FF Pride and Prejudice AU
Check-Mate
I do not own the copy rights to the book Pride and Prejudice
A/N Sorry took so long to get any of the Bennet's into the picture, I had to set things up with Abigail so she her personal background was clearer.
Through the Door (Bennet's world)
Ch.4
I make my way down the hall and back down to the library, but not before making sure that Hughes knows Jasmine is having mental issues - and that anything she says should be taken with a grain of salt. I then ignore them knowing my mind should have been on 'her' and the fog I suppose. However, it wasn't. No, my thoughts were now back on the door next to the fireplace in the library... and that is where my feet stop.
Turning the knob did no good as it did not budge the door next to the hearth. Any consideration of using a key was out as there no keyhole. A door with no way place for a key? What was up with that? Something had to be around here to allow me to slip behind the thick wood wall. Tracing my hands over the hearth again does no good as nothing new is found. Sighing, I begin thinking any 'pull' I have felt towards this particular door is all in my head. That is, until my hand runs along some of the wainscoting in between the edge of the door and its adjacent fireplace.
It wasn't much of a dent. I'd say it was doing good to be as big as the tip of my finger. I pushed it more by accident than anything else. "Woe…" My voice trails off as the door opens and a set of stairs is revealed. Stepping inside I do not mean to close the door, but it shuts before I realize it; I am left in the dark with only a faint light ahead. Turing around, I am shocked to find no handle even though I can feel the outline of a door. Rather than to panic over a door that won't open or having to walk down a set of stairs with no light ... I focus on feeling out the steps with my feet and keep my hand on rail that I'd seen before the door closed.
"One, two, three." I count each step until I reach what I assume is another door for there is a faint light coming through at the bottom.
I don't know what to expect. Maybe... to find myself in the older part of the home. Maybe in a root cellar that would have another door either leading outside, or even back outside. What I didn't think would occur was me to place my hand on it and to lurch forward- hitting no rock.
"What the…" Anything I was going to say came to a screeching halt as I found myself looking at who I figured had to be Elizabeth Bennet working feverishly on her mother. I wouldn't have recognized her but I'd read the book Pride and Prejudice too much not to; a few movies helped "...b…." I'd almost said a word I saw no issue with at one point. However, I'd learned since than it was -more or less – would be considered cussing to Liz. "What happened, Miss Bennet?" Strangely she does not question how I know her and focuses on answering my question instead.
"I don't know." Liz was keeping pressure on her mother's head. That action let me know that, somewhere along the line, Liz had been some place other than Longborne. "But I can't get the bleeding to stop, and I'm scared." The lady's voice was low as her eyes shot over to the wall. It's the first time I saw her sisters Lydia and Kitty, they were saying nothing.
"Be glad I am in the strange habit of keeping basic sewing supplies on hand." I take over and am relieved to see that - while the cut is bleeding profusely, it is not so big as I could not stitch it. I manage to do so without losing my lunch - a miracle in and of itself. Once that is done, I excuse myself and lose my lunch just outside the cave – at least that is what I deduce we are in. "Sorry, didn't mean to do that."
"Can't say I blame you." Liz waves me back over and ask if I can get to her sisters. "They aren't bleeding but they haven't budged an inch."
"Get to them? You're just as close as to them as I am." It dawns on me Liz is not dressed as one might think she should be, so I ask her two more questions without giving her time to answer the first. "Where are we? And you are here with your mother, why aren't they?"
"I fear I have no answer." Liz nodded her head towards the space behind her. "I was walking in Hammersmith and found myself in a tunnel of strange fog. I was horrified to see my mother heavily bleeding and my sisters just sitting there as if in shock." I suggest she go to them. She tries but can't get past what appears to be a faint, shimmering wall. I walk up to her and stick my hand out ... the wall bends. I would have pushed harder, but realize I have to deal with Liz and her mother first.
"Ten to one I am going to be able to get through. I'm not sure about your mother. And what about you?"
"I'll go back the way I came, clearly I can't go back to my childhood home." Liz sighed. "Please…" She pointed to a makeshift travois her mother is lying next to. "I don't know whose it is, but there is nothing else. I can help get her on it, but you will have to get her to Longbourn or to the nearest town you can find. Mary probably stayed home, never did like going to town much." She then tells me to look up Mr. Darcy's wife. "I'm sure she'll help you."
I would have asked who that was considering I thought it would have been herself. Nonetheless, with Liz dressed in modern clothing, with no wedding band, clearly that is not the case. So, instead of wasting time, I help get Mrs. Bennet onto the Travois and hope I can get past that strange wall with her once Liz disappears down a strange, foggy tunnel. "Hope this works," I take a deep breath and begin to pull the travois towards the strange barrier.
My feet, in fact my whole body, pushes against the strange wall and it ...tears? ...I make it through and quickly look to see how Mrs. Bennet is. Her stitches are in place; that is good, but her face is far too pale for my liking.
"Who are you? Where are we? How is Mum?" Lydia and Kitty are now huddled together, shaking. I give them my name and tell them I'm sorry, that I have no idea where we are. "Your mother needs more help than I can give her. I stopped her bleeding with stitches, but we have to get to a town. Which way were you traveling before you found yourself in this cave?" They both point Northwest. "Follow me." Thankfully, they do not argue.