Page 97 of A Most Unwelcome Acquaintance

Bennet sat and opened the book on his desk. “My dear Lizzy, we seldom have all the facts we want. The trick is knowing the difference between too little and nothing at all.”

She left before he could see how the remark struck her.

In the passage, Kitty’s voice rose, Lydia answered, and Mrs. Bennet demanded silence from both. The familiar noise did not ease Elizabeth’s thoughts.

Darcy was proud, guarded, and unreasonable. He asked for belief without giving enough to earn it. Yet the little he revealed agreed with what Elizabeth had begun to see. Wickham accepted confidence, encouraged hope, and allowed others to risk what he did not promise to protect.

That agreement should have made Darcy’s warning easier to dismiss as self-serving. Instead, it made his silence harder to forgive.

Chapter 23

THE FIRST COMPLAINT came from a man who hesitated to make it.

Elizabeth and Jane were in Meryton with Kitty and Lydia on an errand for their mother. They found several officers near the milliner’s, though Mr. Wickham was not among them. The sight of uniforms and familiar faces satisfied Lydia, but Kitty looked beyond the group twice before Mr. Denny crossed the street to greet them.

“You will not find Wickham this morning,” he told her. “Colonel Forster found employment for him.”

“Employment?” Lydia repeated. “What employment can there be before dinner?”

“The sort that is discovered when a man is difficult to find at the proper hour.”

Mr. Denny smiled as he spoke, but the smile did not reach his eyes. Lydia laughed and asked whether anyone had punished Wickham, but Kitty colored.

“He has done nothing wrong,” she said.

Denny glanced at her. “I never said that he had.”

“You made it sound so.”

“I meant that the colonel wished to speak with him. Nothing more.”

The explanation might have satisfied Lydia, who had already begun to ask about a ball rumored for the following week, but Kitty remained quiet. Elizabeth saw Denny look at her again, this time with something nearer concern than amusement.

They entered the draper’s shop while the officers continued toward the inn. Mrs. Philips was inside, examining a length of figured muslin she had no interest in buying. She greeted her nieces in a voice that drew every eye, announcing that Mr. Wickham dined with the officers the evening before and was the life of the party.

Kitty brightened at this.

“Did he say where he meant to go this morning?”

Mrs. Philips lowered the muslin. “Why should he tell me?”

“He said he might ride toward Longbourn.”

“When did he say that?” Jane asked.

Kitty’s hand tightened around the ribbon she was holding. “Two days ago, when they were there.”

Lydia laughed. “He did not say it in front of us.”

“I never said he did.”

“No, but you hoped we would think so.”

“He wished to speak to me.”

Mrs. Philips looked delighted. Jane intervened before she could demand particulars.

“Kitty, Mama asked for blue ribbon. That one is green.”