Black spots danced before Darcy’s eyes. His ears began to ring, and the world slipped away.
ELIZABETH TRIED TOkeep panic at bay by counting the others as they arrived beside the faerie ring at Rosings. Frederica, Jasper, and Richard Fitzwilliam. No sign of FitzClarence, but Titania had given him his own talisman to travel to Faerie, and Eversleigh could help Anne.
“Wait!” A girl’s voice called out. “Take me with you, please!”
Frederica’s head snapped around. “Georgiana?” she asked in disbelief.
Darcy’s sister hurried into the glade. “Freddie? Why are you dressed as an elf?”
“Never mind that,” said Elizabeth. “Into the ring, quickly! We can talk more in Faerie.” Elizabeth touched her stone and the ground dropped away. The familiar flowery scent of Faerie surrounded her.
Frederica hugged Georgiana. “We have been so worried about you!”
“They never found me. I saw all of you racing away from the house, so I knew something was wrong. I heard the servants talking aboutthe sorcerer in the cellar being freed, so I hid in a closet until night-time and then crept out of the house. I spent all day here hoping someone would come, but I hid when it grew dark. When I saw all the lights, I thought it might be the fay, so I ran to the grove.”
“Clever girl!” said Frederica.
“Hold a moment,” said Elizabeth sharply. “Colonel, do you feel anything unusual about her?”
The colonel frowned. “No jellied eels. She is not bespelled.”
Elizabeth let out the breath she was holding. “Good.”
“What happened back there?” the colonel demanded. “Why did you stop us? Did Eversleigh free Darcy?”
She waved them out of the ring. The others might be needing it. “I do not know. Eversleigh told me to run. Something was very wrong.” The despair and fear behind the preplanned signal still resonated in her. Of course it did; Eversleigh was still feeling it, so she did as well. “Did FitzClarence hear my whistle?”
“No idea,” said Jasper. “He had gone behind some trees with his bow.”
Elizabeth felt the thrum of power from the ring and turned to see Eversleigh arrive. Anne was not with him. She ran towards him, her hands held out. Frederica was right behind her.
Eversleigh held up a hand to stop her. “Do not touch me, or I will break into a thousand pieces.” He sounded remote, like a stranger.
“What happened?” asked Frederica.
Eversleigh closed his eyes tightly as if he could not bear to look at them. “It was a trap. We got in with no problem, but as soon as Anne touched the ward, she became unable to move. Debenham caught us there. I tried to turn both of us invisible, but it did not work on Anne any longer, no matter what I did.” His throat bobbed as he swallowed.
“What did Debenham do?” Elizabeth did not think she wanted to know the answer.
“Debenham is really Sir Lewis. He is still alive, and somehow he took over Debenham’s body. Anne knew.”
“Dear God,” Richard whispered.
“Where is Anne?” asked Frederica.
Eversleigh wiped the back of his hand over his mouth. “She... Oh, dammit.” He took Richard Fitzwilliam’s arm and led him a short distance away.
A few minutes later the colonel trudged back to them, his face ashen. “He asked me to tell you. He managed to stay in the room when Debenham thought he had escaped. Anne was at Debenham’s, that is to say Sir Lewis’s, mercy, and she was the one who had blinded him. He...well, never mind what he said he would do to her. She begged Darcy to kill her, and when he would not, she took her own life.”
Frederica collapsed to her knees, burying her face in her hands. Georgiana’s face was ashen.
Numbness spread through Elizabeth. It could not be real. She would not let it be real, but the tight pressure within her chest would not go away.
The colonel continued, “That is not all. As Eversleigh was making his escape, he saw them carrying FitzClarence into the house. Bad enough any of us were captured, but he is a direct connection to the royal family. They can use him to get to his father, the Duke of Clarence, and he is Prinny’s brother and the king’s son. God above, why could they not have taken me instead?” His despairing voice seemed to cut the air.
Darcy must be beyond horror. Elizabeth could not imagine what it would do to him to watch his cousin kill herself. She reached out to him with that special sense. It was hard to hear him over Eversleigh’s despair, but finally she found Darcy. He was unconscious. That was probably a blessing.
But what were they to do now?
