The Perfect Bride for Mr. Darcy

by Mary Lydon Simonsen

  “And how is Papa?”

  “The only word that comes close to describing his present state is ‘devastated.’ Lizzy, do you think Wickham can be made to marry Lydia?”

  “Why would he? She has no fortune and solves none of his problems. I don’t know how such a man is to be worked on.”

  Mary, who had been listening from the foyer, came into the parlor. “I hope they do not marry. Everyone in Meryton already knows of her running away from Colonel Forster’s house with Wickham, and if the news had escaped anyone’s notice, the vicar preached a sermon about the fragility of a woman’s reputation and the necessity of guarding one’s virtue. Nothing can be done to restore her reputation whether she marries or not, so why are we encouraging our sixteen-year-old sister to marry her seducer? I think we should send a letter to Papa with our uncle urging that everything be done to prevent such a union and that Lydia be returned to Longbourn and her family. Hopefully, the news will not travel beyond Meryton and reach the ears of Mr. Nesbitt.”

  “Who?”

  Jane, who had written nothing of her admirer to her sister, remained silent, but Mary said, “I shall leave you now. Jane has some good news to share.”

  “Are we speaking of Mr. Dalton Nesbitt, Aunt Susan’s friend?”

  Jane nodded.

  “What has he to do with us?”

  “I told you there were changes while you were gone, and one of them is that Mr. Nesbitt has been calling on me.”

  Lizzy laughed and then gave a sigh of relief. “For a second, you had me worried. Mr. Nesbitt! I can still picture him at Aunt Susan’s house hopping up and down at his mother’s every request.”

  “Lizzy, I am not in jest.”

  From her sister’s tone, Lizzy understood that Jane truly was being courted by a very tall man of some thirty-odd years, who was still tied to his mother’s apron strings.

  “Lizzy, do not look at me like that. You know I had always hoped to marry for love, but since I now know that will not happen, I am doing the very best I can to secure my future as well as my family’s.”

  “But, Jane, I have good news for you, and there has been precious little of it of late. While at Pemberley, I had an opportunity to speak briefly with Mr. Bingley, and I can say with certainty that he intends to renew his attentions to you as soon as he returns to Hertfordshire.”

  “You wrote that Mr. Bingley was well and in good spirits, and I was happy to hear it. But as for any courtship, I already have a suitor.”

  “I understand it will be a delicate matter to inform Mr. Nesbitt that you love another, but it must be done,” Lizzy said emphatically. Jane shook her head, and Lizzy looked at her with growing alarm.

  “I know what you are thinking, Lizzy. Mr. Nesbitt is not overly attractive, and as you say, he is excessively attentive to his mother. However, he visits with her permission, and so she is not an obstacle to the marriage.”

  “Marriage? To Mr. Nesbitt? Never! I know how hurt you were by what Mr. Bingley did, but the reasons you were separated no longer exist. He intends to proceed without his sisters’ approval, and I know Mr. Darcy has withdrawn all objections to the match. But even if Mr. Darcy was still in opposition, Mr. Bingley no longer finds it necessary to obtain that gentleman’s consent.”

  If Lizzy had imagined her sister would be jumping for joy over this piece of good news, she was disappointed. Jane sat in the window seat with her hands folded in her lap with a look of resolution. She had made her decision regarding Mr. Nesbitt, and she was holding firm.

  “Jane, you cannot do this.”

  “We must be realistic. Mr. Bingley’s change of heart happened before Lydia’s misadventure. If his sisters were able to persuade him to go away from me before this unhappy event, imagine what they will do as soon as they find out about Lydia. And they will because Mrs. Morris writes her husband’s business letters, and it is she who writes to Miss Bingley for instructions regarding the estate. You know her as well as I do, and she will be unable to resist sharing what she knows of Lydia’s escapade. I am sure she has already shared with Caroline the sordid tale of Mr. Wickham successfully seducing Betsy Egger, who believed she was with child and told her brother. He has gone to Brighton to make Wickham marry her. Of course, he will be disappointed.”

  “Oh God! It’s worse than I thought. Mary is right. We should be doing everything we can to prevent such a marriage.”

  “It is my opinion that Wickham can only be made to marry Lydia under the greatest inducements, and we are in no position to make them.”

  Lizzy was terribly upset by what Lydia had done. Whether they married or not, her young sister’s future would be sown with unhappiness and regret, but at the moment, it was Jane’s situation that demanded her attention.

  “What happens to Lydia is beyond our control, but what is within our control is your future happiness with Mr. Bingley.”

  Jane stood up and told Lizzy she needed to see to their mother’s dinner because she still preferred to take most of her meals in her room.

  “Lizzy, Mr. Nesbitt may not be the ideal, but the one thing that you could never accuse him of is inconstancy. After Mr. Bingley left, I waited every day for the post to come. I was so sure there would be a letter for me explaining his absence. I even swallowed my pride and went into the village to Mr. Morris’s office, so I might learn of any news regarding Netherfield. I have been hurt beyond what words can express, and I shall never put myself in a position to have that happen again.” Jane, with tears in her eyes, continued. “And as for Mr. Bingley being independent of Mr. Darcy, I would more readily believe it if he had come directly to Longbourn. But he did not. Instead, he went to Pemberley. You must accept that that chapter on my life is closed, and there is nothing more to be said.”

  Chapter 42

  The search for Lydia began as soon as Mercer hand-delivered Darcy’s note to George Bingley at his London office. Methodically, Bingley’s men went to work. They eliminated those sections of London where the arrival of a gentleman and a lady would bring too much notice. They then concentrated on the areas of town where someone who was short of funds, but who gave the impression of having money, might find a room. It was known that Wickham had left Brighton wearing his uniform, so that narrowed it further. A week later, one of Bingley’s men was interviewing a certain Mrs. Epping who ran a boardinghouse with her husband, and for five pounds, she was willing to answer all questions asked of her.

  “I knew someone would come looking for her,” Mrs. Epping began. “And I’m glad you did. I am so sick of listening to those two argue. Him saying he wants what he wants, but her saying he ain’t getting it until he give her her wedding clothes. I never heard no one talk about one thing as much as that girl talks about her wedding clothes. It got so I couldn’t stand it no more, and I sent her across the way for two days to stay with my sister. But then she had enough and sent her back.”

  “Then it is your opinion that the couple did not consummate their relationship,” Mr. Rhys asked Mrs. Epping.

  “Well, I don’t know about that. What I do know is that the two of them didn’t have sex. That’s what all them arguments was about.”

  “But they shared a room?”

  “And I made up their room most nearly every day until they stopped paying for it. I can tell you the man was sleeping on a blanket on the floor, and the princess was sleeping in the bed. And if that ain’t proof enough, Mrs. Royale, which is what she calls herself, spelled with an ‘e’ she says to me, come down one night ’cause Mr. Royale got drunk. He had got it in his head that he was going to have his way, and she run away from him after knocking him down. I can tell you that girl gives as good as she gets. That’s when she told me they weren’t married. No surprise there. And the reason why they was hiding out was because she was the daughter of a lord, whose name she couldn’t mention, who wouldn’t let them get married. She now wants to be known as Mi
ss Augusta, like one of the royal princesses, even though I know her name is Lydia ’cause I heard it shouted often enough. That girl can tell some tall tales.”

  “How did they pay for the room?”

  “With sovereigns to start, and then he give me a clasp from his cloak. I can get a nice price for it, so I told him that would take them to the end of the week. But I was almost hoping they couldn’t pay so they would leave. I was getting complaints from the other lodgers.”

  “Have they had any visitors?”

  “No, he ain’t been out that door. He comes down every morning to read the newspaper after Mr. Epping finishes with it, but since he drinks wine all day long, he falls asleep right after their evening meal. While he’s snoring away, Miss Augusta comes down and talks to me. She says he’s got a friend who’s bringing him the money to buy her wedding clothes. And I asks her why he don’t go and get the money himself, and she says it’s complicated. His father is an important man what lives in Derbyshire, and since the money has to come so far, that’s what’s taking so long.”

  Mr. Rhys gave Mrs. Epping another five pounds and an address and told her to send a messenger if there was any change in the routine of Mr. and Mrs. Royale.

  ***

  While Mrs. Epping was talking to Mr. Rhys, Wickham was staring at a sleeping Lydia and counting the hours until he would be rid of her. Just another day or two, and it would be safe to leave the lodging house.

  Before they even left Brighton, Lieutenant Fuller had followed through on his threat to go directly to Captain Wilcox because of Wickham’s insistence on taking a sixteen-year-old girl with him. Fuller knew it would be Wilcox who would feel the brunt of Colonel Forster’s wrath because it was he who had recommended Wickham for his wife’s card parties. Wilcox would have his liver if he ever got his hands on him.

  But a colonel in the militia has limited resources, and a search could not go on indefinitely. Colonel Forster would have to accept that the couple had disappeared into the recesses of the largest city in Christendom and could remain hidden indefinitely, and since the Bennets certainly didn’t have the wherewithal to conduct a search, Wickham would be able to leave without fear of discovery. But in the meantime, he would have to endure the little brat’s company. It was hard to believe it was little more than two weeks since they had left Brighton. It seemed like months.

  By the time Wickham and Lydia had changed from the chaise to the hackney in Clapham, he was ready to roll his handkerchief into a ball and stuff it in her mouth. Her incessant chatter would have been annoying enough, but all she cared to talk about were her wedding clothes and where they would set up housekeeping. He knew her to be gullible, but it was turning out she was stupid as well. She believed everything he told her, and she took his lies and built castles in the air with them.

  Once they arrived at the Epping lodging house, he was ready to claim his reward for all the frustrating clandestine meetings they had had under the pier. But when he pressed her, she turned on him, telling him he would not get her in bed until she knew for a fact that they were to be married. The only way he could prove that would happen was to buy her the goddamned wedding clothes, and so the standoff began.

  He wrote a letter to every person he knew asking for money, explaining his bride was ill, and he needed help with the doctor bills. But he had heard from no one. All he had left was some jewelry he had taken from his paramour. He was trying to figure out what his next step would be when Mr. Rhys arrived at his door. A woman, who identified herself as Mrs. George Bingley, insisted Lydia come with her. Once a hysterical Lydia was reassured that the lady was acting on behalf of the Bennet family and that she and Wickham would be reunited, she agreed to go to the Bingley home in Cheapside. Wickham, who was sandwiched between two strong men, was told by Mr. Rhys to leave the lodging house as quietly as possible, and once out onto the street, he was thrown into a waiting hackney. Not knowing where he was going or what would happen to him, Wickham was terrified. But when he emerged from the carriage, he saw George Bingley’s name painted above the door of a warehouse, and he was reassured. If the Bingleys were involved, it was likely Darcy was as well, and from his own personal experience, he knew that Darcy was willing to pay good money to get rid of a bad penny.

  Chapter 43

  At first light, Darcy went to the stables where his carriage was waiting. He realized he was leaving his sister to make the best of a bad situation, but with Anne and Richard there, he was confident she could deal with any problems that might arise. The three cousins agreed to meet before everyone came down to breakfast, and as they huddled in the study, they discussed how best to proceed.

  “As the mistress of Pemberley, I feel I must apologize to Miss Bingley for the remarks Antony made last night,” Georgiana began. “What he said was so offensive, I absolutely cringed. There’s no excuse, not even for an earl.”

  “I agree,” Richard said. “Only my brother could make Caroline Bingley a sympathetic character, but leave her to me. I shall do my best to divert her attention as well as the Hursts’.

  “Even with that, Caroline remains our biggest problem,” Anne said, “but one can hope that with Will gone for who knows how long, she will want to cut short her visit. As for Antony, I shall talk to him.”

  It was agreed that Georgiana would speak to Charles while they were out riding. “I suspect he already knows something is amiss. The atmosphere in the drawing room last night was hardly convivial, and with Will pacing the floor, it was obvious his thoughts were elsewhere.”

  ***

  At breakfast, Richard did not give Caroline any time to dwell on Darcy’s absence. “Because of the rain, I understand you were denied a picnic, so I have arranged for one today. It will be in the gardens, so we need not even get into a carriage.” Although the Hursts were included, the colonel had made it seem as if it was a personal invitation, and Caroline quickly forgot about Mr. Darcy’s departure.

  Georgiana was aware that Mr. Bingley knew nothing about her connection to George Wickham. In order for Charles to understand the gravity of the situation confronting Lydia and the Bennet family, she needed to acquaint him with what had happened in Ramsgate. Because of those events, Georgiana knew that Wickham’s elopement with Lydia was no romance, and for reasons she could not fathom, he was willing to destroy the reputation of a sixteen-year-old girl.

  “When Darcy and I encountered Wickham in Meryton,” Charles said, “it was obvious they disliked each other, but for understandable reasons, your brother chose not to share the details of their history. You tell me that my brother, George, is presently looking for Lydia. Well, I can assure you that he will find her. He has what he calls his ‘eyes’ throughout London, and England for that matter.

  “Under the circumstances, I feel my sisters and I should leave Pemberley,” Charles continued. “I only learned last night that Caroline and Louisa had received an invitation to go to Scarborough to visit friends, and it should be a simple matter to leave a few days earlier. As for me, before returning to London, I shall stop in Hertfordshire to offer my services to the Bennet family. However, I would be less than truthful if I did not tell you I have selfish reasons for calling at Longbourn. I am in love with Miss Jane Bennet, and it is my intention to make her an offer of marriage.”

  “My brother has told me of your interest in Miss Bennet, and I am very happy for you. I am sure it will be a source of joy to a family sorely lacking in it. May I be the first to offer my congratulations?”

  “I would accept them gladly, but I am unsure of how my offer will be received. Miss Bennet has reason to be angry with me. But she is a kind person, and I have hope I shall be forgiven.”

  “Mr. Bingley, I have a picnic to arrange for this afternoon, and our cook, Mrs. Bradshaw, will want as much time to prepare as possible, so I must return to the house.” Before turning her horse toward Pemberley, Georgiana added, “I am very glad you will not hold Lydia�
��s behavior against Miss Bennet. She is innocent of all blame and should not suffer because of her sister’s indiscretions.” She only hoped her brother would agree with that statement.

  ***

  Anne sent Jackson to talk to Lord Fitzwilliam’s man, and after waiting thirty minutes, Gregg appeared, but only to say that Lord Fitzwilliam would not be dining at all today as he had a terrific headache.

  “I did not ask him to dine. Gregg, tell your master he should be prepared to receive his cousin in one half hour.”

  When Anne went into Lord Fitzwilliam’s apartment, she found him with a wet cloth over his eyes. She believed him when he said he had a pounding headache. Except for a glass or two of diluted port, he had little to drink since his arrival, and he was experiencing the unpleasant side effects of a quick withdrawal from alcohol.

  Pointing to a letter on the table, he said, “I have already dictated a letter of apology to Miss Bingley. I find her incredibly irritating, but I was rude to a guest of my host. Fortunately, Darcy did not hear or he would have shown me the door.”

  “She is still here. Would you not want to tell her in person?”

  “I can’t, Anne. I truly can’t. My nerves are stretched to the breaking point. I am greatly in need of a glass of wine, but I will not have it. Seeing Georgiana reminded me that I have two daughters who will come out into society in a few short years. I do not want to embarrass them. So I will remain at Pemberley until I am sober, and, hopefully, that will become a permanent condition.”

  “I want you to come to Rosings with me.” Silence. “You haven’t been to Rosings in years.”

  “There is a reason for that. Your mother lives there.”

  “You will not see as much of her as you think. She retires early. You get up late. If you took up riding again, you would be out of doors for most of the day. Besides, everyone is leaving, and you will not want to stay here by yourself.”