Chapter Eight
That night Elizabeth had lurid dreams in which the person undergoing abuse was not Lydia but herself. In the morning, she felt such shame that she could hardly bear to recall the images that had filled her brain, of being held down and raped multiple times, of being beaten, of having men ejaculate over her. They are just fantasies, she told herself, from a part of my mind I cannot control. It does not mean that I truly desire such things or would ever allow them to happen.
The next day Elizabeth’s uncle appeared again. He was closeted with Lydia for a full hour, after which he emerged to say that it was concluded Lydia would accompany him to London, where a marriage would take place with Wickham. Her uncle said that there was no doubt of the outcome, that Wickham had been o
