“Yeah.”
“Course, you had to work; sorry ’bout that.”
Charlotte shrugged. “It wasn’t too much work. I mostly hung out in the trailer with Jane.”
Richard shared a look of understanding. “I know. Sometimes you get the feeling they could replace you with a cardboard cutout.”
Charlotte grinned at his perceptiveness. He knew her like no one else. Her heart was both swelling and breaking. Why? Why couldn’t he see that they were perfectly matched for each other? She looked away, unable to face him. She wanted him so much, but she couldn’t have him.
“Do you want to get a drink or something?” Richard asked. His eyes filled with sad comprehension of the moment.
“That’d be great,” Charlotte agreed. They moved backstage and joined Elizabeth and Alex in the green room. Cold drinks were passed around, and they took refuge in the company of others.
Darcy and Caroline soon joined them. “Where are Jane and Charles?” Elizabeth asked.
Caroline smirked. “It could be awhile yet.”
Elizabeth grinned in understanding. “You should’ve seen Jane on the plane. She was practically willing it to go faster.”
Caroline laughed. “Charles poured orange juice on his Corn Flakes at breakfast this morning.”
“The worst part is he didn’t notice until the bowl was half-gone,” Darcy added. This got a chuckle from everyone. “I don’t know what they are going to do during the break.”
Elizabeth’s eyes grew quiet and sad. “I forgot that was coming up.”
“Yup,” Caroline said happily. “Nine days of work, then we are off for a month.”
“We are off the tour for a month,” Alex corrected. “You’re not really off, Lizzy Bennet. You have some appearances scheduled, a video to shoot, and you have a performance,” he added cryptically.
Elizabeth eyed him, puzzled. “Performance?”
He grinned like the cat that just caught the canary. “I just got a call from Anne. Long Borne Suffering will be performing ‘Everything You Are’ at the VMA pre-show in three weeks.”
“That’s great!” Caroline exclaimed, echoing the general sentiment of the room.
Elizabeth’s jaw dropped. If he had told her she was winning a Nobel Prize she would not have been more surprised. The MTV Video Music Awards was one of the biggest shows in the business, and being asked to perform, even in the pre-show, was a huge mark of both their success and their potential.
“I guess we will see you there,” Darcy grinned.
“Are you performing?” Elizabeth asked.
“Yes. We’re the closing act.”
Elizabeth was impressed despite herself. The closing slot was the most prestigious appearance of the night; in the past, acts like U2, Madonna, and Guns N’ Roses had held it. Considering Slurry was basically unknown four years ago, it was quite a testament to their talent.
Elizabeth felt a surge of emotions for Darcy she didn’t understand, and she struggled to control it. “So, we’ll see you there,” she said politely.
Darcy nodded.
***
Jane and Charles had left the planet and entered their own private world.
“I missed you so much, baby,” he said between kisses. “It’s so good to hold you.”
“I know,” she grinned, light-headed from the sensation. “I missed you, love.”
“I think it’s going to be a couple days before I can let go of you again.” Charles sighed.
“That’s okay,” she giggled, “we’ll just move Lizzy and Char to the Slurry bus.”
Charles laughed. “Oh, that would work,” he said sarcastically before returning to the sweetness of her lips. “I’m going to hate being away from you during the break, Jane.”
His words cut her sharply. Irrationally, she felt betrayed. A dozen questions sprang up in her mind, but her natural restraint kept her from asking any of them. Instead, she merely looked at him, waiting for whatever explanation he could give.
“I have to go home for a week. I have… business I’m required to take care of there, but it’s just for a week. Then I’ll come back to New York.” Charles was so unhappy. He wanted to tell her the truth. He wanted to explain everything, about his father getting out of prison, about setting up his house. He wanted to take Jane to California with him and show her the places where he grew up. But he knew he couldn’t. “We can go to the VMAs together, and then we’ll spend the rest of the vacation together, just us, I promise,” he told her lamely.
Jane was mollified. She gave him a weak smile as she chose to think about the time they would have together, rather than the time apart. She kissed Charles longingly once more and then walked him back to the others.
***
Elizabeth was complimenting Darcy when Jane and Charles entered the room, and the news about the pre-show performance was repeated. Charles’s excitement over the news was overwhelming. “Jane!” he shouted triumphantly. “I’m so proud of you! Next year you will be on the main show with us!” He took her into a great hug, his face illuminated with love and pride.
The group spent a few more minutes chatting, updating everyone on the plans for the rest of the tour and the break. Darcy was aware of the uneasiness between Charlotte and Richard, which he understood, but the distance between himself and Elizabeth puzzled him. It seemed that each time he tried to reach out to her conversationally, she politely backed away. He knew they hadn’t parted on the best of terms, but he didn’t understand her reaction.
“Elizabeth,” he called to her as she was about to leave for the stage. She turned and walked to him, her face neutral. “Anne is coming down tomorrow and she’s bringing the web designer. They want to update the Slurry page. Would you come to the meeting? I really don’t know anything about this and I could use your advice.”
Elizabeth was careful to not react to him. “Sure, Darcy. Just let me know when.”
“Thanks,” he said, and smiled privately to her. He was disturbed to see that his smile was not returned. She gave him a slight nod and walked away.
***
Elizabeth sat at the table in the LBS bus, her coffee cup forgotten in her hands, her mind a thousand miles away. Jane exchanged a look with Charlotte, who moved off to the back, allowing Jane to join her sister alone.
“Lizzy?” Jane called softly. She touched her sister’s arm.
Elizabeth visibly broke out of her trance and smiled with embarrassment at her sister.
“What’s going on?” Jane asked softly.
Elizabeth’s face fell, and she looked down at her plate. “I’m feeling a little confused, I guess.” She looked into Jane’s patient eyes and took advantage of the silent offer before her. Elizabeth knew she could tell everything to Jane and receive nothing except understanding and support. “When I was talking to George, he told me some stuff about Darcy.” She paused. “It wasn’t very nice.”
Jane encouraged her to continue.
“I…” Elizabeth frowned and began again. “When I was with George, it was easy for me to be sure of my feelings. But now we’re back, and Darcy has been… I don’t know. He’s been pleasant and warm, and I’m not sure what to think anymore,” she concluded.
“Well, how do you feel about George?” Jane asked practically.
Elizabeth shrugged and then smiled. “I like George. He’s very nice. He’s very easy to be around.” Her expression turned inward again. “But he’s not Darcy. Will is much harder to be with, but when I’m with him, I feel…” she trailed off, unable and unwilling to describe the intensity of her feelings for Darcy.
Jane took her hand and smiled sympathetically.
“So, now I’m lost between the man who is easy and who likes me and the man who is hard and likes me.” She grinned at the ridiculousness of it.
“Well, Lizzy, you have to make up your own mind, but personally, I’ve always preferred a hard man,” Jane winked. Elizabeth laughed, grateful for Jane, who was always there when she needed her.
Darcy watched as the tour had breakfast the next morning. Elizabeth sat with Charlotte, her concern for her friend obvious. Charlotte was not eating and looked like a wreck. He was disappointed to find that Richard was sitting across the restaurant and was also not eating. Darcy knew the two incidences were related, and he suspected the cute blonde named Dorothy whom Richard had been with the night before had something to do with it.
Right now, he was focused on the attractive picture of Elizabeth. Since her return to the tour, she had been polite to him. He knew her well enough to know that was the kiss of death from her. She was only polite to people she disliked. The question was why. Did something happen at the shoot? She was warm enough to him before she left. He would ask Caroline, but he suspected this was beyond even her formidable intelligence capabilities.
He regretted that they would not be staying in any more hotels before the break. It cut down on the chances for private time to talk to Elizabeth, to try to work out what was going on.
As Caroline gave her morning briefing, Anne entered the room with another woman and took a seat at his table. Darcy nodded a cool greeting to Anne and turned to examine the woman more closely. She was tall and shapely, with dark hair and eyes.
When Caroline finished, Anne spoke up. “Can we begin? I’ve got things to do,” she snapped.
Darcy slowly leaned back in his chair and deliberately took a slow sip of his tea, his gaze never leaving hers. “Of course, Anne. I certainly don’t have anything else to do.” He paused to take another sip and rose. “Excuse me,” he told her, leaving the table before she could respond.
He walked to Elizabeth’s table and bent low over it. “I need you for that meeting I was telling you about,” he told her softly.
Elizabeth’s eyes flashed. “Right now?”
“Yes,” he answered, his eyes holding hers. “If you aren’t finished yet, I can wait. It’s no problem.”
Elizabeth shared a look with Charlotte and rose. “No, it’s no problem at all.” She wasn’t surprised that he would demand her with no notice like that. After all, he was Fitzwilliam Darcy. She took her coffee cup and the bag containing her laptop and followed him to the table where Rachel, Anne, and the woman waited.
“Anne,” Darcy said formally, “Elizabeth will be joining us.”
Anne looked like a cat that had been dropped in a bucket of cold water. She gave an equally hostile look to both Elizabeth and Darcy, saying, “Fine. This is Sylvie Duval. She’s our web designer. Sylvie, this is Fitzwilliam Darcy of Slurry and Lizzy Bennet of Long Borne Suffering.”
Sylvie smiled and extended her hand, first to Darcy then to Elizabeth. “It’s a privilege to meet you both,” she said with a light and charming Parisian accent.
“This is my personal assistant, Rachel Brown,” Darcy said, introducing Rachel to Sylvie.
“Can we begin?” Anne said impatiently.
They all settled around the table. Sylvie opened her laptop and began. “I have reviewed your current website. It’s been in need of an update for a while now, no? I contacted marketing and received some new material from them. This is what I have come up with so far.”
She passed the laptop to Darcy, who reviewed it, his eyes quickly scanning the screen without expression. He then passed it to Elizabeth.
Elizabeth studied the site. It started with a pop-up presenting a montage of images of the band—taken mostly from their videos while “Control” was being played. After a minute, Elizabeth skipped the intro and went to the main page, clicking around to view all the features.
“It’s good,” she observed, clearly impressed. “I like the frame idea and the rock motif.” She pursed her lips. “These pictures are pretty old, though.” She showed Darcy. “Look, you still have long hair here.”
Darcy nodded. “We had a photo shoot last month, Anne. Do you think Ms. Duval could have access to those pictures?” Darcy said with exaggerated politeness.
Anne stared coldly at him and nodded, while Rachel made a note in her Palm.
“You don’t have any songs to download, or videos,” Elizabeth observed while still focusing on the laptop.
“That is De Bourgh policy,” Sylvie told them.
Elizabeth sensed that Sylvie disagreed with the policy, but unlike Darcy, she was not at liberty to openly criticize the management. Elizabeth immediately found herself liking the woman.
“Well, I have to say, I don’t agree with it. Our video and audio bring a lot of traffic to our site, where fans can find information about the tour, buy tickets, or buy other merchandise right there,” she said professionally. “The lucrative sales of our CD off our web page have been extremely impressive.”
Anne’s eyes narrowed. “You are providing downloads off your web page?” she asked incredulously. “That’s against De Bourgh policy. We aren’t giving these songs away.”
“Well, De Bourgh never told me that, and since it’s my web page, and not De Bourgh’s, I don’t think it’s any concern of yours,” Elizabeth said calmly. “The sales off the web page fully support my decision.”
“I’d like to see that!” Anne snapped.
Elizabeth calmly produced a packet of papers from her case and passed them over to Anne. “For the purpose of comparison, I used the sales off Slurry’s web page,” she explained. “I think you will be favorably impressed.”
Darcy quietly took out a pen and scribbled on his napkin a note he passed to Elizabeth. It read: “How did you get the sales report off the Slurry web page?”
Elizabeth didn’t even look down as she wrote back one word: “Hacked.”
His eyes grinned at hers and he crumpled the napkin and put it in his pocket.
Anne put down the report and she looked at Darcy. “Is that what you want, Darcy? Audio and video downloads?”
Darcy took another slow sip of tea. Elizabeth saw him grinning behind his mug as she could almost hear Anne’s teeth grinding. “Yes, I do.”
“Fine!” she snapped. Looking at Sylvie, she commanded, “Add it.”
Sylvie nodded and looked pleased. “Now, about Long Borne Suffering,” she began with a smile at Elizabeth. “Your website is very up to date, isn’t it? But I do have some suggestions.”
Elizabeth frowned in confusion. “No, I’m sorry. I think you are confused. I do my own page for the band.”
“Oh?” Sylvie looked from Elizabeth to Caroline, who was staring at Darcy.
Darcy spoke up. “I asked if De Bourgh could take some of the load off you, Elizabeth, with the web page.”
“What?”
Darcy looked at the three other women at the table then rose. “Could you excuse us a moment?”
Elizabeth followed Darcy away from the table with an air of incredulousness. “What?” she asked him again, when they were alone in an alcove by the restrooms.
“It’s just that your career is taking off now, and I want you to have more time to focus on it,” Darcy said. “I’m not suggesting you give up the site; just let Sylvie help out a bit. When Anne told me she was coming down, I simply asked her to have your page reviewed. That’s all.”
“Where do you get the idea that I don’t have enough time to manage my own website?”
Darcy frowned. “Well, you are always on that laptop, Elizabeth, and you told me yourself you answer all your fan email.”
Elizabeth closed her eyes and sighed angrily. “Has it ever occurred to you that I might be doing something on my laptop other than the website?”
Elizabeth could see by his expression it hadn’t. “For your information, I’m spending the time on my computer doing web pages for my customers.”
Now it was Darcy’s turn to be astonished. “What?”
“You know I have a degree in computer science. Before you ‘discovered’ us, I designed web pages and networks for small companies.”
“Yes, but you don’t need to do that now.”
“I don’t?” she questioned him sarcastically. “Look, I’m not takin
g on new customers, but I’m not dumping my old ones either.”
“But you have your music career; you’re a success at that.”
Elizabeth laughed derisively, her eyes flashing. “You’ve never heard of a ‘one-hit wonder’? Until my music career is a lot more stable, I’m keeping my other business,” she explained. “And I’m keeping my own website, thank you very much.”
Darcy’s face was a blank. “I’m sorry, Elizabeth. I didn’t know. I was only trying to do what was best.”
“Of course you were,” Elizabeth said, her voice scornful, “because you always know what’s best.” She found that any warming she had felt for Darcy had evaporated. Darcy was exactly the arrogant, controlling jerk George had told her he was. Her rational voice told her that he had only been thinking of her best interests, and she had to concede that, but would it have been so hard to ask her if she needed help?
No, she told herself, this is his way to try to control her, and she wasn’t going for it.
Elizabeth left Darcy and returned to the table. She politely asked Sylvie about her suggestions, not willing to take Darcy’s arrogance out on her, and found she was favorably impressed with some of Sylvie’s ideas.
Darcy returned a moment later and had a low conversation on the other side of the table with Anne, then exited the restaurant, presumably to return to the bus.
“Sylvie,” Anne said quietly, breaking up the women’s conference, “I have to meet with Caroline. You can ride to the venue with me or with Lizzy here.”
Elizabeth smiled and offered Sylvie a lift on the LBS bus. As the tour moved out of the restaurant and to the parking lot, Sylvie indicated Richard and quietly asked Elizabeth, “Who’s that?”
Elizabeth smiled and informed her of Richard’s identity, marveling all the while at the amazing Fitzwilliam magnetism.
“Is he single?” Sylvie asked, her eyes trailing over Richard’s form.
“Oh, he’s highly single. But don’t expect any kind of commitment. He’s a confirmed bachelor.”
“So am I, so am I!” she answered thoughtfully. “But when I see an appetizing cake, I always try to get a slice.”
Fitzwilliam Darcy, Rock Star Page 26
