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“You feared he would die of septicemia.”
“Yes,” I answered, wondering why she was speaking of this.
“And what happened after that?”
“I went downstairs with Hartley and when I came back up, Richard was well.”
“Do you know what caused the change in him?”
Suddenly, I was filled with suspicion. Is this what she and Richard had been talking about last night? Did she think my cousin was mad? Was that why she was so nervous to speak to me of it?
“What did Richard tell you?” I asked.
“The colonel said he saw an angel,” she said carefully.
I sighed and dropped my head. Damn Richard! He could not keep his mouth closed! “He had been delusional. When I entered the room, he thought I was my father! He did not know what he was saying.”
She reached out and grabbed my arm, instantly calming me.
“I am not reproaching your cousin, nor do I think he is mad. Have no concerns on that score.”
I exhaled in relief. “Anyway, it could not have been an angel. Besides that that is utterly ridiculous, one of the maids said she saw a woman she did not know in his room.” I shook my head in frustration. “Unfortunately, she could not identify her if she saw her again.”
She let out a tremulous breath, then said, “You should not be upset with Daisy. She only did as she was told.”
“How did you know it was Daisy?”
She looked at me with an expression I could not name, but I knew she was in a great deal of distress. I took up her hands in mine and pressed them to my chest. “What is it, Elizabeth?”
She swallowed. “It was not an angel in your cousin’s room that day. It was me.”
I looked at her in confusion. “What are you talking about?”
She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. “I am the one who healed your cousin.”
I stared at her, not believing what I was hearing. My arms slackened and I dropped her hands, unable to hold them up. “You what?”
“I have the power to heal. It is a gift.”
“Is this some sort of sick joke? Do you think this is funny?”
Her eyes widened and she sat up straighter. “No! Not at all! I am telling you the truth. I know it is hard to believe, but it is true.”
I narrowed my eyes at her, wondering what she was playing at. People did not have the ability to heal other people. This was ludicrous nonsense!
“I do not know what you think you are doing, Miss Bennet, but I am not amused.”
Her expression fell before my eyes and I felt like a brute for hurting her so, but I could not stand by and listen to malicious drivel.
“I should go,” she said, her voice strangled. She sprang up from the bench and nearly ran back to the house.
I sat on the cold stone bench for another minute in the quiet before I realized I was once again being an idiot and I should go after her. She might be a little bit silly and perhaps even delusional, but I should have been kinder about it. And what did it really hurt if she thought she was gifted in some way? I was simultaneously angry at myself for hurting her and for even considering entertaining this nonsense, and the rational part of my mind wondered why I was chasing after a woman fit for Bedlam at all.
I raced to the back of the house and stopped when I stepped onto the terrace and found Richard holding Elizabeth as she sobbed in his arms. My entire body tensed at seeing her in the arms of another man, and my heart ached with her sobs, guilt flooding me that I had caused them.
“What are you doing, Richard?”
“I think the better question is what areyoudoing, Darcy?”
