Page 37 of Pemberley's Imposter
“Try to be calm. You do not want to walk directly into the barrel of a gun or the tip of a sword. Let us search the premises first,” Elizabeth suggested.
“I have not heard any suspicious sounds coming from outside the house since I awoke in the early hours of the morning. Besides, I doubt Richard has left any guards. It would leave him vulnerable to exposure as he knows as well as I that most people of our acquaintance would be loyal to me, not him.”
Elizabeth narrowed her eyes at her estranged husband’s boast.
“I promise to be careful,” Mr Darcy muttered and was out of the door before Elizabeth could voice any further protests. She turned her attention to her daughter, who had stopped retching and now lay listless in her lap. She had been under the influence of the ether for an extraordinarily long time, and Elizabeth prayed the effects had not caused her any lasting harm.
Darcy came back with a leaky pail of water that looked clean enough.
“Where did you find it?” Elizabeth asked.
“There is a well to the left, hidden under a shrub, but the water is clear and smells fresh,” Mr Darcy informed her.
“Good, did you see anyone about?”
“No. There is evidence of someone circling the cottage, but there are no other paths beyond the one leading here. The ground is still moist from the heavy rain we have had lately, which made it easy to determine that there are only two sets of tracks from carriage wheels, one leading in and the other leading out.”
“I did not hear any other voices besides the colonel and Georgiana when we were brought here,” Elizabeth explained further. “By what I overheard, I believe he might have given his wife a dose of ether as well.”
“The bloody bastard!” Mr Darcy yelled.
Elizabeth turned away from him to conceal her pain. The vehemence of his outburst demonstrated that his precious sister mattered more to him than she and his daughter.
She busied herself with looking for usable objects for cooking or heating. She exclaimed in joy when she found an old flint and steel to light the fire. All she needed now was wood and something edible. It should not prove too difficult to find something considering the time of year.
“I am going out to find dry wood.”
Elizabeth proudly showed him the flint and steel her rummaging had procured.
“That was next on my list,” Mr Darcy informed her before he strode out of the cottage in obvious eagerness to escape her company.
Half an hour passed while Elizabeth busied herself by singing to her half-conscious daughter.
Mr Darcy returned with his arms full of firewood. He put it beside the hearth and reached into his pocket, presumably for his watch. It appeared to not be there. He then searched his coat, likely for his money clip, but that too was missing. Holding up his hands, he showed her that his signet ring was no longer on his finger.
“Do you have any jewellery on you?”
Elizabeth automatically touched her neck for her garnet cross. It was not there. Strangely enough, neither was her wedding ring.
“How peculiar. I have been trying to remove my wedding ring for two and a half years. When I finally might need it, it is gone. I suppose I must count myself fortunate he did not have to cut off my finger for the coin he will receive at the pawnshop.”
“I doubt Richard intends to sell your wedding ring,” Mr Darcy contradicted.
“Why else would he take it?” Elizabeth demanded to know.
“To make our deaths look like a robbery,” her husband growled.
“He does not know much about thieves, does he? A real thief would never let you keep your expensive Hessian boots nor let our daughter keep her clothes. There is not a magistrate in the county who would think this was a robbery performed by highwaymen or cutthroats. Does the colonel not read the newspapers?”
Mr Darcy did not answer. He had the nerve to look hurt when she admitted she had tried to remove her wedding ring.
“I am going out. Do not let Ellie out of your sight,” she warned and strode out of the door. Someone needed to find something to eat.
Under a group of shady old trees, Elizabeth found common polypod ferns, which had a sweet root Ellie liked to chew on. It was not much but it grew in abundance. Farther afield she also found wild strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries. She could boil up a soup or eat them fresh.
She was even more pleased when she found a patch of hedgehog fungi. She filled her skirt and strode back to the cottage.
Mr Darcy was out in the overgrown garden with Ellie, and it delighted Elizabeth to see the improvement in her daughter. They were removing the bark from an oak branch, and various twigs lay at their feet. She approached carrying her harvest in her raised skirt.
