“I told you I was writing to my sister,” Mr. Tilney said. “I can produce the half-completed letter, if you like.”
“You might have written it at any time, to give yourself an alibi,” Lady Susan said. Her eyes sparkled and she was nearly smiling, as if she was less concerned with Mr. Tilney’s guilt and more interested in merely needling him.
“But many of us were alone at that time,” Cathy cried. “You yourself disappeared down that secret passageway, and were coming from an entirely different part of the house when we saw you next.”
“But nowhere near the cellar,” Lady Susan said with a little sniff.
“We followed the passage from the cellar,” Mr. Willoughby said. “It let out near a stairwell, and at the top were the two empty rooms you spoke of, Tilney.”
“And what of this other secret passage?” Miss Denham took a step away from Lady Susan and eyed her warily.
“It came out in the library, not very far,” Lady Susan said with annoyance. “Anyway, who gives a fig about secret passages, unless there is one that can get us out of here?”
“Yes, and I daresay the man who has admitted to trapping us in this dreary old castle seems to be to the guiltiest amongst us,” Mrs. Rushworth said, folding her arms in front of her chest. Beside her, Mr. Rushworth nodded blankly.
“Shall I summon my valet, madam, and ask him to tell you in detail of the scolding he received for misplacing one of my trunks?” Captain Tilney smirked wickedly at her. “Or perhaps you shall tell us whereyouwere when my father was shot?”
“With the other ladies, surely,” Mr. Rushworth muttered.
Mrs. Rushworth gave Elizabeth a pleading look before saying, “I stepped into the library for a moment to retrieve a book and happened to see Mr. Crawford there. After that, I joined the other ladies when they were following the sound of the commotion.”
Elizabeth shifted uncomfortably, as if to avoid Mrs. Rushworth’s gaze. She had seen that lady with the little fellow who was not her husband, andtheyhad seen her observing them. They had not wanted to be seen any more than she wished to make such an uncomfortable discovery, for she was fairly sure that the room they emerged from was not the library.
Lady Susan laughed. “You forget that the secret passage I found came out in the library, and I will tell you candidly that the library was quite empty.”
“So you say,” Mr. Crawford hissed.
“Perhaps you came in after we had run out,” Mrs. Rushworth hedged.
“Oh dear, I think this is all too much,” Lady Allen sighed.
Mr. Willoughby moved closer, and patted her shoulder. “My aunt is right. All these wild accusations add up to absolutely nothing; we ought to think of getting out of here and fetching the magistrate.”
Cathy gasped. “Lady Allen is your aunt?”
“By marriage,” Lady Allen explained. “He is to inherit my late husband’s house in Devonshire.”
“Have no fear, Miss Morland; everything else will go to you,” Mr. Willoughby said with a sweeping bow.
Cathy gaped at her old friend. “What?”
“You are also the nephew of Sir Walter Elliot, are you not? Fascinating how everybody is connected in some shape or fashion,” Mr. Parker observed. “I wonder what you expected, Tilney, in gathering together so many people who all have something to hide.”
“I should think he means to get our father out of the way, and extort you himself,” Captain Tilney cried. “You are fools to trust him, with our father laying dead in the cellar. I will have the truth out of you, Henry.”
Mr. Tilney backed away from his brother, glancing to Mr. Darcy for aid. Mr. Darcy furrowed his brow for a moment, as if searching for something to say in their host’s defense. “Well, hehas invited Prince Edward and Princess Elizabeth here; I hardly think he would commit a crime just days before their arrival.”
The captain lunged for his brother. “You didwhat?”
Mr. Darcy stepped in and pushed the captain roughly by the shoulders. “You are only damning yourself,” he muttered to the belligerent man.
“Oh dear, I hope this is not part of some plot against the monarchy,” Mr. Rushworth gasped.
“He explained his reasons for inviting us here last night, my dear,” his wife said with a look of annoyance.
“Upon my word! I hope we are all monarchists,” Sir Walter grumbled.
“If we are, we shall be sorely disappointed when they are unable to reach us because we are locked in here,” Lady Susan said to him.
