by Leigh Dreyer
“Truly unfortunate you weren’t here to catch the show. Charles did say he didn’t expect her to be gone longer than a week, though, so I shouldn’t get too excited. You know Jane and Charles, if Caroline pouts and says she needs an extra month, she’ll be here.”
The two sat on opposite ends of the phone listening to the quiet of the call. Darcy had not felt this calm and relaxed in months. He missed Elizabeth, but somehow in this old Air Force hotel room, he imagined he could feel her close to him. The warmth of her body as she leaned against him on the couch at Netherfield while watching TV. The small tickle of her hair on his chin as he pulled her to him. He could hardly wait for the day when all those sensations were his reality rather than his imagination over a phone call.
“Well,” he said finally, his eyes drooping, “I think it might to be time to call it a night. I’ve got an early show tomorrow.”
“Of course. I didn’t even think about the time. I’ve had so much of nothing to do lately that finally talking to you has me distracted.”
“Elizabeth, you’re fine. I would love nothing more than to just keep talking to you.”
“Sure. I’m absolutely riveting.”
“You have no idea.”
“Just call me Rosie.”
Another pause.
“Goodnight, William.”
“Goodnight, Elizabeth. I miss you.”
“I miss you too.”
“Bye.”
“Bye,” Darcy said as he pulled his phone from his ear and saw the screen flash as the call ended. He looked at the screen briefly to check the time when he noticed a series of text messages.
From Anne:
Hey, your aunt is on one recently.
Just giving you a heads up, you’ll
probably hear from her soon.
From Aunt Catherine:
William Darcy, you will return my
phone call as soon as you have
received this message. I do not
want to have to come down there.
My travel plans are already in
place and it would be difficult,
though not impossible, to rearrange.
From Richard:
Hey, heard more about the Guard.
You’ve got a spot in NY if you want
it. Call me.
Darcy sighed and made a list for the next day. He climbed under the bedsheet and fell asleep, full of thoughts of Elizabeth.
The next afternoon, Darcy climbed out of the cockpit and onto the ladder resting against the plane. He stepped down, his boots clanging heavily on the studded medal steps. His stomach growled as his feet hit the ramp, and he looked forward to finishing his debrief and grabbing dinner. Over the last few weeks, he had been all over the southern United States. He was tired and wanted to go home. He missed Elizabeth.
Lieutenant Bridges had flown well. The T-38 was blessed with speed and agility, and Bridges had put it through its paces. Darcy knew he would eventually become a great pilot if he continued in the same fashion as he had today. There were a few general knowledge questions he needed to address and a few technique-only items that needed fine tuning, but in Darcy’s estimation, Bridges was ready for the big, bad world.
Darcy walked to the blue bus to take him back to the rooms where they would debrief. He pulled out his phone to find a text from Georgiana requesting a video chat. Darcy texted back his availability. Typically on cross-countries, the pilots went out together to grab dinner, but Darcy did not want to eat out. He wondered if Bridges would mind if he bailed and opted for room service in the hotel instead.
Darcy looked at his watch. Tuesday morning. They were at Altus and that meant either Pick Up Taco or some sort of fast food. He hoped tacos; that place was delicious. He was tired of the richer food he had been getting while he was on the road and missed the lighter fare Jane had made since moving to Netherfield. Darcy was not the typical bachelor, like Bingley, who had lived on frozen dinners and Stouffer’s lasagnas. He cooked for himself and ate vegetables on a regular basis, but it had been a luxury and a comfort to have Jane to look after them both. He had not experienced that sensation since his dad had died, and it had been since his mom had passed that he had any woman, aside from Mrs. Reynolds, care for him long term. And if Elizabeth would let him love her and keep her forever, his life would be perfect.
Distracted, Darcy made it through the debrief. Turned out, Bridges had a friend in town for C-17 training so he had plans for the evening. Another base, another completely adequate Air Force hotel. Non-descript wall paper decorated with a large abstract scene featuring a Native American on a horse stared down at Darcy as he sat on the full-size bed—seriously did no one believe in queens?—and stared at the small TV, flipping through channels. After finding nothing interesting, he ate the non-descript salad he had bought at the Shoppette. The time ticked slowly by, and five minutes before the appointed time to talk to his sister, Darcy got out his laptop and connected to the horrendously slow hotel Wi-Fi. He signed into the program and scrolled through social media absentmindedly before he heard Bruno Mars’ voice crooning “You can count on me like one, two, three.”
Darcy switched programs and clicked to answer the call, and his sister’s face popped onto the screen.
“Hey little sister!”
“How are you?” Her eyes looked at his surroundings on the screen. “Where are you?”
“Oklahoma.”
“Where the wind comes sweeping down the planes!” A male voice sang operatically behind Georgiana while a plaid shirt passed behind her.
“Is that Richard?”
“Tell him no” was stage whispered from the plaid shirt above Georgiana. She looked back at the camera and shook her head, a wide grin on her face and a sparkle in her eyes.
“Show thyself!” Darcy boomed.
“You’re not the boss of me!” the plaid shirt responded.
Georgiana’s giggles were music to Darcy’s ears.
“Why are you home?” Darcy addressed the plaid shirt who finally deigned to lower himself. Richard sat down next to his smaller cousin and leaned awkwardly into the video chat screen.
“I had a few days leave and wanted to visit my favorite ward.”
“You call me your ward?”
“Only when you can’t hear me.”
“’Cause you sound weird and old.”
“No, it makes me sound generous and worldly. And you’re too young to be properly convinced of my vastly superior intelligence.”
“You forgot old.”
“Cuts me to the quick.” Richard mimed pulling a knife from his heart, and Darcy smiled at his family, even as he felt the sharp stabs of homesickness and jealousy at Richard’s obvious closeness with Georgiana.
“What mischief have you got her into, Richard?”
“Absolutely none. She got me into it more like.”
“Georgiana, how could you?”
Georgiana’s expression faltered for a moment before realizing he was speaking sarcastically. “Aunt Peggy put me up to it. Richard had called her and said he was coming home so we planned a little prank is all.”
“That’s all,” Richard said mockingly behind her.
“What happened?”
“Oh, your little sister here, along with the able-bodied assistance of my mother, decided that it might be funny to give my number to twenty of her most eligible friends.”
“They’re in high school!” Darcy said, shocked.
“No, I didn’t give them to high school girls. I’m not stupid. I gave them to my college friends, well except Caroline. She told me she was dating a doctor.”
“You have college friends?” Darcy said, even more shocked than before.
“Apparently, she does. At least twenty of them.”
“Well, some of them were Aunt Peggy’s friends’ daughters.”
“That makes it so much better.” Richard rolled his eyes. “I had to pretend to be engaged to our dear Anne before they would leave me
alone.”
“Anne?”
“Oh, yes, my dear Fitz. Anne. Thank goodness we stayed friends after you guys called it quits, eh?”
“Why on earth did you even bring her into it? Aunt Catherine is going to completely freak.” A moment of clarity hit him like a brick. “This is why she wants me to call her, isn’t it?”
“Not all of us have the luxury of having a hot Elizabeth Bennet in our back pocket. I’m in the Army, man. I needed a girl and, fortunately for me, Anne happens to be one. Besides, now Aunt Catherine will just think I’m the one that has to stop toying with her heart, man up, and marry the poor girl. Honestly, it will make your Easter vacation significantly more relaxing.”
“You’re welcome!” said Georgiana, cheerfully looking between Richard and the computer screen.
“Georgiana, that’s not very kind to your friends,” Darcy admonished.
“Oh, don’t worry about them, William. They loved the idea of flirting with a much older man.”
“I’m not even old!”
“You are a little old.”
“Am not!”
“Are too!”
“You two are ridiculous,” Darcy said before either one could descend further into immaturity and stick out their tongue at the other. “I guess you are doing well then, considering this is how you’re spending your time. I wonder why I’m even paying tuition at your fancy school.”
“So I can be smart like you and Richard.” Georgiana snickered. “Speaking of which, Latin class has their trip to Italy in the spring and I need a deposit. I’m going to pull from my allowance for it, so don’t freak out. I didn’t buy another dress or a handbag, and Aunt Peggy still hasn’t convinced me to buy a car yet. Well, I might have bought a new dress, but it was so cute and completely worth it.”
“Excellent. You’ll love that trip.”
“You should come with us! You can be a chaperone. Besides, your Italian has always been so much better than mine.”
“We’ll have to see how Elizabeth is doing then. Maybe she can come too.”
“I would love that. I would love to spend some time with her. I always wanted a sister.”
“If this Guard thing comes through, I’m hoping we can just live at Pemberley and then you’ll have time to get to know her.”
“William, are you going to marry her?” Georgiana almost sang the words at him teasingly.
Richard’s voice began singing, “Will and Elizabeth sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!”
“She still needs time.” He sighed. Sympathetic faces stared at him from his computer.
“Well, maybe I should come visit and speed up the clock.” Richard winked at Darcy and the three of them shared a laugh.
“Will, I have to go do some homework and work on my Halloween costume, but it was so awesome to talk to you. I wish you were coming home for Thanksgiving. We miss you up here!”
“Thanks, G. I miss you too. Can’t wait to come home. Take care of her Richard.”
“I always do.” Richard mussed Georgiana’s hair before she left Darcy’s view.
“I have news,” Richard said seriously.
“What news?”
“About the Guard.”
“Great! I saw your text.”
“You’ve been accepted, but it will be fast. You transition to Guard right after New Year’s and you’ll be based out of Syracuse. You’ll be able to finish up your time and get out whenever your contract is up.”
Darcy pumped his fists excitedly.
“I thought it would take much longer for us to go. I have to tell Elizabeth.”
“How’s she going to take it?”
“I don’t know. She’s so worked up about the board; I have to find the right moment to tell her.”
“Well, don’t let it go too long. You only have till Christmas—New Years at the latest—before you’re moving out.”
“I can’t exactly keep this to myself. Does Georgiana know yet?”
“I told her this morning. I figured I’d give her an early Christmas present.”
“That was nice of you. I could have told her.”
“Since you didn’t call me back, I thought you might not be able to talk today. I figured G deserved to hear it in person, and I likely won’t be back before you’re here too. I haven’t heard if I’d get Thanksgiving leave or not.”
“I understand. I’m amazed she let you tell me.”
“I asked her too. Colonel’s prerogative, I said. Anyway, I should let you go. Mom has some party tonight I’m supposed to help with.”
“Take care of yourself.”
“I always do.”
Darcy closed the computer and pulled up his phone to dial Elizabeth’s number. He listened to the ring tone ring over and over until finally he heard a pleasant, “Hey, you’ve reached Elizabeth Bennet. I probably don’t have my phone with me but just leave a message or shoot me a text, and I’ll get back to you!”
He hung up. She would call him before she went to bed. They talked every night about something new. He had described the boarding school he had attended. The friends he was still in touch with (basically none) and then the classes he had taken. She was impressed to discover he spoke Italian and had passable French. He had traveled across Europe both as a tourist between high school and college and, like Georgiana, for a Latin field trip. He had competed in fencing and she expressed her shock. She was completely unaware that fencing “was a thing” anymore, thinking instead it had died out in the nineteenth century.
Elizabeth, meanwhile, had an almost opposite adolescence. She played trumpet in the band and marched at football games and performed in every parade in her small border town.
“A proud Texas tradition,” she had said.
So she could head to pilot training faster and to avoid student loans, she attended advanced placement and dual credit classes in order to gain as many college credits as fast as she could. Her senior year, she was the commander of her JROTC unit and appeared on the drill team. She had also been in the school musical.
These calls were his favorite parts of his day. He looked forward to each one throughout his daily tasks with fervor. He made himself as comfortable as he could, propping his back up with pillows and flipping once more through the mindless channels on TV. He would wait for her, and if God wanted to teach him patience, he would gladly learn the lesson.
9
When he returned home late that Saturday afternoon, Elizabeth was in the kitchen, eating a bowl of cereal and reading a book. Hunched over her bowl, clearly focused on the story, she repeatedly tilted the spoon, spilling milk back into the bowl instead of keeping it straight.
She looked up at him and grinned—her mouth full of what looked like Lucky Charms. He grinned back, amused by the picture she made dressed in a t-shirt and jeans that clung to her perfectly, showing off her petite yet curvy frame.
He pulled her carefully out of her chair to his lap and kissed her cereal sweet lips, so happy to have her in his arms again.
“I’m glad you’re back.”
“I’m glad to be back.” He buzzed her lips again and slipped her back into her chair. Then he went to the cabinet for his own bowl of cereal.
“What are you reading?” Darcy asked before taking a large bite.
“Just a silly novel.”
“No such thing.”
“Huh?” she asked, mouth full of cereal.
“No such thing as a silly novel. What’s happening in this one?”
Elizabeth swallowed. “Well, the heroine, who of course is beautiful—”
“As all good heroines are.”
“Obviously. She met the hero of the novel in the beginning and thought he was a real jerk, but after getting to know him and after some good deeds on behalf of the girl, she’s having second thoughts about his jerk status.”
Darcy nodded thoughtfully. “Is that so?”
“It’s the oldest trope in history. Guy meets girl. Drama. Girl gets together with guy. They get mar
ried and live happily ever after.”
“Normally aren’t there horses and knights and dragons involved?”
“Depends on the genre, I suppose.” She scooped more cereal onto her spoon and then added, “Sometimes there are spaceships.”
“Good point.”
“Anyway, I just want one book where the heroine realizes that she can be her own person.”
“Because she doesn’t need a man?”
“No, because she is her own woman. Couples tend to work best when they are strong individually.”
“Like you?”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I want a book written about me? I’m charming. I’m witty. I do very exciting things like sit around the house on Friday nights.”
“That’s the problem right there. A good book needs action.”
She laughed. “Oh, and I don’t get enough action.”
“Not really. I hardly qualify reading and taking naps as compelling. Maybe if you fainted frequently you could set your novel in the Victorian era, be one of those bodice rippers.”
“I don’t have that much romance. Besides, aren’t those the ones with shirtless Fabio on the cover?”
“Typically. I don’t know. Georgiana is the one who reads them. I, of course, favor more masculine fare, like biographies.”
“You would never be caught dead reading silly romance novels?”
“No way. How would I hold my head up at the squadron? My flight mates would laugh me from the building.”
“Is that why I found this one in your room?” Elizabeth held the book up, which she had been holding with the cover folded behind the pages as she read, and for the first time, revealed the cover to Darcy’s view.
“That, madam, is obviously an adventure novel.”
“I don’t think so. I am relatively positive that this novel is a romance set at sea.”
“Like I said.”
“No, no. She’s already had heaving bosoms, Will. This”—she pointed at the book as she held it up and out of reach while he attempted to snatch it away from her—“this is a romance.”
“Just because it has a scene between a man and a woman doesn’t make it a romance.”