“The search will not continue much longer; I am certain they will find them soon,” Mrs Gardiner managed to say before the six children surrounded Elizabeth completely.
∞∞∞
Indeed, the very next day at noon, Lydia entered the drawing room calm and entirely untroubled, appearing surprised to find her sisters there.
“Uncle will be here in a moment as well,” she announced.
The girls and Mrs Gardiner immediately sprang to their feet, forgetting for an instant everything that had happened, happy simply to see her again. Yet once that first joy subsided, they noticed the stained and dirty gown, the hair that had not been properly arranged for days, and finally her grimy fingernails. They were horrified.
Their most shocking moment arrived, however, when Lydia began speaking cheerfully, as though she had returned from a delightful excursion rather than from a dreadful adventure that had nearly ruined her family’s honour and her own life.
Agnes, who was the least involved and certainly the least delighted to see her, listened in growing disbelief as Lydia exclaimed,
“I am getting married. Just imagine it. I have managed it at sixteen, before all of you.”
Faced with such shamelessness and complete indifference to the fate of everyone else, Kitty recovered herself first.
“Are you not ashamed?” she cried, stepping away from her. “Instead of apologising for what you have done to us.”
“What have I done?” asked Lydia.
At those words, both Elizabeth and Mrs Gardiner moved away from her as well.
“What have you done?” cried Elizabeth. “News of your journey with a man has reached Meryton, and Sir William has postponed Kitty’s wedding.”
“Oh, very good,” replied Lydia. “Then it means I shall marry first. Is that not wonderful?”
The scene became absurd, as though two entirely different plays were being performed at the same time. Lydia alone inhabited one of them, delighted by the prospect of marriage and utterly incapable of understanding what she had done. Everyone else was left to bear the consequences of her adventure.
Agnes, the only person who still retained her composure, turned to her sister, and said rather sharply,
“Take her away and have her washed and dressed properly.”
“I am hungry as well,” cried Lydia in the same cheerful tone.
Elizabeth sank down beside Agnes, who immediately put an arm around her. “Nothing you say will make her understand. Better to be grateful that she is here and wait to hear what Mr Gardiner has to tell us. Then we shall know whether she is truly to be married.”
The three women waited impatiently for his return. He alone could explain what had really happened. Until he arrived,they spoke little, still under the unpleasant impression Lydia had made upon them in every possible respect.
“She is shameless,” murmured Elizabeth.
“Mad,” said Kitty. “How could I ever have taken her as my example? Does she truly not understand what she has done to us? When I told her my wedding had been postponed, she rejoiced because hers would take place first.”
“Let us hear what your uncle has to say before believing anything she tells us.”
Yet there was at least one thing Lydia had spoken truly.
“Yes, Lydia is to be married,” said Mr Gardiner, sinking heavily into an armchair. Fury and exhaustion were equally visible upon his face and in his voice.
“I do not understand how,” said Elizabeth.
Instead of answering immediately, he first drank from the glass waiting for him, looking at the four beautiful women gathered around him whilst attempting to compose himself after the horror he had experienced during the past few days and especially that morning.
“Start at the beginning,” said Mrs Gardiner. “How did you find them?”
“It was not easy, and alone I would have had no result. As you know, searching from inn to inn produced nothing. Then, a few days ago, Mr Darcy used his personal connections to locate a certain Mrs Younge, a woman who had previously sheltered Wickham, and compelled her to reveal the address of their lodging. This morning, we went there directly to the most dreadful district of London.”
The expression upon Mr Gardiner’s face conveyed such dismay that words seemed almost unnecessary. Nevertheless, they came.