Beside Two Rivers (35 page)

He slowed Sanchet, stopped and looked toward the sound of her voice, then urging his mount with his heels, he raced the horse up the slope toward her. Anxious to meet him, Darcy took a step down, then another.

“Ethan!” she called to him. “I am here!” She watched him spur his horse to a quicker pace and her heart raced with each beat of Sanchet’s hooves.

Halfway down the cliff the rocks began to slip. Then they gave way. She cried out, reached and grabbed for something to keep her from falling. As she slid down the ledge, the rocks cut into her hands and arms. With nothing to hold her, she felt only space about her, as if time had slowed. Her cloak spread out like the wings of a bird, her arms outstretched. Then the air within her lungs was forced out when she landed on the ground several feet below. The world went black, then returned in a daze. She heard a horse halt near her, heard it blow out its nostrils. Hurried steps came to her; Ethan’s voice was so anxious and alarmed.

Opening her eyes, she beheld him kneeling over her, his eyes flooded with worry. “Darcy. Are you badly hurt?” he asked breathless.

“I have had a bad fall. When I saw you, I wanted to climb down to you. I have never had such a bad fall before.”

“Tragic as it is, something like this was bound to happen. What were you thinking to climb way up there?”

“You know … I am naturally curious.” She found it difficult to inhale, to speak.

He arranged her hands around his neck and went to lift her. Pain shot through her body and she felt the blood rush from her face and pressure pulse through her temples. “It hurts to move. My legs feel numb.” Alarmed at this, she felt tears well. She forced them back
when she saw the great distress that sprang in Ethan’s eyes.

“We must hurry.” His arms went beneath her and he gathered her close against his breast and carried her. Before them was a grassy ascent beside the broken line of rocks. Up the hill he went with her pressing against him, shielding her face from the wind. Reaching Sanchet, Ethan wished he could plunge his boot into the stirrup and swing up.

“Keep your arms about me if you can, my love, and hold tight.”

Darcy locked her fingers. “I shall try.”

“We have a long walk ahead, but we will make it.”

He hurried on with her in his arms, descending the hill to more level ground. Sanchet followed, shook his mane and snorted. Though pain coursed through her body, and her legs seemed weightless, she felt safe with her arms around his neck, and his arms holding her close against him.

The next things Darcy was aware of when she opened her eyes were the flame of a candle and the darkness of night through the windows in the room where she lay. She heard a small clock ding the hour of nine. Figures moved about the room and she heard them whisper. Someone lifted her hand and pressed kisses against her fingers.

“Ethan?” She gazed up at him. His eyes were warm for her.

“I am here, Darcy.”

“Am I at Fairview?”

“Yes, darling.”

“What happened?”

“You fell. Lie still.”

“Yes, I fell. Stupid of me, wasn’t it? How many times does this make that you have come to my rescue?”

“A few. But that is why God put me here—to watch over you—to love you.”

Darcy could feel the glow in her eyes as she gazed at him. He was her guardian, her protector, planned from the beginning of time.

She tried to sit up. When she could not, fear shot through her. “My legs.” Frightened, she reached down. “I cannot feel them. I cannot move them.”

Another person approached, a face she did not know, a man with great white whiskers lining his jaw, and a shock of gray hair neat about a round face. “Miss Darcy, I am Doctor Viers. You have had a terrible injury. Lie as still as you can.”

Darcy ceased struggling and looked up at him with questioning eyes.

“You can thank Mr. Brennan for carrying you all the way to Fairview and then riding several miles to bring me back. I am rarely called to this part of Derbyshire, for it is a long way for me to travel, but he explained how urgent it was that I come.”

Darcy looked over at Ethan. “Thank you,” she said quietly.

The doctor lifted her wrist and timed her pulse with his watch. “The fall has caused
paralysis to your legs. Now, in time, if you are careful, you may recover. But there is the chance you may be permanently crippled. It all depends on the extent of the injury you incurred.”

No. It could not happen to her. She had to return home, walk the river paths, and climb the bluffs. She had to ride and fish, dance at country balls, and sit in her favorite spot in the little church near River Run. How could she be any kind of a wife to Ethan as a cripple?

“You are wrong. I can walk. See, let me show you.” And she threw back the sheets and covers, and pushed her legs over the side of the bed.

“Darcy, no.” Ethan stopped her.

She waited, looking into his eyes, trembling.

He asked Doctor Viers to leave the room, and when the door closed, Ethan cupped his hands around Darcy’s face. “You must be patient.”

“I am damaged.” She lowered her eyes and began to cry. “I do not expect anything from you. I release you.”

“You think I love you any less? You think I would abandon you? I love you, Darcy.” He drew her into his arms and embraced her hard. “You are the dearest thing to me and you are to be my wife.”

“A crippled wife. No, Ethan.”

“And as my wife,” he went on, “I expect you to listen to me.” He said this with a quick smile. “I know how hard that will be for you to do, but I insist upon it. We will post the banns, be married in a fortnight, and then leave for Maryland. Your father left us River Run, and with what money I acquire from the sale of Fairview, we will restore the house and buy anything you wish to fill it with. Not only that, your mother and Fiona are coming with us.”

“My mother and Fiona? I remember Fiona. She was good to me.” A strange memory ran through Darcy’s mind. She saw herself in Fiona’s arms beneath a floor hugging a doll, looking up at the light seeping through the crack. “There was a time she protected me.”

“Yes, and she and your mother cannot wait to talk to you. They are just outside the door.” He rose to call them.

Darcy held out her hand. “First, what has happened to my father?”

Ethan’s smile left his handsome face. “His suffering ended the hour before I returned with you.”

Darcy let out a long breath, grieved he had gone, sorry she had not been there to hold his hand. “And so did Madeline’s. She passed in her sleep at Meadlow.”

Ethan lowered his head. “I am sorry over both. But glad they are in heaven together, Darcy. Try not to grieve too hard.”

“And my mother? Is she well?”

“In body, but her heart is broken that you are hurt. She wants to talk to you. May I call her in?”

Darcy’s heart lightened. Would her mother look the way she remembered, her hair dark, with motherly hands that held her, and a voice tender and sweet? Now to be reconciled seemed to vanquish the former pain, the losses she had endured, the trial she faced.

She pressed Ethan’s hand against her cheek. “Please, Ethan. Call her. Tell her I need her now more than ever.”

35

Two weeks after the Reverend Reed read the banns in church, Darcy and Ethan took their vows. Darcy marveled at the stained-glass windows and thought about her grandfather, wondering how many couples he had married in the course of his ministry. Although she loved Fairview, Ethan let the estate go and sold it for a fair sum, the new owner swearing he would pull the old house down and replace it with a larger one.

Eliza and Fiona accompanied them on the voyage home aboard a pretty sailing ship called
The Dove
, reminiscent of that first vessel that had dropped anchor in the St. Mary’s River a century before. As in the days of Noah, the dove returned with an olive branch in its beak. They were returning to River Run with peace and joy in their hearts.

Upon arrival at Point Lookout, Ethan paid for a post chaise, and after miles and miles of bumpy, dusty roads, they reached the end of the lane that led to the Breese house. Ethan called up to the driver to stop, and once the horses were settled, he lifted Darcy out and carried her down the sunny path toward the house and the welcoming arms of her dear cousins.

Martha was the first to embrace Darcy as she lay in Ethan’s arms. “Darcy, I have missed you.” She kissed her cheek.

“I have been bored to death without you, Darcy,” said Lizzy.

“You have brought Mr. Brennan back with you.” Martha’s eyes beamed as she looked at him. “So good to see you again, sir. And carrying my cousin once more.”

“We are married,” he said.

The girls squealed at the news and chattered on like magpies. Mr. Breese stepped out the door with his wife and his dog. “My lord, it is Darcy and Mr. Brennan.” They rushed to her, kissed her. “Why are you carrying her, sir?” Mr. Brennan asked.

Once the explanation was given, Mrs. Breese collapsed back against her husband. “Please tell us it is not to be, Darcy,” and much sorrow was expressed. The girls gathered round and Martha wept against Darcy’s shoulder.

“No, no. Do not cry. I shall recover. I know it.”

“It cannot be helped,” cried Mrs. Breese. “I knew it. Darcy, why did you not take care where you trekked? It pains my heart to see you have been crippled.”

“I intend to overcome my condition. I am determined.”

“How? You see your uncle. He still walks breathless. I have watched over him every minute since you left.”

Martha wiped her eyes dry. “We have a very good doctor, Darcy. You remember Dr. Emerson? He can help, surely.”

“How is he, Martha?”

“Very well. We are engaged.” She turned to her parents. “And Darcy and Mr. Brennan are married, Mama, Papa.”

Mrs. Breese threw up her hands and joy overtook her tears. Mr. Breese looked down the lane. “And who is this you have brought home with you?”

“My mother, sir, and Fiona, her best friend in all the world.”

Dismayed, Mr. Breese shook his head. “What? How can that be? We were told Eliza was dead.”

“It was never true, sir,” Ethan said. “She had lived with me these many years. We have a lot to discuss.”

“Indeed we do. But what fantastic news this is!”

The whole crew rushed down the lane toward Eliza and Fiona. Darcy and Ethan waited, and when everyone was introduced Mari Breese threw her arms around Eliza, and embraced her with more tears.

“My daughter is strong, Mari.” Eliza took up Darcy’s hand. “And so happy to be home, as I am. I had lost all hope of ever seeing the river again. But God found a way.”

“It is good of you to say so, Eliza.” Mari Breese smiled and moved back her girls. “Please come inside. We have so much to talk about.”

Before going in, Eliza turned to William Breese. “I have sad news to tell you. But it does not come without good.”

He looped her arm through his. “Then let us go into the sitting room and sit a while, Eliza.”

Darcy, Ethan, Eliza, and Fiona stayed with the Breeses while the house at River Run was being rebuilt, Ethan partaking in the labor, Mr. Breese sitting in a chair in the shade observing all the goings-on. He had not returned to himself after his stroke and took his ease beneath the shade of an ancient tree, with his dog lounging at his feet.

Along a country path that bordered the land sat the cemetery where Addison and Ilene were buried. Darcy saw the sorrow in her mother’s face over her loss, but also because her husband could not be laid there in the ground he so loved.

Later that spring, upon Ilene’s gravestone, were etched the words
It is well with my child
, and on the day it was erected, Eliza wept and placed blue forget-me-nots beneath it. For the remainder of her life, she did so every spring, until she too lay next to her child, waiting for that promised day of jubilation
when God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away
.

And on warm days, Ethan took Darcy down to the river and waded with her into the water, holding her in his arms, her head resting on his shoulder. There in the deeper currents the river caressed her legs and brought healing and strength to her body.

Finally, on the day when all was complete at River Run, Ethan gathered the family together. Mr. and Mrs. Breese and their unwed daughters sat in the wagon with the painted red rims, the girls dressed in their Sunday best. Martha and her new husband, Dr. Emerson, rode on horseback alongside them. Eliza, Fiona, and Darcy rode in the carriage with the hood down, and Ethan drove the horses down the river path beneath the shade of the ancient elms.

He looked over his shoulder at Darcy and smiled. Dressed in white, a broad-brimmed hat decorated with white silk flowers shading her face, a broad blue ribbon tied under her chin, she looked more beautiful to him than ever and he made a point of telling her so. She laid her hand softly over her stomach and smiled, roses in her cheeks. A son would be born to them by Christmas, who would pass on River Run’s legacy to his son, his grandson, and each generation for the next two hundred years.