Page 18 of The Widower of Pemberley

Elizabeth did not move at first, having been knocked half senseless and wholly lost her breath.

A puddle formed around her as the rain soaked through her coat, the contact with the ground freezing her to the bone. Her head hurt, but not much; she did not think she had hit it.

The fall had only knocked the air out of her lungs.

Was anything broken?

Pain radiated up from her right foot, but at least it gave her a happy confidence that she had not harmed her spine. That was an excellent silver lining to accompany the discomfort.

Elizabeth experimentally rotated her ankle; it went all the way round but with a sharp twinge at a certain point. She shook out her arm. The elbow hurt but moved through a wide range of motion.

She would catch her death of cold if she stayed on the ground until someone wandered by.

It took another wet, freezing minute before Elizabeth forced her body upright, encouraging herself with cheerful oaths about never sitting on the back of one of those ornery animals again.

Nelly was still there, standing dolefully in the rain and looking at Elizabeth with what shethoughtwere concerned eyes.

The loyalty of the animal, by staying near her, touched Elizabeth, and she retracted a small number of the angry thoughts directed in her mind towards all that was equine.

But when Elizabeth managed to haul herself to her feet and limp towards the horse, Nelly shied away and refused to let her grasp the bridle.

Elizabeth held no resentment towards the animal for this. Hadshebeen in Nelly’s position,shewould not have allowed Elizabeth even this close.

Rather than making a useless effort to get back into the saddle without the help of a servant or mounting block, Elizabeth pulled a loose slat out of the fence that ran alongside the road and used it to support herself as she hobbled towards Netherfield, followed at a mistrustful distance by Nelly.

The short walk to Netherfield House proved to be far longer than usual when Elizabeth could barely support herself on one leg.

To her relief, when she had made it part way through the park, she was seen by a servant, and Georgiana herself hurried out carrying a big umbrella and followed by two footmen.

“Lizzy! What happened to you?”

Elizabeth let out a long sigh. “My horse was startled by thunder and I fell.”

“That huge lightning strike half an hour ago? You are soaked!”

“And muddy,” Elizabeth agreed.

“Come inside! You will become ill. Why ever did you not take the carriage?” Georgiana took Elizabeth’s arm and helped support her across the walk up to the grand entrance to the house, while a groom came out from the stables to grab Nelly.

She did not, Elizabeth noted without resentment, shy away fromhim.

“That,” Elizabeth replied, “is an excellent question. But whatever the reason was, it was without any doubt a mistake.”

Georgiana laughed, though her face remained concerned as Elizabeth leaned heavily on her. “We shall call a physician to look at your ankle.”

“Just send for Mr. Jones, the local apothecary. But it is not necessary. I am reasonably confident it is not broken. I could not have managed to walk half a mile on it if it were.”

And then she was inside.

Blessed, glorious warmth.

A little girl whose face looked remarkably like Mr. Darcy’s stood in the entrance hall watching, but as soon as Elizabeth turned to smile at her, she immediately ran and hid behind a door, making Elizabeth laugh.

The servants stripped Elizabeth of her coat, and Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley exclaimed in delighted horror at her appearance. Georgiana made the decision that Elizabeth must receive fresh clothes and that she would offer one of her gowns to her.

By pulling herself up the staircase by the banister rail, Elizabeth managed to reach the upper floor, and Georgiana took her to her room to be dressed by her maid. The servant stripped all of Elizabeth’s soaked clothes off and rubbed her fiercely with a towel before putting her in a dry chemise of Georgiana’s and then a gown that was slightly too large for her frame while also being finer than anything she owned.

After a few minutes, little Miss Emily Darcy crept in.