Page 24 of Mr. Darcy's Folly
“For a different reason, but I am certain that she did.” Darcy’s lips curled in distaste. “No doubt she believes a match between them would secure her own position. However, she overestimates her influence. Bingley is kind, but not so easily led.”
“No?”
“His sisters attempted to dissuade him, but he would have returned anyway. He was only persuaded when I said that Miss Bennet did not favour him, but that her parents might insist she wed him anyway.”
Miss Elizabeth was quiet for a moment. “We have discussed my sister’s true feelings, so I will not repeat myself there.”
Darcy nodded once, grateful for that. He had never intended to hurt the eldest Miss Bennet. But he admitted to himself that he had not considered her feelings of much importance, either. To his shame, he had been thinking more of himself than either Bingley or Miss Jane Bennet.
It seemed that those who ought to have listened to him had not, and those who ought to have ignored him had listened.
“I will write to Bingley when we are rescued and tell him I have it on very good authority that I was mistaken.”
He expected her to thank him, but instead, she asked, “You are certain, then, that weshallbe rescued?”
Miss Elizabeth was attempting to be stalwart, but he could detect a little tremor in her voice. He sought to reassure her.
“I am. Fitzwilliam will look for me if no one else does.”
She nodded. “And Charlotte will search for me, but I did not intend to walk here today, and so she may not realise until I do not return. It could be hours yet.”
“Surely they could hear the sound of the collapse even at Rosings,” he said with a sigh. “Fitzwilliam will want to tell me. He will realise I am nowhere to be found.”
Miss Elizabeth sniffed, though he thought it was more a reaction to the dust than because she was weeping. “Then I shall hold you to your promise of a letter, sir. For you were not simply mistaken, you werewrong.”
He sighed. “I admit it, Miss Bennet. You know your sister best. I was wrong.”
“Thank you.”
“There is no need to thank me for correcting an error.”
She was quiet for a moment, then sighed. “As long as I am canvassing things we would rather not discuss in a place we would rather not be,” she said in a tired attempt at lightness, “I have been thinking over your words about Mr. Wickham from the ball at Netherfield. You told me then that his talent was in making friends, not in keeping them. Do you recall?”
Of course he recalled. He had been determined to dance with her just once before he left Hertfordshire and her company forever. “I do.”
“After you left, a local girl inherited ten thousand pounds from an uncle she never knew, and Mr. Wickham suddenly began courting her when he had never so much as spoken with her before.” She shook her head. “I am a hypocrite. I condemned Charlotte for making just such a match with Mr. Collins, yet I defended him for forwarding a friendship with me and then courting another because she had a better situation. I am a fickle creature.”
It was not, by far, the worst thing a woman had done around Wickham. “Not at all. I do hope—I hope you were not injured by him.” He awaited her answer with trepidation, but her reply was reassuring.
“I was not, which was sign enough that I had been foolish.” She sounded confident and not at all bitter. “But I would still like to hear you respond to his claims of being cheated out of an inheritance. I suspect he has not been honest with me, and I should tell people so when I return home.” She whispered something to herself, which Darcy thought might be “Weshallreturn home.”
“He has not been truthful.” Darcy hesitated. He was weary and pained, but they had perhaps hours ahead of them to wait and required distraction. He might as well take advantage of the time alone with her to resolve any misunderstandings. “My father asked that Wickham be given a valuable family living if he took orders. He did not take orders. He asked for five thousand pounds instead.”
Miss Elizabeth gasped. “So much?”
“Mm,” he said in assent. “I gave him three. Three thousand pounds in lieu of a living he was not eligible to receive. And he had another thousand as a bequest from my father. But Wickham always wants more.” More money, more power, more—well, that was not for a maiden’s ears. “He returned after the living fell vacant, told me his circumstances had changed and he now required the living, meaning that he had spent all the money he had been given. He insisted my father wished him to have it, and I was rather intemperate with him over the presumption. I believe my refusal is what later led him to target my sister.”
“Your sister?” she asked sharply.
Darcy closed his eyes at the alarm in her voice. He was an idiot.
“What did he do to your sister?”
He sighed. “I ought not to have said that. But I did not warn you about the folly and I did not warn you properly about Wickham. At least with the latter, you will be able to act upon your improved knowledge of his character. I know you will be discreet.”
She nodded. “Of course.”
“Last summer, Wickham followed my sister and her companion to Ramsgate. In league with the woman I had hired to be my sister’s companion, he attempted to seduce Georgiana and convince her to consent to an elopement.”
