Damon caught Elizabeth with his left hand and placed her behind him, offering his chest as Wickham’s target. “Answer the lady,Wickham,” the colonel pressed.
Sinisterly, he complied.“I believe I left Darcy in the grand hall.”
Elizabeth caught her breath, and Damon could feel her trembling hand on his back. He reached behind him and caught that hand; he needed for her to move before Wickham charged. He guided her backwards with a tighter-than-usual squeeze of her hand.
Wickham watched the interaction closely. “Does Darcy know how you feel about his wife?”Wickham enjoyed being in control, and this situation played to his conceit. He flicked a finger in the direction of the gravesites, and the colonel stepped back into the arena, but he carefully kept Elizabeth out of Wickham’s way. She now lightly rested her hand on his back and stepped in unison with him.
Seeing the graveyard adorned with the perpendicular markings, Wickham actually laughed. “This was your idea, Mrs. Darcy? How very astute of you! I knew you were trouble from the beginning. Truthfully, taming you would have been much more pleasurable than bringing that insipid sister of yours to heel.” Damon knew
“No one,” Damon responded.
“Your husband warned me as such, Mrs. Darcy, but I thought he bluffed, though not so well.You are more tenacious than I expected.”
Interrupted by the sound of running feet behind him, Wickham automatically spun to meet the new provocation.
Darcy cleared the rise of the hill, only to once again be at Wickham’s disposal. He caught his breath in a great gulp when he saw his wife and cousin safe, and he forced calm into his body although he faced the tip of a sword. He took Wickham’s attention from Elizabeth, and that was all that mattered.
Seizing the opportunity, Damon caught Elizabeth up and carried her to safety. She began to resist, but a slight shake of Darcy’s head told her to stay, and she let Damon drag her behind a massive memorial.“Stay put,” he warned her and began to circle to the far side of the line of graves.
“Darcy?”Wickham said as he smirked. “We return to where it all began.”
“Where it began for you, Wickham,” Darcy countered,“but not for me. My life began only a few months ago when hope walked in.”
“Ah, is that not sugary sweet! Did you hear that, Mrs. Darcy?” he called out to Elizabeth. “Your husband speaks of your love.” Using the sword, Wickham herded Darcy in the direction of the cemetery’s center.“You may be right, Darcy. Maybe this is only my personal hell.”
They now stood directly between the two crypts, which anchored the site.“Let me show you something.” Although barely able to move on his left side,Wickham raised his hands and with a quick burst of air, the lock of Ellender D’Arcy’s burial chamber exploded, and the iron gate swung open. “Step next to the gate, Darcy.” Darcy moved slowly, not knowing what to expect. “Do you remember the part of the legend where Lady Ellender gave me to Leána?” Darcy nodded as he took up a position next to the
As if a supernatural force carried her forward, Lady Ellender D’Arcy appeared in the door of the open vault. “Come, my dear.” Wickham extended his hand, and the lady placed hers in his.
Darcy swallowed hard. Lady Ellender D’Arcy was Georgiana in ten years. Long blonde locks adorned her head; the square chin was softened by the high cheekbones and eyes the color of sapphires.“I brought someone to meet you, Ellender.”Wickham treated the apparition as if she were his lady. “This, my dear, is Fitzwilliam Darcy.”
“The last name is familiar, Sir.”The lady curtsied.
Wickham ordered,“Speak to the lady, Darcy.”
“Lady Ellender.”
“Mr. Darcy, Lady Ellender, came from Derbyshire, his family seat, to make your acquaintance.”
“Charmed, Mr. Darcy.” Lady Ellender swayed to the same unknown tune that the others had.
“Is she not beautiful, Darcy?”
“How could I deny it, Wickham? My sister is the spitting image.” Out of the corner of his eye, Darcy noticed Damon moving quietly to the right.
Wickham glanced back at Ellender. “I thought so also. Georgiana is Ellender as a young girl, when I first fell in love with her.”
How gently Wickham treated Ellender surprised Darcy. The man that this creature once was still loved this woman, despite the havoc she had brought to his life.This was a new aspect of Wickham, and Darcy hoped to use it against him.
“The gentleman has his own lady love, my dear.” Wickham brought Ellender’s delicate hand to his mouth and kissed the back of it; then he called out,“Will you not join us, Mrs. Darcy?”
“Stay where you are, Elizabeth!” Darcy ordered.
“If you wish to see me end your husband’s life on the spot, then ignore my bidding.”Wickham purposely nicked Darcy’s neck to let the blood bubble there.
Darcy warned,“It does not matter, Elizabeth;Wickham plans to kill me anyway.”
Wickham jabbed Darcy again, and a second stream worked its way towards his shirt’s collar. “Enough!” Elizabeth ordered and stepped from behind the granite. She walked slowly to where Darcy stood, taking his hand as she defiantly took her place beside him.
“That is more like the Elizabeth I have come to know and despise,” Wickham growled. “Now, play nice, Mrs. Darcy, and acknowledge my Lady Ellender.”
“I gladly acknowledge Lady Ellender,” Elizabeth contended, “but she is not your Lady Ellender, Mr. Wickham. She belongs to my ancestor Lord Arawn Benning.” Elizabeth watched with some satisfaction as her declaration caused Ellender to drift away towards Lord Thomas’s crypt. She now swayed to her own silent music, tracing Arawn’s name with her fingertips.
“Ellender!” Wickham roared, but the lady heard only her own longing. “Ellender!” he repeated. Then he turned on Elizabeth. “You…ruin…everything!” he roared, stressing each word, loading them with vehemence.With his injured left arm,Wickham lashed out at her, catching Elizabeth’s neck with his large hand, his bestial claws returning.
Elizabeth’s hands tore at his fingers, and, instantly, Darcy reacted, his own high dudgeon exploding as he hit Wickham full force in the chest with instant power. The potency of the impact sent Wickham reeling backwards as Darcy caught the slumping Elizabeth in his arms and knelt lovingly over her. “My love,” he cajoled as he pushed her hair from her face.“Speak to me.”
But before she could respond,Wickham charged again, and this time he did not stop—plunging the rapier into Darcy’s back. Darcy collapsed on top of his wife’s body as blood oozed from the entry and exit wounds in both his back and his side. They laid perfectly still, arms and legs entangled in an intimate moment of ghostly love.
CHAPTER 29
Damon Fitzwilliam saw it all, but was too late to stop Wickham’s potentially fatal blow. Armed with his own sword, he charged the brute, spinning Wickham away from Darcy’s fallen frame before he could deliver another strike. Now, they faced each other, swords at the ready, and the match began in earnest. Surprisingly, Wickham adeptly fended off everything Damon threw at him as they zigzagged among headstones and mounted the banked earth indicating each of the graves. Sparks disappeared into the night as the blades crashed against each other and grazed markers, but for Damon, this was more than a simple fight.This was for Elizabeth, for what Wickham had done to her, and for the horror of seeing his cousin skewered by this animal.
Darcy’s body pinned Elizabeth to the ground, but she managed to leverage herself away from him, scooting to the side until she freed her chest. Pulling her legs from his eased his weight from her badly bruised backside. Getting to her knees beside him, Elizabeth searched Darcy’s body for the point of entry. Luckily, the blood flow slowed when she pressed her hand against it, so Elizabeth tore at the shirt she wore, ripping at it to make a bandage.