Page 82 of Regrets

He released her, then, and led her to a chair. “Mrs. Bennet, I have no words with which to thank you for the care you have taken of my sister.”

Mrs. Bennet blushed and smiled at him, assuring him that it was an honour to do so.

“Now that we are all here,” Mr. Darcy said. “Perhaps I can get a recounting of just what occurred yesterday?”

Mrs. Bennet rose and closed the doors.

After a moment, Georgiana began. In a low voice, she told them of her plan to meet George Wickham at the Netherfield fence where it met the road. “I thought he was going to propose to me,” she admitted, a tear sliding down her cheek. “I am a complete fool.”

“You wrote to Anne about it,” Mr. Darcy said.

“I did; how do you know that?”

“Because Aunt Catherine happened to see that letter, and she sent an express to me to warn me of it.”

“Hold on, you are skipping ahead,” Lydia complained.

“You are right; go on, then, Lydia. How did you know where to find Georgiana?” Mr. Darcy asked.

“Well, I heard a noise –“

Kitty interrupted. “It was me who heard the noise.”

“Oh, Lord,” Elizabeth groaned. “Either way, then what?”

“We went to see what the noise was,” Lydia went on.

“Lydia thought it was an animal and we would soon be running for our lives!” Kitty announced.

“But it was not an animal; it was a man and a young woman fighting. Kitty recognised Georgiana, and we knew we had to stop him.” Lydia paused.

“Go on, Lydia, tell him. This is the most courageous thing I ever heard,” Georgiana told Mr. Darcy.

“Well, there was this big rock; I picked it up, and I walked over to them – he was too busy to hear me, of course – and I brought it down on his head.”

“You – heavens! Then what?” Elizabeth whispered, utterly shocked at Lydia’s actions.

“Well, he collapsed on top of poor Georgiana, and she could not get out from under him, so Kitty and I rolled him off of her. We recognised him then, of course.” Lydia shrugged as if it had been nothing at all. “Georgiana was upset, and it took a little while to calm her down enough to get her up and moving.”

“Wait,” Georgiana said. Her eyes widened. “I remember now! You – you slapped me!”

“Well, I had to,” Lydia said, defensively. “You were crying and shaking like anything, and we could not get you to stop!”

“I understand,” Georgiana said, weakly, her hand going back to her cheek. “Go on.”

“Well, Kitty wanted to know if he was dead, so I went back and looked, and he seemed dead enough to me. By the way, Jane, his trousers were open, so I looked. Nothing at all like the stallion!”

Jane and Elizabeth both made strangled noises in their throats and turned bright red.

“In any case,” Lydia went on. “We got Georgiana up and were trying to have her walk back to Netherfield, as it was the closest house. What we would say when we got there was another question entirely, but I decided to deal with that when the time came.”

“Lydia said, ‘One thing at a time,’” Kitty recalled.

“But then Georgiana fainted; we could not carry her, so there was nothing to do but find help.”

Kitty said, “So I ran to the road, and I saw Lizzy! I did not think about it at the time, but later I thought it quite a strange coincidence.”

Mr. Darcy took over the tale. “Aunt Catherine sent me a note telling me when and where you were meeting him. She told the messenger that the message was urgent, so Braddock quite rightly brought it here. We got into the carriage and drove as fast as the horses could gallop. We got to the fence where you were to meet him and, of course, no one was there. But then Eliza – Miss Elizabeth saw Kitty down the road, and Kitty took us to you.”