Beside Two Rivers

34





Dew lay on the grass and crackled beneath Darcy’s shoes. Walking at a steady pace, she had no worry for rain. The joy of knowing she was headed for Fairview, for the warm embrace of Ethan, drenched her soul. She’d see her mother, her poor lost father. And finally, they’d sail away across a blue welcoming ocean back to America, to the Potomac and the home she loved.

After passing through the gates, she stood a moment looking down the road. If they had come from Havendale that way, then the logical thing was to head in that direction. Yes, to the south, and then beyond Havendale she’d come to Fairview. On she went, keeping to the road where a marker pointed the way toward the villages nestled in the Hope Valley. Prints from horse and wagon were deep in the mud; trees sparse, and old Roman walls lined the road.

She found herself walking on a hill overlooking a vale. The wind bore through her cloak and fought its way in to chill her limbs. She wrapped it closer against her body and shivered. Reaching an outcropping of stone, she climbed it to see farther into the valley. She stood on a rise of rock that jutted up from the earth in layers of gray limestone. It came faintly to her at first, the sound of a horse pounding over the mossy turf. She turned and when her eyes fixed on the rider heading her way, she cried out, “Ethan! Ethan!”

He slowed Sanchet, stopped and looked toward the sound of her voice, then urging his mount with his heels, he raced the horse up the slope toward her. Anxious to meet him, Darcy took a step down, then another.

“Ethan!” she called to him. “I am here!” She watched him spur his horse to a quicker pace and her heart raced with each beat of Sanchet’s hooves.

Halfway down the cliff the rocks began to slip. Then they gave way. She cried out, reached and grabbed for something to keep her from falling. As she slid down the ledge, the rocks cut into her hands and arms. With nothing to hold her, she felt only space about her, as if time had slowed. Her cloak spread out like the wings of a bird, her arms outstretched. Then the air within her lungs was forced out when she landed on the ground several feet below. The world went black, then returned in a daze. She heard a horse halt near her, heard it blow out its nostrils. Hurried steps came to her; Ethan’s voice was so anxious and alarmed.

Opening her eyes, she beheld him kneeling over her, his eyes flooded with worry. “Darcy. Are you badly hurt?” he asked breathless.

“I have had a bad fall. When I saw you, I wanted to climb down to you. I have never had such a bad fall before.”

“Tragic as it is, something like this was bound to happen. What were you thinking to climb way up there?”

“You know … I am naturally curious.” She found it difficult to inhale, to speak.

He arranged her hands around his neck and went to lift her. Pain shot through her body and she felt the blood rush from her face and pressure pulse through her temples. “It hurts to move. My legs feel numb.” Alarmed at this, she felt tears well. She forced them back when she saw the great distress that sprang in Ethan’s eyes.

“We must hurry.” His arms went beneath her and he gathered her close against his breast and carried her. Before them was a grassy ascent beside the broken line of rocks. Up the hill he went with her pressing against him, shielding her face from the wind. Reaching Sanchet, Ethan wished he could plunge his boot into the stirrup and swing up.

“Keep your arms about me if you can, my love, and hold tight.”

Darcy locked her fingers. “I shall try.”

“We have a long walk ahead, but we will make it.”

He hurried on with her in his arms, descending the hill to more level ground. Sanchet followed, shook his mane and snorted. Though pain coursed through her body, and her legs seemed weightless, she felt safe with her arms around his neck, and his arms holding her close against him.




The next things Darcy was aware of when she opened her eyes were the flame of a candle and the darkness of night through the windows in the room where she lay. She heard a small clock ding the hour of nine. Figures moved about the room and she heard them whisper. Someone lifted her hand and pressed kisses against her fingers.

“Ethan?” She gazed up at him. His eyes were warm for her.

“I am here, Darcy.”

“Am I at Fairview?”

“Yes, darling.”

“What happened?”

“You fell. Lie still.”

“Yes, I fell. Stupid of me, wasn’t it? How many times does this make that you have come to my rescue?”

“A few. But that is why God put me here—to watch over you—to love you.”

Darcy could feel the glow in her eyes as she gazed at him. He was her guardian, her protector, planned from the beginning of time.

She tried to sit up. When she could not, fear shot through her. “My legs.” Frightened, she reached down. “I cannot feel them. I cannot move them.”

Another person approached, a face she did not know, a man with great white whiskers lining his jaw, and a shock of gray hair neat about a round face. “Miss Darcy, I am Doctor Viers. You have had a terrible injury. Lie as still as you can.”

Darcy ceased struggling and looked up at him with questioning eyes.

“You can thank Mr. Brennan for carrying you all the way to Fairview and then riding several miles to bring me back. I am rarely called to this part of Derbyshire, for it is a long way for me to travel, but he explained how urgent it was that I come.”

Darcy looked over at Ethan. “Thank you,” she said quietly.

The doctor lifted her wrist and timed her pulse with his watch. “The fall has caused paralysis to your legs. Now, in time, if you are careful, you may recover. But there is the chance you may be permanently crippled. It all depends on the extent of the injury you incurred.”

No. It could not happen to her. She had to return home, walk the river paths, and climb the bluffs. She had to ride and fish, dance at country balls, and sit in her favorite spot in the little church near River Run. How could she be any kind of a wife to Ethan as a cripple?

“You are wrong. I can walk. See, let me show you.” And she threw back the sheets and covers, and pushed her legs over the side of the bed.

“Darcy, no.” Ethan stopped her.

She waited, looking into his eyes, trembling.

He asked Doctor Viers to leave the room, and when the door closed, Ethan cupped his hands around Darcy’s face. “You must be patient.”

“I am damaged.” She lowered her eyes and began to cry. “I do not expect anything from you. I release you.”

“You think I love you any less? You think I would abandon you? I love you, Darcy.” He drew her into his arms and embraced her hard. “You are the dearest thing to me and you are to be my wife.”

“A crippled wife. No, Ethan.”

“And as my wife,” he went on, “I expect you to listen to me.” He said this with a quick smile. “I know how hard that will be for you to do, but I insist upon it. We will post the banns, be married in a fortnight, and then leave for Maryland. Your father left us River Run, and with what money I acquire from the sale of Fairview, we will restore the house and buy anything you wish to fill it with. Not only that, your mother and Fiona are coming with us.”

“My mother and Fiona? I remember Fiona. She was good to me.” A strange memory ran through Darcy’s mind. She saw herself in Fiona’s arms beneath a floor hugging a doll, looking up at the light seeping through the crack. “There was a time she protected me.”

“Yes, and she and your mother cannot wait to talk to you. They are just outside the door.” He rose to call them.

Darcy held out her hand. “First, what has happened to my father?”

Ethan’s smile left his handsome face. “His suffering ended the hour before I returned with you.”

Darcy let out a long breath, grieved he had gone, sorry she had not been there to hold his hand. “And so did Madeline’s. She passed in her sleep at Meadlow.”

Ethan lowered his head. “I am sorry over both. But glad they are in heaven together, Darcy. Try not to grieve too hard.”

“And my mother? Is she well?”

“In body, but her heart is broken that you are hurt. She wants to talk to you. May I call her in?”

Darcy’s heart lightened. Would her mother look the way she remembered, her hair dark, with motherly hands that held her, and a voice tender and sweet? Now to be reconciled seemed to vanquish the former pain, the losses she had endured, the trial she faced.

She pressed Ethan’s hand against her cheek. “Please, Ethan. Call her. Tell her I need her now more than ever.”