She went off into the dark, and she staggered around the lake and found herself at the foot of the steps leading up to Neith Abbey.
She looked up at the tall and ancient place and thought that she could have been raised here, a duke’s daughter, and she wondered that this produced no emotional reaction in her anymore.
Richard is dead,she thought.
She should not have come to this ball.
How could Richard be dead? How could that have happened? And why was she sort ofgladabout it?
No, I can’t be glad, that’s awful and horrible, and I refuse to even think such an awful thought, and I won’t be glad.
“Elizabeth,” came the voice of Mr. Darcy.
She turned to look at him. “You shouldn’t have followed me.”
“I didn’t,” he said. He was staggering, too. “I went off and found myself some gin, and I drank that straight from the bottle, too much, and I…” He ran a hand through his hair. “I should not have come to this ball.”
She let out a laugh. “Yes, we are of the same mind in that respect.”
“I…” He gestured back at the dance floor. “I’ve lost Georgiana.”
“What?” said Elizabeth.
“I was told that she and Neithern and Houseman and Miss Bingley and several others all went inside the house.” Mr. Darcy gestured at the house now. “So, I am going to seek her. I cannot understand why they might be here, however.”
“Well, with Miss Bingley in the mix of it, she likely pestered her way inside and brought the others along for the journey,” said Elizabeth. “We’ll likely find them touring the most impressive parts of the place. Do we have any idea what those might be?”
Mr. Darcy shook his head, looking helpless. “No, not entirely.”
“Oh,” she said.
“I must go and seek her, though,” said Mr. Darcy, moving forward, starting up the stairs. “I really need to leave. I simply cannot remain here.”
She followed him up the stairs. “I shall assist you.”
“You don’t need to do that.”
“I suppose not, but I haven’t anything else to do.”
He glanced down at her, shrugged, and then seemed to accept this.
Together, they went to the front door. Usually, it would have been polite to knock, but Mr. Darcy simply opened it and then they walked inside.
The front room of the place was a vast room with high ceilings and a fountain in the midst of the room. The floor was marble. The fountain was marble. There were marble statues in the corners. A set of curving stairs climbed up to another level.
They looked up at the stairs and then to the left and to the right.
Then Mr. Darcy started to climb the stairs.
Elizabeth followed him.
On the second level, they were met by a servant, who inquired what they were doing. Mr. Darcy asked after Neithern, Mr. Houseman, and the servant said that yes, she had seen them in the company of two ladies and also Bishop Sulles, which Elizabeth registered with a dull sense of alarm—dulled by too much drink, no doubt, or because of her grief, perhaps?
I am feeling grief,she assured herself.
She was not, in fact, glad.
The servant said they were in the study in the east wing and gave them instructions for how to get there. It involved a number of lefts and rights and stairs and Elizabeth could not remember any of it, but Mr. Darcy nodded, grave, as if he did, and they set off.
