She put her foot down on the next rung.
Crack.
She shrieked, her foot frantically moving about for purchase.
Another crack.
And she was tumbling down off the side of the house, screaming all along.
I darted forward to catch her, but I was too late.
She landed badly on her foot, and there was another crack, this one far worse, a sickening sound.
I cried out, a low and guttural noise, and I knelt next to her.
She was shaking, white-faced, too stunned to cry.
“Don’t move, Miss Bennet,” I whispered. “I’m frightfully sorry. I should not have encouraged you.”
“Is my leg broken?” Even as she said it, we were both looking at it. It looked badly twisted to me.
“You must stay right here, and I shall run up to Netherfield fast as I can, and I shall fetch some servants to come and bear you back there, and send others to go for a surgeon, all right? You must stay right here and not move.”
“It’s odd because it doesn’t hurt,” she said, though her voice was trembling. “I think it isgoingto hurt, but right now—”
“I think it hurts, Miss Bennet. You are likely in shock. Do not move.” I leapt to my feet, and I tore off through the woods.
I had to fight my way through the brambles and branches to get back on the path, but then it was nothing at all to dash the rest of the way back to Netherfield. I put my head into the stables first and I bellowed for two of the men I knew in there to get a cart ready to meet me here in ten minutes time.
Then I went into the house and I was seeking a servant first, to send after a doctor, when Bingley came into my path.
“You’re back,” he said. “That was rather quick.”
“What are you talking about?” I said. “Haven’t you been looking for us?”
“Well, at first, but then everyone realized—” He broke off, looking me over. “You look rather worse for wear.”
“Oh, none of this matters. Miss Elizabeth has broken her foot—ankle—leg, I don’t know. I left her there, and we must make haste back to her, and we need to send for a surgeon to see to her.”
“How did you break her leg, Darcy?” said Bingley. “What were you doing to her?”
“I didn’t do it.” I glared at him. “Well, maybe I shouldn’t have let her climb down the trellis in skirts, or maybe the wood wasn’t sturdy, and I weakened it with my weight or—we do not have time for this!”
“Yes,” said Bingley. “A surgeon, you say?”
“At once,” I said.
CHAPTER EIGHT
“So you’ve been here,” said Bingley, looking up at the dilapidated house. “Well, I didn’t even know this was on the grounds.”
“Why?” said Elizabeth. “Where did you think we were?”
Bingley looked her over. She was still seated on the ground, but she’d moved her leg. It was stretched out in front of her, now, and it looked less mangled. However, I wasn’t sure that she should have moved it.
“Mr. Bingley?” said Elizabeth. “Why didn’t anyone come looking for us?”
Bingley heaved a sigh, rubbing the back of his neck. “Oh, Miss Bennet, you’re not going to like this. Let us talk about it after we have you back safe and sound at Netherfield, shall we?”
