Page 139 of The Long Road Back to Yesterday

The sun touched the horizon.

Light stretched across the winter grass, catching the tops of the stones and leaving the hollows between them in shadow.

The wind that had troubled them all afternoon faded.

Fitzwilliam was still speaking, but his voice had grown faint.

Elizabeth clung to him.

Then the last edge of the sun disappeared.

* * *

“Darcy!”

Richard reached the stone at a run.

Dr. Wynn came behind him with the lantern, its light sweeping across the place where three people had been standing only moments before.

“Georgiana!”

Richard jumped onto the stone and ran across the surrounding ground, shouting their names. Dr. Wynn went in the opposite direction, the lantern swinging in his hand as he searched among the stones.

Darkness settled over the henge.

When Richard returned to the central stone, Dr. Wynn was already there.

Neither spoke.

The lantern light passed across the ground and caught something white beneath the edge of the stone.

Richard crouched and picked up the handkerchief.

He unfolded it.

E.D.

His thumb moved across the embroidered initials before he folded the handkerchief and slipped it inside his coat.

Dr. Wynn stared at the empty stone. “I would not have believed it if I had not seen it.”

Richard looked toward the place where the sun had disappeared.

“They did it.”

The physician stood beside him for a moment before saying, “You should come back to Ashcroft tonight. Whatever has happened here, it is too late to begin a journey to London.”

“I have to go. If Darcy was right, he and Georgiana may need me.”

“And Elizabeth?”

“Her letter may take her to any of three days. Darcy will wait for her.”

Richard looked once more at the empty stone before turning toward the road. Dr. Wynn fell into step beside him.

A short while later, the sound of an approaching carriage reached them through the darkness.

“Darcy’s carriage,” Richard said. “I will take you back to Ashcroft, Doctor, and then I must be on my way.”