Chapter 24
On Friday morning Lizzie woke up late again, and Will had left for work already, but he'd got Georgiana up and settled before he'd left, allowing her the luxury of a sleep in. She meandered down the hall to check on Georgiana, who was enraptured by the slushy midday movie, before continuing downstairs to make some breakfast, even if it was lunchtime. She opened the fridge and started looking for some vegetables to make a frittata.
"As adorable as I find those pyjamas on you Lizzie, I don't think they'd be appropriate attire for tonight," Darcy's voice said, surprising her. Lizzie let out a little yelp and dropped the tub of butter she was holding. She quickly ducked to retrieve it before spinning to face him.
"I thought you were at work!" she exclaimed.
"I was," he smirked, "But I came home early, you do know that it's almost one o'clock don't you?" he teased, gesturing to her attire.
Lizzie gave him a great big eye roll and returned to gathering the frittata ingredients. She was just putting the carton of eggs on the bench when she comprehended his words.
"Wait," she said, "What did you just say about tonight?"
He laughed, from where he was now sitting at the kitchen counter watching her.
"You haven't forgotten about the dinner party for Mr. and Mrs. Annesley have you?" he asked, his tone was teasing, but she was stumped, in fact, she had completely forgotten about the Annesley's party.
"Um… yes?" she said, making it sound like a question, "I've hardly looked at my planner this week since I haven't had meetings,"
Darcy chuckled,
"Well, it's a good thing I'm here to remind you then!" he said, "It's the Annesley's Anniversary Dinner Party tonight, and I don't think your cupcake pyjamas would be suitable, as usual, it is a black tie event." His eyes were twinkling with humour but Lizzie's countenance dropped. The Annesley's annual anniversary party, which not only celebrated their marriage but was also a major fundraiser for SUFA, was always delightful, and it disappointed her that she would miss it this year.
"Well, it hardly matters, I mean, you have to go, it's more important for you to go than me, and someone has to stay with Georgiana, maybe Charlie will go with you" she said.
"Oh, no" He argued, "You are going, we're going together, just like we always do, Mrs. Annesley loves you, if you aren't there I'll never be forgiven!" He joked. His gazed sobered and met hers "Besides, do you really think I'd go without you, when at long last, we can actually enjoy going to this thing together?" He asked, his voice quiet, "I've taken care of Gigi."
"What?" she asked, she didn't miss the implication in his voice.
"Your sisters and Charlie are going to spend the evening here, I saw Katie at the office and asked if she'd like to spend some time with Georgiana, she agreed, but given the Wickham situation and not letting anyone go anywhere alone, Jane and Charlie will be here too. Although, I imagine they will spend most of their night making out on the sofa," he chuckled, "Not that I blame them," his eyes twinkled, both of their minds turning to their own time spent on the sofa last night.
Lizzie stared at him for a long moment before another thought crossed her mind,
"I don't have a dress!" she cried, and before he could say another word she dashed from the kitchen and up the stairs, taking them two at a time.
"Relax Lizzie," Jane said to her on the phone a few minutes later, "Will already called. Katie and I are bringing you an outfit."
"Oh, you're a life saver Jane!" Lizzie exclaimed, relieved.
"And don't you forget it," her sister laughed, "So what's going on with you two anyway? Have you made any leeway?" she asked.
Lizzie's silence was answer enough.
"Oh, Lizzie, you haven't slept with him again have you?" Jane asked,
"Wow Jane, nice to know how you feel about this situation," Lizzie retorted, rolling her eyes.
"Liz…" Jane said,
"No, Jane, I haven't. Give me some credit! Gosh, I thought you wanted me and Darcy to get together!"
"I do," she admitted, "But that doesn't mean I want you to rush into things! I don't want either of you to get hurt."
Lizzie didn't respond to that,
"When are you coming over?" she asked instead.
"After Charlie and Katie pick me up, they're leaving the office at four, so go wash your hair." She paused, "And don't think you won't be telling me all about you and Will!" she added, at which point Lizzie hung up.
Lizzie was in her room doing her hair up when not Jane, but her younger sister entered the room, holding a garment bag, small duffle and a pair of strappy shoes hanging off the fingers of one hand.
"I think you should wear it down," Katie said, placing everything on the bed and coming to join Lizzie at the mirror.
"You hardly ever wear it down, and you have beautiful hair Lizzie, I should know, it's just like mine," she teased.
"Cute," Lizzie replied, nudging her sister.
"Here, let me," Katie said, moving her hands to Lizzie's head and starting to pull out the pins that she'd put in.
Lizzie did rarely wear her hair fully down, it was quite long and Lizzie often felt like it go in her way, so at work she usually pinned it up, at home she tied it back. For tonight she'd planned to pin it up in piles, but Katie had other ideas.
After she'd removed the pins, she brushed Lizzie's long brown locks out and withdrew a curling iron from the duffle bag on the bed and plugged it in.
"You planned this all out didn't you," Lizzie laughed, watching her in the mirror.
"Of course I did, trust me Lizzie, I've been a slave to Lydia's appearance for years, I know what I'm doing here," she teased.
"I thought you liked playing dress up with Lydia," Lizzie said, to which Katie shrugged.
"I guess I did, sort of, but the favour was never fully returned with her, she'd never put the effort into helping me that I'd put in to helping her, anyway, I guess I've grown out of it now," she paused, preparing herself with the curling iron, "Now I can just play dress up when it pleases me, like it does now, so shut up and let me work my magic," Lizzie laughed, then made the gesture of zipping her lips.
Katie made a great effort to curl Lizzie's hair into loose ringlets and sweeping her fringe to the side, using plenty of hairspray to make it all stay put.
"Now, for the makeup," Katie said as she switched off the curling iron.
"Don't go overboard, please," Lizzie begged,
"How many times do I have to tell you that I know what I'm doing," Katie admonished, spinning Lizzie around in her chair to face her, "Trust my brilliance,"
"I do," Lizzie said as her sister started applying creams and powders to her face,
"Where's Jane?" Lizzie asked once Katie was focussing her attention on eye shadow, "Why isn't she helping?"
"She's downstairs," Katie replied, "She wanted to help, but I wouldn't let her. Honestly, you should have seen the dress she wanted to bring you!"
"Wait, what dress did you bring me?" Lizzie asked cautiously.
"A great one," she replied "Black, classic. Anyway I decided that I would be the best person to make you look stunning, and blow Darcy's mind,"
"Kate…" Lizzie warned,
"What?" She interrupted "You want to pretend like you don't want to? Fine, I know the truth. Have you guys made up yet?"
Lizzie was silent, shying away from Katie's gaze.
"Thought so," she laughed, but she didn't push for any more information, instead applying a thin layer of rouge lip gloss. Not long after that, Katie declared that she was ready.
"Let's get your dress on," she said, retrieving the garment bag and pushing it into Lizzie hands.
"I'll be back in a minute," she said, turning to leave so that Lizzie could change. She didn't make it out of the room though before Lizzie shrieked and stopped her.
"KATIE!" she cried, "I can't wear this! I don't even know why I own this!" Lizzie said, she'd unzipped the bag and almost died when she recognised the dress. She couldn't wear this in front of Darcy!
"You can wear it, and you will, at the very least because it's your only choice." Katie replied, "And you own it, because it's gorgeous, and you should wear it, a dress like that should not be wasted. Now put it on!"
With that, she fled the room, and Lizzie relented, with no option but to put on the dress.
It was a good thing that Katie hadn't put any blush on her, because right now, looking at herself in the mirror, Lizzie was blushing enough as it was.
God, this dress, Lizzie admitted it was gorgeous, but she'd never had the confidence to wear it.
It was a full length black gown with a halter style neck and a plunging neckline. There was a sash tied around the waist in the same fabric, but what made Lizzie so uneasy, was the fact that the dress was completely backless.
"Stunning!" her sisters voice broke her embarrassed contemplation.
"Katie, I'm going to a work function, with my boss, I can't wear this dress," Lizzie complained.
"Au contraire, ma chérie!" Katie exclaimed, utilising the minimal French she remembered from high school, "Going out with Darcy is exactly the reason you should wear it. He won't be able to keep his hands off you."
She brought her shoes over, Lizzie sat to put them on and Katie resprayed her hair. Then she passed her a pair of earrings and a diamante tennis bracelet.
"There, now you're all set," Katie said, "And it's almost time for you to leave, you'd better go and find your date." She teased, and then disappeared down the hall.
"He's not my…" she called after her, trailing off until the word "date" was uttered quietly under her breath, but Katie was right, she did need to find him, date or not.
Lizzie collected her things into the clutch purse Katie had left on her bed and exited her room onto the landing.
"Will?" she called out, standing in the hall.
"Yeah?" she heard his voice respond, he was in his bedroom.
"I'm ready…" she called back, taking a step closer to his door, from her angle, she couldn't see much inside the room except for the head of the bed.
"Okay, uh… hang on…" he said, sounding distracted. She took the last step to the door and rounded the frame, standing inside his room for the first time.
He was facing away from her, standing in front of a full length mirror by the wardrobe. He was wearing a black suit over a white dress shirt and dark grey waistcoat and struggling with the matching bow tie around his neck. Lizzie chuckled, drawing his attention, his eyes flicked up and caught sight of her in the mirror, and he froze.
"Need some help?" she asked, taking a few steps towards him, she was standing before him moments later, after dropping her clutch on the foot of his bed. She reached up and started to tie it for him. Their fingers brushing together until he eventually dropped his hands to his side, letting her take over.
"Lizzie," he breathed, "You look stunning," he uttered.
"There you go," she said, dropping her hands, his bow tie was now sitting straight and perfect at his collar.
"I mean it," he said, holding her hand. "You're beautiful,"
"Thanks," she blushed, shying away she turned her head sideways her eye line falling on Darcy's dresser, dark wood and sparse but for a flash of colour, red and silver, and familiar.
"My mask!" she exclaimed, dropping Darcy's hand and stepping over to the dresser, she picked it up.
"You've had it all this time?" she asked, turning to face him, only to find him standing right behind her.
"Yeah," he said, "Sorry, I meant to return it but never found the opportunity and then it just sort of, became a part of the room." He admitted shyly, sort of ashamed he'd kept her things for this long.
"I have this too," he said, stepping over to the wardrobe, he opened it and withdrew a hanger holding her ball gown from the benefit.
"I thought I'd lost them," she admitted, taking the dress and laying in on the bed. She still held the mask, "I was too scared to ask you because I didn't want to bring up what… happened." She said.
"And I didn't want to remind of you something you clearly regretted. I didn't want you to regret it…" His sentence trailed off. After a moment he recovered himself.
"Anyway, take them back, I never meant to keep them this long," he said.
"Thanks for looking after them," she said, collecting her things, they went into the hall together and Lizzie opened the door to her room to put her things away.
"I'll meet you downstairs," he said, leaning over and pressing a soft kiss on her cheek, before he walked down the hall towards the stairs.
She hung her dress and put her mask on her own dresser, taking a moment to remember the last time she'd worn it, and how the man had removed it from her and placed it so gently aside. She'd thought about that night often, she'd thought about the passionate lovemaking, she'd thought about the pleasure she'd felt, she'd thought about the aftermath… but she'd never thought about his tender gentleness. She felt herself shiver and turned away from the dresser, checking herself over once more in the mirror before leaving the room.
She stepped in Georgiana's room on her way downstairs to make sure she was all set for the night and say goodbye. Katie was with her, sitting in the small armchair that was positioned by the bed. The moment she entered the girls both looked up and Lizzie was met with a wolf whistle from Georgiana.
"You were right Katie, she does look hot!"
"Damn straight," Katie giggled, "So, how did Will like it?" she asked.
"Oh stop it," Lizzie said with a laugh, not willing to give Katie the satisfaction of being right, even though she knew she was.
Lizzie said her goodnights and left the room, heading downstairs to meet Darcy who was waiting for her in the foyer with Jane and Charlie. After several long minutes of Jane's exclamations of how amazing she looked, and how handsome Darcy was, and how wonderful they looked together Charlie finally reined her in and they were able to leave, Darcy held her hand as she descended the few steps from the front door and handed her into the town car he'd hired, closing her door, he legged it around the car and got in the other side, taking her hand between them on the seat, he gestured for the driver to head off, they were both nervous with the anticipation of the evening.
They rode in silence for the first half of the journey to central London, where the Annesley's were holding their function in one of the more prestigious hotels. It was as they approached the city center that Darcy broke the silence, squeezing the hand he'd been gently stroking for the past several minutes.
"I spoke to Detective Bridges today," he said, drawing Lizzie from her silent contemplation.
"Oh? What did he say?" She asked, facing him.
"Much of the same, the evidence confirms his theory that Gigi was run off the road, but they can't find the other car, several of its description were reported stolen around then, so they can't figure out which one it was. He's been working with Detective Ryan, on your case too." He paused, and let out breath, "They can't find neither hide nor hair of Wickham and think that he must have left town." He said, relaying the information from his earlier conversation.
"So have they stopped looking?" Lizzie asked, dejected that Wickham was going to get away with the things he'd done.
"No, they're still looking, but where ever he's gone, he's covered his tracks well. It doesn't surprise me." Darcy said, he didn't sound angry or upset like Lizzie thought he would, he sounded sort of bored, as if this was a story he'd heard too many times before.
"He's never had to own up to his actions, has he?" She asked, cluing in to what he was thinking. He shook his head as confirmation and she sighed.
"Well, at least he didn't do any permanent damage," she conceded.
"No, we were lucky." He agreed, "But now that it looks like he's out of the picture, I was thinking we could make that trip to Pemberley?" He asked. She looked surprised at his question.
"I haven't got any big meetings next week, and with you out of the office anyway the timing is pretty good. We could have Charlie and Jane come and join us over the weekend." He said, shrugging as if it was no big deal, but Lizzie could tell he'd been thinking about it a lot. She'd be surprised if he hadn't already extended the invitation to her sister and their friend.
"We could go up Monday, Jane and Charlie could join us on Friday night and we could all come back on Sunday afternoon. Katie could come to if she'd like, but I got the impression that with work and school about to start that she'd be quite busy,"
"She's doing some short summer classes right now," Lizzie answered, "But she'd be thrilled at your thinking of her."
"Of course," he said, they were drawing up to the hotel now, the town car turned a corner and they could see it ahead.
"Well it sounds good," Lizzie replied in the little time they had left, "I'm looking forward to it," She smiled and he returned it,
"Me too," he said quietly as the car pulled up at the front of the hotel, the driver was out and opening the doors for Lizzie so Darcy rushed around to hand her out like a gentleman should, then took her arm in his and led her up the stairs into the foyer. Finally, he was spending an evening out, alone, with Lizzie. Even if they were technically at a work function, the Annesley Anniversary Party, with its fine food and elegant décor and slow dancing, was a pretty great first date in his books. He looked forward to wooing Lizzie that way he'd always wished her could, now that he finally had the chance.