“Nearly eight.”
Elizabeth yawned and shook her head as if to rouse herself. “That is generally late, for me.”
“Myself as well,” he agreed with the trace of a smile. “Do you require more rest, or a fire and some coffee?”
She chuckled softly. “The thought of food and drink makes me a little uneasy, but I should not like to languish in bed all day. Well, I may wish to, but I should think it very wrong to be so idle.”
“I am sure there will be ample time for pampering when all this is over,” he murmured, running his thumb over her palm before releasing her hand as he uncle began to stir. “Do you think the others shall wake soon? I could go down to the kitchens, supervise the preparation of breakfast for us all.”
“That is very kind of you, but you better take Mr. Tilney. Do not go alone.”
Mr. Darcy smiled at her concern and gave a little nod. “I may as well wake him. He got us all into this mess, so I shall certainly not lethimlanguish in bed.”
She could hear Sir Edward whispering to Lady Allen, and Elizabeth reflexively took a step away from Mr. Darcy. She began to take off the coat that belonged to him, but thought the better of her such immodesty, with only her nightgown beneath it. “I must thank you, for supporting me yesterday, when I defended Mrs. Rushworth.”
He inclined his head. “You made a sound argument.”
“I fear I may have to have it out with the rest of our little group about it,” Elizabeth sighed.
Mr. Darcy rested his hand on her shoulder for a moment. “You may depend upon me to champion your cause.”
Elizabeth smiled. “Perhaps we better break our fast and get on with it. I do feel that we are close to some discovery, some missing piece to the puzzle.”
“I hope you are right about that,” he said, his expression a trifle sardonic. “Another day or two and I may have to swim the moat.”
Elizabeth glanced out the window and shuddered at the sight of the cold, dark water. If it were to freeze over entirely, they might attempt to traverse it, but even that notion made her uneasy. “Give me a moment, and I shall return your coat. You cannot go down to the kitchen looking like that.”
Mr. Darcy glanced down at himself and laughed. “I am not fit to go anywhere but Bedlam looking like this.” He followed her as she returned to her room, and she closed the door half way, stepping behind it as she shook off the coat and handed it back to him through the narrow opening. He laughed as he took it from her, and Elizabeth was chagrined that Cathy should again witness a moment of such whimsy.
Cathy was sitting up, the light from the open doorway barely illuminating her as she grinned. Elizabeth only shook her head and waited for the sounds of Mr. Darcy’s retreat before sneaking back out into the parlor to light a couple candles. She made great haste, and returned to dress with her sister.
The rest of their party was awake and dressed by the time Mr. Darcy and Mr. Tilney returned with two large trays of breakfast, which they laid out on a low table between two sofas.Everyone began with a cup of tea, feeling rather worse for wear after the previous evening’s horror.
“I hardly know where to begin,” Cathy said with a heavy sigh. “I suppose I ought to look over all the pages of notes we took down from the wall in our old suite, if there is any point in it.”
“Oh! We have more,” Harriet said eagerly, earning her a grunt of agreement as Emma consumed a strawberry tart. Harriet retreated to her room, and returned with all the pages of information they had compiled, the dossiers, and the newspapers. She hefted the stack down beside the sofa and resumed her seat, offering the loose pages to Cathy.
“Emma and I stayed up late last night documenting everything important that happened!”
Cathy looked over a few of the pages and began to pass the stack around amongst them. “This looks very thorough, well done! And thank you, Emma, for even recording such things of your aunt.”
Emma shifted her shoulders in a haughty pose. “There is evidence against her, but there is more than enough suspicion to go around, and I am sure she will be vindicated.”
Beside her sister, Elizabeth glanced down at the page in Cathy’s hand. “It is noteworthy indeed that Lady Susan was the first to accuse Mrs. Rushworth, and the first and loudest in denouncing my theory defending the woman. Given what we know from her dossier, I believe she is capable of murder.”
“She has spoken very harshly several times,” Emma admitted. “But I cannot imagine her able to break the captain’s neck.”
“It must have been a man,” Mr. Darcy agreed. “He would have had to get a hand around the captain’s mouth to silence him.”
“Then Mrs. Rushworth also did not kill the captain, though Mr. Crawford might have managed it. He is so short, though!” Elizabeth sighed and shook her head as she read over the page she had taken off the stack, detailing Mrs. Rushworth. A great deal had been added.
“Are you still convinced of her innocence?" Sir Edward frowned as he nibbled a piece of bacon.
“I am,” Elizabeth said firmly. “Her manners were so rehearsed when we spoke in the library; she is no great actress. I believe her reaction in the dining room was genuine.”
“But Mr. Bertram told me something interesting,” Cathy argued. “At dinner, he said that when his family first met the Crawfords, they were of a mind to put on a theatrical together, though his father forbade it. He said that Mrs. Rushworth was to perform with them.”
“Then I daresay she would have acted very poorly,” Elizabeth said. “I cannot get past the footsteps in the passage. It must mean something.”
