Pride and Prejudice Fan Fiction

Unlocked Cage

Previously:

And while the group at Rosings Park made plans for a search, a group of men in the shadows -far from Rosings Park laughed. There was no a single soul concerned about the family being found. No, not a soul and all now had extra cash in their hand for doing their job well.

Lessons Pay Off

CH. 26

"Take it easy," Caroline helped Mr. Hudson sit up. "I cannot feel anything that feels like liquid on your head, so I do not think they hit you hard enough to cut you."

"Where are we? I cannot see or hear a thing." Carlisle did not have to voice his concern for his wife to catch it. He felt his own arm and leg, flinching when he did so. "No, but I think my leg has been hurt. I doubt I could walk."

"Rosie, did they hurt you?"

"No, but that man has less sight than I do," Rosie did not hide her disgust. "Does he seriously think I cannot tell he is a man? Or that he likes to smoke one too many pipes and walks with a severe limp?"

"Him being a man I understand," Mr. Hudson replied in shock. "But how can you tell the other two?"

"Oh, please, Papa..." Rosie had quit saying uncle when Caroline had married her uncle and suggested the switch, if the two were comfortable with it. "His voice is raspier than the others, and I could feel it in his walk, not to mention it was in the sound of his feet as he was practically dragging me." Her eye-rolling tone almost made her new mother laugh, and even Mr. Hudson's sheepish grin could be felt as he chuckled softly.

"Let us be grateful Mr. Hurst is not as intelligent as he thinks he is."

"How can you be sure your brother was among those hooded men?"

"Physically, no," Caroline set her jaw hard. "However, this has his hand all over it. Not to mention someone said the name of Wadsworth; those two are connected. However, my gut instincts tell me my sister knows nothing about this stunt." Turning as if she had sight, Mrs. Hudson began speaking to Rosie. "I need you to stay here." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small cup.

"I got an impression to carry this with me in my pocket. It's not a big cup, but I can hear dripping water. I am going to get water in it, and when I fill it, I will follow your voice back." Mrs. Hudson then explained there was also a strong impression they were in an old mining cave and that it fit the same pattern as the one Rosie and she had constantly wandered through in the garden in Mr. Hudson's estate.

"You what? In what?" Mr. Hudson asked, shocked at the revelation.

"We will discuss it later, or you can talk to Rosie about me living in her world for part of every day, other than the upper floor. I have to go get us help, after I get you water."

Caroline's feet walked cautiously as her sharpened sense of hearing kicked into gear. The water's gurgling spoke to her and drew her close. Feeling with her hand until water covered it, she dipped the cup into a small, shallow stream before calling out Rosie's name. It was only then that she followed her daughter's voice back.

"Here, use this cup for water and get it to your father the same way I did." Turning to leave, she felt Carlisle's hand on hers.

"Be careful." Gently, he squeezed her hand, wanting to say more, but unsure what could be said in front of Rosie, he simply kept quiet beyond what had already been spoken.

Caroline then let go of his hand, and her footsteps echoed in the cavernous void, a rhythmic tap against the cold, damp stone that paved the underground labyrinth. She moved with a grace that belied the oppressive darkness surrounding her, each step measured and assured despite the absence of light. Her hands trailed along the jagged walls, fingers reading the rough-hewn textures like braille, telling tales of the earth's ancient secrets.

"She is so brave," Rosie curled up to her uncle who she now called Father. "I want to be just like Mother. She thinks of others and not just herself. She has done everything for me, and she is risking everything for us. I hope she finds a way out of here." Rosie had, without even knowing it, said the one thing her 'father' needed to hear in order to fling open his own invisible lock on the cage he had been living in.

"So do I," Carlisle spoke with every fiber of his being. "So do I. "And to himself he vowed; if Caroline made it out of the caves, he would no longer shut off any part of himself to her.

The air was thick with the scent of minerals and earth, as if someone had opened a perfume bottle and spilled it out into the cavern, and the roots of the cavern had soaked it in as if it were a gigantic sponge. Caroline kept her breathing controlled and shallow; her senses had—from practice—switched to a heightened awareness with ease. It compensated for the darkness that enveloped her. Her skin could feel the subtle shifts in the air, the faintest of drafts that hinted at passageways hidden from Caroline's physical eyes.

Time was not kept track of as it simply stretched and bent. It might as well have been meaningless as it was one eternal night underground with no signs of daylight. It was the first time Caroline gave thanks she had been willing to live in Rosie's world, other than to simply relate to the young girl. However, the lady did not dwell on lessons with Rosie; she moved on with one purpose... get out of this cave, get help for her family, and go after Mr. Hurst's neck veins.

No, he had not been in that group of men who had attacked them, but Mr. Wadsworth had been; one of the men had been slapped in the head when he had let his name slip. It was that which had let her know Mr. Hurst's name was written all over the attack. Yet Caroline left off even thinking of that and moved with purpose, guided by the fact that the impression she had gotten was correct; what she was feeling did indeed match the one she and Rosie had walked so much under the garden.

As her feet took her deeper into the cavern, the silence grew heavier, a presence that seemed to physically press against her skin. But then, almost unnoticeably at first, a change in the air. A coolness that hinted at an opening, a space where the suffocating closeness of the tunnel gave way to a freshness not known to any cave.

And then she saw it—a subtle glow up ahead. Caroline approached the source, her heart relieved to see the sign of an opening. The glow grew into a sliver of light that cut through the gloom, creating a picture on the cave walls with many shades of gray.