Pride's Prejudice (11 page)

"Sorry
for the trouble."

"It's
no trouble at all," Beth answered resolutely.  She eyed Jaxon
speculatively for a moment.  "Are you going to tell me what that was
all about back there?"

Jaxon
smiled weakly.  "I didn't realize you were…..
involved
with
William Darcy."

"INVOLVED?"

Beth's
exclamation brought a halt to the sweet nothings being exchanged on the couch a
few feet away.  She apologized, and Denny shrugged, turning back to Lindy.

"We're
not…..involved," she began in a lower tone.  "His best friend is
dating my best friend.  End of story."

"I
think it's a little more than that for him," he contradicted.

"You
two seemed to know each other fairly well," Beth said, ignoring the
assumption.

Jaxon
gazed steadily at Beth before answering.  An agonized look played fleetingly
across his features.  "He's my brother."

Beth
knew that her mouth gaped open, but it was some time before she could do
anything about it.

Jaxon
chuckled.  "Not your typical family reunion, huh?  We're not,
like, blood relatives," he clarified.

"I
gathered as much from the lack of resemblance," Beth said, still confused.
 Les hadn't included any brother in his mini bio on William.

"So,
what's the twist?"

Jaxon
glanced casually over his shoulder at the love birds before diving into the
story.

"William's
father sort of adopted me after my father died.  We grew up
together."

Beth
scowled.

Jaxon
laughed lightly at her face.  "My family wasn't rich, Beth.  You
probably figured out by now that William comes from money."

Beth
nodded slowly.  Yes, she was aware of his prosperous livelihood; but she'd
been under the impression that he'd earned his wealth.

"My
father was the Darcys' butler.  Have you ever seen the movie
Sabrina?
 
You know, with Harrison Ford?"  A wry smile crossed his face. 
"I was Sabrina."

Beth laughed
at the analogy, struck anew by Jaxon's infectious good humor.  There was
just something about him that made her feel totally at ease.

"Anyway,
my father got sick," Jaxon continued, pulling Beth from her thoughts.
"When he passed, away Darcy Senior invited me to stay with the
family.  He'd always treated me like his own son."

Automatically,
Beth braced herself for the story to turn bad.  It was the same sensation
you had at a sappy movie that seems like it could end happily - with another
forty minutes to go.

"Did
you know William has a sister?" Jaxon asked abruptly.

"Yes,"
Beth answered.  "Les - William's best friend - told me about
her.  William mentioned her once, too."

Jaxon's
expression softened.  "We were always close, she and I." 
He seemed far away now.  Beth's insides liquefied at the sadness on
Jaxon's face.  "I had always been in her life, from the time she
could remember.  She looked up to me, just like another brother.  So,
when we became……more, William didn't care much for it.  Or for me, anymore."

The
silence stretched on, creating a lull.

"Then
what happened?" Beth probed.

"William
kicked me out when he found out we were together.  I left, not wanting to
cause any trouble or make it harder on Gianna or myself.  But she was
still young, and pretty immature at that."  He smiled a little sadly.

"How
old was she?"

Jaxon's
eyes shifted, as if the answer were floating over Beth's shoulder.

"Seventeen,
I think."

Beth
scowled.  If memory served true, back at camp Les had said that Gianna had
just turned seventeen.

"Nearly
an adult, in any case," Jaxon continued.  "But William has
always babied her, and it's no wonder she went a little wild once she had a
taste of real life."

"Wild?"

"She
was pretty heavy on the party circuit after that," he said, keeping the
details to himself as any respectable guy would.  "She kept texting
me and trying to set up meetings, and I ignored her, even though it killed
me."

Jaxon
removed the ice pack from his face, setting it on the kitchen table.

"I
went to a party one night and she was there.  She was pretty wasted. 
When she…..came onto me and I refused, she threatened to go to the police with
an accusation of rape."

Beth's
jaw dropped again and an indignant noise escaped her lips.  "What did
you do?"

"I
stayed at a friend's house that night.  When I returned home the next day,
a neighbor said the cops had been poking around the complex.  At that
point I knew I would never find a way out of the situation.  So I
left."

Beth
was speechless.  The whole sordid tale was awful.  But something
wasn't clicking - the facts weren't adding up.  "But did the cops
have anything to go on?  There was no evidence.  And if she'd been
drinking -"

"Lack
of evidence is a moot point if there's enough money involved."

Beth's
mouth fell open.  "He paid off the cops?"

Without
confirming Beth's suspicion Jaxon said, "Nothing's out of reach for the
Darcys, Beth.  At least, nothing that takes Visa or MasterCard."

Beth
bit her lip, recalling the night she'd met William.  Going on first
impressions alone, Jaxon's description was spot-on.  But the person she'd
come to know since then - the one who gave up his sleeping bag, hiked through
mud for her clothes, and took care of her while she was in a drug-induced
hysteria, just didn't fit the profile.  She shook her head, disgruntled.

"I
just can't see William going along with that," Beth said, not sure why she
was defending William, or felt the need to.

"William's
always been wrapped around Gianna's finger.  Understandably so.  He's
been her father figure since their dad died."  Jaxon sighed
tiredly.  "And she can be pretty……
persuasive.
"

Beth
felt an irrational pinch of jealousy.  It must have surfaced on her face,
because Jaxon picked up her hand.  "It doesn't matter anymore,"
he murmured, turning the blue flame in his eyes as high as it would go. 
"It's all in the past."

He
squeezed her hand, which gave her heart a squeeze of its own.  Then he
picked up one of her braids, letting it slip through his fingers before
repeating the process a few times.

REGENCY

"To be fond of
dancing was a certain step towards falling in love."

~Jane Austen, Pride
& Prejudice

The
rest of the weekend passed in a blur.  Beth failed at convincing Lindy to
take it easy her first weekend at Hartford, and spent Saturday and Sunday
catering to her whims (at least the reasonable ones - Beth had flatly refused
to take Lindy to get a tattoo).  Come Monday morning, Beth was thoroughly
exhausted from keeping up with her sister.  The only thing worse than a
houseguest who wouldn't leave was a houseguest who wanted to be entertained at
all times.

Now
the girls were making their way to the Administration building, where Lindy was
due for a campus tour with other prospective freshmen.  As they entered
the building Lindy gasped, "Wait, Bethy," as she crumpled Beth's
shirt in her fist and yanked her back.  "Look!"

Beth
pulled her shirt out of Lindy's grip, sighing as she tried to focus on what
Lindy was waving in her face.  Of course, she already knew what it
was.  She'd just been hoping Lindy wouldn't find out about it. 
Whoever had been in charge of getting the word out had really done a job of
it.  You couldn't walk two steps on campus without meeting dozens of the
fliers.  Lindy had ripped one from a pile that were held prisoner to a
corkboard:

"December
eighteenth - that's this weekend!  YES!"

Beth
watched her sister and couldn't help envying her confidence.  In Lindy's
mind, she was at Hartford, therefore, she would be going to the ball.  For
Lindy, there was never a question of not being asked to something.  Beth
usually avoided functions like these.  As fun as playing dress up could be
at age twenty, she'd just never wanted to share a formal occasion with someone
she sort of liked, or simply tolerated for one night.

Immediately,
she was carried away with the vision of herself in a long dark gown, on the arm
of a certain blonde, blue-eyed delight.  She felt a thrill jet up inside
her.  Did Jaxon know about the ball?

"This
is it, Lind," Beth said, coming out of her day dream and dropping her
sister off at the administration building.  "Student Resources is on
the second floor.  Come straight home when you're done."

"Yes,
mother," Lindy cooed to Beth before bouncing up the steps of the brick
building.

"Whatever,"
Beth muttered as she turned for Longbourn.  "Mom has never used that
tone in her life."

When
Beth let herself into her dorm, she was pleasantly surprised to see Jenna
bustling around their tiny kitchen, no Les to be seen.

"Jenna!" 
Beth closed the distance between them and threw her arms around her best
friend.  "What are you doing here?"  It sounded like a
funny question to be asking a roommate, but anyone living there wouldn't have
blinked.  Jenna had taken full advantage of Lindy's visit, making up the
time she missed with Les during Beth's injury.

Jenna
shrugged casually.  "I got out of class early and had a violent
craving for cookies."  She looked up at Beth and smiled.

"PMS?"
Beth inquired.

Jenna
flipped some flour off her hands at Beth.

"Thought
so.  Need some help?"

Jenna
agreed, and the girls finished mixing up the dough.

"Where's
Lindy?" Jenna asked as she spooned clumps of dough onto a cookie sheet.

"She's
taking a tour of campus with Student Resources."  Beth took a
spoonful of dough.  "So, where's Les?"

"He's
heading the committee for the Winter Ball," Jenna answered, somewhat
forlornly, in Beth's opinion.  "He had a meeting about it today or
something."

"Really? 
He's not even a student."

"He's……sponsoring
it."

Of
course he was.  "So, did he ask you?"  Beth knew the
answer, but it felt good to talk to someone in her right mind for a change.

Jenna
licked the dough off her fingers and smiled slyly.  "Wouldn't you
like to know?"

"Not
really."  Beth feigned boredom.  "He wouldn't let anyone
else take you.  And he's not exactly private about his feelings for
you."

"Okay,
he asked me.  Happy?"

"Yup." 
Beth scooped herself some more dough.  She'd always thought baking cookies
was wasted effort, since dough was better.

"And
you?"  Jenna peeked at Beth from the corner of her eye. 
"Has any dashing chap come to ask you yet?"

"Colton's
next visit isn't until Spring," Beth said, without missing a beat.

"I
wasn't thinking of Colton."  Jenna's assumption hung in the air, and
Beth suddenly felt like peeling her coat off.

"Beth?"

Beth
faced Jenna and waited for the onslaught.  "Jenna?"

Jenna
rolled her eyes.  It was a most unJenna-ish gesture.  "Who was
the guy from the Malt Shop?"

"His
name is Jaxon Donovan.  Remember Denny Larsen from home?  Jaxon is
his friend and co-squadie."

"Do
you like him?  Maybe he's going to ask you," Jenna reasoned as she
took one cookie sheet out of the oven and replaced it with another.

"I
don't think so.  I just met him on Friday.  Besides, he's not a
student.  He probably doesn't even know about it."  She waved
her hand dismissively, trying to dispel her own hopes with the gesture.

"But
you do want to go with him."  Jenna accused.

"I
wouldn't put up a struggle," Beth admitted.

Jenna
smiled knowingly, scraping the bowl with her finger and licking the dough
off.  Then she sobered and asked, "So....what's the deal with Jaxon
and William?"

Beth
suddenly wondered if Jenna had already gotten the history from William. 
She decided to play dumb.  "I guess they grew up together."

Jenna
raised her eyebrows at Beth expectantly.

Beth
sighed.  "There's some bad blood there, I guess.  Something
about Jaxon and William's sister, Gianna."

Jenna
transferred cookies from the cookie sheet to the cooling rack, as if she were
mildly interested, but Beth knew better.

Beth
chewed on her lip, debating how much to tell Jenna.  The fact that she
felt she had to withhold anything from Jenna troubled her more than the
communication itself.  Maybe it would be liberating to let someone else in
on the whole sordid thing.

When
she finished, Jenna had put down the spatula and was gaping wide-eyed at
Beth.  When Jenna finally spoke, her tone subdued and guarded, it reminded
Beth of the way her father spoke to Lindy very rarely, before grounding her or
taking away privileges.

"Beth…….I'm
sure Jaxon's a really nice guy.  But how can you be sure that it's
true?  You said yourself that you just met him."

"I
don't know what to make of the whole thing, Jenna," Beth sighed in defeat.
"The only thing I really have to go on is my own experience with
William.  And it validates everything Jaxon said."

"Beth,
you've never liked William.  It's obvious to anyone else in the room when
you're together.  But has he ever given you a reason not to trust
him?"

Beth
laughed humorlessly and looked around the room, as if a response to Jenna's
question would jump out and bite her on the nose.  When the bare walls
offered her no support, she took a deep breath, trying to inject her response
with composure.  "The fact is William has been unkind in the past and
Jaxon hasn't."

"That
you know of," Jenna qualified.  "You just met Jaxon Beth - you
don't know anything about his past."

Beth
made a dismissive noise.  "William tried to pay me off to get out of
the charity thing.  You don't think he'd do the same for his own
sister?"

Jenna
gave Beth an exasperated look that said,
seriously?
 

"Did
he say anything to you about it?"  Beth asked, trying to curb her
anger.

"Who,
William?"

"Or
Les?"

Jenna
shook her head.  "William wasn't home when we came back, and Les
didn't know what the deal was either."

Beth
nodded, disappointed.

Jenna
took the cookies out of the oven and placed them on a cooling rack before
turning to Beth.  "I just want you to be careful.  I don't think
William is capable of all that.  And, as far as Gianna goes, Les and Kara
both know her very well.  I've never heard anything but praise of her."

"Kara
isn't exactly the person I would be taking character references from,
Jenna."  Beth expected her best friend to start listing Kara's
qualities, but she just shrugged and then nodded in a hesitant sort of way,
which made Beth grin.

Jenna
stepped to Beth and enfolded her in a tight hug.  "There doesn't have
to be a good guy and bad guy in this scenario, Beth.  People aren't always
so black and white."

"Sometimes
they are, Jenna."  Beth smiled indulgently, if a little grudgingly.

Jenna
handed Beth a cookie.  "Truce?"

Beth
eyed her.

"I'll
throw in a Dr. Pepper.......?"

"You
always hit below the belt, Jenna."

"I'll
drive," Jenna laughed, snatching her keys off the counter.

Beth
could tell that Jenna was elated to have the conflict over for the moment, at
least.  On this point, they'd just have to agree to disagree.