Mr. Darcy, Downstairs by Valerie Lennox

Author:Valerie Lennox
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Punk Rawk Books

CHAPTER TEN

ELIZABETH HAD NO desire to go to a village festival.

She didn’t like crowds of people, because she always worried people were looking at her, and she didn’t like to be looked at. She was always nervous someone was going to recognize her.

It was unlikely, of course, this far from London, this far from her old life. She knew she was being ridiculous. But she had such anxiety about it all that she had been happy for the excuse to stay home. Now, she felt pressure to go, if only to be there for Jane.

But when the day approached, she grew so worried about it all that her body rebelled and she actually vomited in a chamberpot, and Jane declared she must stay home, and Elizabeth was pleased.

As soon as the house was empty, her stomach stopped roiling.

She lay on her bed in the upper levels of the house, feeling the firm, thick walls of Donwell surrounding her, and she felt safe.

Then, considering she’d vomited up all the food in her stomach, she felt hungry. There was always leftover food in the larder at Donwell and servants were allowed to have it if it was there. So, she got herself up and crept down through the silent house to look in on what might be available.

There wasn’t much, actually, she was sorry to see. Most of the bread and meat must have been laid out for the family’s supper.

Elizabeth remembered that there had been some leftover stew from the previous night’s servants’ supper, however. Stew was often what the servants were served, for it was an easy thing to have cooking all day in the kitchen while the cook was working on the master’s food, and it was a filling meal in and of itself.

But the stew had been taken to the icehouse.

She wasn’t sure if she was truly allowed to have it, but she thought that one bowl of cold stew—it would be have to be cold, of course—could not really be noticed as lost, not if she washed up her bowl and spoon afterward and put them back. And anyway, she was quite hungry.

So, taking with her a bowl and spoon, she went out into the twilight to the icehouse.

But the door was locked.

Of course it was.

However, she remember that there was a key hanging in the kitchen, because the cook was often sending the kitchen maids out to fetch things from the icehouse, like milk and cheese and so forth, and that key was there for anyone in the house to take.

So, she started back towards the servants’ entrance when she saw movement out of the corner of her eye.

She turned in the direction of it, and there, like a horrid phantom of the past come to haunt her, he melted out of the shadows.

She let out a little cry and she dropped her bowl.

He registered the sight of her and then laughed. “Elizabeth Bennet?” he said. “What are you doing here?”

She shook her head at him, shook it incredibly hard, and she didn’t know what to do.

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