All Hallow's Eve (43 page)

Crossing
first
to
speak to
Lord Reginald
, Richard
then went
outdoors
to look for an ideal place to hold the meeting
—
away
from the building so that they would not be overheard and where he could s
py
anyone coming toward them
.
D
enny
met
up with
him
in a timely manner.

“Colonel, allow me to thank you for meeting me here, as this matter is of a most
critical
importance
.
Just
after leaving for the card party this evening, I noticed that my gloves were soiled
.
While
return
ing
to the ba
rracks to retrieve another pair,
I happened across a couple of men who are
friends
of
George Wickham, but they did not see me.
After
overhear
ing
their conversation
, I
knew
that I must speak
to
someone
who has the best interests of the Bennet family
at heart.”

“
I
have been
under the impression that
you
a
re a friend of George Wickham
, Lieutenant
.
Am
I mistaken?
”

“I understand why you would assume so, si
r, but let me assure you that
he
is no friend of mine.
M
ay I be frank, sir?
I feel obliged to tell you what it is that Wickham holds
against
me so that you can judge my reasons for cooperating with him thus far, and to prove that my
good
intentions
towards the Bennets are
genuine.
You, sir, may do with the information what you will
,
of course. You see, if
made public, the intelligence he has would have me swinging at the end of a rope before a
se’
e
nnight’s
time. But
now I know exactly what kind of man I have been
assisting
these past years
.
I will not allow the Bennets to be harmed by him
!
In exposing my misdeeds, I rob Wickham of his power over me.”

At Richard’s nod, Denny continued.
“
It began three years ago when m
y sister
had been working
as a maid
in the house of a
nobleman
.
Clara was fond of the immediate family, but o
ne of the earl’s relatives
,
who
often stayed there when in Town
,
had been making advances towards
her
.
She was not the type to give in to that sort of thing; she was an honest girl, a good girl, sir!
She resisted, but this
gentle
man continued to make attempts
whenever he was in London
.
She had a good position
and was afraid to complain
to her employer, or
to
anyone else for that matter
—even to me
, fearing that my reaction could jeopardize her
place there
. The
last time
t
he
gentle
man
came to
London
, h
e
told her that he had had enough of the
‘
game
’
she was playing and
,
well, I am certain you
can guess
what happened next.
S
ince she had that afternoon off, she was not missed. The following day, Clara
explained her
bruised
condition to the housekeeper by saying
that
she
had been robbed on
her way to the market
.
I suspect that t
he housekeeper ha
d
some idea
of what had truly happened
because
my sister
was kept in the kitchens from that point on—that is, until her
condition
became obvious, after which she was discharged.
I
am
certain
that
her employer suspected what had happened since he gave her a stipend when she left, and a doctor came to visit her on a monthly basis
, though he never told us who was paying him
.

“
I was stationed in London at the time
.
Having nowhere else to go,
she came to me
,
and
I took an apartment for her.
She refused to tell
me
who the father was until she was sure that she was dying after giving birth to her son, who
also
died very shortly after his birth
.
The midwife could do nothing, and t
hough I sent for the doctor, he could not save
Clara
.

“
S
everal days
in a row
following m
y sister
’s burial were spent
in a tavern where
,
after
doing
nothing
other than
drink, I met Wickham. Wickham
fed my
hunger
for revenge
against the man who had done this to
my beloved sister
and
convinced
me to challeng
e
the gentleman
to a due
l.
Wickham was to be my
l
ieutenant, and he did most of the talking
;
I had
only
to be
present
—and
to
be honest,
sir,
considering my
drunken
condition
, even
that
was almost more than I could manage
.
That night I actually slept
.
W
hen I awakened,
I
knew that
challeng
ing the gentleman
had
been
wrong
, and
especially
that m
y sister would not have wished it
;
however, m
y pride would not allow me to back out
.

At the du
e
l,
I
sh
o
t
the
gentle
man
, sir
.
I thought it
a
rather harmless
wound, not more than a scratch really, but I
hoped it had taught
him
a lesson
and other girls would be saved from suffering a fate like my sister’s
.
A
week later
I learned that
all others
would
be safe from him after all—
he
had
died from an infection.

“So, you see, Colonel
,
I
—the son of a
washwoman and a
common sailor—
ha
ve
killed a gentleman
.
”
Denny paused, looking
completely
done in at having confessed all of this at last, but
Richard could tell that
he was not finished.
He took a swig from
the
flask that Richard handed him, thanked
the
c
olonel
, and
began again
.

“Wickham has practically managed my personal life since that day.
He seems to turn up at the oddest places
without
any warning,
and
he always expects me to be at his beck and call when he does.
I have done
everything he
has
asked
up until this visit.
Colonel,
please understand that
I did not understand how evil Wickham
truly
was until about a month ago
, when
I was sent on an errand
to
a
village
that I had been
in
with Wickham a
bout two years prior
.” Closing his eyes, Denny’s expression turned pained and he shook his head.

“I
came across a lady... well,
I should say that
she was
once
a lady
.
N
ow she
is
working in the local tavern—and
not
as a barmaid
, sir
.
I was shocked
to see her there
.
When she saw me, she
rushed across the tavern
,
tried to gouge my eyes out
, and
then
accused me of helping Wickham do some
truly
terrible things
to her and her family
before the
i
nnkeeper forced her to leave.

“Afterwards, a regular
patron
brought me up to date
on what had happened to her
, treating the whole story as if it were a joke!
T
he girl had
borne
a
child
, but was
unmarried
still.
Her parents and brothers
had
turned their backs on her, and after the
neighbour
hood had abandoned them all, they
had
sold their estate and moved away
.
The
following
day
,
I
ascertained her whereabouts and sought her out
to
see
if I could help
her
find the father
of the child
.
Colonel
,
it is
impossible
for a child to look more like a miniature version of Wickham than
her boy
did!
I told her I would get him to support her and the boy, but s
he
begged
me not to—she wanted nothing to do with the man ever again, even if she
did
ha
ve
to se
ll herself to support her child.

“
Having
a few days leave
before
I was due back at
camp, I
did a bit of travelling, making
a few more stops
at places I had been with Wickham
.
At each village
,
I found that a
ll those times I had helped him
there was
a similar story.
He had not been flirting, hoping to
have a
gentleman’s daughter
fall in love with him
and
marry
a fortune
,
as
I had
always
thought
he was doing.
H
e
had been
ruining entire families
and refusing to take responsibility for what he
had done to any of them
!
Whether or not the girl was left in a
delicate
condition, it was as if he
had
made certain that every one of them was seen alone with him just before he left the area!

“I ask you, sir, w
hat kind of man is this?

“
I will not allow the same to happen to the Bennets, Colonel
;
nobody
deserve
s the fate that I have witnessed
. Wickham already has
that look
in his eyes when he gazes upon
the Bennet ladies
—especially Miss Lydia.