Darcy and Elizabeth What If? Collection 1 (2 page)

She smiled and whispered her thanks.

He held out his hand and she took it as she climbed out of the carriage, then she took his arm and the two of them went into the inn together.

‘You did what?!!’ asked Denny, as he and Wickham sat drinking together a few months later, this time in Meryton.

‘I married her,’ said Wickham coolly.

‘Wickham, you are a sly dog!’ said Denny with a laugh. ‘I was glad you decided against marrying Georgiana – I guessed you had changed your mind, otherwise there would have been gossip. But I had not heard you married Miss Aintree.’

‘She was over age and we married in a quiet ceremony in the country. She had been raised as a country girl, and when I suggested we buy a modest home in a country neighbourhood far away from her mama, she agreed at once. She has her needlework and her music and she is very happy there.’

‘I can’t see you settling down to the life of a country squire,’ said Denny, spluttering over his drink.

Wickham smiled.

‘You are right,’ he said. ‘I like the country well enough in small doses, especially now, when I have hunters and dogs and everything a gentleman could require. But after a while it starts to bore me and so then I go to London, telling my wife I have business to attend to.’

‘And just what sort of business is it?’ asked Denny. ‘Something with a skirt and a bosom and a willing nature, I’ll be bound!’

Wickham laughed and took another drink. ‘And why not? I’m a rich man, Denny, I can have anything I want, and as long as my wife doesn’t find out about it, then there are no hysterics or arguments. I can do as I please in town, just so long as I go home now and then to spend some time with her. And indeed, that is no hardship. She is very beautiful and she adores me.’

‘You seem to have the best of both worlds,’ said Denny.

‘I have. But — ’

‘But?’ asked Denny.’

‘But I still want more,’ said Wickham, shifting in his seat.

It was true he had everything, but somehow it did not satisfy him. His wife was lovely but she was not intelligent and he found her company boring. He had mistresses aplenty, but they, too, palled on him after a while. The pleasures of the town had waned, as had the pleasures of the country, and so he had paid a visit to Denny in Meryton looking for – what? What was it he was looking for? What was it that he needed but had not found?

He shook away his dissatisfaction.

‘That is why I have come to Meryton. I did not intend to come until later in the year, but things are slow at home and so here I am. Just one thing, Denny,’ he said, as he helped himself to another glass of brandy. ‘Here in Meryton I have made no mention of my wife. Women are odd about that sort of thing. They will flirt to their heart’s content with a bachelor, but they are not so free with a married man, and I mean to have some fun here.’

‘Not too much fun, I hope. Remember, I have to live here and I will have to stay here when you have gone.’

‘Don’t worry, I won’t do anything to put me beyond the bounds of society. But if any of the wenches are willing, then I won’t say no. And if you can provide me with any better sort of company I will be in your debt.’

‘Whether it is better or not, only you can decide, but I will be going to a party this evening and gentlemen are always welcome.’

‘Will there be any young ladies there?’

‘Yes, plenty of them. Some are antidotes – beware Charlotte Lucas, her parents are worried about her, she’s fast turning into an old maid, and they are always on the look-out for potential husbands. But there are plenty of other young women. There are five Bennet sisters, who are all lively and beautiful, some of them uncommonly so.’

‘Then I will come with you,’ said Wickham.

‘Oh, and there is just one other thing,’ said Denny. ‘Charles Bingley has rented a house in the neighbourhood and Mr Darcy is staying with him.’

Wickham looked alarmed, but his face quickly resumed its complacent air.

‘Well, so what if he has? He is nothing to me now. If he tries to blacken my name by throwing up certain facts about my wild youth, he will find that no one believes him. The good people of Meryton have only to look at me to know that I am everything that is amiable. And as for my marriage, he cannot mention it since he knows nothing of it. So let him stay in the neighbourhood if he wishes. It is nothing to me. In fact, I am rather looking forward to seeing him again, now that I am almost as rich as he is.’

Denny gave him a hard stare.

‘You seem to have forgotten something. How are you going to explain your sudden wealth if you do not reveal that you are married?’

Wickham frowned, then his brow cleared.

‘Why, nothing easier. I will say that I inherited from an uncle on my mother’s side. Better yet, a great uncle that I did not even know I had. Since Darcy knew my father’s side of the family, rather than my mother’s side, he cannot disprove it, and why should he want to, after all? We were friends once, but we are nothing but acquaintances now.’

‘So you have forgiven him for depriving you of your living?’ asked Denny.

‘Of course,’ said Wickham.

But in his heart of hearts, he knew he had not forgiven Darcy for anything.

At that moment, Fitzwilliam Darcy was in the drawing-room at Netherfield, drumming his fingers on the mantelpiece. He was bored. He had spent an uneventful summer, enlivened only by a few surprise visits to his sister in Ramsgate. He smiled as he thought of her. His smile brought his handsome features to life. He was a tall man, well made and with a noble air. He loved Georgiana very much and he liked to give her pleasure . He had carefully planned her holiday at the seaside. If he had known that George Wickham planned to elope with his sister he would have been horrified, but fortunately for his peace of mind he did not know. Chance had intervened and Georgiana had spent a happy few weeks by the sea. She had spent her time sketching and playing the piano and engaging in other ladylike pursuits, and she had now returned to her establishment in London.

Darcy’s smile faded. He saw the long winter stretching out in front of him and he did not know how he was going to bear the tedium. Everything bored him. Oh, to be sure, his boredom was relieved now and then by some unusual circumstance, such as his present visit to his friend Charles Bingley. But once the novelty had passed, then his spirits fell and he was blue devilled again.

If only he could find something to interest him – or someone. But at the age of twenty-seven, everything was known to him, and it sometimes felt as if every
one
was known to him as well. Not that he knew everyone personally, of course, but he knew their type.

Take Bingley’s sisters, now, he thought. They were typical of their kind. Well educated and with handsome dowries, but with their roots in trade. They were impressed by him and everything he had to offer. Caroline was particularly impressed. So much so that she wanted to be the next Mrs Darcy. But it would take someone far more special than Caroline to tempt him.

He sometimes wondered if he was too hard to please because he had never yet found any woman who interested him. He would have to marry eventually, but he had no wish to rush into matrimony. At least here, in Meryton, he would not be pestered by the local women setting their caps at him. They would not be so foolish as to think that Mr Darcy of Pemberley would be interested in them.

‘Are you ready, Darcy?’ asked Charles Bingley, coming into the room and rubbing his hands together in his good-natured way. ‘It’s time for us to be leaving. We don’t want to be late.’

‘On the contrary, brother,’ said Caroline Bingley in a droll voice, ‘that is exactly what we want to be. Fashionably late.’

I must admit I will never understand that fashion,’ said Bingley with a pleasant smile. ‘It seems rude to me.’

Caroline gave an affected laugh. ‘What will Mr Darcy think of you?’ she said, with an arch glance at Mr Darcy.

‘Oh, Darcy knows me,’ said Bingley. ‘Not a fashionable bone in my body.’

‘If we must, we must,’ said Mr Darcy. ‘Come, let us go.’

Caroline yawned

‘I dare say it will be a dead bore,’ she remarked.

‘But at least you’ll have a chance to show off your new clothes to the yokels, eh?’ said her brother-in-law, Mr Hurst.

Caroline looked displeased, and so did her sister, Louisa, for they did not like to be laughed at.

‘The carriage is at the door,’ said Mr Bingley.

They put on their cloaks and then went out to the carriage. The night was cool, for autumn was setting in. The night was already dark but there was a full moon overhead to light the way.

Mr Darcy followed the ladies into the carriage.

Little did he know that the Meryton assembly was going to change his life.

Elizabeth Bennet was getting ready for the assembly ball in her bedroom at Longbourn. She was a bright and lively young woman, twenty years of age, who lived with her parents and her four sisters in one of the best houses in the neighbourhood. Her father was a gentleman with an estate of two thousand pounds a year, but it was entailed on a cousin (the odious Mr Collins) and so the Miss Bennets had very little dowry. The eldest, Jane, was the beauty of the family, but she was not yet married. After Elizabeth came Mary, Kitty and Lydia. All of them were out, although Lydia was really too young and silly to be going into company. But she had pestered her mother so much that her mother had allowed her to enter society at the age of fifteen.

Elizabeth and Jane were not bothered by their younger sisters as they prepared for the assembly, as they shared a bedroom and their sisters slept elsewhere.

‘I wonder if Mr Bingley will come to the assembly,’ said Jane, as she put the final touches to her hair. It was arranged in a bun, set high on the back of her head, and it was threaded with white ribbon to match her white gown.

‘Perhaps, or perhaps his sisters will keep him away,’ said Lizzy mischievously. She had a lively sense of humour and liked to laugh.

‘Lizzy!’ said Jane. ‘For shame! You do not know them. I am sure they are perfectly amiable.’

‘Perhaps. But I saw them in Meryton and they gave themselves airs. Mr Bingley did not give himself airs, though, when he came to return Papa’s call,’ said Elizabeth thoughtfully. ‘From what I could see, he appeared to be agreeable.’ Lizzy and her sisters had seen him from an upstairs window, and they had admired his blue coat.

‘I wonder if he likes dancing?’ said Jane.

‘We will soon find out,’ said Lizzy. ‘It is time for us to go. Will you just fasten my necklace, Jane?’ she asked.

She turned round so that Jane could do so, then arranged the necklace so that it sat smoothly around her lovely neck. She patted her dark hair into place, arranging the curls that adorned her forehead and smoothing the rest of it back over the crown of her head, until her hand reached the bun that captured her shining hair.

The two young ladies went downstairs.

‘Hill, Hill, where is my reticule?’ asked Mrs Bennet, who was in a nervous state, as always.

‘Here, ma’am,’ said Hill, the housekeeper.

‘I’m going to dance every dance,’ said Lydia, drawing herself up to her full height.

Kitty agreed, and Mary said that she would rather read a book.

‘No, no, my dear, you must go to the assembly,’ said Mr Bennet.

He was to stay at home and he did not want Mary to stay with him.

And with this, the ladies went out to the carriage. It was not a very new equippage, and the horses were those that worked on the farm during the day, but nevertheless it was respectable. The country lanes were shrouded in darkness and the hedgerows were black shadows, but the full moon and the carriage lamps provided enough light for the coachman to see the way.

Lydia and Kitty chattered and laughed all the way there, and Elizabeth was glad to climb out of the carriage when at last they reached the assembly rooms. She looked up at the building, with its white walls laced with black beams. It was an old building and very pretty. Light was spilling out of the windows, and the sound of music came from within.

Once inside, the ladies changed their shoes, taking their dancing slippers out of small cloth bags which they carried for the purpose, and removing their cloaks, which they left in the ladies’ cloak room.

Lizzy brushed a speck of fluff from Jane’s shoulder, and Jane fastened the button at the back of Lizzy’s dress, which had somehow come undone, and then they went in to the main room.

It was already full.

‘Have you heard?’ asked Charlotte Lucas, coming forward to greet her two friends, Jane and Lizzy. ‘The Bingleys are to bring a large party of twelve ladies and seven gentlemen.’

‘Oh, no!’ exclaimed Lydia in horror. ‘Why must he bring so many ladies. Mama, it shouldn’t be allowed.’

‘Indeed it should not,’ said Mrs Bennet.

She and Lady Lucas retired to a corner to bemoan the news.

Elizabeth’s eyes scanned the room.

‘So the Netherfield part have not yet arrived?’ she asked.

‘No,’ said Charlotte. ‘But we have a new gentleman in the neighbourhood, a Mr Wickham. He is staying with his friend, Mr Denny.’

‘That should please Lydia,’ said Lizzy in a droll voice. She heard Lydia’s noisy laugh and, looking round, saw her sister flirting with a handsome gentleman. He was above average height, with a good figure. He was bowing charmingly to Lydia.