It was a little bit awkward at the table after William's departure.
"Would you ladies like anything else?" Charles asked, attempting to cover up the awkward atmosphere. Elizabeth and Jane had barely touched any of the food and declined.
"We need to get back to our hotel, and let our parents know how our search for Lydia is going, our mother is besides herself, Lydia is her favourite and mother feels so responsible for sheltering her so much." Jane started to get up from the table, she reached into her bag for her purse.
"I will not hear of it" Charles said, "it was my pleasure to meet you and your sister."
"Thank you, next time can be on me" Jane said her dimple firmly on her cheek as she smiled shyly at the gentleman. Yes, he was a gentleman, so polite and friendly, handsome as well.
"Let me give you a lift." Charles insisted, wanting to spend as much time with this beautiful creature as he could
"Thank you" Jane said, smiling shyly at the handsome man, "I am sure Lizzy would know how to get back to the hotel, but I was lost before we even met you." Her eyes widened and she blushed furiously when she realized how that could be interpreted. "I mean…"
"This part of town can be so confusing" Caroline jumped in, "even for those of us who grew up here!" Caroline patted Janes arm.
Louisa and Charles stared at their sister in total amazement. What on earth had happened to Caroline?
Jane smiled so widely at her newfound friend, "You are so empathetic Caroline, you must be so good at your job working with so many people."
Elizabeth watched Caroline put her sister at ease, and saw the amazement on Charles and Louisa's faces, if she were not so worried about Lydia, she would have found the situation interesting and probed a bit.
As it was she was unsettled, firstly finding out that Charles, well not Charles, George as Charles had lied even more to them, that she who prided herself of being a great judge of character had totally believed him, to the point that at one stage she had regretted that Mary met him first It was only when she went to the flat and found Mary almost dead in her bath did she realized that he was not what he made himself out to be. Mary had begged her not to tell the rest of the family, so only she and Jane knew about Mary's attempted suicide. They had arranged their schedules so that one of them was with her all the time, both making sure that "Charles Bingley" did not come near her and that she did not try something like that again
This was exacerbated by William almost running out after hearing their story. Admittedly it was not a pretty story but that was just rude. After Charles…George Wickham, she was distrustful of good-looking men, and William was by anyone's standards a very good-looking man. But in the short afternoon that they had known him, he had walked off twice. She was pretty sure had he not bumped into Charles siblings he would never have returned or even joined them for coffee.
She accepted Charles offer to drive them to the hotel, she was emotionally drained, and she could see that Jane was near exhaustion point. None of them had slept properly since Lydia's disappearance.
She was impressed, he drove an Audi A4, not the latest model but still a nice car. Caroline and Louisa had said their goodbyes, after Caroline and Jane had swapped cell numbers with promises to call soon.
The Cold Cabbage was a nice hotel, it was slightly trendy without being exorbitant and Elizabeth knew the owners, the Gardiners, very well having done business with them for many years. They were more like an honorary uncle and aunt than anything else.
Seeing Jane and Elizabeth drive up with a nice young man, Madeline Gardiner made short work of encouraging him to stay for supper with them. The girls made their phone call home, letting their parents know that they had not gotten any closer to finding their younger sister. . They joined the Gardiners and Charles for a quiet but happy meal, for a brief moment the girls put their troubles aside and just enjoy an evening. Edward Gardiner found many things in common with Charles and the two men were swapping gardening tips and tricks like old women at a knitting meet, alternating between that and teasing the ladies.
After bidding Charles good night, a brief chat with the Gardiners the two women made their way up to their rooms, Jane sat on Elizabeth's bed drinking her Horlicks, whilst the two of the dissected the day. Jane defended William in her usual way, always wanting to think the best of people. Elizabeth just expressed her irritation at his total distain for everyone around him, just walking off randomly without a bye or leave.
After Jane had gone to bed, Elizabeth tossed and turned, her night was punctuated with dreams about a tall dark man walking away from her.