Elizabeth and Darcy stayed under the canopy and read to one another. They were having a drowsy, pleasant time, when Mrs Darlington sat up and said, “Where is Edith?”
“She was just here.” Elizabeth sat up blinking from the nest of pillows that she was lounging upon.
“She was here when we came and sat down,” Darcy amended. “Icannot think of the last time I looked at her, or recall when she might have left us.”
The rest of the party agreed, and they began to spread out and search for the girl, calling for her loudly. The search carried on for more than a quarter hour, and Mrs Darlington was becoming quite understandably hysterical. Servants were sent to learn if she had returned to the manor, and the garden was to be searched again.
Elizabeth thought back to that morning, when Edith had accompanied Georgiana and Miss Bates for a walk around the lake. She had returned speaking of the rowboats, begging Mrs Darlington to have someone take her out on the water. Her chest filled with foreboding, Elizabeth turned and marched down to the lake with all haste.
It was rather a long walk, though still just in sight of the house and the others, or at least shewasin sight of the others until she made her way around a curve of the lake that followed the woods, skirting widely around Barnaby, who was always nearer to the house than the other swans. The swan was flapping about and making a great deal of noise. This was the direction of the dock, and as she approached it, she looked out onto the water, the part of the lake that could not be seen from the house and garden, and her heart caught in her throat as she saw Edith some twenty feet out on the water in a row boat.
“Edith!” she cried. “You must row back, immediately. Do you even know how to swim?”
“Miss Elizabeth, look at me!” the girl cried, standing up in the rowboat.
“Edith, please sit down slowly, and row the boat back to the dock,” Elizabeth begged. “You must not row out onto the lake alone.” Suddenly, the girl flailed, and shrieked; the rowboat turned over, hiding Edith underneath.
Elizabeth knew even though she could swim, having been raised into the country, that it was unlikely that she could swim that far and save the child in her gown. There was nothing else to be done. If she ran back for help, Edith would drown. Elizabeth could not tell if the girl was holding on under the rowboat or if she had slipped beneath the waters, but she had no other choice other than to try and help her.
If she could get her gown and corset off, she would have more hope, but there was not a prayer of getting them off without help. Elizabeth spotted a Kisbee ring?1 hanging from the dock and she took it and jumped into the water.
The water was freezing, but this was England. Even in the summers, the temperatures were rarely very hot, and most bodies of water remained cold all year. Elizabeth held the ring as she swam out to the overturned rowboat, feeling her heavy skirts dragging her down. She clung to the ring for her life as she approached the boat and lifted one side.
Paralysed in fear, the moment the edge of the boat turned up, Edith began screaming and thrashing, grasping Elizabeth with both hands, and trying to climb up her body. Elizabeth fought against being pushed under, as the girl screamed and flailed.I am not strong enough. She is going to drown us both, Elizabeth thought as she slipped under again. Edith’s panicwasstrong enough to drown them both, even with something to cling to. Elizabeth could not retain hold of the boat, nor the ring as Edith hysterically grasped her and attempted to push herself up and out of the water.
Darcy was attemptingto calm his godmother and organise a proper search when he heard the swan making a great deal of noise down by the lake.
“Barnaby, whatever are you on about?” Mrs Higglebottom shouted from nearby. “We are too busy looking for Edith, I cannot possibly visit you now!
Miss Bates spoke up. “Remember how interested Edith was in the rowboats this morning, Georgie?”
Georgiana gasped. “You do not think she went down there alone, do you?”
Darcy and the others turned and looked towards thelake properly just in time to see Elizabeth approaching the water, and disappearing around the bend of the trees, hundreds of feet away. Suddenly Darcy was running like he had never run before. If the child was in the water, Elizabeth would not hesitate to endanger herself, there was no doubt about it. Terror squeezed his heart, and his lungs refused to draw air as he ran as he had never done before in his life.
Darcy heard Bingley and the other men following behind, and the shouts of the ladies behind them. The swan rose up from the water, flapping his wings and honking madly as Darcy passed him. As he rounded the curve of the woods, he saw them. Elizabeth was in the water, lifting the overturned rowboat, a life preserver under her other arm. Suddenly the child was out from under the boat, grasping onto Elizabeth in panic and terror, screaming, and unable to see sense or be helped by anyone not a great deal stronger than herself. He saw Edith push Elizabeth under, once, then twice. Elizabeth had not come up a third time when he dove into the water, Bingley and Captain Lytton close behind him.
Edith quickly abandoned Elizabeth and attempted to use Darcy as a Kisbee ring the moment he came within reach. Bingley and Lytton came up quickly behind him in the water and took control of the girl as Darcy dove under the surface, searching for Elizabeth, who was sinking from the weight of her gown.
The rose silk of her gown was bright under the water, helping Darcy find her quickly and bring her to the surface. She gasped for air, allowing herself to go limp in Darcy’s arms as he pulled her back to the shore, unwilling to be a hindrance to his efforts as Edith had done to her. Her limbs were cramped from the freezing water, and she was so cold she could barely move anyway.
When they were firmly back on the grass, he embraced her in shock and gratitude that she had been spared any harm, then sank to the ground with her on his lap. Thankfully she had not lost consciousness or taken much water. Suddenly he dropped his arms and regarded her sternly.
“How could you do such a thing, Elizabeth! She could have killed you!” Darcy chastised her severely.
“What else was I to have done? By the time I had gone for help she might have drowned,” Elizabeth protested.
“You drowning with her is hardly better!” he snapped. “When we have children, I vow before God, they shall all learn to swim by age five!”
“Are we having children?” Elizabeth giggled. “You sound so certain.”
“Elizabeth Bennet, I am more certain at this moment than I have ever been about anything in my life, that my children will be yours, or my line will end with me,” he vowed.
Elizabeth sobered for a moment at the weight and heat of his words. “You have yet to ask me a question.” What was it with men who just began speaking of one’s lives together without ever having asked a proper question?
Darcy transferred her from his lap to the ground and knelt before her. “Miss Elizabeth Bennet, I love you most ardently. You have bewitched me, body and soul, and I cannot face the rest of my life without you by my side. Will you have me?”
Elizabeth entwined her fingers with his, and said, “With my whole heart.”
