Page 60 of A Life Diverted

Bennet had done as he had planned and spoken to Jimmy Peterson.

The man had been very grateful the master had thought to lighten his situation and was keen to meet the young lady.

Her circumstances were not hidden from him.

He agreed that if they rubbed along well together, even if she bore the seducer’s child, he would raise it as his own.

He already had a son, who was two, to carry on his name and was of his blood.

Jenny Biggs had been rather nervous until she had met Mr Peterson.

They had spoken in depth, and she was satisfied he knew the truth of her situation and did not hold it against her.

He was a good and kind man from what she could see, so when he asked if she would agree to marry him, she replied in the affirmative.

Thanks to the common license purchased for them, the wedding took place three days after Jenny accepted the proposal.

As a wedding gift from the combined families, Jenny was dowered with five thousand pounds, which was invested with Gardiner.

The couple would take fifty pounds per quarter and the rest of the dividends would be added to the principal for their current child and any future children with whom they were to be blessed.

Jenny was sad about only one thing. Her family was in Leicestershire, so she would not see them very often.

Hence, when the Biggs brothers were told of a lease coming open when a tenant farmer was to retire at the end of the month, and that the farm was adjacent to the Peterson farm, they jumped at it.

With the use of the Bennet carriage and a cart, they returned to Dadlington to pack up their father’s rented house and bring him back with them.

Mr Biggs had farmed a small patch and sold his vegetables and other items for many years.

It was, in all three siblings’ minds, time for Da to retire.

They were sure he would be in his element with a more than one-hundred-acre farm on which to live.

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

The day that the three ladies who would marry in January, their fiancés, family members, and Miss Weasley departed for London, the newspaper containing both the engagement notice of Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy to Miss Elizabeth Elaine Wendell and the article about the apprehension of the criminal who attempted to murder Miss Wendell and robbed her father reached Scarborough.

For Caroline Bingley, the papers and gossip rags from Town were as close as she would ever again be to the society she craved.

As such, she read every page of each publication in a voracious attempt to satisfy her curiosity about those living the life she had desired, but would never have, for herself.

When the engagement of Miss Jane Bennet to Mr David Wendell had been announced, she had not cared too much as she had never desired him.

Then about a sennight past there was the engagement announcement of Lady Melody Ranger née Smythe to the Honourable Mr Richard Fitzwilliam, one of the men she had wanted as her husband.

She had not been pleased, but at least the woman was a viscountess, so she could live with being bested by one who was titled.

When she read the front page of the newest edition of The Times of London which had arrived that morning, she, like any others in the country who read about the criminal and what he had attempted, was outraged.

The difference was that her anger was because the man had failed to dispatch the hoyden, not once, but twice!

There was nothing to be done about that.

Eventually, Caroline Bingley reached the social pages and arrived at the engagement announcements, and she saw it. Miss Elizabeth Elaine Wendell engaged to Mr Fitzwilliam Alexander Darcy.

She screamed, stamped her feet and threw anything she could get her hands on against the walls, including one large crystal vase.

She threw it with such force against the wall closest to her that shards flew in every direction.

One large sliver bounced off the wall and hit her in the side of the neck.

Before she could react, blood was pouring out of her.

Because the master had instructed them to leave his sister be when she had one of her tantrums, no one from the household went up to Miss Bingley’s private sitting room.

When Bingley returned from his long day at the offices belonging to his business, he was told about the massive tantrum earlier and that it had been silent afterward, and his sister had not been seen or heard from since.

When she did not come down for dinner, something Bingley demanded she do every day, he went up to her chambers.

She was not in her bedchamber, so he proceeded to the attached sitting room.

He found his sister, lying on her back in a huge pool of her blood, eyes wide open in shock and a large piece of crystal embedded in her neck.

Later that night, the doctor and magistrate concurred she had caused her own death when she threw a piece of glassware against the wall and one of the shards ended up in her neck cutting the main artery.

Three days later, Caroline Bingley was laid to rest next to her parents, surrounded by many former tradesmen and their families.

After she had been interred, Bingley wrote to the Hursts at Winsdale to inform them of Caroline’s demise.

Since the interment had already taken place, this precluded the Hursts having to leave their son at home without them and to travel all the way across the country.

When Bingley received a clean copy of the paper, he understood what had set Caroline off causing her to kill herself.

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

While they were shopping in London, and Elizabeth was being given a tour of Darcy House, the assizes had convened in Hertford.

The gallery for the trial of the infamous man was at capacity.

Hence, many men, and some women, attempted to listen from outside via the windows.

Lord Matlock, Bennet, and Wendell all validated their affidavits and those of the missing men in their families.

Sir William testified that he too had heard Wickham confess to all crimes; it was a short trial.

Wickham was found guilty in less than a quarter hour after the jury went to deliberate, and the lord judge pronounced the sentence of death by hanging thereafter.

The crowd inside and outside of the court cheered as the ultimate punishment was handed down.

Among those watching were some of Wickham’s past victims and their family members.

They were among those who cheered the loudest when it was heard that he would hang.

Sentence was to be carried out at sunrise the following day.

Wickham never said a word to attempt to defend himself.

He knew that it was over for himself and decided to leave the mortal world with the dignity he never displayed after turning to a life of crime, manipulation, and seduction.

In the early morning on the day after the trial, with the haze of fog over the town, Wickham walked from the building which housed the cell he had occupied to the steps of the gallows.

He climbed the steps without prompting and stood ramrod stiff at the top while the hangman placed the noose around his neck and the black hood over his head.

The clergyman prayed for Wickham’s soul and the hangman pulled the lever which opened the trapdoor below the condemned’s feet.

None of the men from the family who had testified, attended the hanging, but many of the late George Wickham’s other victims did.

When Elizabeth and the ladies who had travelled to London were informed that the sentence had been carried out, there was a feeling of relief that the one man who had wanted to harm Ellie or Lizzy—depending on who had the thought—could never make another attempt.

There was no overt joy at the loss of a human life.

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

Some days after the trial, the members of the family travelled north and met those who had been in Hertfordshire at an inn along the Great North Road.

Together they journeyed into Nottinghamshire to join Richard who had gone north after arriving in London and first making sure his house in Town was ready to receive its new mistress.

The convoy of coaches continued on to Granville where they were welcomed by Lord Harry and Lady Marie Smythe.

The Dowager Countess of Granville, Lady Melody, and Richard were also present.

On the thirtieth day of November, Lady Melody—much to her delight—cast off the name Ranger and became Lady Melody Fitzwilliam.

The newlyweds, both glowing with unadulterated joy, were at the wedding breakfast for about three hours before they commenced their journey south.

Their eventual destination was Seaview House, Darcy’s house on a bluff overlooking the English Channel near Brighton.

It was too cold to use the private beach and cove, but then again, the newly married Fitzwilliams did not intend to spend much time out of doors.