His admiration took a sudden turn as a glance over his shoulder revealed flashes of red moving in his direction. He groaned. He had planned to slip away quickly, intending to remain only long enough to openly damage Georgiana’s maidenly credibility and then steal away. How could he then drop threats to Darcy if he had not his liberty? He took a long step in preparation to turn and run from the approaching militiamen, but he backed instead into something firm and unyielding. He turned his head and swallowed. Colonel Fitzwilliam clamped an iron hand to his shoulder.
Elizabeth had not yet arrested her tirade, marching still toward the retreating weasel and scolding him heatedly. Just as she registered Colonel Fitzwilliam’s presence, a gentle hand at her own shoulder stilled her. “Elizabeth,” Darcy called softly, “it’s all right.”
She turned and found his eyes full of such a conflict of feeling that she could not at once discern his thoughts. Anne had come to stand just behind him, but her gaze was only for Darcy as he drew her hand close. “I—I am sorry,” she mumbled, dropping her eyes sorrowfully. A spark of fear and mortification grew in her. She had shamed Darcy in public by acting a hostile, impudent shrew. Of course, Wickham deserved to be told off, but not by herself, who ought to have behaved as a lady! Dread spread over her. What must Darcy think?
He squeezed her hand, a gesture none, but she could have noted. She looked up again to a tender, if fleeting, smile. “Do not be sorry, Elizabeth,” he murmured quietly. With one more press to her fingers, he gently guided her to stand next to Anne and moved to address himself to Wickham.
A crowd had begun to gather now. The two militia officers who had been flirting with Kitty and Lydia quickly crossed the street and stood ready to obey Colonel Fitzwilliam’s command. Kitty and Lydia, unfortunately, trailed just behind with rather unbecoming interest. Elizabeth peered behind them with trepidation. At least Mary and Georgiana were not at hand. Georgie ought not be near Wickham, especially not now!
“Wickham.” Darcy’s voice was cold and unbending. “What do you mean by imposing yourself on a young lady of my family, and in the middle of the street? Have you no decency or honour left in you?”
Wickham sneered and tried to jerk away from Fitzwilliam, but unsuccessfully. Richard wrenched one arm behind his back and, with his other hand, gripped Wickham by the tendons of his neck and clamped down, hard. Wickham cringed, his knees crumpling in pain as he tried to cower away. “Answer!” Fitzwilliam hissed.
“I thought she was someone else!” he snivelled, the pain in his body causing him to momentarily forget that he still held dangerous information.
Darcy had not forgotten. He could take no chances that Wickham would utter Georgiana’s name under Richard’s duress. He flicked his eyes to his cousin, who relented with the intuition of a brother.
Another glance over his shoulder assured him that Elizabeth had already taken action to preserve the situation. She was firmly ushering her sisters and Anne into her aunt’s house, and mercifully, Bingley and Jane had appeared from nowhere. Bingley took up station behind Darcy, while Jane grimly followed her sisters into their aunt’s abode with the intent of keeping them under wraps. Elizabeth, however, returned to stand staunchly at his shoulder.
Despite everything, he could not but feel a swell of triumph.Thiswas the astounding woman he would be privileged to spend his life with, who would fight loyally at his side and lie sweetly in his arms! He levelled a challenging glare at Wickham, whose widened eyes testified that he, too, stood in awe of the spirit of Elizabeth Bennet.
Darcy stepped closer, lowering his voice so that his words might be kept between only them. “What have you done with miss King?” he rasped.
Wickham threw back his shoulders as best he could under the colonel’s grip. “What do I want with that nasty, freckled thing? A dowry of ten thousand? I can have all of that and more, without being shackled to a silly wife. You’ll be only too happy to pay up to keep me from telling what I know!”
Fitzwilliam shook Wickham until his teeth rattled. “Where is she, then?” he demanded.
Wickham blinked, trying to recover somewhat. “Probably in London, or on her way to Brighton with her uncle! He got an ‘anonymous’ tip that someone wished to abscond with his niece. I knew if she disappeared, you would take after her and try to save her from me. You are so predictable, Darcy! I only lament that you came back so quickly.”
Darcy drew back fractionally, satisfied that the innocent young lady, at least, was unharmed. Now to prevent any possibility that it might ever happen again.
“George Wickham,” Colonel Fitzwilliam pronounced, “you are a deserter from His Majesty’s Militia. I hereby place you under arrest.”
Wickham leapt but Fitzwilliam held firm. “I never left Meryton!”
“You never reported for duty!” Fitzwilliam shot back. “Your commanding officer did not know your whereabouts; therefore, you have been absent without leave.”
Wickham began to panic. A tribunal meant certain doom.Damn that Elizabeth Bennet!If she had not distracted him so, he would have been long gone! Fury took over where shrewdness had once prevailed. “You are no better than I!” he lashed out at Fitzwilliam. “What are you but a poor second son, a penniless whelp, totally dependent onthatparsimonious snob for everything! You cannot even afford to marry without his leave!”
Fitzwilliam collared Wickham roughly, his face taking on a dangerous hue. “Guard your words well, sir! I may be all that stands between you and the gallows!”
Wickham spun to glare recklessly at his persecutor. “Do you think I don’t know about you, Richard? That I don’t see the way you look at her, the way you pine your miserable existence away waiting for someone you can never have? Aye, Darcy is too thick, but you and I are the same,Richard! You can lock me up, but it won’t help y-” Wickham’s taunting was finally cut short when Fitzwilliam slammed his head against the brick of the Philips’ residence. He sagged, senseless.
Richard let him fall to the walk, straightening his coat and glancing self-consciously at his cousin… and beyond him. Georgiana had just exited a nearby tea shop with Mary Bennet and had stopped in open-mouthed horror at the scene unfolding before her. Darcy had not yet perceived her, but Elizabeth followed his ashen gaze immediately. She whirled and quickly beckoned both girls to follow her into her aunt’s house.
Darcy was only dimly aware of what had taken place behind him. He blanched at Wickham’s words, his eyes boring questioningly into his cousin. Richard dropped his head in defeat, waving for the gathering crowd of militia officers to collect the downed deserter.
Chaos reigned for some minutes. Word was sent for Colonel Forster. Wickham was dragged away, staggering and only muddily conscious. Local gentlemen who had stepped away from the scene to shield their ladies began to brave the streets once more. The town’s residents slowly resumed their business, with many a surreptitious eye cast toward the worthy gentleman of Derbyshire and his heroic cousin, both of whom had cut such a dashing figure in detaining the pariah of the week.
Fitzwilliam dared to meet Darcy’s even gaze but could not hold it for long. He looked away, collecting his fallen hat from the mud and brushing ineffectually at it. Bingley clapped Darcy on the shoulder. “Fitz, I’m going to see to the ladies.” He glanced awkwardly at the colonel and slipped inside the house just as Mr Philips emerged.
“Mr Darcy! What has happened? I heard a man attacked the lady in the street! Oh, my gracious, my poor wife is in hysterics!”
Darcy sighed. “All is well, sir. Is Miss de Bourgh very much shaken up?”
The man arched his brows over his spectacles. “Miss de Bourgh? Why, I believe she is well. It is your sister, Miss Darcy, who appears most distressed.”
Darcy closed his eyes.Not now!Wickham, that blasted deviant, had broken his beloved sister’s heart. What a shock it must have given her to see him just now! Heedless of Mr Philips, who was beginning to jabber excitedly to a blank-faced Fitzwilliam, Darcy moved toward the door of the house. Elizabeth intercepted him as he was reaching for the handle, slipping outside to him and pulling the door closed behind herself.
