(A/N:)
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Pride and Prejudice RP:
www. fanfiction forum/Pride-and-Prejudice-RP/150278/
Prison Blues:
Lydia was shoved into a jail cell that contained two other men, while her husband George Wickham, was shoved into the cell beside hers that held three other men.
Lydia rushed up to the cell door and took hold of the bars. "You can't just keep me in here! Do you know who I am?!" Lydia yelled as the officer walked away.
"Lydia, I believe it's time to give up your shouting." Wickham said as he sat down on the hard stone of his own cell.
Lydia whirled around to look at him. All that separated she and Wickham was the bars between each cell. "But Wickham! How can you say such a thing, we've done nothing wrong, we don't deserve to be in such a filthy hole with these criminals!" Lydia exclaimed, gesturing around her. The men glanced up at Lydia, each had a scowl as she marked them as dirty criminals.
Wickham resisted the urge to roll his eyes at her, though especially now it was a hard thing to do.
"Mrs. Wickham, of course we've committed no crime, it is only a mistake brought on by the custody dispute. It shall be cleared in no time, and we will be out. Until then, remain your silence if you can do so without exploding yourself into a bloody mess" Wickham told her as he rested an arm on his knee and moved a hat in front of his face as to not speak with Lydia anymore. His words were of course a lie, it was true that Lydia had done no wrong to be thrown into such a situation, but Wickham himself was in fact at fault. Of course he'd never tell his wife such a thing, he'd be a fool to admit wrong doing.
Lydia huffed and looked at the man who sat on the bench in her cell. She walked over to him. "well, I'm a lady, shouldn't you move so I might have the bench" Lydia informed the young and very dirtied man. The man sent her a glare, and only moved his foot up onto the bench to prevent her from even sitting with him.
Lydia looked genuinely shocked at this. "That is very rude!" She exclaimed. Meanwhile Wickham resisted the urge to laugh at his wife, though he couldn't help the smirk that came to his face as Lydia rushed up to her cell door once again.
"Excuse me! Officer! There is a horrible misfortune!" Lydia called, it was only a moment before a rather disgruntled officer made his way over to her.
"what do ye want?" He asked, crossing his arms.
Lydia smoothed out her bright red dress before she pointed to the man on the bench. "That man must be removed at once! His manners are simply horrid! He wont even let me sit on the bench! Me! A lady! Can you hardly believe that?!" Lydia told on the man, who didn't look even slightly frightened, but more annoyed with her shouting.
The Officer looked over at the man, then just walked away.
"Well?! Aren't you going to do something?!" Lydia called yet again after the guard. Lydia then walked over the cell bars separating her cell from Wickham's. "Wickham! This is outrageous! Where am I to sit?" She demanded, but received no reply.
"Wickham! Answer me! I know you can hear me!" She demanded and put her hands on her hips. "Wickham, I know are you are not sleeping!" No matter how much Lydia yelled to get Wickham's attention it was to no avail, Wickham was set on not indulging Lydia's loud temperament with his comfort.
...
By the time the officers were serving supper treys, Lydia had finally gotten so tired from standing she simply had to sit, though she tried not to move to much so as to not further ruin her dress from the dirty on the hard floor. She sat right by the cell bars, as to be closer to Wickham, who was at the other end of his cell, and still not speaking to her.
A food trey was slid in front of Lydia, who only looked at it in disgust. a bowl of what looked like slop, and a wooden cup of water. "What is this muck?!" Lydia demanded.
"Supper is served" The officer stated, staring Lydia down.
"I can't possibly eat this muck, take it away from me and bring me back something decent" Lydia ordered and turned her nose up and away. The officer rolled his eyes and walked away yet again. "And Bring some wine with it! My nerves are simply being horrid!" Lydia yelled, though the officer had no intention of doing anything of that sort.
"Perhaps we should recommend the death penalty for Mr. George Wickham, just he can escape such a woman!" The officer could be heard shouting to another officer from a separate room.
"I can hear you!" Lydia shouted.
...
The first night was a cold one in the jails. There was not even any window too keep out the chills, causing Lydia to pull her knees up to her dress while she shuddered in the night. She looked at her cell mates, who seemed to have no problem with sleeping in such a temperature, how they could was a work of magic to Lydia.
Lydia had tried to ask the guards for a blanket, but they seemed set on being disagreeable.
The young woman of only twenty-two years finally began to cry real tears.
It was this that finally got Wickham's attention as he listened to his wife sniffle and shuffle as she tried to wife away her tears before he finally stood and moved over to the edge of cell to sit beside Lydia.
Usually, Lydia was the one to come to Wickham for comfort, though he hardly openly offered it to her. But for now, perhaps it was the guilt of getting Lydia put into such a situation that made him reach an arm between the bars and place it around Lydia the best he could. "Hush now Lydia, it's all a mistake" He said quietly as Lydia attempted to lean into his touch. "soon we will be free, and have our son." He said in a gentle voice.
Lydia nodded and she smiled a little up at him. "Then we'll have our happy family" Lydia said then thought for a moment before she decided to let Wickham in on her news. "Our family of four" She said in a rather cheerful manner, as quietly as Lydia could say anything.
Wickham frowned in confusing "What are you saying Lydia?" He asked, surely she couldn't mean that.
"Wickham, we are going to have another child, isn't that grand old news? And now we wont even need to worry like before, because we'll have all the money we could ever need" Lydia said "Oh, don't give me that look, I only just found out before we went to the custody hearing for Little George, I wanted it to be a surprise, I was going to tell you after we had won" Lydia frowned as she spoke of Little George. They had been so close.
Wickham sat back and leaned against the wall. He had his eyebrows pulled together and his lips parted slightly. He simply couldn't believe it. Here they were in jail after coming so near to getting his heir back, and now he was finding out the one person he had left that cared for him in the world, was pregnant, and locked behind the bars of a cell beside him, freezing, and sitting on a stone floor, and probably starving as the stubborn woman had refused to eat. Though he had not eaten either, Wickham would not eat what he thought might have been fed to cows at some point in history.
As Wickham pondered over the facts, he suddenly began to feel horrible. It was a guilt in which he'd never felt before. It was his doing he and Lydia were here. His fault she was carrying a child while being shoved from place to place and served muck in a dirty prison.
Wickham had taken many girls's virtues on his own whim, and ruined an odd reputation here and there, but he had always left before he was forced to watch the damage. However now there was no escape, there was no running off and never having to think of the awful he had done again. Lydia was right beside him, still believing in him, that he was the most good and honest soul she'd ever met.
For the first time, Wickham felt truly evil. He knew he was immoral, and rather ungrateful before, but this is what had to happen to force him to see what a villain he truly was.
"Lydia, I think I've wronged you-" Wickham tried to say only to have Lydia's finger pressed to his lips.
"Shh, I wont here of it Wickham, you've never wronged me" Lydia said, looking him in the eyes, and nodding a little, to see that he understood what she meant.
And Wickham did know. He realized then that no matter what he had done, so blatantly in front of her, hardly hiding that he had cheated her for years, Lydia had simply refused to see it. If she had wanted to see it, she would have, but Lydia had known that if she truly awakened herself, she would be miserable, so she let herself stay in her state of oblivious bliss.
Wickham nodded back at Lydia. She teared up and smiled at him. "We'll get out of here Wickham, just as you said, we'll be happy" She said quietly then leaned up and closed her eyes, pressing her face between the bars.
Wickham smiled himself, leaning down against the bars and pressed his lips against Lydia's, giving her a soft, but meaningful kiss. Perhaps the first one he'd ever given her in the whole of their marriage.