“Then your opinion differs from my cousin’s.” No one in the room missed Georgiana’s rising annoyance with Lydia’s needling.
Lydia changed her tactics. “Do you often attend assemblies and balls?”
“Not at all,” said Miss Darcy, “for I am not yet out.”
“Not out?” demanded Lydia as if caught in the depths of shock. Elizabeth was certain her sister had already known and was attempting to attack her from another angle. “You are sixteen, are you not? I thought that was what Miss Bingley told us.”
“Yes, I am sixteen. But in my circles, young girls do not come out until they are eighteen.”
A snort of utter disdain was Lydia’s response. “That is unfortunate. I should be completely ashamed if I was still confined to the schoolroom when I had much rather attend balls and parties.”
“I am beginning to regret allowing you to attend, even in the society in Meryton, when we did.”
The timbre of Mr. Bennet’s voice was a warning to Lydia, and for once, the girl appeared to take notice of it. For that matter, Mrs. Bennet, who had ever taken Lydia’s side and refused to hear anything against her, regarded her youngest with a baleful eye. Perhaps it was only because she had seen a hint of interest for Elizabeth in Mr. Darcy’s eyes and did not wish to drive him off by offending his sister. Mrs. Bennet was also a consummate hostess who took pride in providing a welcome atmosphere for guests—that may be as much of a reason as any.
Unfortunately, Lydia was angry with Georgiana, though Elizabeth could not determine whence her resentment originated. Those caught in the grip of anger rarely considered their words before speaking, and Lydia was more foolish than most in that respect.
“I knew you were nothing more than a proud, spoiled little girl, for Wickham told me all about you. Then again, pride is a defect not unexpected, considering your brother.”
“Lydia!” screeched Mrs. Bennet, appalled, while the whip-like snap of Mr. Bennet’s voice called her to silence: “That is quite enough, Lydia!”
“I am a spoiled little girl?”
The question came from the one person in the room most unlikely to respond, given her quietude since she had arrived. Given the exasperated glare with which she regarded Lydia, it was clear the girl had finally pushed her beyond all endurance. Suddenly, Elizabeth felt a coldness wash over her at the scene that might ensue. Too late she opened her mouth to interrupt, for Georgiana was already speaking.
“That is diverting, given the behavior I see before me.” Scorn fairly oozed from Georgiana’s quiet statement, prompting a further glower from Lydia, not that Georgiana allowed her to speak. “You should consider nothing Mr. Wickham says as the truth, Miss Lydia, for Wickham never speaks the truth unless he must impart enough of it to make his lies more believable.”
“George is a good man!”
The use of his Christian name would have been enough to inform Elizabeth that something was amiss, yet Lydia did not even seem to realize she had done it. The way her father regarded his youngest daughter, the slip had not escaped his attention either.
“If you believethat, you are as foolish as I thought you were. As foolish as I was myself.”
Now the entire company turned their shocked attention on Georgiana, even as Elizabeth closed her eyes and swallowed thickly. Surely Georgiana did not mean to reveal her near ruin to her entire family, including a girl who would have no compunction at all about spreading it far and wide.
“Mr. Wickham, Miss Lydia, is not a good man. He games and accumulates debts, he dallies with ladies and makes love to all and sundry, but he has none of the nobility of character he portrays to the world.”
“All lies!” hissed Lydia. “You must have heard yourbrotherspeak them, for I know they are not true.”
“Yes, I have had it from my brother, and from my cousin, who are both the best of men.” Georgiana’s implacable stare seemed to unnerve Lydia, for she squirmed and could not quite meet her eyes. “And I have further proof, for my own experiences with him have informed me of his worthlessness.
“Do you know he attempted to seduce me last year?”
A shocked gasp emanated from Mrs. Bennet, but the rest watched with horror.
“Oh, his charming manners fooled me too,” continued Georgiana, with no malice, but a relentless avalanche of force that brooked no disagreement. “It was only by the grace of my brother, who joined us unexpectedly, that saved me from hardship and ruin at the hands of that reprobate, for he had convinced me to elope with him. We later discovered that he and my companion had a prior acquaintance and had planned it all between them for the sole purpose of laying their hands on my dowry. Had I married him, he would have ruined my life and revenged himself upon my brother. Yet you dare to sit here and claim Mr. Wickham is a better man.”
Georgiana snorted, a response dripping from the well of her contempt. “You have no right to say such things of my brother when you know nothing of him. If you have any sense of decency or self-preservation, you will avoid all future contact with Mr. Wickham, for he has neither morals nor a shred of integrity. You may do as you will. Butnever, evermalignmy brotherin my presence; he is the best man I have ever known.”
With Georgiana’s last warning, the room fell silent, no one within the range of her voice feeling anything other than utter shock at what they had just learned. Mrs. Bennet regarded Georgiana with disbelief mixed with sympathy, while Mr. Bennet with calculation—given what he had just learned from Mr. Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam, it was clear several more pieces of the puzzle had just settled into place. As for her sisters, they all looked upon Georgiana, unable to comprehend what she had just revealed.
“If you utter one more syllable,” said Mrs. Bennet when Lydia opened her mouth, her shock giving way to redness in her cheeks, “I shall confine you to your bedchamber for a month.”
The girl’s mouth snapped shut. She even had the sense to turn away from her mother rather than glaring in outright defiance. This notion of Mrs. Bennet being displeased with her youngest daughter was new, but Elizabeth could not say that she was not deadly serious. Lydia might face more than just confinement to her room if she did not desist.
“Oh, you poor dear,” said Mrs. Bennet, turning her attention back to Georgiana.
The matron rose and knelt next to Georgiana, taking her hand within her own. “That despicable man took advantage of your trusting nature, and you have no mother to comfort you.”
