Beth scanned the crowd for Denny, jumping when Lindy let out a shriek. Beth whipped her head around and was relieved to see Denny standing behind Lindy, evidently enjoying her reaction to his stealth attack. He'd snuck up behind Lindy and poked her in the back. Denny was then overtaken by Lindy, disappearing behind her mane of wild hair as she jumped into his arms and nearly knocked him over.
Beth was mid eye-roll when she froze, arrested by the sight of the stranger standing slightly behind Denny. There wasn't any specific thing that stood out to Beth about him. He wasn't noticeably tall. His clothes were nondescript - faded jeans and a t-shirt under a navy blue jacket. He had a casual smile on his face. His wavy, sandy-colored hair wasn't long enough to qualify as a shag (thank goodness) and his posture was informal. For some reason she could not take her eyes off of him. He looked back at Beth, perfectly at ease, his smile growing more pronounced.
Beth managed a weak smile in return, unable to wrench her eyes from his, which were the most entrancing shade she had ever seen - ice blue.
"Lindy, Beth - this is Jaxon Donovan," Denny said, setting Lindy back on her feet. "He's one of our new recruits."
The stranger dipped his head respectfully, still smiling.
Lindy, on the other hand, was anything but respectful. She brazenly looked Jaxon up and down, and Beth felt herself color in response.
"I always was a sucker for a man in uniform!" Lindy confessed wildly.
Denny grinned in response before continuing his introduction. "This is Lindy," he began, exchanging a loaded look with Jaxon, "and her sister, Beth."
Jaxon stepped forward and extended his hand to Lindy first, who giggled at his chivalry before taking his hand. She kept shaking it and looking with rapt attention at his face. After thirty seconds or so, Denny intervened, dragging her off to the nearest booth. The line had moved quickly, and they were at the door now. Jaxon moved to Beth and shook her hand also, adding a soft 'hello.' His pale eyes snared her again, and it was almost impossible to look away. Jaxon gestured toward the booth, and Beth followed dumbly.
The Malt Shop was an old burger dive decked out in fifties décor. The booths, fashioned from dissected Fords and Chevys, surrounded a juke box in the center of the room. Throw-back Pepsi and Coca-Cola vending machines flanked the kitchen entrance.
"So, what's good here?" Jaxon asked Beth, reaching past her for the menu (a piece of laminated cardstock with the food choices scrawled in sharpie marker). Jaxon handed one to Beth and her heart skipped just a little when his skin brushed hers. Trying to ignore the sensation, she looked over the menu.
"Everything's twice-fried in lard, so it's all pretty good."
Jaxon smiled, his eyes lingering on Beth for a moment before dropping back to the menu.
The waitress appeared and took their orders, her eyes lingering on Denny and Jaxon. Beth scowled, then turned to her muse.
"So, Jaxon. You just started training? How long is the program?"
"Training is eight weeks," he answered. Could a voice be said to smile? His did.
The waitress returned with the drink order, and Beth drank deeply.
"And then you'll go back to….."
"Well, I grew up in New York, but it's been a while since I've actually lived there. Denny says that once the training is over they usually help you find a job." He took a long pull on his own straw. "What about you?"
Beth found herself staring at his mouth. Knock off the swooning, Beth, she chided herself. "I'm a junior. I'm majoring in Psychology. I haven't decided exactly what field of Psychology I'm going into yet, though."
"Hm. Are you going to do a reading for me?" He grinned impishly around the straw caught in his teeth.
Beth felt her heart drop into her shoes. Her face felt hot, and she was sure the heat was beating through her cheeks. Looking into Jaxon's alluring blue eyes, she suddenly wished she wasn't in a t-shirt and jeans, and that her hair was flowing around her shoulders glamorously, instead of split into two braids. He continued to draw her in, simply by looking at her. When he dropped a flirtatious wink she smiled, casting her eyes back to her shoes. Without realizing it, she began toying with one of her braids.
"I'm not a psychic," she corrected quietly once her pulse slowed. "That's a different field."
"Silly me," he answered, still grinning.
"Bethy," Lindy interrupted. "Don't look now, but there's a hunk of man meat at two o'clock that's totally digging on you."
Of course, Beth looked up. William stood in the doorway, complete with faithful sidekick Kara. For someone he thoroughly detested, he certainly spent a lot of time with her. Beth didn't know why, but when the line inched forward and Les and Jenna appeared behind them, she felt better.
William's expression was unreadable. He seemed on the edge of something - smiling? Screaming? Flying? His dark eyes were on Beth's face, and then they shifted to the right a fraction. His mouth flattened into a hard line, and a muscle tensed in his jaw. He glared at the air next to Beth, and his breathing became more pronounced. His chest heaved as if he were about to lose control. What was he looking at?
Beth didn't wonder long. Jaxon seemed to be frozen in place beside her, his expression even more ambiguous than William's. William's reaction was obviously to Jaxon. But why? Did they know each other? Jaxon's face was relaxed, but his posture was tense - which didn't add up. His eyes shifted around the place, like he was looking for a way out, and then they came to rest on Beth. Some of their icy serenity had been disrupted. Less than a minute later, Beth looked up to find William standing rigidly at their booth. His black eyes rested on Beth for a moment, then transferred to Jaxon. They seemed to grow colder once they left her face.
"Could I have a word?" William requested.
Beth could hear the barely controlled rage beneath the appeal, but if Jaxon understood this, he didn't show it.
"I'm a little busy at the moment, as I'm sure you noticed," he answered.
William clenched his jaw, narrowing his eyes dangerously. "It'll just take a sec," he prompted, and Beth knew he wasn't really asking at all.
Jaxon's cool eyes took in Beth. "Maybe another time, bro."
William reached down and hauled Jaxon to his feet by the lapels of his Rescue Squad jacket. Taking in the fact that Jaxon was several inches shorter than William, it was impressive that William managed to hold him at eye level.
"You. Are. Not. My. Brother," William spat, shoving Jaxon toward the door.
Beth stood now, placing herself between them and bracing a hand against William's chest.
"What's going on?" she demanded angrily.
William pushed against her hand as if she weren't there.
"William?" she screeched, sandwiching his face between her hands. "Stop it!"
His eyes cleared and he focused on her in surprise, as if he hadn't known she was there. Removing her hands, he trapped them between his and handed them back to her. His voice had softened a touch. "Get out of the way, Beth. You'll get hurt."
Beth blinked angrily as William stalked past her with purpose. She caught his arm. "You should see yourself! You're being an animal."
Whipping Beth around so that she stood in front of him, he grasped her upper arms with iron fists. He must have seen the fear in her eyes, because his grip abruptly relaxed, and the thunderhead in his eyes dissipated. The fight rolled out of him as quickly as it had come in. Pinning Jaxon with a look over Beth's shoulder, he said, "I would never hurt you, Beth."
On his way out William paused in front of Jaxon, and it seemed to Beth that the latter almost flinched. She followed the conversation with her eyes only, feeling like she was watching the TV on mute. It was the most bizarre exchange Beth had ever witnessed. They took turns speaking, William's smile more a threat and Jaxon's a challenge. When they finished, William nodded grimly and turned toward the door. Talk about anticlimactic, Beth thought. Then, without warning, William pivoted and sank his fist into Jaxon's face. There was a loud cracking noise as his head snapped
back, and William's grim expression took on a slightly proud sheen. Then he straightened and stalked out the front door.
~:~
Back at Longbourn, Beth spilled ice into a towel, folded it up securely, and delivered the ice pack to Jaxon. He pressed it gingerly to the left side of his face, where a massive bruise was forming high on his cheek. He popped his jaw experimentally before thanking Beth.
"Sorry for the trouble."
"It's no trouble at all," Beth answered resolutely. She eyed Jaxon speculatively for a moment. "Are you going to tell me what that was all about back there?"
Jaxon smiled weakly. "I didn't realize you were…..involved with William Darcy."
"INVOLVED?"
Beth's exclamation brought a halt to the sweet nothings being exchanged on the couch a few feet away. She apologized, and Denny shrugged, turning back to Lindy.
"We're not…..involved," she began in a lower tone. "His best friend is dating my best friend. End of story."
"I think it's a little more than that for him," he contradicted.
"You two seemed to know each other fairly well," Beth said, ignoring the assumption.
Jaxon gazed steadily at Beth before answering. An agonized look played fleetingly across his features. "He's my brother."
Beth knew that her mouth gaped open, but it was some time before she could do anything about it.
Jaxon chuckled. "Not your typical family reunion, huh? We're not, like, blood relatives," he clarified.
"I gathered as much from the lack of resemblance," Beth said, still confused. Les hadn't included any brother in his mini bio on William.
"So, what's the twist?"
Jaxon glanced casually over his shoulder at the love birds before diving into the story.
"William's father sort of adopted me after my father died. We grew up together."
Beth scowled.
Jaxon laughed lightly at her face. "My family wasn't rich, Beth. You probably figured out by now that William comes from money."
Beth nodded slowly. Yes, she was aware of his prosperous livelihood; but she'd been under the impression that he'd earned his wealth.
"My father was the Darcys' butler. Have you ever seen the movie Sabrina? You know, with Harrison Ford?" A wry smile crossed his face. "I was Sabrina."
Beth laughed at the analogy, struck anew by Jaxon's infectious good humor. There was just something about him that made her feel totally at ease.
"Anyway, my father got sick," Jaxon continued, pulling Beth from her thoughts. "When he passed, away Darcy Senior invited me to stay with the family. He'd always treated me like his own son."
Automatically, Beth braced herself for the story to turn bad. It was the same sensation you had at a sappy movie that seems like it could end happily - with another forty minutes to go.
"Did you know William has a sister?" Jaxon asked abruptly.
"Yes," Beth answered. "Les - William's best friend - told me about her. William mentioned her once, too."
Jaxon's expression softened. "We were always close, she and I." He seemed far away now. Beth's insides liquefied at the sadness on Jaxon's face. "I had always been in her life, from the time she could remember. She looked up to me, just like another brother. So, when we became……more, William didn't care much for it. Or for me, anymore."
The silence stretched on, creating a lull.
"Then what happened?" Beth probed.
"William kicked me out when he found out we were together. I left, not wanting to cause any trouble or make it harder on Gianna or myself. But she was still young, and pretty immature at that." He smiled a little sadly.
"How old was she?"
Jaxon's eyes shifted, as if the answer were floating over Beth's shoulder.
"Seventeen, I think."
Beth scowled. If memory served true, back at camp Les had said that Gianna had just turned seventeen.
"Nearly an adult, in any case," Jaxon continued. "But William has always babied her, and it's no wonder she went a little wild once she had a taste of real life."
"Wild?"
"She was pretty heavy on the party circuit after that," he said, keeping the details to himself as any respectable guy would. "She kept texting me and trying to set up meetings, and I ignored her, even though it killed me."
Jaxon removed the ice pack from his face, setting it on the kitchen table.
"I went to a party one night and she was there. She was pretty wasted. When she…..came onto me and I refused, she threatened to go to the police with an accusation of rape."
Beth's jaw dropped again and an indignant noise escaped her lips. "What did you do?"
"I stayed at a friend's house that night. When I returned home the next day, a neighbor said the cops had been poking around the complex. At that point I knew I would never find a way out of the situation. So I left."
Beth was speechless. The whole sordid tale was awful. But something wasn't clicking - the facts weren't adding up. "But did the cops have anything to go on? There was no evidence. And if she'd been drinking -"
"Lack of evidence is a moot point if there's enough money involved."
Beth's mouth fell open. "He paid off the cops?"
Without confirming Beth's suspicion Jaxon said, "Nothing's out of reach for the Darcys, Beth. At least, nothing that takes Visa or MasterCard."
Beth bit her lip, recalling the night she'd met William. Going on first impressions alone, Jaxon's description was spot-on. But the person she'd come to know since then - the one who gave up his sleeping bag, hiked through mud for her clothes, and took care of her while she was in a drug-induced hysteria, just didn't fit the profile. She shook her head, disgruntled.
"I just can't see William going along with that," Beth said, not sure why she was defending William, or felt the need to.
"William's always been wrapped around Gianna's finger. Understandably so. He's been her father figure since their dad died." Jaxon sighed tiredly. "And she can be pretty……persuasive."
Beth felt an irrational pinch of jealousy. It must have surfaced on her face, because Jaxon picked up her hand. "It doesn't matter anymore," he murmured, turning the blue flame in his eyes as high as it would go. "It's all in the past."
He squeezed her hand, which gave her heart a squeeze of its own. Then he picked up one of her braids, letting it slip through his fingers before repeating the process a few times.
REGENCY
"To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love."
~Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice
The rest of the weekend passed in a blur. Beth failed at convincing Lindy to take it easy her first weekend at Hartford, and spent Saturday and Sunday catering to her whims (at least the reasonable ones - Beth had flatly refused to take Lindy to get a tattoo). Come Monday morning, Beth was thoroughly exhausted from keeping up with her sister. The only thing worse than a houseguest who wouldn't leave was a houseguest who wanted to be entertained at all times.
Now the girls were making their way to the Administration building, where Lindy was due for a campus tour with other prospective freshmen. As they entered the building Lindy gasped, "Wait, Bethy," as she crumpled Beth's shirt in her fist and yanked her back. "Look!"
Beth pulled her shirt out of Lindy's grip, sighing as she tried to focus on what Lindy was waving in her face. Of course, she already knew what it was. She'd just been hoping Lindy wouldn't find out about it. Whoever had been in charge of getting the word out had really done a job of it. You couldn't walk two steps on campus without meeting dozens of the fliers. Lindy had ripped one from a pile that were held prisoner to a corkboard:
Announcing
"A Regency Encounter"
Winter Ball
Saturday, December 18th 8:00 p.m.
Hartford Conference Center
Tickets $20 per person
OR $35 per couple
"December eighteenth - that's this weekend! YES!"
Beth watched her sister and couldn't help envyin
g her confidence. In Lindy's mind, she was at Hartford, therefore, she would be going to the ball. For Lindy, there was never a question of not being asked to something. Beth usually avoided functions like these. As fun as playing dress up could be at age twenty, she'd just never wanted to share a formal occasion with someone she sort of liked, or simply tolerated for one night.
Immediately, she was carried away with the vision of herself in a long dark gown, on the arm of a certain blonde, blue-eyed delight. She felt a thrill jet up inside her. Did Jaxon know about the ball?
"This is it, Lind," Beth said, coming out of her day dream and dropping her sister off at the administration building. "Student Resources is on the second floor. Come straight home when you're done."
"Yes, mother," Lindy cooed to Beth before bouncing up the steps of the brick building.
"Whatever," Beth muttered as she turned for Longbourn. "Mom has never used that tone in her life."
When Beth let herself into her dorm, she was pleasantly surprised to see Jenna bustling around their tiny kitchen, no Les to be seen.
"Jenna!" Beth closed the distance between them and threw her arms around her best friend. "What are you doing here?" It sounded like a funny question to be asking a roommate, but anyone living there wouldn't have blinked. Jenna had taken full advantage of Lindy's visit, making up the time she missed with Les during Beth's injury.
Jenna shrugged casually. "I got out of class early and had a violent craving for cookies." She looked up at Beth and smiled.
"PMS?" Beth inquired.
Jenna flipped some flour off her hands at Beth.
"Thought so. Need some help?"
Jenna agreed, and the girls finished mixing up the dough.
"Where's Lindy?" Jenna asked as she spooned clumps of dough onto a cookie sheet.
"She's taking a tour of campus with Student Resources." Beth took a spoonful of dough. "So, where's Les?"
"He's heading the committee for the Winter Ball," Jenna answered, somewhat forlornly, in Beth's opinion. "He had a meeting about it today or something."
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