Chapter 9

The evening that followed Lydia and Wickham's meeting saw a large party gathered at the Bennets'. Mrs. Bennet had wasted no time in organizing a dinner as she dragged her eldest daughters around to boast of their engagements. Of course, Jane had already been forced on this circuit, but repetition did not lessen Mrs. Bennet's enthusiasm. In fact, it had been more than doubled.

Elizabeth took her mother's effusions in stride in light of her excellent situation. She could happily bear all her silliness with such a conclusion in sight. This is not to say she did not relish the excuse to escape it for awhile. Therefore, when she and Jane were pressed to get dressed for dinner long before it was really necessary, she jumped at the opportunity and readily complied, shutting the door behind herself and her dear sister with a relieved sigh. Giggles burst forth as she caught Jane's eye, and she began skipping merrily around the room, doing quite a good impression of her silliest sisters. "Oh Jane! I believe you shall have a rival for the title of Happiest Woman in the World!"

Jane laughed joyfully at her antics, "Dear Lizzy! It is a title I shall gladly share, but seeing you so happy only adds to my own joy. So you see, you are really helping me along." Much laughter continued to pour forth from that room as all prepared for the evening's gathering. The sisters did their mother proud, using all the allotted time to their best advantage.

Amidst all this joyful chaos, an uncharacteristically silent Lydia Bennet returned to the house, stole up to her room, and began packing. She had agreed to meet her Dear Wickham outside the gate after the house had gone to bed. Sharing a room with Kitty could make the escape more difficult. If they were on their usual friendly terms, Kitty might have helped, but they were on the outs now. She would make sure Kitty drank a few extra glasses of wine this evening while abstaining more than usual herself.

The additional guests served to dilute Mrs. Bennet's noise somewhat. While other members of the party were similarly vulgar, they tended to stick together, rehashing the news of the engagements and declaring how they all knew how it would be from the beginning. This left Elizabeth and Darcy more free to mix with those less inclined to fawn.

Elizabeth was highly impressed by her fiancé. While still not entirely comfortable, Darcy had clearly been making an effort with her neighbors over the past week. He made a point to ask after specific family members or estate matters with each person who approached them. His efforts were rewarded with many warm smiles from his bride-to-be, who held his arm perhaps a bit closer to her body than was appropriate.

Throughout the raucous evening, one person remained calm. Even Mary Bennet had been roused to conversation; there was much scripture written on the subject of marriage, after all. Kitty was back to high spirits, excited about the prospect of further celebrations and general merriment. She had not needed Lydia's gentle suggestions of another glass of wine. She was eager to indulge. Lydia watched all with a mischievous gleam in her eye, assenting with anyone who insisted on how lucky her sisters were but venturing no comments of her own.

With so many distractions, Elizabeth may have missed the signs if her father had not been inclined to comment, "Well Lizzy, it seems Lydia may have learned a lesson from her disappointment after all. Perhaps she begins to see the advantages of finding a rich man like your Mr. Darcy." This was said with a teasing lift of his eyebrows.

Elizabeth furrowed her brow and sought out Lydia with her eyes. She did not believe for one second that Lydia had gotten over the ordeal so quickly. Darcy soon noticed the frown marring his previously jolly lady's face. Leaning close and counting on the general din to afford them privacy, he asked, "What has you looking so severe?"

Biting the inside of her lip, she considered what to say. Perhaps he would think her silly. Finally, resolved that they were in this together, she said, "I have a bad feeling Lydia is up to something. She should be either sulking or begging for attention."

Darcy observed the girl. She was quieter than usual, but that imported little to him. "I will trust your superior knowledge of your sister," he said. "What do you suppose?"

"I've no idea. She went to Meryton alone today, but I confess I was otherwise occupied and have not attended to her since. I now intend to keep an eye on her."

"Good idea, but you'll have to lose that frown, or someone will think you're up to something, too." He smirked at her, succeeding in putting a smile back on her face.

As the last guest departed, Elizabeth pulled Jane upstairs. She had gone forth with her plan, which was made exceedingly difficult by being the center of attention. She had lost sight of Lydia several times, feeling a tightening in her chest whenever she realized the girl was nowhere to be seen. Each time she had found her again she had still been acting oddly. Sometimes Elizabeth could swear there was a mischievous glint in her eye. No one else seemed to notice. Loath to disturb Jane's serenity throughout the night, she was now desirous to share her fears. Lydia had gone up to bed already, and she was eager to follow.

Leaving the door open a crack so as to hear any disturbances in the hall, Elizabeth turned a worried eye on her dearest sister. Jane was humming quietly to herself as she began pulling pins from her hair and getting ready for bed, paying her worried sister no mind. It took three repetitions of her name to pull her from her musings.

"Yes, Lizzy?" she said dreamily.

Elizabeth hesitated; she was quite sure she knew what Jane would say. She would only brush the concerns aside and refuse to believe Lydia capable of anything dreadful. Disturbing that contented smile was also a sad prospect. "Oh, nothing, dearest." She received only a hum in response and decided to follow her sister's lead and ready herself for bed, keeping an ear tuned to anything odd.

As she lay beside Jane's peaceful form, Elizabeth did not dare fall asleep. Perhaps she was being paranoid, but she knew Lydia too well not to be disturbed. That girl was never calm. Darcy had tried to be reassuring throughout the evening, but there was nothing he could really do except offer moral support and promise to visit the next day. Oh! How she wished he could have stayed! Just as she was getting lost in thoughts of his dark, calming eyes and how soon they would never be parted, she was put on high alert by a sudden noise. She strained her ears but heard no more as the seconds ticked by agonizingly slowly.

She sat bolt upright. There it was again! she thought. It was muffled, but she was sure someone was awake and moving around. Moving slowly so as not to disturb her bedmate, Elizabeth crept out of bed and peered through the crack in the door. A sudden shaft of moonlight illuminated the floor, and a silhouette tiptoed through a door down the hall.

Elizabeth gaped. What is that silly girl up to? Somehow she felt no joy in the justification of her fears. She hesitated. She had seen the bandbox in Lydia's hand but had no idea what her plan could be or how to thwart it. Should she wake the house? Go after her? Grab her by the arm and drag her back? Try to reason with her? If she had learned anything from this ordeal, it was that their father was woefully naive when it came to young girls. He would never change the way he handled her sisters unless he saw the consequences himself. Haste was absolutely essential as Lydia had already reached the ground floor and would soon be at the front door.

Grabbing her robe, she rushed to her father's room. Not bothering to knock, she ran through the door. She went first to the window to pull open the curtains and let the full moon light the room, then to his bedside to shake him awake. "Papa!" she hissed. "Papa!"

She was swatted away carelessly. "Papa!" she said more forcefully. "It is Lydia! I think she is running away!"

This at last made him sit up, and he groped for his spectacles as he groggily said, "Lizzy? No, no, don't be silly. You're supposed to be the sensible one."

"Papa, I am being sensible. I just saw her leave with a bandbox in her hand. She was fully dressed!"

"What!?" Mr. Bennet finally gained some animation. He got up and accepted the dressing gown Lizzy wrapped round him and the slippers she placed at his feet. "Go rouse Peters and Jackson. Have them meet me out front - with horses!" She jumped to comply as her father headed down the stairs.

"You can't really expect me to ride all the way to Scotland in that!" Lydia exclaimed, taking in the poky cart before her pulled by a bored looking farm horse.

"Come, sweetness, make haste. We'll pick up the something statelier when we get to London. Now hurry up!" Wickham was having trouble keeping his temper in check. He had spent the day dodging repayment demands by hiding out on the outskirts of the village. He was hungry and had little patience left.

"Ooh! Are we going to London? Will you buy me a present?" Lydia was easily diverted and handed over her box, missing the clenched jaw and flared nostrils of her lover.

"Up you go," he said, practically tossing her into the cart and quickly following. He grabbed the reins and gave them a sharp flick. The horse snorted indignantly but grudgingly started to move at a lazy pace. "Come on you lazy git." He flicked the reins twice more, coaxing a tired trot from the poor beast.

They were roughly a quarter mile down the lane when they heard dogs barking and muffled shouts. Wickham cursed under his breath and began flicking the reins frantically. The horse whinnied but picked up its pace. Lydia was laughing gleefully. What a good joke! was all she thought.

Looking over his shoulder, Wickham cursed again. Two figures on horseback were easily gaining on his pathetic farm cart. He took one last look at Lydia Bennet and his chances for revenge on Darcy before tossing the reins aside and jumping to the ground, making for the cover of the woods. Lydia gasped. "Wickham! Where are you going! You said you would marry me!" She continued yelling indignantly at the fleeing form, paying no attention to the cart, whose horse had finally been roused to a significant speed.

If the universe worked by a fair justice system, Lydia Bennet might have sustained some type of painful but non-lethal injury for all the trouble she had caused, but as it is, one of the mounted footmen swiftly made his way alongside the farm horse and coaxed it to slow down, which it did quite happily, promptly dropping its head to munch some grass. Meanwhile, Lydia continued her tirade, insisting Wickham return and fight for her.

Return he did, but not by choice. Even with a full moon, running through the woods at night can be treacherous, and the Hertfordshire-native footman was much more familiar with the terrain. Thus, he easily caught up with the panicking, stumbling man, and after a brief struggle, subdued him.

Mrs. Bennet had so far been ignorant of the excitement of the night. Not sharing a room with her husband, she had missed his being pulled from bed. Having drunk a good quantity of wine, she managed to sleep through all the running around. But the belligerent shouts of her youngest daughter being dragged back inside finally stirred her. "Oh Mr. Bennet! What is it? Are we to be murdered in our beds?" she shouted as she pulled on her dressing gown and ran down the stairs.

If any in the house had not already been stirred, Mrs. Bennet succeeded in rousing them. Soon all were assembled in the sitting room, servants all poised just outside, ready to be of assistance or catch some gossip, as the case may be. Mr. Bennet paced the room, trying to order his thoughts in the midst of exclamations of misuse, broken hearts, and lack of information. Finally he seemed to come to some resolution.

"Lydia Bennet!" he said with a firmness that no woman in that household had ever heard. Miraculously, his delivery cut through all the nonsense about him. "What exactly did you think you were doing tonight?"

The addressed girl merely crossed her arms more tightly across her chest and pouted.

"I asked you a question, young lady, and you will answer me directly."

Mrs. Bennet made to intercede on her favorite's behalf, but a stern look from her husband stayed her tongue. The seconds ticked by as all eyes flicked back and forth between the chastised and the enforcer.

"You ruined everything!" she wailed. "Wickham loves me! We were to be married, but now you've scared him off, and I'm sure I shall be an old maid forever!" All this was said through the most pitiable sobbing.

"Mr. Bennet how could you!" his wife could not help but exclaim.

"Silence!" he bellowed. All complied. "It has been brought to my attention that my youngest daughter has not been comporting herself as a lady aught. I agreed, but I did not think it could lead to such doings as this. It is clear now that some great oversight has occurred in her education. Stealing away in the middle of the night with a reprobate of the worst propensities is not only reprehensible but incredibly foolish. Mr. Wickham has misrepresented himself to us all. He's so in debt he never could have afforded the coach fare to Scotland. He sought to ruin you not marry you!"

Lydia gasped and continued to protest through her wailing.

Mr. Bennet continued, disregarding her and spreading his glare around, "she is not the only one in error though she committed the worst offense. We will continue this discussion on the morrow. You will all go to bed now, and if anyone is missing before or at breakfast there will be serious consequences."

It transpired that Wickham had been housed in a locked stall in the stables for the night. Mr. Bennet had sent someone for Colonel Forster at first light, and the scoundrel had been handed over to his fate for desertion and the theft of a horse and cart. The colonel was entreated to say nothing of Lydia's part. Hopefully all in the Longbourn household could be counted on to do the same.

Later, seven silent Bennets sat together at the breakfast table. No one was quite easy, but Lydia was positively steaming. She sat with arms crossed, glaring at her father and sisters in turn. Mrs. Bennet had been subjected to a stern lecture already that morning, after she had gone to her husband's rooms to beg for leniency and insist that Lydia be allowed to marry. She was shot down most forcefully and ordered to hold her tongue on the matter. She sat alternately huffing and whimpering but without it affecting her appetite overmuch. Elizabeth was relieved, of course, but not happy. She could see there was much work to be done for Lydia to understand her error in judgement and the danger of her behavior and worried her father would still approach it all wrong. She also longed to see her Fitzwilliam. Jane had sympathy for all, but was perhaps finally having her eyes opened to some of the evils in the world, and it pained her deeply. She longed for her Charles' comforting presence. Mary sat in judgement of all but silently. She had ventured one morality and been promptly told to keep her thoughts to herself.

When those who were inclined to eat had done so and the meal had been cleared, Mr. Bennet stood to lay down his strictures. "No unsupervised visits from any man are to take place. Am I rightly understood? This includes walks with fiancés," he said with a pointed look at his eldest daughters. They both looked slightly abashed but agreed with a "yes father". Further instructions included mandatory time spent in a "rational manner" but with no suggestions on what that meant or offers to assist in the task. His wife was commanded to insure her daughters understood proper genteel behavior but again no assistance was offered.

Elizabeth sighed. Her father was unchanged. It would be a long and rocky road for her younger sisters.

Darcy and Bingley arrived at the appropriate visiting hour to an eerily quiet house. Bingley thought nothing of it and waited with a cheerful visage to be shown in. Darcy was immediately on alert. He had fretted all evening, hating leaving Elizabeth to her worries, and slept ill. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw all five sisters seated in the parlor but was again made uneasy when the usually ebullient mistress of the house greeted them weakly. Elizabeth gave him a wan smile, and he went to join her.

With the odd silence permeating the room, there was no chance of privacy, but he had to try nonetheless to gain some insight. "Are you well this morning, Miss Elizabeth?" he queried, sure she would know what he really asked.

"Mama," she said instead of answering, "might we walk out in the garden? We shall stay in view the house."

"Oh," her mother answered distractedly, "oh, yes Lizzy. And you too Jane, show Mr. Bingley those roses that just bloomed."

They all rose, and as they exited heard Mrs. Bennet's voice add in a slightly stronger tone, "Mary, play something nice for us, won't you?"

The party of four entered the garden and divided into couples but, true to Elizabeth's word, stayed close.

"Something happened," Darcy stated, when at last they would not be overheard.

"Oh Fitzwilliam," Elizabeth sighed, taking his hands to press her forehead against them. She longed to be in his embrace but would not risk her father's displeasure this day. "He was so close this time! He could have ruined everything." Her composure was slipping as this realization came crashing down on her. She had been so consumed with worry over her sister and father she had not fully thought what it could mean to her own future.

"Dearest, please," Darcy implored, guiding her over to a bench and helping her sit. "Is everyone safe now?" She nodded. "Then start from the beginning. What happened? Who almost ruined everything?"

Taking his proffered handkerchief and gathering herself together, she explained the near disastrous events of the night. "Dear God, Elizabeth! Where is he now?" he implored, grabbing onto her shoulders to look into her face with wide eyes.

"Back with his regiment, facing charges." Darcy relaxed instantly with this reassurance.

They sat in contemplative silence for a few minutes before Elizabeth's agitated mind brought back her earlier distress. "Oh! But what if… Oh, Fitzwilliam, how could I have faced you if -"

"I love you, Elizabeth!" he declared firmly, cutting her off. "You must know I would have done everything in my power to resolve this if they had succeeded in their escape."

"But what if they were never discovered? Or what if they had been married? Could you be his brother?"

"Please do not distress yourself. I could bear anything for you. These things have not come to pass. All is well, or will be. Please, dearest, loveliest Elizabeth, your tears break my heart." He caught a few with his thumb, cradling her face in his warm hand. "I only wish I could kiss them away."

This finally succeeded in bringing a smile to her lips, however faint. Sighing, she said, "I only wish my father's reactions brought as much satisfaction as having Wickham caught. Still he leaves most everything up to my mother and us girls to learn for ourselves. He taught me so much as I grew up because I was eager to learn but never had any patience with the younger girls. He has always let them use their time as they wished. I thought for sure this incident would change him, wake him up, but after making a few rules, he simply locked himself away again. I have looked up to him for so long for his wit and his kindness towards me, but I fear I can no longer respect him as I once did. How can he not see that by punishing Lydia without giving her structure she will just continue to lash out? And my mother cannot teach what she does not know herself!"

"I am truly grieved for you. It is never easy to see one's heroes as flawed."

"No," she agreed.

"Perhaps he is still processing and will yet do what needs to be done. I know how difficult it was to learn my own faults. Give him time. He must be aware of how his own inaction has contributed to your sister's behavior. If he chooses to change, it will be very difficult."

Elizabeth took his beloved face between her hands and met his gaze with such a look of love in her eyes that Darcy thought his heart might burst.

"Thank you. You are not perfect - we neither of us are - but you will be a good father."

The smile that spread on her lover's face made the whole world seem brighter again. "Only with you by my side, Elizabeth."