Page 35 of Near Pemberley

Mrs. Gardiner set down her cup. “Lizzy? What is it?”

Elizabeth did not answer.

She had reached Lydia’s name.

The room seemed very still.

Mr. Gardiner rose halfway from his chair. “My dear?”

Elizabeth looked up at them at last, and the horror visible in her face alarmed them more than any words could have done.

“Oh! Jane, Jane. What is this?”

Her hands trembled so violently that she could not really continue. She forced herself to read aloud in broken fragments.

“‘Lydia has left Brighton with Wickham… they are gone together… Colonel Forster believes they were not married when they left…’”

Mrs. Gardiner gave a low exclamation of distress.

“No,” Elizabeth whispered. “No, no…”

She seized the second letter, breaking the seal with shaking fingers.

The agitation with which it had evidently been written communicated itself instantly to every person in the room.

Jane’s fears had increased.

No trace of them had yet been discovered.

Colonel Forster now believed Wickham never intended marriage at all.

Elizabeth let the letter fall into her lap.

For several moments, nobody spoke.

The full misery of it seemed too dreadful for immediate comprehension.

Lydia.

Lydia ruined.

And with her, every sister connected to her.

Mrs. Gardiner reached her first. “My poor Lizzy!”

Elizabeth rose abruptly and turned away, pressing one trembling hand against her mouth as though to suppress some uncontrollable emotion.

“Oh! How could she… how could she be so lost!”

Mr. Gardiner took up the letters himself and read rapidly, his countenance growing graver with every line.

“This is dreadful indeed,” said he at last. “Dreadful and most unfortunate.”

Elizabeth turned back. “It is my fault.”

“No, my dear…”

“Yes! I ought to have known. I ought to have exposed him long ago. Had I revealed Wickham’s true character when first I learnt it, this might never have happened.”