Lydia and Mary - An adaptation of Pride and Prejudice

Chapter 5

I sat crossed-legged on my bed, biting my lips. As much as I had wanted to get back to my own era before, I now felt an urge to help Lydia. Vain and naïve as she might be, she did not deserve to marry Mr. Wickham, whom I thought was an absolute bustard. Having read a number of novels written during the Victorian era, I knew how typical it was for women back then to be expected to marry for advantage and not for love, which seemed rather unfair to me. Of course, Lydia's marriage to Mr. Wickham wasn't going to be for love, but to patch-up what everybody believed was her mistake. Though, was it really her mistake? I wondered. I felt sure that Mr. Wickham had fooled Lydia into thinking that he was in love with her although he didn't actually bother about her. Why else would he have refused to marry her till Mr. Darcy had enticed him to do so by promising to bestow upon him a rather large fortune if he were to marry her. It was rather ridiculous, I reflected, that almost nothing was mentioned about Mr. Wickham being at fault at all in Jane Austen's novel, whilst Lydia was evidently blamed for running away. It simply wasn't just! I thought; And it was absolutely unfair that she was going to have to marry Mr. Wickham just so as to save her family's reputation. Fingering the sheets lying on my bed, I made up my mind - I had to prevent their marriage from taking place, whatever that cost.

My eyes moved towards the door, which Elizabeth had left slightly ajar. Walking towards it, I peeked out, looking down the hallway to check that there was nobody there. Seeing that it was empty, and suspecting that the others were still in the breakfast parlor, I slid out of my room and made my way, cautiously, down the hallway.

Moving along the hallway, I instantly caught sight of a room that seemed, to me, to stand out amongst the rest. It was filled with shelves of colourful leather-backed books which immediately caught my attention and emitted a surprisingly fragrant, leathery smell. Its door was left open, and, peering in, I could make out Papa's figure. He was holding what seemed to be a retro-looking fountain pen in his hand and scribbling something on a sheet of paper. 'Shoot,' I cried, suppressing my voice instantly; 'that has to be his reply to Uncle Gardiner's letter!'

I walked in as stealthily as I could, closing the door behind me and opening it again. I stood behind the door whilst doing the latter, so that I ended up being sandwiched between it and the wall that it was leaning against, prior to my opening it. I held still and listened for any voices or movements that might inform me that he had figured out that somebody had entered the room, which I presumed was his library.

I closed my eyes and waited. A minute passed, but the only sounds I could hear were the rustling of leaves and chirping of birds, which I suspected, had to come from outside the library's full-length windows which were left open. I remained silent, deciding to wait behind the open door till Papa was done writing his letter. Thereafter, I would destroy it somehow and replace it with a forged letter which had a different set of instructions for Uncle Gardiner, I thought; hopping that the plan that I'd devised would be effective in preventing Lydia's marriage to Mr. Wickham.