Page 50 of The Long Road Back to Yesterday

“If you come close enough, you can smell it.”

“Richard, all I can smell from here is the gin he guzzled down.”

Richard nudged a bottle with the toe of his boot. “And your best brandy.” He looked around the room. “There is another empty bottle of gin beneath the couch, and another beneath the table.”

Darcy spoke to the butler in a tone that admitted no delay. “Smithers, send for the physician. He may determine what happened to George Wickham. It appears he drank himself to death, but we must know whether foul play was involved.”

“Yes, sir.”

Before the butler moved, Darcy asked, “Where is my sister?”

“When Mrs. Younge saw the condition he was in, she took your sister upstairs. They did not come down to lunch yesterday, so I sent the servant to announce luncheon had been served.”

“And then?”

“That was when I discovered Mrs. Younge, Miss Darcy, and the maid had left the house. They packed lightly, sir. Most of their belongings remain here. Each took only a single portmanteau.”

Richard said, “They may have returned to London to escape this monster.”

Darcy said, “Perhaps. I will send an express to enquire. They would have reached Darcy House by ten o'clock last night by post chaise or by seven this morning, if they traveled by mail coach.”

“Smithers, we require breakfast. But first we will bathe.”

“Yes, sir.”

* * *

The two men had finished breakfast when the physician was shown in. Darcy explained the circumstances of Wickham's death, and then, accompanied by the butler, he and Richard escorted the physician into the drawing room.

Richard said, “He looks ghastly.”

The physician examined the body. When he finished, he said, “This man died from excessive drink. He became insensible and vomited. Unable to rouse, he choked and suffocated. Who found him?”

“I did, sir,” the butler said.

The physician asked a few more questions, then said, “Sir, I imagine you summoned me because you require a signed statement of death.”

“Yes, doctor. There is pen and paper on the writing desk.”

When the physician finished, he handed the statement to Darcy. He accepted the document and stared at it in silence. The single sheet recorded the death of the man who had brought a decade of misery upon his family. Holding it in his hands was a solemn moment. It carried relief, sorrow for all that had been lost, and the grim satisfaction that George Wickham could never again threaten those he loved.

Statement of Death

August 28, 1811

I have this day viewed the body of Mr. George Wickham and find every appearance consistent with death resulting from excessive drink and suffocation upon his own vomit. Upon examination, there is no indication of external violence.

John Pembroke, Surgeon

As the two cousins spoke with the surgeon, an express arrived. Smithers paid the messenger, accepted the letter, and entered the drawing room. Darcy took it from him.

“Richard, it is from Georgiana.”

He crossed to the window and broke the seal. The letter proved brief. He then opened Mrs. Younge's letter. The truth was devastating. He sank into a nearby chair, nearly overcome with grief. A wave of nausea rose within him.

Georgiana was ruined and might even now carry Wickham's child.

Richard drew alongside and read the note Darcy handed to him.