Page 58 of A Life Diverted

Wickham led her into the kitchens, knowing her parents had ordered her not to enter, he gave her a warm smile to help her relax. “Now stand here, and do not move or make a sound. You do not want to frighten the faeries away, do you?”

Just as he commanded, the little brat stood quite still and said not a word.

Wickham entered the pantry and climbed up on a chair within.

He found the bottle and poured a good measure into a glass mixed with some sugar and water.

He made a show of adding a few random spices he found and then stirred it well.

George held the glass out to the brat. “Now you need to drink every last drop otherwise you will not see them. Even if it tastes bitter, drink it all, unless you never want to see the faeries and pixies. This is your only chance.”

“I dwink it all,” Ellie promised .

With satisfaction, he watched her eyes begin to close.

He caught her as she fell. “You are a bad girl, and your parents and brothers do not want you any longer,” Wickham told her as she slipped into a drug induced sleep.

He found some rope and bound her legs at her ankles and her hands.

Then he took a kitchen cloth and used it as a gag.

Now he had a quandary. He refused to kill her with his own hands, but then again, the laudanum may do it for him, but she could not be found before it was done.

What was he to do, he would not hang because of her.

He cared not that she had only her nightgown on.

He swung her over his shoulder and slipped out of the servants’ door from the kitchen and stole over to the stables.

He placed the brat on some straw before he silently saddled the horse his godfather allowed him to ride.

He picked up little Ellie and swung up into the saddle and placed her across it in front of him.

He rode no faster than a walk until he was well clear of the manor house.

He thanked his lucky stars that there was a full moon.

He rode to the inn outside of Matlock. There was a carriage in the courtyard outside of the carriage house.

He first looked around to make sure he was alone, and he was.

He approached the conveyance and opened the door.

One of the benches was loose, so Wickham lifted it.

There were blankets inside. He lifted all but one layer and let the sleeping girl drop inside.

Once she was inside, he covered her with blankets.

Hopefully, he had given her enough laudanum to end her, but if not, the cold, hunger or thirst would do the job as he was sure she would not be discovered in time.

He replaced the seat to make it look like it had not been moved and was soon on his way back to Willowmere.

He stopped, wrapped his haul in cloth, put it into an oilskin bag, and placed what he had liberated in a hole in an oak tree just before he entered the estate’s land and rode on.

He returned the horse to its stall and made sure to replace the tack exactly as it had been.

On the way back to his chamber, he closed and locked the safe, pushed the painting back in place, and dropped the key back into the drawer.

Wickham was back in his bed before half past the hour of two.

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

The next morning when he was asked to join in the search for the brat, he claimed he was somewhat better and assisted. That way Mrs Wendell would not call for the doctor to examine him and discover he had never been sick. He made sure to be seen seeking the brat as diligently as any other.

When the whole house was searched, he did not object to his bedchamber being included, after all, everything was safely away from Willowmere.

A few days later when Hilldale told him to return to Pemberley, Wickham feigned sadness. When he reached the tree, which was not visible from the house, he retrieved his spoils and rode on to Pemberley. On his arrival at the steward’s cottage, George hid his gains inside of his mattress.

A year later, not long after Mr Darcy withdrew as his patron, George decided to join some games of chance to increase his money, but within a month, all of his money was gone. All he had left was the watch which he swore to keep.

The Present

“Master, there is a rather large man at the kitchen door with information, they claim, regarding one who wants to harm Miss Lizzy,” Hill drawled when he entered the library.

Bennet was sitting across the chess board from Darcy, while some of the other men were also playing chess and the rest were reading.

“What is this?” Wendell demanded, his game of chess forgotten.

“Hill, I think you should show the man in. Just in case, have some of the guards close by,” Bennet ordered,

The butler bowed and left to do as he had been instructed.

“Do you think we should have the ladies join us?” Matlock asked. “They may not be well pleased if we keep anything about Ellie’s safety from them.”

“Father, let us see what this is first,” Richard suggested.

By and by, Hill led the mountainous man into the library. They saw that the man had to bend so his head cleared the doorframe when he entered the room.

“I am Mr Bennet, and this is Mr Wendell,” Bennet stated in a businesslike manner. “According to the butler you have information regarding our daughter’s safety. Is that so?”

“Aye, Sir. I be John Biggs. Me and me brother, Brian, came to Meryton to…” He told how his sister, who was barely fifteen, had been seduced by Lieutenant Wickham and had foolishly given him her virtue for the promise of marriage.

John Biggs related how he and his brother had found work in Meryton and their role in making things difficult for the libertine to get up to his normal tricks.

When he arrived at the present, he told of the story of the capture of Lieutenant Wickham and his solicitation of murder.

“Me brother is watching ‘im so ‘e will not go anywhere. Also, I demanded summin’ of value, and ‘e gave me this.” John held up the watch.

Wendell stepped forward and extended his hand. The huge man dropped the fob watch into it. He opened the back and there was the name of the first Wendell who had owned it engraved into the back cover. “It is the watch, there can be no question,” he announced.

“That bastard, I will kill him,” David roared as soon as his father confirmed it was the Wendell fob watch.

“Not if I get to him first,” Richard barked.

“Mr Biggs…” Wendell began to say when the big man interjected.

“Me name be John,” he insisted .

“John, if you and your brother will bring that miscreant to Longbourn, we will be very grateful,” Wendell requested. “We will send a few of our men with a carriage, that way you can put him on the floor, and if you use him to rest your feet on, we will not object.”

“Aye, Sir, it be my pleasure,” John agreed.

It was not long before Thompson and one more man joined the huge man, a man who made the aforementioned Thompson look small, and were on their way to the inn’s stables.

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

“It was bloody Wickham!” Barney spat out. “I want a piece of that bastard.”

“We need to calm ourselves and go speak to the ladies in the drawing room,” Bennet suggested.

There were nods of agreement. The men made for the drawing room.

“Welcome,” Fanny sang. Then she stopped. There was no missing the serious looks on the men’s countenances as they filed into the drawing room.

Wendell looked to Bennet for permission to be the one to speak, the latter nodded. “We know who took Ellie,” he said as he held up the watch. “I checked; it is the one which was stolen along with Ellie and the money.”

“Who?” Cilla demanded.

“George Wickham,” Wendell stated. He saw the shocked faces of those ladies who had been present when Ellie had been kidnapped. “There is no doubt it is him. Some men will be bringing him here soon.”

Elizabeth was frozen as the face she had not been able to see came into focus. “Yes, I can see the face now, it was Icky,” she said as the tears fell. “Why would he do that to me? What did I ever do to him? Did he hate me so much that he almost murdered me?”

“Ellie, dear, these are answers I hope we will gain once we have had a chat with that bas…blackguard,” Wendell soothed his daughter. “The men will arrive with him soon.”

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

Wickham was grabbed and lifted from below the straw, none too gently.

A sack was placed over his head, and he was dragged.

He felt himself being lifted and thrown onto a hard surface.

He heard doors close; there were feet placed all over his person, and he felt the jerky movement as a conveyance began to be pulled.

He was beyond scared.