Chapter 2

F resh from their flight south to London from Hertfordshire, Wickham and Denny made their way to Edward Street, where Karen Younge and her brother Clay owned a rather rundown boarding house.

“This is what we ran for, to stay in such a place?” Denny whinged. “I should have never followed you in running up debts and meddling with tradesmen’s daughters. Now thanks to that we are reduced to this!” Denny pointed at the white structure with peeling whitewash on the walls, shutters hanging at angles, and not a few cracked windows.

“This will only be temporary,” Wickham claimed. “Besides, how was I to know that bloody Mr King would investigate me?”

“What did you expect when you went after Miss King like she was a dog in heat as soon as you heard about her inheritance? Did you think the uncle would ignore the fact you had never so much as looked at his niece before she became an heiress?” Denny asked in amazement. Not only had he followed Wickham’s lead in his actions in Meryton, but he had been enough of a simpleton to aid Wickham in thieving from the men who had been their friends, and then desert the Derbyshire Militia, which in hindsight had made him eligible to face the firing squad. There was nothing for it now. His destiny was tied to that of Wickham’s.

“It is that prig Darcy’s fault. I am sure it was he who poured poison in Mr King’s ears. He was always jealous of me.” Wickham used his well-worn refrain when explaining anything bad in his life .

Rather than point out Mr Darcy and the Netherfield Park party had not been in the area for more than four months, Denny held his peace. “Are you sure the landlord will allow us to have a room here?” he asked. “What if all their rooms are occupied?”

“That never happens here, and besides, Karen thinks I love her. We just have to be wary around her brother. When he is in his cups he gets angry.”

“Can we not use some of the blunt we took from the other officers and take a room in a decent inn?” Denny enquired.

“No! I have plans for that money which will increase it to the extent we will be able to leave England and start a new life in the Americas where the militia will never be able to reach us.” Wickham did not tell the fool he intended to use the money at the tables, and whatever he won was for him alone. He was sure it was past the time for his luck to turn. After all, he had left Meryton owing well over a hundred pounds in debts of honour, so his luck could not get any worse. “First, we need to change out of these damned regimentals, there are always men who are kicked out and leave clothes behind, so I am sure we will both find something which will fit us.”

Wickham led Denny across the street and knocked on the door to the Younges’ house. A maid, who could not have been older than twelve, opened the door. “Show us to your master and mistress,” Wickham commanded authoritatively.

The maid led the two officers into a shabby sitting room where the Younge siblings were seated. Younge jumped out of his seat and moved towards Wickham in a threatening fashion. “You ‘ave a damned cheek to show yir face ‘ere! You stole from us wen yir were ‘ere last time,” Younge roared. “I should kill yir and throw yir into the river.”

Wickham turned decidedly pale as he began to sweat. He knew he would need to placate Younge, or the man would do what he had threatened. “I thought you understood it was a loan, and I have the coin to repay you with interest,” Wickham claimed as he tried to school his features.

“Yir pay me twice what yir took, an’ I let yir live,” Younge growled.

Not looking at Denny, Wickham counted the required coins into Younge’s hand.

“Now the unpleasantness is settled, what are you doing here?” Miss Younge queried. She was never married, but when she applied for the position of Miss Darcy’s companion, she had become Mrs Younge.

“We need a place to lay low while we decide what to do,” Wickham stated. He hated paying out some of the blunt he had relieved from the fool officers, but he liked living more.

“You cannot return to the army?” Miss Younge enquired with raised eyebrows.

“We are no longer in the militia,” Wickham responded before Denny said anything. “This is Jim Denny, Denny, Miss Karen Younge and Mr Clay Younge.”

“If yir pay in advance yir can ‘ave two rooms,” Younge informed the two.

Again, as much as he disliked reducing the amount he had for the tables, Wickham turned over the funds.

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

Within a week, all the money he and Denny had stolen from the other officers had been lost. It was unfathomable his luck had continued to be so very bad. Now that there was no more coin, and stealing from the Younges was not an option, Wickham knew he would have to find another path to gaining what he needed to leave England’s shores behind him.

“Denny I am afraid I was cheated out of our funds. I thought it was a solid investment, but it failed,” Wickham prevaricated after he returned from his disastrous foray in gambling.

“You told me it was an infallible scheme! How will we leave the realm now? You do know what will happen to us if we are captured, do you not?” Denny demanded. “Nothing good has come from throwing my lot in with you. I am a thief and deserter thanks to you.” Denny stepped towards Wickham his fists balled up and ready to pummel the man.

“Younge will need some men to help him, he always does. One or two times working with him, and we will have more than enough money,” Wickham claimed. “If my face is damaged or worse, we will not be able to assist him and earn any blunt.”

As much as Denny wanted to take his frustrations out on the silver-tongued devil, he was aware unless they could escape the Kingdom, there was a very good chance they would be on the wrong end of a firing squad. It was far too late to go back and make better decisions with regards to Wickham and what they had done together. For better or worse, they would sink or swim together.

The two men sought out Clay Younge who agreed they would be of use to him, and he would pay them a cut of whatever they were able to gain together. All of what Younge did was illegal, but the need for money overrode any objections Denny had.

Wickham would have preferred an easier way of gaining the funds they needed, but he was enough of a realist to know it was the only way. For a minute, he considered writing to Darcy and threatening to expose his sister’s almost elopement—with many embellishments, of course—if the prig did not pay him a significant sum. With visions of being hunted down by Richard Fitzwilliam in his mind’s eye, Wickham abandoned that plan as quickly as he thought of it.

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

“Mama, I have the best news,” Lydia Bennet squealed as she burst into the drawing room not caring one iota who she happened to be disturbing with her childish outburst. “You will never guess! Harriet Forster has invited me to join her as her particular friend when they travel to Brighton.”

“I am older than Lydia, I should be the one who was invited,” Kitty sniffed as she wiped some tears from her eyes. “It is not fair.”

“It was me who was invited and not you,” Lydia crowed nastily. “Harriet likes me best and so do all of the officers. I will dance and flirt with so many men in scarlet coats! Do you know that there will be more than six regiments in Brighton? I will return with an officer for a husband and be the first of my sisters to marry.”

“I always knew you could not be so lively for no reason,” Fanny cooed. “Unlike another of my disobliging daughters, you will not turn down an eligible offer of marriage.” As she said the last, Fanny glared at her second daughter. “Or fail to secure a suitor when he displays a clear preference for you.” She looked at Jane, with more softness than she had directed at Elizabeth. “How grand it will be for you.”

“Mama, you forget Lydia has not asked Papa if she may go, and he is yet to bestow his permission,” Elizabeth pointed out.

“Papa will not deny me! He knows there will be no peace in this house if he does,” Lydia said calculatingly. Contrary to her father’s assertions she was the silliest girl in all of England, Lydia was not unintelligent and was well versed in the art of manipulation. She had a slyness about her which allowed her to determine where to apply pressure and to whom when she needed to get her own way.

Luckily, Kitty did not know Harriet had wanted to invite her as well. Lydia did not want the competition for the officers’ attentions, so she had quietly discouraged Harriet which had resulted in an invitation for her alone. Kitty was acceptable company in Meryton when there was nothing better to do, but in Brighton Lydia would be the centre of attention, so she did not need Kitty. Lydia did not allow Kitty’s sadness at not being invited to dampen her own joy at the impending departure for a two month adventure.

While Lydia was rubbing her good fortune in Kitty’s face, Elizabeth slipped out of the drawing room and knocked on her father’s study door. “Come,” Bennet called out. “Ah, Lizzy, have you come to escape your mother and sisters’ inanities and talk of fripperies. Would you like to play a game of chess?”

“In a way you are right, Papa, and I would enjoy playing chess, but I must speak to you first,” Elizabeth informed her sire as she took a seat in one of the chairs before his large oak desk. Under normal circumstances, this room with the walls covered by floor to ceiling bookcases, all full of wonderful tomes, gave Elizabeth a sense of peace and quiet. The only space not with bookcases were the windows and the door! Not today! She had a Sisyphean task ahead of herself, and that task was to convince her father who did not like to exert himself, to do just that on behalf of his family. “I need to beg that when either Mama or Lydia apply to you for the latter to go to Brighton with Mrs Forster, you refuse your permission.”

“Are you worried Lydia will be an embarrassment to you and the Gardiners when you are in that town? No one who knows you would ever think you as silly as she is. Besides, when is this excursion of hers to Brighton to occur? She may be home before you and the Gardiners arrive,” Bennet drawled with a sardonic grin on his face.

“This has nothing to do with my feelings if we are in Brighton at the same time.” Elizabeth took a deep breath to calm herself. “Papa, if you ever bestirred yourself from this room and observed Lydia, and to a lesser extent Kitty, in the company of the officers, you would see that she is the most determined flirt whoever made her family look ridiculous. This is with one regiment in our town, I hazard to imagine how bad she will be in a city with multiple regiments. Papa, she will ruin herself and all of us by extension. Please deny your permission for her to join Mrs Forster who is almost as young and silly as Lydia is. How can a lady who is barely out of the school room be expected to chaperone one as wilful as Lydia?”

Although he did not like it pointed out to him in this fashion, Bennet had to admit that Lizzy’s worries were legitimate. However, as he usually did, he chose the path of least resistance. “Come now, Lizzy, surely it is not as bad as you think it will be. Colonel Forster is a sensible man, and he will superintend Lydia,” Bennet asserted.

“Really Papa, you are going to trust a man who married a rattle-brained girl, who is at least twenty years his junior? I am not as confident in his judgements as you. Does our respectability mean nothing to you?” Elizabeth questioned.

“You said there will be more than one regiment there?” Elizabeth nodded. “In Meryton, she had hardly any competition for the officers’ attentions, but this is Brighton, a city. Meryton is a town of what, two hundred people or less, where this city has more than ten thousand. She will be a tiny fish in an enormous pond.”

“But Papa, with her brashness she will put herself forward, and I am not confident she would not allow an officer liberties to get her own way. If she ruins herself then all of us will partake of her shame.”

“Lizzy, there will be no peace at Longbourn if I deny her or your mother when they remember they need to gain my permission.”

“Is your peace worth more than our family’s respectability?” Elizabeth bit out.

“Lydia will never be easy until she exposes herself in some public forum. At least she will not be in Meryton, and it will be done with no effort and very little expense to me.” Bennet saw his second daughter was about to object. He raised his hand. “Enough, Lizzy. In Brighton Lydia will learn of her own insignificance. Now leave this alone.”

As unhappy as she was, Elizabeth knew she could no longer harangue her father on the subject. She had laid out her case, and he had rejected it. As she headed back to the drawing room, she passed her mother and a skipping Lydia on their way to the study. She had to resign herself to the fact Lydia would be joining Mrs Forster, and all she could do was hope and pray her father’s assertions regarding Lydia had been correct.

When mother and daughter returned to the drawing room, it was hard to tell which one was more excited. Lydia danced around the room, making sure to flout her good fortune in Kitty’s face at every opportunity.

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

Less than a week later, Colonel Forster’s carriage stopped at Longbourn to collect the youngest Bennet and have her trunks lashed to his conveyance.

Both Fanny and Lydia had been disappointed they had not convinced Mr Bennet to part with money for Fanny to purchase some new gowns and dresses for her favourite. At the same time, he had not agreed to give his daughter anything beyond her next quarter’s allowance by way of money for Lydia to spend in Brighton.

“La, just you wait, I will come back with a fiancé,” Lydia boasted before she entered the equipage. She looked around and was disappointed not to see Kitty so she could rub her good fortune in her sister’s face one more time. “Where is Kitty?”

“She is indisposed,” Jane jumped in before their mother ordered Kitty to be forced to come farewell her sister.

Jane never said it was her courses, but Fanny was aware Kitty suffered for a few days each time she had them, so she assumed that was what the indisposition was. “You go and have the best of times, Lyddie dear. Do not forget to write and tell us of all of your adventures.” Fanny hugged her youngest and fought to keep a tear from falling as Lydia took her place next to Mrs Forster.

After shaking Bennet’s hand and promising to watch over his daughter, Colonel Forster mounted his horse and nodded to the coachman. With Lydia hanging out of the window crowing over her good fortune, the family watched until the carriage disappeared after the turn in the drive.

Fanny sniffed into her lace bordered handkerchief. “One is so forlorn when one’s child goes away for a length of time,” she said as she wiped a tear from her eye.

Neither Jane nor Elizabeth pointed out their mother was never sad like this when they would spend weeks or months with the Gardiners.

Bennet had been a little concerned Lizzy’s dire predictions would be proved true, but with the certain knowledge he had, he pushed that thought out of his mind as he revelled in the peace and quiet he would enjoy with his youngest away from the estate. If only his wife had been invited to join her, then he would have had complete quietude.

He lamented he had not thought to suggest she go with Lydia. How many times had Fanny not said words to the effect that some sea bathing would set her up for life.

Kitty was quietly crying on her bed when her three older sisters entered the bedchamber she and Lydia shared. “It will be well again, I promise you, Kitty,” Jane soothed as she sat down next to her second to youngest sister and rubbed her back. “We will all enjoy the fellowship we have between us until Lizzy is collected by the Gardiners.”

“L-Lydia t-told me H-Harriet w-was to invite m-me as w-well,” Kitty managed between tears. Elizabeth sat on her other side while Mary looked on.

“Did Lydia encourage her not to invite you?” Elizabeth enquired. The answer Kitty gave was a watery nod. “For the last few days, you had not allowed her boasting to affect you, so I am sure she was upset she could not get a reaction, so she told you this to hurt you. It was badly done by her, starting with interfering so you did not receive an invitation. It also shows Mrs Forster was no friend of yours if she could be convinced to spurn you so easily.” Elizabeth looked at Jane as both saw the similarities in the situation regarding Mr Bingley’s abandonment.

“Kitty, you have three sisters here with you and we will be your friends, if you allow us,” Mary proposed.

“I think I would like that.” Kitty sat up and wiped her eyes. “Lydia used me very ill. I will be more circumspect in future.”

Once Kitty had washed her eyes and with her older sisters’ assistance, put herself to rights, the four sisters decided to walk into a militia-less Meryton.