“Mr. Wickham?”
Her lower lip trembled as she nodded.
“What has he done, madam?” I said.
“Oh, Lord in heaven,” she said, shaking her head. “Oh, Lord.”
“Never mind that,” I said instead. “It matters not right now. You tell me where he is—”
“He is gone,” she said. “He left me here, and thank heaven, because I do not know what I would have done if he had stayed. I wanted him to go.”
“All right,” I said. “All right, that is good, then.”
Richard was in the taproom, hurrying over to us. “Miss Bennet, you are quite the brave woman, I understand,” he said.
“I do not know about that,” she said, hunching into the quilt.
“She apparently beat him off with a poker from the fire,” said Richard, laughing. “He ran off screaming and bleeding, they say.”
“You hit him?” I said.
“He hit me first,” she said, nostrils flaring.
“Monstrous,” I said.
“Monstrous indeed,” said Richard. “All right, Miss Bennet, up. I have rented us a room so that we can all retire there and get you out of the taproom, which is, of course, no place for respectable ladies. We shall go there and discuss what happens next.”
“Oh, I could have paid for that,” I said to Richard.
“You have,” he said. “When I say I rented it, I don’t mean I paid for it.”
Miss Bennet stayed wrapped in the quilt and sat on the bed.
“All right, so what we are going to do,” said Richard, “is come back for you as soon as we have found and dealt with Mr. Wickham. You must stay in this room, Miss Bennet, and do not open the door to anyone you do not know. Tell servants to leave food at the door. Mr. Darcy will leave enough coin to keep you here and fed for some time. If we come across your brother or father, we will tell them where you are. Otherwise, we will collect you on our way back after we have dealt with him.”
“Wait a moment,” I said. “We can’t leave her here alone.”
“Well, we can’t stay here with her,” said Richard. “What, are we all going to sleep overnight in this room? God, Darcy, what are you thinking?”
“She’s already ruined,” I said. “I think we get a carriage and take her home.”
“Ruined,” whispered Miss Bennet and suddenly burst into tears.
I cringed. I had to say that, did I?
“He didn’t do anything to me, you know,” said Miss Bennet.
“Yes, Darcy, you haven’t heard the story. She went after him with the poker for a reason, after all.”
I turned to her. “What did happen, Miss Bennet?”
“I shall tell you on the way,” said Richard. “We haven’t a moment to lose. We must get after Wickham and—”
“And what?” I said.
“Well, perhaps we’ll leave that discussion for something away from this poor woman’s delicate ears,” said the colonel.
Because he wanted to kill him, like he had said before. My whole body turned cold.
