Page 48 of Wickham Likes 'Em Young
In just a few minutes, Elizabeth had run up to fetch the dresses that needed work, plus the book in which Mary and she had hidden the notes and letters. She put on her warm outer layers and picked up an umbrella, which she used to protect the book and dresses.
As the carriage moved towards the dressmaker’s shop, Elizabeth explained the discovery she and Mary had made. In a low voice, she said, “Once again, I am alarmed how little I knew, and still know, of my elder sister, and once again I am wondering if she needs rescuing. But Mary and I decided that we did not wish to read the letters and notes, because we will always have to interact with Jane, our whole lives. You will have to as well, but your relationship with Jane is more removed, so you will be expected to talk less, in person, and you will never be expected to correspond with her. Mary and I hate to further erode our respect and affections for Jane, whereas yours were never high. Finally, we are loath to destroy the letters or notes, sight unseen, because there might be an important reason to keep them or even take some sort of action because of what is revealed. For that reason, we hope you can read them and determine what, if anything, needs to be done. Giving the letters to Jane, or keeping them ourselves, is dangerous; the chance of discovery and scandal still exists.”
Darcy looked very solemn, but he said, “And you know that I can trust my people to keep them safe from discovery?”
“Exactly.”
“Oh, Elizabeth, I hate to read someone’s mail—it is abhorrent….”
Elizabeth realised that he would turn down her request. It made sense. Of course, it was against honour to read others’ messages. But—not if there is danger, even to reputations. She wished to make her argument, but he went on: “…but of course I will do so, if you think it best.”
They had arrived at the dressmaker’s shop, and Darcy said, “Get fitted, pick up the finished pieces, and then come back to me. I will read all of this—as much as I can—Bingley’s handwriting is atrocious!—and I will confer with you when you return.”
Elizabeth was pleased with herself that she had guessed correctly that some of the letters were Mr Bingley’s. And she was so grateful to her betrothed. She needed to tell him of her appreciation; between each word, Elizabeth gave Darcy a tiny kiss on his cheeks, brow, even his nose: “Thank. You. So. Much. You. Are. The Best. Man. I Know.”
She had feelings of eagerness and dread, mixed together, when she returned to the carriage half an hour later. “Mrs Taylor says that the dress I brought will be ready in another half hour. But…I hate to speak about private things sitting on the street in Meryton. I am convinced that we could be overheard.”
Darcy consulted his watch and then handed her into the carriage. After speaking briefly to the driver, he climbed in and told her, “We will move a short distance so that there will be no interruptions nor eavesdropping.”
When the carriage reached a wide-open spot on the road to Hertford, it stopped. Elizabeth felt the carriage jostle slightly as the driver and footman climbed off and moved away from the carriage. They held furled umbrellas; it was apparently not drizzling at the moment.
Darcy lowered both shades and said, “I have read the notes and letters. I know for certain that most of the letters were written by Bingley and all of the notes by Wickham. I know their hands well. I assume that the remaining letter was written by Goulding. I have never seen anything written by him, but he used initials, and events paint him as the most likely to have penned that letter regardless of the initials.”
Elizabeth nodded. “We assumed the same and are glad for your certainty regarding Mr Bingley and Mr Wickham.”
“As to what should be done with the letters and notes, I feel honour bound not to destroy another’s messages, I agree that handing them to her, even in secret, would be very awkward for all and quite dangerous for her, because they could be found. I am confident that the right thing to do is to wrap them into one packet and to store them in a fireproof box at either my bank or my attorney’s office.”
“Why do you suppose Jane did not burn them in the fireplace, before we left to go to the wedding? Certainly she would know that I would find them, or someone would.”
“My theory is that she held onto the letters as leverage, and she could not be certain that the wedding would occur as planned. I believe that she knew that they would be discovered and actually hoped that you would turn them over to me for the kind of safekeeping she would be unable to arrange.”
“So she meant for us to find them.”
“It is the only thing that makes sense to me. And I believe that she knew my character. As much as she wished not to like me, I sensed that night….”
“I know which night you refer to, Fitzwilliam. And I agree that your unflagging nobility forced her to respect you.”
“Nobility?” he scoffed. “I just read another’s letters.”
“The thing is…aside from the fact that I am a terrible influence who convinces you to do things you find abhorrent…I feel like my brain just does all of this work without my permission, and I invent all these theories, and I just….”
“You cannot shut your thought-production off?” he suggested.
“Exactly.”
“So, other than determining that the letters and notes should be kept safely locked away, what do you wish me to tell you? Nothing? Everything?”
“I was hoping to maintain as much respect for Jane as I could—at this point, as I am sure you can tell, it is not much—but since I stated that goal, my brain has been attempting to tick-tick-tick through all the possibilities of why she would receive written messages from three men, against the rules of propriety, and why she would keep the messages, and the only thing I could come up with was that she may have lain with three different men. And, having reaped the natural consequence of her behaviour, she wished to marry in order to avoid scandal, and so she kept the letters and notes.”
Darcy held both of her hands within his, pressing them to his chest in an attempt to comfort.
Elizabeth continued, “And I cannot…I do not…wish to think so poorly of Jane, but….”
Darcy whispered, “Can I share with you my theory? It is not so very different from yours, but I believe you will feel better about your sister.”
“Please do.”
“I believe that the night when she hoped to gain the truth from Wickham, but she ended up hiding in a muddy field, I believe that he forced himself on her. I have never heard any woman accuse him of violence or force—I have only ever heard of charm and seduction, although they often ended in ruin—but there is a tone in his notes that could be explained if he had been heavily drinking and later regretted his actions. I surmisethat she may have decided to cut him forevermore, but then her courses…did not arrive on time. I believe that her fear caused her to act in a way she would never, otherwise, have acted. It seemed likely, from what I read, that she seduced William Goulding in an attempt to gain a proposal, and when she became engaged, one or two days later, she felt safe again. But I speculate that his parents insisted on a long engagement, which of course would not suit, and so she worried that the marriage would not occur.
