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On arriving in the adjutant’s office, Captain Carter told Wickham to wait, as the colonel would see him forthwith.

As he was about to lower himself onto one of the chairs where those waiting for the colonel sat, Wickham was grabbed roughly by two large privates. “Oy! Take your hands off an officer before I have you court-martialled,” he blustered.

“You are no longer an officer,” Forster boomed as he ripped the epaulettes which held the insignia of his rank from his former lieutenant. “Did you think that the honour code you signed did not mean anything? Did you not see where it said that you would be stripped of your rank if you contravened it?”

“But I have done nothing wrong! It is Darcy! Stealing my future income from me was not enough…” Wickham tried to say.

“Stop, Wicky!” Forster mocked.

“H-how d-do y-y-you know t-that n-name?” Wickham stammered. He did not want to hear the reply he was certain he would hear.

“You claimed Mr Darcy opened credit in your name when the truth is that is what you did in his name. You owe more than three thousand pounds in debts Mr Darcy paid for you so that honest tradesmen would not be beggared by you. And that tale of yours about the living denied is pure fiction. We have seen the document you signed giving up any rights to it for three thousand pounds. Besides, it was not Mr Darcy who told us the truth about you. It was his cousin Colonel Fitzwilliam, who is very keen to see you again,” Colonel Forster revealed. “Not only has your rank been stripped from you, but you have been expelled from the militia thanks to your breaking our code of honour. Honour—now that is something you do not possess.” Forster turned to his two soldiers and Lieutenant Saunderson. “Take this former officer to the brig where he will wait for Colonel Fitzwilliam and Mr Darcy.” He turned to his adjutant. “Have Sir William join us. He will have to swear out a writ of arrest for that excuse of a man.” He paused. “Carter, have Denny and Chamberlayne come see me. It was them who recruited this miscreant.”

Carter saluted and left to find the two officers.

As soon as he heard confirmation that Fitzwilliam was in Meryton and coming to see him, Wickham soiled himself. He was half dragged and half carried to the brig and thrown in. The door was slammed shut and securely locked. His former friend, Saunderson, said not a word to him. He just watched coldly, and then once he made sure the door was secure, he marched away, leaving one of the soldiers to watch over the prisoner.

As he sat there blubbering on the cold floor of his cell, Wickham could not understand how things had gone so wrong for him.

~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~

Lieutenants Denny and Chamberlayne saluted their colonel as they stood at attention before his desk. They waited for their commander to speak. Both felt somewhat concerned as they saw the hard look on the normally affable colonel’s face.

“What did you know of Wickham before you brought that viper among us?” Forster barked out.

“I remembered his name from the area around Lambton. When I asked him about tales of debts he left, Wickham told us that Mr Darcy did that to blacken his name. I should have mentioned this to you and investigated further,” Denny looked down, feeling chagrined. “I apologise, Colonel, but we were taken in by his act and the way he seemed to be so sincere.”

“Unfortunately, I too was taken in by him. Hence, I cannot punish you for something I did as well. You both swear that until now, when everything has come to light about him, you were not aware of the truth about that wastrel,” Forster demanded.

Both men swore on their lives. As they left the offices, breathing a little easier that they would not be punished for recruiting Wickham, they saw four men arrive on horses, three from one end of the town and the fourth from the other. They knew who two of the men were, but the colonel in the uniform of the regulars and the other man were unknown to them.

Sir William arrived at Colonel Forster’s office at almost the same time as Hilldale, Fitzwilliam, and Darcy.

As soon as word spread as to the colonel’s identity, whispers of Colonel Fitzwilliam’s exploits in battle began to spread among the extremely awed militia officers.

After greeting Sir William and introducing him to his cousins, Darcy led the other three men into the offices. He noticed that soldiers were rolling up a rug and then carted it away.

“Wicky, as you call him, had a reaction to hearing that Colonel Fitzwilliam wants a word with him,” Carter shared.

With a wide grin, Carter showed the men into Colonel Forster’s office.

On entering, Fitzwilliam introduced Colonel Forster to his brother. The former bowed, and the latter inclined his head.

“Lord Hilldale, Colonel Fitzwilliam, Sir William, and Mr Darcy, welcome,” Forster boomed. “We have that blackguard in the brig. He is no longer an officer or a member of His Majesty’s Militia, so you are welcome to him.”

“We asked for you to be present in your capacity as magistrate, Sir William,” Darcy explained. “As you can see, the former lieutenant owes me more than three thousand pounds, and I am calling in those debts to be paid in full. As he has no ability to pay, I am requesting a writ of arrest to give to the bailiff who arrests debtors so that Mr Wickham will be consigned to one of the debtors’ prisons.”

“Is this stack all of his vowels?” Sir William asked after he perused the stack of debt markers.

“Only what I own. I understand that he still owes money in Meryton, although thanks to Mr Collins speaking to you, not nearly as much as it would have been. I will pay that amount as well and add it to the rest I hold,” Darcy volunteered.

“We allowed him to join our ranks and believed his pack of lies, so my regiment will pay what he owes,” Forster insisted.

“If we want to see who is more at fault, I should have stopped the libertine long before he became a member of your regiment. The fault is mine, Sir; therefore, the remedy must be mine as well. I will pay what he owes,” Darcy said firmly. “I will not pay his debts of honour, but if you canvass your men you will find that he likely borrowed money from several of them before he was exposed. I will repay those loans and add to what he owes me.”

“I will swear out the writ of arrest; there is more than enough here,” Sir William agreed. “If he leaves prison alive, he will be an old man by then.”

The knight agreed to have the writ in Colonel Forster’s hands within the hour and took his leave to swear out the arrest warrant.