“Lizzy, Lizzy, Lizzy. I thought I’d die! I was terrified I’d die.”
“I was so scared for you.”
The two women clung to each other. The desperate fear of the whole night that had kept Elizabeth from sleeping a wink in the carriage ebbed away. Caroline sobbed.
Charlie laughed to see them, but with a sort of hollow laugh that showed how strained his nerves were. “No embraces for me? I brought Mr. Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam all the way from Kent.”
Caroline smiled at her brother, but she did not cease embracing Elizabeth.
There was an odd, tender expression on Colonel Fitzwilliam’s face as he looked at Caroline. He was the hero of the day, and he must have been the one to shoot Wickham.
“Is Lydia well?” Caroline asked. “Please tell me she is safe.”
“Of course she is!” Charlie reassured Caroline, almost, but not quite, sounding like his usual boisterous self. “The girl’s just a bit rattled. She’s been improved by the experience, I dare say. How did you think we'd found you?” Charlie clumped around them and embraced Caroline from behind. “I was so scared for you, Caro.”
“Let’s leave,” Darcy said as he stepped back onto the street. “They are taking Mrs. Younge and one of the men, and they will be held until their trial in the Old Bailey. The rest of the men seem to have had nothing to do with the matter — nothing a jury might find illegal that is — there is a paper purporting to be a special marriage license, but I suspect fraud was involved in its production — the building here is a brothel, and they are waking up the… ah… regular occupants.” Darcy paused and blushed as he looked at Elizabeth. “In any case we are not needed anymore.”
Colonel Fitzwilliam took out his handkerchief, and he wiped much of the bloody gunk off Caroline’s face. Elizabeth realized a bit of the blood had gotten onto her dress as well.
She was still wearing the green silk that she thought Darcy particularly liked.
They then settled again into Darcy’s carriage. Colonel Fitzwilliam sat next to Caroline in the cabin. She looked at him, with something like awe in her eyes.
What must it be like to be saved from such a fate?
In ordinary moments, Colonel Fitzwilliam looked ordinary, but something about this situation, about his commanding manner, and about his decisive action made him more, something handsome — though of course not, in Elizabeth’s view, nearly as appealing as Mr. Darcy.
But she could very well understand if Caroline’s attitude towards him began to change.
Darcy sat down next to Elizabeth, and then Charlie climbed in to finish the set.
As the carriage rolled off there was a silence.
Colonel Fitzwilliam studied Caroline with that tender, almost confused look.
Charlie looked happy, exhausted, and relieved.
“I am so, so, so—” Caroline spoke suddenly to Darcy, “so ashamed of myself. I never, never, never should have attempted to use you in such a way. To betray every principle, to lie. To act in such a way. I never can live down, or erode the shame of that action. I just beg you to not continue to blame my brother for my stupidity, my selfishness, my complete lack of principle — everything. He is sincerely attached to you, and… I deserve your resentment, not him.”
“Miss Bingley,” Darcy replied stiffly, “I have already settled with Bingley.”
“Oh, I am glad to hear that!”
Darcy shrugged a little. “Matters being what they are, it would be quite awkward in any case for me to hold myself in a position of resentment in regard to him, or to you.”
“No — I assure you, I expect neither forgiveness nor notice from you.”
There was a flash of something in his face that suggested to Elizabeth that despite the events of this morning and the past day, Darcy still would much prefer tonotshow any notice to Caroline. Instead he said, “You were very brave to help Elizabeth’s sister.”
He paused to take a breath, and Caroline’s eyes now darted from Mr. Darcy to Elizabeth, and she seemed to notice how they sat next to each other, and she smiled widely. “Elizabeth?”
Elizabeth grinned widely back at her and wiggled a bit in the seat.
“Oh! You agreed. I am so happy! Lizzy, congratulations!” Caroline grabbed Elizabeth’s hands. “In the endthatat least came out well.”
“I must confess, I am delighted as well.” Elizabeth grinned back.
Darcy sighed and shrugged, an expression like defeat on his face. “Miss Bingley, Elizabeth is happy that you are her friend, and… your bravery has perhaps redeemed you in some way. Such bravery counts for a great deal. And…” He waved his hand vaguely. “That which makes Elizabeth happy shall make me happy.” Darcy extended his hand forward to shake Caroline’s. “I would not say friends, but at least not enemies.”
