Page 100 of A Most Unwelcome Acquaintance

“Of you?”

Jane stepped between them before the quarrel could spread into the street. “We are going home.”

They had not gone twenty yards when Mr. Denny came out of the inn and slowed upon seeing their faces.

“Has something happened?”

“Nothing,” Kitty said.

Lydia answered at the same time. “A bootmaker says Mr. Wickham will not pay him.”

Denny’s expression closed. “Then the bootmaker should speak to Wickham.”

“He has,” Elizabeth said. “Mr. Wickham asked for more time.”

“That is not uncommon.”

“No, but claiming Mr. Darcy would answer for the debt may be.”

Denny looked toward the bootmaker’s shop. “Did Pritchard say that?”

“He said Mr. Wickham used Mr. Darcy’s name when he ordered the boots.”

For a moment Denny appeared more tired than surprised. “Wickham should not have done it.”

Kitty stared at him. “You believe the bootmaker?”

“I believe Pritchard heard what he says he heard. He is not a fanciful man.”

“Then Mr. Wickham must have had reason to expect Mr. Darcy would pay.”

Denny looked at Elizabeth, perhaps judging how much he should say in front of Kitty.

“Wickham has expectations that alter according to the company,” he said. “It would be better if he kept them separate from his accounts.”

“What does that mean?” Elizabeth asked.

Denny rubbed a hand across his jaw. “It means I said more than I should have.”

“Has he used Mr. Darcy’s name elsewhere?”

Denny glanced again at Kitty. “I have no idea what he says to tradesmen. Among the officers, he has sometimes spoken as though a settlement were certain. At other times he says he has no hope of justice and must make his own way. A man may be uncertain of his prospects without being dishonest.”

“But?”

“But uncertainty should make him cautious, not generous with money he does not possess.”

Kitty’s mouth tightened. “You are supposed to be his friend.”

“I am his friend.” Denny’s voice remained even. “That is why I would rather he stopped before Colonel Forster has to make him.”

He bowed and left them.

Lydia watched him go. “How tiresome everyone is today.”

Kitty said nothing all the way home.

Bennet was in the library when Elizabeth and Jane told him what had occurred. He listened without interrupting, his fingers resting between the pages of the book he was reading.