Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Georgie Porgy Kissed the Tree
“Keep Wickham bound, do not let him go,” Darcy swiftly directed Elizabeth.
“The magistrate will be interested in his involvement in the kidnapping of Robbie. I think he will take a very dim view of such actions, and Wickham can face the consequences of his crime,” Darcy said as he glowered at Wickham.
“Darcy, you would not let any harm come to me. You know I did not plan this. You can tell them I was forced to help,” Wickham pleaded.
Darcy laughed. He knew better. Wickham did what he thought would earn him money or power.
Wickham’s next words were a threat. “I could reveal Georgiana’s agreement to an elopement. You would not wish your sister so exposed.”
This time Lizzy laughed. The man’s threat made her momentarily forget what she had just done to the eliminator.
“I do not think anyone will believe the stories of man who kidnapped my brother. Since Mr. de Bourgh is no longer around, you cannot claim he was the kidnapper. No, Mr. Wickham. No one will believe anything you say, and especially after Robbie tells them that you were the one who grabbed him and carried him off.” Lizzy gave the cowering man a slight off kilter smile.
Suddenly another thought came to Lizzy. What if one could weave a spell whereby a human being could become a part of nature.
As it was, she knew Wickham would most likely hang for he had kidnapped a member of the gentry.
He had also threatened to kill her brother, not only the heir to her father’s estate but a child.
Juries, if he stood in front of one, would not look kindly on his actions even if he begged for mercy or claimed some else made him commit the act.
‘Hang or become part of nature,’ Lizzy thought. ‘Which would the man prefer? How would one go about using power to create such a situation?’ she then wondered.
As her mind began to envision what it might take to create such weaving power, she lost sight of everything around her.
She saw nor heard anything, and she did not realize how long she had been disconnected to the world around her.
What brought her back was a hand on her shoulder giving it a gentle shake.
“Miss Elizabeth, what are you doing?” A disembodied voice reached out to her conscious mind.
Lizzy turned and looked at the hand, then the person it was attached to, and realized Mr. Darcy was speaking to her.
“Do you see what is happening?” Darcy asked as he removed his hand from her shoulder.
Lizzy then looked around, first seeing the startled look on her brother’s face before focusing on the shocked and questioning look of Mr. Darcy.
Allowing her eyes to wonder around the area more, she finally saw Mr. Wickham up against a large English Oak tree.
The tree dwarfed Mr. Wickham. Its diameter was over five feet, but there was something odd about how the man looked.
“How are you doing that?” Darcy asked.
Looking closer, Lizzy noticed Mr. Wickham was not only standing with his back to the tree, but his arms were still bound to his side by the tree’s branches.
In addition, he seemed to have something growing on his face.
Taking a step closer, she realized the man’s face had the look of bark in places.
“No,” Lizzy whispered. ‘Could I really have done this? I envisioned him becoming part of the tree, being weaved into, but how could it happen?’
“Miss Elizabeth,” Darcy’s voice filter through her hearing again.
“Mr. Darcy, I did not realize this was possible. I only wondered if one could weave a human being into a part of nature. My mind began to envision what it might look like. I honestly did not mean for this to happen, nor did I realize I was emitting any power,” she explained.
“Can you undo it?”
“I am not sure,” Lizzy replied honestly to his inquiry.
“Mr. Wickham seems to have two choices now. One, I can try to finish what I started and make him a part of the tree, or I can try to stop the power from finishing the task, and he can stand trial for his actions. Should he stand trial, I foresee him being hanged. Becoming one with the tree allows him to live but as the tree.”
“Maybe we should ask him which he would prefer,” Darcy advised, but he could not refrain from smiling. The thought of Wickham as a tree rather pleased him. It would mean Wickham would stand in one place for an extremely long time and be forced to watch the world move on without him.
“Yes, maybe we should,” Lizzy replied as she looked up into Mr. Darcy’s eyes. ‘Is he laughing?’ she wondered.
“Come,” Darcy motioned with his hand toward the spot where Wickham was bound to the tree.
When Lizzy reached the man, she explained what had started to occur between him and the tree. She then offered him the two choices and asked which he preferred.
“I think I would rather be the tree,” Wickham finally replied.
Darcy chuckled, “I find that rather poetic. I never knew you had it in you, Wickham.”
Wickham laughed as well. “Better a tree Darcy, than to be hung by the neck. Besides, now Georgianna will be forever safe from me.”
As the tree formed around the man, Robbie finally said, “I like him better as a tree,” and Wickham laughed as he faded out of sight leaving only the vision of the tree but now a little thicker around its base.
“I always liked this tree,” Lizzy stated, “but I always wondered why it was separated from all the other trees around the other edges of the glade.”
“Maybe nature knew it would be needed one day,” Darcy observed.
“Nature knew,” Butterbell stated, and Rowan nodded in agreement.
A large cheer caused Lizzy to look around the glade and notice the large number of brownies present.
As if sensing her question, Darcy replied, “They started showing up soon after you walked into the glade. At first, it was just one or two, but then I noticed many others coming out of the trees.”
“They wanted to see,” declared Rowan.
“It be good thing to be warded,” Butterbell added.
Another brownie, Lizzy knew not his name but knew he was from Haye-Park, had come close to her and said, “We wanted to see. We knew he here. We knew he took brother.”
Lizzy began to laugh. It all seemed more than she expected, but she also, suddenly, felt light inside.
“We never need fear again,” Mapleleaf, from Netherfield, declared, causing another cheer to ripple around the glade.