Safely ensconced in the barn, Elizabeth looked around to take in her surroundings. There was little in the barn. On one side of the room was a rather large stack of hay, reaching far above Elizabeth's head. There were some tools hanging on the wall on Elizabeth's other side. From the state of the tools, Elizabeth assumed they were well and often used. She hoped that no one had any need to come in there and discover her, but from the way the rain was coming down, she felt it was very unlikely. Directly ahead of her, on the opposite wall from the door she had entered, was another door. Elizabeth assume that it lead to a closet of some sort and did not bother to investigate it any further.
The barn was indeed dry, but the chill from outside was seeping in. Elizabeth remembered spying a stack of wood under the overhanging of the roof when she came if.
Hoping that they were still dry in the rain, Elizabeth dashed back into the rain and around the corner of the building a few times to bring in what she thought was enough wood to start a fire. She stacked the wood in a pyramid like she had seen in pictures and stuck pieces of hay in between the gaps.
She stood back and surveyed her work. It was only then that she realized she had little idea on how to actually start a fire!
Elizabeth thought hard about the pictures and descriptions she'd seen in travel books about people surviving in the wilderness. She hesitantly picked up two sticks and rub them together how the book had described it. It took a while, but eventually Elizabeth found success in creating a spark that caught on the hay.
Her luck held on as the spark ignited against more hay and the fire started to spread. With the warmth from the fire starting to spread, Elizabeth began to realize how cold she was in her wet dress. She also began to worry that if she continued to wear it, they would take longer to dry and she ran the risk of a cold.
But if she took her clothes off, she ran the risk of being caught in quite a compromising position. So it was a decision of her health and comfort or her reputation. Elizabeth weighed the decision in her mind, but considering the likelihood of being caught as she was, she believed it was worth the risk to lay her clothes by the fire to dry.
Stripped down to her stays and shift, Elizabeth grabbed a dirty blanket laying on the floor under the tools and sat down next to the fire, letting herself warm up. If she was home, the sound of thunder would have been a comforting accompaniment to playing a game of chess with her father or reading a book by the fire, but out there in an empty barn alone, it was as if the world had shrunk down to just her. It was a disquieting feeling.
Time crept forward slowly with Elizabeth having no idea, in the windowless building, how much time was actually going by. She passed the time quietly monologuing her favorite book passages and poems, and, occasionally, practicing a song. She wished she had thought to bring a book with her on her walk, but she'd had no plans to stop to read and had forgone the accessory .
Elizabeth's mind wandered from books to the subject of her sisters. She hoped they were able to take refuge at their aunt and uncle's before the storm had hit. It wouldn't do for all of them to be stuck out in the storm without the aid of family. Elizabeth would be able to handle it much better than her two youngest sisters. They were notoriously bad during storms, constantly complaining. She almost felt bad for her aunt and uncle, if the three girls had indeed made it there.
Elizabeth was finally getting warm and comfortable when she heard something thump from the other side of the door that she had thought to be a closet before. It startled her, but she told herself that something mush have dropped and it was really nothing to worry herself over.
That was when she heard a deep male voice cry out "Blast it all!"
Elizabeth sprung to her feet. There was someone on the other side of the door. Not only a someone, but a male someone. She quickly went over to the side of the room and grabbed a pitchfork.
With her weapon clutched in her hands Elizabeth inched towards the door and called out, "Who is it? I have a weapon and am not afraid to use it if need be."
It was irrational of her to threaten someone whom she did not know, nor know of their intentions, but Elizabeth was frightened enough that manners and rationality went right out of the window.
Footsteps came towards the door. Elizabeth slowly backed away and her grip on the pitchfork tightened until her fingers started to turn white. Her heart was thumbing so loudly, she knew the man could hear it.
"I promise you, I bear you no ill will. I had not know anyone else was in here."
The voice sounded all to familiar to Elizabeth, but she could not place how she knew such a haughty tone.
"But it does worry me to be in here with you, when you are so happy to threaten a stranger that has done nothing to harm you. It makes me wonder about the manners they teach out here to country girls."
It was just as the door was opening that Elizabeth realized why she recognized the voice.
A/N: If you visit my author page, you can find information for my Facebook page. I would love it if you guys joined me over there :)
A/N 2: Hey guys, thank you to those who have pointed out the issues with Elizabeth lighting a fire. Blame my poor city mind on that mistake. It will be fixed in the published version of this book. There is no need for anyone else to point this out to me. Thank you to those who already have.