Chapter 30

It was Wednesday morning and Lizzie was hiding in one of the downstairs sitting rooms, perched on a love seat, laptop open in front of her. She was facing the windows, so didn't notice as the door slowly, and silently, swung open and someone tiptoed into the room behind her. She was concentrated on the screen in front of her, when,

"RARRR!" Richard screamed, grabbing her shoulders and scaring her senseless, she almost fell out of her chair.

"RICH!" She cried, picking herself up again, "What are you doing?"

"I'm borrrrrred, Lizzie!" He complained, jumping over the back of the love seat to sit beside her, Lizzie rolled her eyes.

"You're a big boy Rich, I'm sure you could find some way to occupy yourself,"

"But what if I want you to occupy me?" He asked, waggling his eyebrows. She snorted, and turned back to her computer.

"Then you're out of luck Rich, I'm busy," she said, he leaned across and peered at her screen.

"Work?" He exclaimed, spying the spreadsheets she had been looking at, "That's against the rules, Missy. No work at Pemberley. Does Darcy know you're working?" he asked, taking her computer away.

"No, he doesn't. That's why I'm hiding. I have to do something Rich," she snatched her computer back, "And don't you think that I don't know what Darcy is doing when he locks himself away in his study every morning,"

"Why, whatever do you mean?" Rich asked, feigning ignorance, and doing to poorly.

Lizzie just gave him a look that said 'you don't fool me' and Rich laughed, but said nothing. Lizzie turned back to her work while Richard sat beside her, twiddling his thumbs.

"Stop staring at me," she muttered, about ten minutes later. When he was still staring at her a minute later, she snapped her head around to look at him and was instantly cautious of the cheeky grin he wore on his face.

"What?" she asked warily.

"Oh, nothing," he lied, biting his lip to stop from giggling like a school girl.

"Don't you lie to me Rich, what are you smiling for?" she asked again, putting her laptop aside and turning to face him.

He was silent another few seconds, still gnawing on his lip until he couldn't contain himself any longer. A huge smile lit his face, as he burst.

"You like Darcy!" he trilled, breaking down into giggles. Lizzie rolled her eyes.

"Oh my god, is that honestly why you came in here?!" she exclaimed.

"You're not denying it!" He cried.

"Is there even a point in denying it?" Lizzie asked, knowing she was spoiling his fun by not playing coy. He pouted, for a split second, and then laughed again.

"Nope! Because I saw you!" he mock whispered.

"Saw me where?" She mimicked him.

"Saw you coming out of his bedroom!" Rich cried, leaping up and out of her arms reach before she could hit him.

She looked stricken, he realized, and suddenly he felt bad for teasing her.

"It's... we're not..." she sighed, "It's complicated...?" she said, and it sounded like a question.

Rich was humbled, and came back to sit beside her, all manner of teasing gone. It hadn't occurred to him, in his excitement, that while Darcy was so happy about his new relationship developments, Lizzie might not have felt the same. It was quite clear to him that Lizzie did like his cousin, even possible that she loved him, but now it occurred to him that she might be concerned about their developing relationship.

Darcy was, after all, her boss, and his taciturn demeanour towards Lizzie over the past few years would surely have some lingering impressions, no matter how warm and open he was with her now. It was so new, that one bad mood could put paid to it, and that was the last thing anyone wanted.

Richard may have been immature, but he liked to think himself capable of acting like an adult on occasion, and this was one of those times.

Rich settled into the love seat with her and gave her a small smile to ease her nerves.

"I'm sorry," he said with sincerity, "I didn't mean to upset you, but you know I can't resist a good teasing,"

Lizzie smirked, yes she knew that, because she was the same, and she and Richard had spent many an hour at functions or in boring meetings banding together in such endeavours.

"It's alright," she sighed, "It's been, interesting I suppose. Everything with Will changed so suddenly..." she paused and looked up at her friend, worried that he might share these thoughts with his cousin.

"I won't tell him anything you don't want me to," he promised, reading her expression.

"I do like him, I really, really do," she confessed, "And I guess that scares me a little, because my feelings towards him changed so suddenly and so completely. I didn't think it was possible. Yet, here I am, and I'm sleeping in his bed and I'm missing him when he's not around... but I'm still, worried I guess," she sighed

"Well, what are you worried about?" Rich asked, wanting to do anything he could to help his friends, who in his opinion were perfectly matched.

"I'm worried about getting in too deep too fast. I'm worried that my feelings aren't strong enough. They came up so suddenly, what if they change again suddenly? I'm worried because I don't want to hurt anyone, including myself. I'm scared that... that if it didn't work out, I'd not only have a broken heart, but I'd be out of a job... he's still my boss Rich, and I've always sworn not to get involved with people I work with. Yet, here I am... and this isn't just a co-worker, he..."

Richard reached out and grabbed her hand, which was resting on the back of the chair as she sat facing him.

"I can tell you, with absolute certainty, that no matter what happens between you and Will, you'll always have a job at Darcy Enterprises," he said with a smile, "Darce wouldn't throw you out, but I can also tell you, that I'm quite positive that my cousin is falling in love with you Lizzie, so I don't believe you have to worry about that. You know his history, you know that he's liked you since the moment he met you..."

Lizzie nodded. He was right about that at least.

"And as for your feelings," he smiled, "just listen to what's inside you Lizzie, your heart will tell you who you love and..."

There was a click from across the room, the sound of the door as it shut, and it cut off the end of Richard's sentence as they both looked towards the door. No one was there.

"I must have left it open a crack and the wind blew it shut," he shrugged, letting his hand slip from over hers as he gestured to the open window, that was indeed letting in a gentle breeze.

Neither of them thought any more of it as they allowed the conversation to move onto other less emotionally draining things.

After Richard had left her, she'd gone back to her work and hadn't realized how late it was until Jane had phoned her at five that afternoon. After making plans for her and Charlie's arrival on Friday morning, Lizzie packed up her work things and returned them to her suitcase in Darcy's bedroom before going to find the rest of the party. The house was quiet, almost too quiet, Georgiana was asleep in her room, but Lizzie couldn't find Darcy anywhere. His study was empty, the sitting rooms as well, Maria was getting dinner prepared in the kitchen, but hadn't seen either of the guys in a few hours. Deciding they must both be out on the grounds, she grabbed her cardigan and went to find them.

It was Richard who found her first.

"Lizzie!" He yelled from across the pond, drawing her attention from where she'd been looking in the other direction.

"Hey! I've been looking for you!" She yelled back. He made to jog around to her and she walked towards him, they met almost half way around the body of water.

"Where's Will?" she asked, having expected them to be together. Richard shrugged.

"I've been looking for him all afternoon, I ran into him in the hall after I left you before and he just walked off without a word. I didn't think my teasing had pissed him off that much. I went after him to apologise but never found him. I've just been down to the stables. All of the horses are in their stalls so he's hasn't ridden out. I have no idea where he's gone." His speech had gotten her worried, when she'd seen him this morning he'd asked to see her at lunch time. But he'd never come to find her. Now he'd vanished and not told anyone where he was going.

"Do you think everything is okay?" she asked, brows furrowed.

"I can't imagine why not, I think he's just annoyed that I'm here getting in the way," Richard shrugged, "I was going to apologise and say goodbye. I think I'll head out in the morning. This was supposed to be your holiday with Darce, and I'm being a pest," he chuckled.

"If you think so, you know him better than I do,"

"Hmm... I'm not sure about that," Richard teased again, to which Lizzie reached out and punched him in the arm.

"HEY!" He cried, reaching towards her in retaliation. She squealed and turned to run away.

"RACE YOU!" She yelled back over her shoulder, running up the sloping grass towards the house.

"NO FAIR! YOU HAD A HEAD START!" Richard yelled back.

Lizzie had almost made it to the main steps at the front of the house before he caught up to her, and in fact, caught her. Wrapping his arms around her upper body and trapping her arms at her sides, he cackled with breathless laughter as he carried her up the steps. He turned and put her down behind him, and then skipped through the front doors.

"I win!" He chorused.

"You cheated!" She called back, unable to hold back her laughter. Richard had managed to cheer her up and make her forget her worries in a matter of moments, she was grateful he was here to do so. She had no idea what she would have done with Darcy acting this way if she'd been here with him alone.

Darcy kept up this mysteriousness with his late arrival at dinner, not joining them in the dining room until they were all almost finished with their plates, and when he did join them, he was brooding. Staring at his plate as he pushed the food around, actually eating very little of it. He said almost nothing, while the rest of the party continued their animated conversation. It was Georgiana who sensed the mood first, and tried to fix her brother's dower mood. He'd been casting glances down the table at a laughing Lizzie ever since he sat down, and she was sure he just wanted to be alone with her. So when Richard was the first to finish his dinner, she took the opportunity to make it happen, putting down her cutlery, she asked him to help her upstairs to her room, feigning tiredness despite the fact that she'd slept all afternoon.

Unable to deny his younger cousin anything, Richard was quick to agree, and so it was that Lizzie was left alone in the dining room, with a very moody and very silent Darcy.

"So, I hardly saw you today," she said after they'd spent a few long minutes in tense silence. He looked across the table at her for a moment, before looking back to his plate.

"No," he said, trailing off and not saying any more. Leaving Lizzie confused, it was been a long time since she'd encountered this Darcy. Almost two years in fact, since he'd stopped avoiding her at work and started stringing enough sentences together to warrant a conversation.

"I think I'll go for a walk in the gardens tomorrow, I still haven't seen so much of this place," she tried again. To this, all he did was nod, only concerning her further. Unable to form any more words, she sat staring at him, as he stared at his plate for another few minutes before she couldn't stand it anymore, she stood suddenly and moved towards the door.

"Well, it's late," she said, even though it wasn't late at all, when he didn't reply, she left the room more than a little irritated at him, and stomped upstairs to the bedroom.

She tried to stay awake, to talk to him when he finally came to bed, but she was so exhausted from her anger that it wasn't long before she fell asleep in his overly comfortable bed. When she woke up the next morning, she was still alone, and it was painfully obvious to Lizzie, that she had been all night. She threw on her lightweight satin robe to cover her nightgown and went to smack Darcy out of whatever funk he'd gotten himself into yesterday.

She burst into his study without knocking, ready to yell and scream, but there was no body there. She had been sure that she would find him there, but his desk chair was empty. As she turned to leave, she spied the long lounge chair along the other wall, sporting a pillow and a blanket, crumpled at one end.

"Lizzie!" Darcy's voice surprised her.

"You slept here last night?!" She asked, incredulous. He didn't respond, he face remained passive and Lizzie felt herself falling.

"What's going on Darcy?" she asked, he flinched slightly at her harsh tone and use of his last name, but he still couldn't speak.

"UGH!" She cried at his silence, "You've got to be kidding me! Fuck, Darcy, if you've changed your bloody mind, you could have at least told me! Just, god, I can't even talk to you right now! I'll just leave!" She pushed past him and out the door, still talking to herself "What an idiot!" she was cursing herself. It took Will about five seconds to recover from the shock before he went to follow her. He called after her as he stepped into the hall. She was almost at the other end, turning towards the stairs.

"ELIZABETH!" He yelled. She threw up a hand in reply and kept walking.

"LIZZIE!" He cried again, but she didn't turn around.

"There you are!" Richard cried from behind him, stopping him from chasing after Lizzie. Darcy threw a quick glare at his cousin then retreated to his study. But Richard just followed him.

"Leave me alone Richard, I'm busy," Will barked as he rounded his desk, causing Richard to pick up on his mood at last.

"Hey! What have I done?" He asked, baffled, Will had been in one of his moods for a while now, he'd expected him to come out of it by now. Darcy glared at him.

"Stay away from Elizabeth," he practically snarled, shocking his cousin.

"What are you talking about? I was coming to say goodbye! I'm leaving, what makes you think I'm... what do you even think I'm doing with Lizzie?"

"I saw you Richard, you know how I felt about her, can't you let me have anything to myself?! You've always done this! But Lizzie is OFF LIMITS!" he yelled.

Richard stared at him for a long moment, unsure of what has caused this outburst, but then it clicked.

"It wasn't the wind!" he said, more to himself than to Darcy.

"What?" Darcy asked, with a shake of his head.

"It was you closing the door to the blue sitting room yesterday, what exactly did you hear Darce?"

"Enough,"

"Apparently not. For god's sake, I wasn't trying to put the moves on your girlfriend! We were talking about you!" Richard laughed.

"What?"

"Darce, you're so thick sometimes! And frankly I'm a little offended! How could you think I'd try and steal Lizzie from you? After all this time! I know how you feel about her. I was trying to figure out how she feels about you!"

Darcy was rendered speechless again.

"She was confused about your relationship. I was trying to nudge her in the right direction, your direction!" Richard exclaimed.

"Oh god," Darcy paled, sinking further into his wing back.

"What?" Rich asked, still a little jovial about Darcy's insane presumptions.

"I may have made a big mistake," Darcy admitted.

"How big?" Rich asked.

"I'm about to lose her, big," Darcy exclaimed, standing up suddenly, his chair nearly toppled over, but he didn't even stop to steady it, instead he legged it out of the study and followed Lizzie's earlier path to the staircase, taking them two at a time in his hurry to reach her.

"I'm sorry!" he practically yelled as he burst into their bedroom, Lizzie, furiously wiped traitorous tears away from her face, but didn't face him, her suitcase was half packed on the bed and Darcy's heart fell.

"Please, don't leave," he pleaded, crossing over to her and grasping her arm.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't!" She cried, pulling away from him

"Because... I..." he faltered, "Lizzie... I..."