“I see no reason for that to be a necessity, Lady Catherine. I would rather honorably circumvent the issue.”
“Honorably? Honorably? No honor has been shown to my niece, to our family!”
Georgiana persevered to writhe in attempts to free herself.
Wickham’s impatience was spent. “I assume Bainbridge & Sons also apprised you of her dowry? If she becomes ill, her money reverts to me. As her husband, I have been concerned for her well-being of late. She has acted out of sorts: speaking to her dead father, seeing spirits, and other abnormalities. She is going to be evaluated at Bedlam.”
“Bedlam? Set her down, Wickham,” Darcy demanded. “You will gain nothing from putting an innocent girl in an asylum.”
“Have you not been listening,Darcy?I will gain everything!”
“Set her down.”
Wickham signaled to his brutes, who dropped her on the floor. Elizabeth and Miss de Bourgh rushed to remove Georgiana’s gag.
“You are a vile man, and I hate you!” she shouted at Wickham. “I am grateful to have a brother—”
“You were the means to an end—”
“Who is so honorable—”
“Shut your mouth!” shouted Wickham.
“And reflects the values of a Darcy.”
“Pemberley was all I wanted from you—”
“My father would loathe the man you have become—”
“And I had it!”
Georgiana spat back. “Until you gambled it away!”
Wickham’s eyes bulged at her comment, and without warning, he pulled his hand back and struck Georgiana across the face.
A deathly hush echoed down the corridor.
Darcy inhaled slowly. “Pistols at sunrise at the old Rosings ruins.”
“I will be there!” was Wickham’s reply before he and his men walked down the stairs and out of Rosings.
Day 18
She could not sleep. The fears which had gripped her hours before had only intensified as the wind howled through the orchard, and the trees scratched at the window.
He cannot be dueling that scoundrel in only a few hours. Will he be lost to me forever?Elizabeth lay abed, restless, anticipating her future while listening to the house settling around her, and wondering if he too could not sleep.
Elizabeth sighed and gave up her attempt at rest. Grabbing her dressing gown and threading her arms through the sleeves, she reached for the candle next to her bed.That Mr. Bingley will be Mr. Darcy’s second is no surprise. But that my sister should repine her decision to secure the fate of her mother and sisters is...“Also, no surprise,” she whispered, pausing before unlatching the door.Yes, it was Jane’s choice, but it was not truly of her own free will.
She crept down the stairs, her candle causing shadows to dance across the walls as she walked through the corridor toward the kitchen. A sound from Mr. Collins’ study caught her attention, and shepushed the door open.
The man she loved sat at the desk.
“Elizabeth.” He stood and reached out his hand to her.
She rushed toward him, and he wrapped her in his embrace.
“Elizabeth?”
