move against him and did nothing before I departed the area.”
“William, please do not tell me you used my reputation as an excuse,” Georgiana pleaded.
“I did,” Darcy admitted.
“Tiffany and I spoke about this. William think about it, who in society would believe anything he said?” Georgiana posed, and then added. “Especially as he is about to be sent to debtors’ prison. It would be seen as a prevarication by a blackhearted man trying to cause damage to the family who were sending him to gaol.”
“You and Tiffany have the right of it. I suppose I was looking for excuses not to do anything, but I see now I erred greatly in that,” Darcy acknowledged.
“The young lady in Meryton who saw through his story, was that Miss Elizabeth Bennet?” Georgiana asked innocently.
Darcy sat, his mouth open and no sound emanating for some moments. “How do you know that name? And yes, it was in fact Miss Elizabeth who detected his dissembling,” he responded once he regained the use of his tongue.
“William, you mentioned her in every letter from Netherfield Park, save the very first, in many letters more than once, and you related how intelligent she is. She seemed to be the logical choice for the one who would not be beguiled like I was,” Georgiana replied and then her eyes dropped to the rug once again.
“Giana, never forget you had two manipulators working against you. Mrs. Younge was supposed to protect you. There is no way you would have suspected her ill intentions,” Darcy soothed his sister. “Also, even though Richard urged me to tell you about Wickham a few years ago, I did not. In addition, I did not verify Mrs. Younge’s characters as I should have, so it was I who failed you.”
“Before I forget, you are expected for dinner tonight,” Richard told his cousin.
“You may tell your mother I will be there,” Darcy replied. “Go ahead, I have a few more letters to read and then I will follow you two.”
The three stood. Darcy hugged his sister and kissed the crown of her head. It was a pleasure to see how much she had recovered—not fully, but she was well on her way— which was expressed in the strength she had exhibited when she had struck Wickham. He shook hands with his cousin and then watched as his sister and cousin exited his study.
During his conversation with Giana and Richard, he had not thought about what to do regarding Bingley. Now he also needed to consider what to do with regards to Miss Elizabeth as well. He had not realised he had mentioned the enchanting woman once, never mind in almost every letter he had sent his sister.
Was it possible his heart and his head were not as diametrically opposed as he had thought they were? He had much about which to think.
Chapter 26
Bingley paced back and forth across the drawing room in his home while he waited for his sisters and Hurst to join him.
One thing he did not doubt was that whatever had been planned had been done by his younger sister. That Louisa only knew part of the truth and Hurst none at all was not in question in Bingley’s mind. It was a sad, but true fact, Caroline would say or do anything, lie to whomever she felt she needed to in order to achieve what she felt was in her best interest.
He had to assume some of the blame for her belief she could manipulate him into doing anything she desired. In the past, ithadbeen true. For many months now—the best part of a year—it was no longer the case, but Caroline refused to recognise that fact.
She had a singular ability to rearrange facts to suit what she wanted them to be. It was the reason she was able to delude herself she had a future with Darcy. Regardless of how many clear signals he gave her, she refused to see it. Bingley was sure even his friend not requesting a single set from her at the ball the previous day had been reordered in her brain and changed into some sort of positive sign of his regard for herself.
It could be he would need to have her committed to an asylum if her delusions became too powerful and dangerous either to herself or others. Bingley heard his younger sister’s voice approaching so he stopped his pacing and stood waiting in the centre of the room.
“Please sit,” Bingley requested before his sister could, as was her wont, steer the conversation in a direction of her choosing.
The Hursts sat on a divan while Miss Bingley seated herself in an armchair. She straightened out the pleats of her dress and removed some imaginary lint as she sat looking at her brother with a sneer.
‘Just wait until you go and attempt to have anything invoiced to me. That sneer will be wiped from your face,’ Bingley told himself as he watched his sister. Immediately upon receiving the letter from Bennet, he had sent a note to his man of business to confirm his instructions to close every account Caroline used for her purchases and to overspend her allowance. He further instructed him to make all stores his sister would patronise aware that if they allowed her to open an account with them it would not—underanycircumstances—be paid by him.
“Why would you need to prevaricate to Louisa about my giving permission to close up the house if you were so very sure it was what I, in fact, wanted?” Bingley asked pointedly as he looked directly at his younger sister.
“Oh Charles, let us not argue about semantics,” Miss Bingley waved her brother’s concerns away. “How many times have you not told us when you are in London you feel like you never want to leave the city again?”
“In the past, I did say something similar,” Bingley agreed. “However, you would have had to be wilfully blind to ignore the fact I was more than contented at Netherfield Park, and especially in my association with Miss Jane Bennet, who is, unless you were dissembling at the time, a good friend of yours.”
Mrs. Hurst heard something in her brother’s tone which told her there was a seething fury just below the surface. Yes, Charles had always been affable and had been somewhat malleable in the past. Their brother had grown up and Caroline was blind to the fact. She suspected Caroline was not going to be very happy with their brother's new decisiveness.
Louisa recognised she was at a fork in the road. One direction was to keep blindly placating Caroline and experience the same wrath she suspected Charles planned to unleash on her younger sister. The other was to change her attitudes and her allegiances to her husband first and then her brother.
Seeing what Caroline obviously was not, it was the work of a minute for Mrs. Hurst to make her decision.
