“I am making my tour of the park as I do every year and thought I would end with a call at the parsonage.But I don’t want to disturb you if you would like to finish your letter.”He gestured to the paper she was refolding.
“Not at all!It is the latest letter from my sister in London, but I have read it before.”She deposited the letter into her reticule with a smile.
“How does Miss Bennet?Is she enjoying the Season?”
“I do not think so.Jane is the sort of person who will do all that is asked of her, and do it graciously, though she has no personal desire to do so.She does not like to disappoint others, and she will never see fault in anyone else, so if she is unhappy, she blames herself for becoming that way in the first place or refuses to acknowledge it at all.”
“Is she unhappy in London then?”he asked kindly.
“Not as such—she enjoys all that Town has to offer and our aunt and uncle are keeping her well entertained.But she has recently suffered a disappointment and I’m afraid her temperament will not allow her to overcome it easily.”She wondered at herself for sharing such information so easily, and with a man who did not even know her sister, but she had been worrying about Jane excessively, and she had always felt so comfortable with the colonel.No matter—it was said now.She could not take it back.
“I know a young lady in a similar situation.Even though the fault was all on his side, she insists on berating herself for all she misunderstood and what she believed of him.It has been many months now, but she is much altered by the experience.”
“I am sorry for her.After seeing Jane in similar circumstances, I would not wish it on anyone.Why must men lavish attention on ladies to the exclusion of everything and everyone else, speak to them as if they are in the deepest throes of love, and then disappear without a word?It is unspeakably cruel.”
He looked at her with sad eyes.“Yes, it is.”Then a moment later, “It is one of the many reasons I am glad I am not a lady.”
Elizabeth was surprised into laughter and gave him a mock reproachful look.“You find going to war against the French preferable to wearing bonnets and making morning calls?”
“Morning calls I do not mind, but I’m sure I would look dreadful in a bonnet.”
She laughed again, and he smiled to see it.
“Jane tells me that our mother expects her to come home engaged, she does not care much to whom, and if she will not oblige her in this, which Jane certainly will not, Mama wishes her to return to Longbourn before the militia leave for the summer.If I thought Denny and Wickham could cheer her, I would agree to the plan, but Jane has never cared much either way about the officers.”
Colonel Fitzwilliam’s interest was piqued.“Did you say Wickham?Not George Wickham?”
“Oh, forgive me, I forgot you must be known to him.He said he grew up at Pemberley—his father was steward there.”
“Yes, he did, fine lot of good it did him,” he said harshly.“Miss Bennet, I must give you a friendly warning.Mr.Wickham is not to be trusted.Not with pretty young ladies, not near anyone with change in their pockets, and certainly not with credit at the local shops.”
She was surprised at his vehemence, but supposed he had gotten his knowledge from Mr.Darcy, and said something vague about knowing there to be a difficult history between them.
Much to her surprise, Colonel Fitzwilliam told her that his opinion of Wickham was based on his own experience and information as well as that of his cousin.He laid out for her, in painstaking detail, how Wickham had lied and cheated his way through school, been sent down from university, caused more trouble than he could rightly tell a lady, and left a trail of debt and ruin wherever he went.In case she had felt sorry for Wickham, she should know that Mr.Darcy had long been paying his bills at various shops and had covered his debts of honor at university for some time.Darcy had cleaned up Wickham’s messes of one sort or another until his father died.Then Wickham was given a thousand-pound legacy and lest she believe the cock and bull story about a living being denied him, she should know he was given three-thousand pounds in lieu of the living (that he wasn’t qualified for anyway as he had never taken orders) and had signed away all rights to it while saying he wished to study the law.His knowledge was first hand as he had been one of the executors of his uncle’s will.
Elizabeth stared at him, mouth agape.The colonel paced before her, furious in his recitation but controlling it with a rigidity she had not known him capable of.She grimly thought this must be how he managed on campaign and felt some sympathy for his recruits.
She felt something in her hand and looked down to see Colonel Fitzwilliam had placed his handkerchief in her palm.She looked at him in confusion and he said, “If I may?”and dabbed at the tears streaming down her cheeks.
She had not known she was crying and continued to stare at him in astonishment.George Wickham, a liar and a cheat?A gambler and seducer?He had had such truth in his looks!
“Oh, what you must think of me!”she cried.She turned from him and he spoke to her back.
“I think the same as I always have, Miss Bennet.That you are a delightful young lady whom I am glad to know.”
She nearly snorted in disbelief.“I am a fool!”
Now it was her turn to pace.She went from one end of the stand of trees to the other, mumbling to herself and occasionally dashing away tears angrily.He heard something about vanity and flattery but could not make out more than that.
“Miss Bennet, please forgive me.I did not intend to distress you.”He hesitated.“Was Wickham a… favorite of yours?”
She looked at him in confusion until comprehension dawned, then explained that he had been something of a favorite over the winter and they had enjoyed a friendly flirtation, but no serious feelings had been involved.Then Wickham began courting Mary King near Christmas so none of it mattered anyway.
The colonel quickly asked if Miss King had any dowry to speak of, and Elizabeth told him that she had recently inherited ten-thousand pounds and that Wickham had not seemed to notice Miss King until her inheritance became common knowledge.
At this further proof of her blindness and idiocy, Elizabeth searched in vain for somewhere to sit down.Where was a fallen log or an oddly placed bench when she needed one?Unable to find what she was looking for, she sank onto the grass from actual exhaustion and buried her face in her hands, too mortified at her past behavior to be worried about the son of an earl’s opinion on her current lack of propriety.
She wept heartily for a few minutes, soaking the Colonel’s handkerchief through, then mustered the courage to look up.He was kneeling before her, close enough to reach out and touch, but not close enough to make her feel crowded.
