The Elizabeth Papers

by Jenetta James

  It smelt like a place that nobody went, and the air inside was cold, damp, and thick with unknowns. Wooden pews sat expectantly and looked empty and sad. The altar had no cloth, and the candlesticks had no candles, albeit that they were spattered with wax, the telltale signs of former life. Up the walls climbed great marble reliefs, figures sporting with animals entangled with plants like an allegory of creation. The roof was domed and beamed with colourful lettering and images of Christ and the apostles. The sound of their feet moving around echoed in the great, empty space.

  “Mrs. Darcy, this is amazing,” said Charlie, eyes turned to the ceiling in wonder.

  “Isn’t it? Nobody comes in here now, which is awfully sad. James and I go for our Sunday service in the village, and the children aren’t interested really. So there you are.”

  When all the lights were on and the dust had settled around them, Honoria begun cantering around, pointing out plaques and effigies and polishing the lectern with the edge of her silk scarf.

  “The rood screen, you know, is pre-Reformation! How about that?”

  Evie wondered what a rood screen was and, not for the first time, was grateful for Charlie.

  “It’s remarkable, Mrs. Darcy. There can’t be many of those left in England. And it is in very good condition too. Thank you for letting us see it. It’s a real privilege.”

  “Oh, you’re welcome, Mr. Haywood. Whatever is the point in having such a dreadful, old mausoleum if we don’t occasionally let in the light?”

  Chapter 19

  April 3, 1821, Pemberley

  It is that part of the morning that feels like night, and I am at my desk in my outside cloak. My hand shakes slightly as a write, and I can hardly credit that events have turned out as they have. Beyond the wall, I hear Fitzwilliam’s voice rumbling away indistinctly to his valet, no doubt with some last-minute instructions, some explanation of sorts. Will it be believed, I wonder? What shall be said of us in our absence, and how shall the speed of our departure be accounted for? Some hours ago while I paced the room, Fitzwilliam sat in this seat and wrote to Galbraith with the basic facts of the matter and a promise of more detail later.

  “We must have somebody in our confidence, Elizabeth.”

  “But can we trust him?”

  “Of course. I would not tell him if I did not know that he could be trusted.”

  I knew this to be true and slowly exhaled. I had a notion that we should tell Georgiana, but my husband would not hear of it. He had reasoned that, although she would never mean to betray us, she would have to tell Lord Avery, and her sweetness was so great that one day she, inadvertently, may let down her guard. Thus, it was decided that between us, Lydia, Galbraith, and Hannah there would be fixed a ring of silence, never to be broken. That was some hours ago in the pitch of a night in which neither of us slept.

  Presently, Hannah, who has also gone without sleep, has entered the room and is collecting underskirts into a trunk. She has packed, with her usual foresight and good sense, only plain, warm, and serviceable clothes. This is not a time for finery; this is not a time for show. In a moment, I shall have to give her this book. It shall be placed in the trunk and unpacked I know not where.

  “Hannah, are you going to be warm enough in that cloak?”

  “I’m sure I shall, madam. Thank you.”

  I considered it for a moment and tried to focus on her slim figure in the half-light.

  “No, we have no idea of the conditions, and I fear that we may be treated to storms and I know not what. You shall take my old, green cloak. You know—the one I had made the first winter I was married?”

  “That is very generous, madam, and unnecessary, I’m sure.”

  “Nonsense, Hannah, take it. It is thicker than yours, and the lining is very warm. I cannot have you catching a chill.”

  She smiled, bobbed a curtsy, and left me to myself. The sounds of the house creaking to life began to moan around me. I heard a door opening down the corridor and the sound of clanging pales in the hall beneath. It does not escape me that I would usually be sleeping in great comfort while a world of people work around me. At some point, and soon, I must put down my pen and seek out my sister. What sort of condition shall she be in this morning, I wonder? I cannot credit that she has stolen more than a wink of sleep, and although it cannot be good for her to undertake the journey before us, there is nothing else for it.

  The connecting door opens, and Fitzwilliam stands before me without his jacket. Shadows fall across his handsome face, and he smiles slightly, maybe not as much as I would like.

  “Are you ready, Elizabeth?”

  I nodded, and together we walked out of my chamber down the carpeted corridor towards the night nursery. The door eased open without a sound, and Nanny, who sleeps on a small bed against the wall, startled awake and sat up. In the darkness, I felt my way towards her and touched my hand to her bed-warm shoulder as I spoke in a whisper.

  “Shh. Do not trouble yourself, Nanny. There is no need to get up. I am sorry to disturb you thus, but Mr. Darcy and I have to go away. I am afraid I do not know how long we shall be gone, but it may be some months hence. I shall write often, and we shall return as soon as we can. Everything you need here shall be provided in our absence.”

  The poor lady was plainly astonished, and I squeezed her arm in what I hope was a friendly and confiding manner. My soul screamed out for this dreadful matter to be concluded, but I know that it cannot be hurried. It will move at its own pace like the seasons of the year, and neither raucous noise nor quiet prayer shall speed it.

  “Mr. Darcy and I just wanted to see the children before we left. We shall not wake them, and if you do not mind my husband’s presence for a moment, there is no need for you to get up.”

  She nodded, blinked, and looked utterly bewildered. With that, I beckoned Fitzwilliam into the room, and together we looked at Beatrice and Frances in their cots, everything grey in the half dark. To see their tiny blanket-clad bodies shook the inside of me, and I began to feel unsteady. At that moment, his warm hand came around my waist, and I leaned forward. Holding my stray hair away, I touched an almost imperceptible kiss to each of their plump cheeks, and we left to visit Emma and Anne in their respective, adjoining bedrooms. Emma had thrown off a part of her blanket, and I tucked it about her narrow shoulders, stroking her hair—chestnut brown. In the next room, Anne stirred when I bent down to kiss her, and I froze in fear that she may wake and be distressed by our unaccustomed presence at such an hour. Her profile against the white of her pillow was so like Fitzwilliam that, in that moment, I wanted to weep. I gripped the side of the bed and told myself it was for the best and not for long.

  When I stood, my husband’s arms were waiting for me. In the darkness of our daughter’s chamber, he embraced me and planted a kiss on the top of my head and then on the insides of my wrists. Quietly, he spoke. “Let us be away.” And we were.

  Chapter 20

  Pemberley, 18 September 2014

  James Darcy sat at the head of the breakfast table, surveying his unopened post, removing the supplements from that day’s edition of the Times and tutting quietly as Charlie, Evie, and his wife contemplated the day.

  “I have left all the sketches in the drawing room for you, Mr. Haywood. I hope that you and Miss Jones are comfortable in there?”

  “Yes, thank you. Very comfortable. The light is great. I’m sure we will enjoy examining the sketches next to the painting itself.”

  Mrs. Darcy smiled a broad smile and poured tea for them all. “Super! James and I have to go out this afternoon, but we’ll be back for dinner. It is your last night tonight, so I’ll ask Cook to really spoil us. Don’t forget that, before you leave, you must make sure you have a walk around the grounds. They are lovely at this time of year if I say so myself.” She glanced at Evie’s ballet pumps. “If you need footwear,
Miss Jones, you are welcome to borrow from the boot room.”

  “Oh, thank you, Mrs. Darcy,” said Evie, regretting that a stable full of wellies, saddles, and wax jackets was an unlikely hiding place for the document they were attempting to find.

  And so, pleasantries were exchanged, toast buttered, and tea milked, and they began to eat. Evie, worried that she was being too silent, was just about to ask about the history of the garden when James looked up from his letters.

  “Good grief…Honoria, do we have cousins called Carter?”

  Charlie, who was drinking his tea at the time didn’t flinch or turn a hair at the mention of the name.

  “Carter? Not sure, darling. Don’t think so. There are the Carter-Arnolds in Buckingham but they aren’t cousins; they are Aunt Mabel’s in-laws.”

  He shook his head and refocused on the handwritten letter in front of him.

  “No, this letter is from a Miss Carter. Come to think of it, the name rings a bell, but I’m not sure why. Reckons she’s some sort of cousin. Lives in Shropshire. Finds herself up here from time to time. Wants to come and meet us when she’s in the area. Oh well. Why not I suppose…”

  “Let me see that, darling.” Honoria’s hand shot out to take the letter. “It could be from any old Tom, Dick, or Harry.”

  Mrs. Darcy’s pretty eyes scanned the letter, and Evie’s heart was in her mouth.

  “Well, she writes nicely, and what attractive writing paper.” She put the letter down beside her and picked up her toast. “It can’t do any harm I suppose, darling, although I must say, I’ve never heard of her. Just goes to show, one doesn’t know where one’s relations are these days. I should make it a project of mine to do the family tree so that we don’t get taken unawares by these things.” She laughed and looked at Charlie who smiled back.

  ***

  He felt, rather than saw, Evie stiffening beside him and fought the impulse to reach his hand out and touch her. Worry was cascading off her like steam. He wanted to reassure her that, if Cressida was writing to the Darcys, at least they knew that she wasn’t going to turn up while they were there. If she was invited to come for tea one day, it was hugely unlikely that she would be in the house long enough to be able to do the kind of searching they were doing. Even so, the knowledge that she was true to her word, that she had not given up, and that she was on his tail, bit at him. The clock was ticking, and they could not go away empty handed. Honoria Darcy’s kindly face came back into focus.

  “I’m sure you’d find plenty of information, Mrs. Darcy, especially with the internet being what it is. You might enjoy it as well; I know my mother did when she researched our family.”

  Before long, they were speaking of Charlie’s mother, the weather, the marmalade, and the traffic around Matlock on a Saturday. If it had not been for the fact that he saw him pick it up as they went to leave, Charlie would have thought James Darcy had completely forgotten Cressida’s letter. As it was, he tucked it into his breast pocket as he and Honoria left Charlie and Evie to get on with their day’s work. Absent the Darcys, they walked to the drawing room in an uneasy silence. As soon as they were safe in the room, Evie spun around to face him. Without thinking, he reached out his hand and held her shoulder still.

  “Try not to worry about it. Focus on the positives. At least we know that she won’t just turn up out of the blue while we’re still here.”

  ***

  The feeling of his hand against her stirred her, and although part of her wanted to move it away, she didn’t. She looked away instead.

  “You’re so calm. But then I suppose, it’s not you who is about to lose everything!”

  “You’re not about to lose everything either. We just have to think really logically.”

  “Oh, Charlie, this is crazy! We are going to need more than logic to recover this thing. It has been lost for two hundred years, and we have no idea what it is!”

  “I’ve been thinking about that. Elizabeth Darcy died in March, and at that time of the year, the house would have been full of fires. So, if it were just a letter or a couple of pages, Hannah would have simply thrown it in the fire. It makes no sense that she would have failed to get rid of it. No, I think that, whatever it is, it was quite large, and that is why she didn’t just burn it. For my money, it must have been some kind of diary or lengthy confession.”

  Evie sat down on the pale chaise and looked up at Elizabeth’s glittering eyes in the painting.

  “We have to try to get inside Hannah’s head. She is given this thing to destroy, and she knows that she has to do it. But it’s too big to burn. Elizabeth is dying or has just died. The place is likely to have been chaos, and Hannah was probably upset herself. She might have been starting to feel ill as well, who knows. She thinks…let’s hide it somewhere then return later and destroy it when there is more time. She didn’t know that she was about to die too. Question is: Where would she have put it?”

  “Surely, she would have just hidden the thing in her bedroom.”

  “No. Not enough privacy. Servants usually shared rooms, so there would have been at least another girl in with her—maybe more. And anyway, a woman in Hannah’s position would have had very few belongings: a couple of dresses, an outdoor cloak, her shoes. She would not have had any way of concealing it in her room. No, I think she would have chosen somewhere inside the house—not in the servants’ quarters—somewhere she thought would not be disturbed.”

  “Okay, if you say so. But where? This place is huge. We can’t search it all; we only have today, and then we’re leaving. There just isn’t enough time.”

  “I’ve got an idea where we can look.”

  “Where?”

  “Well, you might not like it, but—”

  “Where?”

  “Honoria’s bedroom.”

  “We can’t do that, Charlie. That’s awful—”

  “Hear me out. If you don’t want to do it, I’ll do it. You can wait outside.”

  “But she’s an old lady, and she’s kind. We can’t go through her things. It’s just wrong.”

  “I’m not going to go through her things, Evie. If this document were sitting in a drawer somewhere, it would have been found. I would just check behind paintings and around the fireplace for secret compartments. I’d check the floor for loose sections and look under the bed. The thing is, in these grand houses, the mistress’s chambers are handed down from generation to generation. The old widow goes to the dower house, and the new lady of the manor goes into her bedroom. So chances are that Honoria sleeps in the room that Elizabeth slept in. It’s an obvious place. We can’t go away without looking, especially with Cressida sniffing around.”

  Evie imagined Cressida Carter arriving in that very room for tea and cakes and went cold at the thought. Her face whitened, and she shivered.

  ***

  Charlie knew that he had forced her too far, that the sum total of dishonesty and trickery was about to push her over. He sat beside her on the chaise and looked straight ahead at Mrs. Darcy and Her Daughters.

  “Look, I know you don’t want to do it, so I’ll do it. All you need to do is keep watch in the corridor. I’ll be in and out in no time, and nobody will know. I won’t disturb her things. I like her too. I know that you don’t believe me, but ransacking old ladies’ bedrooms isn’t my bag either.”

  “Really?”

  “Of course not.”

  “But you do this sort of thing for a living. Doesn’t it ever bother you? Don’t you ever feel sorry for the people you prey on? Don’t you ever worry that maybe you shouldn’t be doing it?”

  He paused and looked down at his hands. The truth was that until he had met Evie, he had never been troubled by it for more than a moment. His work was his work. He did it. He was good at it. There was nothing else to say and nothing else to think about. It ha
d made him rich. It had saved him and Mum when the chips were down. It gave him some way of filling time between spending money and sleeping with women he didn’t love. Occasionally, he had thought of the heart-melting, soul-elevating goodness of his father and felt ashamed, but that was a fleeting thing. It was there in his mind, and then it was gone and worrying him no longer. Now, this woman had come into his life, uninvited, and turned the whole thing on its head.

  “Of course, I do.”

  His words appeared to startle her. She looked straight at him, and Charlie sensed that a question whispering around both of them for a long time was growing loud and starting to scream for an answer.

  “Charlie?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Why are you doing this?”

  A moment of quiet crackled between them.

  “Can’t you guess?”

  “I don’t want to guess. I might guess wrong. Tell me.”

  “Well”—he looked down at his feet and laughed uncomfortably—“I’m doing this because I like you. I like you, and I want to be with you. I want you to be safe and happy, and I don’t want you to lose everything. I understand that you don’t feel like that about me and probably still hate my guts, but there it is. Even if I never see you again after tomorrow, I’m still going to do this for you.”

  There was a slow, thick, eddying silence. Evie coloured, seeming to take it in. Eventually, she spoke.

  “Thank you.”

  It was decided that, since the Darcys were going out in the afternoon, it was the ideal time to tackle Honoria’s room. In between, they passed time in the drawing room, glancing through the sketches, Evie with her notepad out on her knee in case James or Honoria should come in. After a while and as the morning drew on, the sunshine blazing through the huge windows was too inviting, and they went outside. The green of the grass as it rose up to the edge of the wood was almost blinding, and when Evie looked back at the house, she thought it looked like an animal nestled in the landscape, lying in wait. The bloom of the summer had largely died, and there were some leaves falling and mixing with the freshly mowed grass that collected on the soles of their shoes.