Foundation of Love: The Gypsy Blessing 2 (10 page)

The sound of Anne clearing her throat reminded Elizabeth of where she was. Elizabeth glanced at her friend. Was Anne hiding a smile? Her attention snapped back to William’s face upon hearing him speak.

“Elizabeth, may I speak to you alone, please?”

She folded her arms across her chest. “If you can’t say it in front of Anne and Georgiana, then you won’t say it at all.”

William’s eyes searched hers. He nodded. “I only wanted to apologize and to thank you for all you did to help Georgiana.”

She was not going to let him off that easily. “Then go ahead.”

“Excuse me?”

“Go ahead. Apologize and thank me.”

“Didn’t I just do that?” He seemed so confused that she almost laughed.

“No, you stated that you
wanted
to, and I told you that you could.”

He stood staring at her wide-eyed in astonishment.

She tapped her foot. “Now would be as good a time as any. I’d like to have witnesses.”

Elizabeth heard Anne stifle a giggle, but she didn’t turn away from William.

William straightened his back and cleared his throat. “I’m sorry that I assumed the worst and accused you of such terrible things. I thank you for attempting to warn my sister away from that...” It was obvious he was having a difficult time coming up with a word that was acceptable to say in mixed company. “...
Scoundrel
,” he growled. “I will be forever grateful that you came to her aid, saving her from Wickham’s plans.” He hesitated. “Is that sufficient, or should I get down on my knees and say it again?”

He has a sense of humor after all!
Elizabeth pressed her lips together to stop herself from smiling. His stance was that of a self-confident man, but something in his eyes hinted at a deep vulnerability.
How interesting.
“Did you really mean it, or was that said only to satisfy Georgie, Anne, and Richard?”

His eyebrows lifted high on his forehead. “I meant every word.”

From his tone, she got the impression that nobody had ever doubted his honesty before.

Her eyes tightened a bit, and she tilted her head to the side, searching his eyes for the full truth. When she was satisfied that he really did mean what he said, she made him wait a little longer.

“I accept.” She held out her hand.

Pleasant warmth spread through her when he took her hand in his to shake it. Elizabeth looked away to hide her blush.
It’s only physical.

Chapter
6

~A few months later – mid-May

Elizabeth stood with her mouth slightly ajar, watching William walk away from her.
We were getting along so well lately. He seemed so tense today, and my teasing usually loosens him up. I only wanted to see that incredible smile again.

She turned to Charles. “Do you know why he snapped at me like that?”

Having seen Charles only when he was standing next to or talking about Jane—in other words, experiencing varying degrees of bliss—his grave expression and serious tone surprised Elizabeth. “I lived with Will, Rich, and Wickham during college. After Will’s graduation ceremony, we all planned to meet his family at our favorite restaurant near campus to celebrate. Will, Rich, Wickham, and I were following a few car-lengths behind his parents’ limousine—now that I think of it, the car we were in was Will’s graduation gift from his parents...” His voice cracked and he waited a few moments before continuing. He swallowed hard. “We saw it happen. If Will hadn’t been such a good driver, we would have crashed into the wrecked vehicles. By the time the ambulance arrived, the only person from the limo still alive was Georgiana, and she was critically injured.”

Charles could not go on, but he didn’t need to. Georgiana had opened up to Elizabeth on several occasions, confiding that she had undergone years of intensive therapy to overcome the guilt she had carried after her parents’ deaths and to regain her will to live.

All this time,
I was concentrating on Georgiana. It never occurred to me how that time must have been incredibly difficult for Will. She was the only immediate family he had left... and he had to take over the business at that time, too. Oh, why did I have to do something as stupid as putting my graduation cap on his head?

Swallowing past the tightness in her throat, her voice trembled. “I had no idea....”

Charles nodded. “I didn’t think you did, and I’m sure Will understands that, too. You know, I was very surprised to see that Will and Georgiana came today.” He looked off into the distance for a minute, blinking rapidly. “To be honest, today hasn’t been easy for me, either. I didn’t even attend my own graduation.”

She watched Charles walk away, heading straight for Jane. Elizabeth could see that Jane sensed his distress, for she turned to excuse herself from a conversation with their parents and walked away with Charles. It dawned on Elizabeth that her parents had come to witness Jane’s and her graduation—just like the Darcys had done a few years ago.

The tears she was determined to hold back blurred her vision. She swiped at the one that escaped. Looking away from her family, her eyes came to rest on William’s handsome profile. He stood all alone, off to one side of the group, appearing to examine the crowd of happy graduates.

Not knowing how she got there, Elizabeth found herself standing beside him. As she fidgeted with her graduation cap in her hands, she took a moment to regain control over her emotions before looking up at him. “I’m so sorry, Will. I didn’t realize...”

William sighed. “Charles told you?” He glanced at her just long enough to see her nod, and then looked away. “You had no way of knowing the two events were connected. Even before Georgiana met you and Jane, understanding that you’d be graduating at the end of this term, she had Anne, Richard, and me promise not to mention
when
it happened. It was my fault that Charles revealed it—I forgot to inform him of Georgiana’s wishes.”

“Georgie has such a generous soul, but I have to admit that if Charles hadn’t told me, I would have misunderstood the reason you became so angry with me.” She shifted from foot to foot. “I hope you realize that if I’d known before, I
never
would have—”

Elizabeth stopped speaking when he turned to look at her. The sorrow in his eyes was so raw it knocked the breath from her lungs. Every cell of her body yearned to wrap itself around him and never let go. Her surprise at the intensity of this sudden impulse must have displayed on her face, because William’s distress deepened before he blinked, and then all emotion disappeared from his expression.

Recovering control over her own senses, she continued. “We wouldn’t have blamed either of you for avoiding this celebration today.”

“I wasn’t angry at
you
. I shouldn’t have reacted that way. I thought I had anticipated everything that might happen, but...”

“I’m surprised you even tried. Haven’t you figured out by now that you can never fully prepare yourself for my sorry excuse for a sense of humor?”

Visibly startled, he opened his mouth to speak, but Elizabeth placed her hand on his arm to stop him. “Really, it’s okay, Will.”

Even if she had wanted to, Elizabeth did not think she could break away from the intensity of his gaze. She fought against an almost undeniable pull emanating from him. After what felt like an eternity, William swallowed loudly before turning away. Elizabeth removed her hand from his arm and tried to calm her breathing.

What was that?

She was thankful that her mother’s approach made continuing their tête-à-tête impossible, or she might have done something she would later regret.

“Lizzy, we should get going. We have some time before our reservations, but with all these people leaving at once, it might take a while to get out of the parking lot.”

Even from a distance, Elizabeth could tell that Georgiana had heard her mother’s declaration by the change of the young girl’s expression, and she could feel the tension rolling off William in waves. “Mom, I’ve been thinking. You’ve always enjoyed a stroll through the grounds whenever you visit, and so has Dad. Since the restaurant is only a couple of blocks further than the far side of campus—let’s walk.”

“Yes! The dogwoods and spring flowers are all in bloom; it will be a lovely stroll.” Her mother walked away to inform the remainder of the group of
her
plan.

~%~

As the group walked across campus, Elizabeth’s father came up beside her. His expression told her he wanted to speak to her alone, and she slowed her pace. When they had dropped back out of hearing range of the others, he said, “It was very considerate to suggest a walk, Lizzy. Your uncle and I had just been discussing it ourselves.”

She searched her father’s eyes. “Then you both know?”

Her father nodded. “The Darcys have always been one of the elite families in the industry. Unfortunately, that means they are often the subject of gossip—most of it good, mind you. As you know, when Mr. Darcy started buying up land in the area years ago, rumors of the Lambton project had everyone excited, looking forward to the day it would come to be. Of course, there were the naysayers, who spent a lot of time and effort trying to prove that Lambton would be no good for us, but try as they may, they never could find anything wrong with the Darcys. No, the family is well-respected for their integrity, ethical business practices, and being excellent employers.”

Elizabeth could see her father was lost in a memory as they remained quiet for a minute or two.

“Have I ever told you about the time I worked for William and Georgiana’s grandfather?”

“No, you haven’t.” Elizabeth could hear her surprise in her voice.

He nodded and folded his hands behind his back. “It was years ago, while I was attending Longbourn University. The Darcys were building that large office complex on Third Street. That’s where I first met William’s father.” He chuckled. “You might say that I’m partially responsible for the Lambton project, in a way. The Darcys were always the sort who insisted their progeny learn the business from the ground up. I had to keep reminding myself that I was working shoulder to shoulder with the future owner of the empire, for he expected and received no preferential treatment.” He cocked his head to the side. “It surprised me, mostly because the Darcys are among the richest families in America. In fact, that year was Connor Darcy’s turn to be on the most eligible bachelors list in that famous magazine, the same one William was in two years ago. To be blunt, I expected Connor to be a spoiled brat, but there was none of that in him.” Her father laughed. “Connor came home with me one weekend and fell in love with the area.”

When she thought her father had become lost in his recollections once again, he turned to look at her. “Connor Darcy was a very good man, as was his father.” Mr. Bennett shook his head and frowned deeply. “The passing of Connor and Jaqueline Darcy was quite the news for a while. Their deaths were tragedy enough, but what reporters did to those poor children afterwards was horrific.” He inclined his head toward William and Georgiana. “I never thought I’d see them here today, let alone that they would accompany us to lunch.”

Elizabeth nodded. “Georgie might be a few years younger than I, but she’s a good friend, and she wanted to be here for us. As soon as Charles told me what had happened, I suggested the walk to make her feel more comfortable.”

Mr. Bennett raised one eyebrow. “And William?”

“Will and I got off to a rough start...” Elizabeth hesitated while her father laughed.

“A ‘rough start’? Until recently, I was expecting to hear some very unladylike language accompany the foul expression on your face any time Georgiana’s brother was mentioned!”

“Well, maybe it
was
a little more than ‘rough,’ but that’s the way I would rather remember it. Either way, we’re friends now.”

“Friends?”

“Yes, exactly,” she answered defensively.

“Is that what they call it now?”

“What do you mean?”

“Just that I saw the way you and that young man were looking at each other earlier. In my day, we didn’t call
that
‘friendship.’”

“Well, that’s all it is.” Elizabeth blushed furiously. “Oh, look, Tom is all alone! I haven’t seen him in weeks. Excuse me.”

Her father chuckled as Elizabeth rushed away to speak to her brother, neatly avoiding any further discussion of her relationship with William Darcy.

~%~

~Saturday morning, Memorial Day weekend

“The directions
did
say we should turn onto this road to get to the Bennetts’ house, didn’t it?” William was obviously annoyed.

Georgiana looked again at the paper Lizzy had given her. “Yes.”

“I knew I should have programmed the address into the GPS.”

“Lizzy said when people use a GPS, the instructions to their house always ends up getting them lost, Will.”

“Gardiner says the same thing whenever we’ve been in this area looking at the property for Lambton. The region is changing so fast, the GPS can’t keep up.” He huffed. “But either Elizabeth’s directions are wrong, or you told me to make a wrong turn somewhere. I’d suggest calling Elizabeth, but we need a landmark to give her an idea of where we are—all we’ve seen so far is trees.” Rounding a bend, William noticed they were coming up on a clearing. “Maybe I can turn around up there and head back to the main road.”

As the SUV entered the clearing, a sprawling two-story lodge-house came into view. The road forked with the offshoot leading around the rear of the lodge. The main road ended in a wide, circular drive.

“It’s so beautiful!” Georgiana exclaimed as William stopped the truck.

“Call Elizabeth.”

Georgiana hesitated. “I don’t understand. Why don’t we just go up to the door?”

“I’m not knocking on a stranger’s door to ask for directions,” William snapped. “Describe that house to Elizabeth so she can give us better directions to the Bennetts’ home.”

“But, Will—”

“Just do it.”

Georgiana shrugged and did as she was told. “Hi, Lizzy! William says we’re lost and...” She listened for a few moments.

Mortified that anyone might think it was
his
fault they were lost, William blushed when he heard Elizabeth’s laughter through the phone’s tiny speaker.

Georgiana looked pointedly at her brother. “That’s what I thought. See you soon.” She hung up and turned to William. “Lizzy says it would probably be easier to carry in the luggage if you pulled up closer to the house.”

“What?”

“It’s what I’ve been trying to tell you—we aren’t lost. They’re standing by the window watching us, trying to figure out why we’ve stopped.”

His gaze moved to examine the spacious house again. “
This
is the Bennetts’ home? But they were both at Longbourn University on scholarships. I thought...”

“Will! Don’t tell me you assumed that the only way they could go to university was if it were free?” She huffed.

He brooded in silence.

“I never realized what a snob you are.”

“Me? I let you live with them, didn’t I?”

“
Let
me?” Georgiana gasped. “Only because Anne and Richard talked you into it. You know, I’ve heard you criticize Anne’s mother for making comments just like that last one.” Movement at the house attracted her attention. “Come on. We’d better talk about this later—they’re waiting.”

I had better not tell her that I made reservations for us at the hotel where I usually stay, expecting the Bennetts’ house to be too crowded.