Page 70 of Knowing Mr. Darcy
“On horseback? All the way there? How many times will he have to change out horses, I wonder?” The colonel laughed under his breath, rueful.
“I swear I didn’t mean to hide from you and not give you a proper answer. I had rather forgotten all about your proposal. Everything has been madness.”
“Forgotten about it.” The colonel’s smile was wry. “I suppose I’m somehow to not take offense at that. He proposed to you and it wiped out all thoughts of—”
“No, it’s not about his proposal, it’s something else, but I can’t tell you about it, as I have promised to keep my counsel for now, so I’m very sorry, but—”
“What else?” he said.
“I have even now just said that I cannot speak of it!”
“Well, what if I swear myself to secrecy?”
She sighed, looking him over. “You swear?” Because it would be better to explain to him why she was so out of sorts. Also, in truth, she wished she had someone to speak to about it.
“I swear on the blood of the Matlock line,” he said. “I shall not breathe a word of it to a single soul.”
“It’s my sister.”
“Ah, yes, you are here alone again, aren’t you? Is she without any shoes at all?”
“No, it’s not about her shoes. She’s eloped.”
The colonel came round the bench and sat down, smiling widely. “Oh, you’ve gotallthe gossip. Start at the beginning. Do I know the fellow?”
“I don’t know,” she said, sitting down, too. “Perhaps you do. I’m told he was often in the company of the Darcy familyin his youth, but I haven’t any idea if he was ever really part of their social set or left at home at Pemberley or—”
“You’re not talking about Wickham.” The colonel’s voice had changed. It had become quite severe, quite soft.
“You do know him.” Elizabeth felt like she might start sobbing. “And from your response, it seems all my fears are confirmed. What you know of him isn’t good.”
“He’s not a good man,” said the colonel. “I doubt he has any intention of marrying your sister.”
“No?” Elizabeth let out a squeak. “But then, what would he want with her?”
“To ravish her, clearly, what do you think men do with women? It’s ravishment even if it’s not done forcefully, if it’s done by trickery, don’t you agree?”
Elizabeth swallowed. “So, he will… what? Leave Jane alone and ruined and go on his merry way?”
“What do you think it was he did to my cousin?”
“Miss Darcy? He…” Elizabeth gestured with her head, unable to say the word aloud.
“Well, I don’t know for sure,” said the colonel. “Darcy has it in his head no, and Georgiana flatly denies it, but they were together overnight, and I am a man, Miss Bennet, and I can assure you, if he had the inclination, there’s nothing that would have stopped him. Men risk all manner of things just for a chance at it, and I don’t think Darcy even knows what it is to be tempted in that way.”
She was blushing.
The colonel cleared his throat. “Never mind that. We need to go after your sister.”
“They’re already on the road to Scotland by now, and I don’t see how we can catch them up.”
“I doubt very much he is intending to go all the way to Scotland,” said the colonel.
“What do you mean?””
“He’s stopped off in London, undoubtedly, to do as he pleases with her, and there he will abandon her, I shouldn’t wonder,” said the colonel. “He has places he could have taken her in London, people who will give him lodging evenif has no coin to pay.”
“No,” said Elizabeth. “No. If Jane knew that he was not taking her to Scotland, she wouldn’t have stayed with him. My sister would not let a man destroy her in that way.”
