Darkness Falls Upon Pemberley Read Online Free PDF

within your power to offer him far more than any local butcher-turned-apothecary. In fact, after seeing you standing here as you live and breathe, I’m willing to bet my life on it.”
    Elizabeth turned aside her head. “Then you are delusional. Human life is not something to be bartered, but revered; cherished and protected at all costs. Nothing should be allowed to taint or poison it.”
    “And so long as you are here, my dear lady, I have no doubt it shall be so, which is why I implore you—out of the goodness of your heart—to help my master. Indeed, you must.”
    “Indeed, I cannot. If it was within my power to do so, I swear to you I would, but I have no such ability. As I told you before, I am no surgeon. In fact, I am—in every way—exactly the opposite of what your master requires. It pains me to say it, but Mr. Darcy’s recovery must be left to Mr. Jones. I can only pray it will be enough.”
    Jennings, however, would hear none of it and, with a steely glint of determination, said forcefully, “It will certainly not be enough, Miss Bennet, not by any means!
    “I’ve known Mr. Darcy since he was a boy. My loyalty and affection for him—for the entire Darcy family—is deeply rooted, as was my father’s and his father’s before him. I cannot simply stand by and do nothing for my master when his life is at stake, not when I know of a way to help.
    “Miss Bennet,” he said earnestly, “the general concurrence is that Mr. Darcy is highly unlikely to overcome this illness without intervention; therefore, certain concessions will have to be made immediately. I’m willing to accept full responsibility for any and all consequences incurred by those concessions, no matter their nature. When you save him—for there is no other option before us—I will continue to guard your secrets and those of your family as closely as I have my master’s. I swear it.”
    Elizabeth shook her head. “I have no secrets,” she began indignantly, but Jennings silenced her with one hard look.
    “Unlike your neighbours, I am neither ignorant, nor blind. I know what you are, just as I know precisely what is and is not within your power.”
    The silence that followed was neither easy, nor comfortable, but thick and suffocating; charged, as though the entire room and everything in it might implode at any moment. Darcy’s heavy-lidded gaze flickered between Jennings and Elizabeth with increasing unease, a growing sense of urgency mounting in his breast.
    Then, before his eyes, Elizabeth underwent a shocking metamorphosis that made his blood run cold. No longer was she the delightful, teasing young woman he admired so ardently, but a foreign, esoteric creature whose entire presence radiated acute and immediate danger.
    There was something disturbingly familiar about the dark glint in her eyes, though; the slow curl of her mouth; the way she moved—methodically, determinedly, with an ethereal grace that chilled him to the bone. Her slender body seemed to glide toward Jennings as her candle cast heavy, distorted shadows on the bedchamber walls and all that lay within.
    “You presume a great deal, then,” she hissed, her voice uncharacteristically menacing, “and it is because you presume a great deal that I must caution you to keep your presumptions to yourself from this moment forward, or you may find yourself in a dangerous predicament from which you will never recover!”
    Despite the sinister image Elizabeth presented, Jennings did not shrink from her, but stood his ground, meeting her baleful stare wit h every appearance of composure and no hint of fear. “In my opinion, madam, the only person in this room currently facing a dangerous predicament from which he may never recover is my poor master.
    “As for your other charges, I am Mr. Darcy’s valet. While it isn’t my place to presume anything about anyone, as his oldest and most trusted servant it is my duty to make observations, especially pertaining to my master