Pride's Prejudice (6 page)

Now
the duo sat gossiping, bearing a striking resemblance to Statler and Waldorf
from
The Muppet Show.
  That is, Statler and Waldorf in tiny
t-shirts and Daisy Duke shorts.  Beth smiled faintly as she anticipated how
long it would take for them to freeze in those clothes.  Had they
never
been camping?  Wyoming had some of the coldest mountains in the country.

Beth
was pulled from her musings by a heavy flannel blanket settling on her
shoulders.  It smelled faintly of pine needles and a vaguely familiar
scent that she couldn't place.  When she lifted her eyes, expecting to
thank Les, she met with William's stony gaze instead.

Turning
back to the fire, she said "Thank you," as civilly as she could
manage.  Obviously, he thought she was stupid for getting into this
situation in the first place, and she could hardly blame him for feeling that
way.  But she was angry enough with herself.

Wordlessly,
William took a seat next to Beth on the log.  He opened his mouth to speak
several times, but then snapped it shut in frustration.  "What were
you thinking?" he finally managed.

When
Beth didn't answer right away, he turned his black eyes on her.  She felt
herself shrink back a little.  Turning her face away from him, she trained
her eyes back on the blaze.  How did he make her feel so small?  It
wasn't like she'd meant for Jenna to get hurt.  A sense of déjà vu stole
over her, and suddenly she was standing on the stage at the benefit again, the
unclaimed girl in the spotlight.  And now William Darcy had stepped in
again.  Her temper flared.

"I
know how much you love a damsel in distress, William.  I just thought I'd
stroke your ego a bit."  She had worked to maintain her cool, but her
voice shook with the effort.

His
head lolled forward and then he turned wary eyes on her. 
"Really?  We're back there again?"

"We
never left," Beth exhaled in a gust of mirthless laugher.  William
needed to know that his opinion was at the bottom of her priority list. 
In fact, it hadn't even made the list.

He
looked at her for an immeasurable moment, his dark eyes drilling into
hers.  "Whatever helps you sleep at night,
sweetheart.
"

Beth
couldn't help slitting her eyes at him in anger.  Not for the first time,
she wished she could turn arrogant men to stone with a look, like Medusa. 
Her composure slipped and she shook her head, turning away so he wouldn't see
the tears gathering in her eyes.  Unfortunately, turning away from William
had brought Kara and Lucy into view.  No doubt they had witnessed the
exchange and were beyond entertained.  Beth rose abruptly to check on
Jenna.  Halfway to the tent, she remembered that she had William's
blanket.  Taking any kindness from him was unbearable, because it wasn't
really kindness.  It came with a price - one that was too high for her
wounded pride.  After disposing of condemning tears with a swipe of her
hand, she backtracked to William and dropped the blanket in his lap.  As
she stepped away, he caught her arm and drew her back, standing slowly to face
her.  He was quite a bit closer than Beth liked, and she took an
involuntary step back.

"Do
you have any other clothes in your pack to change into?  You look
frozen."

She
answered with a prolonged blink.  "No.  I have some clothes in
my truck, but if I could get to it, we wouldn't be having this
conversation."  She dared a glance up at him.  His eyes
softened.  Only then did Beth notice that her arm was still in his
grasp.  It was the warmth of his skin that caught her attention.  An
awkward lull passed, and then William draped the blanket over her shoulders
again.

"Keep
it," he said softly.  "You'll be in the tent with Jenna. 
Les and I will take the truck."

Beth
looked around William to the white king cab truck that stood guard duty at the
campsite entrance.

"You'll
freeze," she argued flatly.

"We
have extra sleeping bags."

Beth
just looked at him with incredulous eyes.

"I'll
be fine," William reassured.  "I'm cold blooded, remember?"

Beth
inspected him for a moment.  "I don't think so," she
pronounced.  "I think it's an act."

"Maybe
I
do
have a thing for damsels in distress," William reasoned.

Beth
smiled sweetly, putting a hand to his cheek and fluttering her eyelashes. 
"It's called a hero complex, Solo."

William's
eyes almost closed.  When he brought a hand up to cover Beth's, she
hastily dropped hers.  She had only touched him for effect, and she wasn't
about to let him toss her hand aside in disgust.  Pivoting and marching to
the tent, she disappeared inside without looking back.

GALLANTRY

"…..how
insufficient were all my pretensions to please a woman worthy of being
pleased."

~Mr.
Darcy, Pride & Prejudice

 Beth
awoke feeling warmer than she should have.  Once inside the tent last
night she had stripped off her wet clothes and laid them out on the floor next
to the knapsack that she assumed was meant for her.  She had flinched with
guilt when she saw the oversized, dry t-shirt there, probably donated from
William's camping wardrobe.  The scent of pine and laundry soap filled her
nose as she pulled it over her head.  As she slid into the puffy down
sleeping bag, her thoughts turned to the 'extras' William had mentioned. 
Even if the said extras were as snug as Beth's, the boys wouldn't possibly be
comfortable in the truck.

In the
end, it turned out to be a moot point.

Heavy
raindrops had assaulted the roof of the tent last night, and Beth had worried
about Les and even William.  Maybe they would move in with Kara and
Lucy.  It would only be slightly more proper than coming in with Jenna and
herself.

Beth sat
up in her sleeping bag, running a tentative hand over her ruffled hair. 
She looked over at Jenna and started at the sight of Les lying next to her
friend, sandwiched between two blankets in a makeshift bedroll. 
Extras
indeed
, she thought.

Les
and Jenna still slept, facing each other but not touching.  With
mortification Beth turned slowly to her other side, and felt a resounding sonic
boom somewhere in the region of her chest when she saw another flannel blanket
sandwich.  Fortunately it was empty.

William
had slept next to her all night?  The blanket that William had loaned her
last night was laid over her, and the blankets he had slept in were lying where
her muddy clothes had been.  Either he had slept on top of them all night
(unlikely), or had thrown them into the river out of spite (probable).

Regardless,
she was stuck in a tent with Les inside, and William outside, in nothing but
her underwear and his t-shirt.

She
wrapped the plaid blanket around her waist and stepped into her hiking boots,
which were sitting at the door of the tent.  Her toes squished into their
damp muddiness and she wrinkled her nose.  She unzipped the tent and
stepped into the first beams of dawn filtering through the trees.  The
rain glistened on the leaves and branches like drops of hot glue, and crisp
moisture flavored the air.  The hickory tang of a campfire filled the air
as its crackling broke the early morning stillness.  She looked around for
her clothes and spotted them slung over a nearby tree.  Unfortunately,
they were caught in last night's downpour and were completely
waterlogged.  Still, someone had hung her clothes up, and she had a good
idea who it was.

She
wandered over to the fire and plopped down on the log from the previous
night.  She resigned to sit there all day, clad in the red-and-blue plaid
mercy of her worst enemy, which actually smelled quite good.  She brought
the corner of the flannel to her face.  It had a subtle woodsy smell, not
strong enough to be cologne.  More like body wash, perhaps.

"Well,
I wouldn't have thought blue was your color, but the red suits your temper very
well.  Overall I'd say it looks good on you."

Beth
jumped as William's amusement cut into her thoughts, and she stood
hurriedly.  She knew how stupid she looked, sniffing his blanket with her
muddled mess of hair, in his t-shirt.  Her first impulse was to take the
blanket off and throw it at his head, but this exploit would send the situation
downhill very quickly.

As she
watched his face, a rush of exasperation washed over her at the cocky smirk he
wore.  "Would you like it back now, then?"

"Thought
you'd never ask," he grinned.

Rolling
her eyes and turning away from him, she took a seat back on the log.  She
bent forward, cupping her face in her hands and resting her elbows on her
knees.  The only thing to do was ignore William Darcy.  He was one of
those guys that thrived on getting a reaction out of people.

The
log's balance shifted slightly as he sat next to her.  Couldn't he find
his own log?  They were in the woods, for crying out loud.  Take your
pick!

Slowly,
she turned her head toward him, her face still resting in her hands, her
eyebrows peaked in disbelief.  The amusement had been chased off of his
face, and his expressionless features betrayed nothing as to the reason he felt
the absurd need to be near her.  He took her hand from under her face, and
at his touch she drew back and sat bolt upright.

William
stood with a resigned sigh and tossed a small grey-and-white bundle onto her
lap.

Beth
unfolded the bundle, shock seizing her.  A familiar classic car parked at
In-n-Out
drive-in looked up at her from her t-shirt, and underneath it were her grey
sweats.  Knitting her brows together in confusion she stood, almost losing
the blanket in the process.  She clapped her arms back down on the blanket
and looked up expecting to see William standing there with his intolerable
self-pleased expression.  Instead, he stood several yards away with his
back to her, at the open tailgate of Les's truck, slightly bent over, doing
something with his hands.  Marching over, she stopped just inches away and
brandished her gym clothes at him.

"What
are these?"

"I
believe that would be your dirty laundry,
sweetheart
."  He
didn't look at her.  He seemed to be totally engrossed with choosing a
hook out of his tackle box.

Beth
swallowed, ignoring his comment.  "Yes," she paused, and then
slowly articulated, "but how did you get them?"

His
eyes did not deviate from the pink play-dough he pinched onto the hook, and he
didn't respond.

"William?"

He
began rummaging for something else in his tackle box, then pulled out some
pliers and paused with them in front of Beth's lips, as if wanting to pinch her
mouth shut.  "I walked."  He blinked and went back to his
fish hook.

"You
walked.  You walked
all the way
back to the ravine, and then
somehow managed to get in and back out without breaking
your
ankle.  I see.  And how did you get into my truck?  It was
locked!" She had finished with more force than intended, as if his
breaking into her truck had canceled out his altruistic measures.

"The
keys were in your backpack."

As she
opened her mouth to retort, the realization of what he had done wiped it from
her lips.  She thought she must look like a fish standing there with its
mouth open, waiting for him to snag her cheek with his hook.

"You
can thank me later, Beth," he said, glancing casually at her face and then
giving his full attention back to his hook.  "Now, why don't you go
put some pants on?  It's a little distracting."

Beth
watched him in silence with a disturbed expression.  She should walk away
now, but her hiking boots had become super glue, cementing her to the muddy
ground.  When she didn't move, he put down his hook and pliers and turned
to face her, like a parent calmly de-escalating his child's tantrum.

"Yes?"

Beth
couldn't speak.  Images of what had taken place shuffled around in her
mind - the early hour he would have gotten up to hike all the way back to the
truck; the thick mud that would have made the trek more difficult; his
rummaging in her truck to find the clothes she had mentioned; her haughtiness
when he came striding back into camp, his mission accomplished.

A
mouthful of humble pie was making it impossible to speak, though she wanted to
thank him.  After hesitating a moment, and then trying and failing to
speak again, she stood on tip-toe and brushed a kiss on his cheek.  She
could not bring herself to look at him now, and her eyes dropped to the ground
as she turned away.

Les
looked up when Beth entered the tent in William's blanket, and simply smiled at
her like nothing was amiss.  Leaning over Jenna with a hand on her
forehead, he seemed to be checking for a fever.  Jenna, awake but still
lying down, looked weak and tired, and was clearly in pain.  After
pressing a concerned kiss to Jenna's forehead, Les politely excused himself -
presumably so Beth could dress.  The clothes William had retrieved from
Beth's truck were cold but dry.  Beth remembered throwing them hurriedly
in her truck with the intention of hitting the gym earlier in the week. 
Luckily her experimental psychology lab had gone long and she hadn't made
it. 
Way to find the silver lining,
she told herself.

"How
did you sleep last night?" she asked Jenna, folding herself into a sitting
position beside her.

"Okay,
I guess."  Jenna always downplayed her own discomfort, so Beth knew
she hadn't slept much, if at all.

"Does
your ankle hurt?" While she asked this, Beth unzipped Jenna's sleeping bag
to assess the damage.  Her ankle was swollen, and some faint bruising was
trying to surface.

"It
hurts."  If Jenna was admitting pain, then it must be much worse than
she was letting on.  "Are those your gym clothes?" Jenna asked,
sidetracked.

Beth
blushed a little at her prior indignation toward William, and she blushed a lot
when their parting scene passed in front of her eyes.  She said in a small
voice, "He walked to the truck and got them."

Jenna
opened her eyes, which were paler than usual, and raised her head
slightly.  Then a confused scowl creased her forehead.  "He
did?"  The question hung in the air for a moment before Jenna's head
dropped heavily back to her pillow and she closed her eyes again. 
"Huh."

"Yeah,
pretty much."

A
silent moment passed with no response from Jenna, so Beth pushed on.

"I
just don't get him, Jenna.  One moment he seems genuinely concerned - even
considerate.  The next he's pompous and self-righteous.  It's
so…..Jekyll and Hyde."

"We
haven't known him that long, Beth.  Maybe he's just a little shy."

"Then
why does he provoke me all the time?"  Beth wasn't really looking for
an answer.  She had to laugh about the scene that played out earlier, so
she took the subject to a new level as she changed clothes.  "Well,
anyway, I took you up on that dare from yesterday."

"Dare?"

"I
kissed him."

Jenna's
eyes popped open, and she propped herself up on one elbow.  "
You
…..kissed…..
him?
"
she repeated slowly.  "Details."

"Don't
get excited Jenna, it wasn't like that.  It's just that I wasn't very nice
to him this morning, and when he brought me the clothes I felt really bad. 
I couldn't bring myself to say thank you after all the times he's cut my legs
out from under me."

"So,
where did you kiss him?" Jenna asked this shyly so as not to appear too
eager for the juicy details.

"We
were standing by Les's truck," Beth answered distractedly.

"No…..I
mean where on
him
," Jenna clarified.

"Oh. 
Just on the cheek."  Beth suddenly felt the need to busy herself with
folding William's flannel blanket, aiming to appear unconcerned with the fact
that she had shared a painstakingly intimate moment with her nemesis.

"What
did he do?"

"I
didn't stick around to find out.  Just a little embarrassing, standing
there in his blanket waiting for a reaction."  Beth was mortified by
the memory once again, and  unsettled by the fact that her confession did
not bring the comic relief she had been seeking.  In fact, it didn't make
her laugh at all.  She decided to turn her full attention to Jenna, who
still watched her with wide eyes.

"Are
you hungry or anything?"

"A
little.  Mostly I just want to go home."  Jenna turned onto her
side and nuzzled down further into her sleeping bag.

"At
least you got to sleep next to Les," Beth said, a teasing smile creeping
across her lips.  "I guarantee you were warmer than me." 
An image of herself flashed in her mind, being encircled in William's
arms. 
Where did that come from?
  She scolded herself,
appalled that such an idea could exist anywhere, let alone her own head. 
Brushing the thought away, she folded William's shirt and placed it on his
blanket.

"I'll
be back, Jenna.  I'm going to see what there is to eat, and get you some
Tylenol or something."  Jenna started to protest, insisting that she
was neither hungry nor in pain, and didn't want to be a burden.

"Whatever. 
I think Les is pretty glad you sprained your ankle."  Beth smiled
hopelessly at Jenna and smoothed her golden hair with her fingers. 
"Stay," she warned as she unzipped the tent and stepped outside.

Kara
and Lucy sat at an old picnic table that must've been red at one time. 
The paint was cracked and peeling, and Kara had a disgusted look plastered on
her face.  The camp chairs were all puddled with rain, and the picnic
table was the only place to sit.  Kara and Lucy grumpily jabbed at a large
pile of crumbs.  Les stood next to his truck, talking to a man in a khaki
uniform and looking concerned.  Beth noticed that William was absent from
the scene, and it bothered her that she noticed.