‘Was it the footman we hired in Paris, when our own footman was taken ill?’ said Elizabeth.

‘That was him. One of our own men would never have done such a thing. Well, I put the letters in my apron pocket and came to find you to tell you all about it, but then I saw you were with the Prince I hesitated. I didn’t trust the Prince, Ma’am. There were rumours about him in the servants’ hall. They said he’d inherited the villa from a cousin of his, but the cousin had died suddenly. One minute he was hale and hearty and the next he was dead. It was given out he’d met with an accident, but no one saw the body and no one saw the accident either, and they should have done, for there were villagers on the road at the time. Then the Prince showed up and claimed everything. There was talk he’d murdered his cousin for the inheritance, poisoning him most likely, and hiding the body. They said in the servants’ hall that the Prince had a friend who was much, much worse, and it was probably him who was behind it all. I paid them no notice to begin with, I thought it was just idle chatter, but once I found your letters I got to thinking. The footman wouldn’t have taken them on his own; why would he? So someone must have paid him to do it, and the only person who might do such a thing that I could see was the Prince.’

‘So you made an excuse about the handkerchiefs to make sure I would look in the valise,’ said Elizabeth.

‘Yes, Ma’am. It was the best I could think of at the time. I went back to your room and put them in your valise, but as I closed it I heard footsteps coming along the corridor. I don’t mind telling you, it was a nasty moment when they stopped outside the door, and when the door handle turned I took fright and so I slipped through the interconnecting door into Mr Darcy’s room. It’s a good thing I did. I heard the footman go into the room with the coachman and from what they said I knew they were looking for me. They didn’t want me to help you.

‘Then one of them walked over to the connecting door and locked it, “So we won’t be disturbed,” he said. You’re too late for that, I thought, I’ve heard every word.

‘I thought it best for me to stay there until Mr Darcy returned, but the coachman was laughing at the footman for locking the door and saying there was no danger from that quarter, the Prince had men waiting for Mr Darcy by the stables.

‘I didn’t know what to do for the best, but you seemed safe enough for the time being so I thought I ought to warn Mr Darcy. I waited for him some way down the drive from the stables and told him what had happened. He said not to worry, he would take care of you, and then he told me to go to the hunting lodge with his valet, his valet would know the way. He said I should send a message to his valet by one of our grooms. I did as he said, and here we are.’

‘And what of the rest of the entourage?’ asked Elizabeth. ‘Where are they?’

‘Gone back to Venice, to the palazzo, on orders from the master,’ said Annie. ‘I never was more glad to see anyone than I was to see you when you rode up to the lodge.’

‘And I am here now, safe, thanks to you,’ said Elizabeth. ‘Without your help…’ She shuddered.

‘It doesn’t bear thinking about,’ said Annie.

‘No, it doesn’t,’ said Elizabeth. ‘I can never thank you enough.’

‘I’m just pleased you’re safe, Ma’am.’

Annie took the tray of tea back to the kitchen and Elizabeth sat at last on the sofa, but she was too restless to sit for long. It had all been such a nightmare: the carriage ride, the man in the mask, and then the sight of Darcy with… of Darcy with… with fangs.

All the stories she had heard about vampyres, whispered in tones of laughing horror, so strange and odd and unbelievable in Meryton, now took on new shades of dread and terror. She knew now why Darcy had never come to her. She knew the secret that lay between them, the truth he dare not tell.

What a strange fate was hers, to meet a man she took in dislike, then to have to change all her opinions about him and realise she loved him, and then to find out he was a creature of the night. And, perhaps, fate had not done with her yet.

The door clicked and she looked up. Darcy was standing in the doorway.

He was the same and yet different. He was dishevelled from his long ride. He had removed his coat and he was dressed in his breeches with his ruffled white shirt, damp from his exertions, untucked. His hair was wild and his eyes were haunted. He stood before her, completely vulnerable as though he did not know whether he would be welcome or not, and impulsively she held out a hand to him. He struggled with himself for a moment and then restraint broke and he strode across the room towards her, looking deep into her eyes as though he would read the answer to the mysteries of the universe there. Then he put his hand behind her head and kissed her with fierce abandon, dissolving and merging with her… until he bit her lip and unleashed a drop of blood. His whole body jolted as though it had been run through with electricity and there was a change in him, a roaring surge of hunger, an ache of primal need, and he sprang back from her in torment.

‘What have I done?’ he said in horror. ‘Oh, my love, what have I done to you? I’ve frightened you. You’re shaking.’ He stepped forward to comfort her, then stopped himself by an effort of will and forced himself back. ‘I never meant it to be like this. I thought you need never know, I thought I could keep it from you, I thought we could be happy, and perhaps, if things had been different, if they had been what I thought they were… but I should not have taken the risk, I should never have dragged you into this nightmare. I’m so sorry, Elizabeth. I wanted you so much that I fooled myself into thinking it was possible. But it isn’t. It can never be.’

‘Darcy—’

‘I have wanted to tell you so many times. When you asked me what was wrong I tried to tell you, but I could never find the words, and even if I had found them, I would not have had the right to rob you of your safe and familiar world. How could I plunge you into a world of such nightmares? A deeper, darker world where creatures stalk the night? I never meant to hurt you. I never meant you to know. I never wanted to do this to you, to make you afraid, to see you tremble…’

‘I’m not shaking with fear, I’m shaking with relief,’ she said with a catch in her throat. ‘If you only knew what I have been thinking, the dark thoughts that have plagued my soul. I thought it was something far, far worse. I thought you didn’t love me.’

He looked at her in bewilderment. ‘You thought I didn’t love you?’ He stood, astonished. Then he closed the gap between them in one stride and ran his hands through her hair. ‘I love you to distraction. I thought I would go mad, being with you every day but never able to touch you. If you only knew how I have longed to do this, to feel your skin, to run my fingers through your hair and over your face, to feel you, touch you, be with you… but I couldn’t, I couldn’t. It was different when we married. I thought that as long as I didn’t bite you that you would never turn, and that I could hide my nature from you; that we could live together at Pemberley and that you need never know. But then I found out on our wedding day that there was a chance, just a chance, that I would turn you if I claimed you, that you might become a vampyre if I truly made you my wife.’

‘The look of torment,’ said Elizabeth, remembering. ‘That was what caused it.’

‘Yes.’

‘It was one of the messages,’ she said, realising it must be so.

‘Yes, it was slipped in with the messages of congratulation. I did not know at the time if it was true. It could just have been a cruel hoax, designed to destroy my marriage, but I had to find out for sure. And so that is why I took you to Europe, to consult more widely with people who might know.’

‘And did they know?’

‘No, my love. No one knows for certain. Whilst there is a chance I will turn you we can never be together. This must be our last kiss. If I have to be with you, day after day, sooner or later my self-control will slip, and you may end up like me, a creature of the night. You have to get away from me.’

‘No,’ she said resolutely. ‘I will never leave you. We are together for ever. Whatever happens, there is only one place I want to be, and that is with you.’

He took her palm and kissed it, sending hot shivers up her arm. Her eyelids drooped and her limbs felt heavy and languorous. She felt rather than saw him lean towards her, and she became very still as she sensed a predatory animal close to her. She instinctively inclined her head, exposing her throat. She knew in some tiny corner of her mind that it was dangerous, but she no longer cared. She felt his breath as his mouth moved towards the graceful arc of her neck and then the soft touch of his lips on her skin and she was held, mesmerised, knowing that if he should bite her, she would be unable to resist.

His hand brushed tiny tendrils of hair away from her neck and his lips found her flesh again and he let out a murmur and her blood responded, coursing through her veins. Then the twigs on the fire shifted and the sound broke the spell and he lifted his mouth from her neck, slowly and unwillingly, pulling himself away from her with every ounce of his strength, his hands lingering on her shoulders until, with a groan he wrenched them away. His eyes were full of pain and his body was contorted with agony, but he forced himself to walk over to the far side of the fireplace where he collapsed into a chair out of temptation’s way. Elizabeth, her senses unclouding as he moved away, sank back on her heels.