“Either you have poor taste in men, or you have little experience in the discernment of character. To be blunt, there is little difference between Mr Fields and Mr Carrington. Both have preyed upon your naiveté. You are young and spirited, and perhaps too romantic. The fact that no one ever sat you down and explained the raw facts of how such men conduct themselves made you an obliging target, and you have been easily ruined.”
This relentless, unvarnished lecture broke down the last of her defences. Miss Lydia wept noisily for five full minutes, and I sat as an impartial witness as the reality of her position and predicament sank fully into her mind. When she finally regained some sense of composure, she was physically shaken and nearly ill. I stepped out of the room to ask the maid to pack the lady’s necessaries, with her trunks to be collected in the morning. Mrs Trencher awaited me in the parlour, and I towered over her in righteous disgust.
“Miss Lydia is leaving now. You may send Mr Fields to me at The Harrington.”
“By contract, sir?—”
“Do you dare to suggest the Bennet family is to pay you after what you have done?”
She stiffened and puffed up in affront, but before she could speak, I preempted her.
“Think carefully before you utter a single word to me,” I said, in a most dangerous tone of voice.
I metthat evening with Mr Fields, who arrived with an air of easy assurance and amiable worthiness, and left just as shattered as Lydia Bennet had been earlier that day. Having reached the end of my compassion, my patience, and my willingness to spare their feelings, I brutalised the pair of them equally. What a horrible, hopeless match they made.
After informing the gentleman in blunt terms he was lucky not to face me on the field of honour for compromising the young lady, I read out his history as I knew it. Once he realised he had no secrets from me, I forced him to agree to my terms, to evict his mother, and to fear for his life should he ever raise a hand to his wife in violence. He would have the banns read immediately, and he would do his duty without a hint of resentment, or he could take his chances on enraging me further. I may have suggested I wished he would give mehalfa reason to kill him.
After that negotiation, I walked for two hours at a brisk pace to exorcise the excess of fire that burnt in my belly, and I thought, with extreme relief andgratitude, of Mr Bennet’s surrender that allowed me to act for him. I shuddered to think of him dealing with the unsavoury realities I had confronted in the past twenty-four hours and pictured him instead, sitting comfortably with Mrs Annesley beside him on the?—
“You dog!” I muttered under my breath, and then I laughed aloud for the first time in days.
