Where the bait is going to be left alone in hope that the tiger will show up.
Chapter 34: London Separations
London, Royal Palace, Tuesday the eleventh August. Seventh day
"I stay and you go to Cheapside?"
"That would be the plan if you agree, dear..."
Jane inhaled deeply and nodded with reluctance her agreement.
"Do I have something to say about it, or have I just to accept and shut up?"
Mr. Bennet looked at what had been till last week his most demure and shyest daughter.
Had she just shown a bout of temper?
What had become of his little patient angel? It was quite clear that too much --or too special-- suitors did have an influence on those who were courted.
"If you insist, we stay, dear. We won't let you alone if you need us..."
She shook her head and looked at him.
"That's not what I meant. I would have liked to go with you, not that you stayed here with me..."
She shot an irate glance towards one of the sentinels.
"What grates is my being a prisoner..."
"General Fitzwilliam doesn't name it so but it is nonetheless a truth, you're prisoner in the Palace."
"And I'm used as bait, Papa. They have no right to do such a thing..."
"They have all the rights they want, dear. Kings do what they want and, from time to time there's need for a little revolution or invasion to remind them that they are normal human beings..."
He sighed.
"But don't be too harsh with our sovereign. I fear he has no more choice than we. He has been pushed in a very unhealthy situation and he sees no solution to get out of it."
She looked at her father and smiled.
"I'm not harsh, papa. I'm just upset that they try to use me to harm..." She hesitated. "Him..."
It was his turn to smile.
"Yes... Him!"
He took his daughter into his arms.
"Do you fear for him?" whispered he into her ear.
She shook her head very discreetly.
"Than please see the bright side of the bargain, we are out of the war zone and if we should decide to go to Pemberley to join Lizzie and her bridegroom in time for the wedding we are much nearer than yesterday."
Jane could only nod.
"If I were free, we would already be galloping toward her..."
Mr. Bennet let out a little dubious whistle.
"Galloping, galloping, dear... I do believe that I did enough galloping these last week for a few years. If I have a choice, I would prefer a comfortable coach with lots of cushions and the best available springs..."
She shook her head before hugging him.
"I'm sorry, Papa, we put you into unacceptable conditions... Had we stayed at home..."
"You wouldn't have met this awful invader with his honey tongue and smiling eyes..." he interrupted her. "We can't complain: you are all in good health and I had more fun these last four days than in the last five years. I could have lost my most beloved and I only got a sore butt and an aching back... In truth, I feel like the most privileged of man and I'm ashamed to let those feelings roam in my heart but I can't help it: you're all safe and we will, whatever happens in this war, come out better than we were. I know it's selfish but it's a fact and I revel in that peculiar knowledge."
"I would love to be with Lizzie on the day of her wedding..." said his daughter. "If we took the road today we could make it easily."
He took her hand and squeezed it.
"We still have time. It's only Tuesday and we could make it in less than three days. If we move before Friday, we still could be in time..."
"If and when..." sighed she. "It seems to me that I'll be held prisoner here for as long as His Majesty believes it necessary. If he never comes, I'm stuck here for weeks..."
"I'm sure he's already informed and depended on where he currently is, he could be here very much earlier than we all think."
She shot a dubious glance at her father.
"Why should he come? He has his invasion to look after, I'm probably the last of his concerns."
"Perhaps, dear. But then, perhaps not... I'm sure you'll be the first informed if he decides to stage a visit to the Palace."
He took her a last time in his arms and kissed her.
"We will come every day to visit you and..."
The noise of the crashing door cut him off.
"I'm not going! I see no reason why I couldn't stay here!"
They both turned and looked at a rather upset Lydia.
"Why this tantrum, dear?"
"I don't want to leave, Papa! We're guest in the Palace. When will such a thing happen again. Why can't we stay? It's much more interesting here than in Cheapside!"
She looked at the ceiling.
"Why-can't-we-stay!"
"Because I want to see what's the state of my brother's House..."
"You don't need me to do that..." shouted she. "I see no reason to left my beautiful apartment to move into the shabby little room I'll get in Cheapside!"
"It's the home of your uncle and I'm sure he will be very grateful if we look after his affairs while he is out of Town."
"But why take me with you? I'm of no use in Cheapside and I'm so happy here..."
Mr. Bennet took a deep breath. He had hoped that the Brighton episode would have given a little common sense to his daughter but his prayer had been in vain. She was Lydia and it seemed that even the little inconvenience of a full scale war would not better her...
"I don't made the same failure twice in the same year, dear! Letting you out of my eyes has brought us exactly where we are, I won't take the risk to do it again."
He smiled at her.
"I move, you move! That's it and it's not open to negotiations..."
Lydia stamped her foot.
'I don't-want-to-leave!"
Her father only shook once more his head.
"And-I-don't-want-to-leave-you!"
He stopped just before stamping himself.
"Than stay here, it's much more pleasant that uncle Gardiner's shabby old house..."
"Perhaps, dear, but that's where we belong! Not here and not yet in Pemberley. That question is no longer open to discussions..."
Lydia shut her mouth and turned toward the exit when she stopped right in her movement.
She came back.
""Papa, we can't let Jane alone in this huge Palace. She will be all lonely and forlorn. Let me stay with her. My presence will be a great support for her..."
Mr. Bennet could only nod with admiration.
"Nice try, dear. I would have bought it if you hadn't used it as a second line of battle. I fear just after your egoistical tantrum it's a little unbelievable... Don't you think?"
Lydia growled a last --fortunately not understandable-- word and stomped out of the room slamming the door behind her.
Jane and her father looked at each other before bursting out laughing.
Half an hour later, Jane heard a little rasp at her door.
She opened and Lydia, wearing a maid's outfit and carrying a tray of tea slid into her room.
"I've got the solution, Jane! Everything will be fine..."
Jane could only look with disbelief at her sister who was just beginning to undress.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm taking you place, that's what I'm doing! You go with Papa to Pemberley and I stay here playing your role. Nobody will see the difference..."
"I'm not so..."
"No need to be! I've thought of everything. The dress is too large for me but it is perfect for you. You'll be able to go out of the Palace with nobody noticing anything... It'll all be very easy."
Jane looked a little shaken.
"And what will happen when they find out that I'm gone ad that you have taken my place?"
"Why should they? We are here for only a few hours. Nobody has have the time to look at us thoroughly. We are sisters and we are quite lifelike. They won't see anything!"
She slid out of her maid's outfit and tossed it to Jane.
"Hurry, we don't have the whole day. They don't probably know that you never bother a servant and they should not mind that that maid stays with you more than the traditional five minutes but there's no reason to take risks..."
Jane looked at the maid's dress and made a face.
Was this a good idea. What would happen if they get caught?
They could transfer her in a cell and Lydia would be expelled, that part was sure.
Lydia looked at her and came over looking to the heavens.
"Why is it you always hesitate, Jane? I'm volunteering to stay in you place. They'll get what they want and I'll get what I crave for. Everybody will be happy and nobody will notice anything."
She went to the maid's outfit and Jane and began to help her sister to undress.
"You'll see, everything will go perfectly well..."
Five minutes later, Jane was coming out of 'her' room disguised as a Palace's maid.
She had looked at herself in the mirror and she could only agree with Lydia. Wearing a maid's outfit did, for all that it's worth, metamorphose you into a maid.
She closed the door and holding her trail she began to glide toward the end of the corridor, each second awaiting the guards call.
But none came.
She disappeared around the corner and even other maids or footmen didn't seem to find her presence even a little disturbing.
Well, I'm out of my room and out of the eyes of my guards. What Am I going to do now?
She decided that the best would be to play Lydia's role. Following Lydia's hint and sneaking out of the Palace would only bring out suspicion against her father and sisters. If the three Bennets who planned to go were seen quitting, nobody would suspect anything. If there was a Bennet missing at her father's departure, even half witted horse guards would begin to suspect something.
She exhaled heavily wondering why she, once more, had accepted that foolish scheme.
And she got immediately the answer: she had no inclination to be the cause of d'Arcy's capture. If she was no longer in the Palace, he would perhaps no longer have the desire to come rescue her... But to get this peculiar result he would have to know that she was no longer in the Palace. And right now she had no idea how to get him that information in time to stop his next action regarding her.
God, was it only last week when her most important fear was about tearing Lydia out of a red coat's grip? She couldn't believe how fast the situation had changed.
Nor could she really understand why his welfare should be at the center of her preoccupations. What was he for her? What role had he begun to play in her life?
That's the true question, isn't it? wondered she.
She climbed down the set of stairs that was leading to her father and sisters' apartments.
She was tempted to tiptoe but it would be suspicious. A maid had no reason to tiptoe. She just went her way without looking neither right nor left...
She straightened her back and began to walk toward her father's apartment.
At that exact moment Richard Fitzwilliam appeared at the other end of the corridor.
She took hold of herself and went on trying to look inconspicuous. .
I'm a maid, I'm a maid... You don't see me... You don't see me...
He went along and she exhaled a discreet sigh when she heard him stop and turn...
"You wouldn't be doing something foolish, Miss Bennet?" heard she coming from behind.
She stopped and sighed heavily.
So much for magic...
"Not any more, general, not anymore..."
"You can't do that! I'm a guest of His Highness the Crown Prince. He would wonder why I'm no longer at his disposal..."
Fitzwilliam didn't let go from her elbow.
"You're are indeed his guest but you're also under the authority of your father and since he has decided that you're accompanying him to Cheapside, I fear that's exactly what you're going to do!"
Lydia growled inwardly and very soon outwardly.
"That's not to be accepted! I'm not a piece of furniture. I have rights..."
"You have the right to obey your father, for sure. And till you got a husband, he will be the one who has the power of deciding where you live... That's it! Just live with it, you won't change it soon..."
She tried to wriggle out of his grasp.
He hold her steadfastly.
"Don't be ridiculous, Miss Lydia. You know very well that there's no alternative to your going with your father. Not after what you tried this morning..."
Lydia thought she detected a hole in the general's reasoning. She chose her words carefully. She was perhaps not the tamest of all daughters, but she had never been a fool.
"Exactly, after what I did this morning, you cannot possibly let me out of your sight! I was helping my future brother in law! And I'll do it again if there's nobody to have a stern look upon me. Colonel Mayfayr would be the perfect candidate for such a delicate job..."
Fitzwilliam couldn't help but chuckle.
"So it's Mayfayr now. Dear Wickham is no longer your favorite?"
Lydia looked at the general with a stunned expression on her face.
"How could he? He's a braggart and a gamer. He's charming but his eyes are always cold and plotting. Colonel Mayfayr, on the other side, if an extravagant flirt and a dashing peacock, has sincere smiles and his compliments are given with heartfelt feelings. He will perhaps forget me tomorrow for a more beautiful girl but today I'm really the woman of his heart. Wickham will toss me out of his life the second he sniffs a better financial opportunity." She winked at Fitzwilliam. "Since you're hopelessly besotted with Jane and refuse to see my numerous qualities, Colonel Mayfayr is the very best choice I've got..."
Fitzwilliam couldn't help but wonder. This young Lady was, most of the time, behaving like a foolish hen but there was also a keen understanding of human behavior behind her reflexions. He wouldn't have thought she would have such an insight in both his aides character.
He forced himself to go back to the current issue.
"That's all good and well, but I'm sure you cannot help your future brother in law more in Cheapside than here in the Palace. I'm even sure it's in Cheapside that you'll be the less dangerous for the security of the Kingdom. That's why you're moving to your uncle's house with your father."
Lydia opened her mouth to go on when her father's voice interrupted her.
"You should stop arguing with her, general, or she will try to negotiate till the end of the world. 'No' is not an answer my dear Lydia understands. Not in English and not in both other languages she masters. I tried it, she just don't hear it..."
Lydia spoke up.
"That's because you always use it against me! If I wouldn't stand firmly I would never have had anything... I'd have been th..."
"Poor little girl," interrupted Mr. Bennet. "You know very well that if I say 'no' so often it's only because your mama is unable to ever say 'no' to her little hummingbird... At the end you always got what you wanted. Including Brighton with what that could have cost you..."
Lydia looked at the heavens.
""It was great, papa! I had the best time in all my life and I have encountered very interesting people. Even a duchess..."
"Yes, dear, we know... You tell us thrice a day! In a few minutes you'll have the opportunity to tell us the story once more. We will be ensconced in a coach and we will have no other choice than to listen... It should help you to come over that little dissatisfaction..."
Lydia could only grit her teeth.
But giving up was not in her nature.
She launched a last attempt.
"I don't understand, general. I clearly tried to undermine your orders and you do nothing. I should, at the least be arrested and imprisoned somewhere in the Palace. Least you'll pass for a weakling."
Both men looked at each other. Mr. Bennet with a "I told you so" look and Fitzwilliam with a trace of impatience shadowing his features.
And then his eyes began to shine.
"You're right, Miss Lydia. I cannot not punish you for such a behavior..."
He looked at Mr. Bennet and made a face.
"I'm sorry, Sir, but I'm forced to take measure against your youngest daughter. After what she had done I must do something or I'll lose face in front of my men..."
Mr. Bennet inhaled noisily.
"I understand, general. What's necessary, is necessary..."
Fitzwilliam made a gesture toward the two guards accompanying him.
"Please gentlemen, escort this Lady to the London Tower. She will stay there till..."
Lydia's smile disappeared and she was immediately at her father's side.
"Papa, you can't let him do that! I've done nothing which could..."
She stopped when she registered her father's eyes.
The two guards had to intervene since she was trying to pummel the general into oblivion with her purse.
She could have been successful in killing both men because they were on the brink of dying of laughter...
Next chapter: Pemberley Qualms