Page 29 of Pride, Prejudice, & Pretense

As they finished, Wickham shook his head. "It's art you can inhabit. Like a painting that suddenly allows you to step into it, that stretches from two dimensions to three."

Lizzy understood this. "Like Bert's chalk drawings inMary Poppins!"

To her surprise, Wickham responded to her question with a blank look. "What's that?"

"A famous movie. Everyone has seen it at least once as a child."

His face contracted. "Not me. But then, I had an odd childhood." He scowled, not at Lizzy but at something neither of them could see, and then quickly lightened his expression. "Shall we go to dinner? We can walk from here."

"We can?"

"Yes, it's a neighborhood place. Rook will pick us up when we finish."

They walked a short distance, and Lizzy was puzzled when they ended up at a corner diner, a Greek place called Salonica.

Wickham held the door for her. "I hope you don't mind. I have a soft spot for diner food, particularly for Greek food, so this place seemed a natural choice. And it was near our last tour."

They went inside and sat down in one of the worn booths. Their waitress?a small, elderly woman with hair that should have been gray but was jet black?brought them small glasses of water and asked if they wanted anything else to drink.

"Coffee," Wickham said. "Are you still serving breakfast?"

The woman shrugged as if they might or might not be but could provide it anyway.

"Water's good for me," Lizzy said.

The woman trudged away. They studied their menus, already on the table.

Lizzy felt Fanny's phone vibrate in her purse. "Oh, pardon me." She took out the phone and saw she had a text from Ned.

Sorry again about having to leave, hope you found a way to entertain yourself

"Is there a problem?" Wickham’s tone sounded slightly irritated at the interruption.Darcy. Good thought.

She turned the phone so that he could read the text. He sighed and shook his head. "Ned's loss is my gain." His eyes metLizzy's as he said it, and she held his gaze for an extra second before glancing back at the text.

"I wish he hadn't had to leave," she looked up at Wickham, "but I'm enjoying myself. Thanks for this afternoon."

The waitress came back with coffee. "What will you have?"

Wickham let Lizzy go first. "A gyro and fries."

"And I'll have the Greek omelet."

As the woman trudged away again, Lizzy chuckled. "I had an omelet this morning. Made it myself."But I didn't eat it myself. She thought of Darcy, first at breakfast and now listening to her talk to Wickham.

"So…Ned. How did you two meet? I'm assuming there were books involved?"

Lizzy chuckled again. "Yes, there were. One book in particular. We met in a used bookstore in New York, both of us looking for a copy of the same book."

"What book?"

"Elizabeth Gaskell's last novel,Wives and Daughters. She was writing it when she died and did not complete it. It's missing the final chapter, although the trajectory is clear enough."

Wickham nodded slowly. "Hmm…Ned was looking forWives and Daughters? Isn't that a little…I don't know…piano?"

She hadn't expected that phrasing, but Darcy had correctly anticipated the sentiment when they built their backstory. She shrugged. "Ned's so sweet, a gentle soul…"

Wickham grinned, deviltry curling the corners of his mouth. "Maybe a littletoogentle?"

---