Goodly Creatures: A Pride and Prejudice Deviation (78 page)

Colonel Bledsoe’s sister, Sarah, who preferred to be called, Sally, turned fifteen the first week they were in Brighton, but to Lydia, she still looked twelve. She had absolutely no bosom, and no hips. Sally quickly became infatuated with the handsome and charming Lieutenant Wickham. No matter how many times Lydia told her he would never be interested in her because she had no money, she refused to listen. She even had the nerve to accuse Lydia of jealousy, because he paid much more attention to her than any of the others. Lydia noticed that Colonel Fitzwilliam watched Wickham like a hawk, and Wickham often left the room when he was present. Colonel Fitzwilliam must have said something to his friend Colonel Bledsoe, because the next day, Sarah complained that her brother told her she could no longer talk to Wickham.

Sally also had a bad habit of wandering off when they were out exploring the beach or the town. Lydia felt a special responsibility for her because she so admired Colonel Bledsoe. It was important he think of her as responsible and mature. Three weeks after they arrived in Brighton, the young women were visiting shops. Maria and her best friend were looking at ribbons in one shop, when Lydia noticed that Sally had disappeared—once again.

She and Maria left the shop to see if they could see which direction their friend had gone. Up ahead, Lydia saw Sally walking with Wickham. The two young women followed as quickly as they could, and observed their friend talking animatedly to the handsome lieutenant. Before they could catch up with the pair, they turned into the yard of a house and went inside. Suddenly fear for Sally spurred Lydia forward. She had heard many times from Lizzy to never agree to be alone with anyone, even women, whose character was not fully determined. The realization they needed reinforcements became uppermost in her mind. She sent her friend back to fetch her brother-in-law and the two other colonels and urged her to memorize the directions to bring them to this house. With a look that she hoped was the right combination of urgent need but without any trace of the panic she was feeling, she told Maria to make haste.

Lydia was petrified, and her knees felt like they might give way. Still, she felt duty-bound to save Colonel Bledsoe’s sister. With trembling hands, she approached the door and knocked. There was no answer, and she willed herself to knock louder and shout for those inside to open the door. Finally Wickham did, and she shot past him. Once inside, she whirled around and said very loudly, “Where is Miss Bledsoe?”

Wickham smirked at her. “She is fine. You do not need to worry your pretty little head about your girlish friend. I brought her here to make the acquaintance of a fine gentleman. He is a viscount, and will one day be an earl. He observed her on the beach and admired her. I agreed to bring her to him for an introduction.” He walked toward her with a suggestive look. “I am sure by now they are very pleasantly engaged upstairs. Perhaps we could enjoy ourselves down here while we wait for them to finish.”

Lydia drew the knife out of her reticule and brandished it before Wickham. “Do not come near me. I know how to use this.” At that moment she heard Sally emit a blood-curdling scream. The sound, which came from the floor above, was the most gruesome thing she thought she had ever heard. She prayed the three colonels would arrive quickly. Bounding up the stairs, leading with her knife; she frantically searched all the rooms along the second story corridor. Finally, the last door she opened, revealed Sally with her bodice ripped, cowering in a corner. Lydia saw the man in the room out of the corner of her eye. He seemed to be taking the measure of her and her knife. Lydia took off Lizzy’s shawl and handed it to Sally. “Cover yourself and run down the stairs. If Wickham tries to stop you, tell him you will kick him here between his legs.” She pointed to the juncture between her two limbs. “My sister Elizabeth says it will be very painful and disable him for some time. Maria has gone to bring your brother and Colonel Forster and Colonel Fitzwilliam. Run, Sally, make haste, I will deal with this disgusting piece of trash.”

Lydia turned to the man in the room, and kept the knife before him at the height of his stomach.

The man smiled at her, smug in the knowledge that no one would ever punish a viscount for attacking young Sally. He would tell the authorities she agreed to come to him for some pleasure. Wickham would back him up. It was a complication to have his brother in the picture, but he was the second son and not the heir to Elderton.

Lydia noticed the man was well dressed and quite handsome. He looked something like Mr Darcy, except his nose was crooked.

He began to talk, and she noticed one of his front teeth was broken. She continued to hold him off with the knife.

“And who might you be… young Sally’s mother? Who told you about hurting a man in that place? I imagine you are quite experienced; and one of your many lovers told you the secret.”

Lydia knew he was baiting her, and trying to confuse her. She resolved to keep her wits about her, and decided to do some disconcerting herself to this arrogant, hateful man. “I was told about hurting a man there by a very wise sister. She is also the one who sent me to Brighton with this knife.”

“Oh please, do tell me what this extraordinary sister’s name is. You did not say whether your wise sister was older or younger. I only like women very young… like your friend Sally. If your sister is young, I might enjoy enjoying her.”

“My sister’s name is Elizabeth Bennet, and she is five years older than I am. She is not only wise, but utterly fearless.”

Lydia saw two things in this stranger’s face. He continued to smirk at her, but she also saw something else in his eyes. Could it be fear?

“Oh, so you are one of the five Bennet sisters. What a troublesome lot of women you all are.” He observed the confusion in Lydia’s eyes, and to his misfortune, the braggart in him could not be repressed. “I have already had your wise, Miss Elizabeth Bennet. She was not so fearless when I had her six years ago, and gave her a bastard. She was so frightened for you and your sisters that, unlike your friend Sally, she undressed herself.”

Afterwards, Lydia could not describe to Colonel Fitzwilliam what happened. The best answer she could provide was that she snapped. She remembered Lizzy’s fear of being touched, which caused her to deny herself the pleasure of going to assemblies and balls. She remembered the joy that had always danced in her sister’s eyes, only to be replaced by an ever present hint of sadness when she returned to Longbourn. Lydia remembered how much she loved Lizzy. He had said she acquiesced because she was worried about her sisters, and there was suddenly a powerful awareness of how much Lizzy loved her. With thoughts of Lizzy’s sacrifice for them all swirling in her brain, Lydia plunged the knife with tremendous force into the spot where she had been taught, and in the next instant pulled it out. She stood there in a daze, holding the bloody knife and staring at the Viscount. He looked startled and tried to speak. Soon there was a gurgle in his throat, and blood spilled from the corner of his mouth as he collapsed on the floor.

54 IN WHAT FURNACE WAS THY BRAIN?

Richard Fitzwilliam saw his brother, eyes fixed and staring, lying on the floor. Blood was everywhere… on his clothes, on the floor and on the silver weapon held away from his attacker’s body—in instinctual anticipation of the need for another thrust. As if a sign from heaven, it was everywhere but on the yellow frock worn by a very confused Miss Lydia. The dazed look she gave him contained no recognition, but it was obvious her frozen defensive posture was from a previous encounter and not for him. His presence propelled her eyes to settle on the dripping dagger. She readily relinquished the offending object. He gently pushed her toward a chair and forced her to sit.

The physical remains of violence were things he had seen many times during his military career. Still a feeling of confusion threatened to overwhelm. How had he—did he mean Edmund or himself—come to this? He was now holding the knife as though it were an unfathomable thing. The filigree work made it a thing of beauty, but it obviously was an effective deterrent. What should he do with it? Most importantly, what should he do with the young woman who had ‘deterred’ the Viscount Wolfbridge—his parents’ first born?

Richard became aware that an idea was insisting he allow it to enter his consciousness. Finally it succeeded in penetrating through the alarming absurdity that had arrested his usual methodical thought process. There were many of his dearest friends, family and loved ones, whose happiness depended on what he did next. A dresser with a washbowl and pitcher… and a towel registered. He wrapped the knife in the towel and washed his hands. He sat on the edge of the bed and tried to put together a plan.

Instead, as he stared at his brother’s startled gaze, his thoughts drifted to the past. They had not always been at odds. Richard had embraced Edmund as his heroic leader through their early childhood adventures. There was a time they had been as close as Bethany and Lewis. The cleavage came when Richard was about nine and the heir to Elderton was eleven.

His mind’s use of the word cleavage triggered a flash of memory. It was from that same summer the distance with his brother had begun. Disjointed sensory impressions flooded his mind. He could hear his mother’s voice discussing the oddity of the word cleave, smell his aunt’s lavender scent layered on top of the aroma of the abundance of flowers in the solarium, feel the coolness of the tile as he sat cross legged on the floor, see Darcy’s inquisitive look and Edmund’s bored one, and taste the almond cake they were enjoying. Why this remembrance was etched so firmly was a mystery, much like why the word itself meant both to split apart and stick together.

That summer, the impetus for the shift came when he and Fitzwilliam caught Edmund with a foxhound pup tied to a tree in the woods behind the house. He had started a fire, and had several staves partially in the flames. As they spied on him from behind some bushes, he methodically took one out of the fire, blew on the ember at its tip and touched the burning end to the dog. The pup howled in pain. In disgust and without thinking, Richard had rushed toward his brother and wrestled the stick from his hands while Darcy untied and picked up the dog. They never spoke of what had happened… perhaps they should have, but from that moment, the time of sticking together became less and less, and the time of splitting apart became more and more.

Other acts of deliberate malice, as well as the belief he was above almost everyone of his acquaintance, became hallmarks of his behaviour. But, the one that tore them asunder was the wooing of Miss Harding. Richard had been preoccupied with training green young men to fight for king and country in a time of war. His deployment out of the country had been imminent—it could have been anywhere, on any continent—South America, Asia, or Africa. Edmund had set about winning the object of his brother’s affections almost immediately after he left London. The Colonel rued the day he had disclosed his admiration—and more importantly the amount of Eleanor’s dowry—to his brother. He often was guilty of saying more than he should, and this time his tongue had been loosened by the French cognac Edmund had thought a fitting toast to his departure.

Richard’s was again captured by his brother’s accusing eyes, and he acknowledged that he was not without some culpability in the loss of Eleanor. She had not been wholly aware of the depth of his feelings. His lack of declaration had been meant to spare her. The Colonel had prepared himself for the possibility she might accept another while he was away. What he had not expected was that his brother would seize the moment and pursue her as a prize he needed to support his profligate ways. He looked away from the body and forced himself to remember Lord Wolfbridge’s cruelty toward Eleanor. At least he had not inflicted physical pain the way Richard suspected he had with Miss Elizabeth… and probably would have done with little Sally.

This thought brought him back to the present. He needed to find a solution for both Miss Elizabeth and her sister. He looked over at Miss Lydia, who seemed a bit more alert. Unfortunately she was staring at the body on the floor, and there seemed to be panic in her eyes. He spoke to her. “Do not look at him. Look at me, Miss Lydia. Tell me what happened. I will protect you, but first I must understand what occurred here.”

Lydia had a look of concentration on her face. “I do not remember exactly, but I know I felt fury as I have never experienced before. His words were confusing to me, but I think his intent was cruel. He said he gave Elizabeth a bastard, and she helped by undressing herself to protect us—her sisters. I do not understand what that means, but all I could think was that he was very evil… and he hurt Lizzy.”

“He was, Miss Lydia. What he did to your sister and was about to do to Sally was an act of unparalleled viciousness. I will explain privately to you what he meant about your sister. No one, absolutely no one else here should be told of his words to you.” He waited for her to nod before he asked the most important question. “Who knew you were up here alone with him?”

“Sally… he had ripped her dress, so I told her to cover herself with Lizzy’s shawl and go outside to find you and her brother. Wickham would have known I was alone with him, once Sally left. I told Sally what Lizzy told me about where to kick Wickham so she could get away.” Lydia’s eyes reflected a terror he had not seen before. “Colonel Fitzwilliam, will they hang me?”

He forced his reply to be as calm and as confidant as the situation would allow. “Not if I can help it, but we must both keep our wits about us. We must make sure no one beyond our closest allies knows you were here.”

Richard was quiet for a few moments, thinking about what Lydia had related. He noticed her eyes were once again drifting toward his brother. Just in the nick of time, he was ready to communicate the first part of his plan. He spoke authoritatively. “Miss Lydia, go outside. Do not stop to talk to Lieutenant Wickham or Colonel Forster. Once outside, see if Miss Lucas, Colonel Bledsoe and Miss Bledsoe are still there. If they are, tell them I instruct them to walk very casually back to the Forsters’ lodgings. There is no need to hurry. Perhaps, you might look in shop windows along the way. It is important to give the appearance to passersby that nothing untoward has happened.”