Lydia turned her back to him and went to the window.
“And I have the documents to prove it, and since you have a solicitor in the family, he may wish to examine the receipt for three thousand pounds paid to Wickham by me in lieu of a living or another receipt for one thousand pounds as settlement of my father’s will. That is a lot of money, Miss Lydia. Where is it?”
Lydia turned to face him, and he could see by the look on her face that he had succeeded in planting seeds of doubt. But a defiant Lydia insisted that she would have married him anyway.
“You see, Miss Lydia, the problem is, he would never have married
Chapter 42
The only other time Darcy remembered being this fatigued was when he had received word that his father had died. Richard and he had been on the Grand Tour, and they were making their way south through France with a destination of Nice when the news had reached him. With his sister’s wellbeing in mind, Darcy had made record time in reaching the port of Calais, but then there was still the Channel crossing and the long journey to Derbyshire. When he had finally arrived, he was unshaven, bedraggled, and in need of a bath, much as he was now. Thank goodness he was back in his own home, and he would shortly be asleep in his own bed.
“Will, let me have Mercer draw you a bath,” Georgiana said to her brother, who was slumped in a leather chair in the study, saying he was too dirty to sit anywhere else.
“No. Please don’t. He is more tired than I am.”
“Then I shall ask Rogers.”
“No, first I want to have something to eat, then a bath, and then I am to bed, hopefully, until late tomorrow morning. I am weary to the bone. I do not even know how long it has been since I left Pemberley.”
“This is the sixth day since you departed, but tell me what happened in Brighton. Hopefully, you were in time.”
“We were in time. When I left Miss Lydia, she was sobbing in her father’s arms. Mr. Bennet was very grateful for my intervention, but all he wanted to do was to get his daughter home. I assume your return to London was uneventful?”
“Perfectly so,” Georgiana answered. “The three of us left the day after you did. Richard has returned to his regiment, and as for Antony, well, he is staying here—not permanently, of course, but please allow me to explain.”
“Please do.” Darcy was so tired he did not have the energy to protest.
“Before leaving London, Antony hired an agent to find someone to take up the lease on the townhouse, and in the short time we were gone, the agent found someone—a Mr. Whitby. Antony says he’s as rich as Croesus and made his money in hemp, whatever that means.”
“Whitby supplies the Royal Navy with much of its rope. Through Bingley’s financial advisor, you and I are venturers in his concern, and he has done very well by us.”
“Antony said he asked a ridiculous amount for the lease, and Mr. Whitby did not bat an eye when the agent mentioned the amount of the rent. They are to go to Briarwood, and our dear cousin is hoping the gentleman will buy the manor house. I received Mr. Whitby here for dinner, and I watched as Antony shamelessly told that unsuspecting man that he could not part with the Fitzwilliam estate unless he knew it was in good hands. With tears in his eyes, he explained what a great loss it would be for him and his family, when you and I know he would walk away from it if a buyer could be found who would provide for the servants and settle his accounts.”
Darcy did not care if Antony sold Briarwood. The house was an architectural hybrid combining Jacobean and Georgian elements and doing justice to neither. Antony had once compared it to one of the Prince of Wales’s rejected mistresses: no longer young, beautiful, or wanted.
“But Antony is looking for other accommodations? Yes?”
“Yes. He said he could not live with you as you remind him too much of his mother.”
“Good. Anything else I should know?”
“Have you heard about the king?”
“What about the king?” Darcy asked, but he already knew the answer. If Georgiana had heard of the madness of King George, then so had everyone else.
Georgiana had first heard the whispers and rumors during a stop at an inn north of town, which meant that the news had already spread into the suburbs and surrounding countryside. By the time the travelers had reached London, pamphlets depicting the king as nearly blind and completely mad were being sold on the streets.
Many were predicting that as soon as the prince was named regent there would be a major shift in the political landscape. Although it was true that the prince was more liberal than his father, once the Prince of Wales became regent, Darcy believed that he would see things differently. Power was intoxicating, and history had proved that monarchs never seemed to have enough of it.
“There have already been a few changes,” Georgiana said, and she shifted uncomfortably in her chair. “I might as well tell you now, Will. Sir John was here yesterday. Fortunately for me, so was Antony.”
Darcy sat up in his chair. “Is he still angry with me?”
“To the contrary, he said he was looking forward to having vigorous debates with you, and that he was not so set in his ways that he could not learn a thing or two from a younger man.”
Darcy burst into laughter. The thought of Sir John, a dyed-in-the-wool Tory, listening to anything he had to say was a bright spot in an otherwise gray landscape.
“Sir John is willing to be educated by me! I would sooner believe the prince had taken a vow of chastity,” and he continued to laugh to himself. “Just think of the irony, Georgie. Lydia Bennet goes to Brighton, delaying my return to London just long enough so that, in Sir John’s eyes, I go from being an arrogant whippersnapper who is courting revolution to someone he wants to exchange ideas with.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I am going to go to bed, and tomorrow I will visit with Miss Montford or her father and advise them of my intention to withdraw from whatever they thought I had been doing.”
“I do not think you should go to see either Montford tomorrow. You will still be very tired, and Antony says Sir John can be very abrasive and is known to shout when he does not get his way.”
“That is excellent advice, and I shall take it. But I shall delay no longer than that as every day I do keeps me from Elizabeth. At this point, I do not even care what Sir John or anyone else thinks or says about me. Besides, I deserve it. The only thing I have done right since I met Elizabeth was to go to Longbourn to apologize for being an arrogant… Well, an unpleasant fellow. Since that time, it has been a comedy of errors, and it must come to an end.”
Georgiana could hardly bear to think of someone speaking ill of her brother. But then an idea came to her that would avoid putting Will’s good name at risk. While her brother rested, she would go to see Miss Montford, and during her visit, what could be more natural than to have the names of one’s friends come up in conversation? Georgiana smiled at the thought of how Miss Caroline Bingley might actually end up facilitating the union of her brother and Miss Elizabeth Bennet.
Chapter 43
While preparing for her visit with Miss Montford, Georgiana thought about the differences between the two families. While the Montfords refused to associate with people like the Bingleys, the Darcys befriended them. She understood from Will that this was a recent change, which had begun when their father had invited members from
