Mid-March 1812 – Longbourn (Lydia and Mr. Wickham)
When Mr. Bennet and Jane finally arrived at Longbourn, Lydia was crying and screaming at Kitty that they were lying, and George loved her. Mrs. Hill was trying to calm Lydia down but to no avail. After greetings his younger daughters, Thomas invited them into his office so they explain why they were making such a fuss…
"Lydia, Kitty, can you tell me what are you arguing about?" Looking at Lydia she added, "Why are you crying like that?"
"Pappa, Kitty said that Mr. Denny told her that Mr. Wickham eloped with Mary King two days ago. He can't marry her because he proposed to me almost two months ago… It must be all a lie… Denny is lying!"
Mr. Bennett looked at Lydia in disbelief and to better understand what she was saying he asked her "If I understand you correctly, Mr. Wickham proposed to you two months ago and he is marrying someone else. Did I understand correctly?"
"But it's a lie because he loves me. He told me so many times that he loves me…, he told me I am beautiful and he wanted to marry me. He can't marry a woman as plain as Mary King. He told me that we had to see each other in secret until you arrived and then he was going to talk to you and get married."
Kitty at that moment intervened, "It's true Pappa, a few weeks ago when I saw Mr. Wickham and Lydia leaving the cabin where Mr. Perry lived, Mr. Wickham told me I had to keep it secret until you came back because you had to be the first to know they were engaged."
Alarmed he asked, "Lydia, answer me honestly, did Mr. Wickham take any kind of liberties with you?"
"George loves me, Dad and I love him. Denny is lying."
Mr. Bennet sighed, "I always knew that my daughters were the silliest girls in the entire Kingdom, but I never thought that they were also so naive and easy…"
"Pappa, George..."
"Shut up, Lydia. Listen clearly to what I am going to tell you; when a man wants to marry a young lady, he courts her in front of her family and asks for her father's consent. If a man sees a woman secretly, the only thing he wants is to have fun for a while and he cares very little about the consequences that the woman is going to have." He waved his hand to indicate that they should not speak and continued, "If a woman meets a man secretly, her reputation will be ruined as well as that of her entire family. No man marries an easy woman. If anyone finds out you behave like a cheap whore, I'll have to kick you out of the house to protect your sisters' reputation."
"But, Pappa…"
"Promise me that you will never name Mr. Wickham again and what happened must remain a secret between us."
Lydia and Kitty paled and both agreed to keep the secret. Mr. Bennet hoped that his youngest daughter's stupidity wouldn't have consequences. He realized that his failures as a father were dramatic; he should have taken care of their education, saved money for their future or at least controlled them better. Unfortunately, Mr. Goulding was right. Afterward, he has a long conversation with Mrs. Hill, who told him that the officers had come to visit several times while he was at Sandstone and there were various rumors in Meryton about Lydia and Mr. Wickham. Even some neighbors claimed they had seen them leaving together an abandoned cabin. There were also rumors about Kitty and Denny, but they were more harmless.
After calming down, he thought about what he could do to save his daughters' reputations. The option that seemed most convenient was to live in Sandstone for a while. One of the main problems with that option was he had no steward in Longbourn and he had to inspect the estate and collect the rent within three weeks. By his calculations, he needed to stay in Longbourn for at least a month to get everything in order.
That night he spoke seriously with Mrs. Bennet; he forbade her to talk about Mr. Wickham and told her that in a month they were going to move to Sandstone for a while.
He had a strong pain in his chest again but he thought it was because of the stress of the trip and Lydia's situation...