A.N. Thank you, Dizzy Lizzy, RHALiz, Jansfamily, Joan, Happy Lizzy, crispill, Kiwipride, Levenez, liysyl, Pablo and Guest, love your reviews! Happy that I got you jumping up and down for a second about Wickham wrestling the Colonel's gun and using it on Lizzy. I'm an evil author. Haha! Now, my little story is coming almost to an end. I will double post today, so as not to leave you with another cliffhanger. Happy reading! I will announce the selection of chapter headings next week when I post the last chapter. So you can keep your suggestions coming. Thank you!
Chapter 14
Darcy watched the men head towards the front grounds of Rosings Park.
"Well, we've done it, Darcy," said Richard at his side, grinning.
"Half of it," said Darcy grimly. "I am not as confident as you that we'll be able to catch Wickham before he disappears somewhere else."
"And he has got my gun. Blast it! But we must tend to the ills he's done here first," said Richard.
"I will step inside just long enough to tell Lady Catherine that Wickham is a fraud and make sure she allows you to tend to Anne," said Darcy. "Then I will -"
He stopped short when he saw a woman in a white dress running across the grounds. For a split second, he thought it was Elizabeth, and then he saw that her hair was blond.
"Miss Lucas," he said, starting towards her.
Richard turned around, and a look of alarm came over his face. "Where's Miss Bennet?" he asked.
Darcy's heart lurched. Sir William was running behind Maria at a slower pace, but Elizabeth was nowhere to be seen.
Darcy started running, and Richard followed him. They met Maria halfway across the grounds.
"Dr. Wickham," she panted, slowing to a halt. She looked close to tears. "Dr. Wickham has taken Lizzy."
"What?" cried Darcy.
"Take a moment to breathe, Miss Lucas" urged Richard. "We'll find Elizabeth, I promise you."
Darcy looked wildly towards the woods. Richard read his impulse immediately.
"It's no use following them now, Darcy," said Richard. "We will get some guns from Rosings first."
"And by then we'll have no idea where they've gone!" cried Darcy.
Richard put a hand on his arm. "We'll find them," he said, attempting to steady his brother. "We must do what we can now." He turned back to Maria. "What happened, Miss Lucas?" he asked gently.
"Dr. Wickham came up behind us," she said. "He must have seen us there during the fighting and come around after he escaped into the woods. He pointed the gun at all of us and took Elizabeth hostage. He said something about demanding a ransom."
"Which direction did they go in?" asked Darcy.
Maria pointed to the north, away from the side of the woods they had all come from.
"Why would he go that direction?" muttered Richard. "It's not towards the village, or any of the main roads."
"There is nothing out there, according to the maps Lady Catherine's steward gave me when I started to review the management of the estate. Perhaps there's something out there," said Darcy. "Let me go ask our Aunt."
Richard clapped him on the back. "Let us wait here until Sir William reaches us, and then get inside."
Sir William reached them soon. "That scoundrel!" he spluttered.
"My sentiments exactly," said Richard. "We'll catch him, never fear, Sir William."
They started towards the house. The villagers came with them, and Sir William told them what had happened on the way. They were outraged, and some of them were of Darcy's mind: they wanted to comb the woods for Wickham right away.
"No," Darcy said. "Colonel Fitzwilliam is right. I insist you do not risk your lives pursuing Wickham. The man is a blackguard: I do not know that he would not resort to shooting you in cold blood."
"We'll go to the house," Richard said. "Does anyone have any wounds that should be tended to immediately?"
Most of the men had remained unscathed, but there were a couple of nasty cuts and a few deep bruises forming.
"I want to check on Miss de Bourgh as soon as I can," said Richard. "But once I've done so, I will meet you men to tend to those cuts. In the meantime, bathe them in clean water and bind them loosely in clean cloth."
They were admitted by Travers. He looked like a fish: his eyes were bulging and his mouth was turned downwards in a sour expression. He kept glancing at the thugs, who were still visible as they ran towards the edge of the estate.
"Never fear, Travers," said Richard. "They're gone for good. We'll explain everything to Lady Catherine in a moment, and you can listen in at the keyhole. In the meantime, get our friends from the village some clean water and linen. And something to eat?"
Travers opened his mouth in protest, looking like a goldfish, with even larger bulging eyes. "Lady Catherine and Mrs. Bingley are in the drawing room," he stammered.
Darcy, the Colonel and the Lucases pushed past him. He followed at their heels, and gasped out, "Mr. Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam, Sir William and Miss Lucas," as they entered the drawing room.
Lady Catherine rose.
"Darcy!" she cried. "And Richard, I did not invite you here also. What is going on? Miss Lucas, you finally return from your hiding. That is great! Anne can be saved. But you all look like chimney sweepers! Have some care for my parlour! Who were those men walking through our grounds just now?"
"Those were thugs, hired by Wickham to prevent us from entering the estate," said Darcy, wasting no time on ceremony.
"What?" bellowed Lady Catherine. "Darcy, you have heard some terrible rumor. It simply isn't true."
"I'm afraid it is, Lady Catherine," said Darcy. Briefly he outlined what had happened with Mrs. Tully in London, and Wickham's lack of medical knowledge. "He has been lying to you in order to take your money under false pretenses."
Lady Catherine spluttered, but she sat down. Mrs. Bingley's feather's quivered.
"But," said Caroline, "but he is so handsome and ingenious!"
"I'm afraid not," said Darcy. "Just a liar."
"I have heard what he did as medical experiments," said Richard, "and I can assure you that there are no doctors anywhere who would believe that his outrageous antics could actually do anyone any good. And, what is more, we have testimonies from numerous villagers that what he did to 'cure' them and their family members only made things worse - and he charged them high fees."
"This is outrageous!" said Lady Catherine, hitting the ground with her cane. "Darcy and Richard, I would not accept this accusation from anyone but you, and even so, I am inclined to believe you have been mislead by false reports. The Lucases and that Miss Bennet are all very foolish people: they took a disliking to Dr. Wickham for some silly reasons they never disclosed, and have poisoned your mind against him."
"Lady Catherine," said Darcy grimly, "Dr. Wickham and Mr. Denny have just kidnapped Miss Bennet. Wickham stole Richard's gun in a skirmish outside, and he took her away. We must find her."
Lady Catherine's eyes got huge. She blinked. She looked down at the ground, as if she were listening to it. She looked up at the ceiling as if she then needed to hear what it had to say. She thumped her cane on the ground.
"I have dismissed Dr. Wickham from my services," she said. "He is no longer trustworthy."
"I'm very glad to hear it," said Darcy.
"I believe he has been giving Anne sleeping draughts," said Richard. "I'd like to see her as soon as possible, if I may?"
"Yes, yes," said Lady Catherine, "but are you qualified to treat someone with the Greenwich Malady?"
"The Greenwich Malady does not exist," said Richard. "Not in London. Not here. Dr. Wickham invented it. You are all perfectly well - and I hope Anne will be well again very soon."
"Why, that quack doctor! I knew it all along. He is no good. You must go to her at once," said Lady Catherine.
Darcy turned to Lady Catherine.
"The Lucases saw Wickham head to the north with Miss Bennet," he said. "Do you know of any place to the north that Wickham might go to hide Miss Bennet?"
Lady Catherine brushed the air with her hand. "There's nothing at all out there," she said. "Just forest."
"And beyond the forest?" Darcy persisted.
"More forest." Caroline added.
Darcy frowned. It seemed he would need to consult a map, not the one he was shown before.
"Let me go upstairs to check on Anne," Richard said.
In the end, they all went along.
Anne was lying asleep, and her face looked nearly as white as her pillow. Her breathing was slow, and looked laboured. Darcy felt a surge of alarm - what if she was truly ill after all, or had become so?
Richard examined Anne. He declared her to be well and would make something to wake her when they returned. Lady Catherine demanded Richard to put Anne's health first before finding Miss Bennet. But the two cousins ignored Her Ladyship. "Anne is perfectly well," growled Richard. He instructed the maid to continue to feed Anne's some broth at the moment. "Just wait till I get my hands on that blaggard."
Darcy nodded. "Just leave him well enough to get to a trial." He knew Richard did not actually intend to harm Wickham, but he also felt that the man deserved more than imprisonment. Anne might have died under his mistreatment and neglect. Who knew how many people Wickham had cheated of their money, only in order to further damage their health? The man was nearly a murderer, and certainly a thief.
"Well, I must say," said Caroline, "it will be a long time before I trust a charming man again. And to think I was so kind to Denny only this morning!"
Darcy turned to her. "What favour did you do for Denny this morning?" he asked.
"He had been so fascinated by the secret passages," she said. "He said that whoever had made them must have had a lot of secrets, and he was particularly excited by the old maps in the library."
"We must have had an ancestor with secrets indeed," Lady Catherine declared proudly.
"What about the maps?" Darcy prompted Caroline impatiently.
"I took him to the library," she said. "I tried to tell him all about its history but he didn't want to hear any of it and was frankly quite rude. He wanted to see more maps. So I went over to the cabinet in the darkest corner, Anne showed it to me once and found a whole stack of old maps folded in one of the shelves. I felt quite clever, really! Denny sat there for who knows how long, looking at them."
"How long was he there?" asked Richard. "Did he take any of the maps with him?"
"Well really, I couldn't say," said Caroline. "I left as soon as I had found the maps for him. It is so dusty I fear it will ruin my new dress!"
"I certainly hope this Denny fellow didn't take any maps with him!" Lady Catherine exclaimed. "That would be stealing!"
"Heaven forbid he would stoop so low," said Richard wryly. He turned to his cousin. "Darcy, let us go to the library and take a close look at those maps. Perhaps Denny had discovered something to the north - a hideout of some kind."
Darcy nodded. They talked as they descended the stairs, leaving a protesting Lady Catherine behind.
"I expect Denny would have taken any useful maps with him," said Darcy, "but perhaps there are duplicates."
"We'll also need to get another gun," said Richard.
"There should be some old hunting rifles stored here somewhere," said Darcy.
"Then let us divide our tasks: you go to the library and see what you can see on those maps, and I will seek out our beloved Travers and ask him about the weapons they have here."
Now that Darcy was finally alone, his mind began to spin even faster than before. All of the crimes of Wickham flew through his thoughts, and he saw Elizabeth being pushed ahead of Wickham and Denny, held at gunpoint. He grit his teeth. He would find her, and he would find Wickham.
He stepped into the library, and inhaled its dusty, clean smell. It was very quiet here. He and Anne used to come here together as children - Richard came sometimes as well, but he had always been more inclined to stay outdoors, whereas Darcy and Anne shared a passionate love of books. Caroline was the odd one out.
He walked over to the cabinet and opened it. Some of them contained writing paper, some old documents pertaining to the estate. He was beginning to wonder if Denny had taken all of the maps when he searched the last shelf and found a stash of them: poorly folded and crumpled, as if they had been mostly stuffed in the shelf carelessly. Darcy's nostrils flared, and he carefully took them out and opened them.
Some of them were maps of the entire countryside, clearly not made by anyone in the Rosings Park estate. But others appeared to be hand-drawn, and many years ago. He found a copy of the plan of the house, on which the secret passages was far more apparent. He smiled, wishing that he, Anne, and Richard had discovered this as children. How excited they would have been!
Other maps were of all of England, or France, or the Americas. Darcy was beginning to think that anything of use had already been taken by Denny, when he found a hand-drawn map of Rosings Park which showed the surrounding countryside as well. He saw the hunter's cabin to the south, the village and the graveyard to the west, and to the north…
Darcy leaned forward, peering at the map. There was a square drawn onto the map, in the midst of the forest to the north. Inside the square were numerous other squares and rectangles. What was it? Darcy looked for a note to say what the squares meant, but saw nothing.
He had one more map to look at. He opened it, and saw that it was a plan of the graveyard. He was about to put it away, when he noted that there were many mausoleums detailed on it, whereas the graveyard in the village only had three. He looked at it more closely. de Bourgh and Darcy names were marked all over the mausoleums. He concluded there must be another older family graveyard located in the woods north of the house.
"This is where they're headed," said Darcy aloud. He picked up the map of Rosings Park and the surrounding area, and the map of the northern graveyard, folded them, and put them in his pocket. He stood up, wondering where he should first look for Richard, when his cousin walked into the library, holding two rifles.
The Colonel grinned. "Really, Travers was most helpful. He needed a bit of persuading, but you see before you two oiled and loaded rifles. I have extra bullets in my coat pocket."
"Then let us waste not a moment," said Darcy. "There is another graveyard to the north of here, filled with numerous mausoleums large enough to hide in. I expect they've gone there."
"Some villagers want to join us too but I told them we may not have enough horses for everyone. They will walk out instead. They are gathering weapons and supplies now. Let us leave at once," said Richard. "I'll race you to the stables. I will leave directions there for the villagers."
But Darcy honestly felt like running. What if those scoundrels locked Elizabeth inside of a tomb and left her there, intending to only inform them of her whereabouts when the ransom money had been paid?
They hurried out to the stables.
Jack, who was unwounded and had resumed his duties upon their return, greeted them warmly.
"Andrews," said Darcy, "We need two horses, as quickly as you can get them ready. We believe that Wickham and Denny are hiding out in a graveyard in the north woods, with Miss Bennet in custody."
Jack's eyes got big. "Right away, Mr. Darcy!" he said. He began to hurry back into the stables, and then he stopped and turned. "Will you be wanting extra men to come along with you?" he asked. "I'm not wounded, I'd be happy to oblige."
Darcy considered for a moment. "We only have two guns," he said, "and I don't wish to delay longer by getting another ready."
"I don't mind going without a gun," said Jack. "Wickham's only got the one, and I rather think he's too much of a coward to really try to kill any of us anyway."
"Don't underestimate cowards," said Darcy grimly.
"Even so," said Jack. "It's a risk I'm willing to take, and it won't take me long to saddle an extra horse."
Darcy smiled at him. "Bless you, Andrews," he said. "We would be honoured if you would join our party."
Jack grinned at him, and hurried into the stables.
Darcy continued to pace in the yard, glancing between the stables and the house, waiting for Richard to relate a message for the villagers. He could see Jack and a young boy saddling three of the horses inside the stable, and he recognized Benedict, his favorite horse. Elizabeth had said that Sir William had borrowed him the night before - he must have been set loose when the thugs had arrived at the hunter's cabin that morning, and wandered back to the stables.
"Shall we be off?"
"Yes," said Darcy, observing the last bridle being put on the third horse. "Andrews has offered to accompany us."
"Excellent!" cried Richard.
When the horses were all ready, they mounted and turned towards the woods. Darcy pulled out the map of the forest one more time, studied it, and handed it to Richard to inspect.
"Not a lot of paths," said Richard.
"We'll just have to head due North - we should run right into it if we keep a straight course from the house," said Darcy.
They spurred their horses and set off at a gallop towards the woods. They did not try to follow a path, and low-hanging branches whipped their faces as they rode. Darcy's heart was beating quickly, but he willed himself to stay calm.
After about half an hour's ride, they began to see grey shapes through the trees. Darcy signaled silently to them to slow down, and then they stopped and dismounted. They tied their horses to trees, and continued on foot. Richard and Darcy cocked their rifles, and Darcy motioned for Jack to walk along behind them, since he was unarmed.
They stepped forward slowly, trying to be as silent as possible. The graveyard was not fenced in, and the forest had begun to invade it. They began to walk past headstones that seemed to be growing among the trees. Then they reached the first mausoleum: they walked around the corner of it slowly, but there was no one on the other side.
They looked around the graveyard. It was falling into disrepair, and the ground was covered in wildflowers and strange plants. The trees loomed over them, cutting out most of the sunlight and giving the area a sleepy, forgotten atmosphere. A bird trilled, and the wind whistled through the branches. Darcy listened intently, but he could hear no voices. Had they been wrong, was Wickham not here at all?
Suddenly the Colonel touched his arm urgently. Darcy turned, and saw his cousin point to a mausoleum of white, crumbling stone at the far end of the graveyard. A red coat was lying on the ground beside it: Wickham's. Darcy started to hurry forward, but Richard held him back. He motioned that they should approach separately from either side. Darcy nodded. He motioned for Jack to stay behind him; Jack nodded. They started forward. Darcy's heart was in his throat. Was Elizabeth there?
He began to hear a strange sound, like an animal. It was coming from behind the mausoleum. Suddenly someone appeared from behind it, and Darcy stopped breathing for a moment.
"What?" he cried.