Page 42 of The Long Road Back to Yesterday

“It is late. You may draw my bath tomorrow morning. Tonight, we both need our rest. It has been a long, tiring day. You are excused.”

“Thank you, Miss Georgiana.”

After Jenny left, Georgiana sat at her writing desk and stared at Mrs. Younge's letter to Fitzwilliam.

She knew she ought not open it, but she could not bring herself to set it aside. Perhaps it would explain why Mrs. Younge had resigned her position. Why had she believed Fitzwilliam would seek to avenge a wrong?

The letter lay unsealed. It had been written upon coarse paper and was brief. Her companion must have penned it at the inn.

She unfolded it and began to read.

Before she reached the end, tears streamed down her face.

Her marriage had been a deception. She had believed August 24, the day of her wedding, would forever hold a place of honor in her heart, a day she and her husband would commemorate each year. But she had not married.

According to Mrs. Younge's letter, the rector had been an impostor. No record of the marriage existed because no marriage had taken place. Mrs. Younge explained that she wrote only to ensure Mr. Wickham received no part of the dowry he had so greatly coveted.

Gratitude swept through Georgiana. She was not married to that enraged liar, that reprobate.

But she was ruined and, according to Mrs. Younge, might even now carry Mr. Wickham's child. Would Fitzwilliam repudiate her? She was now a fallen woman. She remembered her friend Emily, taken from school and given in marriage to a poor farmer who lived far to the north. She had held Emily as she wept in despair. Now she herself stood in the same unhappy situation.

Her life had changed beyond recall.

The revelation left her so stunned that she could do nothing but stare down at the letter.

A firm knock upon the door startled her.

“Yes?”

“Miss Darcy, did you wish to send an express?”

“Yes, Higgins. I am writing it now.”

Georgiana wrote a brief note explaining only that she had returned home safely in a hired carriage with Mrs. Younge, who had resigned her position. She added that she enclosed a letter from her former companion, though she had struck out the names lest it fall into a stranger's hands and the truth be made known.

She sealed Mrs. Younge’s letter, placed it within the folds of her own, then sealed it also.

She found Higgins and placed it in his hand.

“When will Fitzwilliam receive this express?”

“If we dispatch it now, miss, he should receive it tomorrow morning about seven.”

“Higgins, if it is addressed to Fitzwilliam Darcy and my brother has not yet reached the leased house in Ramsgate, what will become of the express?”

“Miss Darcy, add a note beneath the direction instructing that, should Mr. Darcy not yet have arrived, it is to be held by the butler until it can be delivered to either Mr. Darcy or Colonel Fitzwilliam.”

“Very good, Higgins. I shall do so.”

When it was done, she retired for the night.

Chapter 19: Hope

They had been in residence at Gracechurch Street for the past week, and Jane was broken. She remained in her bed until after nine each morning, and when she finally came down to breakfast, she merely picked at her food. In that short time, Elizabeth observed that her sister had already lost weight. More troubling still, she appeared to have lost the will to live.

Mrs. Gardiner drew near to Elizabeth.

“What has happened to Jane? It has been three months since the loss of your parents, and still she suffers as though the wound had only just been inflicted.”