Page 80 of Knowing Mr. Darcy
Richard said that when they found him again, they should put a bullet in his throat.
“Or maim him permanently so that he cannot get away,” said Darcy.
But they were lucky in this, for one of his servants had spoken to Wickham when he went to the stables—claiming, of course, he had the will of Darcy himself to be there and to have a horse. Darcy was furious that anyone had believed him, but he was grateful for the information about where Wickham was heading, so he decided not to sack the fellow.
Wickham was on his way back to Rosings.
Why?
“Anne,” said Richard.
“Oh, but that…” Darcy grimaced. “Why?”
“I think she gives him money sometimes,” said Richard. “Or maybe they’re still lovers, I don’t know. He convinces women to do mad things for him, you know. Look at Mrs. Younge.”
“I think we should shoot him after all,” said Darcy.
“I’ve been saying this all along,” said Richard.
Well, there was one good thing about going back to Rosings. Elizabeth was there.
ANNE DE BOURGHcoughed on pipe smoke. Perhaps that was enough of that for one morning. She pressed down on the tobacco inside with a pipe tamper, extinguishing the smoldering bit inside, and then dumped it out onto the grass.
Mrs. Jenkinson was here somewhere, because she was required to be nearby, but Anne did not see her anywhere, which was exactly the way she liked it. She gazed out at the spring flowers, thinking to herself that she was lucky that Georgiana had not decided to accompany her this morning. She liked Georgiana, actually, but she was always being scolded not to be a “bad influence” on her younger cousin, and Anne had little means of being anything other than that.
Across the stream, a rider appeared. She squinted, for a moment thinking that it was Fitzwilliam Darcy back, but then recognizing it as Wickham, on one of Darcy’s horses.
Wickham saw her and waved frantically, motioning for her to come closer.
Really? Another visit from Wickham so soon?
She wasn’t sure if she wanted to speak to him. She simply stared at him, doing nothing.
Eventually, he urged his horse to jump the stream and trotted over to her. Dismounting, he said, “Didn’t you see me there?”
“Yes,” she said with a shrug.
“So, why didn’t you come to me? I was motioning for you to come.”
“I’m not a dog to be summoned,” she said tersely.
Wickham rolled his eyes. “I want you to go back to what you were saying the other night.”
“About wanting me to fund your marriage to Jane Bennet, because—”
“No, not that. About how I didn’t have an elusive defect.”
She didn’t even remember saying that.
He sighed. “You said that maybe the reason that the Darcy family disowned me was because of my behavior, not because of, you know,me. That if I’d behaved better, they wouldn’t have disowned me.”
“Yes,” she said. “Well, I should think that was rather obvious.”
“For most people,” he said. “But you and I…” He shrugged.
She had to admit that it was true. She took pity on him. “Yes, I suppose,” she said. “I suppose we are both constantly testing people to see if they will really and truly accept us. For my part, I would say that I don’t hurt other people, Georgie. You have done material damage to people you claimed to love like family—”
“Well,you’reall right,” he said, looking her over. “And you’re the only one of them I actually managed to get my prick into.”
