The Meryton War

by Deborah E Pearson

  Meanwhile back in London, unaware of the impending danger to his sister Darcy was attending the last events of the London season. Why the women continued to pretend that they were empty-headed and vacuous he could not understand, and it made having a conversation really difficult as it didn’t matter which topic of conversation he chose they would pretend to have no opinions or they would echo his own as that was what they thought. The worst of it all though was the he knew all they wanted was his money. Money! As if that was the all important factor in choosing a person one would spend their lives with. He envied his friend Peter James who had met his wife last season. One minute they were carefree bachelors, well as carefree as Darcy could be as the guardian of his sister and master of several estates, the next day Peter was almost obsessed with his wife. Darcy had missed Peter’s wedding because his Aunt Lady Catherine De Bourgh had called him to Kent to sort out some details on her estate, Rosings. If only he could find a woman who would consume him so totally and whom he would love so absolutely completely. He would be happy. Until that time though he must attend the balls, and parties. He would have to dodge the intrigues and compromises that swept through the Ton. It was so close to being unanimous that he feared that he would live with a constant state of eye rolling. However there was some good news. His business had been cleared before June began and his last dinner invitation, which was from his Aunt and Uncle Matlock, had been the week before he was due to leave to meet Georgiana in Ramsgate. He smiled in satisfaction. Georgiana was growing up and would soon be entering society.

  With nothing holding Darcy in London, he was beginning to feel more and more eager to meet his sister in Ramsgate. Then three days before he left, with his trunks already packed, the vague feeling of impending danger was magnified making Darcy sick with worry. He immediately visited the Matlocks to check if it was a problem with them or their eldest son and sent a note to his cousin Colonel FItzwilliam to see whether he was in danger. That it should be Georgiana seemed to be almost impossible, given that she was with Mrs Younge in Ramsgate, however, once the Matlocks had cleared all of their personal friends and acquaintances of being in danger, Darcy knew that it was Georgiana. So two days early found him stepping into his carriage with the command that they carriage should be driven as fast as possible.

  Wickham’s plan was about to fall to pieces.

  Darcy arrived in Ramsgate just as tea was being served. He strode into the parlour confident that his sister would be excited to see him, and eager to see her. Nothing could have prepared him for the sight that met his eyes. Mrs Young had not apprised him of anything that had been going on in Ramsgate, therefore he was totally ignorant that Wickham was in Ramsgate. Not only did he find the reprobate there, but he had wormed his way into Georgiana’s good graces. There they sat on the sofa, looking way to comfortable with each other.

  “MRS YOUNGE! What is the meaning of this?” Darcy roared in total shock and horror.

  “M. Mr Darcy!” Mrs Younge stood and dropped into a hasty curtsey. Georgiana immediately ran and gave her brother a welcoming hug. Wickham was the slowest to react. This, this was going to be interesting. Eventually the reprobate slowly stood up and bowed to Darcy. Darcy briefly nodded his head while continuing to hug Georgiana. Georgiana immediately realised that she had been lied to, and that Darcy did not know about the engagement at all. She feared that he would have completely disapproved. There was nothing to be done, she was the only one who could clear this mess up.

  “Please don’t be angry, brother” she began “I met Mr Wickham again last month and at the beginning of this month he asked me to marry him, something that I agreed to. I asked about informing you of this. George and Mrs Younge both told me that they had written to you and that you would meet us at Pemberley for the wedding. Brother I love him.” The look on Wickham’s face told a different story. Wickham who was so much older than Georgiana had taken advantage of her.

  “Georgie, Mrs Younge, would you please leave Mr Wickham and myself to talk?” Darcy asked barely constraining his anger. Barely had the ladies left when Darcy’s anger at the situation exploded. “What the hell are you doing Wickham? Was the four thousand pounds you had after my father’s death not enough for you? Not to mention the numerous girls that you’ve left with child and dependant on the Darcy estate for help?!”

  Wickham smirked “Why Darcy, you really need to calm down. I truly would have married the insipid little thing. This time my intentions were honourable” Darcy’s fist impacted with Wickham’s jaw before anything more could be said. By nature Darcy was not a violent man, and usually left such actions to his military cousin, however years of covering for Wickham to his father coupled with Wickham’s totally unreasonable demands when declining the living George Darcy had left him, had given Darcy a severe dislike of the man. Now not only his sister’s position in society, but Darcy’s own future was on the line. Darcy had reached the limit of his patience with the conniving wretch and the impact of his fist with Wickham’s jaw gave Darcy a massive sense of satisfaction.

  Unfortunately George Wickham was in no wise unused to being in fights and brawls, thereby leaving Darcy at a disadvantage and George carried on spewing all sorts of vulgar things. However having punched Wickham once, Darcy knew that punching him over and over would not be the answer. Instead, knowing Wickham to be a coward, Darcy merely stated that if he saw Wickham around his sister again, that he would kill Wickham.

  Immediately Wickham scrambled out of the room. Darcy was an angry man of his word. Wickham did not want to lose his life over some insipid little tart. He wanted Georgiana’s dowry, but he knew that he would not get now. He slowly slid his way out of the room, almost trying to disappear. However the moment he opened the door he came face to face with Georgiana. “Get out of my way you stupid little cow” Wickham almost shouted. His fear getting the better of him.

  “George, George, I love you. Please don’t leave. I’ll talk to Fitzwilliam.” Georgiana begged. Wickham however wanted nothing more of her and just wanted to get out of the house.

  “I never loved you! You are insipid and stupid. I couldn’t wait to be out of your company every time I saw you. You have nothing to offer a man like me. Don’t you understand, nothing! I only wanted your dowry” Wickham spat at her before spinning on his heel and striding from the house.

  Both the Darcy siblings were speechless. Darcy felt as if the fury in him intensified. How dare the miscreant treat his little sister with such disrespect. What kind of cowardly excuse for a man would destroy a young girl so completely? Nothing at all was making sense. His anger also seemed to be more than he thought that it should. “Mrs Younge” It was all he could do not to bellow at her. “As you have been complicit in this debacle I have no choice but to sever your employment with myself as of this minute. I do not wish to see your face or even hear of your name in future. You will have no reference from me, and should I be applied to for a reference, I can assure you that there is no consideration that would entice me to provide one. Do I make myself clear?”

  “Entirely, Mr Darcy” With that Mrs Younge scrambled up the stairs to take the meagre belongings that she had with her and very quickly she too had left the house, leaving Georgiana heartbroken.

  With Mrs Young’s dismissal and the discovery of how deep the conspiracy was between Mrs Younge and Mr Wickham left Georgiana feeling as if she had nobody she could trust. The Darcy’s remained in Ramsgate for a few days but found that all courtesy and civility disappeared between them and they were hiding in different rooms. Georgiana would just cry all day in her room and write in her journal, leaving Darcy to fume in his study. A curious thing that Darcy began to notice was that he always felt worse about the situation when Georgiana was in the room. He had yet to tie it into how the nursery was often the only calm area of Pemberley when Georgiana was little. Shortly before the siblings were to leave for London, Darcy happened to meet a close friend of his, whose mother had just died, thereby no longer had need of her companion
. With glowing references from his friend, he interviewed Mrs Annesley and found her to be everything suitable and desirable in a Companion. Mrs Annesley was hired on the spot. Immediately the house began to feel a bit calmer, and slowly as Mrs Annesley worked with Georgiana the house returned to calm and order. Once back in London Darcy took Georgiana back to stay with her Aunt and Uncle Matlock in London. The emotional fallout for both the Darcy’s was tremendous. Both were wrapped up in self-blame. Darcy was a broken man. He blamed himself for seeing Wickham's proclivities at Cambridge and not warning his sister and felt that he had failed to protect his sister. Darcy felt to blame as he had been the one to hire Mrs Younge as a companion.

  He, he only was to blame. His sister he did not blame, Mrs Younge was culpable, Mr Wickham was guilty and he, he was to blame. He should never have agreed to the holiday with only a companion. It was just simply too terrible to contemplate what might have happened had he not arrived on that fateful day. Had he truly neglected his sister that much?

  CHAPTER FOUR

  When Nature Calls

  London was dreary. The heat was increasing with each passing day, which meant that the smell was also increasing. Darcy longed for the comforts of the country, but it was not Pemberley that he wanted to go to. It seemed strange to him. Pemberley had always been his refuge from the cruel world around him, but now when he needed it’s comforts most it seemed to be almost the last place he wanted to be. He was a daily visitor to his aunt and uncle Matlock, but seeing his sister and family didn’t ease his guilt. Indeed rather than easing it seeing the family seemed to increase it every time. During this period he spent hours in his uncle’s study discussing the problems and trying to find a way around them, looking to ease his guilt over his sister, looking to become easy in himself once again. Nothing worked and by the third day of June his visits were becoming further apart. Darcy just moped about his study in London blaming himself for Georgiana's heartbreak. Failure felt like the order of the day. He had failed his parents and failed his sister. He was also becoming more and more conscious that he had a purpose that he needed to fulfil, but what this purpose was he did not know at this point and felt as if fulfilling any purpose was way beyond his capabilities.

  The last week in June brought a change. In the middle of May one of his closest friends, Mr Bingley, had invited him to go and view Netherfield Park in Hertfordshire. He had been quick to accept the invitation and now as the day drew nearer something told him that this was part of his purpose that he had to fulfil. At the end of the last week of June the day had finally arrived to travel into Hertfordshire.

  During the journey to Hertfordshire Darcy’s heart and mind were tortured. The arrival at Meryton and Hertfordshire felt like a breath of fresh air for his restless spirit. A sleepy village, Meryton, had been around for at least 500 years. It was a small village, and the only claim to fame it had, was its proximity to the London Road. Upon arrival Mr Bingley, his sister Caroline and Mr Darcy obtained rooms at the Meryton inn, The White Horse. They had been lucky and were able to view Netherfield house the next day, and since Mr Bingley had settled the details immediately upon viewing the house, there was nothing more to be done, than to have a relaxing visit to the town for the next couple of weeks before Bingley would take possession of the house and the nightmare of the local social calendar.

  One day in the company of Caroline Bingley had proven to be more than enough for Darcy to be able to take with any form of equanimity. So after two days he was screaming for time on his own to think through his problems. He needed solitude. He felt caged and inwardly cried out for freedom. He could not face being cooped up with Miss Bingley without any release. Caroline had been making sly suggestions that he should offer for her. Complaints had also been issuing from her mouth non-stop. He was reaching the end of what he could cope with, for though he was like a brother to Bingley, Darcy felt unable to confide in Bingley about Georgiana's experience, and his cousin Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam was busy at the Gillingham Barracks. This end of his ability to cope was why he now sought the innkeeper out to request directions to all the local beauty spots.

  The next morning, the first of July, before his friends were awake Fitzwilliam Darcy made his way out to the local beauty spot called Oakham Mount. As soon as the innkeeper had mentioned Oakham Mount Darcy had felt the resonation in his heart that this was where he should be this morning! Something was drawing him to it; something beyond a desire for freedom. There he found a secluded rock and sat to contemplate all that had befallen him and his sister in the last ten years. Ten years since their mother had died. Ten years since light and laughter had left Pemberley and the Darcy’s lives. How far away those days of childhood seemed to be. He had squandered those carefree years before his responsibilities had settled onto his shoulders. His mind was hard at work reviewing each memory and thought, seeking ways in which he could have performed his familial duties better, but each time his mind would feel like a blank sheet of paper. He knew he was flawed and at fault, but his mind refused to comprehend how. He mechanically followed the directions he had been given to Oakham Mount, unaware that here his past and future were to merge and the vice of guilt would finally start to loosen around his heart.

  In Hertfordshire the Bennet family had not fared as well as the Darcy family. Christopher Bennet had moved the family from London Society, and in so doing had not only sold Carlisle House, but had also sold of many of the family landholdings. He had put out as if the Bennet’s had fallen on hard times and needed to sell off some of their holdings to make ends meet. However he had miscalculated and sold off too much, which meant that though Longbourne did not fall into disrepair, there was just enough funds available that the family maintained their standing in the local society but they could not reenter London Society at a later time should later generations choose to do so.

  George Bennet resented that his father had sold off so much of the family property in a desperate bid to stave off some prophecy that may or not come to pass. He was the exception to the rule as a full blood member of blessed lineage, he had no gifts and viewed the whole lineage thing as twaddle. He taught his Son, Thomas, the history but preferred to just live his life ignoring his heritage. George Bennet omitted to tell Thomas about the prophecy about the Bennet’s and Darcy’s. It was Thomas good friend William Lucas, later Sir William Lucas, who would inform him about the prophecy. George had not bothered about finding his soulmate, but rather just married the woman that his own father had picked out for him, he had two children Thomas and Elizabeth. Elizabeth had married a Mr Thaddeus Collins.

  Thomas Bennet had married Miss Fanny Gardner under duress. They had Five daughters each as different from each other as could be. Jane, the eldest, was a quiet, serene girl whose firmness of character was hidden behind a shy retiring exterior. Next came Elizabeth, an outgoing girl who had the most effervescent personality. She was a curious young woman and had a biting wit that she had inherited from her father. Mary was the next sister after Elizabeth. Mary was the bluestocking of the family, she not only always had a book in her hand but she knew both Fordyce's sermons and Mary Wollstonecraft's 'A Vindication of the Rights of Women’ by heart. Catherine (or Kitty as the family called her) was next after Mary. Kitty was ignorant simply because she was a follower. Kitty was the only girl of the family that had not formed her own character. Consequently, she often came across as brash and harsh as she forced herself to act in ways inconsistent with who she was inside. The last of the girls was Lydia. Lydia was an outgoing gregarious girl, who due to lack of direction from her parents and her ignorance and indolence had become nothing better than a flirt. Lydia had great potential waiting to be released. Elizabeth and her sisters knew nothing about the prophecy made at their grandfather's birth, nor did they know much about their heritage. They had been taught that the family had fallen on hard times during her great grandfather's time and therefore selling off the London home and other holdings had become a necessity, leaving the family in a muc
h-impoverished position. They knew nothing about anything more than the immediate pecuniary problems. Living at Longbourne had always been problematic, but this last month had become unbearable in so many ways.

  Elizabeth Bennet had always liked to walk and the morning before breakfast was her favourite time to walk. On clear days she would take advantage of this time to walk and gain some solitude from the chaos that reigned in Longbourne on a daily basis. Her mother’s nerves were claimed to be constantly on edge and her youngest two sisters seemed to have nothing in their heads but love and flirtation. This made a noisy and chaotic atmosphere at home. Do what she and her elder sister Jane might chaos reigned supreme at home. Elizabeth loved her family fiercely and would defend them to outsiders, but solitude was always welcome. This morning she needed to escape even more. The situation with her mother had reached a breaking point as her mother, unusually, cornered her as she was leaving for her walk and gave her an ultimatum. Elizabeth barely made acknowledgement before escaping out the door.

  Elizabeth didn’t understand what was happening to her and why her mother disliked her so much. Much of who she was felt missing. Sometimes she thought that her best friend Charlotte Lucas had been on the verge of telling her something and she knew that there were times when she had walked in on her parents and Charlotte’s parents, Sir William and Lady Lucas, talking about something and the subject had been changed very hastily. Often she felt as if she didn’t belong amongst her family, or even anywhere. Elizabeth didn’t feel wanted, needed or even useful half of the time. Somehow nothing she did could make sense until she had the answers. If only there was a way to get the answers. She would have to make a new scheme to get the answers as to who she is. The answers were out there, she was absolutely sure of it. With every step that Elizabeth walked she became more determined to find the answers. No more would she allow anyone to stop her in her pursuit of the truth. Perhaps the only way to find out the truth was to set up her own establishment in London living on what little dowry she would have, and spend her days researching and speaking to others who felt like she did. That way she would solve this untenable situation with her mother, hopefully find out the truth and be independent. She shook her head, no that would never do! By setting up her own little establishment and living off her dowry she was effectively telling the world that she was a confirmed spinster and would never marry. No, she had to keep the marriage possibility open. She would keep open the chances of marrying.