Marianne hugged at herself, shivering though her gown was long-sleeved. “It seems my judgement of character cannot be credited at all, for I was completely taken in by his tales of suffering, and must only be ashamed of confiding my own. Once again, I have been an utter fool! Where is Mamma? I should never have come tonight!”
Marianne did not wait for an answer before darting away from them, returning to the ballroom in a state of high emotion. Elinor would have followed her directly, but the colonel looked beseechingly at her. “A moment, Miss Dashwood?”
The ballroom had been warm, but she was already too cool to be comfortable; the colonel doffed his coat and offered it to her. “Please; what I would say to you must be kept private.”
She nodded, taking the coat and draping it over her shoulders. “I will hear you until I cannot bear the chill. I must go to Marianne ere long.”
“Very well. I informed your sister that Wickham had not been granted formal leave from Colonel Forster when he pursued Miss King to Liverpool. He claims that he had verbal permission from my predecessor, and perhaps he did. However, I have known Wickham all his life – we should both freeze before I could list half his depravities to you. He gambles and leavesa trail of debts everywhere he goes, including with shopkeepers here in Meryton, though many of them – those with daughters – have other reasons to resent him. A young lady of my acquaintance was even persuaded to elope with him, though her family managed to prevent it. He told the girl’s brother candidly that his purpose had been her fortune of thirty thousand pounds, as well as a personal grievance against that gentleman, who had tried in vain for many years to reform Wickham’s character when they were at Cambridge together. He is a danger to this village, and if there is any means of removing him, I must make the most of it.”
“And what of his tale of woe? Marianne was very moved by his misfortunes.”
The colonel scoffed. “His misfortunes! He was the godson of my uncle, a wealthy man who supported him at school, oblivious to Wickham’s debauchery. When my uncle died, he was bequeathed one thousand pounds, and it was my uncle’s wish that he should take orders and be granted a valuable living. This he declined, in lieu of an additional three thousand pounds. Within a year, he was penniless again. He demanded the living of my cousin, and was refused – hence his desire for revenge last summer.”
“Your cousin… Mr. Darcy? Whom he abused so harshly to my sister….” Elinor mused aloud, clutching his coat tighter around her as she shivered.
“Yes. Damn, and I have said it was his sister! I must beg your discretion – I forgot that your cousins are acquainted with mine. If word of what happened to her were to get out…. But there is nothing else to be said that requires you to freeze; return to the ballroom, and I will follow after a decent interval.”
Elinor nodded again and returned his coat, for he looked to be in great need of it in the frigid night air. She lingered adozen paces or so from the door, watching a new set form as she waited for the colonel. Once again, a rather ghastly confidence had been forced upon her, and yet she comprehended that it was always best to know the truth, even if it was painful or shocking.
Poor Colonel Fitzwilliam, and poor Mr. Darcy! She was heartily sorry that they had been obliged to endure such a connection, and she offered the colonel a commiserating smile as he returned to the ballroom and offered her his arm. “I have no partner for this set, as I suspected my information would shock your sister. Will you take a turn about the room with me, Miss Dashwood?”
“Yes, of course.” Elinor slipped her arm through his and smiled at him. “I apologize that my sister obliged you to share what must be painful to you, and I commend you for your honesty.”
“Thank you for saying so, Miss Dashwood. I believe it is a heavier burden for my cousin Darcy, whose wretchedness has been compounded by his father’s preference for the lieutenant. Were it not for that, he may have allowed me to resolvethat othersituation in a manner which would have prevented any chance of further shenanigans.”
Elinor’s eyes went wide. “I see.”
“He will always be a danger to every young lady of looks or fortune that he encounters, but at least I can remove him from this area, and he shall no longer have his status as an officer as a voucher of his character.”
“What will happen to him?”
“He will be made to run the gauntlet and then be flogged, and he will be discharged from the regiment. He will likely return to the unsavory shadows of London and gamble to survive – I can only hope that he will be unable to pass himself off credibly enough to deceive any other woman of fortune.”
“Marianne must be devastated,” Elinor sighed.
Colonel Fitzwilliam frowned. “Was she very much attached to him?”
“We have known him less than a fortnight; Marianne claims she merely sympathized in friendship with another who had suffered, for he painted himself quite a victim of your family. Marianne has a loving heart, which I believe is more easily influenced since the death of our father last spring. It is not the first time she has discovered herself deceived after forming a favorable impression. She learned recently that another person of our acquaintance has been duplicitous and disappointing in his deeds.”
Behind his mask, the colonel’s eyes conveyed his compassion. “I hope she will not learn to mistrust every new acquaintance.”
Elinor nodded her agreement. “I hope the same, as much as I fear it shall indeed affect her so. But I believe she wants only time to recover, and we are amongst loving relations.”
The colonel gave her a lopsided grin. “So, you are the pragmatic sister? There is always one in every family, and the other is carried away by flights of feeling and fancy. I have two such sisters; the eldest married at eighteen and has seven children, and still refers to her husband as herbeau– their affection is nauseating, though envied by many, I believe.”
Elinor chuckled softly. “And the other?”
“The other has a sense of humor, rather than a sense of whimsy. She spent six years, from the time she came out, refusing to show the slightest inclination for any man. She is uncommonly intelligent and has a wide variety of interests and pursuits, and insists that when she is old she must always have a niece or nephew with her; she has ten altogether, though she wants no children of her own. A friend of ours had a brother whowas in ill health – he was dying. She wed him for the purpose of becoming a widow and achieving her own independence. She has control of her own fortune, and does as she pleases, often to my chagrin, for one of her chief pursuits is being perpetually on hand to advise her relations of what they ought to do.”
Elinor laughed heartily at this. “I must always be the ally of the practical sister; I will hazard a guess that her advice is generally sound. Indeed, she sounds like a woman who knows what she is about.”
“Pray, do me the great favor of never telling her so when I am about!” The colonel grinned at Elinor, then gestured to a petite woman in one of the finest silk gowns Elinor had ever seen. She had raven hair and wore a mask set with diamonds, and was looking around the room with the same lopsided smile as the colonel.
“Your sister is here?”
“Yes, she chose to accompany her brother by marriage – chiefly for the purpose of vexing him and me in equal measure. But she will be delighted to meet the multitudinous ladies of Longbourn. Shall I introduce you?”
“You may, but I am sure I shall praise her if I find her agreeable,” Elinor warned him with a warm smile. “I am already imagining that line from Shakespeare –though she be but little, she is fierce.”
