Page 60 of Pride, Prejudice, & Pretense

Darcy snorted. "Lord!Bang Fumertonandthe Wicker Man. Is it now a necessity for villains to have ridiculous names?"

Charlie chuckled but grew serious. "It's the TikTok age. Why does Wickham use that name, anyway, other than its overlap with his? Is it just ego? Wicker furniture is…well, the opposite of scary."

"Notfurniture.No doubt that itisego, a kind of signature on his…work. But it's also meant to be threatening. It's from a 1973 British horror film, a folk horror film calledThe Wicker Man.Long plot very short?pagan islanders lure a virgin policeman to their island and eventually burn him and a bunch of animals to death in a giant hollow Wicker Man statue. A sacrifice. The islanders surround the burning statue and sing "Sumer is Icumen In," a Middle English folk song. Meanwhile, the policeman recitesPsalm23 until he is engulfed in flames."

"Jesus!" Charlie breathed.

"NotJesus," Darcy responded. He shook his head again. "Precisely not Jesus. The film's about the death of innocence, or of an innocent—it turns out the policeman is not only a virgin, but he's a Christian, hence the Psalm. A pagan victory over Christianity."

"Damn!" Lizzy said after a moment, appalled at the fresh memory of Wickham's hands on her, the Wicker Man's hands. "I've never seen that movie." She was glad she hadn't.

Charlie cleared his throat, changing the subject back to the day's situation. "Yes, well…okay, the guess at Langley is that Wickham's planning to use a Fumerton explosive. But it's not clear if his target is near Rapid City or if the bomb maker?Fumerton or whoever?is there. I hope the team in Rapid City can figure that out."

As Darcy started to respond, Fanny's phone rang from the bedroom. All three of them, Charlie included, jumped. Lizzy made abe-quietgesture and ran to answer it, her bare feet slapping the floor in the living room on her way to the carpeted bedroom.

It was Wickham.

She made herself stand and wait before answering, trying to calm her breathing.He's supposed to be in the air.She tried to recall how Fanny had departed Rosings, how she ought to react.Why isn't he in the air?

She finally picked up the phone. "George?" she asked timidly.

"Is Ned still there?" Wickham’s voice was quiet.

"I thought you were going out of town today." She deliberately avoided answering his question and allowed a tincture of challenge to creep into her voice.

"I am," he replied with an unfazed chuckle, "but the cold weather's evidently affecting the plane's engines. It's much colder than last night. There's a delay. Not long, though. We board in a minute."

"I didn't know it was colder. I haven't been out. Why are you calling me?"

"Is Ned still there?"

Darcy had shut the computer. He walked softly into Lizzy's bedroom, coming close to her, so close that she could again smell his aftershave. She angled the phone so he could hear Wickham.

"No," she said, "He’s not. He left earlier."

"I'll be back late this afternoon, and I want to see you." Wickham’s tone suggested that he was confident of her response, of her agreement.

"George, Ned and I—"

"I felt you beneath my hands last night, rolled you between my fingers. You want to find out where that goes…how it ends…what I can make your body feel. What I can make your body feel that Ned can't."

Lizzy wanted to scream at the man, call him a bastard, but Fanny inhaled. "George, I can't do that."

He ignored her protest. "Let me come to your place tonight. I can be there by 8 p.m. We can have drinks, talk, and keep each other warm."

"No, George."

Wickham was quiet. Lizzy heard the airport intercom in the background but not what was said. "My flight is boarding—finally! I will be there at 8 p.m. Wear something…comfortable. By the time I arrive, I will have had a long, hard day."

Lizzy let a moment pass, stretching it out. Fanny swallowed audibly and responded meekly. "Okay."

After the call ended, Darcy left quickly, telling Lizzy he was going to use the tunnel between the parking decks to get to the other apartment. He and Charlie would prepare for Wickham's visit to Fanny, double-checking the cameras and listening devices that had been off since they’d been put in place.

Lizzy knew his swift departure was because he did not want to make matters harder for her. But that also meant she now faced a long day by herself leading up to a very personal encounter with Wickham?an encounter he would believe wastaking place in private and free him to pursue what he wanted from Fanny. Not that being in public had acted as much of a brake on him.

She hoped the Rapid City team would discover what Wickham was doing and take him into custody, thus preventing his visit from happening at all. Unfortunately, she knew that was unlikely. The team might discover something, but despite the mistake of the phone number in his jacket pocket, Wickham was a clever, careful man.

He would be at her apartment at 8 p.m., and he would expect to sleep with her. “Sleep with” has never seemed so euphemistic to me before.He wanted to bed her as close to her engagement as possible, she realized, to prove how little Ned's ring really meant to Fanny and twist heryesto Ned into ano.

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