To her right she saw the first blast go off and she felt the air shake with its force.
Bingley had clearly given the command to blow up the Hingham Bridge, like he was instructed to do, but Elizabeth and Darcy were never going to make it across in time.
"Come on!" Elizabeth urged the horse in a desperate and final attempt to reach the other side before the final explosion would tear the bridge apart and cut them off from the world inhabited by the living.
Elizabeth felt Darcy's arms tighten around her waist and his chest press tighter against her back. The man, sitting behind her on the horse, must realize as well how dire their situation was and that they were running out of time.
"Come on! Faster!" Elizabeth urged the horse again, but as one of the explosives in front of them went off, she knew they were not going to make it. She saw the stones of the bridge's foundation begin to fall from underneath them and felt the horse loose its footing. Elizabeth gasped audibly, realizing all of a sudden that this could very well be the end of their lives.
"Jump!" Darcy's voice sounded loudly in Elizabeth's ears and she felt a strong yank at her waist. With all her might she jumped off the horse and flung herself forward into empty space. She did not know where it would lead here, she could only hope that it would eventually bring her and Darcy into safety.
One final, major explosion sent debris flying in every direction. Elizabeth felt Darcy's hands being ripped from her waist as the two of them were separated by the force of the blast and the debris. Visibility was down to zero now because of all the smoke and dust, making it impossible to orientate.
Suddenly Elizabeth felt herself collide heavily with the remains of the bridge and that was when her whole world went black…
There was the urge to breath. A great urge. Like she hadn't breathed in a while.
Elizabeth gulped in a lungful of oxygen, but immediately coughed it all out again due to the smoke and dust that still clung to the air.
She realized that she had been knocked unconscious for a little while by the harsh landing and carefully opened her eyes. Elizabeth was lying on her back on the remains of the bridge, with fires and debris all around her. For a moment she lay still, taking gulping breaths and allowing the worst pain of the fall to reside.
Somehow she and Darcy had managed to get across the exploding bridge far enough to prevent them from being completely blown apart or landing at the bottom of the Royal Canal. It had been narrowly and certainly not without mortal danger, but anything was better than to be mauled by zombies on the wrong end of the bridge.
Elizabeth estimated that she was fairly uninjured. That last explosion and the flying debris had left its mark on her here and there, but it could all have been a lot worse. But what about Darcy? She heard no other signs of life near her, apart from the crackling of several fires. Had the nobleman gone down with the Hingham Bridge? Had he made sure that she would survive and perished himself?
Elizabeth carefully rolled onto her side and propped herself up on one elbow to have a look around.
At first she saw only debris and nothing that even remotely resembled a person. Could it be that one of the heavy stones of the bridge had crushed Darcy and robbed him of his life?
Elizabeth sat up a little straighter and that was when she saw him. Her heart immediately skipped a few beats and fear gripped at her throat.
"Oh no…" she meant to speak the words, but they left her throat with minimum volume, leaving it nothing more than a movement of her lips rather than spoken words.
There, a couple of yards away from her, lay Darcy. He laws lying on his stomach, faced turned away from Elizabeth and clearly not moving.
With a heavy heart, Elizabeth got up on all fours and hastily crawled over to Darcy. He was still covered by small parts of debris and dust, so she knew he had not moved at all since their fall. This did not predict much good for the state he was in…
Elizabeth finally sat down next to Darcy. The part of his face that she could see was covered in dirt and dust, and was littered with small cuts.
"Mr. Darcy?" Elizabeth's voice sounded broken and tearful, something she never would have believed her voice would ever sound like. No response whatsoever came from Darcy, not even the slightest twitch of a finger.
It was hard to even determine whether or not Darcy was still breathing. Elizabeth reached for the man's left shoulder and carefully rolled him onto his back. She cradled his head in her hands to make sure he would not hurt it on the stones he lay on. One of her hands was immediately covered in blood, which came from a nasty cut to his head just above his right ear. The wound was undoubtedly caused by one of the explosions that destroyed the bridge.
The sight of the blood and the wound quite scared Elizabeth. Also none of Darcy's strong muscles gave resistance to her touching him or rolling him over, which was nothing like him for as far as she could tell.
Even from this close Elizabeth could still not visually determine if Darcy was breathing. She brought her face very close to his nose and mouth and felt for any signs of a breath. There it was. It was very faint, but Elizabeth definitely felt a warm breath of his on her face.
Elizabeth took a shuddering breath in relief, realizing that Darcy was actually still alive. His condition was certainly still worrying her, but at least for now he lived. She did not know for how long he would be able to cling onto life and if those mysterious dark-brown eyes would ever stare into hers again.
Suddenly Elizabeth felt tears sting in her eyes and a feeling washed over her that she had never felt before. It was love. Love in its most strong and cruel way. Love that was threatening to shatter right here before her eyes and in her arms.
Elizabeth allowed the tears to fall now, some spilling onto Darcy's face.
"The very first moment I beheld you" she said softly and tearfully, bringing her face close to his again "my heart was irrevocably gone".
She was certain Darcy could not hear here, but she still felt the desperate need to say this to him. A feeling that had been bothering her for so long, her true feelings for him, and to which she finally dared to surrender herself.
Elizabeth bent forward and placed a loving kiss on Darcy's lips to seal her words. She had half hoped that this would lead to some sort of response from him, but Darcy stayed utterly still.
"N-No…" the first real sob now escaped Elizabeth. She wrapped her hands around Darcy's torso and rested her head on his chest, crying softly into the leather of his long coat. The sound of his sluggishly beating heart beneath her ear and the faint rise and fall of his chest under her cheek, somewhat eased Elizabeth, but she knew Darcy was in desperate need of the care of a physician.
"Don't abandon me" she whispered through her tears, "not now. I will lead you through this. I'll be by your side"…
Thank you for reading. The next chapter will be up as soon as possible.
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