Page 120 of Pride, Prejudice, & Pretense

Lizzy slept later than she’d intended to the next morning. She had left Strong Memorial with her aunt and uncle, who had waited for her. Then she had gone to their house to shower and sleep. Wearing pajamas her aunt loaned her, Lizzy curled up on the big bed in the guest room under an ocean of blue blankets, snow whirling in the Rochester wind outside. After sayingFitzwilliamin an incantatory tone to herself, she warmed and sank into deep, dreamless sleep.

The Gardiners had decided to close the bridal shop for the weekend, so Aunt Christine woke up early and drove to Lizzy's house, returning with fresh clothes and then making breakfast, all before her niece finally rose. Once Lizzy had eaten and dressed, her aunt drove her to get her car at the bridal shop.

Lizzy went inside for a moment to reclaim her phone, which she’d left behind when she went to the storeroom the previous night. It was still plugged in behind the counter where she'd left it.

She found a text from Fitzwilliam.Good morning. Up early. Sent my resignation to MI-6. All yours.

A tremble went through her from head to toe as she read it. A new possessiveness.Joy. Mine.

They were both done. They were both free. Free for each other, for the different life she had been imagining. Burdens once chosen were no longer borne. The Company and MI-6 were behind them.

She took a deep breath and responded.All yours, too.His.

Hanging near her was a wedding dress they had featured during the Black Friday sale. It had caught Lizzie's attention often as she worked, and she had imagined herself in it. It was simple, a bit antique, covered in silk tulle, and had a high neckline but a short skirt and an A-line silhouette. She grabbed a tag from the counter, wrote her name on it, and attached it to the dress. Next, she grabbed an IOU slip, signed it, and left it on the counter. Then she moved the dress to the layaway section of the store.

For safekeeping.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single woman in possession of a bridal gown, must be in want of a husband.

Lizzy chuckled to herself.

***

When Lizzy entered Fitzwilliam’s room, she was pleasantly surprised to find Charlie and Jane sitting with him. "Jane! Charlie! What are you doing here?"

Charlie answered while Jane rushed into a hug with Lizzy. "Kellynch sent me, and Jane took some time off to come see you both. She and Darcy have been getting personally acquainted."

Jane still had Lizzy in the hug and whispered. "I get it, Lizzy. He's something!" Pulling back, she led her to an empty chair.

Lizzy did not sit immediately. Instead, she kissed Fitzwilliam hungrily on the mouth, untroubled by the company in the room. Neither was he; he kissed her back with equal hunger.

Jane cleared her throat archly. "Okay, you two! Get a non-hospital room!"

When they finished the lingering kiss, Lizzy leaned close to his ear. "That kiss is for the not-so-subtlein and outline."

He grinned. She turned to Charlie and Jane, hugging Charlie before sitting by the bed and taking Fitzwilliam’s uninjured hand in hers. "Why did Kellynch send you?" she asked Charlie.

"Not to ask you to un-retire. Whatever it was that you said to him last night silenced him on that subject forever, he said. He knew I was worried, that I wanted to see you both.And…he wanted me to tell you that we've found the mole. Sort of."

"Sort of?" Lizzy asked as she felt Fitzwilliam stiffen beside her.

"Yes. Here's the thing. Yesterday, just before everything happened here—Kellynch filled me in, and I've told Jane—Darcy's analyst friend, a Mr. Churchill, previously unknown to me"—Charlie shot Fitzwilliam an uncharacteristically chiding glance—"asked to see Kellynch. It seems that Churchill got the good idea to stop looking for new-fangled sophisticated infiltration and check old-school ones. Like the telephone. Like to see if anyone in Langley had gotten a phone call from Chicago around the time that Lizzy traveled to Casper with Wickham.

“There were several calls, so he cross-listed them with Collingwood’s cell. Nothing. Then he cross-listed them with the church’s phone. Nothing. However, therewerephone calls from St. James to D.C. the day before. One of those numbers turned out to be the home number of an administrative assistant in Langley. Her name is Steele, Lucy Steele.

“She's been interrogated. Collingwood had a tie to her, something he could hold over her. He had kept her in his pocket for a long time until he needed something important. He sent Steele photographs of Lizzy and Darcy, wanting to know if she had ever seen either of them. She said no. She works for legalin another part of the building. She thought the woman in the picture matched the description of someone she had heard about but hadn’t ever seen. Lizzy. Except for the blonde hair.

“However, Steele eats in the Langley cafeteria and got to know Charlotte Lucas there?they ate together regularly. Charlotte complained to Steele now and then about being jealous of a particular female agent, pretty with dark-hair and eyes, medium height. At lunch the day after Steele saw the picture, she mentioned the agent and asked if Charlotte had seen her lately. Charlotte answered that the agent was on a deep cover mission in Chicago with an MI-6 agent and hadgone blonde—or so her boss had said."

"Shit!" Lizzy said.

"Charlotte just didn't think, or she didn't think what she said would matter, or she just didn't care at that moment. Steele left Langley and called Collingwood on a burner phone. That’s how he found out who you were?that you were a CIA agent working with an MI-6 agent." Charlie stopped and looked at Lizzy.

"So when you said 'sort of,’ you mean that it's not clear whether Charlotte counts as a mole. She's the leak, but it's not clear what her motivation was, whether it was carelessness, cattiness, or what.Steeleis the mole, and what Charlotte is…well, it sounds like that remains to be determined."

"Yeah," he said with a shrug, "in more ways than one. She's due to face Kellynch today. It's all the more complicated because the two of them, they…" he trailed off, his meaning clear.

Lizzy nodded. "I thought so. So she finally got him, and now she's going to lose him?"

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