Author's Note: Thank you so much for everyone who commented. My most recent (I think) just made my day. Well, if it hadn't already been made. Sorry for posting so late. I was in a performance and everyone just left. I hope you enjoy this chapter. I know that not a single person got both people right. There are (again) characters that I introduced in the beginning that you might not remember. If you don't reread it! Enjoy!

-mgrm

Chapter 21

The first to enter the room was Mr. Darcy, causing the Bennet ladies to expect Mr. Bingley to be the next gentleman to walk through the doorway. It was to the ladies' great surprise when they saw Mr. Hitchcock walk in. Naturally, Kitty did not what his name was at the time, so all she saw was a handsome gentleman walk through the door. Upon closer review she found that it was a very handsome gentleman, at that.

"Kitty, may I introduce you to Mr. Hitchcock? Mr. Hitchcock, my second eldest daughter, Miss Kitty." Mr. Bennet completed the introductions. To his daughters he said, "This is the gentleman who had first heard of our troubles."

With that knowledge, Jane and Elizabeth shared a look. When they were in Derbyshire, Mr. Hitchcock became a good friend of theirs due to their shared friendship of Diane Ashley. They were confused as to why he was so keen on helping their family, but they figured it was due to the fact that he was a kind sort of gentleman in general. The eldest two also speculated that he might have some past connection to Mr. Wickham.

"And all of you know Mr. Darcy," Mr. Bennet added, gesturing to the first of the two gentlemen.

"It is good to see you again, Mr. Hitchcock," Jane said, sweetly.

"I am glad to be able to see both you and your sister again, Miss Bennet, although I wish for different circumstances," the gentleman replied.

Mr. Darcy finally spoke up as to why his companion was there. "Mr. Hitchcock and his sister know Wickham; they have… dealt with him in the past. When I saw Wickham in town, I immediately wrote to Mr. Hitchcock who came as soon as he could; he arrived just this morning. We called as soon as we could." The ladies looked to Mr. Darcy in confusion who in turn, looked at Mr. Hitchcock.

"My sister has a nice fortune that Wickham became aware of. That is all I will say on the subject."

"I am so sorry to hear that," Jane said.

"I realized his designs before anything untoward could happen. I have found it best not to dwell on what might have occurred. Nothing did, and I just leave it at that."

The room quickly was silenced and all that the Bennet sisters could do in reply was nod. Elizabeth glanced up quickly at Darcy, only to see his head turn away. Elizabeth glanced up again to see the same thing happen. 'Why was he looking at me?' she wondered, 'it is not as if he is attracted to me. Oh! I wish that he was not here, he is only making it harder for me.' The overwhelming quiet was broken by Mr. Bennet. "We might as well get down to business. Jane, Elizabeth, Kitty, you are excused, but will you stay close at hand for when we need you again? Will everyone have a seat?" The young people followed his direction, the gentlemen room dropped into the nearest chair, and the ladies bowed out of the room.

"I have been writing to people from all over England that have had issues with Wickham before. Gaming debts, debts of honour, every last penny that he owes to these people was written down. For obvious reasons, I could not contact all that he has had run-ins with, but this is most likely the vast majority," Mr. Darcy said, pulling out a packet of letters from his pocket. "Some of the delicate situations, for example, former near elopements and bribe money, are not in here."

"I have been searching around as well," Mr. Hitchcock added, "and have already given Darcy the pile of letters that I have accumulated. Shopkeepers and the such that I have spoken to have also written out, as well as told me, what he owes them."

Mr. Bennet pulled out his own, smaller, pile of letters. "Here are a few more from the surrounding area. Most of these are from Meryton."

"I believe that we should compile a list of creditors and how much he owes them." Mr. Darcy suggested. "A list would be easier to read rather than a pile of letters."

"We should get to it right away, I think," Mr. Bennet replied. "And do you gentlemen have a list of schools for my daughter?"

"That would be the top two papers in the pile. One is from me, the other is from Darcy. He and I could write to some of the schools while you could start on the list, Mr. Bennet."

"Let us get to work then." The three of them worked quietly for a long while, each of them speaking in whispers. Darcy and Hitchcock finished first as they only had a few letters to write between the two of them. They compiled a list of debts of honour that Wickham owed, which took them about the same amount of time as Mr. Bennet's list.

"Should we see if we can send him to Australia or should we put the runners on his scent?" Mr. Bennet asked as he took the letters and wrote a short note to accompany them.

"If he is in Australia, he could die of some disease. He would be gone for the rest of our lives. That is, unless one of us wishes to venture to Australia. If we send him to debtor's prison then he can wallow in pity for a good long time, but in the end he will be released," Hitchcock expanded.

"After he serves his sentence, Wickham will be free. Our best bet would be deporting him. There would be little chance that he could bother us again that way," Darcy added.

"I say that we send him to Australia and be done with it," Hitchcock said.

"How could you send him to Australia? Would you buy him a ticket to there? In that case, what would induce him to actually leave? How could we be sure that he does not come back?" Mr. Bennet asked. "We all know Mr. Wickham, and we all know that he is not the sort of man to thank us for our generosity and listen to our advice."

"True," Darcy said slowly, while thinking. "You know, there are two ways to get him to go that might actually work."

"Which are…?" prompted Hitchcock.

"Well, my first idea is that we could still set him up with a meeting with a magistrate, but convince the magistrate offer him a choice between debtor's prison and deportation to Australia. The other possibility is that we could threaten him with putting the runners on him if he does not take our ticket and kind advice."

"While I personally would like to threaten Wickham, I think that he might want some money for his trip. If we get him deported then there is no foreseeable way that he can ever come back, and we don't lose any money—at least to him," Hitchcock said. The three gentlemen in the room slowly smiled.

Elizabeth, Jane, and Kitty knocked on the door and entered at their father's command. "Where exactly is Wickham right now?" Elizabeth asked.

"Since he is staying here for the time being, I figured that he should work for his room and board. Mr. Hill is having Wickham chop wood, I believe."

"And Mr. Hill is overseeing this, Papa?" Elizabeth asked in a frightened tone.

"Naturally."

"Where is Wickham staying? He certainly is not staying in our home, but where on this estate is he residing at the moment?" Jane asked.

"I'm afraid as there's 'no room in the inn' so to speak, I have consigned him to the stable house," Mr. Bennet replied to the great amusement of the other two gentlemen who started to guffaw.

Elizabeth's facial expression turned to amusement. "Perhaps, my sisters and I could go drop off the post in Meryton. The exercise would do use good, and I am sure that we all wish to talk to the Lucases."

"We would enjoy the walk, and the letters will be sent out sooner. I think that the post was already sent today, and by the time that it is collected tomorrow, it will be too late to send out," Kitty added.

"With the likes of Wickham about I am not sure if I should let you go without a escort," Mr. Bennet replied, weary.

"It would not be safe," Darcy added.

"But Papa, you said yourself that Wickham is with Mr. Hill. We saw this morning that Hill is capable of handling Mr. Wickham," Elizabeth replied, ignoring Darcy's reply. Friends could be concerned about each other, but he held no power over her.

"I am still not sure, what if he does escape?"

"Papa?" Kitty pleaded.

"You may go, but be sure to take a gentleman with you," Mr. Bennet excused them.

"I wish to stretch my legs. I can join them," Hitchcock said, "besides, I have not yet seen Meryton."

"Thank you, Papa, Mr. Hitchcock," Jane said as they stood up to go.

As the ladies were putting on their winter pelisses, gloves, and bonnets in the front hall, Mrs. Hill scurried by. "Misses, there are letters for you. They are on the plate sitting over there."

"Thank you Hill," Elizabeth said as she went over to see what they had received. The busy housekeeper curtseyed and rushed up the stairs to tend to the needs of Mrs. Bennet and Lydia. "They are from our friends in London! I do wonder how they have been doing." Elizabeth passed Jane's letters to her.

"How about you read them on our way, Elizabeth? I do like knowing what is going on in their lives even if I have not been introduced."

"Great idea, Kitty. Let us proceed as planned," Elizabeth agreed.

While walking, Elizabeth and Jane read over their friends' letters, laughing and commenting aloud to themselves about their letters, even though no one else knew what the contents of those letters was, by this time, Hitchcock dropped a bit behind the group to give them privacy with their letters, "I am not sure what news your letter contained, Elizabeth, but Amy writes to tell me that Lord Leventhal has called on her and her family quite a few times. While he has not officially asked to court her yet, she feels that he might do so in the near future. She also tells me that she believes herself in love!"

"She said much of the same in my letter, and our other friends mentioned it too. Besides that, and some witty observations of our other friends, all she wrote about were the delights of London. Mama will be sad to know that Amy did not impart any information on the latest fashions," Elizabeth replied. "It seems, according to Diane's letter, Amy is not the only one on the brink of courtship. Her elder brother—Diane's, I mean—has strong feelings for Eileen, and it is only a matter of time before he gathers the courage to properly ask Eileen if he may court her."

"I am so happy for them. They seemed so attracted to each other in Derbyshire, and both Eileen and Diane have written about Mr. Ashley and Eileen's growing regard," Jane sighed at this romantic situation. "I found that this was the main topic in both Eileen's and Diane's letters."

"For me as well, although we must interrogate Georgy about her letters," Elizabeth replied. Kitty just sighed with a dreamy, and slightly jealous, expression on her face. "Those were not the only two couples that I saw in these letters, though."

"No?"

"I got the feeling that Diane and a certain Mr. Dalton have been dancing together at almost every gathering. Not to mention, they have the tendency to talk to each other at card parties," Elizabeth replied. She looked to Kitty, almost expecting an outburst to be forthcoming about her wanting to go to London and enjoy frequent parties and balls.

"Now that you mention it, I believe this was mentioned in mine from here, as well."

"I wish that we were in London so we could talk to them about all of this. Not to mention, we could meet this Mr. Dalton and make sure that he is good enough for our friend."

"I wish that I was in London and could meet the other three ladies that you have all become so close to in Derbyshire," Kitty said.

"Do you not wish that you could go to parties and balls and meet rich young gentlemen?" Elizabeth asked, teasingly.

Kitty blushed, and whispered, "well, I do, but there has been a gentleman who has caught my fancy. Not that he would be attracted to me in the least, though."

"And who is this gentleman?" Elizabeth asked in a light voice.

"Mr. Hitchcock," Kitty whispered.

"Who did you say?" Jane asked. "I could not hear you."

"Mr. Hitchcock," Kitty said once again, this time a bit louder.

"I know him well and know him to be a good, kind sort of gentleman. I believe that you two would do quite well together," Elizabeth said, half in jest, half in all seriousness. All three took a surreptitious glance behind them at their companion.

"Lizzy, do not tease poor Kitty!" Jane exclaimed.

"You almost sound like Mama, trying to marry me off," Kitty replied merrily, although what Elizabeth had said really meant a lot to her.

"Not to mention, I saw him looking up at you frequently when he thought no one was looking," Elizabeth added.

"Really?" Kitty asked.

Elizabeth nodded.

"Look! There are Miss Clancy and Georgiana," Jane said excitedly.

"And Mr. Bingley," Elizabeth added. By this point, the girls had made their way into Meryton.

"Let me drop off the post and you two can go talk to them. I will meet you in a minute," Kitty offered.

"Thank you, Kitty," Jane replied. The eldest two Miss Bennets and Mr. Hitchcock greeted their friends, although Jane paid less attention to Miss Clancy and Georgiana than she did to Mr. Bingley. Kitty joined the group shortly afterwards.

"Do you have any clue where Mr. Darcy went?" Bingley asked.

"I believe that he is at Longbourn," Jane replied.

"We were just on our way there now, if you wish to accompany us," Elizabeth suggested.

"What about the Lucases?" Kitty whispered.

"We can talk to them at church tomorrow," Elizabeth whispered back.

The Farrington party accepted and they were on their way; Bingley and Jane walked in front and Georgiana, Elizabeth, Kitty, Miss Clancy, and Mr. Hitchcock followed in a small group, a bit behind them.