Page 36 of A Matter of Murder
Lizzie pulled Charlotte to the left, and she could hear Guy just ahead of her, leading the way. Lizzie took tentative steps forward, sweeping her arm left and right as she went. Charlotte clung to her shoulders, barely a step behind her. They made their way like this for what felt like a few hundred more steps, turning left then and right again. Lizzie lost all sense of direction, and there was a part of her that began to worry that they truly wouldbe lost in the bowels of Netherfield Park, never to be heard from or seen again. She felt vaguely glad that Darcy was not here—he was utterly useless in dark, enclosed spaces and would be panicking even more than Charlotte.
Darcy. She could just imagine what he’d say when she saw him next.You found a secret corridor and just went down it? With no lantern? Do you not value your life?
At the final turn—to the left—Lizzie blinked. “Charlotte, can you see that?”
“I can’t see anything, Lizzie!”
“No, but... I swear it’s lighter in here. I think there must be a way out up ahead.”
“Oh, thank God,” Charlotte breathed.
Lizzie was sure of it now. She still couldn’t see much, but the corridor seemed to take on an amorphous shape before her eyes rather than just an endless stretch of black. And the more steps they took, the more defined the space became. Finally, her eyes adjusted, and she saw the shape of a door standing ajar.
“Charlotte, look!” Lizzie said. “We’re almost out.”
They picked up the pace, even Guy, and Lizzie could now make out the cream-colored shape of him before her. They came to the end of the enclosed space and burst into a lonely hallway with grimy windows overlooking the forest that enveloped Netherfield Park.
“Never. Again.” Charlotte held a hand to her chest and shook her head. “Elizabeth Bennet, you’re far too adventurous for your own good.”
“So everyone tells me,” Lizzie said, laughing. “Look—you’re covered in dust!”
“Look at yourself! You have cobwebs in your hair!”
“Nothing a bath won’t fix,” Lizzie said with a laugh. She looked down and showered Guy with pats. He was similarly grimy. “I think you also have earned a bath, sir.”
They were so giddy at finally finding their way out, Lizzie didn’t think about where they were until Charlotte grew serious as she gazed out the window. “Lizzie, are we in the east wing?”
All laughter dried on Lizzie’s lips as she gazed out the windows. “Oh. I think so.”
She walked up to a window and ran a finger across a pane and inspected the pad of her finger. It was dark. Soot. The plaster walls around her were not just darkened with time—they were damaged and smoke-stained, and extensively cracked in more than a few places. Above her, giant chunks of plaster had fallen from the ceiling, revealing the laths beneath them. The air was stale and still, and every stray creak of the floorboard beneath her put Lizzie on edge.
“How have we come all the way to the opposite end of the house?” Charlotte asked, panic back in her voice. “I thought Bingley said the east wing was closed off!”
“It is, but he must not know about the servant corridors,” Lizzie said, looking back at where they’d emerged. She wasn’t eager to revisit it without light.
“How do we get out?” Charlotte asked. “We can’t go back the way we came.”
Lizzie thought for a moment. They could try to find their way to the original door and pound on it until someone came and rescued them. But that could be hours from now. Or...
She looked up and down the hallway, which stretched to either side for at least twenty paces. She peered out the window and oriented herself toward the front of the house. If they could make their way, carefully, to the front of the house, they’d find the door that separated this wing from the rest of the house. They could knock on that until someone heard, and considering the door to the east wing was very close to the landing where they’d begun their journey, it was far more likely that someone would hear and open the door for them.
It would also mean they wouldn’t have to wander around through the dark again.
“We’ll move very carefully to the center of the house,” Lizzie decided.
“Is it safe?”
“Well... plaster damage aside, these floors and walls look solid enough,” Lizzie said. “Bingley just said the wing wasn’t entirely suitable for guests, but I doubt that means we’ll fall through.”
“All right,” Charlotte agreed. “Anything but going back the way we came.”
They crept down the hall the way they’d moved through the servant corridor—Guy in front, Lizzie in the middle, and Charlotte bringing up the rear. Lizzie couldn’t help but let her gaze wander as they carefully stepped down the creaking hallway—thispart of the house was not as evenly proportioned as the west and central wings. Alcoves and strange corners hid doorways into rooms she desperately wanted to explore, and streaks of soot and warped wood finish betrayed the fire that had occurred decades earlier. Lizzie was beginning to doubt the treasure actually existed. If Honoria had access to a pile of silver, why hide it when her home desperately needed repairs?
Lizzie and Charlotte followed a strange, angling passage that led them past empty rooms with damaged or destroyed furnishings boasting heavy layers of gray dust that covered what appeared to be more black soot. Lizzie got the impression that they were headed toward where the fire had been the worst. But very soon, they came to a turn, and when Lizzie peered out the nearest window, she saw with relief that it overlooked the front of the house. “We’re back to the front,” she said. “Which means that door at the end of this hall is probably our way out,” she told Charlotte. “See, that wasn’t so bad. We’ll be out in just a—AH!”
A shriek of surprise ripped out of Lizzie as she felt her right foot plunge through the floor and into nothingness. She fell forward, catching herself on her hands, and tried to dislodge her right leg, but it was caught between splintered floorboards at the knee, and fiery pain ripped through her. Charlotte shrieked when Lizzie went down, somehow managing to throw herself to the left, away from where the floor had given way.
“Lizzie!”