June 1811 had already been bad enough for Fitzwilliam Darcy of Pemberley in Derbyshire. A fortnight earlier he had barely averted a planned elopement of his sister with his former friend George Wickham when they planned to leave Ramsgate to travel to Gretna Green. Wickham had now returned to Lambton. He also had an accomplice and they were prepared to ruin Darcy. Both men would use any means whatsoever to steal Darcyβs beloved Pemberley, even if it meant killing Darcy. With Darcy gone, Mr. Wickham might convince a grieving Georgiana Darcy of his love for her and this time they would elope to Gretna Green. After that the way would be clear for George Wickham to become the owner of Pemberley and Darcy House and all of the other properties that the Darcy family owned.
Things suddenly got out of control. The new owner of the local paper in Lambton hated Darcy and all his family and now he set out to ruin him and his younger sister. The man published a story accusing Darcy of murdering Mr. Wickham and there were many other lies and his story was delivered to the newspapers in London. It was the biggest story in years and it was sure to destroy Mr. Darcy.
For over six years Mr. Darcy had been covered in the society pages of the papers in town as being a rich handsome bachelor of high moral character but now all of this was being erased by a rogue editor in the little village of Lambton in Derbyshire. The stories of Mr. Darcy had young women swooning at the very mention of his name and had their mothers constantly trying to introduce their daughters to him. Darcy did not like the stories and had never met the woman who he would marry.
Wickhamβs new friend even accused Darcy of being a murderer when all along it was Wickham who had been a rapist and a reprobate and had ruined many young women in Lambton and other places.
Darcy knew he was innocent of all the charges made against him and the slander directed against Miss Darcy by this new editor who wrote the story and indeed the man offered no proof of his allegations against Darcy. Soon nearly all in London and beyond were talking about it and most agreed Mr. Darcy was not one to kill anyone, including his former friend. He and his attorneys and his investigators gathered all the facts and let the press decide if he was innocent or was just the victim of an evil conspiracy. There was much to uncover before Darcy could prove his innocence but he needed to find the third person in the barn that day to prove he did not kill Wickham. To Darcy it was obvious he did not kill Wickham as he was unconscious and could not have been the killer. The press did investigate the matter, though and it appeared that no one would ever know who killed Wickham.
This is not a story for the faint of heart and includes hate, murder, jealousy, revenge, lies, deceit, greed, rape, and theft. But the story also includes the good in man including religion, family, friends, love, help, compassion, giving and the truth.
I hope you will enjoy my story as much as I enjoyed writing it.