A faint shiver passed through the women of the group. Georgiana pressed Elizabeth’s arm, while Anise’s eyes were wide with apprehension. Abby, though she smiled in disbelief, looked half intrigued. Lady Helen gave a nervous laugh. “A more dreadful tale I have never heard.”
Elizabeth could not restrain her curiosity. “Ma’am, have you ever seen the ghosts that are said to haunt this house?”
To her amazement, the housekeeper’s countenance grew solemn. Her voice dropped low, as though she feared being overheard. “Yes, miss. I have worked here for over thirty years, and I have seen them many a time, and oftener still, I have heard the sounds, the footsteps, and the voices. The family that resides here now primarily stays on the eastern side of the house. This very chamber is avoided, for it is here where the disturbancesare strongest. None of the servants, myself included, will sleep within these walls. We depart before nightfall.”
The party grew very still. Even the gentlemen fell silent as the housekeeper recounted her experiences. Georgiana glanced over her shoulder a few times as she listened to the housekeeper’s stories of noises and falling books and other incidents when she was required to remain at the house after dark to oversee a celebratory dinner. When she had finished, the housekeeper, seeing their faces, asked quietly, “Have you any other questions?”
Abby, her usual composure faltering, said in a low voice, “Have the spirits ever sought to harm anyone?”
“No, mistress,” the woman replied. “But hearing the sounds, those footsteps that come when no one walks, those voices that whisper when no one is near, that is terror enough.”
Elizabeth and Anne exchanged uneasy glances, and as she followed the housekeeper into the next chamber, she turned once to look behind her, fearing that a specter might appear in the window and gaze after her.
When they quit the house and stood outside in the full light of day, the somber mood lifted, and Elizabeth heard laughter as members of their party walked through the gardens and then through the family plot. By the time they sat down on blankets to eat, they had shaken off their jitters.
Darcy invited Elizabeth and his aunt to walk with him through the grove and from there to the edge of the lake. Georgiana had already gone ahead with her cousins and the Stanton sisters. When they came out the other side of the grove, Elizabeth caught her breath. The blue water and the green rolling hills coveredwith oak, birch, rowan, and holly, capped by a sky so blue it almost seemed unreal, met her eyes.
She remained standing, looking out at the view that opened before her, when she heard her name called. She looked in the direction from which it came and saw Charlotte waving at her. She waved back.
“Fitzwilliam, Charlotte, and Mr. Seton are standing on the jetty. They have their fishing rods.”
She took his hand, and they turned towards the jetty, where she saw Charlotte laying her rod on the wooden planks. She embraced Elizabeth as she stepped onto the landing.
“Lizzy, what a surprise. Oh, and there are Abby and Anise.”
Elizabeth stepped aside to make room for the two sisters to greet Charlotte and be introduced to her husband.
Mr. Seton leaned his rod against a pile and moved forward to meet the Stantons. He stepped on Charlotte’s rod, his foot slipped, and he fell backward. His head hit the pile. Then Elizabeth saw him fall backward into the lake.
She dropped Fitzwilliam’s arm and plunged in after him. Charlotte was only a couple of seconds behind her. Between them, they raised his head out of the water and swam him to shore. Fitzwilliam dragged him onto the grass, and Elizabeth dropped to her knees next to him. Charlotte knelt on his other side, crying and calling to him.
Mr. Seton was unconscious. Elizabeth turned his head to the side and then pressed firmly down on his chest. She saw water flow from his mouth. She tried again, but this time no water drained out.
“Charlotte, I think he is unconscious from the blow to his head, but look, he is breathing.”
Her friend was bent over her husband, crying, but when she heard what Elizabeth had said, she stopped and looked at his chest. He was breathing. He was alive.
Chapter 89: Near Drowning
Darcy and Richard were squatting beside the unconscious man. Richard lifted Mr. Seton’s head to see if he was bleeding.
“I feel a bump, but there is no blood.”
Darcy’s eyes fell on Elizabeth. “Darling, your lips are blue.”
Phillip said, “I will bring blankets from the carriage.”
Elizabeth looked to Abby. “Do you have smelling salts with you?”
Looking at Charlotte, she said, “Perhaps we can revive him with salts.”
Abby searched through her reticule and produced a little vial. “Here. I opened it for you.”
Elizabeth waved the vial under his nose. On the third wave, he stirred.
“He is waking up, but he is shivering.”
Elizabeth turned to Darcy. “Fitzwilliam, where are the blankets?”
