Wickham Ten Years Later ~ A Very Short Story

Posted on Thursday, 9 November 2006

"By god, Reynolds, where did this creature come from? He's beautiful."

"We don't know, Mr. Darcy. Little Charles found him in the stables this morning with a note attached to his saddle."

From: George Wickham
To: Fitzwilliam Darcy
August 5, 1822

Do not be alarmed, sir, lest this letter be yet another request for financial assistance. I wish only to inform you of the consequences of your severe treatment of me in the past.

I am proud to say that I am now a Captain in the Fourth Regiment and aide to General Tullamore, stationed in Cardiff.

Please be assured that I have earned this position not through artifice but through diligence and hard work. The General is not one to suffer fools or to be easily deceived, as your cousin Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam can surely confirm. And the General is fully aware of my past.

The explanation is simple. Being a regular in the army, and having a wife and children to support, it became impossible for me to make my usual escape from creditors and gambling debts. Yet my easy and engaging manner, being my only endowment at birth, had continued to leave behind a trail of victims and enemies. You may find some consolation and justice in the knowledge that during the last ten years I have suffered numerous beatings and humiliations.

But one night three years ago, Darcy, I saw the look on my six-year-old daughter's face as I dragged my bruised body into the house.

I ask nothing from you, sir, not even your forgiveness. The only recompense I can offer for my past behaviour is the knowledge that your generosity towards Lydia and myself has finally borne fruit. I also offer you this fine Arabian stallion, sired by my regiment's champion thoroughbred. I call him Snelgrove, after the stableman who served at Pemberley under both your father and mine.

With best wishes to you and your family,

Captain George Wickham.