Page 49 of The Engagement at Longbourn

Wickham stopped struggling.

For the first time that night, Richard smiled.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Consequences

The arrest was impossible to keep quiet.

By breakfast, Meryton knew that three officers had attempted to steal the regiment’s pay. By luncheon, people knew Lydia Bennet had somehow been involved. By dinner, she had either exposed the plot heroically, planned the entire robbery herself, or seduced all three men into confessing, depending upon which shop one entered.

Mr. Bennet acted before gossip could harden. He went to Meryton with Colonel Forster and spoke plainly to Mr. Phillips and several principal families.

Lydia had received improper letters from Wickham. She had recognized that a crime was intended and brought them to her family. The military had used the information to prevent the theft. No further details were offered.

To Elizabeth’s surprise, society was kinder than she expected.

Perhaps it was because Lydia was so young. Perhaps because the money had been recovered. Perhaps because every merchant Wickham owed had personal cause to dislike him.

Mrs. Long declared that Lydia had “shown more sense in the end than many girls show at the beginning.”

Lady Lucas sent a pie.

Mrs. Phillips repeated the approved account so aggressively that within a week even she seemed to believe she had invented it. Lydia herself changed in smaller ways.

She still said “La!” She still liked red coats, though she no longer assumed one improved the man inside it. She still argued with Kitty about ribbons. But she began leaving doors open when officers visited Mrs. Forster. She showed letters to Jane. She asked questions that had never occurred to her before.

“Do men always know when another man is a rake?” she asked Darcy one afternoon.

“No.”

“I thought gentlemen all knew.”

“We are not issued a handbook.”

Lydia considered. “You should be.”

Darcy looked at Elizabeth.

“She may have a point.”

The court-martial took place after Christmas.

Richard attended in his military capacity. Colonel Forster gave evidence. The marked coins were produced. The false key, pistol, letters, wagon, and testimony of the hidden sergeants left little room for doubt. Wickham attempted to claim he had been entrapped.

The argument failed. The three men were convicted of conspiring to steal Crown funds entrusted as regimental pay, armed robbery, and desertion in the execution of that plan. In local retelling it became simply treason, and the word clung.

The sentence was death.

When Richard brought the news to Longbourn, no one cheered.

Lydia went pale. “Will they hang?”

“Yes.”

She began to cry.

Mrs. Bennet gathered her close.