6
After several hours of singing, practicing their Italian together, and just being almost sisterly companions, Lizzy returned to her rooms to prepare her thoughts for her meeting with the Colonel (although he had been insisting she must call him Richard). He had sent word he would arrive despite the rains, which were abating, anyway. After closing the door, she remembered the steps she had taken against any embarrassment planned by the resentful maid. She had pasted with her saliva several of the longer hairs from her brush to the drawers of her small bureau and looked to see if they were still in place. Sure enough, the hairs now were on the floor, indicating that the drawers had been opened. Since there was no reason Lizzy could think of for someone to open and perhaps rummage through the clothing she had neatly placed inside, she carefully opened each drawer and inspected the contents.
All seemed in order on two of the drawers, but in the third she saw of the contents were in slight disarray. She carefully moved the clothes aside and gasped when she saw the glitter of jewelry. Drawing the items out, she realized they were items she had admired adorning Georgiana's neck and hair. 'So!' she thought, 'she does not just want to embarrass me, she wishes to incriminate me in a theft! This goes beyond simple revenge for a slight display of my superior education and status in life. This is either real hatred, or a strong desire to drive me from Pemberley in shame and humiliation! But why?! Lizzy thought long and hard and began to reach some shocking, even frightening conclusions. She must definitely bring this all to Richard's immediate attention.
Meanwhile, she wrapped the pieces of jewelry in a handkerchief and went to Georgiana's room. "These pieces of yours seem to have gone astray, my dear," she said, handing over the items into a surprised Georgiana's hands. "Do me the favor of wearing them when you greet Richard on his arrival today." Georgiana frowned slightly, but allowed Lizzy, her sister, as she had been thinking of her lately, to put the gold necklace with its large ruby around her neck, and the diamond pins in her hair. "My goodness, Lizzy," she joked, "are we going to a ball with Richard this afternoon that I knew nothing about?"
"Not a ball… more of a pantomime," Lizzy quipped in return. "But you will understand all in a short while, I think. However, I believe I hear manly voices outside, so let us go visit your cousin before you return to practice that new Beethoven sonata you have been perfecting." "Oh, far from perfecting, I think, but I will keep at it so at least I do not evoke smiles of derision if I should someday perform it before an audience."
After some kisses and embraces between the cousins, Lizzy and Georgiana left the Colonel to read reports on the status of crops, herds, sales, and expenditures and departed to the music room for sonata practice. Sometime later, Lizzy returned to the study and, after knocking, entered to find Mary standing before Richard's desk, a smug look on her face as she turned to face Lizzy. Richard, however, had a stern look on his face, but whether it was serious or merely a façade in keeping with what Lizzy suspected had been the nefarious tales Mary had been spinning.
"Our maid, Mary here, has made some serious accusations against you, Miss Bennet," he said in a severe voice. "Oh?" she answered calmly. "And what might those be? Have I been flirting with the manservants?"
"She claims she saw you with jewelry you had stolen from my cousin. Jewelry you then hid in a drawer amongst your garments to take with you on your departure." Lizzy nodded, solemnly. "And may I ask how she could possibly observe all this without being in the room with me? Does she have a secret spyhole to look in on residents in their private quarters?"
The Colonel shifted his look to the maid, who became suddenly flustered. She had obviously not thought the whole matter through. "I… I watched from the door which she had left ajar," she stammered. "Careless of me," Lizzy murmured. "And did your keen eyesight also show you what pieces of your mistress's jewelry I had purloined?" The maid looked confused. "Stolen," Lizzy amended. One again the maid was unable to hide her resentment at the display and the other woman's superior education.
"Her necklace with the big red stone. And the shiny diamond pins she wears in her hair," she said, smugly. "If you search her bureau you will find them there," she finished with a positive tone, looking at her employer. Then crossed her arms and smiled, confident she had undone and ruined this woman who thought she was so superior.
Lizzy turned back to the Colonel. "Did you happen to notice the jewelry Georgiana was wearing when she greeted you a short while ago, Colonel Fitzsimmons?" "As a matter of fact, I did notice she was wearing the necklace with the large ruby I gifted her when she reached her majority. Also, I noticed the diamond pins in her hair which Mary here, alleges you stole and hid in your bureau." They both turned now and stared at the maid whose face flamed red. "I…I must have been mistaken," she stammered.
The Colonel nodded. "That will be all for now then, Mary. I will discuss your future employment here with Mrs. Reynolds. You may go." The maid curtsied slowly, straightened equally slowly, and then almost ran from the room.
"What was that all about?" Richard asked Lizzy. "Several things, I think," Lizzy began. "First of all, I have seen in my months here that the maid Mary is increasing and I am certain the father is the Steward, Wickham." Richard nodded. "He was quite the rake in our university days until he was called back here to help his father, the Steward at that time. No surprise he has continued his practices here, although I shall perhaps persuade him to marry the lass and spare all of us embarrassment." He looked hard at Elizabeth. "You said 'several things'. What else has come to your attention?"
Lizzy chewed on her bottom lip, unsure how to express her wild suspicions so that she would not be summarily dismissed as a madwoman who needed to be locked up in Bedlam. She began with a question.
"How do you know your cousin, William (as Georgianna refers to him), took ship and traveled to France to ransom you?" The Colonel sat back in shock. That was certainly the last thing he had expected to be asked. "After all, you were on a ship coming back to England as he was going the other way," she continued.
"He left a letter of explanation that we found when we realized he had departed these shores. Also I sent a man to interview the Captain of the ship when it returned to port." Elizbeth frowned. "I understand your cousin to be a man of considerable stature. Very tall, handsome and with a deep bass voice that Georgie tells me he often used to harmonize with her soprano." Richard grinned. "You have listed all the things that I envied most in my cousin." The way he spoke these words with such affection and love of his cousin, gave Lizzy a certainty that she could trust him… that he was not the villain she suspected was lurking about this elite world, like a lion seeking his prey.
"Did the person you sent to interview the ship's Captain ask for a description? Or did he merely ask about the name that was given?" Richard frowned. "I… I actually cannot say," he admitted slowly. "Do you have reason to suspect some sort of subterfuge going on?" Lizzy started chewing her lip again. Finally, she looked squarely at the Colonel and said, "I have no sure answer; only my wildest imaginings. But the matter is far too important to leave to speculation. We must take immediate action to seek the truth," she finished adamantly.
"And just what action is it that you think we must take to 'seek the truth' as you put it?" he asked with some concern in his tone. 'What is she going on about?' he wondered. 'Well, she had shown herself to be a woman of great intelligence. Let's hear her out.'
Again Lizzy surprised, no shocked him, with her next question. "We are going to the upper floor to the suite of the Master of Pemberley," she explained. "But first… do you have some armaments at hand?"
That brought him to his feet. "I do have a brace of pistols that I have the habit for years now to travel with… but why on earth would I need a pistol in Pemberley?"
"Trust me in this please," Lizzy urged. "And if I am totally wrong in my suspicions, you have my permission to send me off to confinement in Bedlam." Richard stared at her for another moment, then nodded and went to his traveling valise. He opened it and drew out a pair of pistols with gold inlays. "Loaded and ready and waiting for you commands, my Captain," he smiled. Lizzy now saw his jacket was designed with special inner pockets to house just such weapons. She nodded. "Perhaps we should also have Mrs. Reynolds accompany us as there are doors that may have to be unlocked."
Richard crossed to the door and opened it. "Summon the housekeeper, Mrs. Reynolds to us, Wallace," he told his man. "We are going to the upper floor so have her meet us there at once." He said those last words so firmly that it amounted to a command. His man hurried off immediately and Lizzy was sure even should Mrs. Reynolds should claim she had other priorities she would be carried protesting to the upper floor.
"Stevens, you're with us, too," the Colonel said in his military voice. The other man saluted, as no doubt he had done for years in the military, serving under the Colonel. Together they trooped past the music room where Lizzy could faint sounds of Georgie's studious practicing. Climbing the final flight of stairs, they were joined by a flustered Mrs. Reynolds with Wallace behind her, urging her along. They all reached the upper floor together. The Colonel looked a question at Lizzy and she walked to the door of the master-suite. "We need to get inside," she said, and stepped aside as Mrs. Reynolds, fussing and muttering' took out from her large reticule a huge ring with dozens of keys on it. As she fished through them, she was muttering. "This door hasn't been opened in two years. There's nothing inside but piles of dust." After a few moments she looked up in confusion. "The key is missing," she cried in dismay." It hasn't been off my ring for forty years. I don't understand."
"I think I do," said Lizzy with growing confidence. "The key has been stolen to make sure no one can enter these rooms. Now I am absolutely certain we must get inside at once." Richard stepped forward. "Stand back," he commanded and everyone moved away from him. Raising a leg he leaped forward and hit the heavy wooden door with a huge kick that shook it, but did not open it. Frowning, he again told everyone to move even further back. This time though he drew one of the pistols out of his jacket and looking about to make sure everyone was a respectable distance away, he fired a shot at the locking mechanism. A gaping hole opened in the door as the mechanism flew into the room behind the door. Now he twisted the knob, and, instantly, the door swung in, revealing a dark interior. He stepped into the room and all the rest followed him in. "Wallace… Stevens… get those drapes open." They leaped to obey him. He told the livery man who had accompanied Mrs. Reynolds, "Light every candle you can find. Let's get as much light as we can in here."
The man hurried to the desk, found some lucifers and after a number of strikes finally got one to light. He swiftly lit a candle, then a second one from the first one, and took the two lit candles around the room, lighting all the candles he could find on the walls and in their candelabras. In the end there were a dozen candelabras with almost a hundred candles blazing. The room with the additional light streaming through the windows now was as bright as outdoors. They looked around and Mrs. Reynolds shook her head, clucking in dismay, as she took in all the cobwebs hanging from the corners of the ceilings and bookcases. The dust was thick on the furniture and on the floor.
Lizzy walked around, scrutinizing everything, trying to ignore the first folios of Shakespeare she saw in the bookcases. 'If this is his private rooms what must the library look like!' she thought, then refocused her attention. She had to admit, she had no idea what she was looking for; just desperately hoping something would strike her eye. Then she saw it!
"Mrs. Reynolds is correct, Colonel," she said with a note of triumph in her voice. "There is two years of dust everywhere… except one place." She pointed to the floor near one of the walls. "There is no dust in front of that wall!" Colonel Fitzwilliam frowned. "You see some significance in this, Miss Bennet?" he asked, using her formal name in front of the staff. But Lizzy didn't answer. She was studying the wall where the dust in front had been swept clean, or rather pushed to one side where it sat in a small heap. She was not sure what she was looking for. Finally her eyes lit up like the blazing candles. The wall was covered with carving and friezes, all dusty… except for one small frieze that wasn't dusty at all. Instead it had smudges like dirty fingers had been pressed against it. She put a hand to it… pressing, pushing. Then the Colonel was at the side. "Allow me," he said. "You have evoked a memory from years ago when we boys played games and made use of a secret room that all families had built into their homes during the time of the religious wars to hide from the Catholics… or the Protestants… whoever their enemy was."
As he spoke these words, he twisted that particular frieze that had caught Lizzy's eye. Sure enough, the whole wall began to open and she and the Colonel had to move back to allow it to swing open, revealing a dark interior. It was so black inside, it was impossible for Lizzy to make anything out, but the Colonel's trained military eyes saw something within that drew an oath that made the ladies blush. The man hurried forward, roaring out, 'Candles!' as he entered the dark dungeon.
Lizzy stepped aside, allowing the three men, each carrying two large candelabras apiece to enter. When they were inside, she could look past them and saw there was a skeleton chained to the wall. It had long white hair down to its knees and a white beard that might have been appropriate on a prophet from the bible. Its bones showed through its paper thin flesh. Richard looked around and found a key on a small table. In a moment he was kneeling next to the skeleton and fitting the key into locks. As the locks clicked open, Lizzy was shocked to see a flutter in the eyes of the skeleton. It was alive! She ran out and found Mrs. Reynolds still in the room, looking in dismay at the dust and cobwebs.
"Quickly!" she told her. "Bring a big bowl of meat broth and a spoon. No meat… only the broth… and not too hot. Also, some flasks of drinking water. Run! Run!" she shouted at the woman who seemed to hesitate, unsure if she should be obeying commands from this piano teacher, as she thought of her. But the last words were delivered with such force, she grabbed some of the kitchen maids who had come with her and turned towards the stairs at once, beginning a rapid descent to the kitchen.
Now Richard and his men were carrying out the skeleton and Lizzy could see that it was a man, starved almost to his bones with just thin folds of skin, hanging from his frame like the cobwebs on the ceiling. His hair was long, down to his knees and white, although filthy and full of lice and other crawling creatures.
As they set him on the floor there was a loud laugh from the hall doorway. Lizzy stepped back in shock. The Steward, Wickham, with the maid, Mary, behind him, stepped into the room. "So! You found him after all. All due to this interfering chit, I suppose. I've been hearing about her disrupting my plans and I am not best pleased, I can tell you." He was glaring at Lizzy, but also at the three men gathered around the living skeleton. Richard took a step towards him. "Well, Georgie-boy," he said. "For old time's sake I'll give you a choice of your manner of death; a duel to the death with me… swords, pistols, your choice… or the gallows. Which will it be?"
Wickham laughed. "I think neither, Richie-boy," he sneered as he drew a pistol from his jacket and pointed it at the Colonel. It wasn't the first pistol the man had had pointed at him and he didn't flinch. "There are three of us, Georgie-boy, and your pistol fires one shot. You shoot me and my men then beat you to death. Is that the way you want to see this turning out?" Wickham grinned evilly. "But perhaps I will shoot the chit with my one bullet," he said, swinging the gun to point towards Lizzy. "You want that on your conscience for the rest of your life, Richie-boy?" Lizzy felt her heart freeze at the gun aimed unwavering at her.
"So we seem to be at a stalemate, Georgie-boy. Just how do you see all this working out?"
"I see a fire in Pemberley with great loss of life," the man said, smugly. "Only a few survivors. Georgiana, of course, since she is the heiress."
"And you intend to wed her, do you Georgie-boy?" the Colonel asked. Wickham smirked. "I am sure her grief will be so great, she will seek solace in the arms of one who has known her from her birth."
Mary's face fell, "But George; you promised me we will wed," she pouted. "And we shall indeed, my love," he said, not taking his eyes off the Colonel. "I shall have two wives. First, the one who has money and an estate; and after the money and estate are mine, and she has met an untimely end in an accident of some sort, then I will marry the second one… the one who has no money, but who has my heart in her hands."
Mary smiled and put her hands on her belly, smoothing the cloth against her swollen abdomen. "I have something better than money in me for you, my love." Wickham glanced at her swollen belly and grinned in the understanding he was to be a father. He opened his mouthto speak, but whatever he was about to say never got spoken. Faster than Lizzy's eye could follow, the Colonel's hand snaked into his jacket and drew out the second pistol. Without pause, a flame leaped from the weapon as it roared. A hole appeared just above Wickham's eyes and a spray of blood burst out the back of his head. "A third eye' Lizzy thought in horror as Wickham flew backwards. When he hit the floor his gun also roared, but the bullet embedded itself harmlessly in a stuffed chair.
The Colonel barely glanced at the body, but Mary threw herself on it and wailed in the most pitiful voice Lizzy had ever heard. "Bring buckets of hot water," the Colonel ordered the servant who had lit all the candles. "Have every servant in the house carrying a bucket or a pail." As he spoke, he moved to another door off to the side and opened it. "Bring him in here," he told his men. "It's the bathing-room for the apartment."
Lizzy heard female voices outside and ran to the door to intercept Mrs. Reynolds carrying the bowl of soup and a flask of water. "I'll take those," she told the housekeeper, reaching out for the items before the woman could see the scene inside. Lizzy took the bowl with its spoon, and the flask. Mrs. Reynold's resentful protest died on her lips as she took in Wickham's body with the weeping maid laying across it and his brains and blood spread over the flooring. The woman promptly fainted just as the first of the house servants began arriving with the buckets of hot water. "In there," Lizzy indicated with a head gesture towards the bathing-room. She realized a moment later that such a gesture was not needed since they all surely knew where the master's bathing-room was.
She followed them in to see the Colonel stripping off his jacket, removing his watch from a chain at his, waist and then climbing, fully clothed, into a huge copper tub that dominated the room with its sheer size. His men carefully handed the living skeleton to their officer who held it easily in his arms as the servants began pouring the buckets in at his feet. Lizzy approached with the bowl of soup. The eyes of the skeleton were still closed, but she put a spoonful of broth to its lips and gently inserted it, tilting it so the liquid trickled into the closed mouth. Reflexively, the skeleton swallowed and she quickly refilled the spoon.
"Is this the best time for that?" the Colonel growled at her. "The man has been starved to the point of death. Do you want a live friend, or a clean corpse?" she asked with some asperity. Richard nodded at the sense of her words, then he and his two men began to gently apply soap and creams to the head and body of the skeleton in his arms. His men then began pouring cups of water over the places where he had softly rubbed the soap and creams into the dry skin. The few rags that were on the thin frame disintegrated in the water. One of the men was skimming filthy water and scraps of rags out with a long handled cup and emptying the contents into one of the empty water basins. More buckets of water were poured in as they arrived.
As Lizzy continued her slow feeding of soup between the parched lips, she watched the men. They worked with such efficiency that she suspected part of their years in the field of battles must have had similar scenes of men bathing their wounded comrades. She exchanged the bowl of soup for a flask of water and held it to the still closed lips. As she was able to trickle some of the water between them, she rejoiced to see the lips open slightly and greedily begin sucking at the water bottle. Slowly she tilted it, being careful not to induce choking with too much water going down too fast. The most gratifying moment came when the eyes opened and gazed at her. Her heart throbbed. 'He will live!' she told herself.
She only let him drink a half of the flask. She remembered the days of nursing her own sick and failing parents and sisters. Not too much, she kept reminding herself. Not too much. Too much can kill, not heal. The blue eyes staring into her own were unnerving. She remembered how Georgiana and the Colonel both had reminisced on how manly… tall, strong and handsome… Fitzwilliam Darcy was. All that was left of that male attractiveness were those blue eyes! It was both intriguing and unnerving.