Page 25 of Friendship and Forgiveness (Mr. Underwood’s Elizabeth & Darcy Stories #7)

Even though she was supposed to stay outside by the door until Colonel Fitzwilliam told them that she might safely enter, the instant Elizabeth heard the gunshot she rushed into the little corridor.

Was Caroline injured? Dead?

Darcy tried to stop her from running in, but she’d moved too quickly for him to grab her. When she burst into the room, she saw Caroline embracing Colonel Fitzwilliam like she’d never let go, and sobbing.

The officer cradled her against his chest, and he still managed to gesture orders at his men.

The body.

Elizabeth pressed her hand tightly against her mouth to keep from retching. Wickham’s glassy dead eyes stared up. He was a handsome corpse. Except the hole. The vast collection of dark colored bottles of spirits behind the bar were sprayed with blood and bits of gray ooze that Elizabeth knew were the brains.

Darcy’s face went still as he looked at the corpse of the young man who'd once been his dearest friend. He then pulled Elizabeth back, and this time she did not resist.

Darcy said to Colonel Fitzwilliam, “Let us remove both of the ladies from this scene.”

There were a variety of other men, and one woman in the room, all of whom were under guard and being interviewed by the Bow Street Runners who Colonel Fitzwilliam had arranged to have waiting for them when the carriage reached London.

Colonel Fitzwilliam kept an arm around Caroline’s shoulder as he helped her walk out of the room, whispering quietly to her. Caroline looked at him with wide, scared eyes.

The other woman started shouting as they left the room, about how it was all Mr. Wickham’s fault, and how she would never do anything to annoy Mr. Darcy. An evil looking man with an oily black beard sneered at them all while his hands were tied behind. The drunk parson with a wrinkled white clerical collar looked quite confused by the whole situation, and he kept hiccupping.

The gentlemen left the room. When they reached the street Mr. Darcy handed Elizabeth to Charlie. He then firmly shook hands with each of the Bow Street Runners and the soldiers, and he gave their leader some money in thanks to share around.

Charlie kept muttering about how unhappy Mr. Bennet would be with him for letting Elizabeth be exposed to such a scene.

There had been a gun next to Wickham’s body, Elizabeth supposed it must have been his.

Caroline looked shocked and odd.

Blood on her face and blood in her hair.

Gray bits too, and a white boney bit.

Her eyes were wide and unfocused, and she pressed herself against Colonel Fitzwilliam, but then when they reached the outside, in the light of the sun, she suddenly seemed to realize that Elizabeth was there also, and she threw her arms around her instead.

“Lizzy, Lizzy, Lizzy. I thought I’d die! I was terrified I’d die.”

“I was so scared for you.”

The two women clung to each other. The desperate fear of the whole night that had kept Elizabeth from sleeping a wink in the carriage ebbed away. Caroline sobbed.

Charlie laughed to see them, but with a sort of hollow laugh that showed how strained his nerves were. “No embraces for me? I brought Mr. Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam all the way from Kent.”

Caroline smiled at her brother, but she did not cease embracing Elizabeth.

There was an odd, tender expression on Colonel Fitzwilliam’s face as he looked at Caroline. He was the hero of the day, and he must have been the one to shoot Wickham.

“Is Lydia well?” Caroline asked. “Please tell me she is safe.”

“Of course she is!” Charlie reassured Caroline, almost, but not quite, sounding like his usual boisterous self. “The girl’s just a bit rattled. She’s been improved by the experience, I dare say. How did you think we'd found you?” Charlie clumped around them and embraced Caroline from behind. “I was so scared for you, Caro.”

“Let’s leave,” Darcy said as he stepped back onto the street. “They are taking Mrs. Younge and one of the men, and they will be held until their trial in the Old Bailey. The rest of the men seem to have had nothing to do with the matter — nothing a jury might find illegal that is — there is a paper purporting to be a special marriage license, but I suspect fraud was involved in its production — the building here is a brothel, and they are waking up the… ah… regular occupants.” Darcy paused and blushed as he looked at Elizabeth. “In any case we are not needed anymore.”

Colonel Fitzwilliam took out his handkerchief, and he wiped much of the bloody gunk off Caroline’s face. Elizabeth realized a bit of the blood had gotten onto her dress as well.

She was still wearing the green silk that she thought Darcy particularly liked.

They then settled again into Darcy’s carriage. Colonel Fitzwilliam sat next to Caroline in the cabin. She looked at him, with something like awe in her eyes.

What must it be like to be saved from such a fate?

In ordinary moments, Colonel Fitzwilliam looked ordinary, but something about this situation, about his commanding manner, and about his decisive action made him more, something handsome — though of course not, in Elizabeth’s view, nearly as appealing as Mr. Darcy.

But she could very well understand if Caroline’s attitude towards him began to change.

Darcy sat down next to Elizabeth, and then Charlie climbed in to finish the set.

As the carriage rolled off there was a silence.

Colonel Fitzwilliam studied Caroline with that tender, almost confused look.

Charlie looked happy, exhausted, and relieved.

“I am so, so, so—” Caroline spoke suddenly to Darcy, “so ashamed of myself. I never, never, never should have attempted to use you in such a way. To betray every principle, to lie. To act in such a way. I never can live down, or erode the shame of that action. I just beg you to not continue to blame my brother for my stupidity, my selfishness, my complete lack of principle — everything. He is sincerely attached to you, and… I deserve your resentment, not him.”

“Miss Bingley,” Darcy replied stiffly, “I have already settled with Bingley.”

“Oh, I am glad to hear that!”

Darcy shrugged a little. “Matters being what they are, it would be quite awkward in any case for me to hold myself in a position of resentment in regard to him, or to you.”

“No — I assure you, I expect neither forgiveness nor notice from you.”

There was a flash of something in his face that suggested to Elizabeth that despite the events of this morning and the past day, Darcy still would much prefer to not show any notice to Caroline. Instead he said, “You were very brave to help Elizabeth’s sister.”

He paused to take a breath, and Caroline’s eyes now darted from Mr. Darcy to Elizabeth, and she seemed to notice how they sat next to each other, and she smiled widely. “ Elizabeth ?”

Elizabeth grinned widely back at her and wiggled a bit in the seat.

“Oh! You agreed. I am so happy! Lizzy, congratulations!” Caroline grabbed Elizabeth’s hands. “In the end that at least came out well.”

“I must confess, I am delighted as well.” Elizabeth grinned back.

Darcy sighed and shrugged, an expression like defeat on his face. “Miss Bingley, Elizabeth is happy that you are her friend, and… your bravery has perhaps redeemed you in some way. Such bravery counts for a great deal. And…” He waved his hand vaguely. “That which makes Elizabeth happy shall make me happy.” Darcy extended his hand forward to shake Caroline’s. “I would not say friends, but at least not enemies.”

“Oh, I wasn’t so brave. I acted before I thought. If I’d thought about it, I don’t believe I could have done it.”

“Worst thing about a battle is that there is a dashed lot of time to think about what you are doing,” Colonel Fitzwilliam agreed. “And don’t be bothered that Darcy still has a rock in his boot. He holds grudges. That was the most forgiving speech I’ve heard from him in the whole course of my life.”

Caroline looked at Colonel Fitzwilliam with warm eyes again. “You do not despise me? I… I do not think that… It was not to gain forgiveness. I simply did what made sense to me.”

“Exactly so,” Colonel Fitzwilliam replied.

“How did you find me?”

“Mrs. Younge was an unfortunate acquaintance of ours,” Darcy replied. “I shall be most glad if I never see nor hear hide nor hair of her again.”

“You arrived at the last moment — when the vicar demanded that I say ‘I will’. Another few seconds and I would have been a widow instead.”

She shivered, and Elizabeth squeezed Caroline’s hand.

Colonel Fitzwilliam bumped his elbow against Caroline. “Nonsense. Marriage made under duress is not really marriage. Not valid.”

Suddenly, rather to Elizabeth’s confusion, Caroline started giggling helplessly, but then the giggles turned into sobs, and she clung again to Colonel Fitzwilliam, her tears soaking into the red coat of his uniform.

When they reached Darcy house after a surprisingly short ride — it had seemed terribly long when they went to the seedy part of town they found Caroline in — Georgiana rushed out to meet them, and she embraced Elizabeth and her brother as soon as they entered the hall. “I was so scared for you all — were you made to marry Mr. Wickham?”

She looked at Caroline with wide eyes.

“No, I wasn’t.”

“Good, not even you deserve that.”

Elizabeth could see that it was clear from Georgiana’s expression that her resentment on behalf of her brother was also not wholly forgotten.

“Hope you do not mind,” Colonel Fitzwilliam said, poking Georgiana in the forehead, “but I shot Mr. Wickham. Afraid he’ll never manage to marry anyone.”

“Oh.” Georgiana gasped and went pale.

Elizabeth rather did not approve of the way that he told Georgiana that the man she’d nearly eloped with had died.

“It was ghastly,” Elizabeth said. “Caroline, we must clean you up. Can a bath be drawn before we go to my aunt and uncle?”

At that Caroline perked up. “We are going to Gracechurch Street after this? But will Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner accept my visit?”

“Of course they will if they wish me to visit,” Elizabeth replied with determination. “Besides, they already said they would. Letters were sent off earlier from a post stop. And we have clothes for you to change into.”

“Oh yes,” Georgiana said. “I told Mrs. North to have a bath kept ready so you could have one when you returned. Or Elizabeth suggested that I do so, and so I did when they all went off.”

“Thank you!” Caroline exclaimed. “Thank you!”

The two of them went up. Caroline’s maid was there to help her mistress undress, and Elizabeth could perceive the usualness of seeing Aliette did a great deal to break Caroline out of the shocked reverie that she’d fall back into if not made to talk or pay attention for a few minutes. Elizabeth sat with her in the bathroom talking, and she began to feel sleepy in the warmth in the room.

She could tell that Caroline was sleepy in the same way. It must have been impossible for her friend to sleep at all, or at least not in any restful way, the previous night when she was under the threat of an enforced marriage, and who knows what else.

Had Mr. Wickham forced her friend?

Such a question was impossible to ask.

When the two of them came down, both in fresh clothes, they found that Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner had come in person with their own carriage.

Everyone downstairs talked and talked about the shocking events, and Mrs. Gardiner embraced both Caroline and Elizabeth. “We’ll send you back to Longbourn in a few days,” she said. “But you are both always welcome for a visit. I have missed you, Caroline.”

“I don’t deserve—” she began.

“Nonsense. We all do stupid, selfish things. You just were more stupid and more selfish than most. But done is done, and you are properly regretful of it all.”

Caroline laughed at the matter of fact way that Mrs. Gardiner spoke.

“In any case, it is all forgotten by me ,” Mrs. Gardiner added, “since you saved our Lydia from such a threat.”

Elizabeth sat next to Darcy, gripping his hand occasionally under the table. When their knees — almost by accident — pressed against each other she felt a thrill travel up her spine.

There was a sensation in her stomach that promised future delight.

However, she was also exhausted.

Elizabeth yawned, and Darcy yawned.

Despite this Darcy performed being a proud owner who wanted to display his house to good advantage to his promised bride. He pointed out everything — portraits, the table, a comment on the history of the place settings and another on the chandelier. There was a giant painting of Pemberley over the dining table, and he eagerly explained parts of the estate’s history, and how several additional buildings had been added since the big painting had been made.

Even though she had gained an expectation that she would marry well during her time in school, and even though she had heard Caroline talk at great length about Pemberley, to see this reproduction of it gave her a sense of small awe.

To be mistress of such a place would be something indeed.

Darcy was clearly delighted to put his London townhouse on display for her perusal, and he was confident that she would be impressed.

She was as delighted as she ought to be.

Besides the portrait of Pemberley — it was to be her new home! — Elizabeth was particularly delighted by the pyramids of fruits, circles of fine cheeses, piles of bread, and layers of cut meats that the staff had conjured forth for them on such short notice.

She caught Darcy’s eyes, she remembered their kisses, and she felt light and floaty.

Elizabeth was so happy!

She was to marry Mr. Darcy, Caroline was alive and safe, and Darcy seemed to no longer resent Caroline — he was at least reconciled with her to the point that there would be no significant awkwardness in her and Caroline remaining friends. Caroline had no resentment towards her for actually marrying Mr. Darcy when she had failed to do so herself.

In sum: Life was achieving something like perfection.

When they parted Elizabeth had a half minute of privacy with Darcy in the vestibule. He took her hands, and she looked into his eyes. She smiled at him. “Quite a day today. Not at all what I expected for the next day yesterday morning.”

“Nor I.” Darcy sighed in a way that told Elizabeth he thought of Mr. Wickham.

Dead.

Hole in head, and lying in a pool of his own blood on the floor of that bawdy house. The face still pretty.

Elizabeth squeezed his hand. “You are sad for Wickham’s death.”

“I do not mourn him… I only… I mourn the memory of one long gone who was dear to me in my childhood, before he became who he was as an adult.”

Elizabeth wrapped her arms around Darcy and rested her head against his chest. His chin pressed down on her hair, and Elizabeth thought that she fit inside his arms perfectly.

They kissed, but only briefly because Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner waited for her on the other side of the door. Charlie was also there, but after the freedom she’d given him and Jane in her turns as chaperone for them, she planned to consider his presence in such matters not at all.

“I love you,” she whispered.

“I ardently love you,” he replied. “I also wish to say that…”

Darcy paused. He took a deep breath and sighed, and then with a half resigned expression, he said, “Your Miss Bingley is not what Mr. Wickham was. She can learn and change. He did not, and he would not — Any case, I shall call upon you early tomorrow, and then ride direct to Longbourn.”

They briefly kissed again and then went out onto the street. Darcy handed her up into the waiting carriage.

Both she and Caroline fell asleep during the carriage ride to Gracechurch Street.

But they had to wake to get in the house, and then they were swarmed by the children, all of whom pestered Caroline for the story of what had happened to her, and they all demanded that Elizabeth tell about the man she was supposed to marry.

Elizabeth said to Caroline when Mrs. Gardiner at last had mercy on them and herded her herd out of the room and back to their studies, “I suppose we ought stay awake till after dinner — if we sleep now we shall wake in the dead of night, unable to nap another wink.”

“Wholly right. And now answer the important question: How did it happen?”

Elizabeth grinned back. She knew exactly what it Caroline wished to learn about.

“I kissed him,” Elizabeth replied, “a practice I have found that I highly enjoy.”

Caroline squealed, “Before he asked you!?”

“He had already asked me once ,” Elizabeth replied, attempting to sound prim and modest.

She failed.

“Sly girl!” Caroline laughed. “Very sly.”

“You do not mind… truly, not at all?”

“Certainly not to any great extent,” Caroline replied. “At all?”

She frowned, a very serious expression, and looked past Elizabeth to study a painting of a rolling landscape on a wall. “No… I am simply happy to see you happy. And also happy that your happiness will not destroy our ability to remain friends. I had feared it would.”

“I would never let anyone keep me from you! We’ve been as close as sisters our whole lives.”

Caroline looked at her with a sidelong smirk. “I will not insist that you name one of your children after me, as you had planned.”

Elizabeth giggled. “Darcy would hate that.”

The two sat quietly for several minutes.

Happiness.

This was what happiness really was. Everything had worked out well in the end.

Like a fine painting Elizabeth recalled the moment she’d seen Caroline — alive, sobbing in Colonel Fitzwilliam’s arms.

“When you say that your affection for my Mr. Darcy is gone—” Elizabeth asked slowly, and she grinned, “I wonder what factor might have achieved such a complete eviction.”

Her friend blushed quite red.

“Perhaps it may even have been a different cousin?”

“Whoever might you mean?”

“Sly girl! I am not the only sly person here ! You’ll not slither away from me! I see too clearly how you looked at him .”

Caroline pressed her fingers together and looked down shyly. Her face colored becomingly. “Do you mean Colonel Fitzwilliam? Oh but I hardly know. I certainly can have no hopes with anyone. Certainly not with him . Not after I—”

“Do not be so sure of that . He certainly admired you before . And from what he has said… he never judged you so harshly as Mr. Darcy. His expression when he rescued you — that gentleman has a very dashing manner about him.”

“Did he look at me in any particular way? — oh, but that was such a moment. One cannot judge upon that .”

Elizabeth laughed. “You ought to have seen him interrogate Charlie! The instant that he heard it was you who needed to be rescued he was the most efficient, decisive, commanding presence I have ever seen. Wrung all the pertinent details from Charlie — did not allow him to meander at all. Then ordered the carriage and brought us all out. He spent the first hour in the carriage writing pencil notes in a half decent hand despite the shaking to be sent to the Bow Street Runners and the colonel of a regiment in London to provide soldiers. He sent them off by express at Bromley, and then just fell right asleep.”

“Sleeping at a time like that?” Caroline giggled. “That is surely not a sign of deep feeling.”

“I think it more is a sign of the capacities of a military man.”

“He is a very capable man.” Caroline sighed a bit longingly. “I was never so frightened as I was the moment before he kicked the door in.”

Elizabeth shuddered. Mr. Wickham’s body, the bullet hole in his head.

“I suppose…” Caroline said. “I am glad he is dead, but I cannot help but feel sorry for Mr. Wickham.”

“You have sympathy for him! He tried to force you to marry him.”

Caroline raised one eyebrow in a way that made Elizabeth laugh.

“I would not say I have sympathy for him — he was a violent man. But one must be consistent. I can only judge him for attempting to force me into a marriage to the extent that I also judge myself.”

“I despise consistency, and I despise Mr. Wickham,” Elizabeth said viciously. “He also — oh, but I ought not tell you that. It is not my story to tell, but—”

“Did he once seduce Miss Darcy?”

Elizabeth gasped. “How did you guess — I believe from how the incident was spoken about that her honor is fully intact.”

“Poor Georgiana!” Caroline replied. “Mrs. Younge told me some things that led me to guess that something of the sort had happened.”

“Poor Mr. Darcy, he had been so close to Wickham as a child. Caroline, promise me that we’ll never do anything that will irrevocably separate us from each other.”

Caroline took Elizabeth’s hand. “Never. I have made all the truly serious ill decisions that I mean to make in my life.”

“You saved Lydia. That will count for a great deal with everyone,” Elizabeth said.

“I do not expect — I may have a heroic reputation in addition to a scandalous one, but the scandalous one shall remain — but must everyone know about poor Lydia? She is much too young for her reputation to be damaged seriously already.”

Elizabeth grimaced but shrugged. “If she is a sensible, restrained, and even quiet girl for the next five years, I am sure no one will remember this story as anything but youthful high spirits.”

“ Our Lydie a sensible girl?” Caroline laughed. “Little chance of that. But perhaps in five years, if she does not do anything else particularly stupid, it will not weigh on her. But five years is a terrible long time. But I am very glad Lydia escaped without a loss to anything but her reputation.”

“Did you,” Elizabeth asked cautiously, feeling an anxiety in her gut. “Did you suffer any loss besides the… uh…”

Her friend looked at her in a funny way, and then she let out a gust of air. “That! No, no. No — of course I might say nothing had happened no matter what the truth was… except no. Not to you. I would never hide such an event from you. I feared it, but he did not try to take me. The woman who imprisoned me, Mrs. Younge. She had a fear of Mr. Darcy’s name, and Wickham simply mentioning that I had once had an interaction with him was enough for her to insist that he not touch me while I was within her establishment.”

Elizabeth let out a breath, her stomach unclenching. “Oh, my poor Caroline.”

“I pressed myself into the corner the whole night, terrified to hear him clomping up the steps anyway.” She stared at her hands. “An awful night.”

It seemed to Elizabeth there was nothing to say in reply to that, so they sat holding hands together, until both fell asleep for a short nap on the couch before they were awoken for dinner.