A.N. OK, I'm back with a double post, to compensate my oversight yesterday. Do keep the suggestions for Chapter headings in. Entry closes end of this year. Happy reading and I wish all of you a safe and peaceful holiday seasons! Please review and give me some encouragement.
Chapter Twelve
Just then, Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam heard a shout from inside the mausoleum.
Teddy had pulled on the chain that hung from the lantern on the ceiling. When he did so, part of the stone floor pulled back with a loud grating sound, revealing a set of stone stairs leading downward.
Teddy whooped and did a jig. Several of the men from outside also began shouting with excitement, to the point where Richard urged them to be silent, for fear that the easterners might hear them and come to investigate the noise.
"I knew it," whispered Teddy, taking Richard's plea for quiet very seriously. "I knew there was an opening in here. Oh, just wait till I tell George Lawson!"
Richard patted him on the back. "Good work, man," he said. "Now we have a new dilemma: we need torches."
Darcy was frustrated with himself, realizing they should have thought of that much sooner. His curiosity over the tunnel, and an assumption that they would be unsuccessful had pushed it from his mind. A few of the men was sent to bring supplies. Within another quarter of an hour of anxious wait, they were equipped with torches, and began the descent into the tunnel.
Darcy went first, and Richard followed close behind him. It was dark and damp - their torchlight glittered on water that dripped from the walls and ceiling. It had been well-constructed, but after a while, Darcy was apprehensive about leading so many men into a tunnel that had been built who knew how long ago and might not hold up.
"Let us pause here," said Darcy. "Gentlemen, this tunnel may not be stable. It is possible it could collapse on us while we are inside. I do not ask any man here to take that risk unless he is willing."
The men responded with a chorus of "I'm willing!" A few of them said they wouldn't pass up this opportunity to explore the legendary old tunnel for anything. Darcy smiled slightly and continued walking forward.
~0~
"Where is your father?" roared Lady Catherine.
Charlotte sat across from her in the drawing room. Lady Catherine had ordered that the servants search the house and grounds for Sir William. Denny had searched the secret passages, and had returned dusty and ill-tempered, declaring them empty of everything but spiders. When it was clear that Sir William was nowhere to be found, Lady Catherine called everyone back to the drawing room.
Now Charlotte, Mrs. Bingley, Denny and Dr. Wickham sat around the room, in a semi-circle around Lady Catherine. Mrs. Bingley's head bobbed as she fought nodding off to sleep. Dr. Wickham's rose was a bit red, and his eyes glossy. He had disappeared during the search to an unknown location, and had simply declared upon his return, "Well, I have not seen him since I was last in this room at the same time that he was last in this room," and then hiccupped.
"I really could not say," said Charlotte. "Perhaps my father has been kidnapped by the same thug who set fire to the gazebo."
Lady Catherine's nostrils flared. "That gazebo," she said, "was a work of art. It was part of the rich history of Rosings Park."
Mrs. Bingley's feathers fluttered as she shook herself awake. "Well, that may be, Mother, but it's only been part of the history for two years, and you said when it was made that it was the worst excuse for craftsmanship that you'd ever -"
"Be quiet, Caroline," said Lady Catherine angrily. "It is a tragedy that has befallen this house, on top of all our other calamities. Whoever has done this will pay dearly for it."
"Whoever burned down the gazebo?" murmured Mrs. Bingley, drifting off again, "I salute to him. It's so hideous."
"So very ugly," said Dr. Wickham, with another hiccup.
"It is my belief," said Lady Catherine in a dark tone, ignoring her daughter, "that Sir William disappeared on purpose."
Mrs. Bingley gasped.
"And furthermore," continued Lady Catherine, "I believe that he was aided in his disappearance."
"By fairies?" cried Mrs. Bingley.
"Be quiet, Caroline," said Lady Catherine. "By someone in this house." She stared daggers at Charlotte, who met her gaze calmly.
Dr. Wickham seemed to rouse himself. "Perhaps one of the servants."
"One of the servants?" cried Lady Catherine, horrified. "My servants are all loyal to me!"
Dr. Wickham blinked, and paused. "Perhaps Sir William told them a falsehood, and gained their aid that way. Regardless, I suggest we question them and see if anyone knows anything."
"An excellent suggestion," said Lady Catherine, "although I am sure my servants would never do anything against my wishes."
"They wouldn't dare," Charlotte heard Denny mutter under his breath.
Travers and Mrs. Ferguson and a whole gaggle of footmen and maids were gathered into the drawing room, looking nervous but also very interested.
"Do any of you know the whereabouts of Sir William?" asked Lady Catherine.
The servants all looked at each other. A maid whispered loudly to another maid, "Who's Sir William?"
"He is an elderly man who has been staying here," said Lady Catherine severely. The maid turned bright red upon being answered by Lady Catherine. "He has disappeared."
There was silence as the servants glanced at each other. Some of them looked confused, but a few of them looked nervous or grim - and Charlotte suspected that they knew the truth. Her heart pounded, wondering if any of them could be intimidated into giving the secret away.
One of them spoke up. "There's something I need to say, Lady Catherine," he said. "Those thugs last night, who set the gazebo on fire, they also stole one of the horses."
"What?" roared Lady Catherine.
"Benedict, your ladyship," he said, twisting his cap in his hands.
"Perhaps the horse was not stolen by thugs," said Dr. Wickham slowly. "Perhaps it was taken by Sir William."
"Good riddance, Benedict! Cousin Richard loves that horse and I hate it. Sir William, a horse thief? Mother, should you write to Prince Regent to have Sir William's title revoked?" laughed Mrs. Bingley, as if Dr. Wickham had simply been joking.
"Perhaps you're right, Dr. Wickham," said Lady Catherine, her eyes narrowing. "Sir William went to join Miss Bennet and Miss Lucas wherever they are hiding." She turned to the servants. "If any of you know anything about the whereabouts of Sir William, Miss Lucas, or Miss Bennet, I expect you to come forward."
The silence that followed was icy on Lady Catherine's part, and filled with uncomfortable rustlings and shifting on the servants' part. Someone coughed. Mrs. Ferguson was doing an excellent job of keeping a blank countenance, Charlotte thought.
"I demand to know," said Lady Catherine, emphasizing the words with her cane.
"Perhaps they don't know -" ventured Charlotte, but Lady Catherine roared, "Silence!"
The entire room obliged her. After a few minutes, Mrs. Bingley yawned.
"Miss Lucas," said Lady Catherine, "is very contagious with an infectious disease. She must be found. Miss de Bourgh, must be cured. Miss Lucas is the key to this. If Miss Lucas is not cured - if she is out and about in Hunsford or God knows where, she will infect all of England within this days."
Stillness continued.
"She must be stopped," said Lady Catherine, "and found, and brought back here to be treated by Dr. Wickham. Otherwise we will all perish from the Greenwich Malady."
There was more silence for a moment, and then one of the footmen asked, "Does the malady make you go green and itchy?" but he was promptly silenced by Travers stomping on his foot.
Lady Catherine huffed. "You are all dismissed. If I learn that anyone had knowledge of Miss Lucas's whereabouts and did not come forward just now, they will be dismissed without a reference. Useless!"
The servants nodded and bowed and curtsied, and then left the room, shepherded by Travers.
"Well!" said Mrs. Bingley, when they'd all left. "I had no idea we had such ignorant servants."
"We must carry on without their aid, it seems," said Dr. Wickham. His mind seemed to have recovered from his earlier muddle. "I suspect that Miss Bennet and Miss Lucas have made their way to the village. I will depart to see if I can find them there."
"Do you think they're at the Collins's house?" asked Mrs. Bingley.
"They are not," said Dr. Wickham, "if they had gone there, my -" he paused, and smiled. "I would have been informed."
"Then they are probably long gone, on their way back to London," said Mrs. Bingley, yawning. "Unless they're hiding out in the woods."
Dr. Wickham paused. "That would be a rough place for two ladies and an elderly gentleman to have stayed this long."
"But perhaps they know about the hunter's cabin," said Mrs. Bingley.
"The what?" said Lady Catherine.
Charlotte's heart sank into her toes.
"The hunter's cabin," said Mrs. Bingley. "Cousin Fitzwilliam discovered it when we were children. He and Richard used to spend a great deal of time out there. Although," she added, "I believe they kept it a secret. It was their fort, and they didn't want anyone knowing about it."
Lady Catherine frowned. "I do seem to recall hearing from my husband that there was a cabin located in the woods somewhere, but I had assumed it had long since crumbled." She frowned. Caroline bit her lips and didn't comment on the condition of the cabin.
"And what has become of Darcy?" Lady Catherine continued. "He should be here by now."
"The express rider, Andrews, isn't it, was not with the servants," said Mrs. Bingley, forgetting that the servant was instructed not to return to Rosings after his delivery. "Perhaps he never made it to Darcy Hall! Perhaps he was waylaid by the same thugs that burned the gazebo!"
"Perhaps he died of the Greenwich Malady on his way there," said Dr. Wickham, and even Charlotte cried out in horror, even though she knew that the malady was the doctor's invention.
Lady Catherine shook her head. "I must send another messenger to Darcy," she said.
Dr. Wickham tensed. "Lady Catherine," he said, "I beg you not to do this. At least allow me to find Miss Lucas and Miss Bennet first. Once Miss de Bourgh's recovery is well underway, you can begin to think about Mr. Darcy's visit. Otherwise, I fear greatly for his safety. I'm sure we will find them very soon, and then there will be time enough to write to Mr. Darcy."
Lady Catherine nodded. "If you think it best, Dr. Wickham," she said.
He bowed, and kissed her hand, which pleased her greatly.
"I must arrange something. Mrs. Bingley may I borrow you for a few minutes," he said, flashing the two ladies a charming smile. "We will soon know if Miss Bennet and the Lucases are hiding out in the hunter's cabin."
~0~
Elizabeth, Maria, and Sir William had shared the food they had left. Elizabeth was not sure what they should do: should one person ride into the village or beyond to get help, or should they all venture forward on foot, find a place to hide in the village, and then send someone out on the horse? And would it be safe to stop at the Collins residence for supplies? She did not think so, but Sir William had come without any pocket money, and she and Maria did not have much money between them. She was grateful they had made it this far, but the next part of their adventure would be far from easy.
She broached the subject as soon as they had finished eating.
"I think Father and I should stay here," said Maria, "and you should continue to the village, Elizabeth. Then you can send a messenger from Charlotte's home."
Elizabeth shook her head. "I fear that the Collins's residence is being watched." Although she hated to, she told them of the vandalism. Maria looked close to tears and Sir William roared and began pacing around the cabin.
"I beg of you," he said, "let me find these ruffians and give them what for. I will ride into the village myself, while you girls stay here."
Elizabeth did not want to dismiss this idea by voicing her real concern of his age. "I am afraid you would be far too outnumbered, Sir William," she said. "Dr. Wickham may have employed a great many thugs."
"Better me facing them than one of you girls alone," said Sir William.
"I do not think we should stop by the Collins residence at all," said Elizabeth slowly, staring at the table as she spoke. "I think the risk is too great. It is unfortunate, since we could certainly use their aid, but I think we must go elsewhere for help."
"But where?" asked Maria.
Elizabeth frowned. She remembered her letter to her aunt in London and wondered why she had not received any reply. Perhaps the wicked Dr. Wickham had blocked its delivery.
"I also fear that we may be found here," said Elizabeth. "Even if Dr. Wickham does not learn of this cabin, he may begin to search the woods for us. I think we must all leave for London, and we should leave as soon as -"
Suddenly she stopped speaking, for she heard voices. Maria's eyes widened, and Sir William stopped pacing.
"Friend or foe?" he muttered, voicing the question they all shared.
Elizabeth stood and went to the window. She gave a cry, and immediately closed the curtains.
Outside was a group of thugs, all wearing many layers of cloth, which covered their faces. They had cut some holes into the fabric around their heads, and sometimes mouth holes, and the effect was ghoulish. Many of them bore clubs, and one of them a knife. Elizabeth's heart was pounding, and it was now dark in the cabin, adding to her sense of dread.
"Bolt the door, Maria," she said.
Maria ran to the door and bolted it.
"Foe, I take it?" Sir William asked.
"Come out of the cabin!" shouted a man from outside.
"Come out now, or we'll come in after you!" called out someone else in the crowd.
Sir William walked to the front door and called out in a clear, loud voice: "We have no intention of doing so. Why are you here? Who sent you?"
"We're here to prevent the contamination of our village," came the voice of the first man. "You three are carrying a deadly disease. We're here to see to it that you go straight back to Rosings Park and don't come anywhere near our village until you've been cured."
"And what's to stop you from catching our very deadly disease while you're transporting us back to Rosings Park?" asked Elizabeth.
"We're wearing protective coverings," said the man. "We won't catch anything in these."
"Naturally," said Elizabeth. "How stupid of me. They were designed by the ingenious Dr. Wickham, no doubt?"
"Enough talk!" growled the voice of another man. "Come out now!"
"As I said before," said Sir William, "we have no intention of doing so."
"Then we'll force you out," said the voice of the first man.
Elizabeth waited, expecting to hear the sound of someone trying to break down the door. Sir William seemed to expect this as well, for he stepped away from the front door. Maria took his hand.
They waited, and nothing happened. Then Elizabeth began to smell smoke.
"Look!" she cried.
Behind them, coming from the side room, smoke was trailing in.
"They're starting the cabin on fire," said Maria, putting her other hand on the fireplace to steady herself.
"It seems we must give up the fight -" began Sir William, when Maria screamed and dropped through the floor.
Elizabeth's heart was in her throat. A hole had opened up in the floorboards, and Maria's head was just poking through the top of it.
"My dear!" cried Sir William. "Are you all right?"
Maria put her finger to her lips and pointed to the fireplace. One of the stones had been pushed inward. "This is a tunnel," she whispered.
Elizabeth started to laugh, almost hysterically. "Maria," she said. "You have the most uncanny ability to discover secret passages."
"Can it be closed from the inside?" whispered Sir William. "If the thugs stop trying to burn this cabin down and break down the door instead, it will serve us better if they don't know how we've escaped."
Maria closed the trapdoor from inside the tunnel, and then opened it again herself before Elizabeth or Sir William had a chance to open it with the fireplace stone. The stone moved in and out each time Maria opened or closed the trapdoor, making a barely detectable grating sound.
"In we go," said Sir William cheerfully, stepping up to the hole.
Maria moved out of sight to make room for him, and once he was inside he helped Elizabeth in as well. She had the presence of mind to grab her and Maria's bags before descending, although she left the blankets.
Once they were all inside, Maria reached up and closed the trapdoor. It became pitch black inside the tunnel. Elizabeth could still smell smoke.
"There's no time to attempt to light a candle," said Elizabeth. "We must push along in the dark."
"What if it leads us back to Rosings?" Maria murmured.
"Then I wish it joins with the secret passage in the Master's chamber. We can scare Lady Catherine witless by appearing in her rooms like three hungry ghosts!"
Maria and her father chuckled despite the dire situation they were in.
Sir William went along the tunnel first, holding Maria's hand, who held Elizabeth's hand. They went slowly, Sir William feeling the wall to their left. It smelled less like smoke and more like earth as they went along. Elizabeth reached out and touched the wall, and found that it was made of stone. That assured her somewhat: it was unnerving to walk into a dark unknown and be unsure as to whether or not it was stable.
Something made a scuttling sound to their right and Maria gasped and squeezed Elizabeth's hand tightly. Sir William chuckled. "It seems we are not the only ones down here," he said, and Maria groaned.
"As long as nothing touches me," she said.
Elizabeth herself felt apprehensive, wondering if the creature was a rat or perhaps something even larger. She tried to push away thoughts of something running over her feet or dropping onto her shoulders, but in the pitch darkness, her skin crawled in spite of herself.
They continued on for half an hour or longer. Elizabeth wondered if the tunnel led to a dead end. She wanted to stop to attempt to light a candle, but everything they had would now be damp, and not easy to light on fire.
Suddenly Sir William stopped walking.
"What's wrong, father?" asked Maria.
"Listen," whispered Sir William.
They heard voices. Elizabeth's heart began to pound, and she instinctively looked behind her. Then she realized the voices were coming from the tunnel ahead of them.
The three fugitives moved closer together without speaking. Elizabeth wondered if they should turn around - but no, whatever was ahead of them might not be as terrible as thugs and a burning house. Or could it be worse?
A few tense moments passed, and then they saw the flicker of torches up ahead.
~0~
The tunnel seemed to go on for a very long time, although Darcy knew that in reality they had not been walking for very long at all. They saw a couple of rats as they walked, who scuttled away from the light, glancing back with angry red eyes and teeth bared.
The tunnel began to curve slightly to the left, and as they rounded a corner of sorts, Darcy's heart gave a lurch. His first thought was that he was seeing ghosts - two women clad in white and an old man appeared before them. Some of the men behind him seemed to have had the same thought, for a few of them cried out in alarm, and one of them began muttering to himself about spirits of the dead.
Then Darcy's heart gave another, different kind of lurch. He recognized the woman with dark hair. It was his Elizabeth. She was looking at them with apprehension, and her face looked pale and other-worldly in the half-darkness. Part of him wondered if she really was a ghost.
Then he saw her recognise him. Her eyes widened.
"Mr. Darcy," she said.
He bowed, as if they were meeting over a dance. "Miss Bennet!"