What Would Lizzy Bennet Do? (16 page)

‘Hardly anyone ate Daddy’s scones that year. They were an odd combination – lemon and chive, I think.’

Emma shuddered theatrically. ‘
Not
one of his better efforts,’ she agreed.

‘Well, I’m curious to try Mr Bennet’s scones,’ Lady de Byrne pronounced as she appeared in the doorway. ‘Lemon and chive sounds like an intriguing combination. I wonder if your father might permit me to attend your garden party on Sunday?’

Harry and the Bennet girls scrambled to their feet as Hugh’s godmother entered the drawing room, a basket of pink roses on her arm and a pair of secateurs dangling from a ribbon at her waist.

‘Good afternoon, Lady de Byrne,’ Emma said, breaking the sudden, awkward silence. Her smile was composed. ‘Of course you’re welcome to come to our little party. I daresay Daddy would love nothing better. In fact, I thought I’d sent you an invitation. I apologise for the lapse. Oh, what beautiful roses,’ she added. ‘They smell divine.’

‘Thank you. They’re damask roses,
Comte de Chambord
. Summer damasks tend to be very thorny.’ She smiled slightly. ‘Rather like myself. Which is why,’ she added briskly as she removed her gardening gloves, ‘one must wear these.’

‘Would you care to join us, Lady Georgina?’ Holly offered. ‘Mrs Jenkins is bringing tea and cake.’

‘Thank you, my dear, but I need to get these flower stems cut and arranged in vases straight away. Enjoy yourselves.’ She inclined her head at the visitors and turned to go. ‘Carry on.’

‘Thank you,’ Emma and Charlotte murmured, and Harry half rose as she left. Holly suppressed a giggle.

‘Oh, my God,’ Lizzy hissed when Lady de Byrne had gone, her eyes wide. ‘She called you “my dear”, and she even made an actual
joke
.’

‘I told you, she’s very nice,’ Holly said. ‘She’s not at all the gorgon you make her out to be.’

‘You must be a good influence on her.’ Harry shook his head in amazement and sat back down.

‘She’s just lonely,’ Holly told him as Mrs Jenkins arrived with the tea tray. ‘She told me so last night. With her daughter gone and her husband dead, she has no one, and very few visitors.’

‘That’s exactly what Daddy said,’ Lizzy agreed. ‘He said I should be more inclined to remember that, and not moan about her the way I do.’

‘Perhaps we should invite Lady Georgina along to the regatta tomorrow,’ Emma suggested. ‘She might enjoy it. The races, the bunting, all those beautiful yachts…’

Holly stirred sugar into her tea and set her spoon down with a sigh. ‘I wish I could go. But with this wonky ankle, I can’t possibly manage it.’

‘Who says you can’t?’ Harry scoffed. ‘We’ll take you, won’t we, Lizzy? We’ll carry you round in a sedan chair on our shoulders, like Cleopatra.’

‘I’m afraid I can’t go either,’ Lizzy told him. ‘I’m to help my father with the church fête at St Mark’s all afternoon.’

He made a face. ‘How’d you get stuck doing that, and tomorrow of all days?’

She hesitated, and glanced at Holly and away again. ‘It’s my punishment,’ she admitted.

‘Punishment? For what?’

‘I insisted that Holly ride Thor yesterday instead of Lady. Daddy was furious with me, because…’ Lizzy took a deep breath and met Holly’s eyes. ‘Because I knew Thor was hard to handle but I pushed you to ride him anyway, and then I challenged you to a race, and you got thrown and might’ve been badly hurt, and it’s all my fault,’ she finished in a guilty rush.

‘You… you did all of that on
purpose
?’ Holly stared at her in bewilderment. ‘You wanted me to get hurt?’

‘No! No, of course I didn’t! I just – I wanted to show you up in front of Hugh, I suppose. Prove to him that I’m the superior horsewoman.’

‘I don’t think there was ever any question of that.’

‘No,’ Lizzy admitted in a small voice. ‘I suppose not. I’m sorry, Holly, truly. I honestly never meant for you to get hurt. I hope you can forgive me.’

There was an awkward silence.

‘I suppose I can,’ Holly said after a moment. ‘If you promise me one thing. Well, two things, actually.’

‘Anything! Just name it.’

‘Promise you’ll keep Thor well clear of me.’

‘Of course.’

‘And then I want you to promise,’ Holly added, ‘that you’ll point out which of your father’s scones I should avoid on Sunday.’

Lizzy laughed. ‘That’s easy. All of them.’

The doorbell went for the second time that morning.

‘I wonder who that could be?’ Emma said. ‘For someone who never gets visitors, Lady de Byrne is having rather a lot of them today. Perhaps it’s Hugh.’

‘I hope so,’ Holly said. They’d barely been apart for a day, and already she missed him with an almost visceral ache.

They waited, teacups and cakes in hand, as Banks made his way across the entrance hall and opened the door.

‘Well, this is a surprise,’ he murmured, and cleared his throat. ‘Please come in. Let me just go and inform Lady de Byrne that you’re here…’

‘That won’t be necessary, Banks,’ Hugh’s godmother said in chilling tones as she descended the stairs. ‘I can see for myself that my daughter, Imogen – as well as her extravagant collection of Vuitton suitcases – has finally come home to roost.’

***

‘Hello, Mother.’ Imogen removed her sunglasses and glanced up as Harry, Emma and Lizzy appeared at the drawing room door. ‘I see you have visitors.’

‘We were just leaving,’ Emma said. ‘Thank you so much for your hospitality, Lady de Byrne.’

‘You’re quite welcome.’ Lady Georgina turned to the blonde young woman surrounded by luggage. ‘This is my daughter, Imogen Clarke. Imogen, may I present Miss Emma and Miss Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Harry Darcy.’

‘Darcy?’ Imogen echoed, and lifted her expertly groomed brow in interest. ‘Are you related to Hugh, by chance?’

Harry smiled. ‘I should say so. He’s my brother.’

‘Oh, I had
such
a crush on him when I was younger,’ she confided, and tucked her sunglasses in her handbag. ‘But then, all the girls did. With that dark hair and the way he always held himself – like a royal looking down on the commoners – he was so incredibly attractive. Still is.’ She eyed Harry with interest. ‘I bet the girls all chase after you as well.’

Holly, who’d hobbled to the door behind the others on her crutches, saw Harry’s smile widen.

And she didn’t much like it.

She studied the blonde on the doorstep. Imogen was attractive, stylishly dressed in a dark blue Rodarte dress and pumps with a white cardi thrown carelessly over her shoulders.

‘I’m Holly James,’ she informed the newcomer, who’d turned towards her with a smile. ‘Hugh Darcy’s fiancée.’

Her smile slipped. ‘Imogen Clarke,’ she said. ‘A pleasure.’ Her expression made it plain that it was anything but. She turned back to her mother. ‘I’ve come back home for a while. I’ll need someone to bring my luggage upstairs.’

Banks moved to pick up two of the Vuitton cases at the young woman’s feet, but Lady de Byrne stopped him. ‘Leave it, Banks.’

Imogen bristled. ‘What? Mother, really. You’re not going to refuse to let me stay here, are you?’

‘No. But my staff is small and far too busy to bother hauling your suitcases upstairs,’ she said sharply. ‘Such nonsense! Carry your own luggage up.’

And with that, Lady Georgina turned on her heel and made her way across the hall and up the stairs, her back straight and stiff and her expression stony.

‘I’ll help you,’ Harry offered, and strode forward to pick up two of the suitcases. ‘Just show me where you want them.’

‘Up my mother’s arse,’ Imogen muttered. At Lizzy’s involuntary gasp of surprise, she met the girl’s eyes with a world-weary smile. ‘Sorry, Miss Bennet, I don’t mean to offend your sensibilities. But Mother always brings out the absolute worst in me. It was nice to meet you… all of you.’ Her glance flickered to Holly. ‘Now, I’m feeling a bit fatigued from travel, so if you’ll excuse me…?’

‘Of course,’ Holly said sweetly. ‘Perhaps a bit of rest will improve your outlook.’

‘Perhaps it will,’ she shot back with a tight smile. ‘At least,’ she observed, making no secret of her study of Harry’s backside as he carried the first of her suitcases up the stairs ahead of her, ‘the scenery round here is very nice.’ She laughed, and winked at Holly. ‘See you all later. Ciao.’

Chapter 22

‘What a cow,’ Holly said the minute Imogen Clarke left. ‘No wonder Lady Georgina doesn’t like her! I don’t, either.’

Lizzy nodded. ‘Did you see the way she was checking out Harry’s bum?’

‘One can hardly blame her for that,’ Emma remarked. ‘Harry
does
have an exceptionally nice bum.’

‘Emma!’ Lizzy exclaimed. ‘Not you, too.’

‘What’s this about my exceptional bum?’ Harry called out as he came back down the stairs. ‘Now that’s the sort of conversation I like to hear you ladies having.’

Lizzy snorted. ‘Emma’s opinion,
not
mine. Come on, you two. We need to get going.’

‘Thanks for coming,’ Holly told them as she clumsily turned on her crutches and made her way to the front door. ‘I wish you could all stay a bit longer…’

She broke off as the sound of angry voices from upstairs drifted down, and the others fell silent as well.

‘… warned you he was in love with your money, not you,’ Lady de Byrne said, her words icy. ‘But did you listen? No, you did not. You have a failed marriage behind you to prove it. And now you’ve landed yourself in the middle of a very public and acrimonious divorce, a divorce which will make you a spectacle and provide fodder to the tabloids for months to come.’

‘Of course Simon didn’t love me, because how could
anyone
possibly love me? Isn’t that what you really mean, Mother?’

‘Oh, spare me the self-pity. You’ve blamed me all of your life for your shortcomings – for your lack of ambition, for your poor choices in men, even for your disintegrating marriage – when the fault is your own, and always has been.’

‘How good it is to be home,’ Imogen deadpanned. ‘I can always count on your support.’

Emma touched Holly’s arm. ‘We’d best go,’ she murmured.

Holly nodded. ‘You’re right. We shouldn’t eavesdrop.’

‘But I love to eavesdrop,’ Lizzy protested.

‘Too bad.’ Emma took her arm and marched her towards the door. ‘We’re leaving.’

‘I’ll show you out.’ Holly moved to follow them.

‘No need,’ Harry said in a low but firm voice, and put out his hand to detain her. ‘Let’s go in the drawing room and put that foot back up.’ He turned to Emma and Lizzy. ‘You two go ahead, I’ll be along soon.’

Emma’s eyes widened. ‘You’re not coming with us? But we drove,’ she reminded him. ‘You’re not walking the entire way home, surely…?’

‘I could do with the exercise.’ He shrugged. ‘It’s a perfect day for a walk. Besides which,’ he added, and smiled over at Holly with a cheeky grin. ‘I want to make sure our patient’s safely installed back on the sofa and obeying the doctor’s orders before her fiancé arrives to take her to hospital for a checkup.’

When the Bennet sisters left, Harry accompanied Holly into the drawing room to help her settle on the loveseat she’d so recently abandoned and, setting her crutches aside, sat down across from her.

‘Is there anything else you need before Hugh gets here?’ he asked, and leaned forward. ‘More tea? Cake? A book to read, perhaps?’

She shook her head. ‘Nothing, unless there’s a nice trashy novel lying around. Or unless you can make my ankle magically heal and take me back with you to Cleremont. Other than that, there’s not a thing you can do.’

‘I might be able to dig up one of those Barbara Cartland romances,’ he said, and grinned. ‘If you like.’

‘No, thanks.’ Holly grimaced. ‘I feel as if I’m in the way now that Lady Georgina’s daughter is back home. I shouldn’t be here.’

‘I wouldn’t worry. Lady de B and Imogen have never got along, according to Hugh. At any rate,’ he added with a shrug, ‘
you
were here first.’ He reached over and took her hand. ‘I have to go. I’ll come and fetch you and take you to the regatta tomorrow, if you like. I can’t take on any passengers, unfortunately; but you can watch the semi-final races.’

‘I’d love that. But with this ankle…’

Harry nodded and released her hand. ‘Of course. Let’s see what the doctor says. Either way, I hope to see you tomorrow.’

‘Holly,’ Lady de Byrne announced briskly as she came downstairs and strode through the drawing room doors, ‘I wanted to let you know I’m going out to the village for a bit, to attend to a business matter…’ She stopped. ‘Oh. I didn’t realise young Mr Darcy was still here.’

Holly suppressed a smile.
Young Mr Darcy
? Just wait until she got a chance to tease Harry about
that
.

He rose quickly to his feet. ‘Sorry, Lady de Byrne. I only stayed behind to make sure Holly has everything she needs.’

‘No need for apologies. That’s very thoughtful of you.’ She eyed him for a moment and added, ‘However, I can assure you, I’ve a house full of staff ready and willing to cater to Miss James’s every whim. So you needn’t worry yourself unduly on her account.’

And with a last, considering glance at Harry, she nodded at them both and took her leave.

***

Carefully, and as quietly as possible, Charli let go of the tree limb that afternoon and swung her legs over the windowsill and climbed back into her room. After glancing round to ensure neither Lizzy nor Emma was lurking in wait, she let out a breath of relief and flung her sunglasses and hat on the dressing table. This double life business was quite tiresome and getting more than a little difficult.

But it was worth every bit of sacrifice as well as the risk, because it meant she got to see Ciaran.

Of course, Charli thought glumly as she took off her sundress and put on a pair of cutoff shorts and a T-shirt, the unfortunate incident with her mobile phone on the set today had really pissed Ciaran off.

And she’d have nightmares for
weeks
reliving the moment that horrid director had screamed at her in front of everyone on set… including Cara Winslow and her swoon-worthy co-star, Henry Cavill, who played Mr Darcy. They’d all stared at her as if she were an idiot.