Stranger on the Cliff (ONC 2021)

Be The Change

The next day, Georgiana was sleepy, still, shoving breakfast into her mouth with very little reflection on 'politeness' or, indeed, 'table manners'.

"Take him out," she insisted through a mouthful of toasted bread.

"Out?" Tav asked, picturing a meal or something, but she sighed at his obliviousness.

"For a walk, across the cliff or something. Fresh air. Clear your heads. The pair of you certainly need it. Kiss him again or something. You need the story to move forward."

Tav sipped his tea.

"He hasn't asked me anything. He went to bed last night right after you. Didn't even ask for an explanation."

"Poor boy's in shock, Tav, what would you expect from him?"

Tav couldn't answer, because what he wanted from Darcy – understanding, belief, a damn marriage proposal – probably wasn't reasonable with what had happened the night before.

Tav was trying not to focus on the fact that he'd almost died. He didn't entirely understand what the demon's purpose had been, despite Jane Austen's curtailed explanation, or what would have actually happened to him if the demon had caught him, but the feeling of danger, and of rage, he could not have mistaken. Perhaps it was unnecessarily negative, but he felt the demon wasn't looking to send him home. And Darcy didn't even have that extra information, so it was a wonder he wasn't screamingly insane already.

It took nothing for Darcy to agree to walk with Tav when he found him in the stables. They didn't speak until they reached the crest of the hill and could look out over the valley.

"Will you ask?" Tav was tentative.

"No. What will you tell me that will not have me put in Bedlam?"

Tav pondered for a moment, deciding on 'nothing', so they walked in silence instead. Tav could feel Darcy's gaze boring into the side of his face and decided there was nothing left to do but act.

He stopped, and Darcy stopped beside him with a surprised exhale, his eyes gong wide when Tav took his hands with a firm grip, looking up at him with determination.

"I don't want to lose you," Tav admitted, pleased when Darcy didn't look away.

"You won't lose me for me," Darcy responded, loosening one hand to slip it around Tav's back. "You may lose me to darkness though."

Tav felt a lump in his throat as he slid his own arms around Darcy. The man didn't know it, would never know it, but he would be lost, and not to darkness. If Tav succeeded, indeed, he'd be lost to light, to a better future.

"Good morrow, Gentlemen!" a booming, genial voice exclaimed, far closer that anyone should have been able to get without being heard already. They had been too enveloped in their bittersweet emotions to register him sooner, but he seemed unbothered, coming closer with his hand outstretched, as if the two men before him were not wrapped in an embrace.

Darcy jolted in Tav's arms, but he didn't pull away.

"Good day," he said, turning to face the man even as he guided Tav's head to rest on his collar.

"A fine day for the outdoors, yes?" the man said, amiable still, regardless of Darcy's dismissiveness.

"Yes, Sir, a fine day," Tav agreed, gently extricating himself from Darcy's grasp and turning to face the man properly. "How do you find yourself in these fields?"

"Looking for news," the man announced with a flourish of his arm. "I travel the length and breadth of the country searching for those facts that intrigue the populace. I write for the Morning Herald. We are most well respected in London Town."

A journalist then. And wasn't Tav meant to have news for him? Perhaps if he hadn't interrupted them it would have happened already.

"Have you travelled far? Any reason you came to Derbyshire?" Tav asked him, intrigued about how this worked.

"Uh," a shadow passed over his face, but different to the ones Tav had seen when the story changed – or when society did. No, this was more like a mirage. "From Bath?" he finally answered after many long seconds, sounding uncertain.

An interesting thought, but Tav wondered if he was impacted by merely being a bit-part character created by Jane Austen's mind. Whether he could only fulfil a minor role that she was imagining for him. It made Tav shiver a little – the thought that all of those people going about their lives in London when they'd been there, perhaps didn't even exist at this moment, when they weren't required for the story. And it raised more questions than it answered about why Darcy and Georgiana were so well-rounded as characters, and clearly had independent thought, like some kind of advanced artificial intelligence.

"I come in search of news," the man said, and now Tav was thinking if Darcy and Georgiana were like advanced AI, then he was some kind of non-player character with only a limited store of phrases to trot out. No, he was here only to be witness to the news. Except, Darcy didn't exactly seem about to take the bull by the horns and make it happen.

Perhaps it was up to Tav, instead. Except, if he did it, and the journalist printed it, and the story was permanently changed, maybe Darcy and Georgiana would go back to just being words on a page. Tav felt a lump rise in his throat, reluctance taking over. He didn't want it. But he didn't think there was a choice. Jane Austen's Powers had given her an instruction, and a deadline that was rapidly running out. He tried to convince himself that it was okay. It couldn't hurt them if they weren't really real. But they were certainly real to him, and he barely held back the sudden sob that rose.

"Tav?" Darcy said, soft as his thumb caressed Tav's jawline and his eyes searched for explanation.

"I'm fine. I just realised it has to be me who takes the final step."

Darcy's brow was drawn, but he allowed his hands to be cradled in Tav's. "I'll be here for you though, forever. You know that?"

"I do. I don't know what I did to deserve it, but it's a feeling I'll never forget or match. Fitzwilliam, you've been everything to me for only a short amount of time, but so encompassingly, I don't think I can ever let it go. Will you be mine? Forever? Will you marry me?"

There was a gasp from the journalist, but Darcy just smiled briefly, a warm and knowing thing.

"I will, Tav. We can be each other's safety and love forevermore."

The kiss that he bestowed then was somehow both deeply passionate and yet utterly tender. The kind of kiss that can so rarely be felt in its perfection, and Tav knew that he would remember the fulfilment of it for as long as he lived, no matter what happened next.

After a few brief, necessary, words to the journalist, they returned to the house, easily agreeing to save sharing their news to the following day. Tav couldn't help think, as he passed into sleep wrapped in the strong arms of his fiancé, that he couldn't wait to see both the happiness on Georgiana's face and the horror on Lady Catherine de Bourgh's when they revealed everything the next day. At least they would have that moment.