"Of course," Elizabeth agreed, unable to keep the dryness entirely from her voice.
Anne continued, "But tell me, have you found the solution to your mystery?"
Elizabeth strolled idly about the room, so that she was forced to raise her voice to be heard by the woman who stood so still by the inlaid table. "I have my suspicions as to the identity of this person," she said, "but there is only one way for me to be certain."
“You really shouldn't delay. After all, an accident could happen at any time."
"Yes, I had intended to act tomorrow morning.” She simulated a shiver. "I hate to think of missing Lady Catherine's garden party—it was postponed because of rain, you know."
At the mention of the garden, Anne nodded decisively. "Very wise! But shouldn't you be staying close to home until this matter is solved?" Anne's tone of warm concern was almost convincing. "I hope you've taken precautions, so that your relatives know where you've gone. It would be so easy for you to just disappear."
"In broad daylight?" Elizabeth chuckled. "Just as an example, I'm sure any number of people saw me come in here."
Anne smiled warmly in return. "You shouldn't depend on strangers. I doubt any of my neighbors know who you are, and we have so many callers to the house. If someone chanced to see you, how likely is he to remember it? Particularly if no one traced you here at all and thought to ask neighbors."
Elizabeth frowned. "Perhaps I should have been more careful. But somehow all of this seems so unnecessarily dramatic."
"Surely Mr. Collins, at least, knows you're visiting me today?"
"Oh, no!" Elizabeth simpered. "I wanted to surprise him with what close friends we've become. In fact, I have to admit my visit here today was the result of an impulse. I sent that silly maid of mine home and walked over here. I hope I haven't been too informal?"
"Informal?" Anne smiled slowly. "No, I think it's delightful that you chose to drop by today. You were quite right in thinking we have a great deal to talk about. I really wish we could have become great friends, but—" she shook her head pityingly "I'm afraid I am getting married and will simply be too busy."
Elizabeth gave one last silly moue, hoping she wasn't overdoing. "You are engaged?"
"Oh, yes," Anne said softly. "Mr. Darcy will make a fine husband. Such a handsome man, my cousin. And, of course, there's Pemberley. I will finally be far away from my insufferable mother. And no one can stop me!" A flash of dislike showed briefly on her face before she continued, "Anne Darcy has a pleasant ring to it, don't you think?" She grinned at Elizabeth.
"That sounds remarkably like a threat," Elizabeth said calmly. Inwardly she exulted. Anne had slipped her neck within the snare, and it was being pulled snug with her unwitting cooperation.
"A threat? Oh, no, just a prediction. It's good to have a picture in mind of what one hopes to achieve, don't you think?" She was running a caressing hand back and forth along the inlaid surface of the library table, as if she imagined she was touching something, or someone, else.
Elizabeth walked slowly back toward her, moving closer to the door, which seemed itself to be listening to the strange dialogue.
"How," Elizabeth asked, a trifle sarcastically, "do you plan to bring this splendid ambition about?"
"Quite easily. You will simply disappear." Triumph was implicit in the young woman's easy stance and relaxed manner. She seemed to enjoy the discussion, as though she took pleasure in her imagined power.
"I'm not entirely helpless, you know," Elizabeth remarked. "As you've doubtless guessed, I lied about nobody knowing my whereabouts. I gave my maid strict instructions. She's my insurance."
Anne simply laughed. "And who will believe her? I will deny that you ever arrived, and express great concern. After all, you might have vanished at any time after parting from your maid. How will it be proved you ever walked in my door? I feel confident that I have more credibility than a servant. My mother would be outraged if any accusations were leveled at me."
Elizabeth studied her curiously. "I believe you're insane! All of the previous attempts on my life have been so carefully planned that you and I both know I could never prove your guilt. Why take such a risk now? You can't be certain about what your neighbors noticed, or, for that matter, whom I told about this visit."
"You're suggesting I give up?" She laughed again. "Is that what you hoped to accomplish by this visit? But you miscalculated. I am a gambler at heart, you see. I'm prepared to accept those risks you speak of to win the reward I seek."
She turned, almost casually, and opened the drawer of the lovely inlaid table. Her hand dipped into the open drawer and emerged holding a long-barreled dueling pistol, which she raised so that it was pointing directly at Elizabeth.
Perhaps because she had once before looked straight into the barrel of a gun, and yet emerged unscathed, Elizabeth felt remarkably cool. She raised her brows with slow disdain and said, "Which of your hirelings do you plan to call now? They haven't proved very adept thus far!"
"Most incompetent," Anne agreed. "I think we can find another way of handling it, don't you?"
Elizabeth's legs, and even her tongue, seemed suddenly to be paralyzed, as she realized that Anne did not intend to call a servant to do the dirty work; this time she was going to make certain, trusting no one to do what she could so easily accomplish herself. Although Anne had only one shot, Elizabeth stood not ten feet from her, and in these close quarters it would be nearly impossible for her to miss.
Elizabeth's plan had gone appallingly, horrifyingly awry. Darcy stood just outside the door, hearing every word, but unable to see the weapon being steadied in Anne's hand. Nothing had been said that would make him suspect that Elizabeth was in danger; they had never dreamed that Anne might be prepared to commit the murder herself. It was a measure of her desperation that she would shoot Elizabeth in her own drawing room, chancing the noise and the messy, telltale blood that would surely spread on the carpets and perhaps splatter the furniture.
Elizabeth hadn't even had the opportunity to think, to consider alternatives, when she saw Anne smile with soft venom. "Do you know," Anne remarked in a conversational tone, "I have come to dislike you very much." With that the gun lifted slightly and her slender finger began to tighten on the trigger.
In that shocking instant Elizabeth was freed from her paralysis. She screamed as she flung herself sideways, toward the refuge of the enormous velvet sofa. All seemed to be moving in slow motion, as she was aware of the door crashing open, Anne's eyes flicking that way, then returning to Elizabeth as she once again took careful aim and pulled the trigger. The sound was as though Zeus, in a burst of immortal rage, had loosed his thunder in the small room. Then Elizabeth was rolling behind the bulk of the sofa and had lost sight of Anne's demonic form.
Elizabeth lay gasping for breath. Had she been shot? The other time she had felt no pain, either. Before she could recover herself to make certain, Darcy had rounded the sofa and dropped to his knees beside her, urgently gathering her to him.
"Elizabeth!" he cried, in a tone that ached with desperation, fear that he had been too late. "Are you hurt? Did she hit you? Elizabeth, dear God, answer me!"
She was on her knees now, looking into the open terror that darkened Darcy's eyes and reassured her, finally and forever, what she meant to this man. With a sob she threw her arms about his neck and pressed herself against his strong body. His arms closed about her in a painful grip that yet comforted as nothing else could have done.
Other men had swarmed into the room on Darcy's heels and were struggling with Anne, who seemed, in the ultimate moment of failure, to have gone completely mad. She thrashed about with amazing strength, but wildly, as if unaware of the men trying to contain her. Her head was flung back, so that cords in her neck stood out, and she was screaming, a high-pitched, inhuman wail.
Elizabeth hid her face against Darcy's broad shoulder to shut out the sight, but nothing could shield her from the sound. The screams continued to rip at he
r ears as Anne was dragged into the hall and down the stairs.
When at length Darcy held Elizabeth a little away and said again, "Elizabeth, are you hurt?" she was able to answer with frail composure and not a little surprise, "No." She gave a shaky smile. "She missed, I think because you came so fast. She knew she had lost her gamble, and she pulled the trigger only from hate, not caring that she would be heard. She couldn't bear to think of me still possessing what she wanted so badly."
His hands on her shoulders tightened. "She is an evil woman," he said quietly.
"What will be done with her?" Elizabeth asked with a quiver in her voice. The echoes of the manic screams still sounded in her ears.
"You needn't concern yourself," he answered almost roughly. "She's gone now. You'll never see her again."
"I don't want..."
He understood what troubled her before she could put it in words. "If she recovers her reason enough to stand trial, I will ask that her life be spared," he said. "You will not have her death on your conscience." He stood then, with one lithe motion, and pulled Elizabeth to her feet as well.
Elizabeth glanced apprehensively toward the door, which stood ajar. All was silent again.
"Can we go?" she asked.
He shook his head. "Let's wait until we're certain they're gone. There's nothing to fear here, Elizabeth. Look around."
He was right. The drawer to the beautiful library table was closed; not even an echo of the gunshot or her screams remained; even Anne's scent had faded. The room had never been possessed by Anne, and no taste of evil lingered.
"It truly is over," Elizabeth said slowly. "I am safe now."
"Yes." His eyes searched hers. "Our trap succeeded, although I find I get no pleasure from it." His mouth twisted. "It took all my self-control to stand outside that door, my hand on the knob, and listen to her threaten you without entering! I wanted to strangle her, and I was afraid."
Elizabeth looked at him with surprise. "Did you guess she might try to kill me herself?"
"No!" he said vehemently. "How can you think it? I would never have allowed you to step into this house if I had imagined she was willing to go to such lengths. All I knew was that she wanted you dead, and you were alone with her, a closed door between us. And when you screamed."
Elizabeth touched his cheek in comfort. "It's all over," she said. "For us. But Lady Catherine!"
"Yes, my aunt may never recover from this," Darcy said firmly.
Elizabeth agreed.
There was a long, oddly peaceful silence, during which Elizabeth glanced about the room, remembered the last hour, and prepared to turn her back on it. Suddenly she gave a tiny, mischievous smile and turned back to Darcy.
"It's a pity..." she said thoughtfully.
"What is a pity?" he asked.
She smiled up at him with all the love in her heart. "Now we have no excuse to elope. You will have to ask Papa's permission, and it may be many weeks before I will become your wife. I must confess I am anxious."
"And so at last you admit it," he said with a smile. "I have known how anxious you were for my touch since the first time we kissed."
Before she could protest, he bent his head so that his lips met hers.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2019. All Rights Reserved.
This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This is a work of fiction. The characters, locations, and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
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