Page 19 of Pride, Prejudice, & Pretense

"Yes, I think so. What have you been doing?"

"Just making sure our equipment is ready. From here on out, you'll be on comms when Wickham or Lady Catherine is in your apartment. The phone is set up. You have a personal number for Fanny, and her CPL number will transfer to that phone."

"CPL number?"

Darcy answered. "Yes, we've got a site piggybacking on CPL's. If anyone searches for you there, they'll be redirected to a CIA server with a personal page for you, information about you at CPL. There's also a number, the one Bingley mentioned. That way, if Wickham decides to find you, he can."

"But what if he goes to the library looking for me?"

"He won't." Darcy smiled. "It's not his style. It would look like he was chasing you. And the place is too big, too public, too many employees. Also, before Lady Catherine tried to lead me down the garden path, I told her you were planning to take a few days off, that you'd intended to spend them with me but I had been called back to New York tomorrow. She believes you’re just going to spend the time on stay-cation, resting and perhaps seeing some of the sights of Chicago you'd yet to see."

"Oh, so the thought is that she will tell Wickham and he will call? You created a window of opportunity for him?"

"Yes. He won't chase you, but he will call and give you a chance to chase him. It may seem like semantics to you, but they’re not to him. The corruption is deepest when you choose it, not when he coerces you."

"He wants me to want to cheat on you, though I know it's wrong?"

"Yes. He's the sort of man who finds your guilt sexy, although he feels none himself."

That comment brought the discussion to a temporary halt.

Charlie broke the silence. "By the way, Lizzy, take a photo and send it to me. I don't have one of you blonde, and I need it for your personal page."

"Okay. Night, Charlie."

"Night, Lizzy. See you in a minute, Darcy."

Once he turned off the computer, Darcy picked up her phone and pointed it at her. She straightened and fluffed her hair. He took a picture, then turned the phone so she could see it. She was surprised at how good it turned out. Darcy had a good eye. "That'll do."

He sent it to Charlie and stood. "You did a good job tonight, Agent Bennet. I was impressed. And I was wrong. You certainlycantempt—you’ve tempted George Wickham. I underestimated your hair. Much more than that, I underestimatedyou.I can be pigheaded, sure that I'm right. And Wickham…" He paused, shifting his weight, softening his voice. "I didn't see Wickham make any effort to talk to any other woman after he met you. And without exactly saying so, Lady Catherine thought he was taken by you. Taken enough for her to try to press herself upon me."

Lizzy accepted his praise with a nod. She was beginning to reckon with what the next few days likely held for her and whether or not she could endure them. Now that the party was over and she had seen Wickham, now that the lights and music were done, the prospect ahead was bleak: working Wickham up close, trying to get him to shed his secrets while she kept her clothes on.

Her acceptance of the mission had been driven by anger at Darcy, a desire to prove him wrong. He seemed sorry to have been proven wrong, but he seemed sorry for her sake, not his. Orat any rate, he seemed more sorry that she was right than he was at being wrong.

Or something.

It was not her sort of mission, even if, so far, it had gone…according to plan.

The uncertainty that she felt when Darcy left earlier in the day returned and filled the room like indoor weather. He felt it too.

He headed toward the door. "Goodnight," he said to her, stepping into the hallway.

As he walked out, one of the other tenants walked by. Moving quickly back to Lizzy, Darcy kissed her firmly on the mouth. She knew it was for the sake of the cover and reacted, putting her arms around him.

"Night," she said again, this time in a whisper, moving her lips to his ear. His returning stubble rasped her cheek. Then he was gone.

She closed the door and darted her tongue over her lips. She could taste Darcy faintly there.

Chapter Six: Checkers

Lizzy struggled to sleep. The party had required intense concentration to be someone else (Fanny) and tailor that someone else to other people's expected or apparent expectations (Lady Catherine, George Wickham) while also tracking herself (Lizzy) and her own reactions to what was happening. It had been exhausting, requiring such a pitch of exertion that now she could not let go of it. The party replayed in her head, lights and music and conversation.

In addition, there was that kiss at the door. It had surprised her and evidently stirred her. It, too, kept replaying, a brief leitmotif between the longer, heavier replayed conversations.

She tossed and turned.

Maybe part of it is the strange bed?Maybe the kissonlysurprised me? Everything else stirred me. Really, it's all an understandable reaction to a honeypot mission so soon after my last mission. No time to recover, to reset myself.

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