I pushed it open.
Richard was there, red-faced, blustering.
I went past him, saying nothing.
He pursued me as I walked down the stairs, across the foyer, out the front door and down the steps of Rosings.
He pursued me as I walked all the way over to the lake where my uncle Lewis de Bourgh had tragically drowned years ago.
Richard was still sputtering as I threw the damnable watch into the water.
Then I set out for the parsonage.
He came along, but he stopped saying much. I was walking very fast. He was puffing behind me, and I thought he should really be in better shape, considering he was in the army. Didn’t he have to march or something of that nature?
When I reached the rectory, it was dark, and I didn’t know which window corresponded to her room. I debated going about and banging on each of them, or throwing rocks at the upper windows.
But what did it matter?
It would be midnight again soon. All of this would reset.
I tried the door.
Locked.
I put my shoulder into it and splintered the damnable thing. That would reset, too.
Inside, I bellowed her name. “Elizabeth!”
From within, I heard the sound of feet, of alarmed voices.
“Elizabeth,” I screamed, my voice breaking.
People were coming closer.
“Elizabeth,” I cried, “you’re all there is. You’re the only thing that means anything at all. How can I make you understand that?”
Mr. Collins appeared in the front room, dressed for sleeping, his round face so startled it might have been comical under other circumstances.
“Where is she?” I said. “Come out here, Elizabeth!”
“Miss Bennet is missing, sir,” said Mr. Collins. “You were gone, too. We thought she was with you.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
fitzwilliam
A horse was missing from the stables.
Ahorse.
She had gone out on horseback, and she was frightened of horses, and it was dark, and what could have possessed her to do something so very, very mad?
I saddled and bridled a horse and went looking for her. I didn’t know what direction she would have ridden, however, and I rode about in circles, even as others admonished me that they had given up the search hours earlier and that we must begin again at first light.
They hindered me until midnight came.
And then it was silent.
