Page 26 of Not Exactly Mr. Darcy
His sister was still studying him, all traces of a smirk long gone. “Is it because she reminds you of Trinny?”
He pressed his lips together.
“Look, like I said before, there’s a bit of a likeness, but honestly, she’s nothing like her. Trinny always seemed kind of flat inside, emotionless—”
Like he’d become.
“—and Liv isnothinglike that.”
“Exactly. She’s got far too much emotion.”
“No! I mean it in a good way. Talking to her, I just got this sense of joyful energy, like she could climb Mount Everest if she put her mind to it. She’s solid, interested in the world, wants to make a difference in people’s lives. The total opposite to Trinny.”
Flaky Trinny, George had often called her. Unselfish wasn’t in her vocabulary.
“And you sensed all this in the five minutes you were talking to her, did you?”
“Sarcasm doesn’t become you, brother.”
“And wilful blindness doesn’t become you.”
Her eyes narrowed. “The only one being blind here is you. Veronica knows it. I know it. You’ve just got too much pride to admit you’re wrong, when we all know the best thing you could do is to invite Veronica and Liv here and explain what needs to be done.”
He shook his head. “I don’t want to.”
“Why? For the love of all that is Austen, why on earth wouldn’t you do something that would help this place?”
“What if it goes wrong? What if people spend all this time working and nothing happens?”
“What if it goes right? What if people come here in their droves, and you finally start making some money again to support the estate?”
“The trustees won’t like it.”
“Do they even have to know? For goodness’ sake, Liam. Just ask her.”
He shook his head, his hands clenching and unclenching. “But I don’t want …”
Compassion washed across her features. “You don’t want her to know your history.”
“I don’t want her to be like all the others,” he finally muttered.
“Ah, so that’s it.” George pinned him with one of those disconcerting stares that always saw too much. “She’s not like the others, Liam.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do know it. Call it woman’s intuition.”
“Is that found in one of your medical books?”
She didn’t answer, just kept studying him until he had no choice but to sigh. “I don’t see what good it will do. What good can one person do?”
“It’s not just one person. From what you said before, it’s Veronica, Tobias, and Marge too.”
“An eighty-year-old, and two overly busy people in their fifties. Yes, I can see this working marvellously well.”
“Liam, where’s your faith?”
He barely knew. Wherever it was, it was clinging by a thread.
