All Hallow's Eve (48 page)

All t
oo soon
,
Hanna knocked
up
on the door,
inform
ing
Elizabeth
that her bath
water
was ready
. William
dismissed the maid and assisted her himself
, making certain that his addition to the plan was carried out to
the
fullest extent
.

After
they were
both
fully prepared for the day, t
he
plan called for his leaving Netherfield
,
but
he
made excuses to
delay his departure
several times
.

W
hen finally
he
did go, it was quite
an
emotional farewell
.
He held her shoulders between his hands,
frantically
searching her eyes for any sign of doubt
, or an inkling
that sh
e
hesitated about
go
ing
through with
what had been discussed
.
H
is look
seemed to be begging her to request
he
take her along to London
.

Elizabeth smoothed back the hair that had fallen onto his forehead and s
lightly sh
oo
k her head from side to side
.

William closed his eyes
. After a long minute, he nodded
and
leaned toward her, resting
his forehead
against
hers.
Releasing
a long,
trembl
ing
breath, he then pulled
away
to
gaze
upon
her, memorizing her every feature one more time.
“
I cannot live without you.
Come home to me
, Elizabeth,
” he
whispered
,
and then
he
turned and walked briskly toward
the door leading to his rooms.

With her eyes filling with tears, Elizabeth follow
ed
him as far as his own door to the corridor,
where he turned back t
o her for a brief embrace.
When he passed through the door, she
rus
hed to the window to observe hi
m
depart at breakneck speed a few moments later.

Not very many minutes
passed before
t
he other
young
gentlemen
came to her sitting room
to extend
their goodbyes
as they
prepared
to ride out
, further emptying the house of inhabitants to
advance
the
ir
scheme
.
Richard quickly repeated what they expected from her before taking his leave.

Elizabeth then
bid farewell to
her
sisters and parents
as quickly as
s
he could
—all
making
brave
attempt
s
a
t hold
ing
their emotions in check
.

When Elizabeth did not think she could
manage one moment more without breaking down in
to
a
tearful display, she left
the safety of
Netherfield
behind
her
, keeping in mind everything that they had planned.

Rushing
from the house,
she
had
hoped
to make it seem as if she
could not stay
cooped up
inside
for one moment longer, and as soon as she
had
seen
an
opportunity
to do so
,
she was sneaking out
for an excursion
.

Elizabeth’s
carriage
had set off
in the direction of the village
the moment the door was closed
.
Looking out the window
,
she felt that a
t the speed they were
now
travelling,
it would be doubtful if
they
c
ould make
it as far as they had planned before the
wheel
s
would give
out.
She braced herself in case they did.

William
is probably
ha
lfway to London by now
,
Elizabeth
thought
as her eyes settled on the seat across from her, where she expected William would be seated had he been travelling with her
.
She smiled as she turned her eyes toward the window.
No, he would be next to me, holding my hand.

G
uessing at
the amount that would be requested
,
William had gone to see his banker in London
so that he could be prepared
to deliver
the ransom
as soon as
he
receiv
ed
the
demand
from Wickham
.
Elizabeth’s
opinion was that
there was
another
reason
that
he
had taken
this journey
on
this
particular
morning—
he
knew that he
c
ould not
trust himself to be in the area
while
she was being
kidnapp
ed
.
Last night
as the
final preparatory
meeting came to a close
, he had
firmly
requested that no
one
tell him where the cottage was
until they were about to go there,
explaining
that
if he knew where she was,
he would
more than likely
go after
her
.

Elizabeth
wondered how many times he had stopped himself from turning back
this morning
.
However, she realized that w
orrying about William would
do
nobody any
good
and
forced herself
to think of something else.

She was glad that she had been able to avoid interacting with Caroline Bingley and the Hursts this morning. There could be no questions asked, and after what Hanna had told her, Elizabeth was certain that there would have been
many questions
had she come
across
the
superior sisters
.
Bingley knew he would not be able to get his sisters or brother to wear the protective herbs, so he ordered the maids to hide sachets all about the rooms
which
they frequented within the house.
Caroline’s ladies
’
maid mentioned to Hanna that Miss Bingley and her sister had not stopped complaining about the stench in the house since their arrival.
A clever girl, the maid
had
been able to learn
that originally
it had
been Elizabeth’s suggestion to have the staff and inhabitants of Netherfield wear the foul smelling herbs,
al
though she could not discover the reason for it
.

Elizabeth was well aware that the sisters would not hesitate to question her about the herbs if she was available for them to do so.
Normally, Elizabeth was not one to hide from any discussion, uncomfortable or not, but
today
she was in no way prepared to argue over something that was for their own good,
an
d
further,
she could not reveal the true purpose of
the foul smelling herbs
!
She did not have the mind
presently
to imagine an excuse that would satisfy them—she would need to save all of her resources for the events expected to occur later today.

As the carriage passed
the landmark she had been watching for, Elizabeth braced herself
further
for the “accident”
that she knew was about to happen
.
The carriage came around the turn
moving
too fast
, hit the rut
which
she knew had
recently
developed
in the road
,
and the axle broke
in such
a way that
would
not cause
the carriage
t
o toppl
e
over
—
all
perfectly
as
the men had expected
.
The driver “fell”
from his
seat
onto the ground in the way that Richard had taught him
,
and
he
began to moan as if
he were
injured.

Elizabeth had been thrown about inside of the carriage,
but
apart from a couple of
bumps
,
which
she expected would bruise quite nicely
before the
day
was done
, she was uninjured.
Climbing down from the carriage,
she began
favour
ing her right leg,
pretending she had
injur
ed
her ankle.

Elizabeth knew that John, b
eing
the Bennet’s driver,
was
quite accustomed to receiving
odd
orders without an
y
explanation
,
but
this
was a little more out of the ordinary
than was usual
even
for her family
, and she was unsure of how he would react when the time came.
Elizabeth
bent over the driver and spoke to him for several moments
,
relieved to find that he was playing his part and not truly injured.

Elizabeth hesitated
;
the
thought
uppermost in her mind
was
that
her next
action
should be
to begin
walking toward Netherfield in search of aid for her injured driver.
I
f she
followed this course,
there would be no turning back.
This very moment was truly the last chance to
call off the plan.

If she
w
ere
honest with herself, she had to admit to being apprehensive about having to face the unknown alone, but their plan to have her feign being
defence
less
was taking its toll upon her
.
If she w
as
this apprehensive about it now, h
ow would it affect her after several hours
of play acting
?
If she w
as
not careful, would she
become
the helpless victim that she portrayed?

H
er thoughts darted to the
secret compartment in the carriage
where the
re were
swords hidden
.
It went against he
r
nature
to simply allow herself to be kidnapped, even though she knew it was necessary
if they were to capture
Cher-nog
.
If she remained
here
, w
hen Wickham’s men descended upon her, she
felt confident that she
could easily
defeat
them
and escape
.
I
t was what she knew—what she had prepared for
all her life
!
She never dreamed that she would willingly walk into the hands of kidnappers,
especially
with one so
completely
evil leading the
gang,
without
know
ing
all that they had planned for her.