Her sister Lydia.
Elizabeth tottered down, her stomach forgotten, to stare at Lydia, who in turn stared at her with a half smile, and a half worried expression.
They stood across from each other, and Elizabeth hardly knew what to say.She had been angry at Lydia for long after she had disappeared with Mr.Wickham.Though Elizabeth knew that there was no actual connection in cause, a little part of her had always thought it was somehow Lydia’s fault when Papa became sick and died less than a year after she disappeared.
At the same time… at the same time.
Suddenly tears started in Elizabeth’s eyes.She and Lydia embraced each other fiercely.“My dear sister,” Elizabeth cried.
Lydia at the same moment exclaimed, “Lord!You look quite the same as ever.”
Elizabeth could not help but feel happy.Lydia was her sister, and she could see that she was well and happy.
While the soldiers grinned at them, Lydia turned to the officer leading the men.“Lizzy, this is Captain Dilman, my handsome husband.”
He bowed to her.“My pleasure to meet you, Mrs.Darcy.”
“And you as well.”He was a handsome man, but not at all well dressed in the way Mr.Wickham had been.
There were spots of patching on the elbows of his uniform, cleverly sown to be almost invisible, and in spots the fabric was worn rather thin.He also was missing half his ear and had a light scar on the cheek on the same side.When he noticed Elizabeth looking at the injury, he laughed and tugged at the remainder of his ear.“At Waterloo.Wrecked my handsome looks, but at least my Lydia still loves me.”He embraced his wife from the side and smiled at her.
Lydia looked at Mr.Darcy and exclaimed with a laugh, “La, what a joke that you two married!I remember how you disliked each other so.”
“I never disliked Elizabeth,” Darcy replied.
Lydia laughed.“No, you did!Everyone in the whole neighborhood knew you’d said, on first sight, she wasn’t handsome enough to tempt you.”
Elizabeth flushed.“Enough Lydia.”
Lydia laughed.“Such a joke!That you then married.But I was so happy to hear from Mama how you gave her and Kitty a house and some income to live upon.”
“And then I sent Lord Lachglass after them,” Elizabeth said.
Lydia rolled your eyes.“To blame yourself ‘tis very much like blaming King Louie in France for the ogre coming back and shooting at my dear Dilman at Waterloo!You did not want it to happen.”
Darcy frowned as well.“My people failed to protect them — we should have known Lachglass might do something of this sort, and—”
“Do not blame yourselves!”Lydia exclaimed.“Johnny,” she turned to her husband.“Do tell them they are quite silly.”
“The colonel has said I’m to lead the force that goes with you to retrieve Mrs.Bennet and Miss Kitty.Your mother is a… well intentioned woman.”
Lydia elbowed him.
“She does not deserve to be used as a hostage,” Captain Dilman said.“Insane man.An insane man to do such a thing.As my Lydia said, you have no fault for failing to predict the actions of a mad creature.”
Darcy frowned.“If I’d only had a few men to stay in the house with them and installed better locks, and—”
“It was Mr.Wickham anyway,” Lydia said with a frown.“I am most put out with him.”
“Wickham!”Elizabeth exclaimed.“What doeshehave to do with the matter?”
“He sent me a letter.The sad man was drunk as a wheelbarrow in some brothel — poor man.Wrote he felt quite guilty, and that he’d already gambled half the money away.Mr.Blight gave him some twenty guineas to lead him to the cottage.”
Darcy growled.“I ought to have killed Mr.Wickham when I could.”
“Poor man, I heard from Denny that he has the pox now,” Lydia said.“The old regiment was here in Brighton, a year ago, those who hadn’t been discharged after the war.Glad he did not give it to me.”
The group walked, escorted by the soldiers, to the house that Colonel Pike, General Fitzwilliam’s friend and Captain Dilman’s commanding officer, had rented on the outskirts of the seaport town.
