An hour later, I was sitting on my sofa with Mrs. Atallah on one side of me, Nick on the other, and a very unimpressed Bianca in the chair opposite.
“OK, so let me check that I’ve got this right,” she said. “You’re telling us that Will is Mr. Darcy and he somehow appeared out of the book you stole from Nick’s shop, although you have no idea if it was you who summoned him out or some creepy magic contained in the book itself.”
“Correct,” I said.
“And he’s been stuck here for ten days, yet until today you’ve told absolutely no one he was here—not even me, your best friend?”
I suddenly knew what it must feel like to be a defendant in the dock getting cross-examined by Bianca. “I’m sorry, I wanted to tell you but—”
“No time for that now.” Her tone was businesslike, but I could see the hurt in her eyes over my betrayal of our friendship. “As I understand it, you didn’t tell Darcy he was a fictional character, but now he’s discovered this copy ofPride and Prejudice, no doubt worked out who he is, and done a runner.”
“I think that’s what’s happened, yes. I was in such a rush to get to Nick’s shop earlier that I accidentally left the book on the sofa, where Darcy must have found it.”
“So, in summary, a rapidly fading fictional character is somewhere out there on the streets of London, with no money or mobile phone, and unless we find him in the next six to twelve hours, every copy ofPride and Prejudicewill disappear and the book will be forgotten forever.”
“That’s about it,” Nick answered for me. “What we have to work out is where Darcy might have gone. Zoe, does he have any favorite places in London?”
“Not really,” I said. “He’s hardly left this flat and he hates the Tube, so anywhere he’s gone has probably been on foot.”
“He’s a bigLove Islandfan, so perhaps he’s gone to the airport to fly out to Majorca?” Mrs. Atallah offered.
“I’m not sure he fully understands the concept of air travel yet, so I doubt he’s gone there,” I said.
Bianca was leafing through the copy ofPride and Prejudice. “I seem to remember there being a reference somewhere to the Bingleys staying on Grosvenor Street and Darcy having a house in town too. So do you think he might go looking for that?”
“Maybe,” I said. “When I first met him, he did say he was trying to get to Mayfair.”
“OK, well, one of us needs to go and look around there,” Bianca said. “Is there anywhere else you can think of in London that has significance to him?”
I paused, racking my brain. Then my stomach dipped. “What if he’s trying to get to Netherfield? That was where he was before he got pulled out of the book, and where he initially kept asking to go back to.”
“But Netherfield doesn’t exist,” Mrs. Atallah said, screwing up her nose.
“We know that,” I said. “But Darcy doesn’t.”
“Where is Netherfield supposed to be?” Nick asked.
“Somewhere in Hertfordshire,” I said. “But Austen isn’t specific, so it could be anywhere in the county.”
Nick tapped his phone screen for a moment. “OK, well, it looks like trains for Hertfordshire towns go from either King’s Cross St. Pancras or Euston.”
“I’ll go to St. Pancras if someone else can go to Euston,” I said.
“I can,” Nick offered.
“In which case, I’ll go and look around Mayfair,” Bianca said. “Mrs. Atallah, can you stay here in case Darcy comes back?”
The older woman nodded, and we all stood up to leave.
“Let’s keep in contact via WhatsApp,” Bianca said as she headed toward the door.
“Will do,” I said. “And thanks for coming to help, B. I know you probably have plans tonight and—”
“It’s fine,” she snapped, cutting me off, and I felt as if I’d been punched. Bianca wasn’t just my best friend—she was all the family I had left in the world, and I’d clearly devastated her with my lies.
“I really am sorry, B. I—”
“We should get going. Every minute we waste here is apparently another minutePride and Prejudiceis in danger.” She bustled past me out of the flat, not looking back.
