Chapter 21
I returned home Monday evening to a jubilant Georgie, who had just heard the latest update from Elizabeth. Lydia had been flown home that day (if I'd flown commercial we probably would have been on the same flight).
"Lizzy couldn't believe it. The WA police had gone from borderline indifferent to some kind of intense interstate operation with the child abuse unit in South Australia. She said Lydia had gotten cold feet but because he'd told her to switch her phone off and throw it away, she couldn't contact anyone or back out of it! She was just hoping she could talk George into letting her call her parents. She used all her money to pay for the train ticket, she didn't even have enough food for the 2-day journey!" Georgie's eyes were wide. She shivered, as the gravity of Lydia's predicament inserted itself in her mind. Shaking her head, she continued telling the story.
"So, the poor girl was hungry, alone, and completely at his mercy! Thank God the police were keeping tabs on her. She wanted to call it off and was looking for anyone in a uniform, but the team had cleared security off the platform, so George wasn't spooked by anything. In the end she was too scared and ashamed to scream or anything, so she went with him. You've always told me to scream and shout and not be embarrassed, right? I wish someone had told her that. But the undercover cops were following her, and they recorded everything, and Lizzy said they were able to get her out before he could do anything. She's pretty shaken up realising how awful it could have been, but they got her home. They've kept it out of the news for now." She turns to me and snuggles into my side on the couch we had made it to as she was relaying her story from the moment I walked in the door. "How are you, Wells? This is good news, right? I mean, good for you and Lizzy?"
"Yes, this is very good news for the Bennet girls, for Lydia. I don't know what it means for me and Elizabeth, but I will remain hopeful." Dan had given me the details in a secure email I received during the flight home, filling in the blanks we had assumed with the bones of our evidence. Apparently the article and the comments were noted by Wickham, who still has friends in WA and who had sent him the blog post for a laugh. He used his newly created social media avatar for Flex, the tech start-up attempting to capture a slice of the burgeoning online fitness market in Australia, to respond to her comment in the thread. Turns out Wickham had found her private account on Facebook through something she linked to and began privately messaging her, hoping to find out anything he could use against me or Georgie.
It was a bonus that she fit his profile completely, being beautiful, uninhibited, and underage. This was his reason for returning to Australia. A skilled manipulator, he had Lydia talking about Elizabeth in no time and she had inferred a lot from Elizabeth's weekend habits, as well as some overheard conversations between Jane and Elizabeth, that we were still seeing each other. He filled her head with the usual lies and slander dressed up with half-truths and put himself in the place of the injured victim. He even painted himself as Georgie's protector, rescuing her from some creep she had decided to move in with at RISDe.
Lydia's naivete led her onto the train and allowed her to abandon her phone, but her native survival instincts returned in full force with the 2 days of solitude and hunger enforced by the journey's length. I was pleased she did not need to be coaxed from his side, though Dan had intimated, with some semblance of pleasure, that Wickham had not given her up easily. Efforts to subdue and restrain were eagerly, though judiciously, applied by his two assets, until police officers took charge. He will be arraigned in South Australia but will likely stand trial in Perth. His recent employers have already dropped him like a hot potato and signed affidavits denying knowledge or culpability for any of their ex-employee's actions.
"Are you going to call her, Wells? You need to sort things out with her." Georgie takes me out of my reverie, though my thoughts are never far from Elizabeth. I knew things were going to heat up over the next few months, that the case could not be kept out of the news. All the details connecting Lydia to George were more than circumstantially connected to Elizabeth and myself. I did not want to complicate her life any more than this, and I wanted some time to work on myself. I needed to become a man worthy of her, because then I would be somebody worth knowing, maybe worth fighting for, in my own right. Without reference to pedigree, status, or wealth.
I say as much to Georgie, and I ask her to remain friends with Elizabeth, but not to interfere. "I think maybe I will write her a letter, G. I hope in time she will come to think well of me, but I don't want you telling her we were involved in this, or that I had anything to do with getting Lydia back. I don't want her gratitude. I am so grateful that she was a part of my life, but I want to get myself to a place where I can be whole, so I have something to offer her, if there's any chance for us. And she can't think about that until this whole Wickham episode is behind us."
I heave myself off the couch, leaving a slightly saddened, but understanding, sister behind. I call Richard and run through all the particulars with him. I ask him to brief our PR people and be prepared to get in front of the speculation. I demand that we err on the side of clarity and truth, versus obfuscation and misdirection, but under no circumstances are we to reveal Elizabeth Bennet by name in any way. I need them to find a way to be as honest as possible, but keeping her name as unconnected from me as we can. Given Lydia's age, there will hopefully be circumspection in the reporting of relevant details, but I direct him to contact Legal also, and instruct them to provide some advice on how we can protect the Bennet's privacy. Anything they find useful is to be freely offered to the prosecution handling her case, via Dan's contacts.
It did not feel like I had done enough, but I know if we had not intervened, Lydia would not be back with her family. I find a measure of comfort in that. It is time for me to do the work Elizabeth wanted me to do.
