feathering Thelma’s nest, Eliza had granted the researcher exclusive rights to coauthor a book about the discovery and meaning of the letters, a book that would be ready for press before anyone else even got a peek at the documents.
Of course, all of these arrangements took a great deal of time and required numerous discussions with attorneys, library staffers and others. As a result, Eliza’s online gallery business was beginning to be affected, as Jerry had so recently predicted would happen. Fortunately, Eliza had a fairly large stock of backup paintings that were easily uploaded to replace her diminishing stocks. And while she was unable to create any new paintings amid the frenzy of planning and contract signing, Eliza was able to keep up with her orders by working late at night.
The latter circumstance took its toll primarily on whatever was left of the relationship between Eliza and Jerry. Where once he had felt free to drop in for an evening, or call late for a last-minute dinner date, the investment counselor was now compelled to leave voice-mails or hurry through their occasional phone conversations. Conversations she purposely avoided the first couple of days after their disastrous dinner and then kept strictly to business when she did talk with him.
So it was that more than a week after he had openly chastised her for her foolishness in devoting so much time and emotional energy to the mysterious letters that Jerry finally got Eliza to agree to meet him for dinner.
Unlike the previous occasion when they had met for dinner at a booth in his favorite neighborhood deli, Jerry’s choice of a restaurant on this particular evening was elegant, candlelit and very French. As Eliza entered the expensive bistro wearing a positively smashing black cocktail dress, he rose from the small corner table he had reserved and ogled her though his shiny glasses.
“Eliza!” There was a nervous edge to his voice as he took her hand and actually planted a slightly damp kiss on her knuckles. “You look absolutely great tonight,” he said a little too loudly. Jerry gestured grandly as he pulled out a chair for her.
Retrieving her hand, Eliza allowed herself to be seated and flashed him a dazzling smile. “Why, Jerry, thank you,” she said, genuinely surprised by this sudden display of gallantry, a quality she had never even suspected he possessed.
“I’ve been missing you,” he said regretfully. “It seems like we’ve hardly had a chance to speak lately.”
Eliza looked at him carefully, wondering if their brief separation had at last uncovered some hidden reservoir of affection in the usually ultrareserved accountant. “I’m sorry I’ve been so out of touch,” she apologized. “But the week has been completely crazy.”
Thrilled to have someone besides Wickham in whom she could confide, Eliza leaned forward and lowered her voice to a near-whisper. “It’s all very hush-hush at the moment,” she told him, “but the library plans to make my letters and the vanity the centerpiece of their Jane Austen exhibit, and Sotheby’s will be announcing a special auction in the fall.”
Jerry beamed with enthusiasm at the news. “That
Eliza’s smile faded and she slowly shook her head, her guilty feelings from several days earlier returning in a rush. “No,” she replied, “I’m afraid I offended him too badly…” She thought about that for a moment and a wonderful new idea suddenly popped into her head.
“I’ve been thinking about going down to Virginia,” she said, her words giving further form to the idea.
“Maybe if I met this Darcy and had a chance to personally explain about the letters—without his knowing I was the one who insulted him on the Internet…” Her voice trailed off as the thought continued to develop. Actually, she decided, it was the best idea she had had yet.
Still considering the new plan, Eliza was surprised to feel Jerry taking her hand in his. She looked up to see him scrutinizing her closely, a slightly worried expression on his narrow features.
“Eliza,” he began huskily, “before you go running off in search of this romantic character…”
Jerry swallowed hard and his eyes darted nervously around the room. “Well,” he continued after taking a sip of water, “we’ve known each other for a very long time. And I want to ask you something important.”
She had no idea what his question might be and found his nervousness curious. “What is it, Jerry?”
He flushed and cleared his throat. He looked around the romantic little café again, then peered directly into her eyes.
“Eliza, would you…
She sat in stunned amazement. It took only seconds for her shock to turn to anger. The nerve! How many days had it been since his declaration that her interest in the letters was a silly waste of time? She couldn’t believe it, now he wanted to cash in on them. His nervousness was obviously because he recognized his own hypocrisy, but that hadn’t stopped him. She quivered with outrage; casting his hand aside as hard as she could, she rose.
Surprised, Jerry asked, “What are you doing?”
Trying desperately to stay in control and remain calm she spat out, “I’m leaving. Good night.”
“But what about dinner?”
Eliza took a deep breath, picked up her water glass and threw the liquid in his face. “Go to hell, Jerry.” She stormed out.
Outside the restaurant, she stopped and leaned against the wall. Still quivering with outrage, Eliza took several deep breaths. She wasn’t sure why it had upset her so, it was, after all, typical Jerry behavior, completely bottom-line motivated.
Watching a couple cuddling in the back of a hansom cab, she had to admit to herself that much of the anger was directed at herself. Constructing the boundaries that relegated her passions to a relationship with someone like Jerry had in fact brought her personal life to a screeching halt.
Her mother had often told her that you can’t stand still, you either move forward or you move backward. And she’d wasted the last two years in a relationship she had known wouldn’t go anywhere; so by her mother’s rule she had slipped back rather than moving on after her father’s death. Well, that ended right now. Pushing herself away from the building she headed home with a whole new direction for her life.
Chapter 11
Two days after her aborted final dinner with Jerry, and nearly four hundred miles to the south, Eliza was driving a small red Toyota along a narrow state road in Virginia. The car-rental agent in nearby Roanoke, where she had arrived on the morning commuter flight, had marked a map and assured her that this was the way to Pemberley Farms, but Eliza was beginning to have her doubts.
Though it was nearly ten in the morning, the lush, green countryside through which she had been driving for the past half hour was still shrouded in morning mist, giving an eerie look to a landscape that appeared largely untouched by human habitation.
Certain that she had either taken the wrong road or somehow missed the distinctive landmark that was supposed to identify her destination, Eliza glanced at the map on the seat beside her. “Go to a pair of big stone gates,” she snorted, mimicking the earnest rental agent’s thickly accented directions, “Ya cain’t missem, ma’am!”
Eliza squinted into the mist. “Well if ah
She was on the point of turning the car around and returning for fresh directions to the last small town
