Louisa and Harold could not have been more pleased as they watched their son grow. He had just passed the two-month mark, and little Arthur was fascinating to them as he smiled whenever he saw either of them. He had begun to do so a week ago. He had just started to lift his head. It was something new in the last two days.
Leticia could not but be amused at her son and daughter-in-law thanks to their exclamations of wonder at each new thing Arthur did. It was as if he was the only babe in the world who had done so rather than it being something every babe did.
Given that she and Ignatius had been the same when Harold was the same age, Leticia could comprehend their reactions as each day revealed another ability her grandson displayed. She was only sorry that her beloved Ignatius was not present to see each new first. She had long resigned herself to his work needs, but it did not make her miss him less when he was away from her, as he currently was. As much as she was missing her husband, there was no end of pleasure from being with herson, daughter-in-law, and little Arthur. The new parents were seated with their heads together. Leticia wondered what they were discussing. She knew if it was something she needed to know, they would tell her.
“I am sorry Charles could not come meet Arthur before commencing his final year at Cambridge,” Harold told his wife.
“I miss him too, but there is nothing to be done until he gains the ability to resist Caroline’s manipulation,” Louisa responded. She and Harold had refused to support her younger sister against, as she called them, hercruelguardians. As an act of revenge, Caroline had whinged and complained about how much she needed Charles’s company each time he had been ready to travel south to join the Hursts in Hertfordshire. Unfortunately, Charles had not matured to the point where he could see through Caroline’s machinations.
“He is able to do so, but he chuses not to. Rather, he takes the path of least resistance thanks to his abhorrence of confrontations. He forgets that Uncle John and Aunt Hildebrand do not tolerate Caroline’s nonsense, and if he spoke to them, they would support him,” Harold stated.
“Could it be that Charles defers to Caroline because she has convinced him that she was ill-used when her desire to attend the seminary in London was denied? I hope my brother matures sooner rather than later,” Louisa suggested.
“Whatever the reason, your brother needs to grow a spine.” Harold paused. “Did I tell you that since he graduated—barely, that is—Father has allowed me to have the parasite watched?”
“No. You did not mention it, but given what I have been told about him, it is a good thing.” Just then her son let Louisa know he was hungry.
Louisa picked him up and made for the nursery.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
George Wickham hated the Gordian knot in which his late, former godfather had tied him. That is, almost as much as he disliked having to live an honest life.
As much as he railed against the restrictions, Wickham was not willing to risk being thrown into debtor’s prison. He was not made for incarceration. He could not even seek an heiress and ruin her to gain her hand because that would cause Darcy and Fitzwilliam to act, giving the father of the hypothetical girl an option which did not entail her marrying him.
Since he had graduated from Cambridge, he had worked as a clerk in the offices of a solicitor in Cheapside. None of the well-known groups of solicitors or barristers would employ him, so he had had no choice but to take a position with his current employer.
As much as he wanted to do anything but be gainfully employed, he remembered what he had been told at Pemberley. He would be watched so if he did what he wanted, they would know about it.
It was all an accident of birth. He should have been the one to inherit Pemberley and the Darcy fortune, not that stuck-up prig!
He was not meant to work for his coin. Wickham was certain that had damned Darcy and his cousin not interfered, oldMr Darcy would not only have kept him as his godson, but he would have been made a gentleman of leisure.
When he had gone to Pemberley to claim what he had believed was his due, Wickham was positive that his bequest would have been far more than the one thousand pounds the prig had mentioned. Wickham believed he would have been left a satellite estate plus ten or twenty thousand pounds. The funds on their own would have been good.
Blunt like that would have allowed him to use his charm and skill at the table to increase his money many times over. Because he had to pay for his own board and lodging, along with his clothes and boots, there was never enough left over for gambling.
The few times he had chanced his luck with cards, he had lost. That was only because he did not have enough of a stake to be able to win something.
He was working on a lady—a little older than he preferred—who owned her own boarding house on Edward Street. His aim was to have her invite him to live in her house, thereby saving him the funds he had to expend on board and lodging. Her name was Karen Younge.
It would take one or two more visits at the very most before he achieved his aim. This way, he would be able to save some blunt for the tables, and he would soon begin to build his fortune.
Once he had a decent amount to his name, he would be able to seek out an heiress and woo her as a gentleman of means.
If he followed this plan, Darcy could not call in his debts and send him to some hellhole. His meeting with Miss Younge after work this day became more important, as his success withher was the linchpin to his plans for the future. As such, he rushed through the rest of his work and left the office at his first possible chance.
Wickham spent a few pennies to hire a hackney cab to convey him to the boarding house on Edward Street. It was important that Miss Younge see him as a man of some worth.
That night he managed to have her invite him to her bed. When he suggested that his residing with her would allow them to enjoy one another when they chose, Miss Younge agreed. As he had paid through the end of the current week at his lodgings, and the landlord would not refund him anything, Wickham told his paramour that he would move in on the second Monday in October.
It was a happy man who returned to Cheapside that night. The first part of his plan was in place.
The Friday before he moved, Wickham realised that as Edward Street was two miles from his employer’s offices, it would cost him hackney fees each day as he travelled back and forth. If he had to do that, it would eat into the amount he intended to save for his stake at the tables.
He remembered that Karen had mentioned that she kept a horse. It had belonged to her late brother, who had been hanged a year previously.
When he arrived to move in on Monday, Wickham had made a display of wondering how he would get to work each day, and perhaps he should remain in his old lodgings.
