First (Wrong) Impressions: A Modern Pride & Prejudice (17 page)

December 10

Lizzy could finally say that she was relaxing, and it had only taken two weeks of not being allowed to work. With a week left in Vancouver, she found herself enjoying her solitary morning walks, Liam’s breakfasts, and the daily visits or dinner invitations from Fitzy. Lizzy had seen more of Darcy in the last ten days than she had when he’d lived at her house! She could have told Fitzy to buzz off, but she really liked him. Not in
that
way, but in a “we could be lifelong friends” way.

Today, they were going over to Catherine the Great’s house for dinner. Oh yeah. Catherine de Bourgh had invited the Three L’s, as Liam called them, to dine with her and her nephews, plus a few other people.

Dressing for the dinner turned out to be the most stressful thing she’d done since coming to Vancouver. She’d only brought jeans, so Liam forced her to go shopping for dress pants. Two hours later, she’d found a pair that wouldn’t impoverish her, though they were a little too snug across her backside. She didn’t have anything long enough to cover that, so her simple navy blue shirt’s hem ended where the tightness began.

Oh well. If Catherine didn’t like it, she didn’t have to look.

Liam fussed so much that Lizzy applied her makeup with a trowel until she didn’t recognize herself. She put her foot down when Liam suggested she curl her hair. No more. She was meeting a wealthy woman, not the fucking Queen of England. She was
not
curling her hair.

They arrived on time and Lizzy’s too-tight trousers made her intestines gurgle. She really shouldn’t have had the bean and cauliflower salad for lunch. Ugh. What had she been thinking?

Catherine didn’t have the twenty-bedroom mansion Lizzy had expected. Instead, it was a chic condo overlooking the ocean. The property probably cost as much as the mansion, though. It was full of stainless steel and glass, making her terrified to touch anything — she’d hate to leave smudges.

Catherine greeted them at the door, in a steel grey dress that matched the décor. Lizzy had already slipped her shoes off and pushed them against the wall when she realized no one else had. Oh well. She was wearing scruffy sneakers; she was taking them off. At least she had cute socks on.

Catherine sized Lizzy up, her eyes narrowing, and said, “Your pants are too small for you.”

Lizzy flushed, but she managed to say, “It was this or jeans.”

Catherine made a thoughtful sound. “Or, you can stop eating so much and then your clothes would fit.”

A hot answer came to Lizzy’s lips, but she bit it back. She was in someone else’s house as a guest; she could control herself.

“Lizzy!” Fitzy said, rushing over. “Luke, Liam. I’m so happy you could make it.”

“I would never miss the opportunity to spend a delightful evening with your aunt, Fitzy,” Liam said. “Luke and I are ever so happy to have been invited. Oh, Lizzy, look! Do you see that chandelier? Catherine told me herself that she ordered that from Italy.”

Lizzy gave Liam a polite smile. “Very nice.”

“Come on,” Fitzy said, “let me introduce you around. Luke, do you mind if I steal her away?”

“Take her. I’ve been trying to get rid of her since day care.”

Lizzy made a rude gesture at him before she headed off with Fitzy to meet the impressive party-goers. Oh, and Darcy, who followed her around like a virus.

“Fitzy, I understand that you’re the CFO of Darcy’s company,” Lizzy said.

He sipped his wine and nodded. “Yuppers. Darcy offered to make me the CEO, but I’d rather play with the budgets than deal with anything resembling ‘forward thinking’.”

“I felt the same way about the Executive Director position. I did the job for a month before we hired Melissa, and I wanted to die.” Lizzy laughed. “I hated every moment.”

Darcy took a pull from his beer, before saying, “You’re better suited for your position right now.”

Lizzy grinned. “In other words, I’m not good enough to run a non-profit.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Don’t deny it. I can read minds.” Lizzy turned to Fitzy with a laugh. “Sorry, I’ll behave.”

Fitzy only laughed and said, “Not at all. I’ve been curious at the effect you have over my cousin. Normally, he’s quite chatty, but not around you. Now I know why. That tongue of yours is sharper than broken glass!”

Darcy snorted.

Lizzy had a playful, but snide, comment on her tongue when Catherine joined them. Catherine did not hold back her snide comments, nor were they playful:

“It’s unfortunate your father isn’t a better businessman. My first husband taught me everything I know about business.”

“Your mother makes wedding dresses for overweight women? How quaint.”

“Your sister used to be a figure skater. How unfortunate that she lost her leg.”

“Your youngest sister is an actress. How interesting.”

Lizzy smiled through gritted teeth, trying her best not to answer any question beyond the minimum requirements of politeness. After all, she was in Catherine’s house. Liam’s livelihood depended on this snobby bitch and, by God, Lizzy was going to be as nice as humanly possible.

“Oh, Darcy, before I forget. Caroline sent me the drafts for her latest project. Elizabeth, do you know Caroline Bingley?”

“A bit.”

“I adore Caroline. She’s like a daughter to me. It’s unfortunate
someone
refuses to make a move.”

From Fitzy’s smirk and Darcy’s blush, Catherine’s meaning was clear. It took all of Lizzy’s strength to hold in her laughter. Caroline and Darcy: the marriage of adjoining bank accounts. Centuries of rich people would applaud from the grave. But Lizzy had never seen any attraction on Darcy’s side toward Caroline; they were friendly, but she was certain that was as far as it went.

“Do you know Charles at all?” Lizzy asked.

“Very well. He’s such a puppy. He’s a sweet man, though he lacks Caroline’s quickness, doesn’t he?” Catherine took a sip of her wine. “If it wasn’t for Darcy, I don’t know how Charles would have gotten himself out of his latest scrap.”

“What do you mean?”

Darcy cleared his throat. “We haven’t finished introducing Lizzy to everyone, Aunt Catherine.”

“No, wait,” Lizzy said. “I’d like to know what you mean.”

Catherine shrugged. “He got tangled up with some poor girl whose family was pushing her into it.”

“Aunt Catherine…” Darcy warned.

“Caroline didn’t go into the details, but she said the family was hoping Charles would bail out their money problems. That’s the trouble with mingling with people outside of one’s sphere. Too many are interested in taking advantage.”

Darcy closed his eyes. “Let’s not gossip.”

“I’m hungry,” Fitzy announced. “Lizzy, want to see what’s to eat?”

Lizzy ignored him. “So Darcy…what? Forced Charles to break it off with this girl?”

“Lizzy,” Darcy said, “we should take a walk.”

“I’m good, thanks,” she snapped.

“Excuse me,” Catherine said. “Late arrivals.” She glided off to the door, though she did glance back at Lizzy as she went.

Lizzy turned to Darcy and hot anger filled her. It took every grain of control in her not to slap his guilty face. How
dare
he break up Jane and Charles? How
dare
he get involved? She wanted to speak to him, but the words wouldn’t come out. She wanted to cry, yell, punch, slap, kick, scream to such a degree that all she could do was stare slack-jawed.

“Should I leave you two alone?” Fitzy asked.

“Yes,” Darcy said.

“No,” Lizzy corrected.

“Right,” Fitzy said. “Okay, I’m going to get myself another glass of wine.”

She ignored him. “How could you?”

“Lizzy, listen to me…”

“Fuck you.” She turned on her heel and stormed away. She shoved on her shoes and did not care that the door slammed as she walked out.

Chapter 21

Lizzy stood outside Catherine’s condo building and breathed in the cool Vancouver air. She hugged her arms and took long, steadying breaths. She thought her opinion of Darcy could not sink any lower, but she’d been proven wrong. Darcy wasn’t content with ruining George’s life; he had to meddle in her sister’s, too.

She didn’t care that Charles was his best friend. Jane was her
sister.
That trumped everything.

“Lizzy,” called out a masculine voice behind her. It was Darcy.

She began to walk away.

“Lizzy,” he repeated. “Wait.”

She spun and snarled, “I have nothing to say to you.”

He’d thrown on a jacket to ward against the cold. “I realize you’re angry with me…”

“Angry? Oh, I am way past angry.” She took a step closer. “Did you actually break up Charles and Jane? Or are you going to deny it?”

He took a deep breath. “I don’t deny it. I did everything I could to convince Charles to break up with Jane.”

Lizzy had to turn away from him because one more second of looking at his smug face would have snapped the last thread of her self-control. “Why?”

“I thought she was using him for money.”

Lizzy’s laugh was bitter acid. “Jane Bennet, using someone for money? Are you serious?”

“Come on, Lizzy. It’s all your mother would talk about. How Jane needed someone to look after her. And even Jane didn’t seem all that into Charles, not the way he was into her.”

“She slept with him! What more proof did you need?”

“Lord knows she’s not the first woman to lie on her back for a man she didn’t like.”

Lizzy’s hand curled into a fist and it was only the cold that kept her from hurling it at Darcy’s nose. “Jane was in love with him.”

Darcy looked away.

“I should have known you were behind it. I don’t get you. You won’t fucking go away, yet you break up Charles and Jane. What is your problem? Do you just hang around to see how much hurt you can cause?”

Darcy snapped his gaze back to her. “What?”

“Clearly you hate my family enough to tell your best friend to run away. So why don’t you do the same with me? Everywhere I go, you seem to be there.”

He took a step closer. “Isn’t it obvious? I’m… I’m in love with you.”

She felt the heat in her cheeks, and didn’t know what to do. She knew her mouth was hanging open, but she could only stare. In love with her? Darcy was in love with her?

No, impossible.

“What?”

“Lizzy,
Elizabeth
, you are all I can think of.”

He took her stunned silence as encouragement to continue. “I’m as surprised as you. Considering who you are, you’re not my type.”

“Excuse me?”

“Wait, that’s not want I meant.” He looked up at the dark sky and a streak of lightning lit up the night. A moment later, the boom of thunder shook the earth, followed by a downpour of cold rain. “Come inside.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you. It’s bad enough that you’ve always thought yourself better than everyone else around you. Well, I have news for you, William Darcy. You aren’t good enough for me. Even if you hadn’t screwed up things for Jane, even if George hadn’t told me what you did to him, I still wouldn’t give you the time of day.”

The rain plastered his hair to his face. “So that’s it? I tell you that I’m in love with you and you insult me.”

“You insulted me!”

He looked at the ground. “I didn’t mean to. I have a hard time speaking to women.”

“Did it even occur to you that breaking up Charles and my sister was not the best way to impress me?”

Darcy didn’t raise his gaze from the now-slick sidewalk.

Words and memories mingled with Lizzy’s anger, and she took his silence as an opportunity to let out months of frustration. “You know what? My opinion of you didn’t just form tonight when Catherine said what she said — and I know she did that on purpose and I don’t care. I formed my opinion of you when I heard what you said about me to Charles. Manual labour. What a fucking thing to say!”

“Lizzy,” Darcy said in a strained tone, “that wasn’t for you to hear.”

“I still heard it. I was going to let you get away with it, but then George told me all about what you did to him.”

“I should’ve known,” Darcy said bitterly.

“He told me everything you did to him.”

Darcy cocked his head. “And what did I do to him?”

Lizzy screamed out her frustration. “You stole his inheritance! Is that how you treat those of us who are beneath you? You steal from us and call us names and break our hearts? You think I could love you after that! You don’t even love me, Darcy. You just love the sound of your own voice.”

“So this is your opinion of me?” Darcy took two steps towards her and spread out his hands. “Of course, you won’t want to listen to my defence, because your pride would get in the way.”

“
My
pride?”

“
Your
pride. You’re upset that I didn’t flirt with you and throw money all over your agency to impress you. That’s not who I am. Am I supposed to get excited over a woman who can’t pay her own way in the world?”

Lizzy shook, from both the wet and the anger. Her fists clenched and unclenched involuntarily. “Get away from me before I hit you.”

Darcy flicked a glance over her soaking body before saying, “With pleasure.”

****

Only a couple of teeth-chattering minutes passed before Luke’s silhouette darkened the condo’s brightly-lit doorway. He looked around, spotted her, and ran, ducking his face from the rain.

“What the hell, Lizzy? Darcy told me you were out here in the damn rain.”

She looked up at Luke and her hurt, anger, and her damned stinging pride erupted into sobs. Luke pulled off his coat and wrapped it around her shoulders before pulling her to his chest. “I’ll take you home.”

Lizzy sniffed. “What about Liam?”

“I’ll come back for him.”

She didn’t bother to protest; she was soaked to the bone. She followed Luke to his car and slid into the passenger seat. She curled under his jacket and pressed the seat warmer to three bars.

“What happened?” Luke turned on the car’s engine. Cold air blew from the heat vents. “Give it a minute to heat up.”

“He admitted to breaking up Charles and Jane.” Lizzy let out a long breath and said, in a very small voice, “And he said he loved me.”