Chapter 15
Half an hour after Darcy had left, Jane sat waiting for Lizzie at the kitchen table, with two full cups of tea.
"You should have called the police," she said, the moment that Lizzie walked out of the bathroom, towelling her wet hair.
Resigned, Lizzie sat beside her sister at the table and accepted the cup Jane pushed towards her. She took a moment to hang the damp towel on the back of her chair before delving into conversation with her older sister.
"Probably," she admitted, "But it honestly didn't occur to me at the time… I wasn't thinking straight Jane." She took a sip of the hot liquid and it comforted her a little, tea could be an amazing medicine.
"Well, then Will should have thought to, at the very least!" Jane declared, Lizzie was silent, her attention focused on her drink.
"At least he was here!" she continued when Lizzie didn't speak, "I hate to think what would have happened to you Lizzie, if he hadn't been!"
"I'd rather not think about it," Lizzie muttered, she hated to think just what Wickham might have done if he hadn't been stopped. They were both silent for a few minutes, Lizzie lost in her own thoughts and Jane watching her with quiet concern.
It was Jane who broke the silence, when Lizzie looked like she was about to fall into a pit of self-pity.
"I knew Will couldn't have done such awful things as Wickham said he'd done!" She said, Lizzie broke out of her reverie and looked up at her sister's solemn face.
"I can't believe I was so wrong Jane. That he managed to fool me that way. How could I have been so stupid?" Lizzie uttered, her voice wavering.
"Oh Lizzie!" Jane cried, "You weren't to know!"
"But Jane…" she paused, "It's not just him I've misjudged… Darcy…"
But she couldn't finish her sentence, as just then, a frantic knocking on the door interrupted them.
Both of the women's heads shot up in the direction of the front door, Lizzie froze, and it was Jane who, after a second round of knocking, finally made her way to the door, looking through the peep hole before unbolting the locks.
"Elizabeth?" her panicked voice preceded her presence, "Elizabeth?"
Lizzie was finally able to move from her frozen position as Georgiana Darcy came dashing into the room.
"Oh Lizzie!" she cried, throwing herself at Elizabeth who was still half sitting at the table, "My brother told me what happened, are you alright? I'm so, so sorry!" she gushed.
"I'm alright Georgie," Lizzie assured her, pushing the younger girl away a little so that she could breathe, "Shaken, but I'm okay."
Georgiana took a step back, but still kept a hold of Lizzie by the shoulders, with her arms straight she looked Lizzie up and down as if to appraise any damage she might have incurred, after a moment she seemed to be satisfied.
"I'm so glad that George didn't manage to hurt you," she said solemnly, "It was lucky William was here waiting for you!"
Lizzie nodded her agreement, she'd thanked her lucky stars a few hundred times since Darcy had rescued her from the alley last night, for the very same reason.
There was another knock on the door then, and Jane still being the closest went over and repeated the peephole check before opening the door again. This time it was Charlie who entered the room, blissfully ignorant.
"Hello beautiful!" He said, stealing a kiss before Jane could reply, she replied with a hello and an adorable blush before relocking the door, giving Charlie the chance to notice the others.
"Hello Lizzie!" He beamed, "And Georgiana! What are you doing here? It's wonderful to see you again!" He bounced over and gave them both sweeping hugs before returning to Jane's side, now that she was closer to them.
Suddenly the flat felt very crowded and Lizzie felt the need to escape for a while, and she definitely didn't want to talk about this in front of Charlie.
"Shall we go and have something to eat?" Georgiana asked then, sensing Lizzie's unspoken desire.
"Yes, let's go," she agreed, Jane looked as if she might protest but remained silent as Lizzie reached for her coat, "We'll be fine Jane," she whispered as she passed by her sister, who accompanied the two girls to the door. Charlie remained by the sofa, smiling brightly.
"Please, don't tell Charlie what happened. I hate to tell you to keep a secret from him, but he is my boss, and there some things best kept private."
"He doesn't need to know," Jane agreed, "Be careful, both of you."
Georgiana grabbed Elizabeth by the hand and dragged her out of the apartment, Charlie was waving goodbye jovially and Lizzie tried not to focus on Jane's concerned expression as she waved back at them.
Downstairs on the sidewalk Georgiana led her towards a car that Lizzie recognized as belonging to Darcy. She quickly did a sweep of the street as if she expected him to be waiting for them.
"Will isn't here," Georgiana laughed when she noticed Elizabeth's reaction, "My car is out at Pemberley while I've been away, so I hijacked Will's when he told me what happened last night and came right over. He of course, wanted to come back with me, but I told him that this was girls only. He wasn't too pleased." She giggled then, and unlocked the car doors.
"Shall we get breakfast?" She asked, checking her watch, it was still early. Lizzie agreed with a nod of her head, she was getting hungry. She hadn't eaten since the restaurant last night when she'd walked out on half her meal.
"Good idea, I'm starving," Lizzie said, strapping herself into the passenger seat of Darcy's luxury car and savouring the leather upholstery.
"Ha!" Georgiana laughed, "You're always starving, at least I know some things will never change," She said cryptically, but Lizzie didn't get an opportunity to question her friend because she was suddenly gripping tight onto the seat edge as Georgiana peeled out of the parking space and sped down the street. Lizzie felt herself grumble a little inside 'Damn you Darcy and your powerful sports car'. So maybe she had realised she'd been wrong about Darcy, but that didn't mean all her opinions had to change right away, and she still thought his car was obnoxious.
It wasn't until they were seated in a booth at a nearby diner, waiting for their food, that Georgiana finally broached the subject of last night again.
"My brother says that I am to convince you to make a police report," she said sipping her coffee.
Lizzie quirked a brow and Georgiana smirked.
"He thought I'd protest?" Lizzie asked,
"Not necessarily, I think he's just afraid of upsetting you. You seem to intimidate him a little. Plus he feels guilty for not calling the police right away. But, you know it was just because he was so worried about you, right?" Georgiana asked.
Lizzie didn't hesitate, "Of course!" she exclaimed, "The thought never occurred to me either," she admitted.
"I think that's probably normal." Georgiana started, but stopped short as the waitress arrived with the food. Once she was out of ear shot again Georgiana picked up her fork and started in on her breakfast as she continued.
"You were probably in shock Lizzie, grateful to be safe. You weren't thinking logically…" she paused, making eye contact, "I know I wasn't when it happened to me."
"Oh, Georgie!" Lizzie sighed, "I'm so sorry I've dragged you back into this mess. You shouldn't have to deal with him,"
"Hush!" Georgiana cut her off, "Don't be silly, you're my friend and I love you Lizzie, you're practically a sister to me. I can help you. I've been where you are, so you're not dragging me anywhere."
"I'm sure your brother doesn't feel that way," Lizzie mumbled, nibbling on a hash brown.
"My brother is sick with worry about you," she said, "I think he almost wore a hole in the living room rug this morning, pacing back and forth while he told me what happened."
Elizabeth blushed profusely, Darcy was that concerned for her? She was struggling to contemplate the notion.
"He'll have to lodge a police statement too," Lizzie replied, "He rescued me after all, they'll have questions for him."
"I'll have him meet us there," Georgiana smiled, "Now eat your eggs before they get cold!" she said spearing some eggs of her own and popping them in her mouth.
"Yes mother," Lizzie teased, but the younger girl she smiled back at her, simply grateful to be back in the company of her closest friend.
After breakfast, which Lizzie insisted she pay for, Georgiana drove them to the police station nearest Lizzie's apartment. When they arrived they found that Will was already there, pacing again, but this time he was wearing a divot in the concrete steps.
"Will!" Georgiana called out as they made their way across the road from their parking space. Will turned at the sound of his name and a small smile of relief graced his face when he saw the two women walking towards him. He pulled his sister into a hug immediately, and wanted to do the same for Lizzie but didn't know if he could, if she'd let him. He settled instead of taking a hold of her hand and giving it a gentle squeeze like he'd done earlier that day.
"Elizabeth," he said, "I'm sorry I didn't call the police last night, I hope you'll forgive my negligence, I wasn't thinking straight."
Lizzie nodded and gave him a smile, "There's no need to apologise Darcy, it didn't occur to me either." She was going to stop there, but she noticed the guilty look in his eye, "You were wonderful last night Darcy, you did everything right and I truly appreciate it." That seemed to placate him and he led them inside, they approached the officer sitting behind the main desk, who smiled up at them cheerily.
"What can I do for you today?" He asked, it was Lizzie who spoke, surprising Darcy who had expected he would need to lead the discussion.
"I need to file a report," Lizzie said, her voice stronger that she expected it to be, "A man tried to assault me last night."
"Tried?" the officer asked,
"Yes," Lizzie confirmed, "And he would have been successful if it hadn't been for this man, he stopped the attack."
"Do you know who it was that attacked you miss?" he asked,
"I do," she replied, "His name is George Wickham, I had been dating him recently, but I broke up with him last night after I found out what kind of a man he truly was,"
"Which is?" The officer asked.
"He's a liar and a cheat, and he's attempted to assault people before!" Darcy interrupted, not liking the attitude this young police officer was giving them.
"And you are, sir?"
"I'm William Darcy." He answered, "I am Elizabeth's boss and I stopped Wickham from attacking her last night, and this is my sister, one of Wickham's previous targets, she has a restraining order against him already,"
"Alright then, I'll have you all come through to an interview room and get some statements from you then, follow me." He said, and led the group down a long hallway into a small room. There was a table and some desk chairs as well as a well-worn old sofa against one of the walls.
"You all wait here a moment and I'll get a detective for you," the young officer said, and then left them alone in the room to wait.
It was another hour before they were able to leave the police station, once the detective, Rebecca Ryan had arrived they'd managed to make progress and Elizabeth's complaint had been filed.
Detective Ryan had asked them all a lot of questions, mostly of Elizabeth and Darcy, but also a few of Georgiana.
She'd wanted to know the specific events of the night before, starting with why Lizzie had decided to break things off with George, up until Will's rescue.
She'd wanted to know how it was Darcy had managed to be there at the right time, but once they had explained their employer/employee relationship and Darcy vaguely said they'd "had things to discuss last night" that line of questioning was dropped.
Finally though their statements were filed and they would put a report out on Wickham, the detective had taken the photo of George from Lizzie's phone to put on the report as well has taken his phone number just in case they could track it, if anyone spotted him, he'd be arrested. They were all instructed to contact her immediately if they saw or heard from Wickham and then they were free to go.
"Well, I think this calls for some extra-large caramel latte's and some retail therapy, don't you Lizzie?" Georgiana asked once they were outside.
"Gigi…" Will started to deter her, just wanting to get Lizzie home to rest.
"Actually that sounds really great," Lizzie said, stopping Darcy mid-sentence.
"Are you sure Elizabeth?" Darcy asked.
"Of course she's sure Will!" Georgiana intercepted, but Darcy kept his eyes on Lizzie waiting for her confirmation.
"I'm sure Will, Georgie and I haven't seen each other in so long, I could really use some girl time."
"Looks like you'll have to catch another cab!" Georgiana laughed, she quickly gave her brother a peck on the cheek and skipped off towards the car.
"We'll be fine Darcy, I promise," Lizzie said, taking his hand this time and squeezing it the way he had done to hers, "Thanks again."
Then she dropped his hand and went to join Georgiana in the car, they watched as Darcy hailed a cab and got in before Georgiana pulled out into traffic and headed further downtown for shopping and their favourite coffee shop, where they'd spend the rest of the day getting lost in shops, trying on clothes they'd never buy for themselves and buying shoes they'd never wear more than once. Elizabeth allowed herself to relax and escape the stress of the past few days as she enjoyed Georgiana's company (and actually managed to not think about Darcy every second… just every other second.)
When the sun was starting to drop lower in the sky Georgiana drove Lizzie home and helped her separate their shopping bags in the back seat. Georgiana waited until Elizabeth was safe inside before she turned around to head back home to her brother. What she didn't realise was that she didn't arrive back home alone, and Lizzie wasn't the one who should have been worrying tonight.