Page 22 of The Crown’s Gift

Across the room, Mary played with the corner of a card and watched them uneasily. Elizabeth excused herself soon afterward.

On the walk home, Mary remained quiet until Meryton's last lamps fell behind them.

"I did not like the way Mr Wickham spoke of Mr Darcy."

Miss Harwood walked a few steps ahead with Kitty and Lydia, who were disputing whether Lieutenant Chamberlayne had smiled at one or both of them.

Elizabeth lowered her voice. "Because you like Mr Darcy?"

"I do not know him. But Mr Wickham seemed to enjoy being pitied."

Elizabeth considered. "He may have had little else to enjoy."

"Perhaps."

Mary's uncertainty carried more weight than another person's accusation. She rarely condemned and never for sport.

At Netherfield, Sir Thomas waited in the library. He had permitted the girls to attend the party on condition that he hear how it passed, a habit Lydia called interrogation and secretly enjoyed because it prolonged every outing.

Kitty described the officers. Lydia described them more loudly. Mary praised Charlotte's patience during cards. Elizabeth said little of Wickham until her father asked whether the new lieutenant had been present.

"He told me he was the late Mr Darcy's godson."

Sir Thomas's fingers stilled on the arm of his chair. "Did he?"

"And that Mr Darcy denied him a living intended by his father."

"Did you believe him?"

Elizabeth sat opposite. "I believed that he believes himself injured. I do not know whether the injury is justly described."

"Good."

"You know something of him?"

"Only his name. It appeared in correspondence sent to me two years ago by Lord Melbourne's office concerning army commissions purchased with questionable drafts. Nothing was proven against Wickham then."

Mary had followed Elizabeth into the library and stood near the shelves. "Will you tell Mr Darcy?"

Sir Thomas looked at her. "Would you wish me to?"

"If someone told stories about Lizzy, I would want her warned."

Elizabeth turned, touched by the quiet certainty.

"Then I shall determine whether a warning is needed," Sir Thomas said. "But none of you will repeat Mr Wickham's account. A man's charming face does not make his accusation true, and another man's pride does not make it false."

Lydia, lingering in the doorway, sighed. "Must every handsome officer become a lesson?"

"Only the ones who speak."

The following morning Sir Thomas wrote three letters. One went to his solicitor. One went to an undersecretary who had dined at Netherfield after the King's recovery. The third was addressed to Colonel Fitzwilliam, younger son of the Earl of Matlock, whose acquaintance Sir Thomas had made during a royal shooting party.

He did not write to Darcy.

Darcy came to him first.

They met beside the lower lake two days later. Sir Thomas was inspecting damage to a stone culvert when Darcy approached on horseback. He dismounted rather than speak from the saddle.