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Chapter 6

Posted on Monday, 1 December 2003

Lizzy watched him from beneath her eyelashes. He was furious, though she couldn’t figure out why. After all, it wasn’t as if he was the one that had been mauled by Billy Collins. Just thinking of what she’d gone through earlier in the evening sent cold shivers down her spine.

Will stormed about the room, collecting what he thought was necessary for the moment. He tried not to seethe. He tried to check his temper. He tried not to be mad at Lizzy. But he was finding it to be a most difficult task.

Mostly, he was mad at Billy Collins. Grateful that he’d shown up when he’d had, Will had wasted no time in separating Billy from his prey. A calculated and well-timed punch to the stomach had achieved that result. Billy had never had a chance. After that, he and Lizzy had lost no time in bundling the offensive burden into his car, and turned him over to the local police. There he would sit until the sheriff saw fit to let him go.

Will and the Sheriff had encouraged Lizzy to press charges. Surely she had the right. But, she had merely shaken her head and said, “No, I’d rather not.” When pressed, she’d explained, “I don’t think Billy is really a menace to society. Just to himself, really. He’s never done anything like this before and I don’t think he will again, not once he’s sobered up. His actions tonight don’t seem to fit him. So, I don’t want everyone to get worked up about this either. I’d rather if you kept things quiet. I wouldn’t like it getting back to someone like my father. Daddy would kill Billy if he ever found out what Billy did tonight.”

No amount of pleading and pointing out that he might hurt someone else would budge Lizzy from her position. She remained adamant that Billy was merely deluded about his relationship to her and otherwise wouldn’t hurt a fly. When she still refused to press charges after half an hour of gentle persuasion, Will gave up. He knew that trying to give Lizzy a budge was like trying to budge a mountain. Eventually, the Sheriff was forced to give up as well. When he saw that Will could do no more, he threw in his towel too. He’d promised to keep Billy locked up for as long as he could, and after that he’d make sure that Billy never came near her again.

For that, Lizzy was grateful.

She and Will had returned to Pemberley after their brief pit stop at the police station. They hadn’t said a word in the car on the return trip home and Lizzy would have gone up to her room if Will hadn’t blocked her way. “You’ll need someone to tend to your wounds,” he’d said.

She’d wanted to refuse, the words had been on the tip of her tongue, but she could see that this time it was he who was not going to budge. So, now she sat in the large, overstuffed chair closest to the small fire that Will had immediately built upon entering the room. Though Texas nights were often warm and stuffy, Lizzy was grateful for the fire tonight. It was warm and comforting; Will must’ve sensed her inner shivers.

He could sense Lizzy’s eyes on his back, watching him dart nervously back and forth. Those eyes, so steady now, hadn’t been as calm and watchful earlier. Will didn’t think he’d ever forget the fright he’d witnessed in the depths of her hazel orbs, as he’d come upon Billy and Lizzy tussling in the bar parking lot. Just thinking about it caused him to clench his teeth.

Will had never been a particularly violent person. He’d always found that it was better to handle matters in less bloodthirsty manners. It was his opinion that you got more things accomplished that way. But, he’d never known such a desire to knock a person down as he had this evening. Even now, he still wished he could have another go. Maybe this time he’d aim for Billy Collins’s face.

He schooled his features before turning around. “This will probably sting,” he warned, coming back to kneel on the floor in front of Lizzy. He poured a generous amount of brandy on a soft, cloth towel before dabbing it on the corner of her mouth.

“Ouch! Gees! That hurt! What are you trying to do, kill me?” Will cocked his head questioningly to the side. “It stings like poison. What did you put on it?”

“Brandy. Good brandy too. I couldn’t find any hydrogen peroxide in the medicine chest,” he explained.

When he made to clean the side of her mouth again, Lizzy jerked her head back. “I don’t want you to clean it with that anymore. It hurts!”

She tried to push away the towel and would have stood up too, but Will pushed her firmly back into the chair. “Don’t be such a baby.” The challenge issued, Lizzy gritted her teeth and refused to emit another sound, no matter how much her mouth throbbed and ached with stinging pain.

“What on earth were you doing with Billy Collins tonight anyhow?” he wanted to know. Will’s gentle touch belied the harshness of his words.

“I wasn’t doing anything,” Lizzy shot back, her back starting to bristle.

“Hmph,” Will grunted. “That wasn’t the impression I got from Billy when we dumped him on the floor of the jail cell and he jolted back to life.”

Lizzy winced as Will began to probe the purplish hue starting to spread around her eyes. “What? Did he say something?” While Will and the Sheriff had carried Billy back into the holding cell, she’d stayed seated up front by the Sheriff’s desk. So, anything Billy might have said when they were in the back she would have missed.

“You’re going to need something on that,” he ignored. He left and came back with a piece of tomorrow night’s sirloin steak that he’d stolen from the freezer.

Lizzy saw the piece of red meat and practically revolted. “You are not going to put that cold, slimy thing on my face!”

Will held the steak up and inspected it. “It’s not slimy,” he pointed out. “It’s completely frozen through and through.”

“It’s still raw meat.”

“It’ll help the swelling.”

“I don’t care! It’s still gross!” She stared at him and he stared at her. When he put the steak back down, Lizzy knew she’d won. This round.

Will sighed. He left once more and returned to fill another towel with the bowl of ice cubes he’d brought back with him from the kitchen. He wrapped the towel into a neat and tidy, secure package before placing it against Lizzy’s face. “Here, hold this.” He brought her hand up and pressed gently it against the cold pack, keeping it in place. Lizzy tried not to flinch at the coldness touching her face.

“Well?” she demanded to know. “What’d he say?”

“Billy claimed that you were his girlfriend and that you’d just had a little domestic dispute, is all.”

Lizzy let her hand drop from shock. Will caught the ice pack before it could fall the ground. Her mouth still gaping wide open, she managed to ask, “Is all? Is all? You didn’t actually believe him, did you?”

“No, I didn’t,” Will said, not willing to admit that though he hadn’t really believed Billy’s heated assertions, he had been beset by perplexing feelings akin to jealousy at the thought of Lizzy belonging to someone else but him.

“Well . . . good then,” Lizzy finished lamely. For some inexplicable reason, she didn’t want Will thinking that there was anyone else in her life, and that she felt that way didn’t particularly sit well with her either.

What did the Sheriff think?” she remembered to ask.

Will tried not to be annoyed that Lizzy even felt the need to ask whether he and the Sheriff believed her. Schooling his voice to be patient, he asked, “Do you think Danny would have tried so hard to get you to press charges if he believed Billy and not you?”

“Oh. I guess you’re right.”

Will finished cleaning the tiny cuts and scrapes on her knee. He placed a bandage over the open cuts and patting her knee, said, “There I think you’re all taken care of now. You’re going to have something of a shiner tomorrow though. What are you going to tell your parents?” He ducked his head as he cleaned up his work area.

Lizzy shrugged. She fingered the side of her face gingerly before settling the ice pack back on her cheek. “I don’t know. I don’t want them to worry, especially when I’m perfectly all right. Also, as I’ve said before, I really don’t want my father to charge after Billy, and I know he will if he ever finds out what happened tonight.”

“Maybe you should let him,” Will suggested. He certainly felt like having another go at the miscreant creep.

“I don’t need anyone to fight my battles.” Lizzy stood and crossed her arms. “I can take care of myself.”

They went back to staring one another down.

“Just like you were handling Billy Collins tonight?”

Lizzy stiffened. “That’s not fair, and you know it. Billy’s usually as harmless as a newborn lamb. There was no way for me to have the foresight to predict that he would snap and lose his marbles like he did.”

“A word of advice, if I may, Lizzy. Never trust a male.”

Lizzy took a good look at the man that stood in front of her.

“I’ll remember that,” she said.

Lizzy had just stepped into the horse barn and was about to reach for her saddle when George came out of nowhere and stepped up behind her. The events of yesterday, however, had left her not a little bit unwary. Gasping with shock, she clutched a hand to her rapidly beating heart. “Oh my goodness, George! It’s you.”

“Sorry,” George chuckled at her unsettled state. “I didn’t mean to scare you. Is everything okay?”

“F-fine,” Lizzy swallowed hard. “Everything’s fine.” She pasted a patently false smile on her face, trying to hide her nervousness.

He didn’t notice that under that overly bright smile was a bundle of trembling nerves. “I wanted to apologize about last night.”

Lizzy jerked to attention. How had George found out about Billy?

“I wanted to explain why I never showed up. I hope you didn’t think I’d stood you up.”

Oh, Lizzy sighed inwardly her relief. In the hubbub of last night’s events, she’d completely forgotten that she’d gone to the Silver Spur in the hopes of running into George and spending some time away from the ranch with him.

“I ran into Denny and Sandy. They explained that something had come up.”

“That’s right. I can’t explain what it was, personal business and all, you know.” Lizzy shrugged. She wasn’t one to pry into people’s personal affairs. “But I hope you’ll believe me when I say that I would have moved heaven and earth to be by your side if I could have.”

Lizzy took a good look at him then. She wasn’t sure if it was her experience from the night before that had her extra sensitive or what, but the words so silvery and polished seemed to drip a little too glibly from his tongue for comfort. She took a step back from him.

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” she told him too cheerfully, waving aside his concerns. “After all, it’s not like we had a date.”

“No, that’s true,” George murmured to himself. “So, you’re not mad at me?”

“Mad? Of course not! Why would I be mad at you?”

“You are such an original, Lizzy Bennet. It’s so refreshing to find a woman that’s as independent and understanding as you.”

George reached out to touch a hand down her cheek, a cheek that Lizzy had caked heavily with make-up to hide the discoloration from her bruise. Lizzy, however, took another cautious step back, away from his touch.

“Such stuff and nonsense, George.” She summoned up a flirtatious smile, because she knew he was expecting it, and batted her eyelashes coquettishly. “You always were a charmer. Well, you needn’t fear me. As you said, I’m an understanding person, so I won’t hold last night against you.”

“I’m very glad to hear it, because I would be sorely disappointed if you did. You’ve no idea how much I would have much rather been with you last night. But,” he lifted his shoulder with a sigh. “You know how things go . . . business, it couldn’t be avoided.”

“I hope you were able to take care of it to your satisfaction.”

George tried not to think of the thugs to whom he’d been introduced and the promises that the card sharks he owed had made him last night. “Somewhat,” he said ambivalently.

“But enough about that. I’d much rather talk about you. Us.”

“Us?” Lizzy licked her lips nervously and took another step back.

George, however, took her steps backwards as an invitation and began to move forward. “That’s right. I know we didn’t get a chance to spend some time together last night, but I was hoping that we could rectify that soon. Tonight even, maybe. What are you doing tonight? Are you free? How about I take you out on the town? Wouldn’t you like some dinner, maybe a little dancing? You’d be surprised at how light I am on my feet,” he chuckled.

The more he advanced, the more she retreated. Suddenly, the wall of tack was at her back and Lizzy could feel the panic starting to climb. A sudden noise had Lizzy shifting her gaze to behind George’s back. She didn’t think she’d ever been so pleased to see Will as she was at that moment.

“Hey, there you are,” he called out to Lizzy. “I’ve been looking all over for you. Are you going for a ride this morning?”

Lizzy whipped around George in a flash, and planted herself next to Will. He was confused by her reaction. Usually she wasn’t so ready to be by his side. “Is everything all right,” he asked. He thought she looked skittish.

“Yeah, why do you ask?” Lizzy said, just a tad bit too brightly. “I was just about to saddle up my horse,” she told him.

Will looked down, read the tension in her eyes and immediately looked to George, his eyes narrowing in studied concentration. “I’ll join you,” he told her, and it wasn’t a request.

George took a step back at the heated glare from Will. Satisfied, Will turned his full attention back to Lizzy. It was as if George wasn’t even in the barn with them when he took her hand and said, “Come on, let’s saddle up our horses and be off. I’ve a mind to clear my head with a good ride this morning.”

They’d traveled a ways away from the ranch before Will ventured to ask, “Did something happen back in the barn that I should know about?”

Lizzy looked up, startled. They’d ridden in silence for so long, she was beginning to think that he would never speak with her. “No, why?”

“You just looked a little tense back there, like you were uncomfortable. I wanted to make sure that everything was all right, that George hadn’t said or done anything untoward.” Lizzy shook her head, shifting slightly in her saddle. “Are you feeling okay? Are you sore? You took a bit of a spill last night when Billy knocked you off your feet.”

Lizzy grimaced at the unflattering memory. “I’m fine,” she told him. It wasn’t her backside that had her shifting in her seat, after all.

“I could probably teach you some maneuvers in case something like last night ever happens again. A woman should be able to take care of herself in all situations,” Will mused. “I should probably give Georgie a lesson or two as well.”

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he frowned. The thought of his sister being in a situation where she might have to defend herself was no less palatable than the thought of her having to actually defend herself against physical violence.

“I took some self-defense courses in college,” Lizzy told Will smartly. “I even took a couple of classes in tae kwon do.”

“As if it did you a lot of good last night.”

Lizzy huffed to herself. “I told you I was caught off guard, and it was hard with that crowd of people around us. There wasn’t much room to move around.”

Will’s mouth settled into a thin, flat line. He didn’t like to be reminded of all the people that had stood around, laughing and drinking, while Lizzy had been battling off Billy all by herself. Just the thought of it made him want to go back to the bar, demanding answers to his battalion of questions.

“Your face looks none the worse for wear. How’d you manage that?”

Lizzy touched a finger to her chin, grinning ruefully. Trust Will to be painfully blunt. “A lot of make-up. I’m no hand at it like Jane. Never could sit still long enough in one place to listen to one of my mother’s long-winded make-up lessons. So,” she shrugged, “I just slathered it on. I figured the more I brushed on, the more I’d hide the bruises.”

Will maneuvered his horse close to hers so that he could lean over and tip her face to one side then the other, checking it out her handiwork under the sunlight. “For someone who claims to know nothing about make-up, you’ve done a fine job of blending it in. I would never have known you were wearing make-up if you hadn’t told me.”

Lizzy smiled, in spite of herself, at the backhanded compliment. She doubted that Will even knew he’d paid her a compliment.

“Anyhow, getting back to the original subject at hand. Are you sure George wasn’t bothering you?”

“Yes,” Lizzy answered succinctly and moved her horse ahead of Will’s. She should have known that he wouldn’t be deterred.

He picked up his own pace so that they were once again riding side-by-side. “You can tell me if he is, you know.”

Knowing that Will would only continue to badger her until she’d spilled everything, she told him, “He really wasn’t doing anything wrong. It was me . . . I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I think that what happened with Billy last night has made me a little uncomfortable and a little uncertain.

“To be honest, I don’t like feeling this way . . . vulnerable . . . and afraid.”

Will tipped his head, and looked at her from beneath the rim of his cowboy hat. She was staring hard at the reins, which she had gripped tightly in a fist. “It’s okay you know, to feel that way.”

When she made no sign of that she’d heard what he said, Will pulled his horse alongside hers and reached out to lay a hand on hers. “It’s understandable that you would be a little wary, and even scared. That doesn’t make you weak, Lizzy.”

“I know,” she said, raising a hand to angrily brush aside unbidden tears. She was so unused to crying that her tears surprised her as much as him. “My head keeps trying to tell me to be sensible, but my heart tells me otherwise. It makes me wonder if I’ll ever feel completely comfortable around another man again.”

Will didn’t have the heart to point out that he was a man, and that she clearly felt comfortable around him – for once in their lives.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Will reassured in his soothing, comforting tones. “I’m sure it’s just a temporary thing. You just need some time to work things out and then put them to rest. Everything happened just last night. Cut yourself some slack. Give yourself time.” He wanted to pull her off her horse and into his arms, to offer her his comfort and protection, but he didn’t think she’d appreciate the gesture. “And besides, think of it this way. If I know you, and I think that I can safely say that I do, you’ll be more prepared and horsewhipping the next boy that comes along and tries to press his attention on you when you don’t want him to.”

That had Lizzy actually laughing again. “You’re right,” she chuckled, wiping away the remainder of her tears. “You’re absolutely right. Thanks, Will. For understanding, for making me feel better about myself, and for last night. I don’t think I ever thanked you for last night.” Not wanting to make too much out of her concession to his wisdom and kindness, she touched her hand briefly to his before jerking on her horse’s reign, setting it back in motion.

Will watched her kick up her heels and go cantering ahead with Buttercup. A shaft of sunlight burst through the sky, framing her in its halo. Suddenly, Will knew that he didn’t want her thanks.

He wanted more.

It was Friday night and Lizzy, Jane, and Charlotte were safely ensconced in the bedroom Lizzy and Jane had once shared. Once Lizzy had spilled the beans about what she’d stumbled upon at the Silver Spur, there was no keeping Jane away. She’d cooked a lasagna, stuck it in the fridge, and told her husband that he was on his own for the night. She and the girls had some major catching up to do! Then, along with Lizzy, the two sisters had dragged Charlotte away from Lucas Lodge and from Richard. Once they were safely behind doors, they’d pounced and dragged the details from her one by one.

“I can’t believe you kept it a secret from us!” Jane exclaimed.

“You sound just like your sister.” Charlotte made a face.

“We could have been twins,” Lizzy said proudly, wrapping an arm around her elder sister by a year.

“We should have been twins,” Jane corrected, all the while laughing.

A knock at the door had them giggling as they mustered up the straightest face they could manage. “Come in,” the three women chimed.

Fanny came in bearing a tray laden with all sorts of good eats. “I don’t mean to interrupt, but I brought you girls some treats. I thought you might be hungry.”

“Mom, you are a treasure!” Jane hurried forward to relieve her of the tray. She fairly swooned from sheer delight when she saw the sinful treasures of Nutella cappuccino cheesecake, French Vanilla ice cream, homemade peanut butter cups, and Fanny’s Famous Double Chocolate Chip cookies. She was salivating already.

“Mrs. B! I’m going to have to run ten extra miles tomorrow because of this,” Charlotte exclaimed, already cutting out large portions of the cake. She passed a plate to Jane who scooped ice cream onto the side of the plate. An assembly line was formed.

Fanny watched them digging into her goodies, and smiled indulgently at her girls. “I thought I’d whip up something extra special for old times’ sake. It’s not every day that I have you all under one roof together, at the same time, these days.”

“Thanks, Mom.” Lizzy kissed her mom on the cheek.

“Don’t gorge it all at once,” Fanny instructed, as though they were all fifteen years younger. “You don’t want to get a tummy ache. And don’t stay up too late chattering. Try and get some sleep.”

“We will,” they promised, knowing that they wouldn’t.

In between bites of cake and ice cream, Charlotte told the Bennet sisters all about her burgeoning relationship with Richard. Like Lizzy, Jane heartily approved the match. They all hugged and laughed at the wonderful news. When Charlotte was done, it was Lizzy’s turn to take the center stage. She told them about Billy. Both Jane and Charlotte stared at her wide-eyed, especially since she told the story so nonchalantly, in between bites of ice cream scooped up with peanut butter cups.

“Are you kidding me?”

“I can’t believe I was there and didn’t do anything! My God, Lizzy! If Richard and I had only known . . .”

“I didn’t tell you to make you feel guilty, Char.”

“Are you okay?” Jane wanted to know, coming to sit next to her baby sister, putting her arms around Lizzy’s shoulder.

Charlotte joined her on the other side and took Lizzy’s hands within her own. “Did he hurt you badly?” she asked in grave concern.

“I’m okay, and it wasn’t too bad. Just some tiny cuts on my knees where I fell into the gravel in the parking lot and a couple of bruises on my face; I was able to cover it up with make-up this past week. It’s pretty much all healed and faded by now.”

Jane tipped her face towards the light. There was just the faintest hue of gray there. Tears came to the fore. She tried to swallow them back.

“Aw, Jane,” Lizzy sighed. “Don’t cry.”

“My baby sister,” she started blubbering.

“I’m okay!” Lizzy protested, trying to laugh it off. It didn’t help when Charlotte joined in.

“Hey!” she tried to get their attention. “There’s no need to get so maudlin! We’re supposed to be having a loud, raucous girls’ night out here!”

“Tell us everything that happened,” Charlotte demanded. “And don’t leave out a single detail.”

Lizzy sighed, and then complied. She started at the beginning and finished with the insecurities she’d been feeling all week long. “I was so relieved when I looked up and saw Will. He took Billy down with just one punch. I’m not one for fighting and boxing, but I gotta tell ya. It was pretty amazing when I watched Billy go down at Will’s hand.”

“Imagine,” Jane sighed, “having two men fight over you. It’s barbaric, but it’s so . . . sexy too, don’t you think?”

Charlotte snorted.

“Well, don’t worry,” Lizzy told her. “It’s not like Will was fighting for my hand, and any grateful sort of feelings that I might have had towards him didn’t last long. There were times when Will was helping me to clean up that I wanted to bop him one myself. It felt as though he blamed me for my own predicament. But I didn’t do anything! I mean, it’s not my fault if Billy had this unhealthy obsession with me.”

“I’m sure Will was just afraid for you,” Jane defended, always ready to stand up for him. “It was probably his emotions that had him speaking to you like that.”

“I suppose so . . .” Lizzy trailed, recognizing that there was truth in her sister’s explanation. “I really can’t complain though. Other than that night when he was cleaning me up, Will’s been incredibly patient and understanding in so many other ways, it’s really quite surprising. Once I was over the worst of the shock, I kept expecting him to launch into his favorite lecture featuring my ‘stupid and irresponsible behavior,’ but he hasn’t. I’m loath to admit it, but I’ve relied upon him a lot this past week, especially since he’s the only one that knows what happened.

“He even took care of Billy for me so that I wouldn’t have to see him ever again.”

“I’d like to take care of that twerp for you,” Charlotte growled, ready to fight for justice on her friend’s behalf. Lizzy wasn’t sure if her friend’s sense of justice would fly in a court of law though.

“Anyways, it’s all done with and behind me. I’ve had some time to think about it, and just as Will predicted, I’m over it. I’m not going to let what Billy did control my life. And, when I consider what other women have suffered, I got off lucky. Billy’s behavior was really just an unexplainable aberration. I wonder what would have set him off like that . . ..”

“I heard from Richard that Billy’s been slacking on the job over at Rocking Rosings Ranch lately and had to be called to the carpet the other day.”

“That might have set him off,” Jane agreed. “In any event, I don’t want you going to Silver Spur by yourself anymore.”

“Yes, Mommy,” Lizzy rolled her eyes.

“Don’t you roll your eyes at me!” Jane shook her finger at her younger sister.

“You shouldn’t have been there without us anyways,” Charlotte argued. When Lizzy cast her a baleful glance, however, Charlotte quickly retreated.

“I went because I thought I’d be meeting up with George.”

“And instead, Will came riding in on his white horse to save the day,” Jane sighed, the romantic one of the threesome.

“Oh, please!” Lizzy wanted to gag. “Don’t even say that!”

“Why? Afraid it might be true?” Charlotte teased. That earned a swift blow to the stomach with a pillow. It didn’t take Charlotte long to grab her own pillow so that she could defend herself and go on the counter-attack.

“I’m not afraid of you,” Lizzy laughingly screeched as she saw her friend advancing on her menacingly with her pillow.

“You should be!”

“Children, children, please!” Jane pleaded as Lizzy and Charlotte ran circles around her, brandishing their pillows. Her entreaty only earned her an “accidental” blow to the head. She looked stunned for a minute before turning on them and growling, “All right, you two, now you’re really going to get it!”

Charlie wouldn’t have recognized his wife the way she threw herself, heart and soul, into the pillow fight. Pretty soon the three women were all over the place, trying to outrun each other in the tiny bedroom.

Chapter 7

Posted on Wednesday, 10 December 2003

Will was just rounding the corner when he saw Lizzy step out of the house, and almost groaned with desire. The blood red halter-top she wore accentuated her curvaceous chest, and the ripped shorts that barely covered her bottom half only served to elongate her slender, shapely legs. Lizzy’s curly hair, left unbound, was left to the whims of the soft, summer breeze.

She came flying down the rickety steps of the porch, her flip-flops making loud slapping noises as she ran across the wooden slats. “Where are you off to in such a hurry?” he asked her as he drew near.

“I promised Don I’d help him clean his truck this morning. Isn’t it a perfect day for washing a car?” Lizzy twirled around in the sunshine with her arms held wide open.

Who could think about washing a car with Lizzy dressed like that, he wondered. “Is that what you’re going to wear?”

Lizzy looked down and frowned. She picked at the straps of her halter-top. “What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?”

“It’s a little . . . sparse . . . don’t you think?”

“Sparse?” Lizzy almost laughed out loud as she placed her hands on her hip. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone call my outfit sparse before.”

“What’s wrong with the word, sparse?”

Lizzy shrugged. “Just seems like an interesting choice of an adjective. That’s all.”

“Well, it’s because you’re showing a lot of skin,” Will defended. He waved his hands in her general direction, clearly flustered. “Do you really think you should go walking around wearing next to nothing?” It had to be practically indecent, Will huffed to himself. Weren’t there laws against indecent exposure?

“I’m not wearing next to nothing!” Lizzy exclaimed, spluttering. She gestured up and down. “Hello? Can’t you see? I’m wearing shorts and a shirt.” Will thought it arguable as to whether a halter-top could be defined as a shirt. “Besides, I’m washing a car, Will, not attending a state function.”

It was on the tip of his tongue to ask whether she could go back inside and put something else on. Something one would wear when were they about to enter a convent would be appropriate, he thought. Instead, he asked, “Who else is going to be washing this car?”

“Just Don.”

That seemed to make Will feel a little bit better. Don was old and practically blind as a bat. But, he didn’t think it would hurt to make sure that the other ranch hands were assigned to tasks that would take them far away from where Lizzy and Don would be washing his car. Just to be on the safe side.

“I don’t know why you’re making such a big deal out of my outfit,” Lizzy sniffed. “I’m supposed to dress like this to wash a car! Most normal people do,” she grumbled.

Will begged to differ, but all he said instead was, “You’re going to get wet.”

“Of course I am, silly. I’m going to be washing a car. Getting wet is half the fun. But don’t worry. That’s what the bikini underneath is for.” Lizzy flipped him a wave before trouncing off. Obviously happy to be able to spend sometime outside, enjoying the sun.

Will, on the other hand, was left salivating at the thought of Lizzy wearing nothing but a few flimsy scraps of fabric.

Shaking off his wayward thoughts, he continued on his way, and encountered his sister in the kitchen. She was reading a book that she had propped up against the sugar canister and eating a bowl of cereal. Will sneaked a peek at the spine of the book and wasn’t the least bit surprised when he found her reading a well-worn copy of Jane Austen’s Emma.

“Getting a bit of a late start this morning are we?”

“Um-hm,” Georgiana nodded her head without lifting her eyes from the book.

“Did you sleep okay last night?”

“Eh.” She spooned some cereal into her mouth and ignored the affectionate hand that her brother ran through her hair as he walked by her towards the kitchen counter.

“So what are you up to today?”

“Mm.”

“Gonna go over to Lucas Lodge today?”

“Eh.”

“I hear Mariah’s back from visiting her grandparents in Houston.”

“Mm.”

Will poured himself a mug of coffee and sat down next to her, sighing. “You know, it’s a sad day when one’s sister would prefer to read a book she’s already read a million times over than having a meaningful conversation with her brother.”

“Uh-huh,” Georgiana answered absently, spooning some more sugared corn flakes into her mouth.

He stared at his sister for a minute. “Can I have a piece of that bread?” Without looking at him and without saying anything, Georgiana lifted a slice of the desired bread from her breakfast plate and passed it over to him. Will polished it off in two large bites.

He then drummed his fingers on the table. Looked around the kitchen. And started to whistle. Still, Georgiana ignored him. He was starting to feel a little bored. “So, I was thinking about going into town today. I was wondering if you wanted to go with me.” Will asked.

“Hmm,” was Georgiana’s reaction.

“I got a call from Mark this morning. My order from last week came in and I have to go to the hardware store some time today and pick it up.”

“Umm . . ..”

“Mark offered to have someone drop the stuff off, but I thought I’d go in and get it myself. A trip into town might be a nice break. What do you think?”

“Eh.”

“I was thinking I might do some other kinds of shopping while I was there. Hit a couple of stores on the way back. Stores that are more of your ilk than mine. What do you say? Interested in joining me?”

“Hmm.” Georgiana took a swig of her cup and wiped the milk mustache from her lip. She still did not look up from her book. Mr. Knightley was about to tell Emma what a good choice she’d made in befriending Harriet, and then he was going to ask her to dance. Brother and sister. No, indeed!

“I’ll even let you play with my credit card,” he generously offered. “Full access, no limits, no need to ask me for my permission before sending it through the swiper.” Still no reaction. “Oh well. I guess not.”

“Hmm. . . . . . . . What???” The book slid to a shut as Georgiana’s head whipped around. She just barely caught sight of her brother’s smirking face. “What’d you just say?” Will cocked an eyebrow. “Did you really say you’d let me go shopping with your credit card?” she asked breathlessly. Her eagerness was readily apparent in her cherub-like face.

Will whooped and hollered with laughter. “Guess you’ll never know, won’t you? Too bad you weren’t paying more attention to what I was saying.” Georgiana was already putting on her perfected pouting face. “Nope! Not going to work this time, sister o’ mine. That’s what you get for ignoring your big brother!” He tweaked her nose and patted his baby sister’s cheek.

Then, grabbing his coffee, he pushed away from the table and headed for his study. “Will!!!” Georgiana called after him, in a whiny, singsong voice. “Come back! Please!”

“Not on your life, kiddo! You had your chance,” he yelled back. “It’s too late now!”

Still chuckling to himself, Will settled down behind his desk to devote the entirety of his weekend morning to going over the books. Lizzy had been doing such a good job of it of late that he hadn’t seen the point in checking over them as often as he’d originally said he would. Consequently, he’d let the books go for several weeks. It was so unlike him that he felt a little uncomfortable with himself. It wasn’t like him to entrust something as important as the ranch’s finances in someone other than himself.

An hour later, though, he was feeling perfectly fine. A quick, but thorough review of the books showed that Lizzy definitely knew what she was doing. Everything had been accurately and correctly accounted for. He even grinned at some of the reminder notes she’d made for herself on the margins of the account books.

Shamelessly, he pawed through some of her other notes that she’d left casually strewn about her workspace. It didn’t take him long to be completely entranced. She’d been studying up on ways to improve the ranch in her spare time, he found.

Her ideas weren’t too far off from the ideas he’d been playing around with in his own head for the past couple of months. Only, she’d taken it one step further and actually done some research, played around with the figures. What she’d come up with so far looked good. Very good, in fact. He considered one of her ideas. Reseeding the pastures with natural grass might be expensive for the first couple of years, but in the long run he could see where it would pay off.

There had to be a reason for why the grass had once grown native to the region before the ranchers had come in with their experimentations and mixed blends, all at an attempt of growing bigger and better cattle. Will, however, wasn’t interested in raising the biggest cattle. He just wanted to raise better cattle. He believed that having his cattle graze on natural grasses would achieve those results. And it was clear that Lizzy thought that way too.

She also had ideas about the cropland, he saw. She was thinking about trying new techniques on the small grain that they grew there, maybe even building a silo and fermenting their own alfalfa. Will remembered that she’d also majored in agricultural science and decided that he would defer to her in this arena. After all, it wouldn’t hurt to let her try. The ranch had over five hundred acres cultivated for small grains and it wouldn’t hurt the ranch to set aside half of that for experimentation.

Satisfied with what he’d seen, Will put her notebooks back away and pondered how he would bring the subject up without giving away to Lizzy that he’d been through her things. Mulling over the crux of his problem, he missed the knock at the door. As a result, he was caught off guard by the sight of George Wickham standing right in front of him.

He’d been avoiding the man as much as possible since his return to Pemberley Ranch, but now it seemed inescapable. He wondered what the other man wanted.

“Your sister said I could come on back.”

“Georgie? You spoke with Georgie?”

George smirked. “Is that a problem?”

“No. Of course not,” Will forced himself to say, knowing that George took perverse pleasure in doing everything Will didn’t want him to do. “I was just surprised to hear she was still in the house. I thought she’s said she was going to go riding after breakfast,” he lied.

“Nope. She’s just sitting in the family room, watching some T.V. She’s cute, you know, that sister of yours. She’s grown up quite a bit since the last time I saw her. She used to be a pip-squeak.”

“She was just a baby the last time you saw her. And she’s still very much a child,” Will said dangerously.

If George noticed the edge in Will’s voice, he took no heed. “But what a babe she’s gonna be one day. Wowee! She’s already showing signs of promise. You’re really gonna have your hands full with that one, Will.”

Will could practically hear George smacking his lips and cringed out of both distaste and the fear he felt for his sister. He wanted to tell him to stay away from her. Instead, he said, “What’d you want to see me about? I assume you want something?” Will asked, crossing his arms across his chest, not bothering to beat around the bush. He knew George wanted something. George always wanted something.

“It’s like this, Will . . .” George began, his hands already starting to paint a picture with their motions.

“Let’s cut to the chase, George. I’m a very busy man and you’ve got stuff to do too, I’m sure. I can’t imagine that the south fence is getting mended all by itself at the moment. So, why don’t you cut out the entire background story, and just tell me what you want. I’ll tell you now though, if you need an advance on your paycheck, or a loan, you’re wasting your breath so you might as well save it.”

“My, my, my,” George taunted. “You certainly cut to the quick. I’ve got to say, it hurts a little, Will, to hear you speak of me like that. Is that what you think of your ol’ friend George? Thought you knew me better than that. Thought that if there was one person on this Earth that knew me, it’d be you, knowin’ the way we both grew up together and stuff.”

“It’s because I do know you that I said what I said,” Will answered without pause. If George was attempting to make a play for his sympathy, it wasn’t going to work. “If you’re hurt by my remarks, you’ve only yourself to blame. I’m not the one that turned our relationship into what it is today.”

“Touché, Will. I’ll give you that.” George drew off his hat, holding it at an angle against his right hip. “But that’s not what I wanted to ask anyways. Though, I did come to ask you for a favor.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Will asked, leaning back in his chair now. It was just like old times. Will was rather surprised that this was only the first time since George’s return that he was being approached.

George refused to let Will’s flippant attitude get to him. “I need a couple of days off.”

“Come again?”

“I need to take a couple of days off from work,” George gritted his teeth, knowing that Will was making him repeat himself just because he could.

Will pretended to give it some thought before he said, “Sorry, no.”

“C’mon, Will,” George pleaded.

“Let me guess. Your aunt is in the hospital. Or, better yet, she’s dead. And you have to go to her funeral,” Will said in his best sarcastic voice. “Too bad for you I know all there is to know about your family tree.”

“I just need a couple of days to take care of some unfinished business.”

“You know the conditions on which I agreed to take you on for the summer, George. You stood there, where you’re standing now, and agreed to every single one of them.”

“And I’m asking you now, as a favor, to cut me some slack and let me do this.”

“No.” The answer was firmly stated and it was doubtful that Will would be swayed “The moment you take one step off this land when it’s not on your day off, or you’re not doing something job-related, you can forget about ever coming back again.”

“It’s not like you need me around here,” George complained. “We’ve already moved the cattle for the summer. We don’t have to rotate the others for a couple of more weeks. I’m giving you my word now that I’ll back.”

As if I could ever trust your word before, Will thought.

“Fine,” he said instead. “You want to leave, George, leave. You’re a big boy; I’m not going to stand in your way. But, as I explained, if you do leave, you take your week’s pay and you don’t come back. I need men I can trust and rely on. I can’t rely on a man who flits in one day and then has to run off to take care of ‘business’ the next. We agreed when you asked for this job that you’d stay on for the summer, and I’ve relied upon your promise. If you’re going to renege now, then I’m going to do the same. So, take it or leave it, it’s up to you.” It was no skin off Will’s back if George decided to take his money and leave. In fact, he’d be lying if he said that he didn’t hope that he would.

George stared at Will, not even bothering to hide the fury blazing in his eyes. He hated being under any man’s control, especially Will’s. Will knew he needed the income from the job, and he didn’t have any other place to go were he forced to leave the ranch. Damn the man for holding all the cards and knowing it too.

“I’ll stay,” he ground out. Shoving his hat back onto his head, he stalked from the room. If he muttered anything else under his breath, Will didn’t hear.

Will watched and exhaled a large breath once the door closed. He turned his chair to stare out the window, wondering why he’d fought so hard to keep George on the ranch. He’d never wanted him at the ranch in the first place. Yet, when given the perfect opportunity to rid himself of his burden, he’d done the opposite and fought to keep the man in his place.

Will was still wondering if there was something fundamentally wrong with him when Tom Bennet stopped by his office, leaning one arm against the doorway and peering in to see if Will was around, or if he was still out riding the fences. “Oh, you’re back already.”

“Hey,” Will called out, inviting the other man into his office. “You getting read to head on over to Netherfield?”

He knew that the Bennet's had been invited to dinner at Netherfield Ranch that night, just as he and Georgiana had been invited as well. Jane and Charlie apparently had some good news they wanted to share with their closest friends and family. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to guess that their good news was about, but everyone was still playing along and wondering and guessing at what their good news could be.

“Yeah,” Tom said, taking off his hat and scratching the back of his neck.

“The boys get the fence down by the waterhole rewired?”

“Sure. I left it in Mike’s hands. I can always trust him to get things done.”

Will nodded his head in agreement. But he tilted his head, wondering what was wrong with Tom. He’d spent enough years in the older man’s company to know when something was worrying him. “What’s up?”

Tom raised his head looking positively forlorn. At that moment, Will knew that there was something wrong. Something very wrong. Nothing ever got Tom Bennet down.

“It’s Daffie.”

Will looked perplexed. “Daffie? What about her?”

“I’m sorry, son.” It broke Tom’s heart to have to be the bearer of bad news. He knew that Will would never admit it, as all cattle were supposed to be just that, cattle, in the eyes of cattlemen, but the boy had a special fondness for Daffodil. The cow had been born sickly, and he’d babied the poor calf back to health, spending nights sleeping side-by-side with the newborn calf, making sure it got fed when it was too weak to find its way to its mother’s milk.

“What’s going on, Tom? What are you trying to tell me?”

“She’s gone, Will.”

“What do you mean, ‘gone’? I was just down by the barns this morning and saw her there. There’s no way she could’ve kicked those doors down, they’re as sturdy as they get. I should know. Mike and I just patched them up last week. How’d she get out?

“Somebody must’ve let her out,” Will continued, not even pausing to take breath. “After I left explicit orders that the men were supposed to keep an eye on her and make sure she didn’t get out. When I find the person that messed up . . ..”

“No, Will,” Tom shook his head. “That’s not what I mean by ‘gone.’ Daffie . . . she’s passed away.”

“What?” Will leapt up from his chair halfway out the door.

Tom ran after him. “I don’t know what happened! I saw her this morning when I went to feed the animal, and she was looking fine, happy, even healthier than she’s been looking lately. But when I went by just now to check on the animals, give them their second feeding, I saw that she was lying on the ground. It didn’t look right, so I went to check it out. When I got closer, I could see that she was passed out. I don’t know how long she lay there like that. I checked her vitals, but . . . she’s dead, Will. I’m sorry. I don’t know what else to tell you.

“Will!”

Before Tom could finish his sentence, Will had already bolted from his seat and torn past him, out the door. The older man had a hard time keeping up with the younger man. In a matter of seconds, Will had flown down to the barn where Daffodil had been kept due to the signs of poor health she had been exhibiting of late. Will stopped in front of the stall where he saw Don and Mike trying to move the lifeless cow. He wiped his brow. Up until now, he hadn’t wanted to believe Tom, but now that he was seeing Daffodil with his own eyes, he could no longer deny the truth. His best cow was gone.

“Leave her,” he said in a rasped voice. The men looked up from where they were tending to the cow, their faces creased with confusion.

Only Tom understood the depths of Will’s emotions. “Just go.” He motioned to the others with a simple jerk of the head, and the men left Will to say his good-byes in private.

Will waited for the men to leave the barn before speaking again. In a rare show of emotion, he took off his hat and crouched down beside the old cow. “Hey there, Daffs,” he whispered. “You decide to get lazy on me? Hm?” It would’ve been a joke, except that Daffodil was already gone, and Will’s voice was cracking from the strain of trying to make light of the matter.

Raising Daffodil’s listless head, he lifted it to hold in his lap. Her glassy eyes stared back at him. Will ran his hand over them, shutting them so that she could rest in peace for all of eternity. His other hand crept towards the cow’s belly, where a new generation of Pemberley's prized shorthorns had just recently been a burgeoning hope of promise. Now, like its mother, it would never be.

The tears never came, but the emotions were there nonetheless. Rearranging his legs so that he could hold Daffodil in his arms easier and lean his back against the walls of the stall, he stroked her quiet face, the pain a sharp stabbing in his side.

Georgiana found him there, forty-five minutes later, his eyes closed, his hands still stroking the cow’s sides. She didn’t say a word, but Will heard her quiet heaving. He opened one eye and saw that tears were already streaked across Georgiana’s pale, but winsome face. Tom had found her first. Silently, Will held out his free hand. Not even needing to beckon her over, Georgiana went flying into her elder brother’s arms. She twisted her face into the safe haven of his chest as Will wound his hand through her tousled golden curls.

“Shh . . . baby, it’ll be okay.”

“H-h-how did this happen? Wh-wh-why did this happen?”

“I don’t know, hon. Sometimes these things just happen.”

It was an entirely unsatisfactory answer, and Will knew it. He wished he could have spared his little sister this pain. Daffodil might have been just a cow, but she’d been a beloved family cow. And as it was, Georgiana had already seen enough of death in her short lifetime.

“She was really sweet, wasn’t she?” Georgiana whispered into his shirt.

“Yeah, she was.”

“Do you remember how she used to let me decorate her head with a crown of buttercups and daffodils?”

“It’s how she got her name.”

“You tried to get me to change it. After you’d told me I could name her. You always said it was a stupid name for a cow.”

There was a pause before Will said, “You have a stupid brother.”

“I’ll miss her . . ..”

Will kissed the crown of his sister’s head. “I’ll bet she’s missing you already.”

“I wish she’d left behind her baby, at least.”

Will sighed. There wasn’t much he could say. He knew he could’ve said that it would be all right, but he knew it wouldn’t. He knew he could’ve said that there would be other cows, other babies, but he knew there would always be only one Daffodil.

“We should go, let the boys take care of her. We’ll want to give her a proper burial.” Georgiana nodded her head. “You ready to say good-bye?” he asked her.

She wiped her runny nose noisily against her brother’s sleeve. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“Okay.”

Together, sister and brother, gently laid Daffodil’s silent form back down on the straw-covered floor. Will gave her one more affectionate pat before taking his sister’s hand and leading her out of the barn. The next time they saw Daffodil, she’d be laid out for burial, and they knew it would never be the same again.

The last thing Will wanted to do, he thought as he stepped out of the shower, was attend some dinner party at the neighboring ranch. Sighing heavily, his heart clearly in no mood to celebrate anything, Will wrapped a towel around his waist and rubbed a circle of fog away from the mirror so that he could shave and then comb his hair into place. He knew, however, that Charles was expecting him to be there and there was no way he could disappoint his best friend. Especially not on a night like this.

His face shaved and hair in place, Will stepped out of the bathroom and began rummaging around the dresser drawers for his clean clothes, only to find the bottom of the drawer. Perplexed, Will looked around the room, wondering where Fanny could have put his stuff. He knew she’d done the laundry that morning, he’d passed her by the washing machine on his way out that morning.

It finally dawned upon him that Lydia, the newest member to the household staff, had probably been assigned to put away the laundry and probably stuck all his stuff in Georgiana’s room. She had a very annoying propensity for doing nonsensical stuff like that.

Confident that his sister had already accompanied the elder Bennets to the Bingleys’, Will didn’t bother to don a robe or anything else before crossing the hallway and into her room. A quick rifle through the drawer found Will triumphant. Shirt and boxers in hand, Will was ready to head back to his room. He stepped one foot out the door and almost ran down Lizzy.

He wasn’t sure who was more surprised. Him. Or her.

Lizzy had come upstairs, looking for Georgiana. She’d never dreamed that she would round the corner and come face to face with Will’s naked and very wet and rippled chest. It still dripped of condensation from his recent shower. Shocked and startled, she looked down, thinking to be looking away, only to be immediately confronted with a very tiny towel that he was keeping wrapped around his trim waist with one bronzed, lightly hair-dusted hand.

“Oh, um, er . . .” Lizzy blushed wildly, hoping that he couldn’t see the wild thumping going on in her chest. “I came up here looking for Georgie.”

“Georgie’s not in there,” Will said, gesturing behind him towards the darkened bedroom with his free hand, feeling very stupid for pointing out the obvious, and feeling extremely stupid for standing about in his half-naked state as though there was nothing wrong with that.

“I see,” Lizzy said, peering over his shoulder, trying desperately to look anywhere but at his chest, arms, legs, thighs . . ..

“Well, I was going to offer to drive her over to Jane and Charlie’s with me,” Lizzy explained. “But . . ..”

“She already went over with your parents,” Will said quickly.

“I see.”

“Well, I was just looking for my shirt and my, um, boxers,” Will felt the need to explain.

Lizzy looked at the folded bundle in his hands and saw that he was, indeed, carrying a shirt and a pair of boxer shorts.

“I went to my dresser first, but when I opened it up, there was nothing there. That confused me at first because I knew your mom had just done the wash this morning. And usually, when she does the wash, she’s really good about having things folded and put back into their place before the day is over. Thinking she might have misplaced my stuff or something like that, I looked around my room, but came up with nothing. That’s when I remembered that whenever Lydia is the one that’s assigned to folding and putting away the laundry, things have a tendency to get misplaced. Lydia often gets our laundry mixed up, so I had a feeling that if I couldn’t find my clothes in my room, I’d fine my stuff in Georgie’s drawers, and sure enough when I checked just now, there they were. Shirts and boxers,” Will held the bundle up as proof of his veracity.

Will wished he could shut-up, especially given his state of dress, or non-dress rather, but he could hear himself babbling.

Lizzy wanted to laugh at the awkwardness of their situation but knew she shouldn’t. “Oh. Well, you should tell my mom about Lydia,” was the only thing she could think of to say.

“She already knows about it, actually.”

“Oh. Okay.”

They stood there for a minute longer, Will still occasionally dripping water onto the runner in the hallway. “Well, I’d better go and get dressed. Don’t want to be any more late for the dinner than I already am.”

“Right, of course. I’ll, um, just see you there then . . . unless you want me to wait and ride on over with me?”

“No!” Will practically shouted. “I mean, no, that’s all right. You go on ahead. No sense in the two of us being late. I’ll meet up with you there.”

“Okay,” Lizzy said, somewhat confused by his vehement reply. “I’ll, um, see ya in a little bit then.”

Chapter 8

Posted on Sunday, 11 January 2004

By the time Will arrived at Netherfield Ranch, everyone else was already present. “Will!” Charlie called out by way of greeting, coming to meet him at the door. “We were beginning to think you’d gotten lost on your way over, or something. Fanny was just suggesting that we send out a search squad for you.”

“Hey. Sorry I’m late. I got tied up at the house. Hope I didn’t miss anything,” Will said in return, his eyes passing over everyone else’s in a greeting gesture. When his eyes met Lizzy’s though, they both pinkened ever so slightly and turned away.

“Not at all, not at all. Come on in and hang up your hat. You’re timing’s perfect, actually. We were just about to go in for dinner.”

“Great. You know how I hate to miss a plate of free food.”

“Aw, heck, Will. You know we’d always save you a plate. No matter what!” Charlie threw a companionable arm around his friend’s shoulder and drew him into the room with the others.

Normally exuberant, Charlie was especially fluttery and excited this evening. A true testament to his joyful and eager mood.

Jane, on the other hand, was much more calm and serene. She’d always had that sweet, quiet charm about her, and it complemented her husband’s outgoing, eager to please nature. Separating herself from her parents, she came over and slipped Will a quick kiss on the cheek. “It’s lovely to see you again, Will.”

“You too, Jane. You’re looking well, as always.”

“Flatterer.”

Will smiled in response, but Jane could see that his smile didn’t quite reach the depth of his eyes. Pulling out her handkerchief, she dabbed at his lipstick-marred cheek and said, “We’re so sorry to hear about Daffodil, Will. Daddy just told us about what happened this afternoon. We know how much you’ve always cared for her.”

“Just so, just so,” Charlie added in. “A dammed shame, that’s the truth. Daffie was as fine a cow as they come. She’ll surely be missed.”

“Thanks, guys,” Will mustered up a smile for his friends. “I’ll be okay.” He didn’t want them feeling too bad for him on their special night. Not to mention, he didn’t really want to talk about Daffodil anymore. Anymore talk of her and he might start embarrassing himself. “Why don’t we go in and then you can put everyone out of their misery and suspense, hm?”

That had Charlie brightening. “A fine idea! But we thought we’d save the news for dessert, actually. Make you guys squirm a little bit more, if that’s okay.”

“Sure, Charlie,” Will wrapped an arm around his friend’s shoulders, as they both walked into the dining room. “That sounds fine.”

Dinner was a pleasant affair, everyone conversing as though they hadn’t seen one another in ages when in truth they saw one another quite frequently and talked on the phone almost every day. Jane asked after Georgiana’s piano lessons and while Georgiana tried to be modest, Fanny proudly informed her daughter that Georgiana had performed so well at her last recital that her teacher was talking about having Georgiana put on a solo recital in the fall. Fanny also made sure that her daughter understood the full import of such an event. “It’s such an honor to be asked at her age, only fifteen. Normally the teacher only asks the older students to put on solo recitals, like when they’re in their senior year of high school.”

“Wow, Georgie! That’s wonderful. You must be so pleased. I know how hard you work at your music. I bet your brother’s really proud of you too. Momma clearly is.”

From across the table, Lizzy snorted at what she considered to be the understatement of the year. Georgiana nodded shyly.

“You’ll have to make sure to let everyone know when it is so we can go and cheer you on,” Jane continued smilingly, not that there was ever any doubt that they wouldn’t show up en masse. The Darcys, Bennets, and Bingleys were like family and family stuck together. “You must be so excited.”

“Not really,” Georgiana picked at the peas on her plate. “I just know I’ll be horribly nervous. I hate playing in front of people.”

“Oh, but you do it so well.”

“I’m always sick to my stomach, afraid that I’ll mess up in the middle of a piece, or something worse. It’d be so mortifyingly embarrassing if I did.”

Lizzy squeezed her hand comfortingly. “But you never do. So you needn’t worry about that. And even if you did, we wouldn’t think any less of you, Georgie. You’re a marvelous pianist. Much better than Jane and I ever were, that’s for sure!”

“No kidding!” Fanny chimed in. “Lord, whenever the two of you used to practice, I was sure that the banshees had come to roust us from our home or something. Even the barn cats used to start howling alongside your playing even from outside.”

“No!” Jane laughingly protested. “Surely we weren’t that bad.”

“Oh, I don’t know . . ..”

“You used to tell us we played marvelously!” Lizzy pointed out.

“I had to! I was your mother!”

“I can’t believe it, Jane,” Lizzy turned to her sister, affecting a wounded air. “Our own mother. Lying to us with her false compliments.”

“Caught in her own web of deceit,” Jane added.

“Could I have done anything else?” Fanny asked. “You were both so eager to know that you were playing well and improving when in truth I often had to hide in the farthest part of the house with my bottle of aspirin.”

“Harsh! Too harsh!” the sisters exclaimed.

Back and forth they went, Fanny criticizing her daughters’ woeful lack of piano skills, and Jane and Lizzy protesting loudly. Georgiana, laughing at their familiar teasing, soon forgot all her fears about the prospect of having to perform alone. Down the table, the men were engaged in what could only be considered shoptalk. The latest prices on the market for beef, recently published ideas on how to improve cattle feed, and general observations about the weather and how it would affect their work. An hour later, everyone’s plates had been cleared, not a crumb in sight.

“That was delicious, Jane,” Will complimented.

“Why, thank you, Will,” Jane preened.

Lizzy groaned from her seat. “I don’t think I can eat another bite. Momma, I think you’re going to have to roll me home tonight.”

“I guess that means no dessert for you then, huh?” Jane teased.

“Dessert? There’s dessert?” Lizzy straightened in her chair, immediately at attention. “What are we having for dessert?”

“I thought you said you couldn’t eat another bite.”

“Dinner goes in one compartment, dessert another. Everybody knows that!”

Jane tried not to snort and roll her eyes.

At the head of the table, Charlie pushed his chair back from the table. “Well, dear, shall we serve the dessert?”

Jane nodded and stood. “Why don’t I serve it out in the living room? We’ll be more comfortable in there.”

“I’ll help you, dear,” Fanny stood with her plate in hand and was just about to grab Lizzy’s next to her when her husband interrupted her.

“Oh, come on now, you two,” Tom said as his daughter walked past on her way to the kitchen. “You might as well be out with it and tell us whatever it is you brought us here for tonight. Charlie, here, hasn’t been able to stop squirming about in his seat all night long. It’s been like watching a child struggling through a long car ride.”

Charlie blushed sheepishly, but not apologetically.

“Shall we tell them, then?” Jane asked, coming to a pause alongside her husband’s seat.

“Might as well,” Charlie said. He took the plates from her hand and placed them back on the dinner table. “You want to tell them? Or shall I?”

“You tell.”

“All right.”

Everyone was relieved that they’d decided to forego an entire dialogue of, “You tell, no, you tell, no, you tell, no, you tell . . ..”

Charlie looked into Jane’s eyes first and then took her hand, kissing it as she perched herself along the armrest of his chair. “Jane and I have invited you over tonight because we have something very special that we wanted to share with all of you. As you know, Jane and I have been in love with one another since we were about four and six.”

Laughter followed his comment, but Charlie continued. “So, it was no big surprise that by the time we married, we were ready to start a family almost immediately. We don’t always get what we want though, no matter how much we want them, so these past two years haven’t been without their disappointments.”

There wasn’t a single eye that wasn’t at least misty-eyed as they watched Jane and Charlie exchange a sad look, and Charlie played with his wife’s fingers, knowing that they were remembering the missed opportunities.

“But,” Charlie said, his voice brightening, “with a little perseverance . . ..”

Jane jabbed her husband in the stomach as he waggled his eyebrows. Men would focus on that, she shook her head. “With a lot of love,” she corrected. “Our hopes and dreams have finally come true.”

Charlie wrapped his arms around his wife’s waist as they faced their family together and said with great warmth, “I hope you’ll be as happy and ecstatic as we’ll be when we finally welcome an addition to the Bingley family in oh,” he ticked the fingers off on his hand, “about seven months.”

Hoots and hollering of joy followed Charlie’s announcement and, at once, the entire room was in movement as everyone got up from their chairs to hug the expectant mother and shake hands with the father. Jane, calm and complacent as always, sat regally on the arm of her husband’s chair and accepted her families’ felicitations with aplomb. Charlie, on the other hand, was like a pressure cooker fit to burst.

“Oh, I knew how it would be!” Fanny could be heard sniffling and exclaiming. She touched a napkin to her eye and nose. “My precious little girl, about to become a mother herself. Oh, this is absolutely wonderful! Tom, isn’t this wonderful? Grandparents! Can you believe, in seven months, we’re going to be grandparents!

“Oh, just think of all the wonderful things that come along with a baby,” Fanny continued to gush. “That new baby smell of milk and baby powder . . . And, I’ll have to start knitting baby booties and I can sew a white Christening gown for the baby . . . and we’ll have to go shopping, oh there will be so much to buy, we’ll have to plan, make a list . . ..”

“Mom,” Jane laid a gentle, but firm hand on her mother’s arm. “Let’s take this in stride, huh? One thing at a time.”

“Of course,” Fanny blushed. “Sorry. Got a little carried away with myself there.”

“It’s all right, Mom. It’s understandable. Charlie and I feel the same way.”

Jane and Fanny hugged once more before Fanny returned her attentions back to her husband. “Tom! Grandparents!!! Can you believe it? Oh, I’m so happy!”

“Yes, yes,” Tom said dismissively. “It’s all very nice. Very good, Jane dear, very good,” he said to his daughter.

Though Tom pretended to be merely placating his wife, his eyes belied the truth. He was inordinately pleased. Very pleased. Tom loved children and nothing pleased him more than the thought of once again having a baby to bounce on his knee and ride the horsey on his back, especially when that baby would be his own grandchild.

“Well done. Congratulations,” Will said, pumping his friend’s hand energetically and kissing Jane soundly on the lips. “I thought I noticed a special glow about you this evening, Jane.”

Lizzy and Georgiana, not to be outdone, alternated between hugging the mother-to-be and the father-to-be. Lizzy couldn’t wait to start spoiling her new niece or nephew. Georgiana couldn’t wait for the day she would no longer be the baby of the family.

It seemed as though everyone had swarmed to be beside the happy couple and was struggling to have his or her voice heard. Everyone moved into the living room, but dessert was forgotten. Their attentions were focused on Jane and the baby instead. They couldn’t speak fast enough; everyone was talking at once.

It was a happy moment, one that would be remembered in the years to come.

After a while, Lizzy pulled away from the crowd and left the center of the room, retreating to the sidelines. She watched the family interact and she saw the love flowing from one person to another. There was nothing like a little bit of good news, Lizzy mused, to bring everyone together.

Jane looked up at that moment, saw her sister sitting by herself and gestured for her to rejoin the group. Just the thought of being a part of the mob again had Lizzy’s blood pressure rising. She wasn’t sure if she could handle it; the atmosphere inside the house was already overwhelming her senses. She smiled her thanks to her sister and shook her head as if to say she’d pass. Then, she pointed to the door, letting Jane know that she’d be outside.

Lizzy breathed a sigh of relief when she was able to make her escape to the front porch. It was nice to be able to hear her own thoughts again, without having to compete against the non-stop chatter of the crowd inside.

She stepped outside and rubbed her arms and shoulder up and down with her hands. The night air was cool and crisp, a complete contrast to what it was like during the day. She looked up into the sky and stared, mesmerized, at the stars.

“A nice night out, isn't it?”

Lizzy whirled in the direction of the voice, her hand pressed against her chest. Though she couldn't see his face, she recognized his shape and voice. “Oh my gosh. You scared me.”

“Sorry. Figured you hadn't seen me.” Lizzy shook her head as Will stepped away from the corner where he'd been hidden in the shadows. Joining her under the moonlight, he stepped up to the railing, placing the tip of his boot against the bottom rung. “You're looking a little peaked.”

“It was starting to get a little hot inside. Suffocating. I thought I’d come out here for some fresh air.”

“We’re of like minds then,” Will said.

Lizzy wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so she didn't say anything. Instead, she studied his face. It was so carefully chiseled and defined. Compelling. If she’d been an artist, she thought, his was a face she would have liked to sculpt. He had sharp, handsome features. Strong and bold. They were the kind of features that, upon sight, had women standing up straighter and fixing their make-up and hair.

Tonight, she saw something else that wasn’t normally there in his face. It didn’t mar the beauty of his face, but it brought out other features that were normally so carefully hidden. There was pain. Carefully controlled pain, but pain that was present all the same. It made his face seem more angular. And it made him look harsher, wild almost.

A powerful hit of sympathy struck deep within Lizzy’s soul. She moved closer without even realizing it. “I heard about Daffodil, Will. Daddy told me.” The only indication that he had heard her was the slight clenching in his jaw. “I’m so sorry. I know how much you loved her.”

When he did not react, she added in her soft, lilting voice, “I did too.” Without thinking, Lizzy placed her hand on top of his in a comforting gesture. When Will looked down at their joined hands, she snatched it back and hid it behind her back. She was glad that it was dark out; he wouldn’t be able to see her blushing cheeks. Or the burning sensation she shouldn’t have been still feeling on her palm from when she’d touched him.

Disappointed that she’d taken her hand back, Will shrugged the feeling aside and leaned far over the railing, clasping his hands together in front of him. “I’ll get over it. I’m more worried about Georgiana. She was really torn up about Daffodil earlier in the day.”

Lizzy turned and followed his gaze through the window into the living room. Georgiana was seated on the sofa, in between her mother and sister. She looked a little fatigued, but she was smiling. Even laughing. Her eyes lacked the haunted quality that Lizzy had found in her brother’s. “I think your sister is much more resilient than you give her credit for,” she told him. “She’ll be okay.”

Will turned back around. He followed the path of her eyes and watched his sister’s shining face. “Yeah. I suppose you’re right.” He paused before starting again. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s me that I’m really worried about.” He looked down at his hands. “It’s stupid to care about a cow so damn much.”

Lizzy reached to turn his head so that they were facing eye to eye. She looked into his eyes. They were dark with emotion, and Lizzy saw that they were filled with unshed tears. “No, it’s not,” she said fervently. “Don’t deny your feelings. You don’t have to be a strong, emotionless male, Will. It’s okay to grieve, to care, to love, to feel.”

Their eyes locked and Will stared down into her face. It was filled with such compassion. And in the moonlight, her complexion looked like fine porcelain, so delicate that were he to touch it, it would crack beneath his touch. Will knew better though. There wasn’t a stronger woman amongst his female acquaintances than Lizzy. And underneath all those layers, he knew, burned a deep and complex, passionate person.

She was a mystery he realized with some shock, that he wanted to get to know, to unravel, to solve.

“Oh,” he said, “I feel all right . . . I feel it very much, don’t you?”

Lizzy stared back at him, mesmerized, and speechless. She licked her lips, unsure of what she should say or do, unsure of the emotions that had suddenly flooded her senses.

She would have leaned up, towards his mouth, but Will took a step back from the intensity of their gaze. From the lick of her lips. She tried not to feel disappointment as she watched him turn away.

Letting go of whatever it was he had begun, and wondering what in the world he was doing, Will rifled a hand through his hair and leaned over the porch railing again. He fished a cigar out of his coat pocket and stared at it for a full second before lighting it. He then took a few, quick puffs allowing the sweet aroma of the tobacco to crowd out the remainder of his senses.

They reverted back to silence, but after a while, Lizzy couldn’t help but glance sideways and ask, “Don't you know how unhealthy those things are for you?”

Will unclamped the cigar from his teeth and, holding it in his right hand, stared at its fiery red tip, illuminated by the night sky. He shrugged his shoulders. “A cigar every now and then isn't going to kill me.”

“It’s a nasty habit.”

“You can’t classify something as a habit when you have a cigar once every blue moon,” Will said mildly.

Lizzy couldn't prevent the small sniff that escaped.

“Hey, Charlie was the one passing them around,” he said in protest.

“That didn’t mean that you had to take one.”

Will stared at Lizzy’s face in amusement. She was in earnest, he realized. She really didn’t want him smoking the cigar. He wondered why. Was it because she didn’t like it when people smoked? Or was it because she didn’t like it when he smoked? Was she actually worried about his health? Will hoped it was the latter.

He dropped the cigar and crushed it beneath the toe of his foot. “Why,” he sighed, “must we argue about everything?”

She didn’t know what to say, so she didn’t say anything. It wasn’t the first time she’d found herself at a loss for words when conversing with Will. After a moment’s pause, she heard him chuckling softly to himself. “What’s so funny?”

“Charlie. He’s so ecstatic over the thought of being a father that he couldn't even wait for Jane to actually have the baby before passing around the cigars. Heck, Jane’s got months before she even starts to showing!”

Lizzy laughed a little laugh, a laugh that Will couldn't help but notice ended on a sigh. He watched her thoughtfully as she leaned against a wooden post and asked, “They're both incredibly happy aren't they?”

“Yeah. Why, aren't you happy for them?”

“Of course I'm happy for them.”

He considered her for a moment. “You don't seem happy.”

Lizzy gave him a look. “How could I not be happy?” she wanted to know. “My sister and her husband are going to have a baby. It's what they've been hoping forever since they got married. Their hopes and dreams have been realized. How could I be anything but happy?”

She hoped she hadn’t sounded flippant. She hadn’t meant to be so flippant.

“Yet, there's something about your expression just now that makes me believe you have other feelings.”

Lizzy looked at Will in abhorrence. Had she been so transparent? “It's nothing,” she crossed her arms.

“It’s not nothing,” Will insisted.

“I said it was nothing,” Lizzy said heatedly, turning away to make some distance between herself and Will.

“Lizzy,” Willy ground out in frustration. He trailed off when he wasn’t sure what to say or how to get her to tell him the truth.

It was obvious something was bothering her, and it bothered him that she was pretending as though nothing was wrong. Because he wanted to shake her and didn’t dare touch her, he stuck his hands in his pocket as a safety precaution.

“Lizzy,” he began again. “Do you remember that one summer afternoon when you were eight years old and you wanted to go swimming in the river, and I wouldn’t let you?”

Of course she did; there was very little that she didn’t remember when it involved Will standing in her way of doing something she wanted to do. “Yes, I hated you that day.”

Will laughed in spite of himself. “Yeah . . . I’m sure there were a lot of those days when you were little. And still are. You’ve always been a bit of a brat like that.”

“You were so mean that day,” Lizzy forged on. “You knew very well that I wanted to go swimming with the rest of you, but you wouldn’t let me.”

“You were young and I was afraid you’d get hurt. The currents were strong.”

“And I was a good swimmer; still am. You of all people should know. You were the one that taught me how to swim when I was only three. Like a duck that took to water. Isn’t that what you told Daddy after my first swimming lesson?”

“Lizzy,” Will laughed, a little bit embarrassed. “How would you remember what I said? You were, as you pointed out, only three.”

“That’s what Momma’s always told me.”

“Yes, well,” Will coughed. “In any event, that is beside the point. The point is that you were too young and I didn’t want anything to happen to you. So I told you to stay home. Your parents, might I remind you, would have said the same thing had they not been visiting your aunt and uncle in Wyoming.”

“So you’ve always said,” Lizzy said bitterly. “Yet, I notice that you didn’t hesitate in taking Jane along. You didn’t think she was too young to tag along.”

“She’s two years older than you, almost three. I knew she’d be all right, and if not that Charlie would take care of her.”

“What a shame then that I didn’t have a boyfriend at age eight,” she said sarcastically.

“I still wouldn’t have let you come even if you had.”

“Why?”

“You’re conveniently forgetting that you were laid up with a summer cold.”

Now that Will mentioned it, she did remember something along those lines. “I was getting better though. I was on the last legs of it.” She hated that she sounded so defensive all of the sudden.

“You’d been puking up your guts, pardon the expression, for the better half of the week. You still had a fever of 99.5 degrees and you were weak. You needed help just getting to and from the bathroom. Even Jane, who normally wanted you with her everywhere she went, wanted you to stay in bed that afternoon.

“But you were tired of being sick, of being told to stay in bed. You’d been laid up for a week already and now that you were starting to feel just a smidgeon better, you weren’t going to have it anymore. You’d already missed a week’s worth of fun, and you were determined not to miss an afternoon of swimming with the rest of us at the watering hole too.

“So, what did you do? You waited until we left. You waited for Margaret to come feed you your medicine. And then, once you were positive that Margaret thought you were taking a nap and was too busy folding laundry to notice whether you were in bed or not, you snuck down the back stairs and left the house through the backdoor.

“That’s when I caught you red-handed.”

“You were supposed to have already left with the others. How did I know you were going to still be there?” she asked petulantly. She remembered how she’d planned it out so carefully, listening at the door to make sure that their substitute housekeeper was out of the way before sneaking out of her room. All her efforts had been foiled. Thanks to Will.

“Lizzy, haven’t you always wondered how it was that I came to be there? Just hanging out by the back door, while everyone else was already down by the river, swimming and having fun?”

“Including Missy Berman and her red polka-dotted bikini?”

He stared at her, stunned by her recollection.

Lizzy carried on blithely. “If I recall correctly, Missy filled out her bikini very nicely that summer. At least you used to think so.”

Lizzy couldn't explain how it was that she remembered that little tidbit, nor could she explain why she felt the need to mention it. It was absolutely devious of Lizzy to bring up that memory at a time like this, but she couldn’t help herself. She also couldn't help the feeling of sharp twinges, or something, in her stomach. She was horribly afraid that they were pangs of jealousy, but that was stupid since Missy Berman was a thing of the past. Not to mention, she’d only been eight at the time. Surely, at that age, she couldn't have cared that Will had taken Missy to the watering hole instead of her?

Missy Berman. Tall and leggy, she’d had fiery red hair and a chest that made boys cry. She’d been a load of fun. Like all the other boys his age, Will had panted after her with the zeal of the hormonally charged youth that he’d been that summer.

He hadn’t thought of her in ages.

After that summer, he’d gone off to college and all thoughts of Missy and her red polka-dotted bikini had stayed behind at the ranch with the rest of his youth. When he’d returned to the Pemberley on his first vacation from school, she’d been gone and he hadn’t even missed her. Until now. Will wondered that Lizzy would even think of her after all these years.

“That is neither here nor there,” he said sternly. “The point of this story is that I know you, Lizzy. I know how your mind bends and works. I always know what you’re thinking. And just as I knew then that you would try and sneak down to the river when nobody was watching, I know now that there is something wrong.”

He pointed an accusing finger at her. “There’s been something niggling at you ever since Charlie made his announcement at dinner. You can’t lie to me, Elizabeth Joyce Ann Marie Bennet, so you might as well tell me what’s wrong.”

“You know I hate it when you do that.”

Her interruption didn’t faze him in the least; he just kept going. “Don’t try and avoid the subject by changing the subject, Lizzy; you know it never works. And just for the record, if you try to squeeze your way out of this mess, or any other mess, you should know that I’ll always be at the back door waiting for you to try and escape.”

She’d never felt so stripped and exposed before. It wasn’t exactly flattering to be told that you were completely defenseless. But if she really thought about it, she had to concede the truth. He did always have an uncanny ability of being able to catch her in the act of doing something she wasn’t supposed to be doing.

The big rat.

“Oh, all right! If you’re going to cast the follies of my youth up to me, I’ll tell you what’s bothering me. Anything to get you off my back.”

“Lizzy, it’s not hard casting up the follies of your youth to your face. The hard part is picking just one. There are so many stories from which to choose,” he teased good-naturedly.

She stuck her tongue out at him. “If you must know, I’m jealous.”

“Jealous?” Will looked confused. “Of whom?”

“Of Jane, if you must know.”

“Jane?” Will sounded even more confused than ever.

“Yes. You know. Jane. My sister.”

“Why on earth are you jealous of Jane?” The concept simply astounded. As far as Will knew, the sisters had always been thick as thieves, the very best of friends. They’d never envied each other anything, simply taking pleasure in each other’s good fortune. It was something he’d always admired.

Lizzy sighed wearily. “I know. It’s a little bizarre. But it’s true. I’m jealous of my sister.”

“What about?”

“Of her and her life. Now doesn’t that make me a horrible person?” Lizzy waved with her hand. “Go on, feel free to start lecturing me.” It was what she expected.

“You think I would judge you? No, don’t answer that.” He was afraid she’d say yes, and then he’d really have to beat her down for answering that way. “I’ll answer it for you. No, Lizzy, I don’t think that’s horrible and I don’t think any less of you for feeling that way. I think that your feelings are perfectly normal. Jealousy, while perhaps not one of mankind’s most attractive features, is still just that. A human emotion.”

She studied his reaction for a minute and saw that he was in earnest. He really wasn’t making fun of her. “Do you always have to be so sensible and reasonable? You take the fun out of things,” Lizzy said resentfully.

“Why don’t you just tell me why you’re feeling jealous of Jane this evening?”

“I don’t know.” Lizzy glanced down and picked at the paint peeling off the porch banister. “Don’t you ever just look at someone and think to yourself, ‘Wow, he has it all?’ I do. I mean, look at my sister. She has a life of her own, a good home, a husband who is wild about her, and now a baby too. Sometimes, I can’t help but wish that that were me.”

“But you’ll have that one day, too. There’s no telling when or where or with whom, but you will. I know it.”

There was something reassuring about having Will’s affirmation. “I know. I’m just so tired of waiting. I wish it were sooner rather than later.”

For a person who was accustomed to being able to set her own schedule and go after the things she wanted, Will imagined that this must be really hard for her. Patience had never been Lizzy’s strong suit. “You can’t do anything about that, Lizzy,” he said sympathetically. “There are some things that you just have to leave in the hands of fate.”

“I know. But that doesn’t make it any less unfair. I mean, couldn’t fate, at the very least, be nice to me and send a good, decent boy my way, rather than that crazy Billy Collins?”

Lizzy couldn’t believe that she was being this open and honest with Will. But, a part of her also felt that it was a welcome relief to be able to share her innermost feelings with someone. Even if it was with a person who still thought of her as a brat, and who could, at times, be a bit of a brat himself.

Will couldn’t help but laugh at her. She was so sweet and so adoringly funny. Especially when she stood there, shaking her fists and pleading with the sky. Taking his hands out of her pocket, Will cupped her face and ran his thumbs along her cheek. “You are so cute when you don’t get your way. Do you know that?”

He kissed her then. It was only meant to be a brotherly sort of peck. But there was nothing brotherly about this kiss. From the moment their lips met, it was meant to be something more.

Her lips felt so soft under his. He couldn’t get enough of her. He tilted his head for a better angle and deepened the kiss. She’d forgotten that this was Will she was kissing. She raised her arms and wrapped them around the back of his head, pressing his face closer to hers. She opened her mouth and he took advantage of it, staking his claim.

They came up for air, but it wasn’t enough. So they kissed again. This time, less hungrily and more softly. Sweetly.

The kiss was timeless. It went on forever, continuing until they both remembered who they were and what they were to one another. Breaking apart, they struggled to school their features and catch their breaths. Lizzy wanted to sit down and put her head in between her knees, but she thought that might be too obvious. She didn’t want to give him that sort of satisfaction.

Will, on the other hand, felt as though he’d just returned from a ten-mile run. One that had been completed in an impossible time of five minutes flat. Was that his heart that was making those loud, pounding noises?

He looked at her. She was still looking the other way. He wondered what she was thinking, whether she felt as he did. Faint and breathless.

“Lizzy, I . . ..”

“It’s okay, Will,” she hastened to reassure, her own voice just as shaky and unsteady. She couldn’t bring herself to look at him. She’d heard the shock and confusion in his voice, and didn’t want to hear him say that he was sorry, that it’d been a mistake and would never happen again. Not from those lips. The lips she’d just kissed. For good measure, she threw in a laugh, though it sounded a little tinny to her ears.

“We just got caught up in the moment,” she said. “Don’t worry; it’s already forgotten.”

But it wasn’t forgotten. Even as she left him staring at her back, she knew as she touched her fingers to her lip that she would never forget the way her lips had burned, still burned, at his touch.

Continued in Next Section