make sure you are well looked after. I will not be away
very long.’
‘I think I will take advantage of the opportunity to go
to London with you and do some shopping,’ said Caroline, standing up. ‘I will call in on my dressmaker. You
would not object to taking me with you in the carriage,
I am sure.’
‘You will not wish to leave Georgiana,’ I said.‘I know
how much you enjoy her company.’
Caroline was silenced. She quite doted on Georgiana,
or so she was fond of saying, and she could not pursue
me without revealing her friendship to be false. She
might betray Miss Bennet, but she would not care to
betray Georgiana, particularly since I knew a plan fermented in her brain, similar to one I had once entertained, of Georgiana becoming her sister-in-law.
I felt a moment of compunction for abandoning my
sister to such ill-natured company, but reflected that she
would have her music and sketching to occupy her, and
would have Bingley to amuse her, as well as Mrs Annesley, so that she would not be too sorely tried. Besides, I
had no choice. I must find Wickham and repair the damage he had done.
I wanted to leave straight away, but various preparations had to be made, and I resolved to leave first thing
in the morning.
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A M A N D A G R A N G E
Saturday 9th August
I arrived in London today and I knew where to start my
search: with Mrs Younge. It was fortunate that I had
turned her off without giving her a chance to pack her
bags, because it meant that she had had to leave an
address to which they could be sent. I found it soon
enough, a large house in Edward Street.
‘Mr Darcy!’ she said in astonishment when she
opened the door. Then she became wary. ‘What are you
doing here? If it is to accuse me of taking the silver
serving-spoons when I left Ramsgate, then it is a lie. I
never touched them. I had my suspicions of Watkins – ’
‘My visit has nothing to do with serving-spoons,’ I
said, grateful that this was one domestic trouble I had
been spared. ‘May I come in?’
‘No, you may not,’ she said, drawing herself up and
pulling her shawl about her shoulders.‘It’s lucky I have a
roof over my head after you turned me off so cruelly,
without even a reference. I had nowhere to go – ’
‘But you seem to have done well for yourself,’ I
remarked. ‘Tell me, Mrs Younge, how did you afford to
take a house like this?’
She licked her lips.‘I was left a legacy,’ she said.‘And a
good thing I was, after – ’
‘I am looking for George Wickham,’ I said, not wanting to waste any more time on listening to her lies and
deciding it would be useless to try and persuade her to
let me in.
She looked surprised. ‘Mr Wickham?’
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‘Yes. George Wickham.’
She became tight-lipped.‘I haven’t seen him,’ she said.
It was obvious she was lying, but I knew I would get
no more from her for the present.
‘Tell him I am looking for him. I will call back later.
Good day.’
I knew that, eventually, greed would compel her to
seek me out. And with that I returned to Darcy House.
Monday 11th August
Mrs Younge came to see me this morning, as I knew she
would.
‘You said you were looking for Mr Wickham?’ she
asked, as my butler showed her in.
‘I am.’
‘I know where he is. I happened to meet him by
chance in the park yesterday,’ she said. ‘I mentioned that
you were in town, and he said he would be delighted if
you would call on him.’
He thinks he can extract money from me, no doubt.
‘Very good.What is his address?’
‘Well, now, let me think. It was a funny name,’ she said,
holding out her hand.
I put a sovereign into it.
‘If I can just remember it.’
It took me five sovereigns, but at last I found out what
I wanted to know.
I went immediately to the address she had given me,
and found that Wickham was expecting me.
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A M A N D A G R A N G E
‘My dear Darcy,’ he said, looking up at my entrance.
‘How good of you to find time to visit me.’
I looked around his lodgings. They were small and
mean, and told me his situation must be desperate. I was
pleased, as I knew it would make him more compliant.
‘Do sit down,’ he said.
‘I prefer to stand.’
‘As you wish.’
He himself sat down and lolled in his chair, resting his
legs over the arm.
‘What brings you here?’ he asked, smiling up at me.
‘You know what brings me.’
‘I confess I am at a loss.You have decided to give me a
living, perhaps, and have come to tell me the good news?’
His insolence angered me, but I kept my temper.
‘I have come to tell you what your own conscience
should have told you, that you should never have
abducted Miss Bennet.’
‘Miss Bennet?’ he asked, feigning astonishment. ‘But I
have not seen Miss Bennet. I have been in Brighton, and
she remained at Longbourn.’
‘Miss Lydia Bennet.’
‘Ah, Lydia. I did not abduct Lydia. She came with me
of her own free will. I was leaving Brighton as my creditors were becoming rather vocal, and Lydia suggested
she came with me. I tried to put her off. To be truthful,
Darcy, she bores me. She is too easy a conquest. She
convinced herself I was the handsomest man in the
regiment, and the thing was done. I told her I had no
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money but she did not care. “I am sure you will have
some one day,” she said. “Lord, what a lark!” I grew so
tired of her pleading that it was easier to let her come
with me than it was to make her stay behind. Besides, she
has her uses,’ he said impudently.
At that moment the door opened, and Lydia herself
came in.
‘Lord, what a surprise! Mr Darcy!’ she said, going over
to
