Elizabeth balked. “I would not know what to try.”
Jane chimed in. “But Lizzy, you always know what to do.”
MrDarcy interjected, “I am unsure whether the…problem…lies with my magic or my memory.”
Elizabeth pondered MrDarcy’s words.It seems that I also have magic that I have somehow forgotten about?However, she supposed that she must trysomething. Elizabeth had cured Jane’s illness by wishing it away; perhaps she could cure MrDarcy’s magic in the same manner. Though she could not yet say that she particularly liked the man, it would be unkind not to try.
I wish MrDarcy’s magic would work properly again.
As she concentrated on the thought, she felt her thought reach out to MrDarcy. Something had clearly happened, because MrDarcy suddenly clutched his head in agony.
At the same instant, Elizabeth felt a blinding flash of light inside her own mind. Her head was aflame with an intensity that she had never known before. She fell to the ground.
Is this what magic feels like? How, then, is everyone else so nonchalant about it?
When she opened her eyes, Jane’s and MrBingley’s worried faces came into focus. She tried to sit up, but a wave of dizziness came over her, and she fell back again.
“Lizzy, are you well?” asked Jane.
“I… yes… no… I do not know. What has just happened?”
“MrDarcy must have refused your magic, and it rebounded on you. That can be very dangerous. I do not know why MrDarcy would have done such a thing.”
MrBingley turned towards MrDarcy, who was gripping his head with both hands. “Darcy, what are you about? Why did you not accept Miss Elizabeth’s magic?”
“I…did nothing. I do not know how to do that.”
MrBingley looked as though someone had just told him that the moon was made of cheese. He asked, “How could one of the most powerful mages in Britain suddenly not know how to do something so simple? Have you lost your mind? Or perhaps your memory?”
“It would seem so. It is as if my…as if everything I ever understood about magic is gone from my mind.”
MrDarcy’s words match my experience exactly. Could this be another of those strange dreams—or whatever they are? Am I somehow dreaming that MrDarcy and I both have magical powers that neither of us understands? Is there some reason that in every one of these dreams, I have been thrown together with MrDarcy, under ever more bewildering circumstances?
As Elizabeth’s head cleared, her dizziness abated.If MrDarcy can feign amnesia, so can I.“I too feel…that is to say, I seem to be having the same feelings that MrDarcy described. My…magic feels…foreign to me.”
Jane said, “It is a good thing that the two of you enjoy one another’s company. As it seems that you are both afflicted withthe same malady, we will need someone who can cure both of you together.”
“Enjoyone another’s company? While I do not find MrDarcy objectionable, I scarcely know him!”
Jane and MrBingley stared at her. “Lizzy, how can you say such a thing? The two of you have been working together to assist the campaign on the continent for several months.”
Elizabeth tried in vain to mask her shock.What else might I have done that I am unaware of?
Early the next morning, Elizabeth and MrDarcy found themselves in his coach to London, with instructions to call upon Madam Matilda Muttersworth on Whitechapel Road. Their driver seemed to shudder when he heard the address, but he still conveyed them there.
Shortly after they set out, Elizabeth turned towards MrDarcy. “May I ask you something? You said that you have ‘forgot how to use your magic.’ Was there a time when you could do so?”
MrDarcy looked out of the carriage window, his brows creased. “I do not recall anything about magic. I was not even aware of its existence until yesterday morning. But somehow, everyone seems to believe I am one of the most powerful mages in Britain.”
“I have had a similar experience. It is as if the world has developed a history that we are an integral part of but has neglected to inform us of it.”
“I thought I might be going mad. In fact, I have not yet discounted the possibility.” He offered her a hint of a smile. “But if I am indeed Tom of Bedlam, I am glad that I have found my Mad Maudlin.”
Elizabeth thought about the song to which MrDarcy alluded. Would she walk ten thousand miles barefoot just to see MrDarcy? Of course not, but just as Tom of Bedlam and Mad Maudlin had naught but each other, she felt that MrDarcy might be her one constant in a world becoming increasingly topsy-turvy.
After hours in the carriage, they arrived in London. Darcy knew there were impoverished districts that should be avoided at all costs. Whitechapel was one of them. The address they sought turned out to be a dilapidated building that looked as if it might fall to the ground but for the other buildings it leant against. The moment Darcy and Miss Bennet alighted in front of Number 6 Half Moon Alley, they were confronted by a group of urchins.
“What ’ave we ’ere?” one of them called out.
