nest, tangled and matted with pieces of twig and leaf clinging to it. Her clothes looked as though they had been slept in, as indeed they had, and her face was streaked with dirt. If she had not entered the inn with Darcy, at a place where he was well-known, she was sure she would have been driven out as a vagrant.
She removed her clothes gratefully, sinking into the luxurious water with a sigh of contentment. At last, when her fingers began to crinkle, she washed her hair and stepped out of the bath. She dried herself on a fluffy towel and then sat before the fire to dry her hair.
When it was almost dry, the innkeeper’s wife entered the room with a maid behind her, bearing a bowl of soup and a large hunk of bread, and Elizabeth ate it thankfully. It was followed by a meal that was unknown to her, with a meaty sauce ladled over something neither soft nor hard, pale gold in colour, and cut into long, thin strips. She had great difficulty eating it and was glad she had elected to dine in her room, since much of the sauce ended up on her chin! But it was tasty, and when it was finished, she felt replete.
She went over to the dressing table where she brushed the tangles out of her hair and as she did so, her mind drifted back over the strange and wonderful events of the last few days.
She had thought about little on the journey across the Alps; indeed, the way had been so treacherous and so sublime that she had had little time to think of anything but picking her way amongst the crags or looking with awe at the magnificent views. But now she recalled the danger of all
those at the castle and she could not put their fate from her mind.
She tried to tell herself that they would be unharmed, and that Darcy had been right when he had reassured her that all would be well, saying that the Count had survived worse. She reminded herself of the thick walls of the castle and the drawbridge and the mercenaries, but she could not be reconciled. If there had been no danger, then why had they fled, undertaking such an arduous if breathtaking journey?
She thought of the Count’s strange words, Get her away from here. It is her they will not stand for, and wondered if she could have heard them aright. Try as she might, she could not see how they made any kind of sense. And yet she and Darcy had left the castle soon afterwards. It was a riddle without an answer; another riddle without an answer, for her life was becoming increasingly full of them.
And yet her life was full of joys, too.
Now that she had left the discomforts of the journey behind, she could recall the marvellous and wonderful sights of the last few days with more and more pleasure, both the unexpected heights of the mountains and the unexpected depths of her husband’s character. She remembered his tenderness, and with quiet wonder, she recalled the expression of pure love on his face when she had woken to find him watching over her.
The next few days were busy with all the necessary activities attendant on their sudden arrival without any of their possessions.
The local dressmaker visited Elizabeth in her rooms and promised her some new clothes pronto. Luckily, Susa was a stop for many of the English travellers who visited Italy, and the dressmaker was used to meeting the needs of ladies who were newly arrived in the country. She knew that they required clothes in the Italian fashion, and that they required them quickly, and so she kept a store of dresses ready cut and half sewn in a variety of sizes. She arrived with three attendants who carried boxes of such dresses, and Elizabeth spent a delightful morning trying on a multitude of garments. As she viewed each one in the mirror, the dressmaker pinned and tucked and hemmed until the fit was right, and then Elizabeth stepped out of them, taking care not to scratch herself on the pins.
At last the dressmaker left, promising Elizabeth that at least one of the dresses would be ready by the following morning and that the rest would follow soon afterwards.
Darcy too needed clothes, and he had a visit from the local tailor, who fitted him out for a new wardrobe.
As they were finishing