Revelations an adaption of Pride and Prejudice

Chapter 6

The next day, as Darcy rides over to the inn where Miss Elizabeth is staying, he strongly feels the parallel to those times he visited her at the parsonage, or walked with her in the park in Hunsford. But this time he has an errand for his sister, there will be no awkward silences or lack of conversation to make Miss Elizabeth nervous. He will apologise for Miss Bingley's behaviour in his house in name of Georgiana and himself, then assure her it will not happen at dinner tonight, and then he will take leave and go home. That will be all, and she will be perfectly at ease.

But things do not turn out that way, Darcy is in for a very uncomfortable visit, painful actually, for when Mr Gardiner's boy lets him into their apartment, he is almost ran over by Miss Elizabeth herself, who cries out for her uncle in obvious distress. Why can nothing between him and Miss Elizabeth ever go as it should?

His own distress at seeing her like that showing in his concerned speech, he urges her to let the boy go after her uncle, she is not well at all, something dreadful must have happened at home, for he can see a thick letter on the table behind her. Never in his life has Darcy been tempted so much to take a woman in his arms without having any right to do so. Miss Elizabeth is trembling and her legs nearly give out on her, she is in a pitiable state, and there is nothing he can do to comfort her.

The boy gone, she finally sits down and he offers her to help her in any way he can, but she denies being ill herself, confirming bad news from Longbourn. Struggling for control, she tells him her youngest sister has eloped with Wickham, and then it is Darcy's turn to feel his knees buckle beneath him. Please let that not be true!

But it turns out to be the sad truth, and Miss Elizabeth reproaches herself for not telling her family about Wickham's true nature. Darcy knows better, she couldn't have told her featherheaded youngest sister, Darcy had asked her specifically to keep his explanation to herself. This is all his fault. To protect Georgiana and to avoid having to speak his very name, Darcy refused to make Wickham's true nature public, accepting rather to have Wickham's lies about him believed than have to explain to everyone what really happened. Finding it beneath him, actually, to have his private affairs discussed publicly.

And now Miss Elizabeth is suffering for it, will lose whatever standing her family had, they will be the ridicule of the neighbourhood, and Bingley can forget about marrying Miss Bennet. Even if Miss Elizabeth can never love him, Darcy cannot let that happen.

As she finally breaks down and covers her face in shame and grief, Darcy makes a resolution to hunt Wickham down and force him to marry the girl, at any cost to himself. He is not going to let Miss Elizabeth's life be ruined over this, he loves her and his heart aches to see her in such despondence, such a strong woman reduced to tears.

As he excuses himself for his prolonged stay, and offers his sympathy, she looks up at him for a moment, and the look in her eyes just breaks his heart. Just as Georgiana had given him hopes of her, something comes up that rips them apart, maybe forever. But he will save her family's honour, even if that means having to speak to Wickham again, and risk paying an unimaginable price to someone else to find out where in London he is hiding.

One last thing to do, and that is to cancel their dinner, the evening he was looking forward to with such eagerness, but there is no help for it, he has a huge task ahead of him, finding a single man in a city of millions. Miss Elizabeth is not in the mood for dinner with anyone, anyway.

And in the knowledge that they may never meet again, their growing closeness nipped in the bud, one more thing for George Wickham to answer for, he looks at her once more, fixing her beautiful features in his mind forever, then leaves.

He rides home, changes into travelling clothes, has his fastest horse saddled and joins Georgiana in her own apartment. At the look on his face, she exclaims and asks: 'Something happened at Miss Elizabeth's place, you didn't propose already, did you? I told you she needed more time!'