Chapter Eighteen #2
The window opened with a soft creak, and Jane leaned out slightly, her voice carrying quiet courtesy. “May I help you? Are you unwell?”
“Please,” Elizabeth whispered, and the word emerged raw with desperation she could not contain. “I must speak with you. Alone. It’s of the utmost importance.”
Jane’s eyebrows rose slightly, polite confusion deepening into something more cautious. “I am afraid I do not understand. Have we been introduced? I do not believe I know you.”
“Please, Jane,” Elizabeth said, and tears gathered in her eyes despite her efforts at control. “I beg you. Come outside. I’ll explain everything. But I need to speak with you alone. Please.”
The use of her Christian name made Jane stiffen visibly, her hand tightening on the window frame.
She glanced back into the parlour behind her, clearly searching for Charlotte or her husband, some adult who might explain this strange situation.
When she looked back at Elizabeth, her expression had shifted from to one of genuine alarm.
“How do you know my name?” Jane asked, her soft voice carrying an edge Elizabeth had rarely heard. “Who are you?”
“I cannot explain here,” Elizabeth managed, fighting against the sobs that threatened to overwhelm her.
“Please, Jane. I know how this appears. I know I sound completely mad. But I am begging you. Come outside and speak with me for just a few minutes. If you wish to leave after hearing what I have to say, I will not stop you. I will never trouble you again. But please, please give me this chance.”
Jane stood frozen in the open window, her lovely face reflecting internal struggle.
Elizabeth watched the emotions play across features she knew better than her own, watched Jane’s natural compassion war with proper caution about speaking privately with strange women who knew her name without introduction.
Jane’s teeth caught her lower lip, worrying at it in the unconscious gesture she always made when thinking hard about something difficult.
Her gaze dropped to Elizabeth’s borrowed hands, still gripping the windowsill with desperate strength.
Then moved to Elizabeth’s face, taking in the tears streaming down pale cheeks, the obvious exhaustion in the frail body, the genuine anguish in eyes that pleaded without words for understanding.
Elizabeth saw the moment Jane’s kind heart overruled her sensible caution, saw her sister’s expression soften with the compassion that made her beloved by everyone fortunate enough to know her.
“Very well,” Jane said quietly. “Give me a moment.”
She withdrew from the window, disappearing into the house’s interior.
Elizabeth remained where she was, clinging to the windowsill because her borrowed legs threatened to collapse if she released her grip.
Minutes passed, each one feeling eternal.
What if Jane changed her mind? What if she told Charlotte about the strange woman in the garden?
What if this chance slipped away before Elizabeth could seize it?
Jane emerged from the parsonage’s side door wearing her bonnet, its pale blue ribbons tied neatly beneath her chin.
Her expression remained wary despite her agreement to come outside, and she maintained a proper distance as she approached Elizabeth, her hands folded before her in a way that suggested both nervousness and determination.
“I can spare a few minutes,” Jane said, her voice carrying gentle firmness. “But I must return soon. Charlotte will worry if I am gone long.”
“Thank you,” Elizabeth whispered, releasing the windowsill finally and stumbling slightly as her legs took her full weight. “Thank you. I know a place we can speak privately. It is not far.”
She turned and began walking away from the parsonage, back toward Rosings’ grounds but angling toward the grove she had discovered during her wandering.
Her aching body protested each step, muscles trembling with exhaustion.
Behind her, she heard Jane’s light footsteps following at a careful distance.
“What is this about?” Jane asked, her tone still carrying that edge of caution. “And who are you? You must tell me that much at least.”
“Soon,” Elizabeth managed, focusing all her attention on placing one foot before the other without falling. “Just a few more minutes. We must be where no one can overhear.”
The grove appeared ahead, its circle of oak and hornbeam trees offering the privacy Elizabeth desperately needed.
She had found this spot weeks ago while exploring Rosings’ vast grounds, had thought of it immediately as somewhere conversations might be held without fear of listeners.
The trees grew close together here, their branches creating a canopy that filtered afternoon sunlight into dappled patterns.
The earth beneath was soft with years of fallen leaves, muffling footsteps and creating an atmosphere of natural seclusion.
Elizabeth stumbled into the grove’s shelter and immediately sank onto a fallen log, her legs finally refusing to support her weight any longer.
She sat there gasping, Anne’s damaged lungs working desperately to draw sufficient air.
Sweat dampened her hairline and the back of her neck despite the moderate temperature, and her hands shook visibly where they gripped the rough bark.
Jane followed more slowly, her posture stiff with uncertainty as she surveyed their surroundings.
She remained standing, maintaining distance between them, one hand resting on the trunk of a nearby oak as though ready to flee if circumstances required it.
The filtered sunlight caught in her fair hair and illuminated her face, making her look almost ethereal in the grove’s green shadows.
“Very well,” Jane said. “We are alone now. What is this about, and who are you?”
Elizabeth looked up at her sister, at Jane’s beloved face showing confusion and concern and that fundamental kindness that had never failed despite all the trials they had endured.
Her throat tightened with emotion so intense it felt like physical pain.
How could she possibly explain? How could she make Jane understand something that defied every law of nature and reason?
“What I’m about to tell you will sound completely mad,” Elizabeth began, her voice emerging rough with strain and desperation.
“But I need you to hear me out before you judge. Before you decide I am simply a lunatic who has escaped confinement. Will you do that? Will you listen to everything I have to say before making any decisions?”
Jane’s expression flickered with something that might have been alarm, but she nodded slowly. “I will listen. Though I confess you are frightening me somewhat.”
“Good,” Elizabeth said, and the word emerged with bitter humour despite everything. “You should be frightened. Because what I am about to tell you is more frightening than you can possibly imagine.”
She took a deep breath, Anne’s weak lungs protesting the effort, and forced herself to meet Jane’s eyes directly.
This was the moment. The revelation that would either save her or condemn her to dismissal as a madwoman.
Everything depended on Jane believing what came next, on her sister’s ability to see truth despite the impossibility of it.
“Your sister Elizabeth is an impostor,” Elizabeth said, and each word fell between them with the weight of accusation and confession combined.
Jane’s hands flew to her mouth, her eyes going wide with shock.
The colour drained from her face, leaving her almost as pale as Elizabeth’s borrowed complexion.
But beneath the shock, beneath the obvious horror at such a statement, Elizabeth saw something else.
A flicker in Jane’s expression. A glimmer of recognition or perhaps confirmation of something Jane had already suspected but not allowed herself to acknowledge.
That glimmer was belief. Fragile and uncertain, but there. Jane’s gasp of shock held not dismissal but the beginnings of terrible understanding.