“Papa, Lydia has just informed us that she thinks she is engaged to Mr Wickham.” As Jane spoke, Lydia nodded her head emphatically. “There are a few problems with her belief; chief among them is that Mr Wickham is dead.”
“NOOOO!YOU LIE!” Lydia screamed. “You are just jealous of…” She stopped in an instant when Jane delivered a ringing slap to her face. Lydia was in such a state of shock that Jane had struck her, that rather than caterwaul, she stood silently, her eyes big, and open mouthed, staring at her eldest sister.
“Jane, why would you hit my poor baby?” Fanny demanded.
“Do you have any idea what yourpoor babyand possibly her next older sister have done? If word gets out, then, Mama, we are all ruined!” Jane hissed. She turned to her shocked sister, who was holding her cheek where Jane’s hand had made contact. “Do you know that the man was a seducer, that he used the exact same lines on three others of whom we are aware, just in Meryton!”
“No, no, no, he loves me! He even fought four men who slandered me and left that ugly, freckly Mary King for me because he loved me so much,” Lydia claimed.
“He fought no one,” Elizabeth returned. “Mr King hit him, and he took Mary away to save her from a lying, profligate seducer. Do you know what he told her? The same thing I am sure he told you:If you love me, then you will anticipate your vows with me. Tell me, Lydia, were those or were those not his words before you gave your virtue to him?”
“How dare you, Miss Lizzy. My Lydia would never…” Fanny began before Jane interjected.
“But Mother, were you not praising Lydia but minutes ago when she said shecaughtMr Wickham by using what you taught her?” Jane turned to her father, whose pallor was decidedly chalky in colour. “And you, Father, rather than check your wife and youngest daughters, you tease them and then lock yourself in your study. What did you think would happen?
“Mama’s excuse was she was not raised as a gentlelady, so she was not familiar with propriety, but what was your excuse, Father?”
Bennet did not recognise his eldest daughter. He remained quiet in his shock.
Lydia wanted to refute her sisters’ words, but Lizzy had recited what Mr Wickham had told her word for word. How could this be? Had Mama not told her over and over and over again how being pretty and lively, combined with some flirting, was the way to win a man? What had she done thatwas so wrong? She was not married, so at least she could not become with child.
Elizabeth turned to Kitty, who was shaking with fear and dread. Before she could speak, Mary did.
“We may draw from it this useful lesson,” Mary said self-righteously. “The loss of virtue in a female is irretrievable; that one false step involves her in endless ruin; that her reputation is no less brittle than it is beautiful; and that she cannot be too much guarded in her behaviour towards the undeserving of the other sex.”
“Mary, do you really think the platitudes you recite from that drivel that Reverend Fordyce writes are what is needed now?” Jane enquired. “You can recite his nonsense and quote the scriptures, but Sister dearest, as much as you know the words, you do not understand the meaning. Being a good Christian is what you do, not what you recite.”
Her mouth dropped open, and Mary was about to flee from the room.
“You will remain, Mary,” Bennet instructed. “Unless you have something helpful to add, please remain quiet.” He waited until his chastised middle daughter sat down. Bennet turned to Jane and nodded for her to continue.
“Kitty, did you surrender your virtue to Mr Wickham like Lydia did?” Jane asked.
“I never did that, and he was not interested in Kitty, only me!” Lydia insisted.
“I was not so bad as Lydia! Only she laid with Mr Wickham,” Kitty cried. “Mr Wickham used those words on me, but I was not attracted to him with his broken nose, and I knew that doing that was going too far, so I refused.”
“Kitty, you traitor!” Lydia screeched at Kitty’s confirmation she had beenbedded by Mr Wickham. “He would have married me if Mr Darcy had not cheated him out of his inheritance.” Lydia was disconcerted when Colonel Fitzwilliam gave a bark of laughter.
“You mean the living. Read this, Miss Lydia.” Fitzwilliam handed her the document refuting Wickham’s lies.
“Did you forget about the others he manipulated like you?” Jane reminded her.
Lydia was silly, but she was not stupid. “No, this cannot be! If he lied to me about this, then…” Lydia burst into tears. “At least, I cannot become with child because we were not married,” she reasoned as she sniffled.
“How many times did you allow him to lie with you?” Bennet enquired coldly.
“Three times,” Lydia admitted with her head down.
“You stupid girl. You have had your courses; you could be with child already!” Fanny exclaimed in a panic. “What have I done? What have I done? I was so scared of the entail that I wanted you girls married as soon as may be so Mr Collins would not be able to throw us into the hedgerows,” she wailed.
“Firstly, what are we to do with Lydia?” Elizabeth asked. “If she begins increasing and is not married, then we will all be ruined.”
“There is a solution that Darcy will fund. There is a convent[1]on the Derbyshire-Nottinghamshire border, the sisters of St Mary, who take in young women who have been set upon by men without the protection of wedlock,” Fitzwilliam related. “We spoke of it before he left to take Wickham’s body for burial. He is well aware that three of the other affected families are not well off. Hence, he will pay for their transport and upkeep for five months.
“If by that time, there is no increasing, the girls may return to their families, and everyone will be told they weresent to school for a while. If the worst happens, he will pay for them to be kept until the babes are born. If after they deliver their child, any of them want to return to their families, good tenant families will be found to adopt the resultant children, or if one or more of them choose to keep a child, they will be given a cottage on one of Darcy’s estates, and he will help them and make sure they want for nothing. He is already supporting at least five of Wickham’s by-blows and their manipulated mothers.
“In Miss Lydia’s case, I suggest she is sent to the convent. If she is not in the family way, then you will choose what to do. If she is, we will either find someone willing to marry her, or the babe may be adopted. That, of course, will be your choice.”
