But I did not care what he said. It did not matter if they weren’t really dead. You could not go around shooting people like this, even if they did all just reset. It was abominable.
I resolved to find some way to talk him out of it before Charlotte and Maria appeared. I was not sure what that would be, but—
“Wait, you said that you shot Will, my Will?” I said. “Mr. Darcy?”
“Mmm,” he said. “Twice now. Yesterday, well—whatever you call it, last Thursday? Anyway, he surprised me coming out of the breakfast room whilst I was taking care of Lady Catherine de Bourgh and the sickly one, Anne. I wasn’t expecting him here. He is never here. But when I arrived the first day, everyone was concerned about the absence of the two of you, obviously, because you weresupposedto be here.”
“Yes, they were always searching for us, and we were always evading them,” I said.
“So, anyway, I wasn’t going to shoot him, necessarily, but he would not shut his mouth. He was just yelling at the top of hislungs. I believe I’ve mentioned how much I enjoy peace? So, I had to. The next morning, that’d be today, I first went in—as I usually do—to deal with Colonel Fitzwilliam, because he’s always the bear of the bunch. He reacts the quickest, gets a gun, starts after me. So, I just shoot him before he wakes up.”
“Oh, my Lord!” I put a hand to my chest. “How long have you been doing this?”
“I don’t know.” Wickham shrugged. “Since I decided to come to Kent, I suppose. I was looking for Darcy, as I said, but he wasn’t here, until yesterday, that is. Then I just decided to stay. It’s nice here, really, lots of nice things. A very nice house. Lydia likes it.”
“What do you mean, ‘Lydia likes it?’” I said, horror rising in my chest.
“You’re getting me distracted!” said Wickham. “I have no one but Lydia to speak to these days, and I don’t know if you’ve noticed but she’s not exactly the brightest of stars in the sky, so I think my conversational ability has suffered rather a great deal.”
“Mr. Wickham, do you meanmyLydia?”
“Anyway, as I was saying, I wasn’t necessarily going to shoot Darcy yesterday, but he was squawking, so I silenced him. Then, this morning, I went in to see to Colonel Fitzwilliam, and when I get there,Darcy’salready there. I suppose he woke and directly ran for the colonel, thinking they’d make a stand against me together or something. I could not deal with that nonsense, so I had to put him down again. Anyway, perhaps that’s for the best. It’s not as if Willie and I are the fastest of friends, truly.”
“Stop dodging the question about Lydia!” I exclaimed.
“Oh, yes, your sister’s here,” said Wickham. “It’s a bit of trouble, though, keeping her here every night at midnight in addition to all of these guns.” He nodded at the buckety-thing that was strapped to his back. “I have to be holding onto everything, including her, and then she’s very confused, andscreams and runs about, and it takes until nearly dinner time to convince her to let me have my way with her again.”
I stopped short, my heart in my throat. “What?” My voice cracked.
Mr. Wickham strolled on, oblivious. “She’s in the breakfast room, Elizabeth. Come on, then.”
I gazed after him for some moments, but then managed to make my legs work and follow him the rest of the way in. The house smelled of gunpowder and the coppery scent of blood. I picked my way around piles of bodies. He had shot everyone—shot the footmen, shot the maids, shot them all. It was horrifying.
When we arrived in the breakfast parlor, Lady Catherine and Anne were in a tangle on the floor there, bleeding out all over each other.
I let out a whimper of horror at the sight of it.
From within, I heard an answering whimper.
I stepped through the threshold, and there was my youngest sister, Lydia Bennet, who hurtled through the air to throw herself at me, tears streaming down her face. “Oh, Lizzy, Lizzy, it’s you,” she sobbed.
I caught her up in my arms and tears were coming for me, too. I had missed Lydia. It had been some time since I’d seen her, since before Mr. Darcy and I had gone traveling in France, and even then, on that day, when I’d seen her, she hadn’t interacted with me much.
But it was more than missing her, it was that she was my sister, my youngest sister, the smallest and most vulnerable Bennet, the tiniest of us all, and that I remembered when she was born, when she had been but a babe in arms, and I remembered her as a small little girl dragging a dolly behind her and making pronunciations with a tilt of her little chin—an affectation that had been adorable only a few years ago but nowjust made her seem spoiled. And my heart went out to my sweet sister as I held onto her for dear life.
We embraced for some time, and Mr. Wickham saw fit to comment on it now and again as he went this way and that, getting breakfast from the sideboard. I had no desire to let go, and Lydia seemed to be in a worse way than I was, still sobbing loudly into my shoulder with no signs of relenting.
Eventually, it was me who pulled back. I wiped at her tears and talked to her the way I might have when she was a much smaller girl. “There, there, Lydie-loo,” I said softly. “It’s all right now. I’m here, and I shall keep him away from you.”
“He sh-shot everyone,” said Lydia, hiccuping.
“Yes, I have seen that,” I said.
“I woke up here, and this is not where I fell asleep, Lizzy!” she said. “I have no notion what has happened, but I think it must be some kind of dark magics or the like.”
“Likely,” I said. “Something of that nature. But you will be no good against it if you do not keep up your strength. Have some strong tea, then, and something to eat, hmm?” I nodded at the table.
She sniffled, and wiped at her face, nodding. She sat down.
