Darcy glanced back at the men working diligently behind them.“Elizabeth and I decided I should stake the bodies when we sent the others in to meals. It is a ghastly business, Damon.”
“Could you not use the coins?”
“As with Wickham’s skeleton, I wish to safeguard against the possibility of this happening again. It is not of my nature to second guess if I did all I could to stop this madness.”
Damon touched Darcy’s shoulder.“Then see it through, Cousin. Are you in need of my services in dealing with Lady Ellender?”
“I am not sure I have the stomach.” Darcy stared off into the cloudy sky. “I railed against the heavens because of her, and now I am asked to deliver her to a forgiving God. How may I mete out my own forgiveness?”
“Would you not, Darcy, make such a decision to save Elizabeth? I dare say she would for you.Anyone with half an eye could see that.”
“Do you truly believe as such, Damon?”
It was now Damon’s turn to look for something not there. “Darcy, you are the golden child—the heir to one of the most beautiful estates in all England, massive wealth, a handsome countenance, wit and intelligence, acceptance by society—however, I never was jealous of you in any matter until now. What man in England would not give up all his worldly goods for such a love? I cannot imagine such a one exists; and yet you continue to doubt, first, that you
Darcy’s sky blue eyes softened. “How did you become so wise, Cousin?”
“I must excel over you in at least one way, Darcy.” Damon smiled as the ease between them returned. “Now, if you will excuse me, I have a prior engagement with an island.” Damon strode away to the waiting wagon.
Darcy blessed the heavens for placing his cousin on the London Road at the same time as Elizabeth left Pemberley. Without the colonel’s help, this excursion would have had a disastrous conclusion; from delivering the final blow to Wickham to protecting Elizabeth, the results would have been quite different.
Reluctantly, Darcy returned to the task at hand. The men opened five graves. It was time for Darcy to go to work. “Gentlemen,” he called out to the workers,“the colonel brought us breakfast. If you care to enter the church, my wife has everything laid out in the rectory.”
The men immediately dropped the shovels and the pickaxes they had brought for the job.They good-naturedly made their way to the back of the church, thankful for the food and the break from such morbid work. None of them understood the logic of digging up a grave simply to fill it back in, but for a month’s wages for a day’s work, they would take orders from the Devil himself.
While the workers were busy sharing stories and food, Darcy took what he needed to address the bodies already exposed: six stakes, six coins, a bar to leverage each coffin lid, and a small hammer. Reaching the first of the exposed openings, he took off his coat and placed it on one of the nearby benches, and then he climbed down into the grave, the earth banked on either side of him. Finding a narrow foothold beside the wooden box, he wedged the lever between the sealed wood. Tapping with the hammer, he popped one of the nails, giving him the opening he needed.Then it was only a matter of moments before he lifted the lid on the resting place of the girl who had been the first to attack Damon during the early morning hours of the new day.
The girl in her white coming-out dress rested, as if in sleep. Her appearance shocked Darcy, for he had half expected a decomposed skeleton. Instead, before him lay a body in repose. Her full face appeared flushed, as if in permanent blush; her only apparent imperfection was badly scraped knuckles and fingernails. Automatically, Darcy looked at the inside of the coffin lid. Frighteningly, scratch marks, signs of the struggle to be set free, crisscrossed the closure.
Pulling back the supple lips, Darcy pried the girl’s mouth open.The soft fullness of her mouth gave way to elongated teeth protruding from pink gums. He wedged a finger between the teeth and slipped the coin in.Then he readjusted the girl’s mouth into a smile.
“You are a beautiful child,” he mused. “You will forgive me, I pray.” He placed the stake above her heart. “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”Then he struck the blunted end of the ashen wood with the hammer, driving in deep into her
Unable to look upon the girl’s face again, he repositioned the lid and nailed it closed. “At least, now I know what to expect. It will get easier with each one.” He climbed onto the coffin and painfully pulled himself to the surface.
Learning from his mistakes, Darcy became quite adept at meting out eternity. He dispensed with four others before the men returned to work. “These may be filled in again,” he instructed Gordy.“Keep digging until all of them have been opened.”
“We be workin’ in pairs, Sir. It not be long.The men thinkin’ to leave before dark.”
“As soon as the work is finished, Gordy, they are free to leave. The sooner, the better for all of us. But remind them that I am paying for the work to be complete.” Darcy picked up his tools and moved to Lady Ellender’s chambers.
A few minutes later, Elizabeth found him there. “You did not come to eat, my Husband.”
Darcy sat in deep contemplation, perched on the ledge inside the iron gate. He looked up with Elizabeth’s approach. “I seem to have lost my appetite.” He reached for her and lifted Elizabeth to sit beside him.
Elizabeth took his hand and brought the palm to her mouth. The featherlike kiss placed the shadow of a smile on his lips. “We have lived a lifetime these past three months,” she mused out loud.
“Only three months?” he chuckled. “I feel that I have known you all my life.”
“Because we just began to live when we found each other.” Still holding his hand in hers, she traced his lifeline with her index finger.
Darcy cupped her chin in his other hand.“Damon says we have a great love, one to surpass that of our famous relatives.”
