Page 101 of Miss Bennet's Dragon
He flinched like my words burned, then pushed a hand through his tousled hair. “You said ‘this alters our situation.’ Had we a situation to alter?” My answer would not form, trapped between my heart and my head, and he rushed on. “Every night, I recall each word we spoke. I—”
“Stop!” I turned my back, gasping into my hands over my face. “What am I to say? Jane is dying. Lydia is lost, and with her, all prospects for my sisters. I have one duty. Rush home and comfort my family through disaster.”
His voice came behind me, much closer. “There could be a miracle.”
I laughed bitterly at the wall I faced. “You promised not to torment me with vain hopes.”
“You perform miracles. Why not deserve one?”
I turned to him. “You are not helping!”
His right hand still held his hat, but his left was outstretched, a few inches from my face. He started and stepped back, then a step farther. “Of course. You are correct.”
“If you understand what is happening to me—what these abilities are—have I any ability to help Jane?”
“To my knowledge, no.” He hesitated. “My mother could have cured her.”
“Can you notthinkbefore you speak? Why say that!”
There was a tearing sound. His expensive hat collapsed in his hand.
“Forgive me,” he said. “I cannot think while seeing you hurt.”
“Hurt? Who cares if I am hurt? I came here to cure Jane.” I held up the bottle he had given me. “You have helped, even if it is no more than a few gracious days of delirium. But I have achieved nothing.” I searched the mysteries piled in my mind. “What is special about Pemberley lake?”
“The lake? Nothing.”
“There must be something.”
“Some call it Pemberley lake, but it has a Gaelic name.An treas piuthar. The third sister.” His eyes were distant. “There are two sister lakes. Larger lakes. Pemberley has the smallest sister.”
The smallest sister. Like me. I laughed at myself for grasping at coincidence. “What is the ‘darkness of Pemberley’? Mr. Rabb was disturbed when I mentioned it.”
Mr. Darcy backed a step. “You have seen this?”
“Yes. There is nothing around Pemberley. When I search, it is a void. Dark. Empty.”
His eyes were wide. His complexion became ash.
“You must go.” His voice was rocks falling on glass.
“What?”
“Leave. Never return to Pemberley.”
“That is insane.” The rational part of me was saying this did not matter. Deeper, my heart was screaming.
“Go. Leave now.”
He spun and was gone, running, the door yawning behind him. I heard an exclamation from my uncle in the hall, then boots on the stairs. The inn door slammed.
His hat was left, twisted to shreds on the floor.
37
AMIRACLE
Outside Longbourn,I stopped as I passed the draca house.
