Page 58 of Lord Lonbourn's Daughter
“Yes, it is quite essential when you live on an island.”
“Oh, but I hate the sea. The smell is awful!”
“I suggest you get used to it, Lydia, because the island is not large. I suspect there is nowhere to escape the sea breeze nor the smell from the salty waters.”
Lydia wrinkled her nose like a child.
“I can understandhisreasons well enough, but why would you marry a lowly steward’s son, Lydia? Did Mr Wickham force you?”
“He did not! I love him so very dearly, and he is so very handsome. I am the envy of everyone and the first of the Longbourn sisters to marry.”
“But why not write to us? We have been worried about you.”
“La, a gentleman with too much money in his pockets paid us to keep away, but his small contributions are a pittance compared with my fortune, so I decided we might have his in addition to my allowance. It was ever so much fun to send a clandestine letter to Kitty. I was so tired of being cooped up inside Mrs Younge’s tedious boarding house. I simply must have society now that I am a married lady. There is no fun in getting married if no one knows about it.”
“You are worse than the extortionist.” Elizabeth was fighting a losing battle against her flaring temper.
“La, you are just jealous, being married to that dour Mr Darcy. And Jane’s betrothed is not at all handsome despite his red coat.”
“Why do you think I married Mr Darcy?”
“La! Everyone is talking about it. I suppose he is handsome…”
Elizabeth wanted to tell her everything. How she had been forced into marrying against her own inclination. But she knewnow that it was not true. She wanted to tell her how Kitty had been drugged with laudanum and hardly remembered a day from her captivity, or how Georgiana had been worked upon, but she could not trust Lydia to keep the secret. Especially from that husband she asserted to have acquired.
“Lydia, please. I shall do anything to get you away from that man. He is a criminal, an extortionist, and quite possibly a murderer. A footman was killed at the house in Ramsgate when you were taken. The rest of the servants were found tied up in a storage room.”
“It cannot have been my Wickham. He was not in Ramsgate. He left before me and met me at the inn. All the footmen were alive and well when we left.”
“Mr Wickham was in Ramsgate, Lydia. One of the grooms saw him. I could have him brought here to point him out to prove it to you.”
“I do not believe you, Lizzy. You are just jealous and mean, trying to ruin my evening out.”
Lydia tore off towards the house.
“Lydia!” Elizabeth called after her as loudly as she dared. It quickly became obvious that her youngest sister had no intention of returning to their little tête-á-tête. Elizabeth was hastening after her when she ran into Mr Darcy. She almost did not recognise him as he had donned a full mask to conceal his discoloured face.
“Elizabeth! Good God! What is the matter?” he enquired with more feeling than civility.
“I have found Lydia. She is here at the ball dressed like Marie Antoinette with an indecently low neck. She is married… To Mr Wickham.”
Elizabeth broke down in tears. Her husband hurried to escort her farther into the darkness of the garden before he offered her his kerchief.
“They have been married these many weeks since Ramsgate. He took her directly to the tollbooth in Coldstream. He never had any intention of returning her to her family. Everything has been a ruse. Kitty was imposed upon most grievously but not harmed, Georgiana suffered not at all, while Lydia is happy as a bee because she was the first Longbourn sister to marry!”
Mr Darcy enfolded his wife in his arms, offering the comfort only an embrace could give.
“Hush, Elizabeth! Please relate everything your sister told you, and we shall see what I can make of it.”
“We have no time to lose. We must find Lydia and Mr Wickham. Preferably not together. I hope we can manage to speak to Lydia alone. I believe Mr Wickham will not allow her to tell us whom this benefactor is.”
“Dry your tears, Elizabeth. We must find Richard and Montgomery. They must help us search.”
He grabbed her hand, tucked it around his arm, and hastened back to the house as quickly as his lingering limp would allow.
Richard was easy to find. He was waltzing in the middle of the ballroom with his betrothed in his arms. To gain his attention without notifying the whole room proved difficult. He was occupied with staring into Jane’s eyes, to the detriment of the goings on around him.
“We must join the set to get close to them,” Mr Darcy suggested.
