Richard scratched his neck, looking uncomfortable. “That… does not sound like the sort of teasing a virginal woman does, no.”
“So, he would have already been at her by then,” I said. “And she must have been sneaking around with him.”
“Except I thought she had a broken ankle and couldn’t walk at that point.”
I cleared my throat. “Yes, that would have made it difficult.”
“Why did she think that telling you that she was a scandal would make you wish to marry her faster?” said Richard.
“Oh, I don’t know. It was this conversation we were having about Wickham, actually. You see, I had been spending the summer with Bingley because I thought that perhaps he was the solution, that I should simply marry Georgiana to him.”
Richard thought this through. “Well, yes, it makes sense. You wanted a man who would be grateful to have her, but you did not wish him to need her money, of course, because a man like that would likely spend it all and leave her nothing. I see why. And Bingley is not quite the sort of man you would expect Georgiana to be united with, so if there were some impression that you and he were fast friends, then it would explain your choice, and this was why you spent so many months in his company.”
“Yes, entirely my thinking,” I said. “And she had surmised all this herself as well. So, when I told her that Mr. Wickham was the man who had deceived my sister, she said that marrying me would distract anyone from even thinking about my sister, because she was so frightfully improper.”
“Who was? Georgiana?
“No, Elizabeth was,” I said. “Although, actually, I sort of got the impression she was a bit insecure about all of that, even then. I do not know why this woman married me. I do not think she wished to, not in the end.”
“She did it because of Wickham pressuring her, we are saying?”
“I do not know,” I said. “Maybe. But I do not even know if I think that. I think he got to her after we were married, actually.” I was thinking it through. She had not changed her story once, except for a little thing, a thing in which she said he appeared in a room and said that if she cried out he would claim she wanted him there.Thenshe went back and said that he seemed charming at first.
So, that was when it had happened. I sighed heavily.
“What do you mean?” said Richard.
I relayed to him what I had been thinking.
“Hmm, yes, that is foreboding,” said Richard. “But I do not think that is where it happened, not in your house, not after she was married to you. Think about this, Will, he wished to take your wife’s virtue, clearly, that is his triumph over you. So, he must have done it at some point before you were married.”
“When?” I said. “You just pointed out she was unable to walk.”
“Well, one does not need to walk to accomplish such a thing. She thought he was charming, she said?”
“Handsome, she said,” I muttered, my stomach turning over. “The perfect gentleman, she said, everything that is good and pleasing, she said.” My voice got uglier as I spoke.
“Damnation,” he said softly.
“Yes, but here it is, Richard,” I said, my voice breaking, “speaking of Georgiana made me see it. She is his victim, same as my sister.”
Richard tilted his head back.
“And it is at least somewhat my error, because I did not tell her everything,” I said. “This all could have happened before she knew what Wickham had done, after all.”
“That does not excuse her, for she should not have let a man like him under her skirts—”
“Yes, and neither should Georgiana, but—”
“Well, I thought we were decided that she did not. That he is a liar, that he had claimed to have done it only to make us furious.”
I spread my hands.
Richard huffed. “Ah, here we are again.”
It was quiet for some time.
“I love her,” I said finally. “I do not care.”
