With apologies to Jane Austen!
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Chapter XVIII Family Secrets
Darcy's return to his estate in Derbyshire to acquaint the household of his impending marriage and that of his half-brother Wickham was fraught with serious problems. Hidden from the outside world; the lives of Darcy, Wickham and their sister Georgiana held a dark and dangerous secret.
Darcy and Georgiana were the children of a rich land owning couple with substantial properties in Derbyshire and London. George Wickham was passed off as the son of Darcy's father's agent but was in fact the illegitimate issue of a liaison between Darcy's father and his mother's companion and painting teacher, Miss Younge. Darcy's father took full responsibility both for his love child and his mistress, who was accepted into the household by his wife. In fact they lived in a comfortable ménage a trois for ten years before the untimely death of both Darcy's parents. Wickham, Darcy and Georgiana were then brought up as a single family under the occasional supervision of Miss Younge and the land agent.
As they reached their teenage years the three children relied more and more on each other and tended to exclude the outside world. They were all educated at Pemberley by private tutors but were otherwise left to their own devices. Eventually, in what seemed a natural progression from their early experience they formed their own ménage a trois. Darcy began to have sexual relations with his sister at an extremely early age. Fortunately Georgiana, while pubescent, was not yet fertile so there were no untoward consequences of their union. The same was also true of Wickham who was the same age as Georgiana and precociously sexually active.
When Darcy and Wickham went up to Cambridge it seemed perfectly natural to the outside world that their sister should accompany them and look after their lodgings. As was common with undergraduates at that time, Darcy and Wickham spent most of their time drinking and fornicating. All of this was of no concern to Georgiana and after three misspent years they all returned to Pemberley and started to take on some responsibility for their vast estates and wealth.
Lovers came and went, but nothing really changed; the ménage a trois persisted. Until now, when, in the course of a few short weeks, Georgiana discovered she had lost both Wickham and Darcy. She was mortified with grief and jealousy but took good care to hide the fact from her two lovers. She too regarded Lydia as a vulgar stupid tart but realised that Elizabeth was an altogether more formidable individual. Through her tears she began to ponder on how she could retrieve the situation.
Darcy had assured her that while Elizabeth would become the nominal mistress of the household Georgiana would still have considerable authority. Darcy and Wickham had also assured her that they both wished to continue in their sexual relations with her and to that purpose the Dower House in the grounds at Pemberley was assigned to Georgiana as a venue for their future sexual activities. Needless to say both Elizabeth and Lydia were to be kept in ignorance of these strange incestuous arrangements.
Having concluded these delicate negotiations with his sister Darcy travelled directly to Rosings, the property of his only other living relatives Lady Catherine de Burgh and her daughter Anne. There, a few days later, he was joined by Elizabeth and Wickham.
Chapter XIX The Visit To Rosing
Soon after the visitors had arrived at Rosing, the Collins' were invited to dine with them. It was an extremely dreary affair. The only saving grace being that as Lady Catherine hogged the conversation with occasional pauses for obsequies from Mr. Collins; Elizabeth could observe Wickham's reaction to Charlotte. He was in fact highly relieved, having expected a grim battleaxe entirely lacking in sexual allure. It was also apparent to him that she had absolutely no idea of the pleasures to be derived from sexual congress.
After dinner when the ladies left the men to their port and cigars Elizabeth had the opportunity to talk privately with Charlotte who was clearly very unhappy at not producing a child. Elizabeth knew that her pragmatic solution to the problem would appall her friend and would never be agreed to. The only solution was to persuade Wickham to seduce her not once but several times. This was very dangerous territory indeed but she had nothing but contempt for Mr. Collins and knew that a child would give some focus to her friend's life.
Sometime later the men rejoined them in the drawing room. It amused Elizabeth to speculate that Mr. Collins' presence must have put something of a damper on the usual louche male conversation and their rather weary distracted air tended to confirm this. Darcy engaged himself in conversation with his aunt giving Elizabeth an opportunity to talk with Wickham.
"Well Mr. Wickham what have you to say about my friend Charlotte?"
"She seems to be a rather sad young woman but not without her charms"
"And wouldn't' you like to make her life a little happier?"
"I can think of another that I would greatly prefer to please," said Wickham.
"Well you and Lydia are soon to be married," replied Elizabeth.
"I was referring to you", said Wickham. "I think I made you very happy indeed only last week."
Elizabeth blushed. "Really Mr. Wickham it is most ungentlemanly of you to remind me of my indiscretion."
Wickham lowered his voice and continued; "Perhaps if you were to be indiscrete again; rather more indiscrete in fact, I might be persuaded to help your friend."
Elizabeth flushed with a mixture of embarrassment and confusion. She understood exactly what he was proposing and was disturbed to find that she found the idea rather exciting. The recollection of their intimate encounter in the attic room at Netherfield came flooding back.
"Please correct me if I am wrong, but I think what concerns you most are practical matters rather than impropriety or moral scruples. You are a vigorous active young woman are you not who greatly enjoys horse riding? Indeed I have often heard Darcy comment favorably on your activities. It is not uncommon for such an active young woman to present herself to her husband on her wedding night with her hymen already broken but still a virgin. Indeed I know that the delightful prospect of engaging in sexual congress with you would totally distract him from any other considerations."
