This is the book that was never planned in this series… but when I sat down to write what I wanted Book 3 of the series to be, Elizabeth Bennet had other plans . . .
XOXOXO Elizabeth Ann West
Chapter 52 - The Whisky Wedding, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
NEARLY TWO HOURS later, two corporals and a major stood around the limp, unconscious body of George Wickham down in the cellar of Darcy House.
“I would like this piece of filth taken out the back door, gentlemen.” Darcy nudged Wickham’s body with his boot, but the bruised and bloodied man did not respond.
“He’s awfully beaten up, are you sure this is Lieutenant Wickham?” Corporal Jones tried to get a good look at the face now swelling beyond recognition.
“This man broke into my house and attacked the ladies residing here. My staff had no choice but to subdue him as you see here. That’s George Wickham, you have my word.” Fitzwilliam Darcy’s quiet power impressed both the major and Corporal Miller, but Corporal Jones did not know when to quit.
“Heard he ran off with a young lady, too.” Jones began to check the restraints on Wickham’s feet. “Young Miss staying with his commander, too!”
The two young corporals shared a laugh as Major Weatherstone and Colonel Fitzwilliam glared at the men.
“General Hill has made it very clear there is to be no gossip about Lieutenant Wickham’s desertion. All the lads want tales of romance and adventure, but it doesn’t make it true. The man deserted his post and he is therefore a coward. We do not suffer cowards to live.” The major scolded his two junior men to a nod of approval from Colonel Fitzwilliam. The major held out a document for Darcy to sign and as he did so, the major asked another question.
“You say he attacked a lady in the house? Might we get a statement from the young miss for the court-martial?” The major was just doing his job, but neither Richard nor Darcy took a liking to the intrusion.
“I’m afraid that’s impossible. He did not lay any hands on the women here, but he did brandish a knife and the shock was such that all involved have taken to their rooms,” Mr. Darcy said with finality.
“Of course, of course, it must’ve been a very trying ordeal. You have a right top staff here, Mr. Darcy. The Army cannot thank you enough for catching this criminal.” Major Weatherstone smoothed the feathers he had ruffled as the dumb corporal again opened his mouth.
“Why do you think he came here for? Of all the places to go, he had his freedom, been missing for weeks. Wonder why he stuck around London?” Corporal Jones bent down ready to lift the unconscious man with his counterpart when to his surprise, Richard Fitzwilliam snatched the corporal by the collar and yanked him up against the wall of the cellar. Menacingly, Richard yelled directly in the face of the corporal.
“Would you care to be court-martialed for utter stupidity? You do not collect the lowest scum of the earth from a great man’s house and open your gob to accuse him of complicity. Do you understand me?” Richard’s anger made the poor corporal tremble against the wall and he stammered out a “Yes, sir.” Richard released him and took a step away, breathing deeply as he privately cursed himself for letting his anger get the best of him. He needed his mind on the matter at hand, and all he could think about was going above stairs to check on Jane.
“As you say, he was on the run for weeks, likely ran out of funds. As a boy he was once welcome in this house and so he probably thought it would be an easy place to rob. I caution you, when he comes to, he will have fanciful tales he will try to sell. But you must not believe any of it. George Wickham is a liar and a deserter. And until he meets his end, he will continue to speak and act out of desperation.” Mr. Darcy made a statement best suited for the formal military inquiry into the matter.
Richard blinked at Darcy’s words, realizing this was now a very dangerous situation. With Wickham found he might sing like a canary from the brig. The only hope the Darcy family had would be swift justice before too many listened to Wickham’s tales of running off with Miss Lydia, and perhaps even his adventures with Miss Georgiana Darcy.
“Well, this seems to all be in order. Thank you again, Mr. Darcy, and we shall take this man out of your hands. Colonel, will you be coming with us?” Major Weatherstone offered his superior the opportunity to ride with glory back to headquarters with the villain in hand. But Richard shook his head.
“Tell General Hill I will come see him first thing in the morning. I am officially on leave and my involvement in this matter must remain undocumented, do you understand Major Weatherstone?”
Major Weatherstone, the third son of a baronet in Northumberland, nodded. “I understand completely, sir, my report will explain that Mr. Darcy handed over the deserter with the aid of his capable staff.”
All of the men nodded in agreement and Corporal Jones moved to open his mouth again but instead received a sharp jab in the ribs by Major Weatherstone.
“Corporal Jones, when we return back to camp, you will have muck duty for the next two weeks.” Major Weatherstone swiftly doled out the punishment no soldier wished for, and the quiet Corporal Miller didn’t even dare laugh at his colleague.
With Wickham removed from the household, Darcy didn’t bother to say a word to Richard as he climbed the stairs to comfort his wife and sister, and merely raised an eyebrow when Richard followed him. On the landing, the two men separated, though Richard found Jane with both Elizabeth and Georgiana when he knocked on the door.
“And we both thought we loved him.” Georgiana finished her tale of silliness that plagued both her and Lydia where it came to Mr. Wickham.
“Did it never occur to you he could not possibly love you both?” Elizabeth retorted before spying Richard in the doorway. Seeing her sister Jane brighten at the arrival of her husband’s cousin, Elizabeth helped shoo Georgiana out of the room.
“Come, we can discuss this more in my room. No more silence and brooding, it’s long since been time you discuss your situation like a grown woman.” Elizabeth grasped Georgiana’s hand and practically dragged the young girl out of Jane’s room and down the hall. Richard could hear Georgiana’s complaints that her brother would be a party to the conversation, but Mrs. Darcy would brook no disagreement. When the door to Mrs. Darcy’s room closed, Richard finally took a few steps into Jane’s room.
“If he had touched you, it would’ve been a dead man they carried out of here today.” Richard reached the side of Jane’s bed and picked up her delicate hand to press a kiss to the top of it. “This is all my fault, I see you here lying in bed–”
“I am well. I was distressed, that is not a falsehood, but I am no longer. You are here and I am safe.” Jane said with finality, and smoothed the blankets over her midsection as she sat up in bed.
“Yes, but I pulled the puppet strings. I put coin in one of Lady Bowman’s men’s hands to find Wickham in order to flush him out. I did not think he would become so desperate as to come here.”
“You could not have known. The man might have also found that evil man somewhere else and that’s where the Army would have collected him.”
“No, this is my fault.”
“Richard,” Jane tested his Christian name, bringing the doleful eyes of the guilt-ridden man to look at hers, “I know you asked not for an answer–”
“Please, I know what it must be. A life with me is too dangerous–”
Jane interrupted him. “The answer is yes! It was yes last night and it is yes today. And if you ask me again tomorrow, Richard Fitzwilliam, the answer will be yes then as well!”
Richard held his breath as he could scarcely accept her words. When Jane smiled at him, the kind of smile that made a man feel as if he could fly with the birds if he only willed it so, the experienced soldier found himself matching her expression with his own. Carefully, he sat upon the edge of the bed and pulled Jane into an embrace. She squeaked at his strength.
“You have no idea how… When I heard Wickham attacked the house… I feared…” Richard Fitzwilliam choked up with emotion as he had genuinely feared for Jane’s life when the report first came to him and Darcy they needed to rush home.
After a moment, Richard pulled back and Jane frowned.
“Oh dear, I’ve already said something wrong.” Richard panicked.
“No, but I’m afraid your mother will never approve of our match. She came here today to tell me so.” Jane watched Richard’s face turn purple in anger. Gently, she raised her hand to touch his cheek. “Do not be angry with her, I disabused her of the idea that you would marry a debutante marshmallow and take her to Spain. Why, the very idea of a society daughter moving to a military fort?” Jane began to laugh and Richard, wishing to stay angry with his mother, could find no relief against the mirth creeping into his heart. Finally, the heavily decorated military man laughed almost to tears with Jane at the vision of taking a prim and proper pampered lady across the sea to Badajoz.
“Oh, she will be on a tear now, not only will I disappoint her in marriage, but she didn’t know I had orders to go back to the Continent.” Jane gasped in shock but Richard patted her hand. “Do not feel guilty, she came here to tell you she did not approve, she deserved whatever pain your revelation gave.”
“Still, I thought that after Fitzwilliam found out, that you would’ve told the rest of your family?” Jane asked and Richard shook his head.
“There is a lot you need to learn about keeping your cards close to your chest, madam.” Richard’s eyes flicked to the porcelain décolletage of his intended, and then back up to her face. “Especially if you are to join this family.”
Jane stared at Richard with the eyes of a woman desiring a man as her husband, and Richard returned her silent plea with his own. Slowly, Richard leaned forward towards his Jane.
“May I?” The question perfectly understood between the two of them.
Jane nodded, and Richard moved the rest of the way to gently kiss Jane on the lips. The two bound by a common search discovered a burning lust that made neither one of them wish to end the kiss. Richard relished the small hands Jane placed around his neck, pulling him further into her direction as he struggled to not crush her with his weight. When at last the kiss ended, the two sighed and Richard turned his head toward the open door.
“Well if you were not already, I daresay you are utterly ruined, Miss Bennet. I shall just have to make you my wife,” Richard teased.
Jane gulped. “And you are hopelessly sad when left to your own devices. So I suppose I shall have to make a husband out of you,” Jane smiled at her future husband as she knew him thoroughly capable of taking a tease as easily as he dished them out.
“Did you truly brandish a fire poker?” Richard raised an eyebrow and Jane giggled. Carefully, Richard asked Jane for more details of the ordeal and she recounted both the conversation with his mother, and the attack of Mr. Wickham. After an interview of only a half hour, Richard reluctantly declared that he should go to his parents’ house and at least apprise his father of their plans.
“I wish you did not have to leave, I know that is where you stay, but I miss our mornings together,” Jane said as a reminder to how they lived briefly when they searched for Lydia and then after they recovered her.
“I’ll speak with Darcy if you wish to speak to Elizabeth?” Richard asked and Jane nodded. He kissed his Jane one last time, almost a punishment for the two of them as it was a delight. “I must at least inform my father. He will likely keep it from my mother, if I ask,” and Jane nodded enthusiastically. “And by next week, with any luck, we shall enjoy every morning together. That’s a promise Jane.”
Jane watched Richard leave and once she was certain he had taken the stairs, she threw off the covers and walked down the hall to her sister’s bedroom. Jane was well, despite what everyone wanted her to feel after staring down a crazed Mr. Wickham. Now that she was engaged to Richard Fitzwilliam, she was very well, indeed.
Chapter 53 - The Whisky Wedding, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
A DAY AFTER the excitement of capturing Wickham, Mr. Darcy escorted his wife around the Serpentine both to satisfy his aunt’s declaration that they be seen in public, but for greater reasons of sanity. Elizabeth did not care that Mr. Darcy’s meddling aunt assigned the excursion, her country miss walking feet relished the escape from the dungeon of drawing rooms and parlors. Of course, their trip would likely be a disappointment to Lady Matlock in execution as neither Fitzwilliam nor Elizabeth cared to walk during the fashionable hours and instead took to their carriage not long after an early breakfast.
Her arm in her husband’s, Elizabeth attempted to like the sights of the planned park and small gardens boxed in on all sides by unnatural buildings. But her heart ached for the simple country rambles afforded most of her life by her father’s estate. Melancholy for Longbourn reminded of her new home, Pemberley, and then the latest development that her favorite sister would not join them.
“Jane came to me last evening after you left with Richard. I am armed with the most surprising news,” Elizabeth taunted her husband.
“I believe my cousin brought me the same intelligence. I told him I would have to speak to you,” Darcy said, demonstrating the lesson that when one possesses a wife, it is always best to defer to her when making plans of a social nature.
“And I told Jane I had to speak to you!” Elizabeth beamed and the Darcys shared a laugh that compounded with a show of ducks vigorously diving for their meal. The elegant choreography of a small brood of ducklings and a trio of older animals displayed such aquatic prowess of skilled swimming and diving, the Darcys paused a moment to enjoy the splendor.
“So you would not mind if they were not merely standing up with us?” Elizabeth asked, knowing her own mind as to the plan for a slight charade, but unsure if her husband would agree to the deception.
Darcy considered his words carefully before sharing them, reviewing them extensively for any indication they might cause offense. Deciding they would not, he finally spoke.
“I feel we are the lucky victors of a life filled with happiness and good fortune. To announce publicly that Jane is to marry my cousin would invite additional strife and possibility for mishaps.”
Elizabeth nodded thoughtfully. “I have had my fill of mishaps, I believe, for more than a decade.”
Darcy looked down at his wife in surprise, happy to hear she shared his sensible perspective.
“That is precisely my drift. I do not place blame for our trials and tribulations, for only our Lord knows his plans. But I also think we might be spared his censure in keeping the number who know of our double wedding to a minimum.”
Darcy followed his wife’s lead as she nodded again in his assessment but tugged gently on his arm to signal she wished to continue walking. Darcy turned his head to see how far they had come from the carriage and could scarcely make out the equipage if he squinted his eyes. He looked down at Elizabeth with a quizzical look but she only smiled and tilted her head in the direction forward. His wife was indeed a very great walker, and with no promise of a future excursion in the schedule, Elizabeth Darcy remained keen to take every step possible.
Elizabeth did not bother her husband with idle chatter as it was another quarter-mile before they came to a bend. Street vendors lined the path selling flowers. Darcy flipped a coin to the young maid selling roses and presented his wife with a small token of his affection. Elizabeth inhaled the beautiful scent and thanked him for his kindness. They walked on as the coolness of the morning began to wear off with the sun’s higher angle, and just as Mr. Darcy signaled they ought to turn around, Elizabeth finally began the subject she was most anxious to discuss.
“With Jane most certainly to follow Richard to the Continent, I wonder if we might discuss my two sisters, Kitty and Mary, coming back to Pemberley with us?” Elizabeth asked in a rush.
Darcy’s feet faltered for a moment at the request, but he recovered quickly before a full stumble. “I confess I was thinking more of the peace and quiet of just the two of us and Georgiana.”
“That is precisely the reason I make the request. I fear your sister has had a little too much quiet and isolation from young women her age. And while I cannot say all of my sisters are paragons of virtue, Kitty is harmless and needs guidance away from Lydia. And Mary, well, if we bring Mary we can set her in charge of the younger two,” Elizabeth said
Darcy remained quiet and Elizabeth did not press him for a quick answer. She knew she had presented a radical idea to the peace and quiet the man so desperately deserved after a summer of an amnesiac wife, scandal, and a criminal in his home.
“Did she – Georgiana finally spoke to you?” Mr. Darcy asked remembering the disastrous interview yesterday afternoon in which Georgiana would say not a word until he left Elizabeth’s bedroom. Elizabeth nodded.
“Pray, what did she say?” Darcy asked with the earnest tone of a nervous father.
Elizabeth shook her head. “I shall tell you precisely what I told her. I cannot play tittle-tattle between you. You need to speak with your sister as much as she needs to speak with you and there will have to be some changes in our household.”
“And would not bringing Kitty and Mary reward her for a year of lies?”
Elizabeth shrugged and paused their progress. “She has spent a year in falsehood, but also a year in isolation with no one but an elderly companion to keep her company. She is a young girl without a mother and though you and Richard have made an admirable effort, Georgiana is woefully naïve and immature. I fear that if she does not spend time with more young women her own age, when we return to London to present her at Court, she will falter and suffer at the cruel hands of those who would bring her down.” Elizabeth recalled the barbs and thinly veiled insults at the teas and luncheons Lady Matlock made her attend.
Darcy hummed to himself and Elizabeth pointed out that their companions of ducks had moved to the far side of the bank. They found a new audience of young children tossing biscuits into the water.
“What if we sent them to school? All three of them, and Lydia, if you wish it,” Darcy suggested but Elizabeth frowned.
“I believe school would be a possibility after a year with us. Part of my aim in inviting both Kitty and Mary to Pemberley is to exact a punishment on Lydia as I seriously doubt my parents are equal to the measure. If after a time the girls blossom, then I believe a ladies school in London might be the answer.”
Darcy sighed. Visions of a quiet retreat in the country became replaced with the sounds of giggles of nonsensical girls.
“I suppose you are correct, I shudder to think of leaving Georgiana in the care of another at this time. With Richard to go to the Continent, there would be none to keep an eye on her here.”
Elizabeth stifled a laugh at the sour expression on her husband’s face and finally admitted that it would be best to bring her two sisters to properly outnumber and challenge Georgiana. The girl needed more than simple instruction on how to pour a tea pot and who receives precedence when setting cards at a dinner table. And by the same logic, both Kitty and Mary needed to learn those things that Georgiana knew, and share with her how to find her own person and live a life of purpose.
“So will you and Richard speak to my father? I have a feeling after the situation with Lydia he will not be too keen to allow Mary or Kitty to travel away from Hertfordshire. But I also know that if we do not remove them, Lydia will poison both Mary and Kitty, especially Kitty, with her desire for attention and escape the responsibility of her actions.”
“And if Lydia is with child?” Darcy asked the same question that his wife asked of him just a week ago.
They reached the carriage and Elizabeth took a deep breath before taking her place, her latest ritual in pushing the thoughts of fear from her mind. As the carriage made the turn around to head back to the town house, Elizabeth explained.
“It would be months before we know definitively, and at that time, if Lydia needs to come to Pemberley to quietly have her baby, it would serve as an excuse for retrieving my sisters.”
“And if she does not?” Mr. Darcy asked agreeing with his wife’s sentiments, but truly wondering about the negative of such a situation.
Elizabeth mischievously grinned.
“How do you feel about the Bennets and the Gardiners joining us for Christmas?”
NEW RELEASE
For the Love of a Bennet
What if Elizabeth Bennet traveled with Lydia to Brighton?
A reimagining of Jane Austen’s most beloved tale, Pride & Prejudice, join author Elizabeth Ann West as she writes the romantic adventure story she always wanted! When Lizzy and Lydia arrive in Brighton, it’s very clear that the younger Bennet sister came with very serious plans towards Mr. Wickham. Thankfully, an old ally is also in town, with problems of his own to solve. After Mr. Darcy, himself, is summoned to Brighton to hopefully solve two dilemmas with one wealthy member of the gentry, the whole militia is thrown into an uproar by Wickham’s most dastardly deed, yet. Together, Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy have to save Lydia from her own undoing, or it will mean more than just mere reputations are ruined.
For the Love of a Bennet is a novel length story, currently being posted chapter by chapter on Elizabeth’s author site. This story was originally conceptualized in 2019 as a part of the All Go to Brighton challenge.
Chapter 54 - The Whisky Wedding, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
FITZWILLIAM DARCY PACED the hallway on the family floor of his London town house. Each time he passed his sister’s door, he looked at the offending white portal, scowled, and paced some more. He wanted to go in there and yell to make himself feel better, but such an action would be disastrous for his relationship with Georgiana. Alternatively, he did not feel up to listening to her pining away over George Wickham and offer a sympathetic ear, either. And so he paced.
He was on his fourth circuit when suddenly the door opened and his sister glared at him, showing no traces of the young girl he helped raise since she was eight-years-old, but a fierce young woman.
“Please Brother, come in so we may speak. But every time you march down the hallway the mirror on my vanity shakes.” Georgiana offered her brother a shy smile, which went a long way to calming Darcy’s apprehensions about a long overdue meeting between brother and sister.
Darcy swallowed his pride and stoically entered his sister’s room as she closed the door behind him. Leaving her brother standing not far beyond the threshold, Georgiana glided around his tall frame and took a seat on the cassone in front of her bed.
“I never meant to hurt you or Richard. Every moment after your arrival at Ramsgate happened so quickly. At first I was afraid my honesty would cut me from your life forever,” Georgiana said with a slightly practiced cadence. Conversation with her brother’s wife the previous day had not gone easily. Elizabeth forced her to let out all of the fears and worries she held from the day her brother arrived early to the vacation home up to the dinner where she confessed being the same as Lydia.
“I would never have sent you away or cut you out of my life. Not even if you had married the man.” Fitzwilliam wondered in the back of his mind if he was speaking truthfully. The scene of his sister sitting at the foot of her bed allowed a glimpse of the young child that once only wanted a new doll or sheet music for her pianoforte.
“I do believe that, but then I did not. And I only confessed because I saw how much you and our cousin fought for Lydia. If my brother would extend such effort and resources to recover a young woman so wholly unconnected to us…” Georgiana frowned as she realized this was not accurate. “Well, she is Elizabeth’s sister, but it was so soon after your marriage, I would like to think that you would’ve done the same if you had not married over the anvil.”
“I would,” Fitzwilliam agreed with his sister’s suppositions about his character. He carefully inspected a delicate ballerina figurine on his sister’s bureau, a gift to his mother when he was a young boy after his father had to travel to the Continent for business. Darcy cleared his throat, wondering how much of the past he should tell his sister, about what he suspected of George Wickham’s origins. He decided that secret was not his to tell, nor one he could even confirm. It would be a burden she did not need to bear on top of her disgrace. So he decided a brief gloss over Wickham’s past would suffice.
“What you do not understand is I have cleaned up George Wickham’s messes since we were boys. I took the lashes when he accused me of sleeping with the maids, though it was him. I paid the shopkeeper out of my allowance when he ruined his daughter. And I am the one who has paid for Mr. Wickham’s debts in more than one town in our fair country.”
Georgiana’s face twisted in horror. “But why? He lied to me about all of those things, said it was you he often saved from gambling too much.”
“When have you ever known me to go out? To play cards? To bet on anything?” Darcy asked his sister who furrowed her brows.
“I thought that perhaps you did so to avoid the gaming tables.”
Darcy pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. He now saw what Elizabeth had tried to tell him that morning during their walk. His sister was not an idiot, but so gullible! She would believe a man like Wickham telling tales about his person, a brother that she lived with all of her life. She most certainly was not ready to be sent to a school.
“What about your… liaison?” Darcy forced himself to say the word. “I know there was no child, but have you hid any illness as well?” Darcy did not know if Wickham carried any diseases, but he would not be surprised, either. Georgiana slowly shook her head.
“I spoke with Elizabeth at length about what transpired between me and George. It was much the same as what Lydia shared. George said there was time for babies and he would not risk a child due to lack of personal control.”
Darcy became confused. “Are you no longer a maiden?”
“I am not.” Georgiana said in a small voice and looked down at her hands in her lap.
“Then I do not understand what you mean by . . .” But Darcy stopped that thought. A crude image of his sister with that cad clouded his vision and he suddenly understood all too well what happened. “I think I am beginning to see how George avoided fatherhood.” Darcy again looked about the room, unwilling to look down at his sister during such an embarrassing conversation for both of them. He could have lived his entire life without knowing that as a way to avoid expenses, George Wickham avoided completion while sheathed in his paramour.
As more awkward silence filled the room, Fitzwilliam rubbed his chin with his hand and considered if there was anything more he wished to know about Georgiana’s personal life. Finding there were no other details he needed to know about Wickham, Darcy grasped the chair by the fireplace and turned it around so that he could face his sister sitting at the foot of her bed. At her brother’s sudden proximity, Georgiana looked up with tears in her eyes.
“You truly carried this burden alone for over a year?” Darcy asked now seeing the sympathy that Elizabeth felt for his sister. Georgiana nodded.
“Does Mrs. Annesley know?” Darcy asked. She shook her head. Fitzwilliam’s heart ached for his sister, knowing all too well the pain involved of holding such a secret to himself.
“I meant my word, I will not send you away. My wife has made the suggestion that we bring Miss Mary and Miss Catherine with us when we leave for Pemberley after the wedding. Do you have any objections?”
Georgiana tried to wipe her eyes and her brother handed her handkerchief. With a sobbing voice, Georgiana exclaimed “No! I would dearly love the company.”
“That is what Elizabeth suspected. But it will not just be a relaxed visit, you understand. We are intending to aid all three of you in pursuit of knowledge and maturity. If by next spring there is remarkable improvement, there are a number of schools for young ladies of our status that I believe you would benefit from attending.”
“So you are sending me away?” Georgiana whimpered.
Fitzwilliam shook his head. “No, I am encouraging you and your sisters to seek improvement in any quarter where it is to be found. For a year you will remain with me and Elizabeth. And at the end of that year, in consultation with your wishes, I would like to see you pursue a formalized education with other young ladies your age.”
“And at eighteen I am to be presented at Court.” Georgiana finished. Darcy nodded.
“Now you understand why I wish for you to attend a school. The friendships you and your sisters make there will go a long way when the three of you debut in London.”
Georgiana brightened at the declaration she would not be denied a London Season despite her past. “Oh, Fitzwilliam, but what about—”
Darcy held up his hands to stop his sister’s question.
“You shall dance and twirl and be courted and if there are any serious suitors at the end of the season, then I shall handle the delicate negotiations. However, this all predicates upon good behavior from here forward especially honesty, and that no word of what you have done reaches the gossipmongers.” Georgiana nodded as her brother named the hefty obstacles between the present day and the future of glittering balls.
When Georgiana looked down at her hands, Fitzwilliam knew the question that was coming before she even spoke it. With a gentle nudging, finally his sister was willing to speak freely.
“What about Lydia?”
Darcy fumed out a sigh as he knew what he wished for Miss Lydia, but she was not his child to discipline. “While there are similarities between what happened to you and what happened with Lydia, you were not the same. If you had boarded that carriage with George Wickham, well, who knows what future we would be living today. But the fact remains you avoided the transgression that Lydia sought out, and while you withheld vital information, you did atone for that burden for over a year. Our sister Lydia has not traveled the length of a year to carefully consider her actions.”
“Will she be sent away?”
“There are still many factors that depend on the outcome. If she is with child–”
“But she isn’t. She cannot be.” Georgiana shook her head enthusiastically but her brother disagreed.
“I understand what that man told you and can envision what happened, but that is not a foolproof way of avoiding progeny.”
Georgiana froze with shock.
“Oh.”
Darcy watched as the understanding of the risks she took fully registered in his sister’s mind.
“Is the reason you never told me or Richard what happened because you thought yourself unable to be with child?”
Slowly, Georgiana nodded.
Inwardly, Darcy felt thankful for the good sense of the woman he married. Elizabeth was correct again, there was much more involved with why his sister kept her secret.
“I must see to a few other matters, and I hope I have not distressed you too much.” Fitzwilliam stood and Georgiana told her brother that he had not. “Would you like to for me to send Mrs. Annesley in?” Again, Georgiana slowly shook her head.
“I apologize, Fitzwilliam. I had no right to keep what I did a–”
Georgiana ceased talking when her brother pulled her into a fierce hug. The important part was that they had not lost one another, whatever consequences came in the future, Fitzwilliam made sure his sister understood she would not have to face them alone.
After Fitzwilliam left his sister’s room, the enormity of her loneliness and isolation crushed his heart. In another time he would go down to his study and have a drink to alleviate the pain. But this time, and for every day forward, he had a new solution available.
Directly, he walked over to the door next to his own rooms and knocked. As Darcy accepted his wife’s invitation to enter, he happily realized that he and Georgiana would never have to be alone ever again.
You’ve been reading The Whisky Wedding
When Elizabeth Bennet of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice learns of her sister’s elopement before leaving for the Peaks District, she and her aunt are off to Scotland to chase the wayward couple. Inn after inn, there is no sign of Lydia or Mr. Wickham, but Elizabeth won’t give up. A foolhardy decision to continue to search on her own lands Elizabeth right into the arms of a familiar face . . . Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy.
Join author Elizabeth Ann West in a tale of carriage accidents, amnesia, and a forced marriage, but happy endings for all. Well, maybe not Mr. Wickham!
The Whisky Wedding
a Pride and Prejudice novel variation
Release Date: December 28, 2016
514 pages in print.
+ 23 additional Pride & Prejudice variations are available at these fine retailers . . .
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A Jane-of-all-trades, mistress to none! Elizabeth Ann West is the author of 8 novels and 11 novellas, 18 of which are story variations of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice.