married. The Ancient believes in the old ways, that every vampyre bride should be his on her wedding night, and he is determined to have you. He has a friend, a prince, who means to invite you to his villa. If you value your sanity, do not go.’
‘Your warning comes too late,’ said Elizabeth. ‘We have already been, and the Ancient has already tried to claim me.’
‘Impossible!’ said Lady Catherine. ‘If he had found you, you would never have escaped.’
‘But I did escape, with Darcy’s help.’
‘Darcy? But then that must mean…’ she said, giving Elizabeth a shrewd glance.
‘Yes, I know about Darcy,’ said Elizabeth boldly.
‘And you have not fled in disgust or despair?’ asked Lady Catherine in surprise.
‘As you see, I am still here.’
‘You surprise me. You have more courage than I thought,’ she said with grudging admiration. ‘But it will do you no good. You will succumb to fear or loathing in the end. When a mortal loves a vampyre, it is always the way.’
‘No, Mama,’ said Anne. ‘Papa never did.’
‘Your Papa was the exception,’ said Lady Catherine. Her expression softened. ‘He was exceptional in every way.’
‘I believe that Elizabeth is exceptional, too,’ said Anne, turning appraising eyes on Elizabeth.
‘She is nothing out of the ordinary,’ said Lady Catherine with a dismissive wave of her hand.
‘She captured Darcy, and that is something no one else has ever been able to do,’ said Anne.
Lady Catherine looked at Anne and said, ‘There may be something in what you say. But no matter, it is not important now. What matters is that you claim Darcy saved you from the Ancient. And yet that should not be. Now that the Ancient has reclaimed so much of his former strength, no one can withstand him.’
‘It was not easy,’ said Elizabeth. ‘But when he picked Darcy up by the throat, his hand began to burn. I believe it was because it closed round the cross.’
‘A cross could not hurt him,’ said Lady Catherine contemptuously. ‘A vampyre can only be hurt by something older than itself, and the Ancient was old when Christ was young. Besides, why would Darcy be wearing a cross? He would never wear such a thing.’
‘Because I gave it to him,’ said Elizabeth.
‘Because you…?’ asked Lady Catherine, stunned. Then, to Elizabeth’s astonishment, she smiled. ‘So that is how Darcy managed to defeat the Ancient. I was wrong about you, Miss Bennet—no, I will not call you by that name, I will call you by your true name, Mrs Darcy. You were meant to be together, I see that now, as Sir Lewis was meant to be with me. Instead of giving you my curse, I will give you my blessing.’ She lifted her veil and leant forward to kiss Elizabeth on the cheek. ‘He was not burnt by the cross, he was burnt by your gift: he was burnt by—’
She was suddenly, without warning, knocked back with great force and Elizabeth, startled, saw that Darcy now stood between her and Lady Catherine. He had returned from his errand and, seeing Lady Catherine’s pose, he had moved with supernatural speed to defend Elizabeth.
‘Did she hurt you?’ he asked, taking Elizabeth’s face in his hands and looking at her in concern. ‘Did she touch you? Did she bite you?’
‘No,’ Elizabeth said, reassuring him. ‘You don’t understand. She was not threatening me. She came to warn me about the Ancient, but when she knew you had defeated him, she wished us well. She sees now we cannot be parted.’
He looked astonished and then smiled.
‘I hoped she would see it eventually. She loved a mortal; she knows what it is like to be unable to give up a loved one.’
He turned to help Lady Catherine to her feet, but she was no longer there.
Although he had given her the lightest of taps, the strength of it had hurled her across the beach and into the cliff. But such a blow, whilst it would have been capable of killing a mortal, had done no harm to Lady Catherine. Elizabeth saw her picking herself up and heading for the path that led from the beach, with Anne behind her, leaving an indentation in the cliff. So powerful had the blow been that it had driven her veil into the rock where it remained, blowing in the breeze.
‘We came to understand one another a little,’ said Elizabeth, watching Lady Catherine go. ‘She did not have time to finish her sentence, but I know what she was going to say.