Captain Denny kept Elizabeth close to his side as they climbed two more sets of stairs. The noises and close press of the narrow hallways alarmed Elizabeth and she was most grateful for the captain’s presence. In her heart, she knew she would not have come so far on her own.
They walked slowly down the passage and Captain Denny turned to Elizabeth with a finger to his lips. She nodded and knew she must remain as quiet as a mouse.
As they approached a door near the far end of the hallway, she wondered how the captain knew which room Mr. Wickham had taken. She supposed one of the girls in the salon might have told for a price. But Lady Sherston must know whether Wickham had rented a room in her establishment.
Elizabeth shrunk behind the captain as he tapped upon the door. If Mr. Wickham was inside, he would not expect to see her and Elizabeth hoped the sight of Captain Denny would distract him so that she might dash inside the room.
When there was no answer, the captain tapped again and waited. To Elizabeth’s surprise, he called out as he wiggled the door handle.
Elizabeth hissed a sharp question at his back. “What have you done, Captain Denny? He will never come out now!”
Before she might have a reasonable answer, the door opened a tiny crack and Lydia’s face appeared. Elizabeth sucked in a breath. They were so close she nearly reached out to touch her sister’s cheek.
Captain Denny gave a slight bow. “Miss Lydia, is Wickham with you? I wish to have a word with him.”
Lydia’s eyes were red, as though she had been crying, and her voice shook. “He is not, Denny. He went to find us a bite to eat. I will tell him you came to see him.”
She began to close the door and Elizabeth edged from behind the captain and placed her foot in the shrinking gap between the door and its frame.
Lydia squealed, her countenance one of guilty surprise. She pushed the door hard and Elizabeth yelped in pain but would not move her injured foot one inch. “Lydia Sophia Marie Bennet, you open this door!”
Elizabeth pushed and turned to glance over her shoulder at Captain Denny. “Help me!”
He shook himself from the shock of watching the Bennet sisters behave in such a manner and threw his weight against the door. Elizabeth tumbled in against the groaning wood and knocked Lydia backwards into the room.
Captain Denny grabbed her before she might fall but Lydia fought against him. “Let me go! I will not leave George and Lizzy cannot make me!”
Elizabeth marched to her sister and looked at Captain Denny. “Do not release her for a moment! She will only run and the streets are no safer for her than they were for me. I doubt Lady Sherston would save us again if it came to it.”
Lydia continued her fight against Captain Denny but the man was far too strong for her small fists to have any effect upon him. Elizabeth went to close the door and turned the key that still hung in the lock for good measure. She would rather not have Mr. Wickham return whilst she gathered her sister.
“Lydia, have you anything you wish to take from this room?” Elizabeth asked as she made a perusal of the few pieces of rickety furniture scattered about. She saw nothing more than her sister’s dusty spencer and a bonnet. There was no small trunk nor any other item Lydia might have brought on her doomed elopement.
“I will not leave, Lizzy! George and I are to be married.” Lydia delivered her news with much fervor. Elizabeth’s heart gave a squeeze as she contemplated the fact that her sister believed the man loved her.
“You have no choice in the matter. Father and Mr. Darcy, along with his cousin Colonel Fitzwilliam, are searching the docks near here as we speak. When they find Mr. Wickham, he will not be fit for a wedding my dear. You and I will go to Uncle Gardiner’s townhome and you shall remain there until Father has decided what is best.”
“But Father will insist we marry if I say I am compromised,” Lydia gloated.
Elizabeth advanced across the room slowly, her eyes glittering with anger. She remained strangely calm as she spoke with Lydia. “Have you given your innocence to him, Lydia? Have you been so foolish?”
Captain Denny shuffled his feet and Elizabeth held up a hand. The man was clearly mortified to be a party to the argument between the sisters. He kept his hold on Lydia and looked away to the windows across the room.
“I have not, but Father shall believe it! I will swear it upon my own mother’s life if I am allowed to marry George.”
“You have no idea what your life shall be married to a soldier who has deserted his post. Do you think you shall live in quarters much better than these? Will Mrs. Forster delight in your company when she sees you once more knowing how you shamed your family? I think not. There will be no new bonnets and ribbon for a poor girl whose husband is a disgraced soldier imprisoned for his crime.”
Elizabeth paused to see the effect her speech had upon her sister. A flicker of doubt crossed Lydia’s face and she ceased her struggle against Captain Denny.
“If you go with the captain, Lizzy, George and I shall marry and leave for America. No one shall ever know where we are and we will be happy together. Let us go, Lizzy. I love him.”
Lydia began to wail and Elizabeth nodded to Captain Denny. “Bring her downstairs to the hackney. Pray Lady Sherston’s brother has waited for us in the street as she promised.”
Captain Denny grappled with Lydia before hoisting her small, flailing, screaming body over his shoulder. The poor man looked as though he wished to be anywhere rather than a brothel with a wild woman scratching at his back like a cat.
Elizabeth would have laughed at the picture the pair painted but her feet moved quickly to the door. She must take her sister to Cheapside and begin the work of concealing the truth of her foolish actions.
Lydia had very little sense left to her but the screaming would not be a cause for alarm in this house. Turning the key, Elizabeth directed Captain Denny to the hallway as she turned back for Lydia’s spencer and bonnet.
Lieutenant Wickham’s bellow caught Elizabeth short as she closed the door to his room in the brothel. He charged Captain Denny and Elizabeth stepped in front of him before Wickham might reach them.
“Stop, lieutenant! It is over. My sister shall be returned to her family. You have no authority to marry her nor keep us from leaving this place. What kind of gentleman brings a lady to a house of ill repute?”
Mr. Wickham was surprised by Elizabeth’s presence. He caught himself before he barreled into her and braced his hands on either side of the hallway walls. “Lydia shall be my wife, Miss Elizabeth. We have no desire to remain here when a new life awaits us in the new world.”
He turned his attention to the captain then and pleaded with the man. “Denny, you have no need to escort me to Brighton and deliver me to Colonel Forster. Simply return there and say I could not be found. Remember our friendship, won’t you?”
Elizabeth believed Captain Denny might have done just that had she not found him in the salon. But now, as she watched him move forward still holding her sister over his shoulder, she pushed away the trepidation in her heart. He would not betray the Bennet family.
“Wickham, you cannot think I would allow you to continue with this debauchery? It is true we once were friends but I am a man of my word. I am charged with finding you and bringing you back to Brighton. I only have to see that Miss Lydia and Miss Elizabeth are returned safely to their relatives and I shall return to collect your worthless hide. You have until then to do what you will but there are other soldiers with me and they will know you are found.”
Lydia screamed her protest as Captain Denny pushed past Mr. Wickham. “Put me down, Denny! You are no gentleman nor a hero. You have abandoned a friend in times of trouble.”
Elizabeth pushed past Wickham and called for her sister to calm herself. “Lydia, it matters not how loud you wail in here. No one shall think it odd. We are going home, young lady.”
As soon as the words left her mouth, Elizabeth was caught from behind by Mr. Wickham. Lydia laughed hysterically at this complication to her sister’s plan and Captain Denny turned back.
In a moment, Mr. Wickham had produced a shining, wicked blade from his boot and held it against Elizabeth’s throat. Her uncle’s coat blunted the feel of the sharp metal but she did not think it would save her if Wickham were pushed into action.
“Release my Lydia, Denny, and I shall give you Miss Elizabeth. A fair trade I think,” Wickham smiled slyly at his command of the moment.
Elizabeth struggled against the hold Wickham had on her as she watched Captain Denny place Lydia carefully on her feet. “Do not listen to him, Captain. He will not harm me; he is not a murderer.”
Captain Denny held Lydia in his grasp as Wickham tightened his hold on Elizabeth. “I would never think of murder, Denny. But Miss Elizabeth is a beautiful lady. It would be a shame for her to bear a scar across her lovely face.”
Lydia became incensed with her beau at this treatment of her sister. “George, let her go! She only came because she cares for me. ’Tis no place for a lady and yet you brought me here. Let my sister go!”
Captain Denny released Lydia and she stumbled toward the man she claimed to love.
Mr. Wickham pushed Elizabeth against the wall and delivered an elbow to her ribs that sent her to her knees. He stood over her and aimed his knife at the approaching Lydia. The captain was behind her, determined to rescue Miss Elizabeth.
“My darling,” Wickham spared a warning glance to his old friend Denny whilst pleading with Lydia “do not allow her to stop us from becoming man and wife. We must leave here at once if we are to be together.”