Cass opened and closed her mouth like a dying fish and Fleur’s eyes narrowed dangerously.
“What?” Fleur asked. “You think what about that little weirdo?”
I dropped the bag of chips on the bench and crossed my arms. “Fleur, I think it’s about time you and I had words. Cass, you traitorous bitch, will you get the hell out of my kitchen, please?”
I refused to look at Cass and I was fairly sure she knew exactly what I thought of her at this point. So, she didn’t argue and she didn’t stick around. As soon as the door was closed behind her, I spoke.
“I’m done with this charade, Fleur.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“I’m done.” I shook my head. “I really can’t go on like this anymore. I don’t care what Lady Celia Cooper has planned for us, I have never once had any intention of marrying you, let alone entering into any sort of relationship with you.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Please don’t be,” I grinned, “it’s entirely you. I just seriously dislike you. You are a horrible human being; so rude, mean, just… God, I don’t want to sound like such a dick, but I’m not even attracted to you. And, I just can’t even pretend to be impartial anymore.”
“This is because of that redheaded convict, isn’t it?”
“I don’t believe South Australia was settled by convicts.” I quipped, rocking back on my heels.
“You know what I mean,” she snapped, “you’re saying all these things because of Lily, aren’t you? What, she won’t sleep with you and you’re that desperate for her that you think you can get her into bed if you prove you’ve put some distance between us? That we’re not together anymore?”
“Anymore? Jesus, look, I think you’ll find your previous statement may not really be that common among normal couples. And, I’m pretty confident in my use of it as evidence to support my we were never together theory.”
She sobbed. “How can you say such things?”
“You cannot seriously have thought we were together. I certainly haven’t been faithful and I’m pretty sure you haven’t been either.”
“Well, fine, but I was waiting until you finished school, sowed your seed, got it out of your system.”
“And if I hadn’t got it out of my system?”
“I’m sure we can come to some arrangement.”
“Wow. I’m just gonna… No, wow. Really?” I blinked, trying to comprehend just what she was saying. I shook my head; it so didn’t matter. “Point remains, this,” I pointed between the two of us, “never going to happen. In all caps. Not happening. Ever.”
“Fine, if you want to sleep with her so badly, you tell her that.”
“I have no plans to sleep with Lily.” Well, that wasn’t one hundred per cent true. I did sort of hold out hope that one day she’d like me and I might have a chance to take her to bed… Focus, Austin.
“You don’t want to be with her? I mean, you don’t want to date her?” The disgust in her voice was palpable.
I shrugged. “It’s irrelevant.”
“How is it irrelevant?” she shrieked.
“Because she wouldn’t have me.”
“When?”
“When I proclaimed my undying love for her,” I replied, my tone sarcastic even though my words weren’t entirely untruthful.
“Lady Celia will hear about this!” Fleur fumed, her face red. “She’ll put a stop to it.”
I shrugged again and picked up the chips. “You can do whatever you like. You are not and never will be my problem.” I grinned gleefully and left to enjoy the rest of my party without the shadow that was Fleur van Wilhausen hanging over the rest of my life.
****
“Ow, my brain!” I groaned. I was awake, but I did not want to open my eyes based on the amount of light behind them.
“I don’t think you have the required equipment,” I heard Jax’s muffled voice.
“So funny, brother.”
“I’m with Jax on this one, Oz. Maybe ‘ow, my brain cavity’ is a more apt description?” Manda’s voice said much too loudly.
“Shh, Mandy. Inside voice now.”
Manda laughed.
“Oh, nope…don’t do that.”
“Will you both shut it?” Jax mumbled and I felt whatever I was lying on shift.
I sat up and slowly opened my eyes. I was in Amanda’s room with Jax and we were lying on her bed. Amanda, meanwhile, was sitting in her window seat, looking much too awake for New Year’s Day.
“How did we get here?” I asked, feeling pretty feral.
Manda smiled. “You both came bounding in at about half two and informed me that Austin was free of the harpy and Anne loved Jax.”
“Really?” I asked, not remembering any of that.
I mean, I remembered putting Fleur in her place and then something about shots with Williams and Jax… But, it got kind of blurry after that.
“Anne loves me?” Jax asked, pulling his face out of Manda’s pillows, but his eyes were still closed.
“So the two of you said. Apparently during Oz’s great declaration of love, Lily told him Anne had always been in love with you and was utterly miserable without you. Oz then promptly broke down in tears and said he’d made an arse out of himself and Lily would never love him back. Then Jax said it was okay because he loves you enough for both of them…although I’m not sure who them is. Then, Oz stopped crying and told me he was rid of the evil harpy. Then, you both snuggled up and went to sleep in my bed.” Manda looked at me in question.
“Firstly, I highly doubt I cried,” I said, my finger in the air. “Secondly, Lily did say Anne had been very into Jax and was now miserable, so that wasn’t total bull, I just may have embellished a little. Thirdly, I am free of the harpy!”
“So, Anne doesn’t love me?”
“Lily didn’t expressly say, mate. She well could.”
“Still?”
“Well, you’re not going to know unless you do something about it, are you?” Amanda huffed.
“Lily!” I said, rolling off the bed in a less than suave manner.
“Isn’t here!” Manda said with just as much excitement.
“No, I know that. I have to see her! I have to… I don’t know what I have to do… But, I have to see her!”
“Dear Lord, seriously, I leave the country for a year and you guys go all barmy,” Amanda said, shaking her head. “I’m rethinking my next trip.”
I pointed at her enthusiastically. “Good, you cancel your next trip and I’ll go and see Lily.”
“You know I’m meeting up with her later?” she called as I ran out of the room.
“We’ll talk about why you’re not hungover later!” I called back, turning around when I realised I was heading in the wrong direction.
I showered and dressed in record time, feeling like I was about to make a very decent impression. As I ran to the front door, Amanda walked out of the sitting room.
“Don’t think of driving, you’ve probably got a ton of booze still in your system.”
“Yes, Mum!” I called as I ran out.
Luckily, one of the drivers was near the garage, so my lack of forethought wasn’t as much of a problem as it could have been.
My leg jiggled the whole way to Lambton.
“Just give me a call when you’re done, Mister Cooper,” the driver said.
“Thanks,” I yelled as I jumped out.
I avoided my good friend the pole as I veered into the B&B and skidded to a halt at the front desk.
“Hi, do you know if Lily Brewer is in?”
“It’s Master Cooper, is it?” the little old lady behind the counter said, peering up at me.
“It is indeed, ma’am. Austin.” I gave her my most charming smile.
“Austin, lovely name. You were here with Miss Lily yesterday, weren’t you?”
“I was, ma’am, is she here now?”
“Yes, dear. She’s up in room six.”
“Thank you. Oh, and a happy New Y
ear to you!”
“Same to you, Master Austin!”
I leaped up the stairs and looked around for room six.
Just as I was about to knock on the door, I heard Lily yelling, “that conniving little skank!”
I knocked hesitantly, almost regretting it instantly; she did not sound pleased and I really shouldn’t be interrupting her.
The door flew open and I came face to face with an irate Lily.
Her face softened somewhat as she saw me and waved me in. I then realised my timing was even worse as she was on the phone.
“You have to be shitting me?” she said as she paced. “No, I will not watch my language, Daniel. This is your fault I’ll have you know! No, she’s not here, she went for a walk…. Yes, we’ll pack and be home as soon as we can... Oh, for God’s sake, man, pull yourself together, she’ll be fine, we’ll sort it, it’ll be fine... No, I have to go, I’ll let you know when we’re leaving, okay?” She hung up and turned back to me. “Sorry about that. Hi, how are you?”
“I’m… Uh, well, a little hungover, to be honest, but whatever you’ve got going on sounds worse…” I stammered.
Lily sighed. “Yeah, that. I had an email – an email! – from Gem this morning. You know how I told you Kate went to Australia with that Penny Foster girl?” I nodded. “Yeah, well, seems she’s taken off, with Liam of all people!”
“What?” Heat rushed through me at the thought of that dickhead near Lily’s family.
“God, why didn’t I say anything to her?” Lily was pacing. “I mean, not mention names obviously, but I could have told her he assaulted me, at least. God, anything’s preferable than thinking of her off with him now.”
“You’re sure she’s with him?”
“Yes. After the whole thing came out, Gemma finally revealed she’d known the whole plan. Kate’s sent her pictures of them together. It looks like they’re at the beach, but it’s probably too much to hope for that they’re in Torquay. Shit, I’ll need to book flights. No… Dad will fuss and moan if I leave. Dammit!”
“Lil, it’ll be fine,” I said, not at all sure how to calm her. “What’s being done?”
“Claire’s been on the phone to Penny’s parents and the police, and she’ll probably be looking at booking flights soon.”
“These pictures? I doubt we’re lucky enough to have them geotagged?”
She looked at me and smiled sadly. “If only.”
My mind started working, already planning the easiest way to get myself to Australia. I might miss some school, but surely that wouldn’t be too bad. I did, after all, know Liam well enough that I would probably have the best idea of where to find him. In fact, I was pretty sure I knew exactly where he’d be. It was just a matter of getting to Melbourne and driving down.
“Oz?” I looked up and noticed Lily was looking at me quizzically.
“Sorry. Look, I’ll leave you be. You’ll want to pack and stuff. Keep me updated, yeah?” I said and she nodded. “I’m sorry about all this, Lil. But, I’m sure she’ll be found and brought home safe.”
“She’s not going to be safe if she’s with him.”
I hugged her quickly, then looked her in the eye. “She’ll be okay, I promise. I’ll let Manda know you’ll have to see her another time.”
“Damn, thanks.” She nodded, already packing up her things. “I’ll see you later.”
“Bye, Lily.”
I was on the phone to the airline before I was in the car.
Chapter Forty-Seven
I seriously didn’t think I could have a stupider sister.
Seriously, what had she been thinking? Running off in a foreign country with a boy she hardly knew?
“God, she’ll probably end up raped and dead in a ditch somewhere.”
“Oh, Lily, it’s not that bad I’m sure,” Aunt Nadine said.
Her tone almost had me convinced that maybe I was just jumping to conclusions. “Do you think really think that?”
“I know I had my doubts about him, but I’m sure he’s not all that bad.”
I warred with myself mentally, not sure whether I should discuss other people’s business. But, some adult needed to know what we were dealing with. Otherwise, I was going to be left trying to convince my parents to do more with absolutely zero back up.
“Ugh. Fine. Look, you didn’t hear this from me and you cannot go bandying it about…” I started.
“What?” Aunt Nadine laughed. “Am I joining some secret teenage club?”
“Not funny, Aunt Nadine. Look, you were entirely right about Liam. About why he’s at Military College.” I leant my head on the window and watched the world pass by. “Why they didn’t press charges, I don’t know.”
“What? Charges? What the hell happened?”
“He assaulted Amanda.”
“Assaulted? Assaulted how?”
“The kind that left her bruised and violated.”
“What? Holy shit!”
“Aunt Nadine!”
“Don’t pretend you don’t swear.” She shook her head. “I thought he was a wanker, but…even I didn’t expect that. We need to get that idiot home.”
“You’re telling me.”
“God, your father’s going to be useless.”
I nodded. “Yep, but I can’t say I want Mum going after Liam.”
“Oh, that’s a good point,” Aunt Nadine said. “What are we going to do? What can we do? Do we need to send someone over there?”
“Who the hell are we going to send? Dad can’t afford it, Mum can’t go after him. Who else do we have?”
Aunt Nadine sighed. “I don’t know. But, we’ll figure something out. Claire talks to the police regularly. They’ll find them.”
“Does he know she’s only fifteen?”
“You’d have a better idea of that than me.”
I yelled in frustration. “He’s such an arsehat!”
Aunt Nadine laughed.
“What?”
“I just recall another young man you thought that about once.”
“Shut up.” I smiled.
“He seems like a nice guy,” she said slowly.
I couldn’t look at her, I could only bite my lip to stop myself laughing.
“I know your father would say you could do worse, but I’ll say the same thing for an entirely different reason. I don’t care that that boy has money out the wazoo, I don’t care he already has himself a mortgage-free house and he’s not even out of school. But, he’s a genuinely lovely boy.”
I slapped at her playfully and laughed.
Unlike her brother, Aunt Nadine was an utter romantic. Well, my dad would no doubt call himself an utter romantic, but he was attracted to money and circumstance and everything that makes you look good to the outside world. Aunt Nadine, though, was a true romantic; she loved love. She’d only been married once and vowed she would ever be married again after losing the only man she could ever love.
“And, I saw the two of you together,” she cajoled.
“I seem to have an ability to lose myself around him,” I said without meaning to.
“Ah, l’amour!” she said wistfully. “It starts so simply, then before you know it, you’re lost deep in it.”
I laughed. “It’s not love, Aunt Nadine.”
“Isn’t it?” she teased.
I threw her a look. “Aunt Nadine! Besides, we have more important things to concern ourselves with now.”
“There is nothing more important than love, Lily.”
“Oh, no, my little sister’s only disappeared with a nut job and is God only knows where!”
“Why would she do such a thing?”
“Because she’s an idiot.”
“No, I mean, does she even like him?”
I snorted. “That is a ridiculous question. Kate likes any healthy, young male.”
“Well, yes. Is the feeling mutual, though?”
“I have no idea. Liam went through flirtations with any girl he came into contact with. Kate
seemed to think every attention he paid…anyone else was directed at her.”
“I had hoped they were old enough when Claire and Daniel married that his influence wouldn’t have stunted their growth.”
“You have to be talking emotional, because those girls are tall!”
Aunt Nadine laughed. “Yes.”
“God, I know they’re idiots, but I love them dearly. If anything happens to Kate, I’m going to shoot myself. Better yet, I’ll shoot Liam.”
“Not if I get to him first,” Aunt Nadine growled.
****
We arrived home a little after dark and I found Anne running out to greet us.
“Annie, what are you doing here?” I asked, hugging her fiercely.
“Daniel called Mum for… I believe I heard it called moral support.”
“Oh good God. And what state is Daniel in now?”
Anne fidgeted as we went into the house, followed by Aunt Nadine, and she wouldn’t meet my eye. I had a fair idea what state he’d be in, based on that reaction.
“Any word of Kate?”
“No, not yet.”
“And, Claire? How’s she? Gemma?”
“Claire’s in her study. Truth be told, she hasn’t really left it since Penny’s dad phoned to say Kate was missing.”
“I’ll go and speak to her, see if there’s anything I can do,” my aunt said.
“Thanks,” I replied as she hurried off. “So, Penny knew exactly what was happening. What else?”
“I don’t know. Gemma seems to have known more than she let on, but I don’t think Kate was stupid enough to tell her where they were.”
“That would have to be a first!” I scoffed. “Where’s Dad?”
“In his room with my mum,” Anne said.
I shook my head, mumbling, and took the stairs two at a time. Anne followed.
I didn’t bother knocking, I just barged into the room to find Dad lying on his chaise, looking very despondent, while Linda fussed over a cup of tea.
“Oh, Lily!” he moaned as he saw me.
I raised my eyebrow at him. “Don’t give me ‘oh, Lily’!”
“Oh, Lily! What shall we do? Kate’s lost to us in a harsh, foreign world and we’ll never see her again! She’ll disappear like the people on those movies!”
Netherfield Prep: A Modern Reimagining of Jane Austen's 'Pride & Prejudice' Page 31