Page 13 of Brighton Rescue (Pride and Prejudice Variation #23)
“Jane,” he demanded with far more ferocity than he had ever turned on his gentle eldest daughter. “Do you know anything about this outrage?”
Jane quailed before the anger in her usually calm sire’s face. “Yes, sir,” she confessed, her voice shaking a little. “I just learned of it, Father, from this letter that arrived from Elizabeth.”
Mr. Bennet snatched the letter from her hand and, turning so the light fell full on it, quickly read his favorite daughter’s letter once and then again. When he finished, his eyes were narrowed with anger, and Mrs. Bennet exclaimed in confusion, “What is it, Mr. Bennet! Why is Lizzy in Brighton?”
“She is there, Mrs. Bennet, because she chose to disobey my orders and involve the Gardiners in her idiotic fears for Lydia.”
“What are you talking about? What fears?”
“She found a letter that Lydia wrote Kitty, in which Lydia was in raptures about her love for Lieutenant Wickham. Lizzy absurdly took her silly sister’s words to heart, fearful that Wickham and Lydia would run away together to Gretna Greene.
Such nonsense! I told her not to worry about it and to enjoy her journey north with the Gardiners; instead, she somehow managed to infect them with her own ridiculous terrors, and they accompanied her to Brighton to check on Lydia, and dragooned Mr. Darcy , of all people… ”
“But would it not be good if Lydia married Mr. Wickham?” Kitty asked timidly, causing her father to stop mid roar and focus on his fourth daughter .
“What? Of course not! The man is an impoverished militia lieutenant, and entirely incapable of supporting Lydia in the manner to which she is accustomed. But that is not the point, Kitty. Wickham is not fool enough to marry Lydia; he wishes to marry for money, after all.”
“But he loves Lydia!” Kitty blurted out.
“If a man loves a woman, surely wealth should not matter? Indeed, Father, they are going to marry – Lydia’s last letter reached me only two days ago, which is why I was surprised she wrote again so quickly.
Mr. Wickham has pledged his love to her and has promised Lydia they will embark to Gretna Greene as soon as Mr. Wickham can collect some money from fellow soldiers; he lent his friends too much, you see. He is such a generous man…”
“Wickham agreed to elope?” Jane cried out. “Father, that is outrageous…”
Mr. Bennet was trembling now with a mixture of fury and fear. “Fetch me Lydia’s previous letter, Kitty. Now!”
Kitty, sobbing, ran out of the room, leaving Jane profoundly shaken,
“Oh Mr. Bennet!” his wife quavered. “It cannot be true, can it? My dear Lydia would not be so foolish as to go to Gretna Greene! If she is to be married, it must be from Longbourn, from her own house! Why would she run away to Scotland with the lieutenant? ”
“She would run away because I sired an imbecile, Mrs. Bennet,” her husband snapped. “As for Wickham, I am quite certain he has no intention of marrying Lydia; he is a penniless wastrel in search of a rich wife, not a sixteen year old with no charms except her person and her virtue…”
Jane cringed in horror at her father’s intemperate speech, just as Kitty, still crying, reentered the room with a paper in her hand.
Mr. Bennet snatched it from her hand, read it twice, and then looked up with a stricken expression on his face. “If Lydia is to be trusted, Wickham has agreed to elope with her. Dear God.”
“He cannot possibly ruin her, Father!” Jane exclaimed. “He could not be so cruel. It would not merely be Lydia destroyed, but our whole family’s honor as well!”
“Jane,” her father said impatiently, “I know that you wish to believe the best of everyone, but there are in fact cruel men in the world, and deceitful men, and lazy men. I include myself in the latter group; I should have listened to Lizzy’s concerns, but I was too indolent to bother myself with Lydia’s activities in Brighton, especially after Elizabeth warned me some weeks ago that letting her foolish sister stay in a camp full of soldiers was unwise.
I was too proud to admit I was wrong and can only hope that she and the Gardiners and yes, Mr. Darcy, will protect Lydia from herself. ”
“You must go to Brighton, Mr. Bennet!” shrieked Mrs. Bennet. “You cannot stay here and let my darling Lydia be ruined by an evil man.”
“Have no fears, Mrs. Bennet, I will leave for Brighton within the hour and bring Lydia back home as quickly as I can,” her husband assured her. “I am merely fearful that when I arrive, she will have already flown in the company of a consummate rascal.”
“At least you did write to Colonel Forster!” Jane said in a consoling voice. “He will be watching over Lydia with special care, I have no doubt.”
Her father’s face grew even grimmer, if possible, and he shook his head dolefully. “I did not write Forster, Jane. I dislike writing letters, and I was entirely certain that there was no cause for concern, so I kept putting it off.”
“Oh Father…”
Mr. Bennet sighed deeply and shook his head. “I fear I am greatly at fault in this matter but I cannot turn back time. Jane, can you please speak to Hill and tell him to meet me in my room? I must pack quickly.”
“Kitty can speak to Hill. I am coming with you to Brighton, Father,” Jane announced, forcing herself to speak firmly.
The Bennet patriarch frowned and then nodded. “Very well. You will be of great assistance, Jane, as you can provide a gentle buffer between my second and fifth daughters, and my own irascible self. Kitty, speak to Hill.”
“Yes, sir,” Kitty breathed, and scurried away, leaving Jane and Mr. Bennet to walk swiftly upstairs and pack their trunks with the help of the servants.
Mrs. Bennet, who had been intermittently sobbing and complaining, found herself without an audience.
When the housekeeper, Mrs. Hill, entered the room a few minutes later, the matriarch of the family made her way to her bedroom and collapsed into bed, quite exhausted from all the upset. Within a few minutes, she was snoring.