Page 104 of Pride, Prejudice, & Pretense

"Right. Okay! Now it's time foryouto part Company. Good luck!" Jane stopped, rethinking, and she smiled mischievously. "Or should I saybreak a leg?'” They shared a look, recalling that she’d said the same thing just before Lizzy was about to leave for Chicago.

"Thanks, Jane. No more acting for me."

As Lizzy approached Charlotte's desk, she made herself focus, focus on her breathing. She wished Fitzwilliam were waiting outside Langley, his arms waiting to hold her and welcome her into her new life?the life she wanted to share with him.

But he wasn't. That life remained distant from her, as he did. She did not know where either was to be found. Still, she knew that she needed to be finished with Langley, whatever was beyond its narrow exit.

I am Elizabeth Bennet. I am equal to anything. My courage always rises.

Just as Lizzy finished with her internal self-affirmations, Charlotte looked up. She seemed startled by Lizzy’s appearance at first.She's never seen me blonde.Charlotte frowned menacingly. She did not like blonde Lizzy. The old line aboutblondes having more fun, Lizzy suddenly knew, was simultaneously in both their minds…ironically in Lizzy’s,enviously in Charlotte’s.They don't, Charlotte,Lizzy thought as she reached the desk.This blonde didn’t have more fun.

Charlotte tucked away her startled frown, her expression slowly changing to one of subtle triumph.Of course—she knows why I'm here. From her point of view, the competition is exiting the field.

"I'm here for my appointment with the director," Lizzy said simply, deciding to go through the full formalities. Charlotte nodded and picked up her phone.

"Agent Bennet here to see you, sir," she reported.

Lizzy's attention was immediately caught by the new undertone of intimacy in that “sir.”It was then Lizzy noticed that Charlotte’s clothes were different, too?trendier, actually a bit daring. Her blouse had a deep V neckline. Normally, she wore only achromatic colors, professional. White and black occasionally leavened with a splash of gray. But now her blouse was deep blue, and she had a matching blue hairpin in her hair?her newly-styled hair. And lipstick…red lipstick. Lizzy had never seen her wearing makeup.

Charlotte hung up the phone and stood. Her navy skirt was pleated and short, exposing the length of her legs to her navy heels.Charlotte in heels. No longer low-key Charlotte.She opened the door to Kellynch's office, making sure that she was on display in the doorway as she announced his visitor. As Lizzy stepped forward, Kellynch was giving Charlotte a look?a look with as much an undertone of intimacy as Charlotte's “sir.”

His look disappeared as she stepped aside to allow Lizzy to enter. "Ah, Agent Bennet—I'll call you that for old times' sake—please have a seat." He gestured to the chair where Fitzwilliam had been seated the night she had been called to Langley.

Although she sat, Kellynch stayed on his feet, clasping his hands behind his back. He walked around to the front of his desk and continued to stand, considering her. Then he unclasped hishands and sighed. "I suppose all good things come to an end, don't they?"

Lizzy wasn't sure that was the most appropriate description of her time in the Company, but she did not want to cause any friction; she just wanted this meeting to be done. “Yes, sir.”

"I talked to Dr. Williams earlier today. I wanted to know what she thought about your resignation." He frowned slightly. "She told me she was all for it, and she went on to share quite a few pointed thoughts with me about the Company, our use of agents."

Lizzy suppressed a smile. She could just imagine Dr. Williams's comments. "She's not a big fan of what you do or how you do it," she offered, keeping her tone studiedly neutral.

He stared at her for a moment. "But what we do is necessary. And we only do it in reaction to the actions of others, other governments."

She knew that wasn't completely true but also knew there was no point in saying so. "I suspect the most Dr. Williams would grant is that what you do is a necessaryevil, and that calling an evil 'necessary' doesn't alchemize it from evil to good. It's still evil, even if it's necessary." Lizzy thought of Fitzwilliam, the Pauline Principle:Do not do evil so that good may come.

The thought made her heart ache with missing him—but it also made it ache for the two of them, for all that had transpired in Chicago, for what they had mutually asked for and allowed in the seduction of Wickham.

"Well, Dr. Williams lives in a fantasy," Kellynch said with a hint of defensiveness. "I live in the real world. Langley isrealpolitikembodied."

She nodded concessively but then added, "Dr. Williams is oriented on health, not on sickness."

He stiffened, and his eyes showed a flash of anger. He walked behind the desk to his chair and sat down. "So there's no way we can keep you? No way I can sweeten the pot?"

It was the wrong phrasing of the question. Lizzy's mind immediately fastened on “pot.”Honey pot."No," she said with a cool final certainty, a calm tranquility that surprised her. "Nothing."

He nodded and opened a folder on his desk. "You have a lot of vacation pay coming. I hadn't realized you had used so little."

"I've been busy."

"Yes, I suppose so. Well, the check for the unused vacation time will be sent to your forwarding address in…Rochester."

"Do you have any idea how my cover was compromised or how the Wicker Man came to suspect me?"

Kellynch looked up, surprised. "No," he confessed after a moment. "I don't. We investigated here, and my counterpart in MI-6 investigated there, fine-sifting everyone involved. We both discovered nothing. I don't think there's a mole here, and he doesn't think there's one there. We’re on the alert, as we always are, but now especially." He considered her again. "We've had agents outside your apartment, as you've probably noticed. If you want, I can have agents stationed to watch over you wherever you go, at least for a time…a few weeks, a month."

"No, that's not necessary. If nothing's happened by now, nothing will. But I appreciate it, both what you've done and the offer of more."

He nodded. "I like the blonde hair," he said, smiling after a silent moment between them.

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