Thank you for all your wonderful reviews. Keep the review love coming and I will resolve the cliffie I left this chapter on, by posting another chapter tomorrow.
Chapter 43: A New Use for Ribbons
During the separation of the sexes, I was subjected to some bawdy comments from the men about my upcoming marriage and most specifically the wedding night. Colonel Forster, the most recently married among us, nodded knowingly at me and then said, "What a pity that we will be long gone, for I should not have minded to hear afterwards how you found her." The room erupted in laughter. I felt embarrassed but said nothing, letting my face assume a serious mien.
The drinks flowed freely with my upcoming shackling being an excuse for partaking. Sir William Lucas became even more loquacious with the addition of a few drinks. Myself, I partook lightly as I prefer remaining in control of myself.
George Wickham smirked at me repeatedly during the most embarrassing of the comments, but I decided to pay it no mind. I was surprised that he was not imbibing more liberally, but perhaps he was wiser than Captain Carter and Colonel Forster who would suffer for it when decamping in the morning. The comments to myself became so ribald that Mr. Bennet had to remind them "Mind your tongues; you are talking about my daughter." However, this only temporarily tamped down on their innuendos.
When we left to rejoin the ladies in the parlor, I noticed that George was not among us, but I assumed he was merely ahead of the rest of us. I was almost the last to enter the parlor as Colonel Forster had a few more inappropriate comments for me, things that do not bear repeating. As he said them, he thumped me again and again on the shoulder, so strongly that even through my coat it stung a bit. I could feel my face grow hot from his comments, and I believe this reaction that I could not stifle caused him much enjoyment for his discourse became rather worse, at least the parts of it I could understand, for he used many expressions with which I was unfamiliar. Finally, he went into the parlor, I paused outside of it, waiting for the color to fade from my face.
I was surprised then to the parlor door swing open widely, almost hitting me. Coming out of there was the woman known to the Bennets as Mrs. Pope.
She saw me, closed the door and paused, asking quietly, "Mr. Darcy, is Mr. Wickham still on his way to join us?"
I was immediately on my guard, "No, I believe he was among the first to leave the men to come here. Surely, he is inside the parlor."
Her eyelids widened, making the whites of her eyes more prominent, as she gasped, "No, he is not. I am certain of that. What is more disturbing is that one of my charges is missing, too. Miss Lydia excused herself a while ago to fetch her new embroidery piece from her room to show Miss Lucas and would not let me go in her stead. She should have returned already. I shall seek her, hopefully it is all just a coincidence, but perhaps you can have the older Miss Bennets do likewise?" She did not wait for my reply, just grasped her skirts, lifted them by a foot or so and rushed up the stairs faster than I have ever seen a woman do.
I did not think it a coincidence; I was instantly anxious and perturbed, but immediately set about doing as she had asked. I entered the parlor, sought out Miss Elizabeth and then whispering to her, "Mr. Wickham and Miss Lydia are both missing, Mrs. Pope is looking for your sister and requested the assistance of yourself and your other sisters."
I saw Miss Elizabeth whisper first to Miss Bennet and then to Miss Mary. I noticed that she made no attempt to approach Miss Catherine, who was engaged in a conversation with several of the men. It was respectable enough as her uncle was one of this group.
Miss Elizabeth returned to my side for a moment and then quietly asked me, "Mr. Darcy, please do your best to keep the others distracted, especially my mother if you can. We cannot have the matrons noticing that anything is amiss."
"Certainly," I told her. She had hardly heard my reply before she and her sisters were gone. I understood her concern as I knew if Mrs. Bennet or any of the others found Miss Lydia in a compromising position with George Wickham that they would seek to bind the two of them in matrimony, a fate I did not wish for Miss Lydia. I trusted that the three who had left were seeking to avoid that. I decided the best way to keep Mrs. Bennet occupied was to speak with her myself.
Unlike the men who wanted to tease me about the wedding night, when I approached a cluster of women comprised of Mrs. Bennet, Mrs. Philips, Mrs. Long and a few others, I heard them discussing wedding clothes and then what Miss Elizabeth would need in her trousseau given that she would be my wife. I had nothing much to contribute, so simply listened.
When those subjected were well canvased, Mrs. Bennet began questioning me most assiduously about my relations, first beginning with those on the Darcy side. She quickly learned all about my almost complete lack of living Darcy relations besides my uncle the judge. I barely mentioned my aunt, explaining "That is a relationship that I have not maintained. She was cruel to my mother and did not honor the memory of my father, and I shall never forgive her for either action."
As for my uncle, Judge Darcy, Mrs. Bennet exclaimed, "But I thought it was your great uncle who was a judge. That is what we heard tell of, I believe from Miss Bingley. Surely it is your great uncle and not your uncle; perhaps he is only of an age to be called familiarly an uncle."
To such ridiculous reasoning, I felt some irritation. Did she truly believe I was a simpleton? I tried not to let my annoyance show in my response. "What Miss Bingley may have said, I do not know, but I can assure you, Madam, that I have no great-uncle for my grandfather was an only child. I certainly know who my relations are, who the younger brother of my father is."
"I suppose," she allowed.
Then Mrs. Bennet questioned me in great detail about my many Fitzwilliam relatives. When I confirmed that Uncle Matlock was an Earl (a connection I was not sure I would be maintaining, although naturally I said nothing of that), she seemed most delighted. She said, "Well now that he approves of you marrying my Lizzy, he can have no objection if his sons find merit in any of my daughters." She then spent some time questioning me about which of his sons Jane had met and his prospects. Mrs. Bennet also was quite eager to learn about the Earl's other unmarried sons and seemed quite struck that Edwin was one of four who were unattached, the same number as her remaining daughters.
While I was glad to have Mrs. Bennet's approval, I was quite distracted at the drama likely occurring outside the room and could not help but think her delight in a possible match for Miss Bennet might be somewhat diminished if she knew her household was currently employing Edwin's former mistress. While I had faith that Miss Elizabeth and Miss Bennet were quite the proper persons to resolve whatever might be occurring between George Wickham and Miss Lydia, I could not help but feel my place was at Miss Elizabeth's side, protecting her and her sisters from him.
Finally, Mrs. Bennet quit questioning me and instead turned to Mrs. Phillips and Mrs. Lucas and began discussing what would be best to serve for the wedding breakfast. I took advantage of this to look around at the groupings in the room and determine my next move.
I slipped away from the matrons and relocated myself next to Mr. Bennet, who was standing with the group of men. He gave me a nod and then turned back to watching their drunken antics. Sir William was hiccupping loudly as he tried to discuss his presentation once again, but he kept repeating the beginning of his story, after telling a sentence or two. Mr. Philips was simultaneously trying to tell his own story, but I had even more trouble determining what his was about. Captain Carter was asleep and snoring, and Colonel Forster was trying unsuccessfully to rouse him by shaking his shoulder.
Mr. Bennet observed them for a few more moments before asking me, "Escaped all the hens, have you, my boy? What are you doing over here when you could be near my Lizzy?" He looked around then, as if wondering where she was, and raised an eyebrow in what I interpreted as a silent inquiry.
"That is what I wanted to talk to you about. Could I have a moment of you time away from here?"
He said loudly, "It is too early for cold feet, you know," but led me out of the parlor, closing the doors behind us.
"Know you where my daughters are?" He asked, instantly in charge.
"The three eldest, along with the woman you know as Mrs. Pope, were seeking Miss Lydia and Mr. Wickham."
Just then we saw Miss Mary running down the stairs. When she saw us, she paused mid-step, beckoned us, reversed her course upwards and we followed her back up the stairs at a run.
She paused in front of a door which must have been a bedroom in the family's quarters and Mr. Bennet burst in, with me right behind him. The scene that met us was one whose like I never expected to see.
Miss Lydia was crying in Miss Bennet's arms, a messy kind of crying which involved a reddening of her face and much mucus, but I barely glanced at her as what caught my attention was seeing Miss Elizabeth and Miss Vaughn looming over a seated George. They were each taking turns slapping his face, a face that was reddened likely from such efforts, but paused when they heard Mr. Bennet say, "Good God, what on earth has occurred?"
I approached Miss Elizabeth and put an arm around her, while I stared at George, anger swelling in my heart. Miss Elizabeth sagged against me and told me, "Oh, I am so glad you are here and brought my father. I am sorry about your poor flowers."
I had no question that George had tried to do something horrible, perhaps tried to wrong Miss Lydia. I only hoped he had no opportunity to succeed. It was with satisfaction that I noted George had a cut and a large bump upon his forehead and was tied in a chair with a number of ribbons. There were white ribbons, blue ribbons, yellow ribbons, pink ribbons and brown ribbons (and likely several other colors besides). A large length of lace served as a gag and was pulled tight. His wrists and ankles were bound with more ribbon. Oh, how glorious it was to see all those ribbons restraining him, those wonderful "worms" serving such a noble purpose in opposing him, my allies once again.
I heard a crunch beneath my feet and noted that I was stepping on some glass. The rug was strewn with bruised roses and shards of what had to be the shattered remains of the vase from Netherfield.
Miss Elizabeth explained "Mrs. Pope caught George forcing Lydia into my room and followed them inside. Mrs. Pope demanded that he let Lydia go, but of course Mr. Wickham was not cowed by her, a mere woman, although all might have yet been well for him, had he simply desisted then. But they were loud enough that once I made it up the stairs I could follow the noise to the source. Imagine my surprise when I realized it was my own chamber! Either Mary or I had forgotten to lock the door before; likely he had tried several other doors before he found one which opened.
"It was me, "Miss Mary responded. "I never thought anyone would come up here after dinner."
Miss Elizabeth continued, "When I entered (with my sisters right behind me), Mr. Wickham must have been momentarily distracted for then I saw Mrs. Pope grab and hit him with the spine of Fordyce's Sermons in . . ." she gestured to the area of his fall.
"Volume one," Miss Mary clarified.
"As he was groaning and hunched over in pain, I grabbed your vase and bashed him in the head with it (it shattered in a most impressive manner) and watched him tumble to the ground. While the vase did not still him, in his distress he was largely helpless on the floor for a few moments.
"Before he could decide to right himself, Mary grabbed volume two, and bashed him two or three times upon his head. He managed to grab at the volume when she tried to hit him another time, and as they were struggling over the volume and I was trying to decide what next to do, he managed to wrest it from her and fling it across the room, but in that momentary distraction, Mrs. Pope approached and stomped on the self-same area of his anatomy that she had hit him with the book before."
I looked over at Mrs. Pope and noticed that rather than the slippers the other women were wearing, she had good walking shoes upon her feet. Noticing my interest, Mrs. Pope said "I never wear slippers if I can help it. Slippers make a woman too vulnerable. With a good pair of shoes, a woman can kick or stomp on a man opportuning her, or at least stand a better chance of running away."
Elizabeth picked up the account again, "Mary was so clever. While I gawked and was all astonishment with how things had progressed, she was grabbing handfuls of ribbons from our drawer. Before he could scarcely notice it in his distress, she was binding his wrists together. Seeing what she was doing, I started securing ribbons around one of his ankles. When he caught on to what I was about, he began to try to kick me, but Jane, sweet Jane, helped me and between the two of us and Mrs. Pope, we were able to tie his ankles tight. and quickly tied his wrists and ankles together with them."
"And I did nothing!" Miss Lydia wailed from where she was yet sitting upon the bed, cradled by her eldest sister.
"You did not do nothing," Miss Bennet said quietly. "You fought against him when you were yet alone, and then when we ran out of ribbons, you grabbed more ribbons from your room, paying no mind to whether they were your favorites or not, and had the presence of mind to grab plain handkerchiefs and that long length of lace as well."
"But he was mostly secured by then," Miss Lydia responded.
"But we had not yet lifted him onto the chair, nor secured him to it," Miss Bennet rejoined. "It took all of us to pull him up and place him in the chair while he struggled."
"But that snake," Miss Elizabeth commented, "before we gagged him—and indeed Lydia took care of that, too, stuffing three handkerchiefs into his mouth (although he tried to bite her as she did) and pulling the lace tight to trap them in—was raving about the fact that Lydia was now his unless I wanted to trade myself for her. As for what happened earlier, Lydia must tell us what occurred."
When Miss Elizabeth fell silent, Miss Lydia swiped at her eyes repeatedly with a handkerchief until she finally gained some semblance of normality. She handed the soaked hanky to Miss Bennet, who exchanged it for a fresh one, and then Miss Lydia then stood up from the bed, brushing her white skirts straight. As she did so, I noticed one of her sleeves was torn and there was a bruise ringing her upper arm, just above the elbow.
Miss Lydia straightened herself up then, and there was something to the tilt of her head that bespoke a determination and reminded me of Miss Elizabeth. Miss Lydia addressed her father, with sentences punctuated by occasional sobs and blowing of her nose, "I thought Mr. Wickham to be everything charming. He has always liked Lizzy so well, but tonight he told me that I was who he would miss the most and that he was so glad that I was not the one getting married for that would have broken his heart. Oh, how thrilling that was! to be admired by a handsome man like him.
"So, when Mr. Wickham asked to meet me so that he could have a kiss goodbye, to remember me by, you understand, it seemed to be quite a good joke. I thought, la, what is the harm? For as Papa would not let me go to Brighton, I was never to see him again. And I dearly wanted to kiss him, to see what that would be like.
"But it was not as nice as I expected, for of all things, he immediately stuck his tongue into my mouth while holding me much too tight, and he tasted like onions and old cheese. Still, I had the thrill that of all of my sister, perhaps save Lizzy, I had been the one kissed first, and by such a handsome soldier, rather than the boring and severe Mr. Darcy."
Miss Lydia looked over Mrs. Pope, who gave her look, and then back over at me and said, "Forgive me."
"After a few minutes of this, in which his hands grabbed at me here or there rather hard, I had enough. I pulled my face away and said, 'We need to be getting back to the parlor before we are missed.' But then, he looked at me in a horrible way, I cannot really explain it, and said, 'Come with me, it will not take too long.' I was not sure what he meant by that, but I had no intention of going with him. After all, I was missing out on all the fun.
"But he would not let me go, instead, he grabbed me roughly by the arm, twisting it behind my back, put his other hand over my mouth and forced me up the stairs. He hissed from behind me, 'You have been flirting with me since I came to Meryton. I know what you really want.' I tried to shake my head 'no' but if he could even see the gesture, he paid it no mind, said 'All your flirting and carrying on has given me quite an appetite.' Then he pulled me a bit closer, and I could feel his thing against me. Oh, I was so scared, I felt the fool then to be sure.
"I considered biting his hand to make him release me just long enough to scream, but I was scared that Mamma and Papa would then hear me and make me marry him. And with how he was hurting me, well I did not like him anymore!
"We were not in Lizzy's and Mary's room for more than a minute or two before Mrs. Pope burst in. In that time, he was rucking up my skirt and putting his hands on me, while I kept trying to push them away and my skirt down. As he did so he told me, 'Yes, I shall have a bit of fun, I have earned it, and then either Darcy will pay for me to marry you or shall pay for my silence.' Am I ruined? Do I have to marry him?"