My Beginning With Mr. Darcy [Book Two]

by Lauren King

  Wickham takes a few steps backwards as he keeps his eyes on Darcy and one man – the other man left quickly already. Wickham sees Darcy and the man next to Darcy raise their pistol at him. DAMN IT!! Wickham’s pistol does not have any more firing rounds, but he can still use it to scare people. No one knows that he does not have a firing round; people’s first instinct would be fear upon seeing a pistol pointed at them. Wickham quickly draws his pistol and points it at Darcy, too. They stare at each other unmoving but with clear rage. Suddenly, Wickham sees both Darcy and the other man speedily jump behind the side of the door, but their pistol head is still pointed at him. Luckily, Wickham waited to sell his pistol for money, but he will have to sell it after not being successful in taking anything from Darcy today; he needs money to survive the next few months.

  Wickham needs to think fast; he cannot delay his escape. There is nothing to be done except to run away for today. He hears Darcy yell out for others; hence, Wickham speedily runs towards the garden gate and escapes outside. He cannot run as fast as before his knee was injured by Darcy, but he runs fast enough to bypass Smith coming out of the servants’ entrance towards the street garden gate. He runs towards a carriage about twenty feet away while looking behind him a few times. Smith is following him, but he does not have a gun. Wickham needs to run faster; he points his pistol at Smith and Smith dodges to the side, near a fence of the neighboring house. Damn it! Darcy and that other man are slowly following behind him, too.

  Darcy points his pistol at Wickham through the glass garden door and then Hughes does, also. God damn Wickham to hell! The damn devil Wickham has a pistol, too! God damn him! Both Darcy and Hughes jump to either side of the garden glass door to get away from the direction of Wickham’s pistol. They still have the advantage of two pistols pointing at Wickham as compared to only one of Wickham’s which is aimed at Darcy.

  Darcy gravely instructs Hughes without taking his eyes off of Wickham. “His pistol is aimed at me, Hughes. If he shoots at me, you should not hesitate to shoot directly at him and then go after him. Do not let him escape. Just yell out for someone to help me but you are not to let him get away; got it, Hughes?”

  “Yes, Mr. Darcy.” Hughes answers with conviction.

  Standing against the side of the garden glass door with his pistol still pointing at Wickham, Darcy quickly peeks to see where Wickham is; he is retreating but is still pointing his pistol at Darcy. Darcy pulls back his head and then Darcy yells out towards the inside of the house, “HANSEN! TATE! JANSEN!” Darcy wants one more person to help Smith and one more to go stand guard Elizabeth and Georgiana.

  “Once Smith blocks the garden street gate and we trap Wickham from this side, then I will have someone go for the magistrate. HANSEN! TATE! JANSEN!”

  “Yes, Mr. Darcy.” Jansen and Tate dash towards Darcy but suddenly stops a few feet away when they see both Darcy and Hughes point a pistol at someone out in the garden.

  “Jansen, go to our side street where my carriage is and help Burns guard Mrs. Darcy and Miss Darcy. Grab a weapon of some sort on your way; I do not care what you use. Go – fast!”

  “Yes, sir!” Jansen runs off.

  Darcy peeks at Wickham again, and suddenly, Wickham rushes out the garden gate to the street. Damn him!

  “Tate, go get the magistrate – QUICK!” Darcy rushes to open the glass door and charges towards where Wickham ran.

  “Yes, sir!” Tate runs off.

  Darcy and Hughes are running towards the garden gate street entrance. Darcy slowly and warily opens it in case Wickham is hiding there to shoot him. Darcy sees a clear path outside with Smith slowly following Wickham at a distance from the side of the sidewalk. Darcy, Hughes, and Smith follow Wickham. Darcy sent Jansen too late; there is only Burns guarding Elizabeth and Georgiana. Burns only has a dagger. Darcy hopes that Wickham just ignores Burns and the Darcy carriage so there will not be any danger to Elizabeth and Georgiana. However, if Wickham sees them, then through desperation at escaping he might try to abduct them. Darcy prays that Elizabeth is not too scared to shoot the pistol at Wickham if he does anything against them. If something bad happens to Elizabeth or Georgiana, he will kill Wickham with his bare hands.

  In whispered tones, Darcy asks, “Smith do you think you can hit Wickham at this distance?”

  “I am not certain, especially while he and I are moving, sir.” Smith answers honestly.

  “Hughes, walk in the street and come to the other side of my carriage and retrieve Mrs. Darcy and Miss Darcy; bring them across the street in case Wickham gets any ideas about approaching them. Stay there with them until everything is cleared. I will distract Wickham from looking towards the carriage.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “WICKHAM!” Darcy yells out.

  Wickham looks behind him and sees Darcy and two men walk towards him, but he keeps on walking faster; he needs to get away fast. Wickham approaches a carriage and is surprised to see that it is a Darcy carriage. Why is there a man standing outside of it? AHHAA! He can see Georgiana and another lady inside; this is Wickham’s escape route.

  “YOU BEST GET OUT OF TOWN OR ELSE YOU WILL HANG, WICKHAM!” Darcy yells at Wickham to distract him from getting anywhere near the carriage. Darcy does not dare tell Burns to keep Wickham away because Wickham may shoot Burns for getting in his way.

  Wickham approaches the carriage, but the man scowls at him and tells him to go away as he points his dagger at Wickham.

  “Whoa, my man; I do not think you can beat me when I have a pistol here. Get away from here or else I will shoot you!” Wickham demands as he points his pistol at Burns.

  Burns moves away from the carriage slowly with his hands up in surrender. At the same time Burns moves away, Wickham hears some rustling and gasping inside the carriage along with some movement from the carriage as if people are getting out of it.

  Wickham runs around to the other side of the carriage and sees Georgiana and another young lady disembark but a man is approaching them quickly, thus Wickham grabs and encircles Georgiana by her waist and also effectively pinning her arms tightly against his body with one hand while his pistol is pointed at her body for the other young lady and the fast-approaching man to see. They both stop without any further movement while staring with fear at Wickham and the crying Georgiana. Due to Wickham grabbing Georgiana so unexpectedly and roughly, Georgiana drops her dagger to the ground; now, she is helpless in the hands of a devil.

  “I will shoot her if you come any closer. Slide your pistols towards the ground to me – quickly!” Wickham demands of Elizabeth and Hughes as he stands with his back up against the side of the carriage. They both slide their pistols, but the pistols stop about three feet and six feet, respectively, away from his feet. “You stupid girl!” Wickham wants to get at least one of the pistols; certainly, either one of them would have a firing round in them.

  Elizabeth is also caught by surprise with Wickham catching them on this side of the carriage. She thought she was clever to leave the carriage as soon as she saw him approach Burns. Now, he has Georgiana as hostage. Oh God, what is she going to do now that he demands her pistol? She has to give up the pistol, or he will hurt Georgiana. She deliberately slides the pistol not hard enough to reach Wickham to make it harder for him to get another pistol. Suddenly, she sees a man’s shadow behind the carriage, thus she tries to distract Wickham from seeing behind him.

  “Please, let Miss Darcy go, and I can get you some money from the house. This man will go get the money, right now. Hughes! Get some money from Mr. Darcy, hurry!” Elizabeth is certain that Hughes will leave here to create more time for them to get Georgiana back. Everyone knows that Wickham is greedy and desperate enough to wait for the money. On the other hand, she thinks he is stupid for thinking he can get away from here without a horse, with a crying girl in his arms, and with at least three other men ready to kill him. She figures that the shadow that she sees behind the carriage is William’s. He is waiting for a chance to get at Wickham, so
she must be prepared to get Georgiana out of the way if there is a struggle.

  “Yes, Mrs. Darcy.” Hughes backs away from the scene slowly.

  “It better be at least ten thousand pounds! Well, well, well. You have become the new Mrs. Darcy; how nice that I have both of Darcy’s precious women here. Congratulations, Mrs. Darcy; you have secured an elusive quarry, there. Darcy finally fell for a young lady’s charms, heh? Being such a rich man like Darcy, it is no wonder he gets a pretty wife, but you are a feisty one; I remember your ire. Surely, Darcy cannot handle you given he is so proper, but I certainly would be capable.” Wickham leers lewdly at Elizabeth and snickers with disdain for his so-called friend from his youth who he has envied and has been jealous of all his life.

  Elizabeth does not want to anger Wickham into harming Georgiana, so she holds back her cutting remarks and looks at the path that Hughes had taken back to Darcy House. Wickham also looks towards Darcy House willing this situation to be over quickly. He knows that Darcy and the other men did not go back to the house; they are hiding somewhere. However, he has Georgiana captive; hence, they will not dare do anything with his pistol pointed at her. He holds onto Georgiana even tighter; he has to figure a way out of this once that man comes back with the money.

  Suddenly, at that same moment, Elizabeth sees Georgiana bend over a bit and starts to vomit. “DAMN IT!” Wickham commands harshly. “BLOODY HELL! You vomited on my boots!”

  Georgiana struggles as she vomits some more while turned to the side towards Wickham. He may loosen his grip on her if he is scared of getting her vomit on him; therefore, she does it deliberately again to create a chance for her to grab at his pistol or knock it from his hand, and then she can run away. In disgust, Wickham loosens his grip on Georgiana a bit so he can see his boot that got some vomit on it, and then he tries to clean it against Georgiana’s dress by rubbing against it.

  As Wickham tries to clean his boot, he loosens his hold on Georgiana and lowers his pistol from her, thus she takes this advantage to grab at one of his fingers on the hand around her waist and pulls it backwards, hard until the finger could not go any further. At the same time, she pushes his other arm with the pistol away from her.

  Wickham screams out in pain from Georgiana bending his finger backwards; he releases his grip on her as she struggles to push him and to get away.

  At this exact moment, Elizabeth screams out, “WILLIAM, GRAB HIM!”

  Wickham desperately tries to grab at Georgiana, again, but he cannot; hence, he pushes her and she falls to the ground, sobbing. He is about to grab her but he hears footsteps behind him, thus he rushes to escape. However, he runs right into none other than Darcy. Wickham is caught by surprise with the blow to his face from the handle of the pistol that Darcy is gripping.

  Concurrently, Elizabeth goes to grab the two pistols on the ground and then helps Georgiana up. Georgiana skinned her knees and hands from the fall but tries to get up and move away as fast as possible. They both stand to watch Darcy deal with Wickham. Elizabeth yells out for the other men to come help William.

  Darcy is enraged. After Darcy hits Wickham’s face, he is able to grab at Wickham’s pistol, but they both struggle at it. At this moment, Smith, Jansen, and Burns come behind Darcy to help apprehend Wickham. Darcy puts all his energy into twisting Wickham’s pistol arm behind his back while choking Wickham with his arm around his neck. Darcy’s twisting is rough and hard; there is a crunching noise, thus Wickham bellows out in agony while blood comes out of his nose and mouth from the prior hit. Wickham tries to grasp backwards at Darcy with his free arm, but Darcy just tightens his arm around Wickham’s neck causing him not to be able to utter another sound. Wickham continues to struggle; hence, Darcy releases his broken arm and punches Wickham in his kidney area while tightening his choke hold. Wickham slumps and coughs violently, so Darcy pushes him away and then goes to his ladies. The three men come to guard Wickham while he is on the ground bleeding, spewing out blood while holding his throat with his unbroken arm and rasping in pain.

  The Darcys hug each other all at once. Georgiana sobs out of fear; Elizabeth holds back her tears and squeezes Darcy, tight, as she has never before. Darcy squeezes his two most beloved women of his life.

  “Lizzy, Georgie are you both alright? I could not see what he was doing but I heard him talking. Did he hurt you?” Darcy looks at Georgiana. “You vomited?”

  Elizabeth waits for Georgiana to answer William, but she still cries, thus, guiltily, Elizabeth responds, “I am alright, darling. Georgie is the one that had to endure that devil.” She hopes William is not upset at her for not listening to his instructions of remaining inside the carriage. “Here are the two pistols.”

  Darcy takes the pistols from Elizabeth and calls Hughes over to give him back his pistol to guard Wickham with it. Darcy keeps his carriage pistol in his coat pocket. He instructs Hughes to have Smith and Burns take Wickham to the stables to wait for the magistrate.

  “Tie his hands and feet up, tightly. Do not help him in any manner. Jansen, you watch out for the magistrate and call me immediately when he arrives.”

  “Yes, Mr. Darcy.”

  Darcy refocuses back on Georgiana.

  “I am alright, now, brother. I am glad I vomited; he squeezed me so tight that I felt nauseous. I got the idea to vomit purposely in order to scare him so he could loosen his grip on me. I wanted to get his pistol away from him somehow so we could get away.”

  “You are better now? You are not sick anymore?”

  “No, I am not sick anymore, brother; thank you for saving us.”

  “Georgie, it sounds like you saved yourself and Lizzy with your vomiting idea. That was good thinking.” Darcy is so glad that his usually timid, quiet sister was not scared into immobility to be helpless.

  “Lizzy knew when to yell out for your help to grab Wickham.” Georgiana holds Elizabeth’s hand appreciatively as Elizabeth pats hers back in recognition.

  “That was the least I could do after I caused us all this trouble, Georgie.” Then Elizabeth turns to William. “I am sorry I told Georgie to leave the carriage; I thought we could escape since I saw him hold a pistol to Burns.” Elizabeth regrets her decision. “If we had stayed inside the carriage and all you men followed him then perhaps he may not have taken the time to try to abduct Georgie. I am sorry I made things worse.” She really hates it when she makes an error in judgement, especially one that is so exceedingly vital to their safety.

  “Lizzy…” Both Darcy and Georgiana say at the same time, but Georgiana lets Darcy continue, “You tried to protect Georgie and yourself; you did what you thought was best for the both of you at the time; I was just so worried for both of your safety.” Darcy embraces Elizabeth fully within his arms. “Wickham is going to prison for a long time for robbing our house, trying to abduct Georgie, and hurting her. Moreover, with his past history of being imprisoned for hurting the both of you in December, he will get a longer prison sentence. I will get Morgan to assure that he rots in prison this time.”

  “I just thought that we would be a bigger target for him if we just sat there because he already saw us. I just wanted to get Georgie as far away from him as possible.” Elizabeth explains her logic; she is afraid that William may be upset at her for bringing harm to Georgiana because she disobeyed his instructions.

  “I understand, Lizzy.”

  Georgiana adds her assurances to ease Elizabeth’s guilt that she takes upon herself. “Lizzy, I am thankful you were with me. You tried to help us; you almost had to shoot him! I do not know if I could have done that, but I could tell you were willing to do whatever it took to protect us, so please do not feel bad about your decision.”

  “Thank you, Georgie. I just felt so guilty when he grabbed you and had a readied pistol against you.”

  “Come on, now. Let us go inside.” Darcy guides Elizabeth and Georgiana inside their home.

  Two hours later, a constable and two other men come to Darcy House; everything is exp
lained and Wickham is hauled away in a locked, enclosed wagon. The constable informs Darcy that Wickham will get over fifteen years in prison for his crime because he has hurt these two ladies before; this proves that he is a danger if left to roam free in society.

  That evening the Darcys invite Richard, Morgan, and Jane over for dinner. Georgiana chooses to have dinner in her room to rest her hurt knees. Darcy explains everything that occurred with Wickham. “This is all thanks to Lizzy.” Darcy looks seriously at Elizabeth.

  Elizabeth is startled by William’s stern comment; she never thought that he would speak so solemnly about her honest mistake. Oh goodness, William really resents that she did not listen to him to stay inside the carriage. She does not look directly at William or Richard; they must be disappointed at her for putting Georgiana in danger. What more can she say to William and Georgiana? She was only trying to help the situation. She peeks quickly at Jane and sees that Jane looks confused. She hopes Jane does not try to ask William to clarify her mistake. Elizabeth stays quiet.

  Darcy sees that Elizabeth will not look up at him; he is worried that she might be taking this occurrence much harder than he thought. He will need to talk to her further when they retire tonight. As conversation continues, Darcy asks that Morgan look into this case to ensure that Wickham gets the longest and harshest prison sentence possible.

  “Wow, Darcy! You did well with your beating – a broken arm, broken nose, split lips, broken teeth, and he cannot talk anymore. He is lucky I was not present. I am proud of Georgie for not being stricken into helplessness.” Richard is very angry. “I hope he rots in hell for all the lives he has ruined. I beg your pardon, ladies.”