“Darcy, I would like to discuss the reasoning behind your ignoring William when he reports the mischief he is being blamed for is not by his hand, but by another and the blame being placed on him,” Matlock began.
“Please Matlock, not you too,” Darcy sighed. “Has William convinced you to plead his case for him?”
“Let me ask you this. Except in these cases when he denies his wrongdoing, have youeverknown your son to dissemble? I know I have never seen it.”
Darcy opened his mouth, but then closed it before he spoke. What his brother said was nothing but the truth. “Then why do you think in this case William will not be honest with me?”
“Come Darcy, are you so blinded by your friendship for your steward, and your sympathy for young George since his mother passed two years previously, you cannot see the fallacy in your question?” Darcy looked outraged at the assertion, but Matlock continued before he could interject. “Do you think both Andrew and Richard choose to prevaricate to me regarding George Wickham as well?”
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Lucas Wickham was the third son of a gentleman.When Darcy was in his final year at Cambridge, he had met the man. The men had struck up a friendship and once he graduated, Wickham had chosen to read the law. On his friend’s recommendation, Wickham had been employed by the solicitor in Lambton.
There he had met Jenny Horton, the daughter of a tradesman. Wickham had thought himself in love and proposed to and then married Jenny. Six months after their wedding, in October 1785, a boy had been born. All evidence to the contrary, Jenny had sworn she had been a maiden when they wed and the babe was only born early.
Wickham had found out too late his wife was a spendthrift, which was one of her better traits. By the time George was three, Wickham could see a distinct similarity between his son and one of the men who worked at the stables at the Rose and Crown Inn in Lambton.
It was around this time Jenny had tried to seduce Wickham’s employer and the outraged man had terminated his head clerk’s employment.
Darcy had heard of his friend’s woes—well the part about the employment at least. Wickham was too embarrassed to share he had been tricked into marrying a woman who was with child, so Darcy remained ignorant of George’s true parentage.
Lucas Wickham was offered the position of under-steward at Pemberley, which he gratefully accepted. Even though his friend paid him wages which far exceeded what he had earned as a law clerk, thanks to his wife, there was nothing left to save.
For the first year or two, Jenny behaved at Pemberley. Her son was accepted as a playmate for the highborn Darcy son. Once a week, when the Darcys were in residence, they dined at the mansion with the family, and afterwards, she was able to spin stories that made her acquaintances in Lambtongreen with envy.
That all ended the day Jenny decided to try to seduce Mr. Darcy thinking he would find her irresistible and would reward her with his largess. She had been angrily rejected and from that day on, she was not allowed to enter the park around the house, never mind the manor house itself. Mr. Darcy had reported what she had attempted to his wife and Lady Anne had been livid. It had come close to the Wickhams having to leave Pemberley.
In July 1792, the master and his steward, Lucas Wickham—the position had become available a year previously—were riding the fields to discuss the fall harvest.
There had been a snake lying in the grass on which Darcy’s horse almost trod. In turn, the snake tried to bite the horse, the horse reared and then bolted. He was not thrown off, but Darcy was hanging rather precariously on the side of the galloping beast.
Wickham gave chase and was able to catch the stallion and slow him down in the nick of time before his master fell off at full speed onto some rather rocky ground.
Knowing his steward had saved his life, Darcy was beyond grateful. As Wickham would accept nothing for himself, Darcy took his son, almost seven, on as his godson and pledged to provide a gentleman’s education for the boy.
Soon George Wickham joined William for tutoring, and although Jenny was not allowed near the house, she revelled in the fact her son was there daily and had been so favoured by Mr. Darcy.
By the time George was twelve, unbeknownst to her husband, Jenny had begun to pour poison in his ear convincing him he was as entitled to what the Darcys had as they were. She taught him how to toady up to Mr. Darcy to earn his favour, and the last and biggest lie she told him was that Mr. Darcy was his true father. She convinced George it was why he showedhim the favour he did. Eventually, George forgot the story about his father’s heroics, just as his mother planned.
Before George could follow the Darcy heir and his cousin into Eton a year later, Jenny Wickham had an accident in Lambton when she was run over by a cart. That the wife of a man she had seduced was close to her when she fell, or that she may have been pushed, was never confirmed.
After his mother’s death, George grew apart from his father who in his eyes did not mourn his wife as she deserved. He used the stratagems his late mother had taught him and got much closer to Mr. Darcy, playing on his sympathies in everything he did.
It was from that point George started his campaign to discredit William in his father’s eyes thinking he would become the heir of Pemberley and fulfil one of his mother’s dreams.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
“They would do anything to support William, especially as he and Richard are more like brothers than cousins,” Darcy rebuffed.
“So, you are telling me you believe William, who wants for nothing, has been going around Eton and Windsor opening accounts and not paying his debts? How is it that never happened the first year he and Richard were there before young Wickham joined them? Are you so convinced you have the right of it you do not accept what Richard has told you regarding William never frequenting most of the shops where he is supposed to have opened accounts? And why in heaven’s name have you not done what William begged of you? To travel with him to each of the stores to verify if it was him who had been there? If he was guilty, would he ask that of you?”
Darcy felt like he was being pummelled. As he listened to Matlock he could see how any man of logic would question his reason. As his brother just pointed out, would William havebegged him to take him to the area around Eton had he been guilty? Had he wilfully ignored the way George had looked nervous when William had made that request?
“Before you answer, I must tell you what my friend Colbath shared with me. His son heard your godson telling a story about how you were his true father and you were in the process of disinheriting William in his favour. We were too worried about the situation with de Bourgh for me to broach this on our journey into Hertfordshire.”
His brother had just delivered thecoup de grâce. It was impossible to ignore this. Had he, who was incorruptible in almost everything, been manipulated by George?
Robert Darcy felt as if he had been struck by a bolt of lightning. “I allowed my gratitude and feelings of sympathy to blind me to the fact George has been trying to turn me against William. I was a simpleton who permitted him to do it. When we arrive back at Pemberley, I will have a conversation with Wickham and George. I intend to invite William to join us and tell him that he, George, and I will depart for Eton to visit each and every merchant whom I made whole for William’s supposed debts.”
