others.
Elizabeth was complimenting Darcy when Jane and Charles entered the room, and the news about the pre- show performance was repeated. Charles’s excitement over the news was overwhelming. “Jane!” he shouted triumphantly. “I’m so proud of you! Next year you will be on the main show with us!” He took her into a great hug, his face illuminated with love and pride.
The group spent a few more minutes chatting, updating everyone on the plans for the rest of the tour and the break. Darcy was aware of the uneasiness between Charlotte and Richard, which he understood, but the distance between himself and Elizabeth puzzled him. It seemed that each time he tried to reach out to her conversationally, she politely backed away. He knew they hadn’t parted on the best of terms, but he didn’t understand her reaction.
“Elizabeth,” he called to her as she was about to leave for the stage. She turned and walked to him, her face neutral. “Anne is coming down tomorrow and she’s bringing the web designer. They want to update the Slurry page. Would you come to the meeting? I really don’t know anything about this and I could use your advice.”
Elizabeth was careful to not react to him. “Sure, Darcy. Just let me know when.”
“Thanks,” he said, and smiled privately to her. He was disturbed to see that his smile was not returned. She gave him a slight nod and walked away.
Elizabeth sat at the table in the LBS bus, her coffee cup forgotten in her hands, her mind a thousand miles away. Jane exchanged a look with Charlotte, who moved off to the back, allowing Jane to join her sister alone.
“Lizzy?” Jane called softly. She touched her sister’s arm.
Elizabeth visibly broke out of her trance and smiled with embarrassment at her sister.
“What’s going on?” Jane asked softly.
Elizabeth’s face fell, and she looked down at her plate. “I’m feeling a little confused, I guess.” She looked into Jane’s patient eyes and took advantage of the silent offer before her. Elizabeth knew she could tell everything to Jane and receive nothing except understanding and support. “When I was talking to George, he told me some stuff about Darcy.” She paused. “It wasn’t very nice.”
Jane encouraged her to continue.
“I…” Elizabeth frowned and began again. “When I was with George, it was easy for me to be sure of my feelings. But now we’re back, and Darcy has been… I don’t know. He’s been pleasant and warm, and I’m not sure what to think anymore,” she concluded.
“Well, how do you feel about George?” Jane asked practically.
Elizabeth shrugged and then smiled. “I like George. He’s very nice. He’s very easy to be around.” Her expression turned inward again. “But he’s not Darcy. Will is much harder to be with, but when I’m with him, I feel…” she trailed off, unable and unwilling to describe the intensity of her feelings for Darcy.
Jane took her hand and smiled sympathetically.
“So, now I’m lost between the man who is easy and who likes me and the man who is hard and likes me.” She grinned at the ridiculousness of it.
“Well, Lizzy, you have to make up your own mind, but personally, I’ve always preferred a hard man,” Jane winked. Elizabeth laughed, grateful for Jane, who was always there when she needed her.
Darcy watched as the tour had breakfast the next morning. Elizabeth sat with Charlotte, her concern for her friend obvious. Charlotte was not eating and looked like a wreck. He was disappointed to find that Richard was sitting across the restaurant and was also not eating. Darcy knew the two incidences were related, and he suspected the cute blonde named Dorothy whom Richard had been with the night before had something to do with it.
Right now, he was focused on the attractive picture of Elizabeth. Since her return to the tour, she had been polite to him. He knew her well enough to know that was the kiss of death from her. She was only polite to people she disliked. The question was why. Did something happen at the shoot? She was warm enough to him before she left. He would ask Caroline, but he suspected this was beyond even her formidable intelligence capabilities.
He regretted that they would not be staying in any more hotels before the break. It cut down on the chances for private time to talk to Elizabeth, to try to work out what was going on.
As Caroline gave her morning briefing, Anne entered the room with another woman and took a seat at his table. Darcy nodded a cool greeting to Anne and turned to examine the woman more closely. She was tall and shapely, with dark hair and eyes.
When Caroline finished, Anne spoke up. “Can we begin? I’ve got things to do,” she snapped.
Darcy slowly leaned back in his chair and deliberately took a slow sip of his tea, his gaze never leaving hers. “Of course, Anne. I
He walked to Elizabeth’s table and bent low over it. “I need you for that meeting I was telling you about,” he told her softly.
Elizabeth’s eyes flashed. “Right now?”
“Yes,” he answered, his eyes holding hers. “If you aren’t finished yet, I can wait. It’s no problem.”
Elizabeth shared a look with Charlotte and rose. “No, it’s no problem at all.” She wasn’t surprised that he would demand her with no notice like that. After all, he was Fitzwilliam Darcy. She took her coffee cup and the bag containing her laptop and followed him to the table where Rachel, Anne, and the woman waited.
“Anne,” Darcy said formally, “Elizabeth will be joining us.”
Anne looked like a cat that had been dropped in a bucket of cold water. She gave an equally hostile look to both Elizabeth and Darcy, saying, “Fine. This is Sylvie Duval. She’s our web designer. Sylvie, this is Fitzwilliam Darcy of Slurry and Lizzy Bennet of Long Borne Suffering.”
Sylvie smiled and extended her hand, first to Darcy then to Elizabeth. “It’s a privilege to meet you both,” she said with a light and charming Parisian accent.
“This is my personal assistant, Rachel Brown,” Darcy said, introducing Rachel to Sylvie.
“Can we begin?” Anne said impatiently.
They all settled around the table. Sylvie opened her laptop and began. “I have reviewed your current website. It’s been in need of an update for a while now, no? I contacted marketing and received some new material from them. This is what I have come up with so far.”
She passed the laptop to Darcy, who reviewed it, his eyes quickly scanning the screen without expression. He then passed it to Elizabeth.
Elizabeth studied the site. It started with a pop-up presenting a montage of images of the band—taken mostly from their videos while “Control” was being played. After a minute, Elizabeth skipped the intro and went to the main page, clicking around to view all the features.
“It’s good,” she observed, clearly impressed. “I like the frame idea and the rock motif.” She pursed her lips. “These pictures are pretty old, though.” She showed Darcy. “Look, you still have long hair here.”
Darcy nodded. “We had a photo shoot last month, Anne. Do you think Ms. Duval could have access to those pictures?” Darcy said with exaggerated politeness.
Anne stared coldly at him and nodded, while Rachel made a note in her Palm.
“You don’t have any songs to download, or videos,” Elizabeth observed while still focusing on the laptop.
“That is De Bourgh policy,” Sylvie told them.
Elizabeth sensed that Sylvie disagreed with the policy, but unlike Darcy, she was not at liberty to openly criticize the management. Elizabeth immediately found herself liking the woman.
“Well, I have to say, I don’t agree with it. Our video and audio bring a lot of traffic to our site, where fans can find information about the tour, buy tickets, or buy other merchandise right there,” she said professionally. “The lucrative sales of our CD off our web page have been extremely impressive.”
Anne’s eyes narrowed. “You are providing downloads off your web page?” she asked incredulously. “That’s against De Bourgh policy. We aren’t giving these songs away.”
