Page 51 of Pride, Prejudice, & Pretense

But there was no Ned, and there was no Fanny, and the ring was fake.

Except she felt like it was all real. Too real. The ring felt heavy on her finger, and the continued contact with Wickham's foot felt as though she was being true to the mission and false to everything else.

Everyone else.

Ned went back to conversing with Lady Catherine, although he turned frequently to look down the table, trying to control himself and his features. Darcy was good, very good. Suspicion and jealousy.

Fanny lifted her head and separated her foot from Wickham's, but she gave him a watery, submissive smile with bile rising, burning in her throat. She took a spoonful of chowder and blew on it.

And Mom wants an epitaph for Dad.

It was too much.

Chapter Twelve: Under Influence

Lizzy still had her ring…Fanny's ring…beneath the table, her hand fisted as if holding onto it and to herself.

Lady Catherine had made a bid for Ned's attention. After glowering in Wickham’s direction, he had responded. Henry was trying to lift a frown as he watched Lady Catherine fawn over the younger, taller man. His face seemed somehow to take on the terra cotta tint of Ned's sweater as Lady Catherine touched it.

"I adore that sweater, Ned…" Lizzy heard Lady Catherine purr.

Wickham leaned toward Fanny, glancing at the other end of the table as he did so, talking to her while spying on Ned. "So, where did thisconsequentialproposal take place?" he asked in a whisper, careful to speak softly so he wouldn’t be overheard by Father Robyn, Crispin, and Maria as they chatted amiably about a recent charity event all had attended. Lizzy could hear only scraps of their conversation, yet it was loud enough to drown out Lady Catherine’s continued cooing.

Lizzy struggled to keep her focus. Wickham's heated, mocking gaze was on her, and he waited for her answer. "At a place near my apartment. A nice little Italian restaurant." She wanted to add that it was nothing like Alinea but had no wish to lure Wickham into wanting to know more; she could imagine his outpouring of contempt on The Made Man.Just as Lizzy could not bear his scorn for her plain ring, she could not bear his scoffing at the modest scene of her proposal.

Fanny'sproposal.It was ridiculous, this conflating of identities?Lizzy's reaction to Fanny's proposal, her nervous eyes on Darcy…Ned.

Wickham sighed. "Is there a place nearby that's worthy of a proposal to a woman like you?"

That pissed Lizzy off enough to make Fanny show some spirit. "What? Are you planning such a proposal, too?" She managed to serrate the edge of her scorn.

He sat back, surprised. It took him a few seconds, but he eventually smiled a slow, confident smile. "I don't need to trade rings for…other things. I can command them. No proposal necessary."

Before Fanny could answer, Maria turned from Father Robyn and Crispin, who were chuckling over some private joke, and she reacted to Fanny's exchange with Wickham.

"Proposal? I've been proposed to two times. My first husband, you know, Mr. Rushworth, bungled the words but…had the feeling right, you know, at least as close to right as waspossiblefor him." She sniffed, self-pity and regret in one sharp inhalation. "My second husband," she glanced from Wickham to Henry at the opposite end of the table, "was, you know…agile with words, but I believe the dexterity was due to his lack of intense feeling."

Lizzy was unsure how to go on from those remarks, but she was eager to avoid yielding the conversational initiative to Wickham. Letting her own glance travel down the table to Ned, she spoke quietly but audibly. "Ned got it right. Just right. The words and…the feeling?themusic, let's say?fit each other perfectly. Hand in glove." She stole a glance at her ring, not intending to but unable to resist. She lifted her eyes to Ned.

As Lizzy looked at Darcy, he fished his phone from his pocket and took a quick glance at it, careful to keep the screen visible only to himself. He pocketed the phone almost immediately, but she knew from his subtle shift that he had gotten a signal from the third member of their team. Charlie was in the house.

Her pulse quickened.

Wickham had been spooning the remains of his chowder around on the bottom of his bowl, desultory, obviously displeased with Fanny's praise for Ned. It was now apparent he had expected Fanny to be more responsive to him than she was, perhaps publicly intent on Ned while privately yielding to Wickham.

Lizzy knew she was pushing him. He might decide she was not worth the effort. At the same time, it was important to make him feel that effort was necessary. The question was the line?where it was for him, where added zest passed over into unwanted expense.

Father Robyn looked at her, seeming to notice the momentary stalemate between the two, and he came to her rescue. He addressed Wickham, mischief on his face and in his tone. "George, I was watching old movies earlier today. TCM was showing Errol Flynn. They made me think of you." There was a barb in the final comment, and Wickham blinked.

Maria responded before Wickham could. "Errol Flynn?Nowthat'sa man who fills out his tights! No wonder he made so many, you know…period-type films. Robin Hood and, you know…pirates."

Neither Father Robyn nor Wickham looked at her. After a pause, Wickham responded, raising one eyebrow like a headsman's ax. "Was it all the films, or one in particular that made you think of me?" The eyebrow fell. "Or was it thetights?" Wickham's eyes flicked to Maria, who did not appear to notice the subtext aimed at the priest. It seemed obvious that she was mostly oblivious.

Father Robyn smiled suavely, calmly, smooth as a millpond. "No, it was not the tights, though I grant that Mrs. Crawford is right, you know, about Flynn's backside. Fit to withstand the gaze of millions. He wasmaleyoga pants beforefemaleyogapants." He gave himself a visible shake. "It was a particular movie,Don Juan,about the famously reckless womanizer. It's a part in which Flynn parodies Flynn as he plays the title character. A complicated and dizzy dance of self-celebration and self-mockery."

He let his eyes briefly move to Fanny before they moved back to Wickham. "At the end of the film, despite swearing his eternally devoted love to the Spanish queen, he blithely goes chasing a redhead in a passing carriage, remarking to his companion that all men have a little Don Juan in them, but since heisDon Juan, he must have more than most." Father Robyn's smile widened in a complicated challenge to Wickham.

Lizzy was surprised by the turn of the conversation. Father Robyn may have visited Fanny to warn her, but she would not have expected him to face Wickham down. Or try to. Lizzy felt suddenly stultified at the incongruity in his behavior.

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