Page 84 of Pride, Prejudice, & Pretense

"It's amazing. The view…but it's isolated, isn't it?" Lizzy needed to know more about the cabin if she could.

"Yes, the owner said the nearest neighbor's a long way away, down the mountain." He turned and headed back to the stairs. “Let's go inside. There's a key box on the back door. I paid the owners to stock the place, so everything we need is here. Food and drink."

Lizzy followed him back down the stairs. He punched a code in the box hanging from the knob of the back door, took out the key, and opened the door. He stood aside as if he were going to let Fanny enter first, but when she reached him, Wickham suddenly scooped her up into his arms. Lizzy had to suppress her first response—to counterattack—when she realized Wickham wasn't attacking her.

He was carrying her inside.Across the threshold.

She looked at him, her face close to his. He was smirking again. "Now Ned can't be the first to do that," he said, his pleasure laced with a malice he could not entirely hide. "I claimed your threshold virginity."

Lizzy tried to laugh, but the action had not only alarmed her; it angered her. It brought back the hopes she had been trying to squelch and made her wonder if Wickham had managed to steal something from Fitzwilliam, if not from Ned. The taint ofviolation that she had felt since she’d agreed to go with Wickham intensified. She tasted despair like black bile.

Still, she managed to smile. "Put me down, George. I want to look around."

He did, and she surveyed the cabin, trying to ignore the way she felt. The interior was attractive, rustic, with lots of displayed wood and stone. A massive stone fireplace dominated the living room. The kitchen was simple but impressive, the countertops granite. The refrigerator was a perfectly preserved antique and red, matching the cabin’s exterior. Most of the accents inside, Lizzy realized, were also red. The color red dominated the room despite blue pillows and a blue-hued painting of a bison on the wall.

Wickham went out the door to retrieve their luggage and swiftly returned. "I saw the master bedroom this way," he said as he passed her. She steeled herself and stepped into his wake.

The room was large, large enough that the king bed did not crowd it. The remains of the afternoon sun came through one of the two large windows, making the white, nearly transparent curtain glow golden. He put the luggage down, looked at the bed, and then looked at Fanny.

Lizzy glanced at the bed and then away from it. "I'm hungry. How about some dinner? I'll see what there is." She left the room before he could agree or disagree.

The cat-and-mouse game was beginning.

For how long can I evade the bed that Wickham takes to be fated, destiny?So far, he had made no mistakes. But Lizzy wondered about the texts he had received and his reaction to them, especially the first ones after he picked her up in Chicago. Something was happening, she was sure of that.

She put her Patagonia bag on the counter, pushed it back against the splash guard in the corner, and took off her coat, folding it and putting it against the bag. Hiding the gun wascrucial, but she could not chance doing that yet, and it would make no sense to keep wearing the bag inside. She'd have to chance that Wickham would pay it no attention. So far, he had not.

As if on cue, he came into the kitchen, his phone out, with a dark, frustrated frown on his face, his eyes glinting. "I have to leave for a little while. Business. The people I'm supposed to meet…to meettomorrow…now want to meet this evening. At least they're coming partway. I'll be"?he paused to think?"an hour or so. Back by 8 p.m. Will that be too late for dinner?"

Lizzy let Fanny seize the moment. "No, I wasn't…planning on sleeping tonight, anyway."Violation.

Wickham's face brightened. His hungry smile returned, starving. He put his phone back in his pocket. "Good. Very good. I'll be back as soon as possible."

It was clear he meant that. His lust, now barely controlled, bodied out, filled the room, thickening the air, heating it, making it hard for Lizzy to breathe. It was as if he were groping her already.

He still had his jacket on, and he stepped to the back door. "Lock up after I leave. You'll be alone up here." Wickham hurriedly left.

A few seconds later, the car engine roared to life. Lizzy locked the door and took the first deep breath she had taken since leaving her apartment.

Once she heard the car drive away, she hustled to her bag on the counter, retrieving the revolver and box of ammunition. She loaded the gun quickly and smoothly, her practiced readiness apparent had anyone been observing her. She carried the gun to the bedroom and stowed it under the corner of the mattress, then retrieved her suitcase and put it on the side of the bed that hid the gun, claiming that side.

Next she went back to the kitchen and took the phone out of her bag. She walked all around the cabin, waving the phone, and then outside to the front deck hoping for a vestige of a signal. A single bar…anything.Nothing. The tracker Charlie hid in her purse should let Fitzwilliam and Charlie know where she was, but she was hoping to talk to them. To Fitzwilliam. No luck?no signal.

No hope.

A hopeless agent stays alive.

She put her phone in her pocket after deleting the recent record of her call to Fitzwilliam.Ned.

Then she made herself stand still. Breathe. In and out, in and out.

After taking that much-needed moment, she felt steadier. She had a plan, but she had little time. She opened the red refrigerator and found ribeyes on a shelf…fresh broccoli…cheddar cheese. She looked in the pantry and saw potatoes. She quickly decided on a meal of steak and baked potatoes with broccoli in cheese sauce. There were cans of evaporated milk and cornstarch in the panty, too. Mustard was in the fridge—everything she needed for the cheese sauce. She found a package of rolls, opened it, and put it on the counter. She turned the oven on to heat and put on water for the broccoli.

Leaving the kitchen, she went back to the bedroom and picked up Wickham's duffle bag, which he had left behind. Although she doubted it would hold any secrets, this was her one chance to look.

She needed him to make a mistake.Just one mistake!

She placed the duffle on the bed and unzipped it, opening it carefully and not touching anything inside until she had memorized where all the items were and how they were folded.Wickham is neat.After she had stored the organization in hermind, she checked the outside of the duffle. There was one small pocket. She unzipped it, but it was empty.

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