Page 50 of The Engagement at Longbourn

“But he was wicked,” Lydia whispered. “Why am I sorry?”

“Because death is dreadful,” Jane said softly. “You need not approve of a man to be troubled by it.”

Darcy sat very still.

Elizabeth watched him. That evening she found him alone in the library. “Are you relieved?” she asked.

He looked up. “Yes.”

“Do you feel guilty for being relieved?”

A pause. “Yes.”

Elizabeth sat opposite him. Darcy looked at the dying fire. “I have wished him gone from Georgiana’s life for months. I have imagined confronting him. Ruining him. Sending him somewhere he could not touch us.”

“And now?”

“Now the law has done more than I ever intended.”

“He chose the crime.”

“I know.”

“Knowing does not always govern feeling.”

“No.” After a moment he said, “Georgiana may come now.”

“Yes.”

He looked at Elizabeth. “I should have brought her weeks ago.”

“Perhaps.”

“I was afraid.”

“I know.”

Darcy’s mouth tightened. “You do not make excuses for me.”

“Would you like me to?”

“No.”

“Then we are suited in at least one particular.”

His gaze lingered. “Only one?”

Elizabeth felt warmth rise into her face. “Do not fish for compliments, Mr. Darcy. You have ten thousand a year. You may buy them.”

He smiled. The executions took place two weeks later at a military prison away from Meryton. Lydia never asked for details. Darcy burned the final copies of Wickham’s letters in the Longbourn library fire after the legal proceedings ended. He watched the name George Wickham blacken, curl, and disappear. Then he wrote to Georgiana.

Come to Hertfordshire.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Georgiana Comes to Longbourn

Georgiana Darcy arrived in a quiet carriage with her companion, Mrs. Annesley, and enough nerves for three people.