“Elizabeth, years ago, he came to me and said he did not wish to have that position, and instead wanted the worth of it. I gave him three thousand pounds, and he took that and swore off it entirely. Then, some time later, I suppose he had gone through all that money, he came back to me and demanded I give the position to him, but I said he had already been given what my father had promised him.”
“Oh, God,” she said. “Why could you have not told me this before? This I could have told Jane.”
“I seem to remember that you were the one who said we should not speak of him, that it was your error to bring him up.”
“Oh, God,” she moaned.
“Perhaps we should continue the rest of the carriage ride in silence,” I said.
“No, I have not finished explaining,” she said. “He was charming at first, and I thought perhaps I would… help him. But then, he got awful, and I told him I would not, and then he was all threat, and then he saw the invitation for the ball—”
“We have been over this,” I said. “If you had told him no, and told him also that you would not approach me because you were frightened I would think you were doing untoward things with him, why would he ask to see you in private at the ball? Why would you not simply say that you would not see him? Why would you leave the dance floor to meet with him?”
“Oh, Lord, I do not know,” she said. “H-he… he is all threat. He could ruin your sister. He could—”
“He could tell me that you and he were lovers.”
“No.”
I regarded her.
“Oh, dear, this is like the last two acts ofOthelloor something equally maudlin,” she whispered.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” I said, disgusted.
“I don’t believe you,” she breathed.
“Quiet now,” I said, my voice very soft. “Please.”
She clenched her hands around her skirt and trembled in the seat across from me. But she was quiet after that.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Richard smoothed out the letter. “Well, it means nothing, I don’t suppose. She might not admit anything to her sister.”
Immediately, upon our arrival here, I shut her up in her room, and she dashed off a letter right away, but I intercepted it, and I read it.
It was to her sister, and it matched essentially what she had told me in the carriage. It did not mention the business between Mr. Wickham and my sister, I had to admit that.
But her description of me… I did not know what to make of it.
I snatched the letter back from Richard to read it again.I have always found him too intense and too silent and I have always been drawn to him against my better judgment, against my very will. He and I, whatever we have together, I fear it is combustible, Jane, and I fear it is going to burn me alive. Send someone for me, please. I do not think I shall survive else.
“Will,” said Richard gently, “she would deny it in either case, you see that, yes?”
I nodded, looking at the letter. “Yes, the denial means nothing. An innocent woman would deny, a guilty woman would deny as well.”
“Quite,” said Richard. “We must not think about what she has said, but rather the evidence. She left the ball, she lied to me, and she met with him. If she had been innocent of his wiles, she would not have concealed what she was doing.”
“Well, she knew I hated him,” I said. “And she said he threatened her.”
“Threatened to reveal their affair,” said Richard. “Tell me again about, erm, the wedding night.”
“She seemed concerned that the marriage would be precarious if it wasn’t consummated,” I said.
“Yes, you said that. And she did not bleed.”
“No,” I said.
