Overcome

by Melanie Rachel

  Like two children, Elizabeth and Richard reluctantly promised to stop. And they had. Except then, rather than playing actual jokes on one another, they began a psychological battle to make each other think they had. Richard sent Elizabeth a video of him doing something to her coffee (he hadn’t), while Elizabeth moved his mattress a few inches to make him think she’d done something to his bed (she hadn’t).

  In truth, Elizabeth had welcomed the pranks. They took her mind off the dreams she’d been having—not nightmares, precisely, but not pleasant, either, a stressful mix of events from her childhood and those from her time with the Marines. They’d been coming with more regularity, and it was rarely the same dream twice. She’d not had any migraines, probably because she forced herself to bed a little earlier than normal to be sure she got enough sleep, drank a lot of water, and was careful to not skip any meals. She knew things only would only get worse if she didn’t take care of herself. Will wouldn’t allow it anyway. He was already giving her his worried look when she rose for the day before he did. Better not to force his hand.

  By the end of the week, Elizabeth had turned her attention to Will’s birthday dinner at the Gardiners’ house. On Saturday afternoon, she and Lydia hung blue and yellow globes, silver starbursts, and red medallions from the ceiling in the dining room. Aunt Maddy baked the cake and cooked the meal with occasional help from Elizabeth, who precisely assembled and measured out ingredients. Lydia wanted to frost the cake, but Kit was given the job in deference to her artistic talent. The younger girl began to complain, but before Aunt Maddy could say anything, Lydia had closed her mouth and walked upstairs. Jane and Mary wouldn’t be able to come until later, but they had both promised to work on cleanup duty with Charlotte.

  The preparations had lightened Elizabeth’s mood considerably, particularly because she’d found Will the perfect gift. It happened to be the most expensive present she’d ever purchased, but she knew it was the right one the moment she’d laid eyes on it in the shop window, and she’d successfully negotiated a deal with the shop owner. That gift remained at his apartment. She’d purchased a much less expensive gift to present to him at dinner.

  Lydia, who’d been granted an early reprieve from inventory work at the warehouse to help with the party, returned downstairs thirty minutes later. She was trailed by all four of her cousins, each holding a homemade birthday card. She helped the children display them on the gift table and laid an envelope of her own next to a small group of brightly wrapped presents. Then she herded them into the family room and opened a game of Twister. Sarah demanded to be the spinner, and the rest of them began to play, Lydia twisting herself in exaggerated ways to make them all laugh.

  When Will and Richard finally knocked on the front door, Ed was in the shower upstairs, the children in the family room were shrieking with laughter at Lydia’s antics and trying to poke her belly button with their fingers, and Kit and Maddy were still in the kitchen. Elizabeth was left to open the door and invite them in, earning her a quick kiss from Will as they stepped inside. Richard waved a hello and moved directly toward the delighted screams. Will was carrying a bouquet of flowers for Aunt Maddy, which made Elizabeth roll her eyes.

  “You aren’t supposed to bring gifts for other people today, Will,” she said teasingly. “It’s your birthday we’re celebrating.”

  “She’s going to so much trouble,” Will said almost bashfully, “I couldn’t show up empty-handed. My mother would be ashamed of me.”

  “Before we say hello to everyone,” Elizabeth said, “I just want you to know that the gift you’ll get from me after dinner isn’t your real gift.”

  “Oh, really?” he asked, leaning close to her ear. “Is the real gift not appropriate for a family audience?”

  Well, bashful went away in a hurry. She laughed and pushed him away. “You have a dirty mind.”

  “Richard is living in my apartment,” he said with a sigh. “It was bound to rub off on me eventually.”

  “Whatever you’re blaming me for,” came Richard’s raised voice from the other room, “I didn’t do it.”

  They both laughed. “All right,” Elizabeth said. “C’mon in.”

  Maddy was delighted with the flowers, but shooed Will out of the kitchen. “Dinner is nearly ready, Will,” she said sweetly. “Just relax, if that’s possible in this house.”

  “Thanks, Maddy,” he said, as Elizabeth led him out. Kit came out with Will’s flowers in a vase and set them on the sideboard, where they could be admired. A few minutes later, Mary had arrived, and Ed was downstairs to shake hands. The family gathered at the table, where they stood until Aunt Maddy sat down.

  There was comfort in the rituals of dinner at the Gardiners, Will thought as they stood awaiting Maddy’s entrance. He’d only been for dinner the once, Christmas night, and at the time he’d been primarily focused on who wasn’t there with him. Now he was seated next to Elizabeth at a dinner in his honor, and his feelings couldn’t be more different. He reached for her hand under the table and laced his fingers through hers.

  He couldn’t recall the last time he’d really focused much on a birthday other than G’s. Certainly not since his parents died. Richard was always abroad, and his uncle and Oscar were usually in DC this time of year, even when the Senate wasn’t officially in session. G would generally buy him a gift, and they’d go out for dinner. Bingley had taken him out for a beer last year, but that had been the extent of any celebration. He tried to help make G’s birthdays special, though, the way his had been when he was her age. The first year he’d moved back into the apartment, they’d invited her girlfriends for a slumber party, but he’d left their aunt to host that one. As she grew up, G asked to take a few close friends out to a play or concert, and he’d felt compelled to chaperone those trips. There hadn’t been many birthday cakes or balloons or big dinners. He hadn’t missed it, really. Until now.

  “I want to open presents!” Sarah announced tyrannically from her seat at the children’s end of the table. Richard had taken a seat with them between Jason and Todd. Moira was still shy, but she was surreptitiously glancing at Richard between small bites of her food.

  “It’s not your birthday, Sarah,” Kit told her calmly. Will smiled a little. It sounded as though this was a common refrain for the youngest Gardiner. “When it’s your birthday, you’ll get to open the presents.”

  “I don’t think you’d like the present I got for Will anyway, Sarah,” Elizabeth added, attempting to placate her cousin. “It’s not sweet and it’s not a toy.”

  Sarah pushed her lips out into a pout. “When’s my birthday?” Todd tried to shush her.

  “July thirty-first,” Maddy said, her tone warning Sarah not to continue with her nonsense. “Same as always. How many birthdays come before yours?”

  Sarah screwed up her face in thought. “Four.” She sighed and picked up her fork.

  Will tried not to smile too widely, but he was enjoying himself immensely. “Does that include Richard’s?” he asked Sarah. “His is in June.”

  She hunched her little shoulders. “Five.”

  Elizabeth nudged him with her shoulder. “That was mean,” she said, but she was laughing a little.

  “Enough now, Sarah,” Ed cautioned. “Stop complaining and eat.”

  After the meal, Moira and Jason carried the gifts and cards over to Will. Moira bounced up and down with excitement but returned to her chair while Will opened everything. The Gardiners had given him movie tickets, Jane and Richard a good bottle of wine, and Elizabeth two pounds of gourmet, bourbon-infused coffee beans. “Not for the morning, then,” he’d grinned, and she’d shrugged.

  “I honestly don’t know,” she replied sheepishly, “but I read it was good.”

  The smallest Gardiners had made him cards with messages, and he read each one of them out loud to giggles and much self-congratulation on the part of the artists. By the time he had finished making a production of the gift opening, they heard the garage door opening, and R
ichard left the room to meet Jane.

  “Happy birthday, Will,” the eldest Bennet sister said sweetly as she walked into the room, Charlotte and Richard just behind her. She adjusted the thin pink hairband holding her hair away from her face. “Have you all had cake yet?”

  When Maddy shook her head, Jane went into the kitchen, emerging with a chocolate cake and two candles, a 2 and a 9. Charlotte clapped her hands and laughed.

  Jason sighed. “That’s cheating. You should have to blow out twenty-nine candles.”

  Charlotte threw her hands up dramatically. “Oh, no, Jason—I tried to blow out thirty candles at my party, and it took me three tries!”

  Richard laughed. “I think Will has enough hot air enough to do it in one.” Jane set the cake down on the table and elbowed him in the ribs.

  “Be nice,” she said to him. Richard put his arm around her waist.

  “I’m always nice,” he said, even as everyone sitting at the table laughed and burst into various exclamations of disbelief. Richard placed one hand over his heart in an exaggerated show of shock. Ed sat at the head of the table, watching his family, his eyes dancing with merriment.

  Will tried to look offended. “Am I going to blow these candles out or what?”

  “Oh, poor baby,” Elizabeth chimed in, amused. “Are we stealing your spotlight?” She kissed his cheek and stood up from the table. She walked about ten feet away from the table and then held out her phone screen towards him.

  Suddenly, Will heard Georgiana’s voice asking, “Is it time? Oh, I see you all! Hi, everyone!”

  “Hi, Georgiana!” everyone called and waved.

  “Okay, Richard!” Elizabeth called, and his cousin lit the two candles and started singing while everyone, including G, sang along. He blew out the candles, and Maddy began to slice up the cake, giving him the first piece. Chocolate cake with buttercream frosting. A favorite. Elizabeth came back to the table and handed him the phone.

  Even on the small screen, he could see G sitting in her dorm room with a party hat on her head and a slice of cake on a paper plate. She grinned and waved maniacally at him. “Hey, brother!”

  He laughed at her. “Hey, G. Did Maddy overnight air the cake?”

  She giggled. It was really good to hear her giggle like that. “No, but she told me what kind she was making, so I made one exactly like it.” She took a bite, and her nose wrinkled. “Except I’m sure hers tastes better. This is a little dry.”

  He chuckled as she set the plate down.

  “So,” she chirruped, “are you having a happy birthday?”

  “I am,” he said, and then, glancing around the table, added with a sly smile, “Of course, if I wasn’t, I could hardly say so just now.”

  He was not surprised when a pillow from the couch abruptly made contact with his face, but he was surprised to find that it had been launched by Jane and not Elizabeth.

  “Good shot, Janie,” Elizabeth said approvingly, picking up the pillow and handing it back. Charlotte nodded approvingly, taking the pillow from Jane and fluffing it. She didn’t immediately return it to the couch, and Will raised a hand in mock surrender.

  Georgiana was laughing, and all he could do was shake his head. “You’re supposed to be on my side, G.” He was sure she could tell how happy he was. It didn’t seem possible to really hide it here. Despite the crowd, these were people he knew and felt comfortable with. They wouldn’t take offense—or worse, see an opportunity if he happened to be less guarded among them. Ed and Maddy even knew his role in Elizabeth’s sudden disappearance and still, they’d invited him to Christmas.

  After a few more minutes of conversation about her classes, G wished him a happy birthday again and signed off. Will scanned the room, wanting to say just how deeply content this day had made him, but he couldn’t find the words. He didn’t want to embarrass himself or anyone else. So he just wrapped one arm around Elizabeth’s waist and pulled her over to him.

  “Thank you,” he said to her quietly. “This is the best birthday I’ve had in a very long time.”

  “Well, it’s not a first-class ticket to Maine,” she said happily, laying her head on his shoulder, “but it’s what I have to give.”

  “It’s so much better than a trip,” he assured her. “Exactly what I needed.”

  Everyone in Elizabeth’s family had gone to so much trouble just to make him feel special on his birthday—that was the real gift. He exchanged a look with his cousin, whose attention was almost entirely on Jane, and it occurred to him that this was his family, too. Elizabeth wasn’t just offering him a birthday party. She wanted him to know that he had people who wouldn’t disappoint him. A lot of people, who cared for him, not what he could give them.

  Mary and Moira were walking around with a garbage bag now, picking up all the paper plates, and the boys had been assigned to clear the floor under the table of any debris. Even Sarah was told to collect the silverware remaining on the table and deliver it to the kitchen. He heard Elizabeth offer to help take down the decorations, but Maddy waved her off and said that Ed could do it. Charlotte asked Will about soccer, and he said he’d check his schedule. He asked her about her art, and she smiled brightly and said she had two more showings coming up, one in Seattle and the other in San Francisco.

  “Congratulations,” he told her sincerely, and thought that he and Elizabeth really ought to go to the gallery in the city that sold her work. He’d been friendly with Charlotte for months but hadn’t yet seen her art.

  Then Elizabeth was saying her goodbyes and leading him out the door. “I still have another gift for you,” she said excitedly as they donned their coats and gloved. “I can’t wait to see your face when you open it.”

  He grabbed the lapels of her coat and pulled her to him in the dark of the unlit foyer. “I can’t wait either,” he said, his voice husky. She hit him on the arm playfully.

  “No, you horn dog,” she said, “another present.”

  “I don’t get to unwrap you?” he pressed, unwilling to move just yet. She was so warm, her lips so soft under his. She was melting into his chest. His hand moved down her back.

  Someone cleared his throat, and he looked up, over Elizabeth’s shoulder, to see his cousin outlined by the light coming in from the hall. “I think Ed may be headed this way,” he warned, and then grinned. “Just sayin’.”

  Elizabeth broke the kiss and grabbed his hand. “Come on,” she said impatiently, pulling him out the door. Abruptly, she pulled away and glanced back at Richard.

  “You two go to my place tonight,” she told him. “Will’s is off-limits.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Jane wanted to keep Richard close tonight. She could see he was satisfied with the way the evening had gone, even happy, but there was a melancholy beneath his normally agreeable demeanor that was unusual for him. It was one reason she’d let the pranks go on as long as they had. She knew her sister well; it was an easy thing to apply those observational skills to Richard. His shoulders were atypically tense, his features somewhat pinched, and he was more restless than his norm, getting up to pace the downstairs a few times before he’d returned to the kitchen.

  They didn’t get to spend as much time together as Will and Elizabeth, and that was saying something. Both her sister and Will were busy professionals. Still, Elizabeth’s schedule was flexible, even when Will’s wasn’t. Her own schedule was nearly impossible, and Richard was the one who’d been forced to do most of the compromising, though his hours weren’t exactly flexible either. Jane wondered idly whether the lack of time together might be causing a problem. While they’d been able to cobble together a few early evenings and three nights over the past weeks, she hadn’t been prepared for his change of mood.

  Richard had suffered a nightmare two nights ago. When Elizabeth had nightmares, she had trouble getting back to sleep. She’d inevitably rise, and Jane would find her somewhere unusual the next morning—out on the deck, in the garage, once, back in Meryton, even up a tree i
n the backyard. Richard had startled awake with a low cry, sitting upright and nearly bolting from the bed. He’d looked around, seemed to gain his bearings, turned over, and started to snore. Jane had fallen off not much later, wondering if he’d ever even been awake. In the morning, he had recalled the nightmare when she asked about it but hadn’t wanted to discuss it. She’d overheard him call his therapist for an appointment—He’s realistic about it at least, she thought. She glanced up at him to see that he was staring out the window, and she bumped him with her hip. She was rewarded with a grin and his attention.

  “Careful, Doc,” he teased. “I’ll get you for that.”

  “Try and catch me, devil dog,” she replied challengingly. He stopped to give her an amused look and she stared right back at him.

  “Oh, for God’s sake,” complained Charlotte good-naturedly, waving a dry washcloth at them. “Just get out. I’ll wash the dishes myself.”

  Richard tossed the towel at Charlotte. “You don’t have to tell me twice,” he told her, and tossed the towel onto the counter. Charlotte grimaced, but the smile that replaced it let Jane know she really didn’t mind.

  “Are you still at the gallery in the city?” she asked her friend. “I heard you speaking to Will about it and I’d like to make sure I get over there before you leave on your nationwide tour.”