Page 2 of Third Time is the Charm
“Caroline,” Darcy called to her, his voice menacing, “we’ve been done for a long time. Don’t come back.”
If this were Ancient Greece, her stare would have turned him to stone, but, as it was, her enraged look only brought a bigger smile to his face. Turning, she left the room, slamming the door behind her.
The sound of the door shook Charles from his shocked stupor as he looked at Darcy for a brief moment before turning toward the door to go after his sister.
“Caroline, what the hell is —” Charles began to yell before Darcy grabbed his arm and interrupted him.
“Let her go,” Darcy said calmly. “I can explain.”
“Well, someone had better!” Charles exclaimed, his voice bordering on anger, which was a rarity for him. At least he had stopped from leaving the room to pursue his sister for answers.
God only knows what she would have told him.
Darcy waited for another thirty second, even though Charles was staring at him impatiently. When he heard the front door close as Caroline left, Darcy walked over in front of Charles and opened the studio door, exiting the studio into the hallway. Charles followed him as he walked into the dining room.
“Darcy, what is going on? Why was Caroline here, like that?” Charles asked again.
Ignoring the question for the moment, Darcy pulled out two glasses from the bar, tossing them carelessly onto the countertop as he grabbed the bottle of scotch and pulled the stopper out.
“Scotch?” he asked Charles.
“Shit… make it a double,” Charles responded, the disbelief and astonishment over what he had just witnessed still having trouble sinking in.
Darcy quickly poured them each generous glasses of the liquor, taking a deep swig before addressing his friend again. “I have all the answers that you want and I will explain everything to you, but you have to promise me one thing,” Darcy said, his voice deathly still with the gravity of what he was about to ask.
“Ok, sure, anything,” Charles said quickly, willing to do anything at this point to understand what had just happened.
“I need you to promise me that you won’t tell Jane about what just happened,” Darcy began. “Don’t worry, she knows most of what I’m about to tell you, but after everything that happened with Beth last night, after everything that you know that I said to her, I don’t want her to ever know that Caroline was here.”
“Ok…”
“I need to make amends for what I did last night and I don’t want her to ever have to walk into this apartment and imagine me coming home to find Caroline, naked, in my studio. I can only imagine what she thinks of me right now; I can’t bear the idea of her having even the smallest thought that there is still something between Caroline and me.”
Even just saying the words out loud sent a shiver of dread through him; his heart, an organ that he had all but given up on, clenching painfully at the thought of hurting Beth even more than he already had last night.
“Ok, I promise,” Charles agreed softly. “Now, what do you mean by ‘still’ something between you and my sister?”
Darcy took a long drink of his scotch, preparing for the long, much-overdue explanation that was about to follow.
Chapter 1
You are cordially invited to the marriage of
Jane Marie Bennet
and
Charles David Bingley
to take place the Twentieth of May
Ceremony and Reception to take place at
Blue Hill at Stone Barns
Beth stared at the words on the invitation as she waited for her Uber to arrive. Every day for the past four weeks, Beth had stared at the words letter-pressed on the thick, ivory paper as she waited for her morning cup of tea to steep.
Jane and Charles. Twentieth of May.
