Page 11 of Brighton Rescue (Pride and Prejudice Variation #23)

So why was Darcy here and not at Pemberley, overseeing his exceedingly vast and wealthy estate?

It could only be due to the influence of Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam.

He and Darcy were more brothers than cousins, and the colonel had been at Rosings with Darcy while Elizabeth was in residence at the nearby parsonage.

The colonel had no doubt fallen in love with the girl and did not want to see her suffer through Miss Lydia’s indecorous behavior.

Not that it was likely the colonel was actually considering marrying Miss Elizabeth.

Or was he? As a second son, the man must desire a wealthy bride.

On the other hand, the current Viscount Brantworth, eldest son and heir of the Earl of Matlock, had sired only one daughter with his sickly, aristocratic wife, and the girl was ten years old.

There was a strong likelihood that eventually Colonel Fitzwilliam would accede to the earldom after his brother died.

Given that, perhaps Richard Fitzwilliam was actually considering marrying Miss Elizabeth Bennet, who was healthy and vibrant, handsome and amusing, bright and quick.

For a moment, Wickham considered the possibility of trying to charm the second Miss Bennet again, then reluctantly discarded the idea. The young lady was too intelligent to fall for his practiced speeches and loving gazes again.

Miss Lydia, however, was ripe for plucking.

She was already in love with him, already longed to marry him.

If Wickham ran off with her, he could blackmail Darcy or the Matlocks into paying him to marry the girl.

If they refused, he could and would abandon her, which would ruin the entire Bennet family.

That, while not monetarily remunerative, would bring him great pleasure given their circuitous connection to Darcy.

Wickham looked up from his reverie to discover that his wayward steps had brought him to the door of his barracks.

The night was still young, but he would go to bed absurdly early as tomorrow would be a busy day.

He needed to entice Miss Lydia to agree to an elopement, arrange for a carriage, and prepare to shake the dust of this seaside town off his well-polished boots.

/

Richard Fitzwilliam trod up the steps of the Hartford mansion and nodded to the footman who opened the door for him.

As was the way of such men, Lady Amelia’s butler abruptly materialized and announced, “Sir, Mr. Darcy, Mr. Hartford, and Miss Elizabeth are in the south sitting room.”

Richard nodded and made his way to the room, which, with its windows open to the night breezes, was delightfully cool.

“I am quite fascinated at the thought of raising bees in such a remarkable and far more sensible way,” Darcy was saying as he entered. “It is such an advantage…”

He trailed away at the sight of his cousin and rose to his feet, along with Elizabeth, who looked both tired and anxious.

“Colonel Fitzwilliam! How was your evening?” she inquired with her hands clasped tightly in front of her.

Fitzwilliam looked at his watch and realized that the grandfather clock in the hall would soon strike the midnight hour.

“Given how late it is, Miss Elizabeth, may I give a report of the evening without adhering to the conventions regarding the behavior of your sister? It would save time, and I am sure you are longing to retire.”

“Please do, sir,” Elizabeth said. “As much as it pains me to hear of Lydia’s poor behavior, there is nothing to be gained by burying my head in the sand.”

“Well, as to that, your sister behaved relatively well, though I have no doubt that was partially due to my presence along with the fact that Wickham left after the first dance.”

“Did he indeed?” asked Darcy sardonically.

“He did,” his cousin said, and added with marked satisfaction.

“I believe that he did not much appreciate my presence at the assembly. In any case, Miss Lydia and I danced and I suggested that we would meet the Prince Regent in the next weeks, which she thought entirely delightful. I flattered her delicately, and suggested all sort of exciting outings in the next few days. I do hope she is sufficiently intrigued that she will not elope with Wickham, though I am no expert on your sister.”

Elizabeth blew out a slow breath and said, “I have great hopes you are correct, Colonel. On the one hand, she has longed to be the first one married, and she trusts Wickham to behave honorably toward her. But to meet the Regent, to hobnob with the cream of Brighton society? She has always desired to be important in our social circle back in Meryton, and such a meeting would be quite a feather in her cap.”

“If she does meet the Prince, one of us must watch over her carefully,” Gabriel Hartford declared.

Elizabeth looked startled. “The Prince would not truly pay attention to a young girl like Lydia, would he?”

The three gentlemen exchanged glances and Darcy said carefully, “The Regent is regrettably rather loose in his behavior toward the opposite sex, though he will hold the line if one of us three stay close to Miss Lydia and you.”

“Me!?”

“My dear Miss Elizabeth, you are exactly the sort of woman to appeal to His Highness,” the colonel asserted. “But as Darcy says, you need not to be concerned. We can manage him.”

Elizabeth shook her head worriedly and said, “I do hope we are not doing more harm than good by introducing the Regent, however peripherally, into our little family problem.”

“You need not to be concerned, I assure you,” the earl’s son said. “Prinny is a dissolute man in many ways, but he would never run off with a girl like Lydia, nor will he promise marriage to a mere gentleman’s daughter, aside of course from the fact that he is married already. ”

“Married twice, in truth,” Hartford pointed out coldly.

Elizabeth sighed and then straightened with determination. “I trust you all, and again, I am most thankful for your assistance.”

“It is our honor,” Darcy said formally, but his eyes were alight with warmth and yes, love, causing Elizabeth to blush.

/

A few minutes later, Elizabeth peered into the mirror in her bedroom as she carefully removed the pins from her hair.

A maid had assisted her in removing her dress, and she was now alone and pleasantly comfortable in her favorite dressing gown.

She was in reasonably good looks, she thought, but her eyes looked weary after several disturbed nights, and she did not expect to enjoy completely restful sleep for some time.

In the midst of her concerns for Lydia, she had successfully managed to repress her confused feelings towards Mr. Darcy, but with Lydia on the road to safety, with Wickham on the verge of arrest for indebtedness, she realized she absolutely must consider her feelings about the master of Pemberley .

Over the last months, her views of that gentleman had shifted like the pebbles on the beaches of Brighton under the influence of a great wave.

She had settled – nay, embraced – a strident dislike of Mr. Darcy within minutes of their first encounter, when he had insulted her beauty at an assembly.

Then she had foolishly listened to George Wickham’s slander against the Darcy family without seeking the actual truth.

By the time she met Darcy in Kent, she was completely confident in her judgment of both men when in fact it was Darcy who was the true gentleman, and Wickham the reprobate.

How ashamed she had been when she realized that Wickham’s accusations were prevarications and that she had accepted them without question!

A verse from the eighteenth chapter of the Proverbs sprang to her mind, one that she had read long ago and, it seems, remembered but not applied to her own life.

He that isfirst in his own causeseemethjust; but his neighbour cometh and searcheth him.

It was dangerous to assume that one had garnered all necessary information from one party, when it was all too common for men and women to repress facts which justified their own behavior in a quarrel.

She had been so righteously outraged when Wickham told of the ‘stolen living’ when in fact Mr. Darcy had provided three thousand pounds in payment so that Wickham would give up all rights to the living, and at Wickham’s request, no less!

It was a truly enormous sum for one man, and Elizabeth knew that the lieutenant had run through it all within a few years.

Elizabeth reached out for a brush and sighed, noting the dark circles under her eyes. She had not been sleeping well of late, and it was not merely Lydia, but her confusion about Darcy.

For she was confident Darcy still loved her; she, Miss Elizabeth Bennet, who had passionately rejected his offer back in the parsonage at Hunsford, who had flung accusations of unbecoming behavior in his face.

Elizabeth Bennet, daughter of a lazy father and foolish mother, whose youngest sister was willing to run off with an impecunious, dishonorable man.

Instead of staying away from her, Darcy had accompanied Elizabeth and her family to Brighton, introduced them to Lady Amelia, and had worked with Colonel Fitzwilliam to protect Lydia. She could never repay him for his goodness.

Except he did not want to be repaid with gratitude, she knew that.

He wished to marry her and … and she believed that she might wish the same in return.

He was an intelligent, honorable, and kind man, a good brother, and diligent master to all those who depended on Pemberley for their well-being.

The more time she spent with him, the more aware she was of his good character .

She could only hope that she could come to a decision should he offer again before she had to leave Brighton.