Chapter 9 #3
“Designed?” she cried. “Are you still talking about the vase and the carriage? They were accidents!” How could someone as sensible as Darcy think these occurrences were connected, let alone deliberate?
Darcy scowled. “Someone who saw us kissing in the entrance hall threw that vase—”
“Or it was jostled as someone moved through the cluttered passage in the dark.”
“The carriage horse was struck on purpose to startle it and make you fall.”
“Or a stupid or drunk youth too caught up in the revelry did something thoughtless. Besides, who is aiming at me in such a foul way?”
“Julia Metcalfe has reason to loathe you.”
Elizabeth threw up her hands. “She was thirty feet away when the horse bolted! And it was someone in trousers. We all saw him whip the horse and run.”
“Well, now we know two guests at Woodcote are involved, do we not? Someone lured you in here from the door above, and the other shut this jib-door and blocked it.”
“Two people at Woodcote want me injured? It is more likely two housebreakers tricked me in here to rob the house blind whilst it is empty. You said yourself how rampant crime is during a race meeting.”
Darcy shook his head, ignoring her. “Perhaps Julia recruited a man to help her. She has the most interest in seeing you out of the way, since the only thing I am interested in at Epsom is you.”
She smiled at this, and tried with that smile to turn his thoughts to other things, but he was unwavering. Darcy completely ignored her affectionate look and moved past her to the window. She had to stand quickly to shuffle out of his way.
It was the same symmetrical, multi-paned sash window one would find in any home, each sash three lights wide by two lights high. Darcy tried to raise the lower sash, but it had been neglected, likely because it only illuminated a servants’ stair. The pulley appeared to be broken.
“There are six panes,” he mused. “I could break each one and kick out the grills. With enough clothes between us, we could tie a rope and I could lower you down.”
She glanced out the window, doubting it. “We are on the first floor, not the ground.” He started to argue, but she held up a hand. “And if you cut yourself on one of the many panes you would have to break? You could bleed to death whilst we are trapped in here.”
That seemed to reach through his desperate need to be doing something. He muttered another curse, exhaled noisily, and went back to lean against the jib-door. “I want you free from here, Elizabeth. Someone is out to harm you.”
“Are you suffering a complete alienation of your mind?” she cried. Darcy’s good sense and confidence were attractive qualities; this was madness. “A vase fell. A boy struck a horse. They have nothing to do with each other, let alone whomever trapped me in here.”
“I think Julia, along with a conspirator, trapped you when her previous machinations failed.”
“So she could spend the day with you? Darcy, you are a clever man, but your judgment is wanting. I do not fault her taste, but that is quite desperate.”
“Well, her taste is varied, but she still acts desperately.”
Elizabeth thought this a strange thing to say, and when she looked at Darcy to explain, he flushed.
“I was not going to say anything, but when I left you last night, I came to the library for a candle and a book in case anyone saw me and wondered what I was about. Mr Travers was here with a woman. I could not see her face, but she was tall with blonde hair.”
There was too much emphasis on “with a woman” to mistake what he had stumbled upon. “You are certain it was Julia?”
“No, and I did not linger.” He gave a repulsed little flinch.
The encounter must have been mortifying.
“I assumed it was Julia, given her overtures to me, but I am not confident enough to say so publicly. She is the only young blonde guest, but I do not know every female servant here, or he might have met a woman riding around the area. Not that I would expose Julia if I was certain. Their business is none of mine, but it makes me think Julia and Mr Travers could have worked together to trap you.”
“And you think he was persuaded to startle the horse? One of us would have recognised him.”
“Could you be sure?”
Elizabeth closed her eyes, trying to remember what she saw before she fell, and shook her head.
“He stormed off after losing the Derby, and no one saw him for the rest of the day. He might have gone to the carriages to see you knocked off on Julia’s demand.”
“But if she is secretly in love with Mr Travers, why not marry him? Why fixate on you?” An alarming thought came to mind. “She was not unwilling when you saw them?”
Darcy sat on the floor whilst giving her a disapproving glare. “Would I have left if I thought she was being assaulted? It was abundantly clear she was an equal partner.”
He was right, and Elizabeth rubbed her hands over her tired eyes. Nothing made sense. “Why would she pursue you so frantically, but then be with Mr Travers?”
“I don’t know,” he said wearily. “She was not interested in me six weeks ago when we dined at Rosings. She risks a great deal to offer herself to me with no promise of a proposal, let alone without a public engagement and signed settlement papers. To say nothing of the risk of her actually bedding Mr Travers. He has shown her absolutely no interest all week, no hint he would marry anyone, let alone her. And to add all this violent mischief? What is her goal?”
She still doubted there was any mischief aside from this trap with the jib-door.
Julia did not startle the horse, and it made no sense to throw the vase and do this trick if she was with Mr Travers?
Unless he did not want to marry her either?
Was Darcy more attractive to Julia because he was not interested?
What a foolish woman to pursue men who did not want her. Angry and jealous people were not wise.
But what if she was not just angry or jealous, but desperate?
“Fitzwilliam,” she said, “what if Julia is not merely determined to marry, but she has to marry, and soon?”
Wheels of thought spun in his eyes. “She unflinchingly offered herself to me twice, and if we know she was with Mr Travers, it is not impossible she could be pregnant by a previous partner. Perhaps whomever is the father could not be induced to marry her, but if she can persuade me or one of the other men here to marry her, then she is saved.”
“She might mean to seduce one of you and then claim the child is yours and hope you are more honourable than the last man. Either way, she cannot have much time.”
It was not impossible Julia expected a baby. She tired easily, laid abed in the morning, scarcely ate breakfast, and was sick to her stomach the entire ride to Woodcote. Did Lady Metcalfe know, or was she helping her daughter find a husband as any mother would?
Darcy stretched out his legs in the small space. His feet hit the staircase. “This is a great deal of speculation. We know nothing for certain. We ought not to say anything and damage her good name. As much as I dislike the woman, ruining her goes against my conscience.”
“We are also speculating that someone wants to harm me,” she said pointedly.
“We have not a whit of evidence aside from knowing two people lured us here, which is quite a different thing than anyone injuring me. This was deliberate, but the others were accidents. Is Mr Travers helping Julia secure you? Why? Did they know you were here with me? Are you saying all three incidents were done by the same people? There is no proof. We have no answers—”
“I know!” he interrupted. His impatient tone stung, and she drew back.
“I am sorry, dearest.” He held out a hand.
Elizabeth left the step and took it, settling in the tight space next to him.
He kissed her hand and said, “I have no answers, only suspicions that my future wife thinks me of defective judgment.”
“Not defective, just perhaps a little less rational than usual. I agree that someone played this cruel trick on me.” She stretched up to kiss his cheek. “Even if I doubt all the rest, I will stand by you. Although, I think you are far too suspicious.”
Rather than smile, he seemed more tense as they sat side by side. “I wish you were right, you know. But I cannot help but think wicked mischief is at play.”
“And you hate to sit here and do nothing. We can do nothing about it until either the servants or family return after the races. It must be noon, and the starting time for the elite race is…?”
“Three, so the family will not be home until five with all those carriages, although perhaps some servants will be back earlier. We can take turns calling for—”
“I am not yelling for five hours.”
“Very well. We will start taking turns at half three,” he insisted, with arms crossed.
Elizabeth blew out a breath. It would be a long afternoon if Darcy sat here in annoyed tension, angry that he could take no action and angry that he was powerless.
His understanding and temper answered all her wishes, but she would have to distract and enliven him if they spent the afternoon trapped behind this door.