“Have information,” Wickham managed. “Proof. I was to be paid to murder someone.”
Lord Matlock stepped forward. “If you have something useful, I will have you branded and transported. You will serve the longest hard labour sentence, fourteen years, but you will live. If this is one of your lies, you will be tried and hung as speedily as possible,” Matlock threatened.
“I was…to kill…Mrs Louisa Bennet,” Wickham managed.
Chapter 34
“Biggs and Johns, take that to Longbourn’s stables,” Richard commanded. “And if he is uncooperative, there is no need to be gentle with him.”
Before the men could obey, the other officers of the advance party, who had not seen anything other than one of their own bleeding profusely from his nose and mouth, came running towards the group of men holding Lieutenant Wickham.
“How dare you treat an officer under my command in such a fashion? I demand you release him!” Captain Carter barked. He did not like Wickham, but what he was seeing was beyond the pale; they were officers in His Majesty’s Militia, and they deserved to be treated with all due respect.
Although he did not like to use his rank and social position to bludgeon others over the head, Fitzwilliam decided this was one of those times that called for it. “Captain, I am former Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam of the Royal Dragoons and second son to the Earl of Matlock. This man is my brother, Lord Andrew Fitzwilliam, Viscount Hilldale and heir to the Earl of Matlock; next to him his wife, Lady Marie Fitzwilliam, Viscountess Hilldale. To my right is Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy of Pemberley in Derbyshire, nephew of said earl. Last, but certainly not least is said earl and his countess, Lord and Lady Matlock. Just who do you think you are to bark at us without knowing the facts? Is not Colonel Forster in command of this rabble? Because if you have this criminal, fraudster, cheat, andliar as one of your officers, then rabble you must be. Where is your commanding officer?”
All of the bluster fled from Carter as he looked at the group, some introduced and others not, and the Bennet sisters he had met at Lucas Lodge with Colonel Forster, all glaring at him.
“C-colonel Fitzwilliam, I met you when I was here with Colonel Forster. You met him too, and he will not be well pleased at my rudeness to all of you, which includes a peer of the realm. I apologise that I did not recognise you in my haste,” Carter stated contritely.
“Yes, I remember you from the soirée at Lucas Lodge. Colonel Forster is a good man,” Fitzwilliam allowed.
“The regiment and the colonel will arrive on the morrow in the afternoon,” Carter revealed. Now that he had calmed down greatly, Carter replayed Colonel Fitzwilliam’s words about Lieutenant Wickham in his mind.
“Captain, do not officers need to be from a gentleman’s family or have graduated with a gentleman’s education?” Fitzwilliam enquired.
“Yes, that is the standard,” Carter confirmed.
“Then, I imagine Wicky here lied through his teeth, and his claims were not verified with Cambridge, were they?” Fitzwilliam guessed.
“All of the officers have to sign a contract that they will always be truthful, and they have not lied, and that they will always behave with honour. The penalty is forty lashes for breaking the pledge an officer makes,” Carter related.
Wickham had been silent so far. He very much wanted to leverage his attempt to seduce little Georgiana Darcy, but it had already cost him a broken nose and several teeth. One thing Wickham hated was his own pain. He was certain if heopened his mouth and mentioned the mouse’s name, he would receive far worse than one facer. When he heard Captain Carter mention forty lashes, he came very close to relieving himself.
“Has he been spreading a story about being denied an inheritance?” Darcy queried.
“Yes, he has,” another lieutenant volunteered.
“It is a prevarication,” Matlock said. “My late brother cut all ties with the wastrel when Wickham was sent down from Cambridge for theft in his first year. Not only did he pilfer more than enough to warrant hanging, but his intention was to make it look like my nephew was the thief. And if that was not enough, he just admitted that someone is to pay him to murder the Bennet sisters’ stepmother.”
“In that case, I withdraw any objection to you doing what you will with him,” Carter stated. He looked at the other four officers and flicked his eyes back towards the inn. They walked away at speed. “May I, when my colonel arrives, call on you so we may close the book on this man?”
When the officers arrived and confronted those holding him, Wickham had felt a sliver of hope. That was now gone. He watched as Captain Carter came to him and stood before him, a look of disgust in his eyes.
Carter tore off the epaulettes denoting Wickham’s rank; then he pulled the scarlet coat from his body. Each big man holding an arm released his hold long enough to allow the coat to be pulled off the arm. He turned to those watching. “This is the very least Colonel Forster would have me do. Like me, he would not countenance such a man being an officer in, or wearing the uniform of, the militia. Please accept my apologies for my zeal when I confronted you. All I saw was one of the officers under my command being attacked. I now see it was entirely justified. I assume the coward tried to run?”
“He did,” Hilldale responded. “As you can see, he did notget far.”
“Your reaction is understandable, Captain,” Matlock allowed. “I credit you for being willing to listen.”
“Thank you for your forbearance, my Lord.” Carter bowed and then followed his men.
“Longbourn’s stables?” Biggs verified.
“Aye. We will arrive shortly to speak to Mr and Mrs Bennet,” Fitzwilliam replied. When the men left dragging the prisoner with them, he turned back to those in the party. “I would wager we all know who is the one who employed Wicky to murder Mrs Bennet.”
“That man is as delusional as my younger sister,” Bingley opined.
“Anna, are you well after seeing that libertine?” Elizabeth asked.
