‘What brings you here?’ he asked, smiling up at me.

‘You know what brings me.’

‘I confess I am at a loss. You have decided to give me a living, perhaps, and have come to tell me the good news?’

His insolence angered me, but I kept my temper.

‘I have come to tell you what your own conscience should have told you, that you should never have abducted Miss Bennet.’

‘Miss Bennet?’ he asked, feigning astonishment. ‘But I have not seen Miss Bennet. I have been in Brighton, and she remained at Longbourn.’

‘Miss Lydia Bennet.’

‘Ah, Lydia. I did not abduct Lydia. She came with me of her own free will. I was leaving Brighton as my creditors were becoming rather vocal, and Lydia suggested she came with me. I tried to put her off. To be truthful, Darcy, she bores me. She is too easy a conquest. She convinced herself I was the handsomest man in the regiment, and the thing was done. I told her I had no money but she did not care. “I am sure you will have some one day,” she said. “Lord, what a lark!” I grew so tired of her pleading that it was easier to let her come with me than it was to make her stay behind. Besides, she has her uses,’ he said impudently.

At that moment the door opened, and Lydia herself came in.

‘Lord, what a surprise! Mr Darcy!’ she said, going over to Wickham. She stood beside his chair and rested one hand on his shoulder.

‘Mr Darcy has come to reprimand me for abducting you,’ said Wickham, covering her hand with his own.

She laughed at me.

‘My dear Wickham did not abduct me! Why should he? I was eager to see London. I told him he must take me with him. What fun it has been!’

‘Have you no thought for your family?’ I asked her coldly. ‘They have been worried about you ever since you left the care of Colonel Forster. They have no idea where you are.’

‘Lord! I forgot to write,’ said Lydia. ‘I have been so busy with my dear Wickham. We have had such a time!

But never mind. I will write as soon as we are married.

What fun it will be, to sign my name, Lydia Wickham!’

She squeezed his hand and he, the insolent dog, pulled her into his lap and kissed her, then smiled at me whilst caressing her.

‘So you see, Darcy, your concern is misplaced,’ he said.

Lydia’s words had told me one thing: that at least she expected to be married. I felt she would be less eager to remain with him if she knew that Wickham had no such intention. I did not think he would tell her, however – why should he lose an eager companion? – and so I felt it necessary for me to do so.

‘I would like to talk to Miss Bennet alone,’ I said to Wickham.

‘Very well,’ said he, pushing her off his lap. ‘Try and talk her into going home if you will. She is a baggage.

But I cannot see why her fate matters to you,’ he added as he stood up.

‘It matters because I could have made your character known in Meryton and did not. It would have been impossible for you to have behaved in this way if your true self were known.’

‘Perhaps,’ he said, ‘but I do not believe that is the reason. I doubt if you would have sought me out if I had run off with Maria Lucas.’

I did not flinch. If I let him once guess that I had a personal reason for seeking him out, he would be difficult to buy off at any price.

‘Stay,’ said Lydia, snatching at his hand as he walked towards the door.

‘Mr Darcy wishes to speak with you alone. He is afraid I am keeping you here against your will, and he wants to give you a chance to go home with him.’

‘As if I would wish to go back to stuffy old Longbourn,’ she said, twining her arms round his neck and kissing him on the lips.

He put his arms round her and returned her kiss, then looked at me tauntingly before leaving the room.

‘Is he not handsome?’ asked Lydia, as the door closed behind him. ‘All the girls were wild for him in Meryton, and Miss King would have married him if her guardian had not put a stop to it. It was the same in Brighton. Any number of them would have run away with him. Miss Winchester –’

‘Miss Bennet, you cannot stay here,’ I interrupted her.

‘It is a little shabby, to be sure, but we will have something better by and by. I would like your help though, Mr Darcy.’

‘Yes?’ I said, hoping she had seen sense at last.

‘What do you think? I cannot decide. Does my dear Wickham look better in his red coat or his blue?’

‘Miss Bennet!’ I rapped out. ‘You cannot stay here with Wickham. He has no intention of marrying you. I know he has said he has, but it was a lie, to make you elope with him.’

‘He did not make me elope with him, it was I who made him elope with me. Brighton was growing boring,’ she said with a yawn. ‘Colonel Forster was so stuffy. He would not let me go to half the things I wanted to, and I had to sneak out of the camp on two occasions to attend my Wickham’s parties. Denny helped me. I dressed as a man. You should have seen me. My own mother would not have recognized me.’

‘Your reputation will be in ruins! He will abandon you as soon as he tires of you, and you will be left in London without a protector, with no money and nowhere to live. Come back with me now, and I will do what I can to persuade your family to receive you.’

‘Lord! I do not want to go home! I would die of boredom. I am sure we shall be married some time or another, and if not, it does not much signify,’ she said.

She was immovable. She would not leave him. Since such were her feelings, I could do nothing but try and make sure a marriage took place.

Wickham came back into the room, carrying a decanter in one hand and a glass in the other. He put his arm round Lydia and she turned to kiss him immediately.

‘Well, Darcy? Have you persuaded her to leave me?’ he asked, when he had done.

‘She is lost to all sense,’ I said angrily, ‘but since she will not leave you, you must marry her.’

‘Come now, Darcy. You know I cannot do that. My pockets are to let. I have debts all over the country. There are unpaid bills in Meryton, and worse in Brighton. I need to marry an heiress.’

‘Do you hear this?’ I demanded of Miss Bennet.

She only shrugged.

‘It does not signify. An heiress would bring us some money, then we could have a better house,’ she said.

It was only because of Elizabeth that I stayed. My inclination was to walk out and leave her sister to the life she had made for herself. But the thought of Elizabeth’s pale face sustained me.

‘Meet me at my club tomorrow,’ I said to Wickham.

‘My dear Darcy, you know I am not welcome there.’

‘I will make sure you are admitted.’

He looked surprised, but said: ‘Very well.’

As I left the house, the memory of his insolent smile went with me.


Thursday 14th August

I met Wickham at my club and the negotiations began.

‘You must marry her,’ I said to him shortly.

‘If I do that, I give up for ever the chance of making my fortune through marriage.’

‘You have ruined her,’ I said. ‘Does that mean nothing to you?’

He crossed one ankle over the other and lay back in the chair. ‘She ruined herself,’ he said.

A waiter passed, and he ordered a whisky. I did not react, knowing he did it only to annoy me.

‘How much do you owe?’ I asked, going straight to the heart of the matter.

‘Several hundred pounds.’

‘Whether that is true or not, I do not know but I shall. If you give your bills to my agent, he will pay them for you. In return, you will marry Lydia.’

‘Come now, as you are so anxious to see her wed, she is worth a lot more than that. Is it Miss Bennet who has caught your fancy, or is it the lovely Elizabeth?’

‘I am doing this for my own conscience,’ I said.

He laughed in my face.

‘No man goes to such lengths to ease his own conscience. Let me guess. It is the beautiful Jane Bennet.

Sweet-natured, beautiful Jane. She would make a splendid addition to Pemberley. I congratulate you, Darcy.’

‘I have no intention of marrying Miss Bennet.’

‘Then it is Elizabeth.’

I said nothing, but he must have guessed it from my face.

‘Ah! So it is! Her liveliness appeals to you. I would not have thought it. You are so pompous, Darcy, but they say that opposites attract.’

He had the upper hand, and he was enjoying using it.

‘Have a care,’ I warned him. ‘I will do much to save Lydia Bennet from disgrace, but if you go too far, instead of having your debts paid and something more besides, you will find yourself pursued by every creditor in Brighton, and maybe the army, for I will give them all your address.’

‘I can go to Bath, or Lyme, or the Lake District,’ he said. ‘I do not have to live here. ’ But I could tell he had no stomach for further flight.

‘Do so,’ I said, calling his bluff. I stood up and turned towards the door.

‘Wait,’ he said.

I paused.

‘I will marry her –’

‘Good,’ I said, sitting down again.

‘–for thirty thousand pounds.’

‘What?’ I cried.

‘It is the sum I should have had from Georgiana.’

I mastered my temper with difficulty. ‘I will give you nothing of the kind.’

‘Very well, then, twenty thousand.’

I stood up and left the club.

He will come to me soon enough. He has nowhere else to go.

I do not relish seeing him, but the knowledge that it will ease Elizabeth’s fears recompenses me for any time or trouble I might take, and I hope that, before very long, I will see her happy again.