Page 44 of Pride, Prejudice, & Pretense

Monday, October 19

Lizzy slept late the next morning. A long hot shower woke her but did nothing to improve her mood. Standing by her coffee maker, staring at it, cup in hand, willing it to drip faster, she heard a soft knock at the apartment door.

Charlie. She now knew that knock, and she’d half-expected it. She put the empty cup on the counter beside the filling coffee maker.

At the door, she took a breath and tightened the belt on her robe in order to tighten her grip on herself. Jane was right that the three of them?Lizzy, Charlie, and Darcy?needed to get along, needed to make the mission their priority. She opened the door.

Charlie looked exhausted but eager as he stepped inside.

"Hey, Charlie," she said after shutting the door.

"Morning. Did you talk to Jane? I still can't get any response."

She delayed. "How about some coffee?" He nodded, and Lizzy went and got another cup. The coffee was finally ready, and she poured for each of them. He stood, waiting, the fingers on one hand twitching.

"I talked to Jane. Sit down, Charlie. Where's Agent Darcy?"

"He's working with the Chicago satellite CIA office to get you an engagement ring…Fanny, that is. He'll be out all morning, I expect. So…” He sat on a stool. “Jane?"

Recognizing that he was heartsick, Lizzy put her hand on his arm. "You're not going to like this, but it's not as bad as it sounds. She wants me to tell you to focus on the mission, nothing else. She said she still feels exactly the same about you, but that she needs to break off communication until you're back in D.C. Then you two can pick up where you left off. It's obvious to me that she loves you, Charlie."

The hurt in his eyes lessened. "She said that? Used those words?"

"No, not exactly, but you must know her by now. Cautious. She’s undemonstrative, especially about what she feels deeply."

He shook his head, but the movement indicated agreement. "Yes, she is. It took me a couple of dates to figure out that she liked me. Later, she told me that she fell for me on the first date. It was news to me."

"Jane's not the type of woman to fall in love easily. She knows you are a wonderful man—and thoseareher words. She just doesn't want to distract you while you're here. She's fine. And she's the last person who would be…inconstant. You know that."

He studied his coffee, swirled it in the cup, and then looked up. "I do. And I guess I understand. I have been distracted." A sip of coffee provided a pause, and he heaved a deep sigh. "But it's going to be hard to stop communicating with her at all. I guess Darcy will be happy about it, though. He's been…hard on me."

You have no idea.Lizzy bit her tongue to keep from saying it aloud. They drank their coffee together as she continued to reassure him. He finished his coffee, checked the hallway before stepping into it, and left. Lizzy poured herself another cup and sat, thinking.

The day passed in silence. Lizzy rested and fretted…about the mission, about Jane and Charlie, about Darcy. She did not go out, not even for a coffee. She readMoby Dick, the copy Darcy had bought her, but she found Ahab unbearable. That was a man on a mission, single-minded. Purity of heart, but of the wrong kind.

A couple of hours passed as she stood and stared out her window. She saw Darcy come to stand in the window across the street. He did not see her or, if he did, he pretended that he didn't.

In the middle of the afternoon, Darcy…Ned …called Fanny. He asked her to go to dinner with him at a small cafe nearby. "Ned and Fanny are going out. We will be seen, so we will need to sell it?the proposal. No need for fancy clothes, though. It doesn’t matter whether or not Wickham witnesses it himself. It only matters that there are witnesses and that he can confirm that it happened. He can talk to staff, if not to customers, or he can check on-site security cameras."

Lizzy accepted the necessity for the ruse, but she barely said anything during the call.

When Darcy ended it, she got up and carefully gathered some clothes. It wasn't every day that a woman got proposed to.Fakeproposed to. She was curious how it would go.Curious.

She refused to notice the rapid beating of her heart.

The cafe turned out to be a clean, well-lit Italian place called The Made Man.Stills from gangster movies as well as photographs of Chicago's actual gangster past covered the walls. Tall candles in faceted crystal stood in the middle of each red and white tablecloth. Sinatra sang softly on secreted speakers.

When Darcy had arrived at her apartment door, Lizzy felt her chest tighten and her annoyance with him peak. Then she thought of Jane and Charlie, and she bit her tongue. For Jane, for the mission—for the proposal—she would do her best to avoid the topic of Darcy's interference. And Lizzyhadcalled her mother against protocol. She didn't want to be guilty of hypocrisy, even if she felt that Darcy was.

The waiter led them to a corner table. "Thisisthe table you asked for, Mr. Moreland?"

"Yes, this is it. Thanks,” he answered in Ned’s American voice. “Fanny?" Darcy gestured to a chair at the small table and moved to pull it out for her.

She looked at Darcy, craning around as she took her seat. The restaurant was mostly empty, but it was early. "You've been here before?"

"I have. I was in Chicago on a mission in the States years ago. I ended up here. The food's wonderful, despite the kitschy decor. Guess it's not the Alinea Salon." He shrugged concessively, almost apologetically?as if Ned were losing yet more to Wickham.

The shrug annoyed her, a stab. "No, but I hope never to see that place again or eat another meal like that, fancy though it was. The attempteddessertturned my stomach."

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