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It did not take long for Darcy to arrive. He barged in without knocking. She scarcely recognized him as he entered. His clothes were crumpled and disheveled, and he looked as if he had slept in them, if he had slept at all.
“Elizabeth! Oh, my dearest love.” He picked her up and showered her face and throat with kisses that were wet with tears. “I thought something terrible had happened.”
He crushed her to him. She gripped him tight, reveling in his scent and the solid, familiar feel of him, half laughing, half sobbing.
“I imagined the worst—” Darcy’s voice was raw with worry and pain.
“I am here, my love. I am back.”
“I was convinced the French mages had you.”
It was uncomfortably close to the truth, but not the way he thought. She owed him an explanation, but for now, she wanted to stay in his arms forever.
It was Darcy who finally stepped back and put a distance between them.
“So where were you? Please do not tell me you fell asleep in the stable or something ridiculous like that.”
“I am not so fond of horses that I would wish to spend the night with them.”
She laughed shakily. She wanted to make light of her disappearance, but he scowled.
“It is no laughing matter, Elizabeth.”
With a moan, he turned her face towards him and kissed her, deeply, ardently.
“Do not disappear like that ever again, Elizabeth.”
His fervent command reminded her that it had not been her choice to do so. The nightmarish moment when she had been drugged returned to her. The mawkish scent of the laudanum tincture. The rough hands holding her captive. The drowsiness that took over and controlled her magic. She had been completely at the mercy of Ramon de Riquer. He could have killed her, and she would never even have known it.
She began to tremble as the magnitude of what had happened sunk in. She drew back, out of his arms, away from him.
“The whole household has been turned inside out, searching for you.”
She knew that, as well as the conclusion they had reached, and it chilled her to the bone to remember what she had seen in the mirror. He was right. None of it was a laughing matter.
His gaze was intense, probing. She squirmed. There was no putting off the tale, even if she was uneasy about it.
“I will tell you everything, but please do not interrupt or ask me questions until I finish. And we need to set up Wards first. I do not want anyone overhearing us.”
Darcy was not going to like it. She did not want to talk about it, not ever, but she did not have that luxury.
She looked around for Jane, noticing her absence for the first time.
“Where is my sister?”
“She has gone to bring you some food, and I believe she wanted to give us a moment alone.”
He strode to the door. Jane had already returned, carrying a plateful for Elizabeth, who realized she had not eaten since last night. It seemed a very long time ago.
Jane entered and sat on the bed next to her, on the left. Darcy brought the chair and placed it at Elizabeth’s right. He waited for her to eat, then took up her hand and held it. She was grateful for its quiet strength as she related the story.
She muddled through it somehow. It was beginning to seem like a nightmare, unreal, improbable, even to her own ears.
When she finished, she leaned back against the wall and shut her eyes. She had nothing more to say.
“They should be tried for murder.”
She cracked open her eyes to find Darcy sitting with his arms across his chest. His face was hard and sculptured again, but she could sense the anger roiling inside him.
“I came to no harm, Darcy. Riquer is a gentleman.” More than that, he had helped her escape. He had saved her.
“Fortunately. What if he were not? What if he had taken this opportunity to destroy one of England’s greatest mages?”
Despite the situation, a warm sense of happiness fluttered like butterfly wings inside her. Had Darcy finally come to accept her and respect her as a mage?
“And you have no idea who it was?”
Jane had been sitting there quietly listening. She was distressed, but even under these circumstances, she remained serene.
“None at all. The mage who first attacked took me too much by surprise. It all happened so quickly.”
“Of course,” Jane put a soothing hand on her arm. “No one expects it of you. I was only thinking that, if you do not know who did this, you cannot tell the Council what happened.”
“I cannot tell the Council about it any way. The moment they know that de Riquer helped me escape, they will be after me again, shouting treason. They are like wolves, howling for blood.”
Darcy’s eyes were hooded, but there was no hiding the anger that was rolling off him in waves.
“By forcing you to lie and cover up what happened, they are forcing you also to conceal their perfidy. We should not have to skulk around trying to hide the truth. We should expose them to the light. But your sister is right. Whatever you say, you cannot reveal that you have spent the night with the French mage.”
“We could say that you were accidentally locked in somewhere overnight.”
Elizabeth smiled at Jane. Trust her to come up with a simple and elegant solution.
“It would have to be convincing.” Elizabeth could not begin to imagine why or how that could happen.
They all fell silent, contemplating the possibilities. The germ of an idea began to form inside her.
“We could ask Emily for assistance.”
“Tell her the truth?” Darcy looked doubtful. “Are you certain you can trust her? She was appointed by Lady Alice, after all.”
Elizabeth considered this.
“Who else would I trust?” She was feeling the net tightening around her. “The only other option I can think of is the one you mentioned earlier. I fell asleep in the stables. Except that I am sure it would be difficult for that to happen without anyone noticing me. Without Emily’s help, I am not sure I can come up with a believable excuse. I know very little about the workings of servants in this kind of establishment. I do not know who would have the keys, or what kind of cupboard might fit me. Think how foolish it would be if I came up with a story about a cupboard which did not even have a lock.”
Darcy laughed. The sculptured look disappeared, and he was once again the man she had fallen in love with.
“It would not be that funny.” Elizabeth quirked her eyebrow at him.
“You made me remember my aunt Catherine. You had the misfortune of meeting her. She could have told you the exact content of every cupboard, not only in her home, Rosings Park, but in every house in the neighborhood.”
She looked at him in puzzlement.
“Never mind,” he said dismissively. “One day you will discover what I mean. Let us just say she likes to interfere in other people’s business. If she were here, she would have given you an answer immediately.”
He was struck by an idea. “Come to think of it, my uncle is much the same. Perhaps he can come up with a solution. What do you think, Elizabeth? Would you trust my uncle with this, or would you prefer not to tell him?”
“I do not trust anyone at this point, but I do not suppose we can keep this information from him. He has the right to know what is going on. If he is one of the people working against me, then heaven help me. I stand no chance at all.”
“Let us hope not.”
In the end, it was Darcy who came up with a solution after all.
“We may need to consult with Matlock, but I believe I have a solution. Remember the old conservatory, the one we went to when we first arrived?”
Elizabeth’s eyes brightened up. “Of course!”
“This may involve a little subterfuge, but it is workable. I can ask for Evan’s help. He is good at fixing things. In this case, he will be doing the opposite. I will arrange for the handle to be broken from the inside. That way, you will be stuck there until we find you.”
“I am not sure I like the idea of being trapped again.”
“I know, my sweet, but you will have to endure it.”
She nodded.
“Are you certain no one searched the conservatory?”
“It looks so old and neglected, no one thought of it. I am ashamed to say that I did not think of it, either.”
She turned the idea over in her mind. It was plausible. “What do you think, Jane? Will it work?”
“I have not been there. My first question would be, if nobody ever goes there, why would you have done so?”
“Elizabeth could explain it by saying you wanted to be alone after quarrelling with me. Or she could say that she wanted to salvage the plants.”
“It makes sense to me,” said Jane, “but I am not a good judge of these things.”
Elizabeth nodded. “I like it, but I prefer the second excuse. If we decide to do this, our biggest difficulty will be how to get there without being seen.”
“We could ask Riquer to transport you there.”
Darcy laughed at the idea, but Elizabeth took it seriously.
“We would still face the same problem. I would need to get down to the cellar without being seen. I suspect they have posted someone there now. But I suppose I could try and use the same form of magic.”
Both Darcy and Jane reacted with horror at the same time. “No!!”
“Lizzy, you must not even think of it.” Jane looked distressed.
“You will do no such thing, Elizabeth,” said Darcy firmly. “Ramon de Riquer is an experienced mage who has probably practiced this spell all his life. You have never done it. It is out of the question. I forbid it.”
“Darcy, you ought to know by now that any time you forbid me to do something, I will take it as a challenge.”
He started to protest, but she just smiled. “You need not worry. In this case I agree with you. The journey through the mirror was unpleasant, and I would not wish to do it on my own. Not without carefully testing it, at least.”
She sighed. “If only I was an Elemental. I would create a wind and blow myself out of the window.”
Darcy grinned. “You are not an Elemental, but I know someone who is. My uncle. We have come full circle. We are obliged to ask for his assistance.”