“Vulgar girl. I will not leave here until you have promised me.”
“Then you may as well move in!” I retorted. “Even if I was to give you such a promise, how does that ensure Austin marries Fleur? He will be so dejected as to commit himself to marrying a God-awful creature?” I snorted. “I don’t think so. You obviously don’t know me at all, Celia, if you think anything you’ve said will persuade me. I have no idea what Austin thinks of you snooping in his affairs, but you have no right to snoop in mine.”
“Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?” She asked, looking me up and down in my bedraggled state. “With someone like you.”
“God, but you’re a miserable old woman, aren’t you? I can’t imagine you have any more witty insults to dish out, so I will kindly bid you good day,” I bowed, “and a happy go feck yourself.” I nodded to her and made to leave, not bothering to hide my smile at the utter outrage on her face.
“You are resolved to have him, then?” she called.
I turned at the door. “I’m not saying that. I only promise to act in whatever manner will secure my happiness, and nerts to you or anyone whose opinion means nothing to me!”
As I closed the door behind me, I heard her ranting, but paid her no mind; Anne was beyond happy with one Cooper twin and I had reason to believe I could be happy with the other. I didn’t know if he still wanted me, but I had to believe Celia’s visit came from somewhere.
Chapter Fifty-Six
I laughed. “No! You didn’t?”
Jax blushed. “I did. God, embarrassing or what?”
“Well, she didn’t turn you down, did she?”
Jax’s face brightened. “No, she didn’t. She actually said yes. Should I..” He looked to the drawer where I knew he’d stashed Mum’s ring.
“Mate, I’m not going to stop you if you want to go on with the madness.”
He looked surprised. “Really?”
I nodded. “Really. It worked for Dad, who’s to say it wouldn’t work for you, too.”
Seriously, I was done messing in his life. If Anne had accepted an unintentional marriage proposal, who was I to stand in the way of a real one? I’d tried to force my views on my brother plenty already in the love department and it had made everyone miserable.
“No, dude, you do whatever your heart tells you is the right thing,” I said, holding my hands up in defeat and grinning like a madman.
I hadn’t seen Jax this ridiculously happy in… Well, I couldn’t even remember.
The door opened.
“Cass, what did I- Aunt Celia…” I stammered, jumping off my bed.
Thank God I’m wearing a long-sleeved top, I thought.
She looked around our room in disgust. In all the years we’d been at Netherfield, I couldn’t remember one time that Aunt Celia had come to the dorms. In fact, I was hard-pressed to remember a time she’d been anywhere at the school that wasn’t the ballroom or boardroom.
“Aunt Celia, to what do we owe the pleasure?” Jax asked.
She gave me the biggest stink eye I’d ever seen.
“Is…uh, everything okay?” I asked.
“I will speak to you about Lily Brewer.”
“I’ll leave you to it,” Jax said, starting to sidle towards the door.
I shot him a look that clearly begged him to stay, and his return look told me there was no way in hell he was. Until, Aunt Celia spoke again.
“Jackson, you will stay for this. You will benefit from this conversation as much as your brother.”
Jax dropped onto the bed and we waited for her to speak.
Finally, she cleared her throat. “I have just been conversing with Lily.”
“You’ve done what?”
“She is a truly vulgar girl. After Amanda came to see me the other day, I began to worry that the ring she’d taken was not, after all, intended for Fleur.”
Shit, Amanda had done what?
Jax and I shared a look, and I could tell he was thinking the same thing.
“I waited a few days, mindful of what you said about a surprise, then met with Fleur. She assured me she had neither spoken to you nor had an offer of marriage from you. Naturally, I put two and two together, realising Amanda had lied to me and you intended the ring for Lily, instead. Well, I set out immediately to confront the conniving little madam. You can imagine my disgrace and disappointment when Lily told me she had no intention of rejecting you-”
“I beg your pardon?” I interrupted, earning me another stink eye.
Aunt Celia gave me a scathing look. “Indeed. I informed her you were going to marry Fleur, and that your mother’s ring would be Fleur’s. Lily all but told me she would marry you against the wishes of the whole world.”
I saw Jax grin and my brain went into overdrive.
Our aunt sighed. “I tried to convince her the match was a terrible one, but she persisted in her disagreement. Telling me she wouldn’t stop a trifling thing like your mother’s wishes to stand in the way of her happiness.”
“Her happiness?” I asked.
“Oh, Austin, really you must see she’s not the right girl for you!”
“She’s a good person, Aunt Celia, and I won’t hear you say anything more against her.”
Aunt Celia actually looked flustered for a moment. “Well, you’ll think less of her when you hear what she said to me!”
I rolled my eyes. “And, what did she say to you?”
“She told me to have…sexual relations with myself.”
“The fact that Lily would not have used those words makes me doubt your story.”
Aunt Celia drew herself up. “She wished me a happy go feck myself.”
Jax and I both snorted.
“That, I believe,” Jax said.
“Ooh! You will do well to remember yourself, Jackson! Austin, you will not give Lily Brewer your mother’s engagement ring!”
“No,” I said quite cheerfully, “Jax’s giving that to Anne Macklin.”
Aunt Celia’s look of triumph turned to disbelief.
Jax shrugged. “Well, I’m thinking about it. I might…I probably will…yes, okay, I’m going to give Anne Mum’s ring.”
“What?”
“You’re a splendid shade of purple, Aunt Celia,” I commented dryly.
I could practically see the fumes shooting out her ears. She took a moment to compose herself, the smiled at me without any humour or affection. “Then, you can’t be thinking of marrying her.”
“On the contrary, I’ll do what I like when I like. I just won’t be giving her Mum’s ring.”
“Good luck paying for a ring, I’ll make sure your bank accounts are inaccessible!”
I laughed. “Firstly, I have Amanda’s birth mother’s ring, so I’ll be grand, thanks. Secondly, we’re eighteen now, Aunt Celia; you have no power over our money or any other assets now.”
“You will regret this, boys,” she said and swished out of the room.
“Bu-bye.” Jax and I waved, then broke into giggles.
When we’d calmed down, Jax looked at me scarily seriously.
“Did you mean it?”
“Mean what?”
“Proposing to Lily.”
I thought for a moment. “I don’t know, man. It’s quite possible that I did.”
“We can have a joint wedding!”
“Jesus, dude. I have only just stopped thinking you proposing to Anne now isn’t ridiculous, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
“You do know a wedding usually follows a proposal right?”
“Ha ha, yes. It just doesn’t have to be thought about just yet. Especially when neither of us has been accepted.”
“Well, you haven’t,” he replied, looking very pleased with himself.
“Yeah, I’m not sure an accidental proposal really counts, mate.”
“No, you might be right…”
“Are we planning the real one now?”
He grinned at me, then nodded.
“Ugh, fine, but I’m
not doing anything involving flash mobs or fancy dress, okay?”
“Would you consider playing the guitar?”
“What, you want me to do the wooing?”
“Hm…yeah, good point. You could teach me guitar?”
“That could take a while…”
We spent I don’t even want to know how long on proposal ideas. Eventually, Jax decided leaving it for a little while was best, since he didn’t want to rush the planning stage.
“It has to be perfect!” Jax said.
“Honestly, I think the whole ‘yes’ answer would make it as perfect as it needs to be.”
Chapter Fifty-Seven
After Celia’s odd visit, I didn’t see Austin much. Neither, actually did I see Jax or Anne much.
One would suppose they had quite a bit to catch up on and I didn’t really want to be a part of that. So, as I had for the last week, I left them in Anne and my room and went wandering about the campus. It was a clear day, still bloody freezing, mind you, but I expected not to get stuck in a deluge of water again, at least.
I wandered along, wondering how long I needed to walk to justify another piece of cheesecake, when I heard my name called.
I turned and saw Austin swinging a long leg over the seat as he got off his motorcycle.
God, he was beautiful.
He wore jeans, black boots and his leather jacket over a white shirt. Damn what I’d said before Christmas, he looked amazing in leather. When he pulled his helmet off – Did he actually just swish his hair? – he was grinning like some cover model. I am not ashamed to say I may have drooled a little. He raked a hand through his hair, pausing when his hand reached the back of his neck. Damn, I saw skin where his top pulled up.
“Austin Cooper, what are you doing?” I asked, sounding a little more breathless than I’d intended.
If possible, his grin widened. “Took the bike out for a bit while Jax is… Well, I imagine you know.”
I laughed, my mind so far from Jax and Anne, Austin had no idea. “I do know.”
“How are things?” he asked leaning against the bike.
I found I was standing right in front of him. “Uh, good. You? You seem fairly chipper.”
“I am feeling rather chipper.”
“May I ask why you’re so chipper? Or, is it a secret?”
“No, no secret.” He shook his head.
“Right, so going to tell me or not?”
He chuckled and looked over my head. “Well, I hadn’t intended to have this conversation quite like this.”
“What conversation?”
“I might have spoken to my aunt recently…”
I tried to keep the panic from my voice. “Did you now?”
He nodded. “She told me…some interesting things.”
“Okay, look, firstly, she totally deserved it. I know she’s your aunt and all, but she’s a massive bitch.” I blurted out.
He smiled. “Oh, I know, but that’s not all she told me.”
“Really?” Shit, shit, shit! What in the actual hell had she said to him?
He nodded again, looking at me very intently. “Really. In fact, she said some things that made me feel very inclined to talk to you.”
“Really?” I actually squeaked, yes, squeaked. Tres cool, I know.
He suddenly looked serious, not like scary serious, but like something seriously serious was about to happen. I felt butterflies go mad in my stomach and was incredibly glad I hadn’t made up my mind about the cheesecake before I’d seen him; I had a feeling said cheesecake wouldn’t have still been in my stomach at that point…
“Lily… I need to ask you if there’s any chance of us. I mean, if not, I understand and I’ll not mention it again. But, Aunt Celia’s words gave me cause to hope and…well, my affection hasn’t changed…”
“I…” Oh, this had all happened too quickly, I hadn’t been prepared. “Yes.” When his face fell, I hurried to explain. “No, I mean… I can safely tell you my affections haven’t changed either, Austin. No! Wait…sorry…should have started with the other part… God, rambling. I was wrong…last year…I…well, it turns out I never hated you.”
His look of hurt and confusion was slowly being replaced with interest and amused cautious optimism.
“Dammit, I’m no good at this,” I muttered.
Instead, I grabbed him and kissed him. I kissed him like I’d never kissed him before. Not that those other kisses hadn’t been great. But, this time I kissed him with no hesitation. I tried to tell him everything with just one kiss.
I felt his arms wind around me and he pulled me close, giving back just as good as he got. Months of witty banter and flirtation, frustrations and bickering culminated in that one epic kiss. Feelings were conveyed better than with words and I forgot it was bloody freezing quite quickly.
Kissing Austin was even better than I remembered, even more right and just so damned addictive.
I barely even noticed when it started pouring with rain.
I did, however, notice when a throat was cleared behind us and someone said “Miss Brewer, Mister Cooper, I think that’s quite enough.”
We pulled apart slowly and turned to find Mr Bembly looking most displeased.
“Sorry, sir,” Austin said.
“Move along,” was all Mr Bembly said.
Austin looked at me, hiding a laugh, and I bit my lip to stop my own laugh.
Something flashed in his eyes that warmed me to the core. He got back on the bike and motioned I get on too. I looked at him uncertainly.
“I just have to park it,” he said with a smile. “And, I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
“All right, then,” I said, getting on and holding onto his waist
We rode around to the garage and parked the bike. He took my face in his hands gently and kissed me again.
“You know Mr Bembly will probably come and check on us,” I laughed as his lips trailed down my neck.
“Hm…you’re probably right.” He gave my neck one last kiss and pulled away. “Come on, then.”
He took my hand and we walked, seemingly aimlessly.
“Austin, it’s still raining.” So much for it being clear. “And, I’m wet.”
“I’ll bet you are,” he replied with a wink.
“Austin! That might work on Aunt Nadine, but it will so not work with me.”
He chuckled and put his arm around me. “Like you said, we’re already wet. I have every intention of getting you alone – you have no idea how much I want that – but, first, I think we should talk.”
I sighed and snuggled into him. “All right then, talk.”
I felt him laugh. “It has to be said, Lily, I fell in love with you. From the moment I first saw you and you called me a little ray of sunshine-”
I laughed now. “That was not supposed to be a compliment, and I looked terrible that day!”
“Oh, I know.” He kissed the top of my head. “And, you didn’t look terrible, a little wilted maybe, but natural.”
“Well, at least your standards are low,” I scoffed.
“My standards aren’t low, I just happen to like you just the way you are.”
I felt my chest tighten and I looked down with a smile.
“When Aunt Celia came to see me, it taught me to hope as I’d scarcely ever allowed myself to hope before. I know you well enough to know that, had you been decided against me, you wouldn’t have hesitated to say so to my aunt quite frankly.”
I laughed. “No, you know me; after I’d managed to abuse you quite successfully to your face, I was hardly likely to hold back in front of your relatives.”
“It’s not like I didn’t deserve it. Sure, you were pretty harsh and totally misinformed, but I still acted like a jerk. God, I hate to think of it.”
“Let’s not argue about who behaved worst, shall we? We were both to blame, but are hopefully a little more polite now.”
“It’s pained me to no end to remember the way I behaved. You quite correc
tly pointed out I hadn’t behaved terribly much like a gentleman. You can’t know how I’ve dwelled on those words. Though, to be honest, it was a while before I was reasonable enough to see them as nothing short of the truth.”
I leant into him. “I never knew you took that to heart, I couldn’t even have begun to imagine you would.”
“No, why would you? You thought me entirely devoid of feelings. I will never forget the way you looked when you said I couldn’t have done anything that would induce you to accept me.”
“Oh, God. Are you going to repeat everything horrible I said? I can’t tell you when I realised it was a load of shit, but it’s been months since I was first ashamed of it.”
“What about the letter? Did it make you think better of me? Did you believe me, despite my terrible behaviour?”
I laughed. “I couldn’t help but believe you, regardless of everything else. Something just rang true in it, and I saw him in an entirely different light. As for Jax and Anne, it took me a bit, but not long to realise you had only done what you thought best. I couldn’t help but look at you with growing affection after that. It does not, though, excuse you for wasting all that money on Kate.”
He chuckled and held me tightly. “You know about that, then?”
“I do, and I can’t say I’m pleased. But, I will leave it at that.”
“She’s your sister, Lily. What else was I to do? Although, I can’t say I would have done it a few months ago. I’ve been selfish – though Jax would disagree – in practice if not in principal. When we were little, we were taught right from wrong, but I was never taught how to deal with my temper. Our parents gave us good principles, but I was left to follow them in pride and conceit. Our parents spoilt us. They were wonderful people, but they allowed, encouraged and almost taught me to be selfish and overbearing, to care for none but my closest family, to think meanly of the world, to want to think meanly of their worth compared to ours. As we got older, it was only ingrained in me that people only wanted to be our friends for our money.” I felt him shake his head. “And, I’d still be like that, if not for you. You humbled me, more than once. I came to you that day, totally without doubt as to how you’d respond. You showed me how insufficient my assumptions were in how to please a woman worthy of being pleased.”
Netherfield Prep: A Modern Reimagining of Jane Austen's 'Pride & Prejudice' Page 37
