There was no answer, and I looked over my shoulder to where he’d been standing.
Nick wasn’t there. Instead, where he should have been, was a young man dressed in a duck-egg blue servant’s uniform, holding a tray containing a silver coffeepot and looking at me as if I had three heads.
FUUUUUUUCK, I thought. And then I passed out again.
* * *
When I came to, I was no longer lying face down on the floor but ina large four-poster bed, under a sheet and thick blanket. My head was still pounding, and I felt like I might be about to puke again, so I stayed lying and cautiously turned my head to see where I was. It was a bedroom—obviously—but unlike any I’d ever slept in before. The room was dim, lit only by a few candles, but I could see the walls were covered in an ornate gold pattern, and a fancy-looking dressing table sat against the far wall. To my right were two large windows, and in the dusky light outside, I could make out wide, open greenery that was definitely not Cecil Court. I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths, willing myself to wake up from whatever terrifying concussion dream this was. But when I opened them again, I was in exactly the same place. Oh no, no, no!
“Ah, you have awoken.”
I turned my head, wincing at the pain that shot through it with the sudden movement, and saw a woman walking into the room. She looked to be about twenty and was dressed in a simple but elegant Empire line dress. Her hair was pinned up, and she was looking at me with curious eyes.Fineeyes. My God, was that who I thought it was?
“Are you feeling any better now you have rested?” the woman said as she reached the side of my bed.
“Where am I?” I croaked, dreading the answer I was about to hear.
“You are in Netherfield Park, the home of Mr. Charles Bingley. Although how you came to be here is more of a mystery.”
Oh shit, what the hell had I done? I closed my eyes and took another deep breath to try to calm my palpitating heart.
“Are you able to explain how you arrived in the drawing room?” the woman—I couldn’t bring myself to admit who she really was—asked. “One of the underbutlers found you on the floor while on his way to serve coffee last night, at which point you lost consciousness and werecarried up here.”
“Last night? How long have I been asleep?”
“Why, I believe you were found a little after ten, and it is now almost six, so you have been asleep for some twenty hours.”
Twenty hours? I sat bolt upright, then groaned and had to lie back again.
“You are still unwell, I see,” she said, and I could hear the concern in her voice. “I shall ask Miss Bingley to have someone fetch Mr. Jones. He has been a regular visitor these past few days while he tends to my sister, Jane, who has been taken ill and is recuperating here until she is well enough to return home with me.”
“No, I’ll be fine, thank you. But I could really do with seeing Mr. Darcy.”
“Mr. Darcy?” I saw her brow crease in surprise. “Are you acquainted with him?”
So Darcy hadn’t told them he knew me? Typical bloody man. “Yes, we are acquainted. I come from…far away…and met him while he was traveling.”
“I am afraid Mr. Darcy is not here at present.”
What?Had I read myself back here but not Darcy? I felt my stomach roll.
“Where is he?”
“I believe the gentlemen are out shooting, but they are due to return imminently.”
I felt a flood of relief—Darcy was back here too!—which was quickly replaced by a flood of rage. How dare Darcy leave me here alone while he went off to kill birds?
“Are you quite all right, Miss…”
“Knight. Zoe Knight.”
“You must be famished, Miss Knight. Dinner will be served shortly, if you have an appetite? Or, if you are still too ill to walk, I am certain the cook may be called upon to send up a light supper while you recuperate.”
“Thanks, but I’m really not hungry. Please, will you tell Darcy I’m awake and need to talk to him urgently.”
“Of course,” she said. “I must get dressed for dinner, but I will return once we retire from the dining room to check on my sister, who is convalescing in the next room, and I shall inquire on you at the same time.”
“Thanks, Elizabeth.”
