After farewelling Lady Lucas and Maria, Sir William mounted his gelding to go canvass the shop owners while the Bennet sisters and the cousins returned to the coach for the short ride to Longbourn.
On the urging of the twoBennet sisters, as soon as the trunks were offloaded, Darcy and Fitzwilliam departed so that the sisters’ mother would not be able to ply them for information. It was a wise choice because Fanny Bennet was greatly put out that the two men did not come in for tea. She did not know one of them was Mr Darcy, whom she disdained.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
“Jane, how can you return home and not be engaged to Mr Bingley? I told all of my friends you would be betrothed, and now you have made me look the fool. How could you?” Fanny whinged once her daughters entered the drawing room after they washed and changed.
“Mother, no one forced you to announce something which is not a fact, and besides, Mr Bingley and I do not suit, and I will never marry him,” Jane replied evenly.
Fanny was taken aback. Who was this? Had Miss Lizzy been influencing her most beautiful daughter? Jane would have never responded in such a discourteous way before she had gone to London. “This is your impertinent sister’s doing. She has turned you against me because she is nothing to you. She is jealous!” Fanny said.
“This has nothing to do with Lizzy; it is all me. I am at last seeing the world as it is. And Mother, Lizzy is just as pretty as any of us, as are Mary and Kitty,” Jane responded firmly.
“Hill, my salts,” Fanny screeched. With Mrs Hill attending her, the mistress of Longbourn made for her chamber. She was overset by Jane’s standing up to her.
Elizabeth glowed with pride while the three youngest Bennets were at a loss for words.
Chapter 9
Very much to her two eldest daughters’ pleasure, Mrs Bennet kept to her chamber for the following three days. If she thought to punish Jane by her absence, Fanny Bennet would have been greatly put out to learn that her sequestration was seen as a boon and not a punishment.
It left Jane and Elizabeth free to make subtle enquiries among the girls in Meryton. Due to them being the same sex, the victims of Wickham’s lies were more willing to speak.
Jane and Elizabeth discovered three girls who had fallen for the wolf in sheep’s clothing. They were Paulette, the smithy’s only daughter among his five sons, who was only fourteen; Hannah, the daughter of the haberdashery shop owner, who was also fourteen; and Emma, the daughter of the cobbler, who at fifteen was the eldest of the seducer’s victims they discovered.
It only took a few minutes into the conversation before the three victims realised that they had each been duped into parting with their virtues by the same man using the same lie with the belief that he loved them and would marry them.
“Y-you m-m-mean I-I c-c-could be w-with child?” The smithy’s daughter Paulette stammered in horror. “H-he s-said that it could n-not h-happen before w-we were m-married.” She burst into tears as soon as she realised that it was another of the blackhearted man’s lies.
The other two girls were equally as shocked and scared.
“Since his nose was broken, none of the girls or ladies in the town would allow him to approach them,” Hannah related. “That is, except one.”
“Who would that be?” Jane asked, although she had a sinking feeling she knew who it was.
“The youngest Miss Bennet, your sister Miss Lydia,” Hannah revealed. “I have seen her visit him a few times.”
Both Bennet sisters looked horrified but schooled their features as soon as they saw the way the three girls reacted, obviously thinking the looks were aimed at them.
“We are worried that Lydia has been tricked into surrendering her virtue as you were,” Elizabeth explained. “The looks you saw were not aimed at you.”
“What are we to do now?” Emma asked plaintively.
“As hard as it will be, and it will take much courage to do so, you need to tell your parents. What you did is wrong outside of the bounds of marriage, but you were manipulated by a man who is twice your age and has done this previously, many times,” Jane suggested. “It will not be easy, but if, as I suspect they do, your parents love you; they will not cast you out. If they do, you come see Lizzy or me, and we will do whatever we are able to help you.”
The three girls said they would think about what Miss Bennet had advised. Shoulders slumped, the three, who were now members of a sisterhood none of them wanted to be part of, headed back to their homes.
The Bennet sisters made the short walk to Lucas Lodge.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Wickham thought things were looking up. He had the comfort of the silly Bennet chit who had turned over her pin money to him. Not only that, but the silly flirt had pilferedfrom her mother and another sister as well, all of which she had given to him.
He was whistling happily as he entered the tailor’s shop. “Good day, Mr Wilkinson. Are my new clothes ready?” he enquired.
“All credit to members of the militia has been revoked, so unless you have the coin to pay, you will not receive anything from me,” Wilkinson stated coldly. “Do you have six pounds, two shillings and sixpence to pay?”
Although Wickham had that amount which he had charmed from the stupid chit, he hated paying for his needs. “Come now, Mr Wilkinson, surely you would not deny credit to one of His Majesty’s officers? I am days away from receiving the inheritance that I was cheated out of by that dastardly Mr Darcy. As soon as I receive it, I will pay what I owe you, and then some.” He gave the best smile he could manage with his newly acquired physical restrictions. Damn that blasted Mr King.
