He's ashamed to admit how long it actually took him to notice that something is wrong.
Granted, Lizzie was always very careful to keep work life and personal life as separate as possible. At first it was rather difficult; Lizzie was firm in her refusal to be handed a job at Pemberley on a silver platter, but that didn't mean she wasn't willing to accept some help in the embryonic stages of her company's development. In fact, the first months of their relationship were filled with more business and less romance than William might have liked, but he was patient and supportive and as helpful as he could possibly be, because he knew that the sooner Mansfield Media got on its feet, the sooner their lives could truly begin.
It was quite possible, William reflected, that Lizzie had noticed his slight impatience (although he tried hard to hide it—Lizzie had enough to worry about without fearing he didn't support her) and perhaps that was why as soon as Mansfield Media began consistently making profit (right after their one-year anniversary,) Lizzie had laid down the line between work and home.
"We can ask each about our day, and mope and moan as much as we like, but I forbid discussions about investors that go past names and annoying quirks."
William, though happy that their time spent together would no longer be filled with teleconferences and quarterly reviews, was suddenly overcome with a wave of disappointment. He had grown used to spending both his free hours and his work hours with Lizzie—more than anything it was what had made it feel like he belonged in her life, and that she wanted to spend time with him as much as he wanted to spend time with her. Nevertheless, it was their one-year anniversary, and William decided that on their anniversaries Lizzie's word was law. So he smiled and pulled her into his arms for a kiss.
"I'd like that very much."
Still, after knowing and loving Lizzie for over four years, he should have picked up on something. He should have realized she was coming home past 7 o'clock every night, more often then not on the phone with either her secretary or one of her investors. He should have noticed how quiet she had become on their lunch dates when they met at a coffee shop in the middle of the day because they couldn't stand being apart for a full workday. He should have seen how long she spent on the phone every night with either Jane or Lydia or Charlotte, or sometimes all three. He should have noticed something.
It didn't help that when he finally did realize something was wrong, Lizzie stubbornly refused to share.
"Lizzie, something is going on. What can I do to help?"
"Nothing, William. You are wonderful, and I love you, and you don't need to help me with this."
"Lizzie, is it something at Mansfield Media? And investor that is giving you a hard time? And employee? A competing company?"
"Shh, William," she said, leaning over and kissing his nose lightly, "no work-talk at the dinner table."
"Lizzie, you've been acting off for weeks now. Can you please tell me what's going on?"
"Shh, no work-talk in the bedroom."
And then she would kiss him gently and somehow, wonderfully, even after over four years of kisses and caresses, it would still make him forget about everything else that was going on and the world around him would disappear—what could possibly be wrong when he had Lizzie?
But something was wrong, and he finally got it out of her by threatening to buy her a huge sapphire necklace as an anniversary/29th birthday present to match the dress Jane had given her when she turned. She sighed, then turned to face him and laced her hands around his neck before saying, "Ok, fine. You win. Something is wrong." Her grip tightened, sending a shiver down William's spin as he fought to concentrate on her words instead of her hands. "But William you have to promise me something."
"Anything."
"I've seen you play the superhero. I've seen you spring into action when a villain appears and spend sleepless night working tirelessly until he has been vanquished. But William, this is my problem. And just because I'm telling you about it doesn't mean I want help solving it. Agreed?"
"Agreed. But Lizzie, now you're making me nervous." Reluctantly, he reached up and took her hands, holding them in his own. "Please tell me what's wrong?"
Lizzie grimaced. "Well, I suppose you could say I've…hit a glass ceiling."
"How do you mean?"
She rubbed her temples. "It might take some time to explain, William. Are you sure you want to hear this?"
He laughed in disbelief. "Elizabeth Bennet, you can't be serious! You have a problem you need to deal with and, if I remember correctly, I believe we decided several years ago that your problems are my problems, and vice versa. Now I don't mean I'm going to wrest control from you and solve everything myself," he continued, silencing the protest he saw in her eyes, "but I want to be there for you. Please let me be there for you."
She paused, and then nodded slowly. "So what do you mean by a glass ceiling?" he asked again.
"Do you remember a year ago, when I signed the deal with that guy from England who had patented a new type of gel touch-screen for phones?"
"Of course. That was an incredible deal. You even broke your own rule to tell me about it."
Lizzie grinned at the slight dig, but the smile quickly faded. "Well…that guy is my most recent investor."
"You mean you haven't had a new investor in…" William pulled out his calendar and did some quick calculations, "…fifteen months? Lizzie how is that possible? Mansfield Media is doing incredibly well!"
"Yes, it really is! Mansfield Media is still going strong. The problem is, it hasn't gotten any stronger in over a year. Apparently, I've reached the point where my company can no longer expand."
William shook his head. "I still don't understand how that is possible. Despite its success in the past four years, Mansfield Media is still only around one-fifth the size of Pemberley Digital, and Pemberley still manages to improve profit by an average of 20% each year—" He stopped abruptly, and Lizzie winced in anticipation of what she knew was coming next. Her boyfriend was a smart man. He was going to figure it out eventually.
"Lizzie…is Pemberley stealing all of your potential investors?"