8. Chapter 8 #2
I considered telling Mary just how much money Charles donated to various charities, including local and international food banks, but I decided not to engage with her and her judgment.
Besides, that would give the mother more information to spread about Charles, and he didn’t like bragging about his philanthropy.
We walked up the staircase and through the long hall to the guest bedroom Jane had been staying in.
I knocked and waited until she called “come in” before opening the door.
The Bennets squeezed through the door and into the room first and Jack and I followed.
He took his place between me and the Bennets, watching them closely.
Charles sat by Jane’s bed, apparently having just finished a healing session, and Elizabeth sat on the other side, her hair pulled up in a messy bun. Her eyes widened when she saw her family. “What are you all doing here?”
“We wanted to see the house,” the youngest sister said at the same time Mrs. Bennet murmured, “We came to check on Jane, of course.”
“Like you hadn’t just had a video chat with her earlier this morning,” Elizabeth mumbled.
Mrs. Bennet ignored her. “These large windows are nice, although the room certainly could use a woman’s touch, couldn’t it, Jane?”
To their credit, Jane and Elizabeth looked mortified.
“I’m so pleased you came,” Charles said, and Mrs. Bennet beamed at him.
I cleared my throat. “Well, I won’t keep you from your visit.”
Jack followed me out and closed the door behind us. “Well, they’re the worst,” Jack said. Somehow, that made me feel a bit better as we headed back to the dining room.
Jack resumed reading and I put my illusion back up and resolved to stop staring at him and get serious about finalizing those design decisions.
I gave it my best effort for most of the afternoon, but he kept doing distracting things like resting one hand on his face while adopting a thoughtful expression and smiling at whatever was happening in his book.
I’d just torn my eyes away from the sight of him absently grazing his fingers along his perfect hairline when the younger Bennet sisters “got lost on their way to the bathroom” and gawked at the kitchen. Jack straightened and watched them carefully until they went back to Jane’s room.
“I don’t think any of the Bennets are going to try to kill me,” I said.
He shrugged. “Maybe not. But your sister tried to kill their sister. I’m not about to let my guard down around them.”
A heaviness settled on my heart. Why did Louisa do it? Trying to kill my perceived rival seemed so far from the caring—though overprotective—sister that I loved.
An alert from my phone notified me that Sydney sent over the guest list from the party. I stood and reached toward the ceiling, stretching out my back. Jack stood, too. “Are you done with your work?”
“No, but I want to go over this guest list with one of Charles’s guards.
” I wasn’t sure where he’d be, but Netherfield had a way of leading me to where I needed to go, so I led the way down the hallway until a heavy wooden door swung open in front of us.
We followed it through a corridor and into a room I hadn’t been in before.
It was a sort of lounge with deep couches, a massive TV, and an adjoining kitchen.
Diego, a lesser fae with dark hair and the most fabulous tan, lounged on a chair. He stood when I approached and Jack pulled out a chair for me. I gestured for them both to sit. “Hey, Diego.”
“Hey, Caroline. You okay?”
“I’m good, thanks. I’ve got a question for you. Did you happen to work the reveal party?”
“Yeah. I’m sorry about what happened.”
“Me too, that was awful.” I handed him the guest list. “These are the invitations that went out, but I’m sure Charles invited more people. I’m trying to figure out who the victim was.”
“He instructed us not to turn anyone away from the party even if they weren’t on the guest list, but we did take down the names of the people who showed up uninvited.
” He reached for a tablet sitting on a console table and pulled up a file.
“The two people we let in without invitations were Reginald McFarland and Genevieve Charbonet.”
“Thanks. Do you know if they came together?”
He glanced at the tablet. “They did.”
“Thanks, Diego.”
“My pleasure, Miss Bingley.”
Jack and I walked back toward the dining room. “Geneveive might be our gal,” I said.
“Should we contact the police to try to confirm?”
“No, I don’t want to work with the cops. I’ll see what Sydney can find out.” I texted her the name and asked her to find out what she could about Geneveive and if she was our victim. Sydney replied that she was out shopping for the Ponvale project but that she’d check it out later tonight.
Satisfied with my progress on the case, I threw myself back into my work and tried to ignore the Bennet sisters, but loud laughter rang out from the hallway and I pinched the bridge of my nose.
“Let’s get out of here,” Jack said. “You’ve been working for hours and these ladies show no signs they’re in a hurry to leave.
I felt the tension drain from my shoulders. “You’re right, I’m never going to get any work done here. Where should we go?”
“I took the liberty of asking Sydney what you do to unwind.”
“Oh? And what did she tell you?”
“That I should take you to Club Meryton.”
The tension in my body eased at the mere mention of a night out. “I’m in. Give me thirty minutes to get dressed,” I said. “And I want you in all black.”
“I’ll give you four times that long, because I know you’re going to take it anyway,” he laughed.
I pressed a hand to my chest in a show of innocence.
“Anyway, it’s only 4:00 now. Meryton doesn’t open until 6:00. You get ready and I’ll order in dinner. What sounds good to you?” Jack asked.
“Pizza. There’s a place on main street I like, The Saucy Pig .”
“Cool, I’ll call them.” We turned the corner and I almost ran into Darcy, but Jack snatched me back just in time to prevent the collision. His eyes met mine with an unspoken question, Do you want me to go?
I gave him a tight nod and he gently squeezed my shoulder before leaving me with Darcy. I took a deep breath. Now was as good a time as any to get this conversation over with. “Darcy, can I talk to you for a minute?”’
“Of course.” He smoothed back his shaggy dark hair from his face. Was he as nervous to have this conversation as I was?
He followed me into the library where we sat in two wingback leather chairs that faced each other over a checkers board. It was one of our favorite childhood pastimes, and we were evenly matched enough that our games could get intense.
I chose the red checkers and made the first move. “I just wanted to say that I’m so sorry about Louisa—for what she did and what she tried to do.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” he said gently, capturing one of my checkers.
“I’m sorry anyway. If my life hadn’t been such a mess, maybe she wouldn't have felt like she needed to fix it for me.”
He shook his head. “I don’t blame you for any of it.”
Darcy didn’t lie and he wouldn’t sugarcoat his opinion. He’d often told me things I didn’t want to hear over the years, but in doing so he’d gained my trust. If he said he didn’t blame me, I could believe him. A weight eased from my chest, but I had more I needed to say to him.
We played in silence for a few minutes while I worked up the courage for part two of this conversation. Darcy would wait until I was ready to speak—it was one of my favorite things about him. When he’d taken six of my checkers and I’d taken seven of his, I cleared my throat.
“About that love potion—I wouldn’t have wanted it to work.”
He moved a checker to the end of the board and I crowned it while the words spilled out of me. “For one thing, I want to be loved authentically, not because a potion forces it.”
He looked up and opened his mouth to speak, but I didn’t give him the chance before continuing.
“And I don’t have feelings like that for you.
” I resisted the urge to slip a glamour over my face to hide how my cheeks burned with humiliation, but I wanted him to see my sincerity.
“I did have a massive crush on you years ago, which is why Louisa thought making you love me would help me get over Winston and everything that happened. But just to be clear and so there’s not any more awkwardness between us, I truly value your friendship and that is all I want from you. ”
Relief washed over his face and my cheeks burned hotter. He must have believed I was lovesick over him all this time.
“You are a good friend to me, Caroline,” he said. “And I care a lot about you. You’re one of my closest friends.”
The moment dragged on for a few seconds too long before I remembered it was my turn to make a move. I captured another one of his checkers as I blurted out, “I’m making progress on the case.”
“Are you still interested in that?” He looked impressed, which was both flattering and offensive.
“Yes, I’m still interested, it happened at my event, remember? I feel partly responsible.”
“I see. I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help when it happened. The police chief has promised to update me if they find any information.” He captured one of my checkers, but he’d opened himself up for me to take two of his, leaving him with only his king.
“What do they know now?”
“Just that the victim was impersonating you, and that she was bludgeoned on the back of the head by an object that left a mark in an odd pattern—interlocking triangles. There was no such item at the crime scene.”
My stomach dropped. The Celtic knot that had been so perfect for the breakfast room—someone had murdered her with it.
Darcy moved his last piece across the board and it clicked as he moved it from square to square, capturing the last of my pieces.
I groaned. I hadn’t played that poorly in a long time, but my loss was a worthy trade for the restoration of our friendship. I felt so much better.
I stood and shook Darcy’s hand across the table with mock sincerity.
“Good game,” he said. “By the way, have you seen…” He cleared his throat. “Charles?”
“He’s in Jane’s room with all the Bennets. They came to gawk over the house so they could start deciding how they want to change it once Charles marries Jane and they all move in.”
Darcy shook his head. “They’re not even subtle about it, are they?”
“No, they’re awful. Especially the mother, she’s the worst.”
“Jane is sweet though, and her sister Elizabeth is… also agreeable.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Agreeable? All the two of you seem to do is disagree .”
“Yes, well, I do enjoy debating with her. She’s quite clever. And I’ll admit, every time she’s in the room I’m drawn to her very fine eyes. Though her family is troubling.” He frowned. “Maybe I should go in there and give Charles a reprieve.”
“I’d say he’s perfectly content right where he is.”
“You don’t think Jane is stringing him along, do you?”
I considered it. “I don’t know. Her family… just make sure Charles gets a prenup.”
Darcy’s eyes widened. “You don’t actually think he’d marry her, do you?”
“I’ve never seen him this enamored before.”
“He needs to be careful,” Darcy said, more to himself than to me. “First Georgianna, then you…” He shook his head. “I’ve seen too many people I care about get hurt because of someone who was only after their money and position.”
I nodded. “I don’t want to see Charles hurt, either. We’ll watch out for him.”
His expression darkened. “Maybe what we need is to get him away from here before he makes a mistake. Before we both do.”
“Maybe. I’ll think on it.” I said goodbye to him and was halfway up the stairs to my room before I realized that Darcy had meant he was in danger, too. Maybe he was more serious about Elizabeth than I’d thought.
Seventy-five minutes later, I emerged from my room in a silver minidress with matching Prada heels.
Jack lounged against the wall, looking at his phone, but he stuck it in his pocket when he saw me.
True to my instructions, he wore all black, and if I didn’t know better, I’d say he was wearing Armani.
But it must be a clever knock off. Regardless of where he got his clothes, he looked amazing.
“I think I’m ready for that night off now,” he said, admiring me from head to toe. “Because you are definitely too hot to work for tonight.”