Page 4 of Mr. Darcy Comes to Town

Jeffry watched the sisters leave. Lizzy took the big, slobbery dog with her, back out the orangery doors.

“I am in. She doesn’t suspect a thing. I need a snack. I see raisins! And apples! Yum, Yum, Yum.”

Jeffry nibbled at an apple slice, shivering with delight and eyeing the plump raisin he meant to eat next.

“What do you mean, she doesn’t suspect a thing?”

Jeffry scrambled around, searching for the owner of the voice.

“Yeah, what do you mean?”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah?”

He looked up at the birds perched side-by-side on a dead branch inside their aviary.

Staring at him.

“Hunh?” a robin asked.

“Tell us,” said someone other than a bird.

Jeffry gaped at the rabbit hutch. The buck and doe stared back.

“What do you mean, she doesn’t suspect a thing?” came the sweet sound of the doe rabbit.

“Tell us what you meant or I’m going to rend you in pieces, and then eat you,” the fox said as he prowled in his cage, glaring across the orangery at Jeffry.

Jeffry shrieked and shuddered. He wished he already had a tunnel to hide in. He burrowed under the straw instead.

“I am not going to hurt Lizzy. I swear I am here to help her.”

“How?” the fawn asked, mincing his way toward the enclosure. “I want to help her.”

“Me too!”

“And me!”

“Me!”

“Me!”

“Me!”

“Goodness. Do you all want to help her?” Jeffry asked.

“Yes,” the water vole said, his voice deeper than Jeffry had expected. “And why do you talk like that?”

“Like what?”

“Are you telling us you don’t know?” the rabbit buck asked incredulously. “How can you be so stupid that you don’t know you talk funny?”

“Oh, it’s a Peruvian accent. I am from Peru, you see. Aunty said it didn’t matter if I talk like this.”

“Who is Aunty?” the fox asked.

“It doesn’t matter who she is,” Jeffry said, wiggling his bottom. “Tell me. Has Lizzy met Darcy yet?”