Page 79 of Knowing Mr. Darcy
“What if you’d done what I did,” said Wickham. “What if you’d run through money or made mistakes with women or—”
“I didn’t.”
“But what would he have done if you did?”
“Well, you waited to do all of those things until after he was dead.”
“I did,” said Wickham. “I knew… I knew he didn’t, I suppose. Love me. Or you. Or anything.”
“Attend to me, George, and closely. You knownothingabout my father.” Darcy’s voice had grown heated.
“I thought you and me… never mind.”
“What I’d like to do right now is knock you down,” said Darcy through clenched teeth.
“Oh, yes, I think you’d manage that,” said Wickham sarcastically, who had many memories of physical contests between the two of them and knew quite well that he’d likely prevail.
“To the devil with you,” said Darcy. “We’re going to London, I think. We must find Miss Bennet, and then we must sort through this right mess you’ve created—”
“I thought, you and me, it was us against him in this way. We’d get in trouble together and I remember you saying it to me, more than once, that if you ever had a son, you wouldn’t treat him the way your father treated you. So, I suppose I thought that you and I, that we were…”
“I said a number of things when my father was harsh with me,” said Mr. Darcy tightly, “but he taught me lessons about the way the world works, and I am grateful to him for that, in the end, and I don’t think my boyish whining means anything.”
“I thought we were brothers, I suppose. Really brothers. But we never were.”
“If we’d been brothers, you wouldn’t have treated Georgiana like that,” Darcy rejoined hotly. “Maybe I thought we were… maybe I thought…” He sucked in a noisy breath, holding Wickham’s gaze. “How dare you?” he seethed, and then he stalked off, through the darkness, back towards the carriage.
MR. DARCY ESCORTEDthe party to London. Mr. Bennet’s worry and ire was mightily increased when he heard about the plight of his eldest daughter, but in that, they were pleased to discover that she was safe and sound with theGardiners when they arrived at Gracechurch Street that evening.
The Gardiners had been apprised of the situation with Lydia due to a frantic letter delivered from Mrs. Bennet. They were obliged to send word back to tell her the situation was evolving.
Mr. Darcy left Mr. Bennet and Lydia there and took Wickham back to his house in town. He didn’t want to give the man a place to stay under his roof, but neither did he wish him to escape. He sent word to Rosings to summon the help of Colonel Fitzwilliam, but his cousin arrived sometime after midnight, with a breathless tale of his day.
He and Bingley had been to Meryton, seeking Wickham with the regiment there. When they discovered he was missing, they had gone to inquire with the Bennets, and from them, they’d had the rest of the story.
Richard told him that both he and Bingley were competing for Miss Bennet’s hand, and Darcy said that was rather quick. He pointed out that if the situation weren’t what it was, he would likely not be speaking to Richard.
“You had every chance to ask her to marry you,” said the colonel. “I assumed you simply weren’t going to do it.”
“You knew how I felt about her,” said Mr. Darcy. “Some things are not done between friends and relatives, you blackguard.”
Richard shrugged.
“And now, you’ve just switched to Jane Bennet?”
“Oh, it seems there’s been a lot of switching back and forth between these two sisters,” said Richard. “I hear you claimed to like her first. That’s what Bingley said.”
“I only said that because I didn’t want to take Elizabeth from Bingley.”
“Except you did,” said Richard. “It’s hypocritical for you to judge me, that’s all I’m saying.”
They had a conversation with Wickham about how he would marry Lydia, and he agreed readily enough before he started in on how they should have a bit of seed money to establish the marriage and Mr. Darcy had to rein himself infromstranglingthat man.
They locked Wickham in, he and Richard, and took it in turns guarding the door.
And then, the morning came, and Wickham was gone.
Out the window, even though his chamber had been on the second story. He ought to have broken his leg going out of it, but he seemingly hadn’t done so.
