All Hallow's Eve (54 page)

Wickham began to pace at the clo
sest point he could come to her, staring at her all the while. Elizabeth failed to repress a shudder.

The
Olc
chuckled.
“Leave us, Oliver. I will call when you
r presence is required
.” As Oliver reached for the door handle, Wickham turned quickly toward him and growled, “Leave it open!”

Once they
could no longer hear Oliver’s footsteps
, Wickham said, “
Good news, my dear.
Darcy had the
ransom
with him
,
and Julian is meeting him now.
We shall soon be on our way.”

“You will set me free once you get the money?”

He shook his head.
“You and I
will leave here together.”

“I will go
no
where with you,
Olc
!”

Wickham pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and waved it at her. “Oh, yes
,
you will.
This is our marriage
licence
, my dear
.
W
e
shall be
wed
before tomorrow is through
.
You will be legally bound to me for all time
.”

Elizabeth gasped.
No wonder those from the Otherworld had us keep
our
marriage a secret!
“I
would
never
consent to it.”

“
Lizzy, you know me so little.
”
He shook his head
.
“
This
clergyman will swear that you did
, as will
the
two witnesses
.”

“
More p
eople whose dirty secrets you have
kept
, no doubt.”

He
chuckled
.
“
It seems that y
ou know me better than I thought
!
But
at times
there are
additional
methods utilized to
assure the
assistance
of others.
For example, you should
never
forget that I know where your family lives,
as well as Darcy
and his sister
,
my Lizzy
.
I
would
not hesitate to use
your
hope
of their
continued
well-being
to gain your cooperation with
all
that I have planned for you.
”

Elizabeth
glowered at him.

The
Olc
laughed heartily.

~%~

The group walked the remainder of the way
to the cottage
from the main road, where they
had
left Mrs. Bennet hidden
in some brush along
with
their horses and
the cart that they would later use to transport Wickham.
Looking up,
William shuddered, hoping that
the view
was not a sign of things to come
—t
he
cloud
-filled sky
had turned blood-red with the
rapidly
set
ting sun
.

A
fter walking a
while,
the group could hear
laugh
ter
just
b
efore the
y were
able to
see
candlelight through the windows
of the cottage
.
Richard led the others
deeper
into the woods a
s they approached and whispered last-minute instructions to Kitty and Lydia, “I want one of you in the front, there,” he pointed, “
near the corner of the house.
The other will take a post at
opposite corner in the back so that the entire house is being watched. Remember, if anyone but Wickham
tries to leave
,
just
let them go.
If the
Olc
tries to flee, call out for help and keep him busy.
He must be kept from escaping.”

Both girls nodded.

“Mr. Bennet and Bingley, take Jane and Mary
in
through the kitchen. Darcy, Reginald, and I will
enter through
the front
door
.” Mr. Bennet opened his mouth to speak, but Richard interrupted him, “Sir, I know that you
have said
we should fight in
group
s of five, but
with Elizabeth missing,
we do not have the
numbers.
If we five stay together, Jane and Mary would have to go in alone
—or
else we would leave the outside unobserved and Wickham might get away.
Which would you prefer?”

Mr. Bennet seemed unhappy, but
he
nodded.

“
Any questions?” He waited a moment and then
began
to move
toward the house
.

~%~

T
ime
had passed
slowly for Elizabeth.
T
he
Olc
was now much closer than
it
had been able to come
earlier
.
Oliver had closed the door behind him the last time he had been in the room,
but
Wickham seemed fine.

Elizabeth tried to convince herself this was fortunate
in terms of
their ultimate plan—she
must
be able to have the S
pirit pass through her once they were in the meadow
.
T
hat would be impossible if the herbs were still
working
.

Julian had returned a while ago, and Wickham had sent him, Oliver,
and
Allen to the front room to count the money.
Based on the smell of food cooking
,
she
surmised that
the other two men were in the kitchen.
Wickham had also told Julian to pass out bottles, one to each of the five men, saying it was in celebration of a job well done.

Twice now he had said that he was expecting to leave soon, and Elizabeth suspected
that he was counting on his men
becoming drunk enough to pass out so that he could take her away—along with the
ransom
, no doubt
—without any of them knowing about it until the morning.

His
design
would probably
have
succeeded
if
her friends
had
not ha
d
other plans.
Night had
already
fallen
. S
he hoped
they
wou
ld
come
soon.

~%~

The three men had counted the money
,
returned it to Wickham, and had already gone
through
many
of
the bottle
s
that they had been given to celebrate their success. Allen told a joke
,
and they were
all
laughing
loudly
when the sound of
the door creaking open
caused the
ir attention to shift
toward the door.

Time stood still for
a moment when the men saw three strangers
entering
the room.

Allen stood, drawing a pistol from his belt
in
the same moment.
Before he could pull the trigger, a dagger was thrown, Allen screamed
as it hit the hand holding the pistol
, and the gun skittered across the floor.
With his other hand, Allen grabbed the dagger off the floor and pointed it at Mr. Bennet.
Mr. Bennet moved toward him, his second dagger drawn.
The two men circled,
each
sizing
up
the other.

As
this was happening,
Oliver
dove onto the floor
toward
the gun
.
Bingley drew his sword
, and Oliver froze with his hand still a few inches away from the pistol
.
Oliver ba
cked away.
As he stood, he
grabb
ed
hold of a broom that was lean
ing against the wall behind him and held it up to defend himself from Bingley.

Julian had not moved from his seat other than to take another swig from his bottle
, and
he
met William’s eye
.
“
I ain’t gonna give ye no trouble.
F
irst room
down the ’all
. S
he
ain’t
alone.”

William nodded.
Knowing that Mr. Bennet and Bingley could well defend themselves, he
rushed
from
the room
;
h
is only thought
was
to find Elizabeth
.

As he passed, he glanced into the kitchen and saw that
the
re were two men
involved in
a
fistfight
with
Richard and Reginald
as the ladies tried to stay out of the way
.

Across the hall was the door
that Julian had indicated,
and
he
slipped inside, clos
ing
it behind him
.
The
only light
in the room was
from
a
small
fire burning in the hearth
and the moonlight filtering through
a tiny window on the wall opposite
from
where he stood
.

William hesitated
, standing
with his back
against the door for
a moment
in order to allow
his eyes to adjust
to the
decrease
in light
.
L
isten
ing
carefully for any sign that the
chamber
was occupied
,
he realized
that whil
st
standing so close to the door
,
it would be difficult to hear anything over the noise from the room
s
where the others fought
.
The air in this chamber was oppressive
;
th
e
rank
odor
of mildew
and
a smoky fire
made him wish to open the door once again, but
he had no wish to
alert
the others o
f
his
location
if they broke away from their
contests
.

A
cross the room, a match was
struck;
the glow illuminat
ed
Elizabeth’s face, wide-eyed
and
gagged
.
F
rom her posture
, William
could tell that she was bound to the chair
in which
she sa
t
.

The match moved to
a
candelabra on the table
before
her
,
igniting five candles
at a painfully slow pace
.
With the additional light, he could see that his
guess
had been correct;
the hand holding
the match
belonged to
Wickham.