“Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam?”
“I believe that is his Christian name. Is his presence likely to have any great impact onyourplans.”
“N-n-no. N-not at all.”
And then, as if he had been summoned forth by conversation about him, like the devil famously could be, Colonel Fitzwilliam entered Mrs. Phillips’s already crowded supper room followed by Bingley who apologetically waved to Mrs. Phillips. “Apologies for showing up. We’d said we wouldn’t come, but Colonel Fitzwilliam wanted—”
That gentleman though only had eyes for Mr. Wickham.
He bared his teeth and stalked forward towards them, a delighted glow in his eyes, and Elizabeth had a shivery sense that this was a man who was capable of violence without an excess of compunctions.
“Fuck…” Wickham hissed as he sat stuck in place, like a rabbit before a snake.
Elizabeth looked at him shocked. She didn’t have any idea what that wordmeant, but she knew it was one of those words which gentlemen werereallynot supposed to use around ladies.
Colonel Fitzwilliam’s smile hid nothing of his predator nature as he pulled a seat up next to them and sat down, arms loose and relaxed. “Hello, Miss Elizabeth, making the acquaintance of my charming old friend here?”
“You do not frighten me,” Wickham said stiffly. “You know I can injure you as much as you can injure me.”
The colonel stared back at him.
His eyes were cold.
Elizabeth was rather shocked to see this wholly different version of Colonel Fitzwilliam.
She was used to the continual teasing warmth that Colonel Fitzwilliam showed towards Caroline, his cousin, and to a lesser extent herself and everyone else.
“I know things! You know that I can tell people about them!”
The raptor’s glare continued.
“You will not do anything to me. You would not be willing to risk it.”
A slow cruel smile crossed Colonel Fitzwilliam’s face. “I’d like it if you tried to defame us.”
What little confidence Wickham possessed seemed to dissolve, and he shrank into himself, like a small little rodent who just hoped that the hawk had not seen him.
“Well, well, well. Entered the militia have you? Ready to defend merry England with your life and your blood? — you might join the regulars if you really don’t mind beingshot.”
Wickham went paler.
“Easier also to run from the militia. No worries about desertion charges when you run from the battles defending our coasts that the navy ensures do not happen. Are you intending to stay here? Permanent like? Like the neighborhood do you?”
“Very much.” Wickham’s voice cracked.
“Oh well.” Colonel Fitzwilliam stood, and he looked around at the room. Many of the officers had come to Mrs. Phillips’s card party, and Colonel Fitzwilliam was clearly pleased to see so many red coats.
He sharply clapped his hands three times, and then shouted, “Officers of Forster’s regiment. Attend to me.”
Somehow he silenced everyone, man or woman, in the room by a force of personality. “So this sweet fellow,” he put his hand familiarly on Wickham’s shoulder, “is joining you all. Might do him a bit of good to be part of a decent regiment of men, though he has always been in my experience a worthless sort of fellow. I want to warn you all: Don’t play cards with him. He cheats. And when he can’t cheat, he loses and does not pay back the debts. Don’t trust him with your money, your lives, or your women.”
Colonel Fitzwilliam then looked at Elizabeth’s portly uncle Mr. Phillips. “You there, you know most of the local shopkeepers, the generality of people?” Without waiting for a reply he said, “Make sure every shopkeep in town knows that they should not trust Mr. Wickham’s money, unless they can see it. Even then, they probably ought to bite the coin to make sure it is real. He’ll also try to seduce every tradesman’s daughter, and he’ll not take any responsibility, not even if they threaten to shoot him. Be cautious around this fellow. But who knows? Maybe in this new profession he’ll turn into a worthwhile, useful sort of man. You are a fine company of men, and you shall set him an excellent example.”
After he said that, Colonel Fitzwilliam nodded to Mrs. Phillips. “Know it must be deuced annoying to have your party interrupted like this. But I’m a simple soldier who knows nothing of niceties. My apologies.”
He inclined his head to Elizabeth. “Miss Elizabeth, I eagerly look forward to sharing the first dance with you at Bingley’s ball.”
He finally looked at Mr. Wickham. “If you try to insult our good nameI will hear. Even after I’ve left,I will hear— and I’m not a kind and forgiving soul like Darcy: I hope you do. Till we meet again.”
