Page 117 of Near Pemberley

That sobered her at once. “You have it.”

Darcy nodded. “I found her in a house where she ought never to have been.”

The answer was so carefully phrased that it took Elizabeth some time to understand what he meant. “Gracious.” Then, suddenly, she looked down. “And you?”

He looked away. The silence lasted just long enough.

“Oh.”

A faint colour appeared in his cheeks. “Oh, indeed.”

For perhaps the first time in her life, Elizabeth Bennet found herself at a loss for words. She had not expected embarrassment to be amongst the emotions she would experience that morning.

Darcy, meanwhile, appeared to find the gravel path suddenly fascinating.

“I assure you,” he said at last, “my evening did not proceed in the manner I had anticipated. My cousin, the Colonel, persuaded… Well, there it is. Nevertheless, I was there.”

The dry remark rescued them both.

Elizabeth laughed.

To her surprise, Darcy did as well.

“Then it was chance?”

“Entirely.”

“And when you recognised Lydia?”

His expression immediately grew serious. “Nothing else mattered.”

The answer came without hesitation.

Elizabeth felt her smile fade. She believed him – not because he wished her to believe him, but because it was true.

“He was already gone?” she asked quietly.

Darcy nodded.

“Yes.”

The single word carried enough meaning.

“He left her without money.” Darcy’s jaw tightened. “The people there made it plain that they expected her to find some means of paying what she owed.”

Elizabeth stopped herself from reacting violently.

“Good God!”

They walked on in silence.

Elizabeth found that she hated Wickham more with every new detail she learnt.

Not merely because of what he had done, but because of what he had failed to do. Even the smallest degree of honour would have prevented it. Instead, he had simply left.

Glancing at the house, she said, “What must she have endured!”

“I do not know if you were told…”