As soon as the Prince saw her he slipped away, leaving his guests singing and talking together, and joined her by the door. He took the note from her, promising to make sure that Darcy received it, and told her that the carriage was ready for her.

‘I will send one of the footmen upstairs to carry your boxes,’ he said.

‘They are not yet packed,’ said Elizabeth, adding with a glimmer of humour, ‘I seem to have mislaid my maid.’

‘Ah! See, a burden it has been lifted from you, it is always the way. A decision, once made, no matter how difficult, frees the shoulders from the weight of indecision, and that is a heavy weight indeed. Already you are happier, your humour returns. It is good to see you smile, even if only for a moment,’ he said genially. ‘But now, we must find your maid.’

He beckoned to one of the footmen and told the man to go to the servants’ hall and look for Mrs Darcy’s maid.

The footman looked uncomfortable.

‘Well?’ demanded the Prince. ‘What is it?’

The footman said something in Italian and although Elizabeth did not understand every word, she was able to make out that he had just been to the servants’ hall and that Annie had not been there. He looked as though he could say more but did not know if it would be welcome.

‘Say everything,’ commanded the Prince.

The footman said, haltingly, that Annie was a friend of one of the gardeners, and that it was the gardener’s afternoon off, and that the footman had seen them heading for the forest.

‘Ah!’ said the Prince, with a wry smile. ‘Amore! It is very wrong of her, of course, but what will you? No matter.’ He turned to Elizabeth. ‘I will send one of my maids to help you and to accompany you to the nearest inn, and I will send Signorina Annie to you when she returns.’ He said to the footman, ‘See to it.’ The footman bowed and withdrew, and the Prince continued to Elizabeth, ‘I am sorry you have had this inconvenience.’

Elizabeth said, ‘It doesn’t matter. At least someone’s love is prospering. I am only sorry that I am taking her away.’

‘But you will return,’ said the Prince. ‘You are welcome here at any time, you know that, I hope, and you must bring your charming family with you the next time you come to Italy. They will all be very welcome here. Your mother will like it, do you think?’

‘I am sure she would,’ said Elizabeth, smiling again as she thought of her mother exclaiming over the furniture, then trying to persuade every gentleman at the villa that either Kitty or Mary would make him a charming wife.

Whether the Prince would enjoy the visit as much as her mother she very much doubted!

‘Then you must visit me again soon, and stay with me for as long as you like,’ he said with a bow.

Elizabeth thanked him for his generous invitation and returned to her room, where her spirits once more drooped. To leave this place where she had been happy, for in the first days at the villa she had still hoped that she and Darcy would become one, was a trial to her. Once gone, she would have to admit that hope was dead.

The arrival of one of the Prince’s maids at least gave a new turn to her thoughts as she instructed the girl, and very soon Elizabeth’s things were packed and a footman arrived to convey them to the carriage. With one last, lingering look around the room, she followed the footman downstairs.

The carriage was waiting for her by the side door. It was an elaborate affair with a florid coat of arms emblazoned on the side. Two footmen flanked it –‘For your protection,’ said the Prince—both dressed in the Prince’s scarlet livery, and the courier stood by its side. He was a handsome young man, charming and respectful, and he took his place next to the coachman on the box, where he was joined by the maid.

‘Until we meet again,’ said the Prince, bowing over Elizabeth’s hand.

‘Thank you for your hospitality,’ she said, ‘and thank you for your kindness and your advice.’

‘It is nothing,’ he said. ‘Take courage, you will soon be with your family and then your happiness, it will recover.’

He handed her inside and she arranged her skirts around her on the sumptuous silk-upholstered seat.

The footmen took their places, standing on the runners on each side of the carriage, then the coachman called to the horses and they began to move, the heavy carriage going slowly forward until it began to pick up pace and bowl down the drive.

The fountains, which had been singing on her arrival, now seemed to be weeping, and Elizabeth was weeping too. Tear after hot tear, held back until now by pride, came freely, and in the solitude of the carriage, she gave way to her emotions.

‘This will not do,’ she told herself after a while.

She sought out her valise, in which Annie had stowed her newly hemmed handkerchiefs, and found it under the seat. She pulled it out and opened it—and then her heart stopped beating, for there, on the top of her clothes, was a bundle of letters, all in her own hand, and addressed to her family and friends.

She lifted them up with disbelief.

There must be some mistake, she thought, scarcely able to believe the evidence of her own eyes, and with trembling hands she untied the bundle and tore open the top letter.

My dearest Jane,

You will be surprised when I tell you that we are not going to the Lake District after all, we are going to France…

She picked up another one:

My dearest Jane,

…We are now established in Paris, and it is the most beautiful city…

And another:

My dearest Jane,

I wish you were here. How I long to talk to you. So much has happened that I scarcely know where to begin. We left Paris a few days ago and we are now in the Alps.

All of them, every letter she had written since leaving England, they were all there. Her mind raced. What were they doing there? Who had put them there? Why had they never been sent?

And then she thought of the strange incident when Annie had found her in the gardens and told her that her handkerchiefs had been hemmed. It wasn’t urgent news, it could have waited. But then with a creeping feeling running down her spine, she realised that Annie had not sought her out to tell her about the handkerchiefs; she had sought her out to tell her about the letters, but, on finding that Elizabeth was not alone, she had given nothing but a veiled warning instead.

Then if Annie had known about the letters, had she put them there? If so, where had she found them? And who had stopped them being sent?

Elizabeth remembered Annie’s strange behaviour when she had first noticed the Prince and she wondered if Annie suspected him of stealing the letters. But a moment’s thought showed her that, whatever Annie might or might not have suspected, the Prince could not have been involved because most of the letters had been written before Elizabeth had visited the villa.

But who, then? The only people to touch the letters, apart from herself, were Annie and the footmen who took them to be posted. Annie she could exclude, which left the footmen. But why should any of them do such a thing? They were all loyal to Darcy. They had been in his family’s employ for years. Except…

She remembered an incident in Paris when one of the footmen had fallen ill and had been quickly replaced. He had had excellent references but they had not known anything of the man personally. It seemed ridiculous to think that he was involved, but the fact remained that the letters had not been sent. Could he have been paid to suppress the letters? she wondered. But, if so, why? And by whom?

It might be possible that Annie knew, but Elizabeth could not ask her because… she shivered… because Annie was missing. What had happened to Annie? Where was she? Was she really in the forest with a lover or had something happened to her?

‘Stop the coach!’ called Elizabeth, rapping on the floor of the carriage with her parasol to gain the coachman’s attention. ‘Stop the coach at once!’

But the carriage did not slow its riotous pace.

She wound down the window and called out, ‘Stop! I command you, coachman, stop this instant!’

But his only response was to whip the horses and drive them faster. She felt a rising tide of panic as she realised that she was in the Prince’s carriage, driven by the Prince’s coachman, and surrounded by the Prince’s servants.

She looked out of the window and wondered if she could jump out of the carriage, but it was going too fast. It passed farmers on their way to market and she called out to them as they crossed themselves and stood back to let the carriage pass. Their faces were sullen and hostile, but when they heard her cries, their expressions turned to horror or pity. One woman, moved to action, ran forward when the carriage slowed to take a corner, and thrust a necklace of small white flowers through the window. She said something unintelligible, but her gesture was clear: put it around your neck.

Elizabeth, frightened by her look and by the tears in her eyes, did as she said.

As she did so, she smelt the pungent smell and recognised the flowers as wild garlic.

Strange tales began to come back to her, folk tales she had read in the library at Longbourn, stories of strange creatures that preyed on the living and haunted the forests of Europe, half men, half beasts, mesmeric, and seductive, but evil and dangerous, creatures who bit their victims, piercing their skin and drinking their blood; beasts which could be held at bay by garlic.

‘No, I will not think of it,’ said Elizabeth aloud. ‘It is nothing but a story, a myth, a folk tale. There is no such thing as a vampyre.’

But she held on tight to the necklace, crushing the delicate flowers and leaves with the tightness of her grip.

The coach sped on and she saw that it was heading for the forest. A terrible dread seized her and a fear of the looming trees.

There must be something I can do, she thought.

She looked wildly around the carriage and saw that her travelling writing desk had been packed beneath the opposite seat. As quickly as she could she pulled it open and dipping the quill into the ink she began to write.

My dearest Jane,

My hand is trembling as I write this letter. My nerves are in tatters and I am so altered that I believe you would not recognise me. The past few months have been a nightmarish whirl of strange and disturbing circumstances, and the future…

Jane, I am afraid.

If anything happens to me, remember that I love you and that my spirit will always be with you, though we may never see each other again. The world is a cold and frightening place where nothing is as it seems.

It was all so different a few short months ago. When I awoke on my wedding morning, I thought myself the happiest woman alive… but of what use are such thoughts now? I wanted to spare you but I am in terrible danger. I have nowhere to turn and you, my dearest Jane, are the only person I can trust. I am being abducted by Prince Ficenzi’s servants and I am writing this letter in desperation because I can think of no other way to help myself. I mean to throw it out of the window when it is finished, for I am at this moment in the Prince’s carriage, in the hope that one of the local people will see it. I think they will make sure the letter is sent, for, thank God, I have reason to suppose they will help me if they can.

If this letter reaches you, then please have my father make enquiries about my whereabouts, starting at the Villa Ficenzi near Rome. Tell him he must not be put off, whatever he is told, for the Prince surely knows where I am being taken and he just as surely knows my fate.

When I think of the vast distances that separate us I fear my father will be too late, but he must try and, God willing, my dearest Jane, we may yet see each other again.

There is time for no more, we have almost reached the forest, I must go.

Help me, my dearest!

Elizabeth

She folded the letter and wrote the direction on the outside, then winding down the window she threw the letter out. And not a moment too soon, for the carriage was entering the forest and soon the trees closed about it and there were no more people to be seen. The world became dark and mysterious, with green shadows closing in around the carriage, eerie and malevolent. The sounds were muted and the atmosphere was heavy and thick.