“What do you mean?” cried Elizabeth in bewilderment. She sank down next to Miss Darcy. “Aunt Gardiner, quickly! Could you bring some smelling salts?”
“It is nothing,” said Mr. Wickham. “She will recover quickly enough. She is just surprised to see me.”
His callous words brought everything together. This, then, was Mr. Wickham! How foolish she had been to trust a random stranger!
“Uncle, kindly remove Mr. Wickham from the premises immediately,” she said, coldly.
Her uncle blinked, but he did not question her request. “Mr. Wickham, let me show you out.”
Mr. Wickham smirked. “Surely not, Miss Bennet? You cannot deny that you and I agreed that Darcy needed to be brought down a peg for his arrogance.”
So, Wickham had planned all this very carefully. He had taken advantage of her humiliation at the hands of Darcy to hatch a plan to grow closer to her aunt and uncle. He was like a spider. He had woven his web, then waited patiently for her to fall into the trap. He must have known that, sooner or later, Elizabeth would bring Miss Darcy here.
She supposed thirty thousand pounds was worth waiting for.
“Uncle Gardiner?” she insisted.
Wickham gave a sneering smile. “Very well,” he said, “but I at least held up my end of the agreement. You wanted your revenge on Darcy. I have done what you wanted, and I went to a lot of trouble to do it. Now I find you are too chicken-livered to go through with the plan.”
Georgiana chose that unfortunate moment to revive as Mrs. Gardiner waved the salts under her nose.
“Mr. Wickham.” Mr. Gardiner made a gesture to the servants. “Will you leave by yourself, or must I have my manservants remove you?”
“I know my way out.”
As Mr. Wickham sauntered out of the room, Miss Darcy watched, her face crumbling.
“So you have been planning this all along?” she said, tears pooling in her eyes, “I see now why my brother never trusted you. He was right.”
Elizabeth’s heart sank. “No! I had no idea. You must believe me when I say I had nothing to do with this.”
Georgiana came to her feet with Mrs. Gardiner’s assistance and came up to Elizabeth. “Then explain how you know Wickham.”
She spat the words out vehemently, then, not waiting for an answer, she hastened out of the house.
Elizabeth looked from her aunt to her uncle. “What were you thinking? Georgiana is only fifteen. She is not even out. Why would you invite a guest, particularly a young man, to join us for dinner?”
“I'm so sorry, Elizabeth. Mr. Wickham came into my warehouse. I recognized him as the gentleman who had assisted you at the Lambton inn, and introduced myself. We fell into conversation, and I invited him for tea. He seemed very charming, and I thought, since we left Lambton so suddenly, you might wish to see him again. It turned out he is the late Mr. Darcy’s godson. He told us so much about his good memories growing up at Pemberley with Mr. Darcy and his sister and expressed such a longing to see Miss Darcy. We thought—"
Miss Darcy had fainted when she saw Mr. Wickham. Elizabeth’s blood ran cold as she realized the implications. If word got out, Miss Darcy would be ruined.
She gestured to her aunt and uncle to come closer. “No one must hear of this,” she said, in a whisper. “No one at all. It is crucial.”
Her aunt nodded. “Go after her, Lizzy. Explain what happened. We will deal with the rest. You have nothing to fear. Our servants are loyal. I will tell them that Mr. Wickham was drunk, and made an insulting remark to our young guest, who has a delicate constitution.”
There was no time to discuss it. Elizabeth hurried after Miss Darcy, who had hurried out without taking her outdoor clothes. Elizabeth spotted her walking blindly down Gracechurch Street towards the Thames. The river was no place for a young lady.
“Have the carriage brought to the door at once,” she said to the footman as she ran down the stairs. “Miss Darcy is feeling unwell.”
“Miss Darcy! Stop! At least take your pelisse and gloves. You do not want to seem improper!”
“I do notcareif I seem improper. I do not care about anything anymore.”
Despite her words, she stopped, took the bonnet, pelisse and gloves from Elizabeth’s outstretched arm and put them on numbly, her face turned away from Elizabeth.
“I heard what he said to you. You cannot feign ignorance. You planned this all along.”
“I promise you I did not. Please let me tell you exactly what happened.”
