Chapter Thirty-Two
I tried to remember what I’d been taught in my writing course, but none of it was any help.
It was all very well, knowing about the three-act structure and the apparent evils of adverbs, but there had never been a class on “Life-writing In Order Not To Die.” And so, as the last revelers left the ball and Netherfield Park settled down for the night, I sat at the dressing table, exhausted yet jittery with adrenaline, Crispin’s words running through my head.
This is sweet, babe, but you’re not there yet… What are you trying to say?
Zoe’s a good little writer, but the difference between being a writer and an author comes down to commitment…
You just have to want it badly enough and be willing to put in the work, and not everyone can do that…
By the time the sun rose, I had a banging headache and maybe two hundred words on the page.
I crept downstairs to make myself a pot of tea—how I wished they had Starbucks and Deliveroo in Regency England—and then returned to my room to carry on.
The hours ticked by, and yet by ten, I still only had a couple of paragraphs of clunky prose.
This was a complete waste of time; we’d be better off reading ourselves into Bingley’s copy of The Odyssey and taking our chances against Cyclops than relying on my writing to save us.
At around eleven, there was a knock on the door and Maggie slipped into the room.
“I brought you some food,” she said, placing a plate of bread and ham in front of me. “I was going to bring cheese, but Nick said you didn’t like it.”
A smile involuntarily twitched my lips at the fact he’d remembered.
“How’s it going?” she asked me.
“Yeah, not great. I don’t suppose you’ve got any good news?”
“Afraid not. Something really strange is going on this morning; since sunrise, everything has gone a bit soft and faded. Look.”
Maggie indicated around the room, and I saw she was right: The four-poster bed looked slightly fuzzy, as if I were looking at it through a smeared lens.
“What’s happening?” I asked.
“I don’t know, but I’m terrified that the story is starting to fade. And that’s not all,” Maggie said. “I went to Longbourn this morning, and Mr. Collins has already proposed to Elizabeth, and she told him she’ll think about it.”
“What?” I looked at Maggie in horror. “She can’t do that; she’s supposed to reject him outright!”
“At least she hasn’t accepted yet, because if she does, then that’s the end of her and Darcy. But we can’t hang around for Lizzie’s decision. I think you need to read us out of here now, before the shit hits the fan and we disappear completely.”
“What do you mean I have to read us out? You’re going to do it, aren’t you?”
Maggie frowned. “Nick and I have been talking about this, and I think it has to be you.”
“What?!”
“You’ve seen me, Zoe: I don’t even feel a twinge of magic when I try to read us out of here. I’ve been away from our world so long that I think the powers I had have completely disappeared, whereas we know yours work.”
“We don’t know that at all!” I said. “Maybe I have no powers and I only read Darcy in and out because it was your book?”
“No, I believe Nick’s theory’s right: Somehow you’ve gained the ability, so I think you’re our best chance. Besides, it’s more likely to work if you read the words you’ve written because you’ll be able to visualize them better.”
“But I have no idea what I’m doing!” I whimpered. “I’ve only done it twice before—the first time completely by accident, and the second when it went wrong and I ended up here. You said yourself I was too inexperienced.”
“I’m sorry to put all the responsibility on your shoulders, but I think you’re the only person who can get us out of here, and we have to do it soon. Nick’s waiting for us down by the woods now.”
My chest tightened with anxiety, and I took a deep breath. “Say I do manage to read us all home—do you think that will be enough to save Pride and Prejudice?”
“Honestly, I don’t know,” Maggie said. “I’d love to say that would fix things here, but I worry that too much damage has been done already.
Darcy is so preoccupied with his memories from our world that Elizabeth is the last person in his thoughts.
And while he’s wandering around the stables mumbling about Tube trains and TV shows, the other characters have gone awry, and the world of Pride and Prejudice is literally starting to disappear. ”
“So you’re basically saying the book is screwed, whatever happens?”
“It breaks my heart, but yes, I think it is.”
I leaned back in my chair and rubbed my face, exhaustion fogging my brain. If Maggie was right, then one of the greatest works of literature was about to vanish forever. Could I really let that happen? I’d made this mess, so surely there had to be a way for me to fix it…
And then it hit me. I knew what the solution was, because it was the same thing I should have done the very first moment Darcy turned up at Cake Expectations.
“I think I know how to save Pride and Prejudice,” I said, jumping up from my chair. “I have to tell Darcy the truth.”
“We don’t have time for that; we need to get out of here.”
“But if I tell him about his time in London, then maybe he’ll stop obsessing about it and turn his attention back to Elizabeth. If he can understand what happened, it might be enough to get the plot back on track and stop everything falling apart.”
“But it might make things even worse, and then this whole story could fade completely before we’ve had a chance to escape.”
“I have to try,” I said. “My mum loved this novel so much, and I know if she were here, she’d tell me it’s too important to just give up on. Please, let me talk to Darcy, and then I’ll come back and try to read the three of us out of here.”
Maggie stared at me, her face twisted with concern.
Then she nodded. “OK. You go and talk to him, and Nick and I will go back to Longbourn and see if we can cause a diversion to hold Elizabeth off from accepting Mr. Collins’s proposal.
Let’s meet back here at two o’clock. But please be careful, Zoe.
This story could go up in flames at any moment; don’t be the one to strike the match. ”
I hurried out of the bedroom and downstairs.
The house was quiet, still sleeping off its hangover from the night before, and I managed to get outside without seeing anyone.
Maggie had said Darcy was at the stables, and as I made my way down there, I saw the sky was a muted gray color and the grass under my feet looked unnaturally pale, as if some of the color had been washed out of it. I picked up my pace to a run.
When I got to the stables, I found Darcy wearing his riding clothes and standing by one of the stalls, stroking the nose of a beautiful black horse. He didn’t notice me as I approached.
“Mr. Darcy?”
He started at his name and turned to look at me, and I saw confusion in his eyes as he took in the jeans and T-shirt I’d changed into late last night.
He ducked his head in a bow. “Miss Knight.”
“Darcy, I’m sorry about running off at the ball.”
“I am the one who should be apologizing. I should not have accosted you and been so forceful with my questioning.”
“No, it’s OK. You’re confused about these memories you keep having, and you want answers. I get it.”
He frowned. “I have been certain I am going quite mad, for the most peculiar thoughts have plagued me since your arrival. Last night, at the ball, I found myself looking at a lady in a dress and thinking that it was not nearly so fine as anything RuPaul’s Queens would wear.
Yet I do not for the life of me know who RuPaul is, and the only queen I can name is Queen Charlotte. ”
He looked so worried that I stepped forward and placed my hand on his arm.
“I owe you an explanation, Darcy.” He jerked at the physical contact, and I pulled my hand back. “A few weeks ago, you traveled to the year 2026. We met there and you stayed with me in my apartment.”
His frown deepened. “Time travel? But how?”
“I sort of summoned you there by accident. You spent ten days in London, which is what you keep having memories about. You’re not going mad: Those are real things you saw and experienced.”
“So traveling in a subterranean monster is not a fevered nightmare?”
“No, that’s an underground train, and you really did ride one.”
“The Queens?”
“A form of entertainment you enjoyed watching.”
He paused. “I have feelings of affectionate regard for a small, profane woman from the Levant, but I fear she cannot be real?”
I smiled. “That’s Mrs. Atallah, and yes, she’s very real. She’s my landlady, and the two of you became close.”
He smiled, too, and then grew serious again, looking almost nervous. “And you, Miss Knight? I recall feelings of the most passionate admiration for you too. Did we become close to each other in your world?”
I swallowed. “We did, Darcy, although I wasn’t honest with you and lost your trust. We didn’t part on the best of terms.”
Darcy shook his head and I heard him sigh. “I must admit to some relief, for I had truly thought I was losing my mind.”
“No, you’re not, and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I made the same mistake in 2026 by not telling you the truth about your situation at the start, and it caused huge problems. And yet I’ve done the same thing here.”
“Well, I am grateful for you being truthful with me now, Miss Knight. Although I do not fully understand what has happened, at least I am returned to my home and no harm has been done.”
“But there has been, I’m afraid,” I said. “I’m not meant to be here in your world, Darcy, and my being here has caused all sorts of problems. Last night, at the ball, you should have danced with Elizabeth Bennet, but you talked to me instead.”
Darcy scowled. “Miss Bennet did not wish to dance with me. In fact, she has already rejected invitations I made to her on two prior occasions.”
“I know, but this time it would have been different.”
“How are you cognizant of such a fact?”
I swallowed. It was clear that although Darcy remembered a few things from his time in my world, there was lots he didn’t remember, including the fact that he was a fictional character.
And something told me that as much as I’d vowed to be completely honest with him, knowing his entire existence was created by a woman named Jane Austen might be the spark that started the fire Maggie had warned me about.
So I had to find a way of explaining the situation to Darcy without lying to him outright, but also without causing him so much distress that he’d become completely distracted again.
“Do you remember the night at the Assembly Rooms when Bingley suggested that you dance with Elizabeth, and you said she was tolerable but not handsome enough to tempt you?”
Darcy’s face went pale. “How do you know that? Did you overhear our conversation?”
“No, but someone else did and they told me what you’d said. And they weren’t the only person who overheard you; Elizabeth did too.”
I watched as Darcy’s cheeks went from pale to bright red. “Dear Lord, say it is not so!”
“I’m afraid it is. And that’s why she’s been so funny with you ever since: You hurt her pride.”
“I am mortified that she should have been so insulted by my words, for even as I said them, I never meant them in earnest,” Darcy said, turning and starting to pace across the cobblestones.
“And yet, since then I have made overtures toward her, attempting to engage her in conversation, and she has rebuffed my efforts each time.”
“Darcy, you might not remember this, but you once told me that you’re not someone who can easily forgive when you’ve been wronged. I think Elizabeth might be similar to you in that respect, although she would never admit it.”
“Then you are saying that all chance of Miss Bennet and I becoming acquaintances is lost?”
“No, that’s not—”
“Perhaps that is for the best,” he interrupted. “While I admit that she is an elegant young lady with a lively mind, there is much about her that displeases me: Her relations are quite vulgar, and her connections inferior. Indeed, I believe this might be for the—”
“Darcy, stop!” I said, and he ground to a halt in front of me.
“You haven’t lost your chance with Miss Bennet, I assure you.
But if you are to have any chance of altering her first impression of you, then you need to stop being so distracted by what happened with me in London and start focusing on your life here instead. ”
I saw him consider this for a moment. “Are you suggesting that I go and speak to Miss Bennet presently?”
“No, I don’t think that’s a good idea. In fact, I think the best thing you can do is leave her alone and take Bingley to London. Did you notice how much attention he was paying Kitty Bennet last night?”
Darcy looked at me, aghast. “Bingley and that silly Bennet girl? But that would be most grievous.”
“Yes, that’s why I think you need to get him away from her and back to London.”
“Indeed, there is no time to lose. I must make plans for us to depart at once. Good day, Miss Knight,” Darcy said, and before I knew it, he’d turned and was storming across the stable yard toward the house.
“Darcy!”
I saw him pause and look back at me.
“Whatever happens in the next few months, don’t give up on Elizabeth, OK? She’s worth fighting for, even if it seems impossible.”
Darcy gave me the briefest nod of a bow, and then, for what I hoped would be the last time ever, I watched my book boyfriend stride away.