by APRIL FLOYD
Lady Sherston sighed. “You will do what you like but the hackney I sent for will wait outside for you for the driver is my own brother. Otherwise, no hired chaise would wait in these streets.”
Elizabeth softened toward the woman. “I thank you milady,” she said sincerely and gave a small bow.
Lady Sherston smiled at this gesture and nodded to Elizabeth. “Go now with the captain. These fellows here have caught sight of you. I wager they would rather pay their attentions to you than my girls. Perhaps I should have the lasses dress as you have, pretending to be a man?”
Captain Denny came and escorted Elizabeth from the rowdy salon before she might answer Lady Sherston’s outlandish suggestion. She knew she would never forget the woman or this night.
Chapter 11
Captain Denny kept Elizabeth close to his side as they climbed two more sets of stairs. The noises and close press of the narrow hallways alarmed Elizabeth and she was most grateful for the captain’s presence. In her heart, she knew she would not have come so far on her own.
They walked slowly down the passage and Captain Denny turned to Elizabeth with a finger to his lips. She nodded and knew she must remain as quiet as a mouse.
As they approached a door near the far end of the hallway, she wondered how the captain knew which room Mr. Wickham had taken. She supposed one of the girls in the salon might have told for a price. But Lady Sherston must know whether Wickham had rented a room in her establishment.
Elizabeth shrunk behind the captain as he tapped upon the door. If Mr. Wickham was inside, he would not expect to see her and Elizabeth hoped the sight of Captain Denny would distract him so that she might dash inside the room.
When there was no answer, the captain tapped again and waited. To Elizabeth’s surprise, he called out as he wiggled the door handle.
Elizabeth hissed a sharp question at his back. “What have you done, Captain Denny? He will never come out now!”
Before she might have a reasonable answer, the door opened a tiny crack and Lydia’s face appeared. Elizabeth sucked in a breath. They were so close she nearly reached out to touch her sister’s cheek.
Captain Denny gave a slight bow. “Miss Lydia, is Wickham with you? I wish to have a word with him.”
Lydia’s eyes were red, as though she had been crying, and her voice shook. “He is not, Denny. He went to find us a bite to eat. I will tell him you came to see him.”
She began to close the door and Elizabeth edged from behind the captain and placed her foot in the shrinking gap between the door and its frame.
Lydia squealed, her countenance one of guilty surprise. She pushed the door hard and Elizabeth yelped in pain but would not move her injured foot one inch. “Lydia Sophia Marie Bennet, you open this door!”
Elizabeth pushed and turned to glance over her shoulder at Captain Denny. “Help me!”
He shook himself from the shock of watching the Bennet sisters behave in such a manner and threw his weight against the door. Elizabeth tumbled in against the groaning wood and knocked Lydia backwards into the room.
Captain Denny grabbed her before she might fall but Lydia fought against him. “Let me go! I will not leave George and Lizzy cannot make me!”
Elizabeth marched to her sister and looked at Captain Denny. “Do not release her for a moment! She will only run and the streets are no safer for her than they were for me. I doubt Lady Sherston would save us again if it came to it.”
Lydia continued her fight against Captain Denny but the man was far too strong for her small fists to have any effect upon him. Elizabeth went to close the door and turned the key that still hung in the lock for good measure. She would rather not have Mr. Wickham return whilst she gathered her sister.
“Lydia, have you anything you wish to take from this room?” Elizabeth asked as she made a perusal of the few pieces of rickety furniture scattered about. She saw nothing more than her sister’s dusty spencer and a bonnet. There was no small trunk nor any other item Lydia might have brought on her doomed elopement.
“I will not leave, Lizzy! George and I are to be married.” Lydia delivered her news with much fervor. Elizabeth’s heart gave a squeeze as she contemplated the fact that her sister believed the man loved her.
“You have no choice in the matter. Father and Mr. Darcy, along with his cousin Colonel Fitzwilliam, are searching the docks near here as we speak. When they find Mr. Wickham, he will not be fit for a wedding my dear. You and I will go to Uncle Gardiner’s townhome and you shall remain there until Father has decided what is best.”
“But Father will insist we marry if I say I am compromised,” Lydia gloated.
Elizabeth advanced across the room slowly, her eyes glittering with anger. She remained strangely calm as she spoke with Lydia. “Have you given your innocence to him, Lydia? Have you been so foolish?”
Captain Denny shuffled his feet and Elizabeth held up a hand. The man was clearly mortified to be a party to the argument between the sisters. He kept his hold on Lydia and looked away to the windows across the room.
“I have not, but Father shall believe it! I will swear it upon my own mother’s life if I am allowed to marry George.”
“You have no idea what your life shall be married to a soldier who has deserted his post. Do you think you shall live in quarters much better than these? Will Mrs. Forster delight in your company when she sees you once more knowing how you shamed your family? I think not. There will be no new bonnets and ribbon for a poor girl whose husband is a disgraced soldier imprisoned for his crime.”
Elizabeth paused to see the effect her speech had upon her sister. A flicker of doubt crossed Lydia’s face and she ceased her struggle against Captain Denny.
“If you go with the captain, Lizzy, George and I shall marry and leave for America. No one shall ever know where we are and we will be happy together. Let us go, Lizzy. I love him.”
Lydia began to wail and Elizabeth nodded to Captain Denny. “Bring her downstairs to the hackney. Pray Lady Sherston’s brother has waited for us in the street as she promised.”
Captain Denny grappled with Lydia before hoisting her small, flailing, screaming body over his shoulder. The poor man looked as though he wished to be anywhere rather than a brothel with a wild woman scratching at his back like a cat.
Elizabeth would have laughed at the picture the pair painted but her feet moved quickly to the door. She must take her sister to Cheapside and begin the work of concealing the truth of her foolish actions.
Lydia had very little sense left to her but the screaming would not be a cause for alarm in this house. Turning the key, Elizabeth directed Captain Denny to the hallway as she turned back for Lydia’s spencer and bonnet.
Lieutenant Wickham’s bellow caught Elizabeth short as she closed the door to his room in the brothel. He charged Captain Denny and Elizabeth stepped in front of him before Wickham might reach them.
“Stop, lieutenant! It is over. My sister shall be returned to her family. You have no authority to marry her nor keep us from leaving this place. What kind of gentleman brings a lady to a house of ill repute?”
Mr. Wickham was surprised by Elizabeth’s presence. He caught himself before he barreled into her and braced his hands on either side of the hallway walls. “Lydia shall be my wife, Miss Elizabeth. We have no desire to remain here when a new life awaits us in the new world.”
He turned his attention to the captain then and pleaded with the man. “Denny, you have no need to escort me to Brighton and deliver me to Colonel Forster. Simply return there and say I could not be found. Remember our friendship, won’t you?”
Elizabeth believed Captain Denny might have done just that had she not found him in the salon. But now, as she watched him move forward still holding her sister over his shoulder, she pushed away the trepidation in her heart. He would not betray the Bennet family.
“Wickham, you cannot think I would allow you to continue with this debauchery? It is true we once were friends but I am a
man of my word. I am charged with finding you and bringing you back to Brighton. I only have to see that Miss Lydia and Miss Elizabeth are returned safely to their relatives and I shall return to collect your worthless hide. You have until then to do what you will but there are other soldiers with me and they will know you are found.”
Lydia screamed her protest as Captain Denny pushed past Mr. Wickham. “Put me down, Denny! You are no gentleman nor a hero. You have abandoned a friend in times of trouble.”
Elizabeth pushed past Wickham and called for her sister to calm herself. “Lydia, it matters not how loud you wail in here. No one shall think it odd. We are going home, young lady.”
As soon as the words left her mouth, Elizabeth was caught from behind by Mr. Wickham. Lydia laughed hysterically at this complication to her sister’s plan and Captain Denny turned back.
In a moment, Mr. Wickham had produced a shining, wicked blade from his boot and held it against Elizabeth’s throat. Her uncle’s coat blunted the feel of the sharp metal but she did not think it would save her if Wickham were pushed into action.
“Release my Lydia, Denny, and I shall give you Miss Elizabeth. A fair trade I think,” Wickham smiled slyly at his command of the moment.
Elizabeth struggled against the hold Wickham had on her as she watched Captain Denny place Lydia carefully on her feet. “Do not listen to him, Captain. He will not harm me; he is not a murderer.”
Captain Denny held Lydia in his grasp as Wickham tightened his hold on Elizabeth. “I would never think of murder, Denny. But Miss Elizabeth is a beautiful lady. It would be a shame for her to bear a scar across her lovely face.”
Lydia became incensed with her beau at this treatment of her sister. “George, let her go! She only came because she cares for me. ’Tis no place for a lady and yet you brought me here. Let my sister go!”
Captain Denny released Lydia and she stumbled toward the man she claimed to love.
Mr. Wickham pushed Elizabeth against the wall and delivered an elbow to her ribs that sent her to her knees. He stood over her and aimed his knife at the approaching Lydia. The captain was behind her, determined to rescue Miss Elizabeth.
“My darling,” Wickham spared a warning glance to his old friend Denny whilst pleading with Lydia “do not allow her to stop us from becoming man and wife. We must leave here at once if we are to be together.”
Chapter 12
Lydia looked to her sister crumpled on the floor and allowed Denny to inch past her shoulder. “If you let the captain take my sister to the hackney, I will go with you. But we must leave quickly. My father will not be far if Lizzy found us so easily.”
Mr. Wickham kept the knife in hand and warned Denny. “Lydia and I shall take the hackney whilst you wait here with Miss Elizabeth. After half an hour has passed, you may escort the lady home. Lydia and I shall be gone by then.”
Elizabeth stood with Captain Denny’s assistance and begged her sister not to go with the horrid Mr. Wickham. “Lydia, can you not see? For once, do not be so silly. He will not marry you. Come with me. Jane and I shall take you home to Longbourn. There is still time.”
Lydia wrapped her arms around Wickham’s neck. “Lizzy, I am not going home to Longbourn without my George. You are only jealous he never asked for your hand.”
“If he loved you and wished to be an honorable man, why did he not ask Father before the militia left Meryton?”
Mr. Wickham pulled Lydia along the hallway away from Elizabeth and Captain Denny. He laughed at Elizabeth and backed toward the stairs. “You would have eloped with me had I given the faintest encouragement. You believed all I had to say of Mr. Darcy without knowing me for more than an hour yet you call your sister foolish.”
His words stung Elizabeth for she knew them to be true. Mr. Darcy had made the same charge when he proposed to her at Hunsford. The shame of knowing she had behaved like her youngest sister filled her with a terrible regret as Captain Denny held her back from going after the ill-fated lovebirds.
“We will not wait for half an hour, captain,” she hissed as her sister disappeared down the darkened stairs.
“Of course, Miss Elizabeth. As soon as they are away, I will see you home. My men are hiding in the street and will follow Wickham wherever he goes. He and your sister will not escape them.”
Elizabeth slumped against Denny’s arm as he led her the way Wickham and Lydia had just gone. “Will you bring her to 283 Gracechurch Street before dawn breaks, Captain? I hoped to save my remaining sisters from the shame but I will have failed if Lydia becomes the gossip of London.”
Captain Denny promised he would have Lydia quietly delivered to the Gardiner townhome. “I will do my best to see she is not exposed, Miss Elizabeth, I assure you.”
As they gained the top of the stairs, Lydia’s screams once again filled the air.
There was the sound of men arguing loudly and soon the hallways filled with Lady Sherston’s girls and their gentlemen callers. Elizabeth could make out her father’s voice and that of Mr. Darcy.
Had it not been for Denny’s broad shoulders cutting a path through the crowd that gathered at the bottom of the stairs, Elizabeth would not have witnessed the end of Mr. Wickham’s plot to ruin her sister.
Lydia kept up her tantrum though Colonel Fitzwilliam had Mr. Wickham in a stranglehold. To Elizabeth’s horror, her father knelt over Mr. Darcy. There was a darkening pool gathering beneath him.
She wanted to scream as loudly as Lydia but Elizabeth knew if she allowed herself the opportunity, she would lose all hope of being useful in this terrible situation. Instead, she knelt on the other side of Mr. Darcy and smoothed the hair from his forehead. His eyes fluttered open and a pained smiled formed on his lips. “Elizabeth,” he whispered.
Tears came unbidden and she rested her hand on his. He was pressing hard against the knife wound Wickham had landed before Colonel Fitzwilliam appeared on the scene.
“Do not speak, we must get you away from here and to a doctor. You must have one you trust, of course.”
Captain Denny and several of his men, alerted by the commotion in Lady Sherston’s house, took charge of Mr. Wickham and Colonel Fitzwilliam turned to Elizabeth.
“Take Miss Lydia and your father to the hackney waiting in the street. Lady Sherston told us you were here. What an obstinate, headstrong lady you are! If you wish to save your family from certain scandal, do as I say.”
Elizabeth stood and embraced the colonel. “Thank you, sir. I cannot tell you how happy I am, for once, to do as I am told. Please see to Mr. Darcy. I have become quite fond of him, you know.”
Colonel Fitzwilliam gave a chuckle. “Indeed, I have known it from the first time we met at Rosings Park. Let us each do what we must before the sun rises and reveals our presence in this house of ill repute.”
Elizabeth went to her father and helped him to his feet. Mr. Darcy was mumbling and wincing in pain. She wished she could stay with him and help the colonel but her aim was to finish the errand she had begun when leaving the Gardiner townhome on Gracechurch Street earlier that evening.
Lydia had ceased her screaming and taken to moaning and whining over the disappearance of Mr. Wickham. “We were to be wed! Where have they taken him? Mr. Darcy is to blame for all of this!”
Elizabeth took her by the arm most unkindly and pulled her close, their faces inches apart. “Not another word, Lyddie. You have much to answer to Father for and Mr. Darcy came to save you from ruin, you foolish child.”
Lydia pulled hard against Elizabeth but Mr. Bennet had gone to stand behind her. “You will do as your sister says, young lady, and be happy for the love and care of your family after such a terrible display of propriety on your part. We are off to Longbourn on the morrow.”
The Bennet family quit the establishment and crept into the hackney chaise without further notice from anyone upon the streets. That crowd had all followed the cart which carried Mr. Wickham away with a retinue of redcoats.
Exactly a fortnight af
ter the terrible night at Lady Sherston’s house of ill repute, Elizabeth paced the Gardiner’s parlor and looked to the clock for the tenth time in as many minutes. Jane called to her as she sat calmly upon the sofa. “Lizzy, do cease your nervous turns about the room. The colonel will arrive soon.”
Ignoring Jane’s attempt to calm her nerves, Elizabeth smoothed the skirt of her new dress. “Do you think it is too happy for a visit with Mr. Darcy? I do not wish to appear foolish.”
Jane patted the seat beside her. “Mr. Darcy would not care if you came dressed in a sack. Mr. Bingley said he has put forth much effort in his recovery so that he might see you all the sooner. He must have a very important question to ask to send the colonel today.”
Elizabeth had been meaning to sit with Jane but began pacing again at her sister’s tease. “He cannot mean to ask for my hand again, Jane. It was because of our sister that he was injured in a brothel, you know. Whatever hope I may have had of making amends with him are dashed, thanks to Lyddie.”
“I would not be so certain, Miss Elizabeth.”
The colonel’s voice boomed across the parlor and Elizabeth whirled to face him, her countenance a bright pink. Placing a hand over her racing heart, she admonished him. “Colonel, you must not eavesdrop on the conversation of sisters. It is not wise nor proper.”
“Miss Elizabeth, did I mind my manners as I ought half my family would be in shambles for it is I who saves the day when they have muddled everything beyond hope.” Colonel Fitzwilliam advanced into the room and opened his arms to his friend.
Elizabeth hurried into his embrace. “I knew the moment we met you would become more of a brother than a friend. I am grateful you do not mind your manners, sir.”
“I am of the same mind as Miss Jane. My cousin does not place blame upon your sister for Wickham’s behavior. Though he is quite moody since he has not seen you for some time.”