Page 76 of A Matter of Murder
“It’s all right, Mr. Grigson,” Jane said. “Fetch her some water, please.”
“Miss Jeffries, did you run here?” Lizzie asked.
“Yes,” she said, straightening up. “Mrs. Bingley, please, you must call for Sally Burton. It’s urgent.”
“What is the matter?” Lizzie asked. She felt her pulse pick up. “Did something happen?”
“She has to come quick, before it’s too late!”
“I’ll go fetch her,” Charlotte said, and spun on her heels.
Jane guided Miss Jeffries to a chair against the wall of the foyer, and Lizzie followed. “Take a deep breath and tell me what happened.”
“It’s her grandparents,” Miss Jeffries said.
Lizzie went still with dread. “Oh no. Did something happen to her grandmother?”
“No—I mean, yes. But not just her. The both of them. Mr. Layne is in Meryton today!”
“Who’s he?”
“The justice of the peace,” Jane said. “He lives on the other side of Kimpton but comes to Meryton once a week to hear complaints. Charles knows him, and I’ve meant to have him to dinner but—oh, never mind. Miss Jeffries, what do the Burtons have to do with Mr. Layne?”
Lizzie’s sense of dread returned, and she wasn’t at all surprised when Miss Jeffries said, “Mr. Oliver has set out for the Burton cottage. Word is he intends to bring Sally’s grandparents before Mr. Layne on the accusation that they were involved in the murder of the man here at Netherfield!”
Lizzie heard the clatter of something falling behind her. She turned to find Sally standing at the other end of the foyer, feather duster at her feet. “What?” she demanded.
“Sally, I’m sorry—I doubted I could stop him, so I ran here as fast as I could!”
“I must go,” Sally said, and without further ado, she took off through the front door at a run.
“Sally!” Mr. Grigson shouted after her, but it was no use. He turned back to the ladies and muttered, “If one more maid flees this house through the front door...”
“Find Darcy and tell him to come!” Lizzie said to her sister and Charlotte. “I’m going with her.”
Lizzie didn’t wait for a response. She picked up her skirts and ran after Sally. The other girl had covered a surprising distance in just a few moments.
“What are you doing?” Sally demanded when she took note of Lizzie following.
“If Mr. Oliver has evidence against your grandparents, I want to hear it.”
“I’m not going to slow down for you,” Sally warned. She was not quite running anymore, but she was moving much faster than a brisk walk.
“I wouldn’t expect you to.”
The village was two miles away, too far to run the entire way in their long skirts, but Lizzie had to concentrate to keep up with Sally’s grueling pace, and it wasn’t long before sweat began to pour down her back and the sides of her face. Her shin hadn’t been injured very badly when her leg fell through the floorboards in the east wing, but it wasn’t long before she felt the scrape and the soreness in her every step as she trailed just a bit behind Sally, unwilling to let her get too far ahead. Sally led her off the estate grounds through a track in the woods, which fed directly into the path that ran parallel to the lane, the same one Lizzie and Darcy had spotted her on just a few days earlier.
All the while, questions swirled. Had Mr. Oliver uncovered new evidence? Everything he had now was circumstantial... but people had been known to hang for less. When they were more than halfway there and Lizzie’s feet were screaming in protest, she heard the familiar rumble of a gig not too far away.She turned and saw a carriage with Bingley’s crest rolling down the lane toward them from the direction of Netherfield. “Sally, look,” she said, pointing at the carriage. “Come on.”
Sally shook her head, not wanting to deviate from her path, but Lizzie surged forward to take her by the arm and dragged her to the lane. “It’ll be faster this way, trust me. Besides, you don’t want to arrive so out of breath that you can barely speak.”
The carriage rolled to an abrupt stop in the lane, and Sally relented. They cut through the long grass, and the carriage door was flung open. Darcy leaned out and simply offered a hand, and Lizzie felt a pang of love for him just then that was altogether inappropriate considering the urgency of the situation.
“You’re a savior,” she said with a sigh, allowing Sally to go first. He simply shook his head, but there was a small smile there, too, as he pulled her in next, and she found that Charlotte and Miss Jeffries were already inside, Guy perched on Charlotte’s lap.
The carriage lurched into motion the moment Darcy closed the door after himself. He and Lizzie sat across from the other ladies. “What do we know?” he asked them.
“Mr. Oliver intends to bring Sally’s grandparents before Mr. Layne,” Miss Jeffries said. “He wants to formally accuse them of murdering that man and putting him in a flue at Netherfield Park.”