Page 88 of A Certain Appeal
His mom’s new brother-in-law. This was his “family thing.”
“Why didn’t you mention it?”
He thumbs my cheek. “I didn’t think I needed to. Even when I confirmed the relation, it all but guaranteed the deal was Charles’s. Wickham’s completely unreliable. There was no way he could convince anyone to pass something of worth on to him. Not without—”
“My design.” The words claw through me. I close my eyes, resting my bare back to the glass. “How could I have been so stupid?”
“Bennet—”
“He knew what happened in LA, Darcy.” I push off the window. “I told him everything, and he fucking used it against me. Against all of us!”
I make it the handful of steps to the un-couch and collapse, folding over my knees. My whole body aches. I didn’t realize how much I was banking on my foothold at Meryton as my way back into the field. This was my chance. And it’s gone.
As the idea settles, my thoughts continue to bounce, lighting on one grim prospect before drifting to another. Where will the changing of hands leave the regular performers? Will anyone from the old guard be invited to stay on? Would anyone even want to? This was Jane’s most stable gig, but with his connection to Charles, will he be cast out? What about Ming? Tonic?
Will I ever see Meryton again?The thought sucks the breath from me.
“Bennet?” Darcy’s voice is tight with concern. He sits beside me, draping a plush black robe over my shoulders.
I shake my head, pulling the robe around me. It’s a whole other level of gut punch. If I weren’t already in a ball, the idea that I’ll never see Meryton again would have me curling over my pitching stomach. But I can’t go back in there, not with Wickham at the helm, seeing my work being realized under his name. I know we have a month, but there’s no way he won’t be around before then, gloating...
Darcy rubs my back, his hand brushing circles between my shoulder blades. For half a moment, some base impulse has me blaming him for not warning me when he could have. But the misdirected anger dies before I can fully realize the target. He warned me, in a way, and I let myself be suckered, however briefly. I left Wickham alone with something valuable.
I was so sure he was looking at my photos.I grit my teeth. Fucking vanity. Way to go, Bennet.
The guilt mingles with the anger and disappointment, churning like acid in my empty stomach. My ideas did this. Whatever the outcome for the others, it’s my work that made it possible.Mywork is being used to hurt the people closest to me.
That’s the thought I cling to, and it’s enough to keep me from a total emotional free fall. I’m not falling alone.
“I can’t run away this time, Darcy.” My voice is thick with the threat of tears. “Too many other people were wrapped up in that deal.”
“What do you want to do?”
“I—I don’t know,” I admit. “I’m somewhere between sobbing and screaming. But I want my people. I want to get everyone we can together and...” Again, I hit a wall. “Commiserate?”
I stand, pushing my arms through the sleeves of the robe as Iconsider the room. “Could everyone hang out up here?” Darcy looks pointedly past me to the window, and I remember the sex stamp. “Or somewhere we haven’t sexually ransacked?”
He chuckles and stands. At some point, he put on a dark pair of boxer briefs. The cuts of muscle disappearing into his waistband provide a moment’s reprieve from the misery of the last few minutes. “The hotel’s restaurant has a private room. They’re doing brunch, so I doubt the space is being used. I’ll look into it.”
“Then I’ll rally the troops.” The prospect is enough to inspire a tentative sprout of optimism, but I can’t muster a smile. Darcy pulls me into a hug. The solid feeling of him is unexpectedly reassuring. I lean into it, greedy for the support.
He kisses the top of my head. “We’ll figure this out.”
I nod, because I want him to be right.
I just wish I believed him.
CHAPTER
24
Jane leans into me, the side of his head warm against mine as we huddle in the booth in the Standard’s Wine Room. Darcy was right about the space’s availability and was able to secure it for us until tonight’s dinner service. I still don’t know what we’re going to do once everyone arrives, but just having Jane close has been enough to make me feel almost human.
“He got the plans the day he came by with the girls,” he says with the empathy of a heart familiar with betrayal.
“It’s obvious now. They were all actingsoweird—” I grit my teeth, stung anew at the Twins’ involvement, and grip the bag on my lap a little more tightly.
Something inside crinkles, so I relax my hold. When Jane spilled through the yellow revolving door and into the lobby, he was carrying two bags. One held a few days of work clothing for me, as he’d rightlyanticipated I planned to extend my sleepover with Darcy. The green messenger bag currently in my lap came at the advisement of Charles’s lawyer, who suggested we go through my work for evidence of earlier stages of the design Wickham stole. I’ve been clinging to it since Jane explained what was inside, but I haven’t brought myself to look in.
