Page 2

RAMSGATE

The carriage stopped outside of a very ordinary-looking house.

There was nothing to mark it as somewhere that a person of fortune might be living.

Nor was there anything that would denote anything untoward as happening inside.

The calm serenity of the house and gardens belied the storm that was about to break.

The carriage door opened and out stepped a young man of seven and twenty with short, wavy, brown hair and soul-penetrating brown eyes.

At just over six feet tall, he seemed to tower over those around him.

After two days of travelling, he was tired and had a mood to match.

His handsome face was pulled into a very unhappy look that would frighten even the most hard-hearted of people. His companion waited in the carriage.

“You coming, Fitz?”

The colonel called over his shoulder.

Darcy shrugged. “Not yet. You know the plan.”

Fitzwilliam laughed.

They had been pulling this stunt since they were little boys.

Despite being cousins, they had both inherited the Fitzwilliam looks and consequently, being only two months apart in age, they looked more like twins than cousins.

Only a very few of their intimate acquaintance could tell them apart.

Those in the know knew to look for the tiny scar on Fitzwilliam’s left ear and the small mole Darcy had on his right hand.

All other differences between the two men were hidden beneath their clothes.

There were very few strangers who were observant enough to notice those differences.

Fitzwilliam straightened his shoulders, but deliberately relaxed out of his military posture.

The plan would only work if he walked like his cousin.

He strode into the house and looked around.

Everything appeared to be quiet.

It was too quiet.

Georgiana was a fifteen-year-old girl, not a mature young woman.

The parlour was to his left and it was there that he entered.

He opened the door and found the room empty.

His brow furrowed. Where could the little minx be? He checked room after room and found them to be just as empty. The butler was waiting as he turned around.

“Your rooms are ready, sir,”

the butler informed him. “I understand that Mr Darcy is with you.”

“You know?”

Fitzwilliam laughed.

“Sir, in my profession we have to notice the little things. That scar on your ear is your giveaway. Also, Mr Darcy has already snuck in via the servants’ quarters. I saw him do so myself.”

The butler sounded rather offended that Fitzwilliam thought he could be so easily deceived.

“Where is Miss Darcy and her companion?”

Fitzwilliam demanded.

“The ladies are due back anytime. Do you wish me to inform them of your arrival? I know that Mr Darcy was desirous of surprising his sister.”

“No, Jones. I, too, wish to surprise her.”

With that Fitzwilliam ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time. He and Darcy had planned out which rooms they would have when they had taken the house and installed Georgiana and Mrs Younge. He made his way carefully to his room.

* * *

“F itz!”

Georgiana squealed, throwing herself into her cousin’s arms. “Why are you early? You weren’t due to arrive for another week.”

Fitzwilliam extricated himself from his cousin and frowned at her. “Georgiana, I received a few rather disturbing letters about your behaviour.”

Georgiana’s face fell, as fear began to show in her face. “I….”

Fitzwilliam held his hand up. “I don’t want your excuses. Is it true you have been seen flirting with the young men around town?”

Georgiana flushed red and looked at the carpet.

“And is it true that you have, without the consent of either of your guardians, entered into a courtship with a young man more than ten years your senior?”

He continued.

Georgiana’s shoulders sagged as the fifteen-year-old girl attempted to think of an excuse for her behaviour.

Fitzwilliam shook his head. “For a young woman who shows so much confidence and disregard for the rules of society, you are remarkably quiet. It is time for you to speak up. It is time for you to tell the truth.”

“Fitz, you are my brother. You have always been kind to me,”

she said quietly. “But… I… I….”

“She is lonely,”

Mrs Younge said, entering the room. “And she is young. It is only right that she begin looking for a husband and what better way to do so than flirting with young men and letting them know she is available for their advances?”

Fitzwilliam spun on his heel and as he did so his hair moved backwards allowing Georgiana to glimpse the scar on his ear. Anger exuded from the colonel as the shock of Mrs Younge’s words settled into him. “Mrs Younge. I do not recall asking for your opinion on the matter, but since you have given it so freely, let me make something very clear. Georgiana is fifteen, she is not out. We allowed your little holiday in a bid to enable Georgiana to relax after she was pulled from school. I repeat she is not. Yet. Out. Her presentation to the Queen has not been planned for a couple of seasons, hence. Her preparation for coming out is your responsibility. It is incumbent upon you to instil good morals and respect for society.”

“Mr Darcy, sir, I do not believe that I have gone awry in guiding this young lady in allowing her to engage in a little harmless flirtation with the opposite sex. It is a skill that she will need when she enters society. It is a young woman’s job to find a husband,”

the elder woman persisted.

“Flirtation is never harmless! Georgiana, leave the room!”

Fitzwilliam ordered.

“No! If you are discussing me, then I stay. I do not see what is wrong with flirting with men. In fact,”

Georgiana argued, “I think it is rather fun.”

The giggles that now erupted from her told him everything he needed to know.

“Very well. Being too flirtatious tells a man that your virtue is either gone or that you are willing to give it away easily.”

Had Georgiana obeyed him, he would have been more frank with Mrs Younge.

“Oh, tush !”

Mrs Younge exclaimed. “It does nothing of the sort. I am sure that none of the young men took Georgiana’s flirting seriously. I am convinced that none of them would have even dreamed of doing any more than kissing and what does it matter if they did? Georgiana certainly has not given away her virtue. Besides, it’s not such a problem if she did. Virtue is overrated. I do not see the harm in a young woman enjoying her youth and the joy her body can give herself and a young man.”

Fitzwilliam stared at the woman in disbelief. Was she that abandoned in her character? How had he and Darcy not realised that when they hired her?

“MRS YOUNGE!”

Darcy stood in the doorway. “LEAVE THIS PLACE, NOW ! My sister will have no further need of your services. Leave your forwarding address and I will send your wages to you. I was coming down for dinner and I am disgusted by the discussion that I just heard! Georgiana is too young to be flirting and as for the rest, I cannot believe that such a disgusting topic of conversation was held in front of my sister! Let alone such loose morality espoused by one who has had the sole charge of the child for the past six months!”

Fear again suffused Georgiana’s face. The whole family knew that Darcy was far stricter on the girl than anyone else was. However, she was determined not to be intimidated. Slowly she dared to glance up. “Fitzwilliam, I am NOT a child!”

She stamped her foot as she said that. “I am a grown young woman who knows what she is doing. I want to be kissed!”

Fitzwilliam and Darcy stood side by side and stared at the young girl with matching looks of horror and disgust on their faces. “Your very behaviour right now tells us that you are not mature enough to be out in society, let alone considering marriage,”

Darcy flatly observed.

“Mr Wickham does not believe that I am not mature enough! We’re getting married!”

She defiantly informed them.

“Has he kissed you, yet?”

Fitzwilliam asked.

“No,”

she mumbled as she stared at the ground. “He said something about not wanting to push me into things too quickly.”

“And if we deny the match?”

Darcy probed.

“Then… then….”

She seemed lost for a moment and then a malicious glint came into her eyes. “Then we will execute the plan we already had, we will elope! The only reason we haven’t so far is that he insisted on asking for ‘permission’ first.”

“Someone at least is keeping things as close to honourable as they could,”

Fitzwilliam mumbled. “That is a surprise and a relief.”

Just then Mr Wickham entered the parlour and the conversation became much more general. Georgiana had invited the young man to dinner, while she and Mrs Younge had been out shopping. Georgiana began to feel a little outnumbered and out of place as she witnessed the three young men laughing about topics that she had no comprehension of and enjoying each other’s society. When the time came for her to withdraw from the dinner table and leave the gentlemen to their port and cigars, she did so with a sense of relief.

“Wickham, I wanted to ask you about your letter,”

Darcy began once Georgiana was out of the room. “Do you love my sister?”

Wickham shifted in his seat. “I respect her very much. I cannot say at the moment it is deep love.”

His answer was honest and consistent with what Georgiana had said herself earlier.

“And do you think that she loves you?”

Fitzwilliam asked. “She is young, and easily infatuated at this time, so tell me why you believe that we should allow you to marry her.”

“I… can only answer that by telling the whole story of how I came to regard her as highly as I do,”

Wickham told them. “When I arrived in , I did not know that she was here. I came on leave from the militia that I joined two years ago. I had intended two weeks of relaxation at the seaside before rejoining my regiment. However, I had not been in the area a day before I saw Miss Darcy on the seafront, flirting outrageously with a group of well-dressed young men. The lascivious looks on their faces told me that they were not honourable. To a man, they’d have fucked her and left her bleeding on the road. For her protection, I used all my military swagger to send them on their way. It was then that I decided to stay around to protect her. I am not sure when she won my good opinion or my high regard. However, she did. It has been with difficulty that I have managed to keep her youthful petulance and romantic fallacies at bay.”

Fitzwilliam felt crushed by the revelation that Wickham had just made. “Did we leave her vulnerable?”

“Mrs Younge certainly was not a good protector for her. Short of being here yourselves, which neither of you could be, there was nothing else you could have done. She has become more of a flirt than is good for her. Whether that is Mrs Younge’s doing or whether she has learnt to be so in school, I do not know. I am sorry. I am aware that this is not what you wished to have from your ward. I was very sorry to have seen it in her myself,”

Wickham said. “If she is given the right guidance, she may come right.”

“You would take that chance on a wife?”

Darcy asked.

Wickham shifted. “I have no opposition to such character. As you know I need to have a wife who has a good fortune, more than I do a virtuous wife.”

Fitzwilliam and Darcy burst out laughing at the same time. “Wickham, that is not a sound proposition,”

Darcy stated. “You need to have a woman who will be true to you and only you. Otherwise, how will you be sure that your children are yours?”

Wickham shrugged. “I know that I am taking a big chance on her.”

Darcy sighed. “I cannot say that I am happy with the idea of you being my brother, but if you and Georgiana truly love each other I will not stand in your way. She is very young in the ways of the world. Therefore, I am going to ask you to wait and allow her to gain some experience of the world. If you agree to our terms, then you will need to disappear and let her think that you have abandoned her when we refused to relinquish control of her fortune.”

Wickham glared at Darcy. “You would hurt your sister to prove a point?”

“This is only a temporary measure. If the two of you truly love each other then you will wait for each other,”

Darcy said calmly. “However, it must be this way for the moment.”

Wickham looked away. “I do not like this at all. Can I at least say goodbye to her?”

Fitzwilliam shook his head. “We need you to play the feckless rake. So no, in this case, you cannot.”

Wickham’s face fell and the two other men saw the hurt in his eyes. “I….”

“Don’t say anything, Wickham. We apologise for hurting you. I give you my word that we will allow you to marry Georgiana once she has a little more experience of the world. It will also give you time to consider if she is truly the kind of woman that would make you happy,”

Darcy promised.

“In that case, I will take my leave. I only ask that you do not blacken my name too much.”

Wickham’s voice was thick with emotion. “I know that you are trying to protect her, just as I have tried. I… am sorry I could not do more.”

Wickham rose from the table and left the room.

The two cousins heard a brief exchange between Georgiana and Wickham in the hallway before Wickham left, the sound of the front door closing echoing throughout the house.

Fitzwilliam and Darcy looked at each other just as Georgiana flew into the dining room her hands on her hips and her face red with anger.