A.N. Thank you, Nanciellen, Liysyl, Mariantoinette, Colleen, Happy Lizzy, Gabyhyatt, Joan and Kiwipride for the review. I love to read them! Now you and other readers can see if Darcy and Elizabeth are going to the past or the future. Happy reading and remember to comment. I need your encouragement.


Chapter 19

Darcy moaned as every muscle in his body ached. He opened his eyes and saw nothing but darkness. Blinking several times, he finally adjusted to the blackness and reckoned that he was still inside a cave. The same one where Elizabeth had gone into. The thought of Elizabeth in danger sent him into a panic. He bolted up, despite the pain, and looked around the surrounding. To his immense relief, Elizabeth was still holding his hand, without him realizing it. But she was unconscious, lying diagonally from him.

He crawled to her side and felt for her breath. She was alive!

"Elizabeth, wake up!" Darcy patted her cheek gently and called out to her. Then he cradled her head and rubbed her neck and shoulders. "Please Elizabeth, wake up, are you injured?"

"It hurts," Elizabeth groaned and her eyes fluttered. "Mr. Darcy!"

"What happened? Are you injured?"

She edged away from Darcy's embrace and shook her head. "No, I don't think I am injured but my shoulders, hands and legs ache."

"Me too, like every bone in my body were shaken loose. What happened with the parasol-like thing and the blinding lights?"

"Oh, no!" Elizabeth mumbled. "You must have sparked off the time machine."

Inside the dark cave, Darcy stared at Elizabeth's dazzling eyes with astonishment. "You mean we have time travelled? To 1892? To Washington, America?" Darcy uttered the words slowly.

"Most probably."

He could not or would not believe it. He shook his head. "Can we wait here, inside the cave, for the time machine to appear again, so we can return to our time?"

"Last time, I had to wait for three months."

"Three months! But I have not told Georgiana or Richard. They would be frantic without knowing where I am."

"Me either, Papa and Jane will be worried. And we disappear together this time. Think of the rumours! And Mary! How can we get her out from the prison, when we are here?"

"Did you not choose to be here?" Darcy asked. "I thought you were going to leave your family and me again and go to the future."

"No, I was only going to put a letter there for Lucy, to ask about the fingerprinting." Elizabeth felt around the floor of the cave. "Oh, I must have lost the package. I wrapped it with oilskin, like what I did with my diary, hoping it could survive the time travel to reach Lucy."

"I am sorry, Elizabeth, for not listening to you earlier and for touching the time machine. Now, we are stuck here at another time."

Elizabeth grabbed his hand again and squeezed it. "It is alright. At least we are together."

Elizabeth inched closer to Darcy and soon she was leaning into him with Darcy's arm around her in a mildly protective embrace. If he was not sure of it before, he was sure now, Darcy was completely and irredeemably in love and there would be no helping it.

He brushed the wayward curls away from Elizabeth's face. Then he pressed his lips to touch her forehead, eyes and cheeks, until he reached her lush lips.

"Elizabeth," Darcy murmured breathlessly before lowering his head and kissed her. He started out tentatively, barely touching. Slowly he tasted the tip of her tongue. He felt elated by Elizabeth's response and became more passionate in his kiss. Sucking her sweet lips, Darcy thrust his tongue into her mouth. Her hands squeezed his shoulders as she pressed her pert bosom against his chest. Darcy only stopped the heavenly kiss when he needed to gasp for air. He rested his forehead against her.

He wanted to tell Elizabeth he loved her ardently and asked for her hand in marriage. However, the future was unknown and they were in the unchartered surrounding. He did not want to force her to accept him, purely based on a sense of worries and desperation. He said reluctantly. "We should venture out."

"I think it is for the best," Elizabeth said huskily. "Lucy will help us."

Darcy stood up amid the excruciating pain and then gave his hands to Elizabeth. She raised her body gingerly, moaning aloud. They embraced tightly again when they had their feet firmly on the ground. He drew in deep breaths, intoxicated by her fresh lavender scent and her ample body against his. He forgot about the pain from the time-travel and basked in her proximity. Darcy wished time could stand still and they did not need to face the outside world. But it could not be helped. They could starve in the cave.

After a few more moments of silent embrace, Darcy released Elizabeth. Hand in hand, they strolled from the cave through the tunnel, hindered by the slippery surface and darkness. After like hours of walk, they saw some faint beams ahead. They picked up their pace until they could see brighter light. From afar, they could see that the opening was barred with a gate.

"Strange, there was no gate before." Elizabeth murmured.

A figure suddenly jerked out from the wall of the cave, giving Elizabeth and Darcy a fright. The figure stood there, with the back to the opening, blocking some of the sunlight from entering.

Elizabeth gasped and exclaimed, "Lucy, is that you?"

"Lizzy!" The woman exclaimed. Her mouth gaped open in time to see Elizabeth flew to her side and embraced her.

Darcy stood, a few steps behind, and took in the two women's affectionate reunion. His mind was in a turbulent storm. Ideas, thoughts and feelings raced in circles. Could it really be happening to him? He time-travelled to America, more than 80 years in the future?

"How? Why?" Lucy and Elizabeth asked in unison, amazed at seeing each other again, so soon.

"Please," Elizabeth said. "Let me introduce you to Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy of Pemberley, from England, the year 1812."

"Your Mr. Darcy?" Lucy blurted out.

Elizabeth blushed bright red and continued the introduction. "Mr. Darcy, this is Miss Lucy Hill from Washington D.C., America, of the year 1892."

"Delighted to make your acquaintance," Darcy bowed formerly to Lucy and retook Elizabeth's hand.

"How did you know I would be here?" Elizabeth asked. "Did you come to collect your herb?"

Lucy went silent and stared at Elizabeth for a moment.

"You are scaring me, Lucy. What is the matter? Are you well? Has something happened to Brenda?"

"I do not know how to explain it." Lucy rubbed her hands against her arms.

"Madam," Darcy said, trying to project a calm voice. He could see that Miss Lucy was clearly anxious, confused and hesitant, not the fearless and decisive woman Elizabeth had told him about. "Miss Elizabeth and I are here. We are with you. We shall endeavour to find a solution together if you have encountered some problems that made you here in the cave."

"I am afraid we are no longer in 1892." Lucy drew in a deep breath and said.

"What?" Elizabeth cried out.

Darcy would have blurted out as well, but he did not want to alarm the ladies. "I beg your pardon, Miss Lucy," Darcy said. "Where or when are we then?"

Lucy looked at Elizabeth. "Have you told Mr. Darcy about Mr. Caveman?"

"Yes, I told him about Mr. Ianu and everything."

Lucy drew in another deep breath and said, "Well, I was delivering herb to the National Zoological Park again today and miss you a lot. An idea came to me suddenly, so I decided to come and visit the cave. I wanted to leave you a letter, if it can be transported through time. Once I entered the cave, I saw Mr. Caveman here. Startled, I raised my voice and demanded to know why he showed us two different faces."

"Could Mr. Ianu be Janus, the Roman god of time?" Darcy asked.

Lucy nodded her head. "Lizzy said you are very intelligent and well-read. I am impressed, Mr. Darcy, that you can work that out based on what Lizzy told you."

"I did not know," Elizabeth murmured. "A Roman god?"

"Both Miss Lucy and you did not know that Mr. Ianu was a two-faced person," Darcy turned to Elizabeth, "right before you travelled back to 1812 last time. I have more time to review the events based on your retelling and think them through. I am sure it will not take you both to figure Mr. Ianu out soon."

"But you talked to a god, Lucy!" Elizabeth exclaimed suddenly. "I never would have imagined that it could be possible. That is truly fascinating."

"Remember, you talked to him before as well," Lucy replied to Elizabeth. Elizabeth's eyes widened and nodded her head fervently. "Oh, I talked to a god! How unbelievable!"

Darcy smiled at Elizabeth's childlike manner. He nodded to encourage Miss Lucy to continue.

"I will reframe from calling him Mr. Caveman. But it is better to think of him as Mr. Ianu, rather than God Janus. Anyway, I was way to impolite to him. I babbled about how I miss you and asked him a million questions about time travel. He let it slip that the gods were drunk when they created the world and there are six places like this in the world. He called it a worm something or another and he is tasked to guard them as he lost a bet. It sounded so ridiculous and irresponsible that I started raging and venting to him about how gods failed humans. They created inequality in society, made our people, women, and others suffer. He must have got tired of my ranting and disappeared with a show of lights and sounds."

Darcy stared at Miss Lucy with wide eyes. She was one fearless lady, even dared to put a god in his place.

"Then how can you be sure you are not in Washington in 1892 anymore?" Elizabeth asked.

Lucy blushed and said sheepishly. "Because I dare Mr. Ianu to transport me through time, to an era when our people achieved great things. Then I felt a vortex of lights and woke up with great pain like you said, Lizzy, after you had travelled from England in 1811."

"Then, where or when are we?" Elizabeth exclaimed.

"I don't know. My courage disappeared completely. I have walked out of the cave, unwilling to venture out of this gate, as it was never here in 1892. What if this was no longer Washington D.C., not 1892 and I am all alone in this strange world? I am a tad happier, now that I have you and Mr. Darcy's company. Why are you here? Did you decide to visit me and Mr. Darcy came along to keep you company?"

Elizabeth shook her head and explained the events that led to Mr. Darcy and her travelling through time.

"Oh no, I am sorry to hear about your sister Mary. I hope we are not stuck here for long and you can return to help her prove her innocence. Let us open the gate and explore the outside world. We can return to wait for the time machine to reappear later on."

~0~

"Gone? What do you mean, gone without a trace?" Colonel Fitzwilliam roared.

"Just like that," Tuttle flicked his fingers. "Mr. Darcy disappeared right before my eyes, among the light rays." Tuttle had returned to Netherfield, finding the Colonel outside in the stables. Tuttle pulled the Colonel aside and spoke with him privately about what Tuttle had seen in the cave at Oakham Mount.

"Did you check the ground? Is there any underground hole? Did the floor of the cave collapse, bringing Darcy down a shaft? There were a lot of lead mines in Hertfordshire, or there are still many."

Tuttle continued to shake his head as he waited for the Colonel to stop. "I checked the floor inch by inch after the lights were gone. There is no trace of Mr. Darcy nor the person with him. I only found this package." He handed a package wrapped in oil-skin to the Colonel.

"Who was it, with Darcy?" Richard tore the package open impatiently, without waiting for Tuttle to reply, and found a letter inside. He read out loud.

"My Dear L

Here I am once more in this scene of worries and confusion. Since my return to L, I have been busy trying to put forward some of the ideas we discussed: reducing our spending and talking to Papa about how to increase the yield.

Things made a nasty turn soon after. A greedy man overheard Papa talking about the Devil and me. Although the evidence showed that Satan's death had nothing to do with me, the corrupt man blackmailed Papa.

Unfortunately, my sister M and I were seen arguing with the man before he was poisoned. Now M was arrested, accused of the man's murder. My sister is innocent! M just had the misfortune of being near the glass of poisonous wine at that time.

The man of law is prejudiced against my family. He behaves most unhandsomely and engages no further investigation. I remember your story about the police officer who made the arrest of a murderess using the fingerprinting method. I confess I did not pay you the utmost attention at the time.

I have now taken the extraordinary step to write you this letter, wishing you could enlighten me about the method to exonerate M. I shall place this at Mr. C/I's place, in the hope of it making through the lights and your visiting there soon.

Pray write me as much detail and as soon as possible. Even though I am not without hopes that something may happen, from Mr. D's help, to prevent the trial or conviction of M, I pine for your reply.

I hope B and you are all alive after our tearful parting, and that you pursued your intended avocation with success. For me, I vow to save enough funds to open a school for aspiring girls in the village soon. God bless you!

Yours very affectionately,

L.

"The letter is not dated. Nor does it say where it was written," Richard murmured to himself. "It is in a lady's hand. It could be left there in the past decades. But the content points to Miss Elizabeth's creation. Did you see her in the cave? Was she the person with Darcy?" Richard asked.

"I am not sure, as Mr. Darcy blocked my view of the person."

"Let us ride to Longbourn to see if Miss Elizabeth is home. Mr. Bennet can verify if this is her handwriting. If she really disappears with Darcy down a hole in the cave, we have to make up another story. Urgh!"

"Where is Colonel Lushington?"

"He is still with the frustrating magistrate. But thanks to Colonel Forster, Lushington is officially representing the military to investigate Wickham's death."

"But Sir William still refuses to release Miss Mary?"

"Not for long. I have high hope with Lushington."

"Did the magistrate allow you to visit Miss Mary?"

"Yes, but for way too short."

"How is your lady holding up?"

"Mary is as tough as a foot soldier. She was reading the bible, the only book the all-mighty magistrate approved for her to read. I told her about Lushington's help and this fingerprint thing mentioned by Darcy. She was more interested in the latter."

"What did Miss Mary say about it?"

"She pulled my thumb to examine the ridges and compare with hers."

"Ah, a tender moment," Tuttle smiled slyly. "I hope Sir William did not interrupt it."

"Hey, Mary and I were very serious about comparing our fingerprints. It seems Darcy might have a point. We have different finger patterns. Should I pull your fingers to compare with mine?" Richard said jokingly.

"Thanks, but no thanks, Sir," Tuttle put his right hand behind his back, to ensure the Colonel could not grab him. He said, "The writer talked about this fingerprint thing as well."

"I know," the Colonel said. "If the letter was really written by Miss Elizabeth, it appears Darcy did not learn about this fingerprinting method from some exotic books, but through Miss Elizabeth's friend named L."

"What did you reckon about the bit about the letter making through the lights?" Tuttle asked. "The lady seems very cryptic in her writing."

"I have absolutely no idea. She could be citing poetry for all I know. I think only Darcy could understand his lady!"

"I hope Sir William does not decide to interview either of Darcy or Miss Elizabeth suddenly."

"I hope so as well."

On arriving at Longbourn, Colonel Fitzwilliam asked for a private meeting with Mr. Bennet. The gentleman confirmed that Elizabeth had gone out for a walk after she had spent the morning writing letters. He also said the letter was in Elizabeth's writing. Mr. Bennet did not believe that Darcy and Elizabeth could have disappeared down a cave without a trace and demanded to be brought there to examine it himself. Colonel Fitzwilliam agreed, although he would persuade Mr. Bennet to stay above ground when he went down with Tuttle himself. He did not want the Master of Longbourn to come to any harm.

~0~

Darcy held out the gate and let the ladies went out first. Then he moved a stone to block the door from closing permanently.

"There is a plaque here," Elizabeth said. "Managed by D&H Foundation, 1630 Newton St, Washington, DC 20010."

"Thank goodness, we are still in Washington!" Lucy exclaimed. "And this Foundation is very near to where I live."

Darcy who had been listening to the ladies swallowed hard. Hearing about time travel from Elizabeth was one thing. But actually experiencing it was another. He thought about Georgiana and Richard, who were left in England in 1812. They must be worried sick about him and baffled by his disappearance. The only blessing in this was he had Elizabeth with him. Then he noticed another line on the plaque.

For an emergency, please call 202 466 8866. "What are the numbers for?" Darcy asked.

Lucy looked at Elizabeth. "I have not talked about that with Mr. Darcy," Elizabeth said.

Lucy took up the explanation. "That is a telephone number. The telephone, an electrical way for people to talk to other people in faraway places, was invented in the mid-1800s."

"You mean," Darcy was amazed by this piece of news. "this telephone thing will allow me to talk to Georgiana in Derbyshire when I am here in Washington?"

"Georgiana is Mr. Darcy's sister," Elizabeth said.

"No, not quite far away as between England and America," Lucy explained. "But Mr. Alexander Bell, our inventor, has made a call from Southampton to London in front of your queen about 15 years ago."

"Our queen!" Darcy exclaimed. "Prince Regent did not succeed the throne?"

Elizabeth and Lucy continued to explain some of the significant historical events to Darcy as they walked down the woods. Darcy's head was filled with the incredible history, people and inventions of the next 80 years. He hardly noticed the change of the beautiful tree-laden landscape, until Lucy and Elizabeth stopped right by a road. He stared at the wide shiny black surface. It could easily allow four carriages to ride side by side.

Thrum!

Thrum!

Darcy turned his head to the source of the noise and saw a horseless carriage Elizabeth had told him approaching. His mouth gaped open. The new age carriage slowed down, instead of speeding past Darcy's party. It was flat, like a carriage cut in half in height. It hugged low on the road and in a shiny blue colour that almost hurt his eyes. Several American flags were stuck on various part of the carriage. If that was the way future people decorated their wagon, Darcy was not impressed. The glass on the door seemed to lower by itself without the coachman's effort. An African American coachman, in a strange thick coat, yelled out amid some loud music. Darcy frowned at the ugly sounds that did not come from a piano, "Want a lift? You don't want to miss out on the swearing-in." He had an elderly white lady sitting by his side. Both of them were grinning.

Lucy exchanged a look of alarm with Elizabeth and then darted a glance at Darcy.

Then a loud voice came from inside the carriage. "It is a day of momentous and historic first!" Darcy was sure the voice wasn't that of the elderly lady. The coachman turned something in front of him and the sound disappeared.

"Who is swearing-in as the new president today?" Lucy said, after drawing in a deep breath.

"Sweetie," the elderly woman said to Lucy. "How can you not know? Where did you come from? Are you performing at the parade? What strange costumes you three have?"


Can you guess when/where Darcy and Elizabeth have landed?