All Hallow's Eve (49 page)

Panic began to rise within her—William had not voiced all of his fears for her, but being married now, she fully understood what he had been thinking
.
Would she be able to fight so many of them off without any weapons?
P
erhaps
if her group turned their minds to the task
once more
,
t
hey
would
be able to find another way
to
captur
e
the
Olc
after all
. L
ater.

But
we
will never have an
other
opportunity
such
as this!

All that William had said at the end of his speech the previous evening
came back to her
.

I must
do this
! I
am High
Priestess
of
Sanun
,
and
I will not back down from what I know is best
for all
, no matter my personal feelings
!
Cher-nog
does not want me to be harmed;
i
t has to
keep
me well in order to further
it
s scheme.

John’s voice woke her from her
trance
-like state
. “Miss Elizabeth?”

S
tartled,
Elizabeth
blinked her eyes several times before responding
.
“Yes, John?”

“Whatever is
to happen
, ma’am, I
want to
assure
you that
all will be well—
I
can
feel
it
deep in
my bones
.
I wish you luck, just the same.
”

Elizabeth took a deep, calming breath
,
straightened her spine
, and
reached out
,
g
iving
his hand a squeeze.
“Thank you, John. I needed to hear that
just now
.
Be well
.” Elizabeth stood and began to
“
limp
”
away
down the road
in the direction
from which
they had come
, with barely a glance at the carriage as she passed it.

It was not long before two horses galloped around
a turn and
pulled up
sharply on their reins
when they caught sight of her
in their way
.
One of the men cussed loudly as his horse reared
, but he was
able to regain control of the B
east
.

Elizabeth
felt her
heart stop for a moment, but then she steeled herself to her purpose.
K
n
o
w
ing
these
must
be Wickham’s men, she
play
ed
her part.
“Sirs, can you help me
, please
?
My carriage has been
disabled
in an accident just down the road and my driver has suffered a serious injury.
I have turned my ankle and can barely walk
.
I
t would save a great deal of time if you could ride to the next house and ask for help
.”

O
liver
smiled widely, whilst
Julian
seemed a bit
confused
.
Oliver
spoke, “Well
there
, missy, we’d be ’appy ta ’elp, wouldn’t we?” He looked at his companion, who was still staring at Elizabeth,
and
then turned back to her.
“Why don’t ye climb up ’ere with me
,
and we’ll take ye with us?
Wouldn’t be right leavin’ ye here all by your lonesome, ye bein’ ’urt and all.”

“OH
, n
o
!
I could not ride with you, sir.
If you would please just
make your way down the lane
to
the next house
—you must have passed it
;
Netherfield
is about a mile
back that way
,
” she
instructed as she
pointed up the road
.
“
If you would
tell
my friends of the
predicament I find myself in, that would be very much appreciated.
I will return to the carriage to assist the driver
.
”

“
I said ye comin’ with us
!” Oliver
demanded
.

“
Sir,
I will
not
ride on the same horse as you
.
If you insist on taking me with you, why do you not help me up onto one of your horses and I will ride alone?
”

Oliver
laughed.
“
T
’ain’t no way I’m lettin’ y
e
up on a ’orse alone, missy.” H
e pulled a pistol out of his coat and pointed it at her.
“Ye
will
come with us!”

Elizabeth stood wide eyed.
She did not believe th
is
man would shoot her on purpose—after all he was expecting a ransom to be paid on her life—but she could see that his pistol was not very well maintained and feared that it might go off unexpectedly.
Still, she
would not give in.

S
uddenly
she
realiz
ed
that
pretending to be completely helpless as Richard had suggested would not truly be within her power
.
Th
ey would see that she was acting and would suspect something
, for certain
.
T
he only way this would work was if she retained at least part of her true
character
.
Elizabeth crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the man who had been speaking
.
“No, thank you; I will walk. Excuse me, gentlemen.” She hobbled around
Julian
’s horse and began to limp her way toward Netherfield.

“I won’t say it again, lady
!”
Oliver
said forcefully
.
A
s he pulled his horse up next to her
, he reached down and hooked his
arm
around
her, pulling her up i
nto the saddle with him
.
Elizabeth squirmed quite a bit, but
then became conscious of the fact that the only way
to preve
nt him from touching her would be if
she sat herself in the saddle as best she could.

“Sit still or we both are gonna break our necks fallin’ from th
is
’orse.” Elizabeth turned her head toward him and raised both her eyebrows.
Oliver snorted and continued,
“
Y
e’d like
it if I did
, eh?
Well, it ain’t happenin’! If I
fall, so do ye
.”

H
e kicked the horse
,
and they began to move again.
Julian dropped back a few feet so that he could keep an eye on them both.
Oliver’s
arms were wrapped around her
so he could
hold the reins
and
prevent
her from jumping off
, but for now he was not
making any
unnecessary
contact with her person
. She held herself rigid and leaned forward, trying not to touch the man, but it was impossible
to do so completely
. Elizabeth could only hope that
this would be the worst
she would
have to
endure
before the others came to
rescue
her.

“I do not understand
what is happening.
Why
were
you pointing a gun at me
,
and
why are you
forcing me to come along when all I asked you to do is ride to the next house?”

“We figure your man’ll pay to get ye back.”

“Pay?
You mean that you expect
payment
for your assistance
to me once
we arrive at Netherfield?”

“We ain’t goin’ to Netherfield, missy.”
Oliver coughed several times whil
st
they rode.
“Blimey!” He coughed
again
, “What’s that
stench
?”

Elizabeth almost smiled, but
she
caught herself.
“
What do you mean
by saying that
we are not going to Netherfield?”

Oliver sighed.
“I told ye, we’re takin’ ye with us.
By t
he looks o’ your man
’s
coat
and
riggin’s
, we’ll get a nice penny for ye, too.”

“You are
kidnapping
me?
” Elizabeth feigned surprise very nicely.

“Yes’m
.”

All was quiet for a minute before Elizabeth felt she should address a niggling concern.
“You do know that i
f you want a ransom from Mr. Darcy, you had better not harm me in any way!
And you had better hope
that
he
never
find
s
out that I rode on the same horse as you, either.”

“What
ye mean?”

“I
mean
that Mr. Darcy is very particular.
If he
suspects that
you touched me in any way that was not appropriate, he
may
no longer wish to marry me, and
then
he
would
not pay to have me returned.
It is in your best interests to keep your hands to yourself, sir.”

Oliver’s eyes narrowed.
“
It wouldn’t surprise me
if ’
e
didn’t want to marry ye anyway
with
ye smellin’ like
that
!”

Elizabeth shook her head.
“My perfume?”

“Lady—
ye ain’t wearin’ perfume.
P
erfume is
sweet
smellin’
.
I
ain’t
never smelt anything
as
bad
as you
!
Y
e
sure ye ain’t
hiding somethin’ dead under ye hat
?
”

Elizabeth turned away and huffed.

A couple of minutes later, Oliver spoke again. “
Take my advice, lady.
If ye wanna keep that m
an o’ yours, you’d betta stop stink
in’ like that.”

Doing her best impression of Caroline Bingley, Elizabeth tur
ned up her nose. “How dare you!
What you refer to is a blend that one of my sisters prepared; we all wear it! And I’ll have you know that Mr. Darcy
insisted
I wear this scent today!”

“Guess them rich blokes can’t smell nothin’.” Oliver said under his breath.

“I have never been more ins
ulted
!”

“Listen, missy, if you want to live long enough to see
that
sista’
and ye man
again, you’d better be quiet! Till we get to
the house, I gots to smell ye, but y
e man don’t ’ave enough money for me to ’ave to listen to ye, too.”

Julian
came up alongside his partner and
gestured to Oliver to stop the horse
while
he took
a handkerchief from his pocket.