King came around his desk and sat next to his crying niece. “You need to know the truth; read this.” King proffered Mary the letter.
Her first thought was that the Bennet ladies were jealous of her, but as she read and saw that there was proof, the reality began to dawn on her. By the time she had read all, she realised that she had been saved from making the worst mistake of her life. “Uncle Paul, just yesterday George…Mr Wickham told me that if I loved him, I would agree to anticipate my vows. He is to call on me this afternoon to receive my reply.”
It was clear to King that the man would have used his despoiling of Mary as a way to extort money without the trouble of a marriage. “Mary dear, go supervise your packing. I will make sure everything else is taken care of.” King stood and had just reached the butler when the knocker sounded. He forestalled Kinsley.
He opened the door himself, and as soon as he saw the grinning visage before him, he planted a facer and had the pleasure of hearing the breaking of the libertine’s nose.
Wickham had been positive the mousy, freckled Mary King would agree to allow him tobed her. Then he would get her fortune and not be tied to her. He had felt so pleased with himself when he called; hence, when the door opened and Mr King struck him, it had been a great shock. The force of the blow dropped Wickham to the ground.
King was sorry he had not been able to unleash his left fist as well. The miscreant had fallen, and King was too honourable to kick him while he lay on the ground, no matter how satisfying that would have been. He saw the lieutenant sit up, holding his bleeding and broken nose, looking very confused. “How dare you ask my niece to anticipate her vows? Begone and never darken my doorstep again!” As soon as he had his say, he stepped aside and the butler closed and locked the front door.
Even though he had just entered his seventh decade, Paul King was still a fit man who had been a champion in pugilism when he had attended Oxford. It seemed he had not forgotten how to use his fists. It had been a great pleasure to wipe the smug look from the seducer’s face.
The chit had told her uncle! That was the last thing Wickham had expected. He picked himself up, and while still holding his mangled nose, he began to stagger back to his quarters.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
At almost exactly eleven that morning, the front doorbell jangled. The Gardiner’s butler opened the door and welcomed the gent who he had been told was to be expected.
From the instant he arrived at the house in his coach, Darcy had realised that any preconceived notions he had about the tradesman uncle Miss Bingley used to rail against were wrong. The outside of the house was well maintained, and the small gardens either side of the path from the front gate, cared for and neat. Not only that, but they kept a butler.
When the butler admitted him, and after he had been relieved of outerwear, he could see from the entrance hall and as he followed the retainer to meet the residents that the house was decorated similarly to his own, in understated elegance.
As Darcy had not been sure Miss Elizabeth would be present, his breath caught as he saw the woman he still loved with a passion seated next to Miss Bennet. Near the sisters was an elegant-looking couple, who by their comportment and dress would easily be mistaken for gently bred people.
After bows and curtsies, Darcy requested that Miss Bennet introduce him to the couple he had not met. She introduced Mr and Mrs Edward Gardiner.
“Mr and Mrs Gardiner, if I may, I would like to apologise to you. On the word of one I should know better than to trust, I formed an opinion of you without the benefit of having met you, and I was not very complimentary when I spoke of you,” Darcy related contritely.
Elizabeth’s eyebrows shot up. She never expected Mr Darcy to humble himself in this fashion, and certainly not before her uncle in trade.
Gardiner looked at Maddie, who nodded. “On behalf of my wife and myself, I accept your apology and forgive you, Mr Darcy. Would you not like to sit?” Gardiner enquired.
“If you will allow me to first beg the pardons of your nieces, then if I am still welcome, I will sit,” Darcy responded. He turned to the older sister. “Miss Bennet, I understand how presumptuous it was of me to assume I understood your feelings about Bingley, especially as I am one who hid his own desire so well that not even the object of my affection was aware.” He looked at Miss Elizabeth longingly. Then, Darcy turned back to Miss Bennet. “I now understand you were acting within the bounds of propriety and could not show your feelings for Bingley until…” Darcy stopped speaking when Miss Bennet began to giggle.
“Mr Darcy, please do not think that I am laughing at you; I am most certainly not. I am amused by the irony of the situation,” Jane clarified.
“Irony, Miss Bennet?” Darcy wondered.
“Indeed. Although at the time I believed myself in love with Mr Bingley, I have come to understand that I did not, certainly not as a woman should love the man with whom she is willing to spend the rest of her life. Also, I am certain that Mr Bingley was infatuated with a pretty face and never loved me. How could he have when he did not know me at all?” Jane said calmly.
“But Miss Elizabeth told me…” Darcy began as he took a seat before he fell down with surprise. Who was this confident and outgoing Miss Bennet?
“At the time, it was what I believed. When we spoke, I was unaware that thanks to the awful treatment at Miss Bingley’s hands, and to a lesser extent, Mrs Hurst’s, Jane had been forced to reevaluate the whole of her personal philosophy. As I only arrived the previous day; like you, I am getting used to this new and strong Jane,” Elizabeth revealed.
“Did Miss Bingley return your call? I told her that propriety and good manners dictated that she should,” Darcy stated.
“She did…four weeks later…” Jane, with some assistance from her Aunt Maddie, told Mr Darcy about the call and her subsequent epiphanies. She went into detail of why she no longer wanted Mr Bingley to call on her. “After dancing three significant sets with me at his ball, regardless of who said what to him, Mr Bingley abandoned me without a care for my reputation. Those are not the actions of a gentleman who respects and loves a woman.”
As much as he would have liked to argue on Bingley’s behalf, Darcy found there was nothing to counter Miss Bennet’s forthright and cogent words.
“As I told Lizzy, you did not allow anything to dissuade you from offering for her,” Jane added.
For a moment, Darcy felt terrified. What would these people think of him if they knew of the disgraceful way he proposed to Miss Elizabeth? When he looked around the room, he saw no disgust or anger. He forced himself to address the lady he loved. “Miss Elizabeth, I owe you very many amends. They begin with the night I first saw you. Not only were those vile words completely untrue. Regardless of the provocation, they should never have crossed my lips. The truth is that it was almost as soon as the words were out that I owned you are the handsomest woman of my acquaintance. I should have issued an apology as soon as I said the words.
“I need to beg your pardon, as well as that of all of the residents of Meryton, for the boorish, proud, and arrogant way I behaved when I was being hosted at Netherfield Park. I am especially sorry that I felt it beneath me to reveal my private dealings and not issue warnings about Mr Wickham.
“Lastly, not only did I insult you and your family during that horrendous speech when I proposed to you, but in my arrogance, I could not imagine anything but your swift and grateful acceptance. For all of my missteps and as my cousins have both said, keeping a hessian in my mouth constantly, I humbly beg your pardon.”
