“Lizzy,” Jane said behind her, helpless, clutching a pair of gloves in both trembling hands. “Where will you go?”
“I do not know. But I cannot stay here. I have made your home unsafe. For you. For your father. For everyone.”
“You cannot just vanish into the night!” Jane whispered.
“I can,” Elizabeth replied, wrapping her things tighter. “And I must.”
Jane stepped closer, resting a hand on Elizabeth’s shoulder. “But what will you do? Who will be with you?”
Elizabeth paused. Her hands stilled around the knot in the fabric. “He will help me. He is already thinking of a plan, I am sure of it.”
Jane blinked. “Mr. Darcy?”
Elizabeth nodded once.
Jane’s eyes went wide, her lips parting in horror. “But… he is not your husband! If you go with him now—Lizzy, you would be—”
“Ruined?” Elizabeth let out a breathless, broken laugh. “It will certainly not be the first time I vanished into the night with him. Remember?”
Jane flinched as if struck. “That was under the Prince’s orders. This… this is Collins’ stupidity and that pompous patroness of his. It is not fair, Lizzy.”
Elizabeth turned to face her, bundle in her arms. “None of this is fair. But if I stay, I will die. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and probably others with me. I would rather be ruined and breathing than dignified in a box.”
Jane’s eyes filled again. “You cannot know that would happen.”
“I do. And he knows it too. He has had some trouble keeping me alive this long, and now it is worse. They know the name I have lived under. They know this house. And worse, thanks to all the gossip in town, they know now that Mr. Darcy was the one helping me to remain hidden. They will try to kill him now, too, Jane. We cannot wait for them to come knocking.”
“But…wherewill you go?“ Jane demanded once more, as if she still could not believe Elizabeth truly meant what she said. “Where can a bachelor and an unmarried woman run off to together? And this late in the day!”
“I do not know,” Elizabeth said again, this time softer. “Wherever he thinks safest.”
Jane’s face crumpled. She crossed the room in two steps and flung her arms around Elizabeth, clutching her with a desperation that shook them both.
Elizabeth closed her eyes. “You are the closest thing to a sister I have ever had.”
“Oh, Lizzy!” They held each other like girls again, like they had never pretended to be ladies, and time had not passed so cruelly.
“You must write to me,” Jane said fiercely, pulling back just enough to look at her.
“I will. When it is safe. Not before.” Elizabeth gave a damp, tired smile. She reached out and brushed a tear from Jane’s cheek with her thumb. “In the meantime, you must promise to think of me every time you smile at Mr. Bingley.”
Jane laughed and mopped her sodden cheek with the back of her hand. “Why should that be my particular memento?”
Elizabeth sniffed and grinned. “Because I know it will be often.”
Jane laughed again, burying her face in her sleeve until she sobbed. Then they both stood in silence for a moment, until Elizabeth pressed a kiss to Jane’s forehead and stepped back, her small bundle clasped tight in her hands. “Goodbye, sweet Jane.”
No trunk. No plan. Just a promise.
And a man waiting below.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Alowmistcoiledthrough the hedgerows behind Longbourn as Darcy waited beneath the cover of an ancient yew, listening for hoofbeats that were not his own.
His gelding stood quietly beside him, his reins looped loosely in his gloved hand. The second mount—a smaller, fleeter mare he had borrowed from Bingley’s stable—pawed once, twice, before falling still. She had carried couriers before. She would carry a secret tonight.
Darcy glanced toward the narrow track behind the house, half-concealed by the thicket. They would not use the main road. He had planned for that. Every choice from this moment forward had to be quiet, quick, and unpredictable. Somewhere out beyond the trees, Selwyn would already be lighting the lantern. The safe house near Cambridge—little more than a country waystation in his father’s time—had stood empty for nearly a decade. No servants. No family. No reason for anyone to watch it. Until now.
