A.N. Oops, I'm so sorry. I uploaded Chapter 11 yesterday and thought I had posted it. I kept checking for review and didn't see any new ones. I thought you guys have abandoned the story. Then I discovered this morning I haven't posted the story. Oh, my senior moments! Thank you, Jansfamily, Colleen, Dizzy Lizzy, Pablo, Happy Lizzy, Levenez, liysyl and guests for reviewing and making suggestions for chapter headings. I really appreciate your encouragement. Is there a word limit for chapter headings?
Now let's move onto the next chapter. Are you ready for some heat?
Also, I've published "To Forgive Life", the time travel story that has Lizzy and Darcy travelled to 1890s Washington and beyond. You can check it out at Amazon, Smashwords and other good ebook stores. Please search "Time to Forgive Life" or "Enid Wilson". Do give me some positive ratings if you like the story. Happy reading and have a wonderful holidays!
Chapter Eleven
Charlotte stood up, but was overcome with another surge of nausea and sat again.
"You must not bleed my father," she protested. "He is elderly, and not as strong as he claims to be."
"I'm sure he will be able to withstand a little loss of blood," said Lady Catherine dismissively. "He is a nobleman after all, even a low ranking one elevated by circumstances."
"Don't fret, Mrs. Collins," said Dr. Wickham. "The procedure will soon be over."
And then poor, weak Miss de Bourgh would have to drink blood! Charlotte racked her brains, trying to think of some means of avoiding such an outcome.
"How much blood will you take?" she asked.
"It will all depend," said Dr. Wickham. "I may need multiple doses in order to cure Miss de Bourgh. The process may take any number of days."
"And will you continue to use the same blood?" asked Charlotte, her heart hammering in anxiety.
"I will need fresh blood each time," said Dr. Wickham, as if he were talking about what kind of cake tasted best with a certain kind of tea.
Bleed her father multiple times over a course of days! It must not be done. Surely telling them the whereabouts of Maria would be better than that - she at least was strong enough to endure such treatment, whereas their father…
Charlotte saw Dr. Wickham watching her with a malicious twinkle in his eye, like he was a snake knowing he had caught a little bird.
"Of course," said Dr. Wickham, "if we were able to find Miss Lucas, we would not need to bleed your father. And indeed, since Sir William is elderly and frail, his blood will not be of as much use. I believe I could cure Miss de Bourgh with fewer doses if I was able to bleed Miss Lucas instead."
Charlotte shut her eyes, a sense of panicked helplessness overwhelming her. She opened her eyes again when she heard the voice of Lady Catherine:
"Mrs. Collins, we will give you three hours to decide if you will tell us the whereabouts of your sister. If you will not, Dr. Wickham will take the first dose of blood from your father."
Charlotte found her father sitting in the library, reading a book on the history of horse racing and chuckling to himself. Always of a highly optimistic temperament, Sir William had not been deeply troubled by the recent events in the house. He, having not been informed of the women's suspicions against Dr. Wickham, felt confident that Miss de Bourgh and Mr. Collins would recover soon and the rest of them would be fine.
Being a little hard of hearing, he did not notice Charlotte's presence until she sat down beside him. He shut the book briskly and smiled amiably at his daughter.
"Charlotte, my dear!" he said. "How are all the patients of the Greenwich Malady doing? Any full recoveries as yet?"
Charlotte smiled sadly at her father. She knew he would believe what she was about to tell him, but she hated to trouble him.
"Father, I have bad news," she said.
Sir William's buoyant energy deflated, and he grabbed Charlotte's hand. "Is someone else ill? Is it Maria?"
"No, no," said Charlotte. "We are all in the same state of health that we were in before. In fact, I suppose on that account the news I have is good. The Greenwich Malady does not exist."
"Doesn't exist?' laughed Sir William as if she was joking. Then he saw how in earnest she was, and looked worried. "What do you mean, Charlotte? Is Dr. Wickham mad?"
"Worse," she said. "He is a liar, and a fraud. He invented the Greenwich Malady in order to charge Lady Catherine money for treatments. We believe that Miss de Bourgh is in fact not ill at all, merely being drugged by Dr. Wickham."
"What?" roared Sir William. He attempted to stand, as if he was going to rush off to box Dr. Wickham's ears, but Charlotte pulled him down again.
"I'm afraid it's true," Charlotte said.
"But we must tell Lady Catherine at once!" said Sir William. "The man must be stopped!"
"I'm afraid she already knows," said Charlotte.
Sir William spluttered. "She can't be in on the scheme. It's her money!"
"She just doesn't want to admit it. She trusts Dr. Wickham absolutely, over any of our words. Lizzy has already tried to convince her of Dr. Wickham's falseness, and Lady Catherine now believes that she has gone insane."
Sir William blinked at his daughter, and then said slowly, "Lady Catherine is a donkey."
"Father!"
"A donkey, wearing satin and claiming it's able to run a household. It owns an estate! But its large ears do not do it any good, because it refuses to listen to reason!" Sir William huffed, waving his hands in frustration.
"I can picture it." said Charlotte, laughing at her father in spite of her fears.
"I have not finished thinking of ways to express my opinion of Lady Catherine," said Sir William, "but I will refrain from stating any more of them out loud at the moment, and I will listen intently to whatever else you need to tell me."
"Dr. Wickham told Lady Catherine that in order to cure Miss de Bourgh, he needs to make a tonic...out of Maria's blood."
"Out of WHAT?"
This time Sir William succeeded in standing, and he began to pace frantically across the library, although he needed his cane to do so. "I shall…" he spluttered. "I shall take this young man's liver, and I shall make him swallow it. Twice."
"Father, please listen," said Charlotte. "Maria and Lizzy escaped the house earlier today. They're in the woods somewhere."
"The woods somewhere?" Sir William's look of joy when he heard that the girls had escaped was quickly followed by alarm when he heard the word "woods." "Those two young birds, alone where the foxes can get them?"
"I'm afraid they thought it better to face those foxes than the one in the house," said Charlotte. "And I agree with them."
Sir William shook his head, but he sat down again, a little calmer.
"There's more," said Charlotte. "Lady Catherine suggested that Dr. Wickham bleed me instead, since I am of the same bloodline as Maria." She hurried on, before the protestations she could see forming on her father's lips escaped them. "But Dr. Wickham said my blood was tainted and he could not use it." She did not want to tell her father of her pregnancy now, not in the middle of this conversation about all their troubles. "And then, he suggested using your blood instead."
Charlotte's heart ached to see the joy that overcame her father.
"But this is excellent news!" he cried. "An answer to all our problems! I'll just donate my blood to the cause, and neither of you girls will have to undergo the discomfort of being bled."
Charlotte shook her head. As she had feared, her father was completely unaware of his own danger.
"You must not be bled," she said. "I fear you are not strong enough -"
"Balderdash!"
"- and what's more, Dr. Wickham has claimed that your blood would be weaker than Maria's and he would have to bleed you multiple times over the course of an uncertain number of days."
Sir William tutted. "Charlotte, my dear, you act as if a little blood loss would mean the end of me. Why, during my younger years -"
"You are no longer a young man," Charlotte interrupted gently. "And while I think Dr. Wickham threatened to bleed you so much in order to cause us to give up Maria instead - he says that her blood would be stronger and she would likely not need to be bled as much - now that he's made the claim, I think he will follow through with it. And we cannot risk that. Your health may not be able to withstand so much loss of blood, and if Dr. Wickham is a fraud and not able to care for you if something goes amiss -"
Sir William took his daughter's hands. "We do not have a choice, my dear," he said. "I will not have you tell Dr. Wickham where Maria has gone. As her father, my first choice is to protect her over myself. We will not tell Dr. Wickham anything." Seeing that his daughter was close to tears, he added, "But something may turn up before then! We shall continue to strategize. Perhaps I shall challenge Dr. Wickham to a duel." His eyes twinkled.
Charlotte smiled weakly at him. "Yes, we will continue to strategize," she said. "But, father -" she paused, and looked up at the ceiling, wondering how to phrase her next question. "Just as you have the right to protect Maria above yourself, does she not have the right to protect you above herself? Might I at least send word to Maria through a servant, to tell her of the new circumstances, and allow her to make the decision for herself?"
Sir William protested. "She'll come back!" he said.
"She has the right to," said Charlotte. "I think it should be her decision as well as yours."
"But then Lizzy will come back as well," said Sir William, "and we will all be trapped in this house until Dr. Wickham and his pet donkey are finished with us."
"Perhaps Lizzy will not," said Charlotte, knowing that Elizabeth would want to continue to the village to get help regardless of Maria's decision. Elizabeth would not want Maria bled, but she would see that that was preferable to Sir William being dangerously weakened.
"What a pickle," muttered Sir William. Charlotte knew he wanted to swoop in and rescue them all, and her heart twisted.
She squeezed his hand. "I am going to find the housekeeper," she said. "She is on our side and will help us. I'll have to go to the servant's quarters to speak to her, since I do not dare call for her from upstairs lest Dr. Wickham or Lady Catherine come to overhear our conversation. She was planning on sending food to a hunter's cabin in the woods tonight, where Lizzy and Maria are hopefully located even as we speak. I will send a letter for Maria, explaining the situation."
"May I write it?" asked Sir William, looking hopeful.
"No, my dear, you may not," said Charlotte, smiling and standing. There was a writing desk in the library equipped with paper and ink, and she wrote a brief note to Maria there. Sir William stayed and watched her, looking more sad than he had allowed himself to be during their conversation.
Charlotte sealed the note and stood. "I'll come back here to be with you once I've given this to Mrs. Ferguson," she said.
"Very good, very good," said Sir William, smiling at her. "Meanwhile I shall concoct various schemes to thwart Dr. Wickham. Spiders in his tea, perhaps."
Charlotte laughed quietly at her father and slipped out of the library.
~0~
As dusk fell, the forest seemed to get louder. Elizabeth managed to light a fire in the fireplace, and they lit a single candle by it, not wanting to burn through their few candles too quickly. Elizabeth's muscles ached and her stomach kept rumbling. Maria did not complain, but Elizabeth knew from her quietness that she was also very tired, and seemed to be afraid.
Maria sat in one of the kitchen chairs and staring out of the window at the shadowy, rustling trees. Suddenly she gave a quiet yelp.
"There's someone out there!"
Elizabeth stood up, her heart pounding. "Let us hope it is a friend and not a foe." She went to the front door and listened. "They will have seen our light by now," she said. "There is no use pretending we are not here. But close the curtain, Maria, just in case."
Maria did so, and a few moments later they heard the sound of footsteps approaching the door. Someone knocked.
"Who's there?" called Elizabeth. She was suddenly struck with the fairytale-like atmosphere of their situation. 'And we are the two weird sisters who live in the forest! I wish I felt like more of a threat,' she thought.
"It's Johnny, Miss!" came a boy's voice. "I've brought you some food, some blankets, and a letter!"
"Blankets!" cried Maria joyously as Elizabeth opened the door.
Johnny stood there, looking very small behind the bundles he carried in his arms. Elizabeth took some from him, and led him over to the table, where he deposited the rest.
"Thank you, Johnny," said Elizabeth.
"I'll wait until you've read the letter, Miss," he said. "I'm supposed to take a reply back."
"Oh, I hope it's not bad news," said Maria.
Elizabeth tore open the letter and read it. She frowned.
"I am afraid it is very bad news indeed," she said gently, handing the letter to Maria.
Maria looked pale, and as she read the letter she began to fidget in distress, almost swaying back and forth. "But they mustn't!" she cried. "I'll go back. I'll go back at once."
"Wait, Maria," Elizabeth said. "We don't want anyone to be bled. Miss de Bourgh must be protected from what may harm her further. There must be something else we can do."
"If you please, Miss," said Johnny. "Mother said that since it's dark, we could bring Sir William here on a horse. Lady Catherine wouldn't know the horse was missing until tomorrow morning. She couldn't suggest this to good Mrs. Collins earlier because Mother was interrupted. Since then, Mr. Denny was sent to follow Mrs. Collins around."
"And we could all hide out here together!" exclaimed Maria.
"Leaving Mr. and Mrs. Collins alone in the house," said Elizabeth grimly. "But I agree - that does seem like an excellent plan considering our circumstances. Thank you, Johnny."
"I've got Beatrice here now," said Johnny. "I will ride back right away. Mother said if Miss Lucas can write a letter, I can give it to Sir William to persuade him to come with me, without getting Mrs. Collins and that mean Mr. Denny's notice."
"I will come with you, Johnny," said Elizabeth, thinking out loud. "I can lead Sir William back to the cabin so no one will notice your absence from the house again and suspected your mother's involvement." Johnny nodded and went out to prepare for the return journey.
"I can cause some sort of distraction to give us time to escape…" Elizabeth's eyes lighted on the tinderbox, and she picked it up and put it into one of the bags they'd brought with them.
"What are you going to do?" asked Maria nervously.
"There's a gazebo on the lawn. It's on the opposite side of the house from the stables. If I set it on fire, that should distract everyone enough to allow Sir William to leave the house without being noticed - and it will keep their eyes away from the stables."
"Oh Lizzy!" said Maria.
"It's the lesser of two evils," said Elizabeth. "Lady Catherine can afford to lose her gazebo far more than her daughter. And Mrs. Bingley told me it was built two years ago, so I won't be destroying any family history."
"Where is Beatrice, Johnny?"
"Just a ways away on the path, Miss."
"This journey is much faster on a horse," Elizabeth thought. Once they were out of the woods, she spurred Beatrice into a trot. Young Johnny held tight onto her back.
Soon Beatrice emerged from the trees out onto the lawn of Rosings Park. It was rather thrilling to ride up to the old house, and know that she could see inside the lit windows but she was now invisible to those inside the house.
She dismounted outside the stables.
"Johnny?" came a woman's voice from the corner of the building.
"Mrs. Ferguson," said Elizabeth. "I came back to bring Sir William to the cabin with me."
"Ah!" said Mrs. Ferguson. "Thank goodness! I didn't like the idea of either of them being bled, but the elderly gentleman was worse. I don't want him to ride out all by himself." Mrs. Ferguson then sent Johnny away.
"And you couldn't spare Johnny again. We understand. We can't have Miss de Bourgh drinking anything harmful in her condition," said Elizabeth.
"I certainly agree with you there."
"But Mrs. Collins and her father were all sitting in the drawing room together."
"Good that I came prepared with a scheme of distraction. Can you get Maria's letter to Sir William for me?" asked Elizabeth. "I'm going to start the gazebo on fire -"
"Oh my! Well, it was only added recently. Mr. Darcy said it was an eye sore anyway. It will be no lost to anyone with more sense. You'll be needing this," said Mrs. Ferguson, getting a rag that was hanging over one of the stalls. "This is covered in grease to shine the horse's saddles and will light quickly."
Elizabeth took it gratefully. Mr. Darcy! Elizabeth had forgotten all about him. In this moment, she would be glad to see even him. Anyone who might have sense and a voice of reason in the face of such folly!
"I wish there was a lamp lit here, so you didn't have to light it without a flame," said Mrs. Ferguson.
"It will be difficult," said Elizabeth. "But I don't want to draw attention to myself by bringing a lighted candle through the grounds. But thank you. This will be very useful. We're also going to borrow a horse indefinitely, I'm afraid," she said. "What would be a good horse for Sir William to ride, do you know?"
"Johnny tells me of them sometimes," said Mrs. Ferguson. "This black one here, Benedict, is a fine horse. Mr. Darcy sometimes rides him when he visits."
Mr. Darcy again. Why did the housekeeper keep mentioning him to her? "We'll take him then," Elizabeth said.
"Right then, we must hurry," said Mrs. Ferguson. "I'll go into the drawing room on some excuse and try to slip Sir William a note."
Elizabeth and the housekeeper parted ways, and Elizabeth ran alongside the house to the front grounds, still keeping a fair distance away from the windows. She reached the gazebo, panting, and knelt down beside it. She tucked the rag into the lattice work of the gazebo and took the cabin's tinderbox from her bag. She began to strike the flint and steel together, trying to breathe evenly and praying for sparks. Just when she felt she had to give it up, sparks caught the rag on fire. Elizabeth backed away immediately and watched with bated breath as the rag turned into a mass of flame, and the flames caught the side of the gazebo's lattice work. Once the fire had begun to climb up the side of the gazebo - Elizabeth was thankful the weather had been very dry of late but windless - she ran back to the stables. And not a moment too soon - as she passed by the front of the house, she could see into the drawing room and she saw Dr. Wickham peering out of the window, Lady Catherine and Mrs. Bingley close behind him.
When she reached the stables, Sir William was already there. She clasped his hand eagerly.
"Sir William! I am so relieved to see you," she whispered.
He squeezed her hand back. "The housekeeper told me everything in the hallway," he said.
They had finished saddling Benedict for Sir William, and the old gentleman now helped Elizabeth onto Beatrice and then mounted himself. Elizabeth paused for one moment to look at the house. She could hear shouts and a glow of light coming from the far side of the grounds.
"That poor gazebo," chuckled Sir William, and they rode off towards the woods.
~0~
Standing outside the mausoleum, Darcy saw the smoke from afar. "That is Rosings! We must get there at once."