Page 65 of Stuck

“And she didn’t return to the office at all?”

“No. Why?”

He put the phone back to his ear. “She’s not here.” To me, he said, “They can’t find her.”

I tensed. “What do you mean?”

“Jane says she wasn’t at the flat when she got home earlier. She didn’t think anything of it at the time, but their sister Mary’s just rung because she couldn’t get hold of her. Apparently Elizabeth went to hers when she left here, and she, um…” He winced apologetically. “She was quite upset. Mary was calling to see whether she was feeling any better, but when there was no answer, she rang Jane. Now neither of them knows where Elizabeth is.”

“Have they checked her location?”

He asked the same of Jane, then repeated her answer to me. “She has it switched off, and her phone’s going straight to voicemail.”

Ice washed over my skin. The memory of another phone ringing and ringing and ringing, never to be answered again, slammed into me hard. The ringtone had been a distant buzz down the line for the first few dozen attempts. Then, as I opened the front door, it had switched to a crisper sound, coming from the front room, where he’d left his phone on the piano.

“Jane, I’ll be there as soon as I can. Try not to worry.” Bingley hung up, left his chair, and came to stand in front of me, one hand on my shoulder. “Darcy, this is nothing like that, okay? Nothing. She’s probably just somewhere with no reception.”

That was exactly what I would have said about my father if you’d asked me why he wasn’t answering his phone on that innocuous Tuesday afternoon in August, twelve years ago. Before I knew the real reason. I tried to set the thought aside; I’d learnt a long time ago that projecting the terror of that happening again onto every situation was a very unhealthy way to exist.

But Bingley hadn’t seen the state Elizabeth had been in when she left. I’d assumed her tears stemmed from guilt, the violent shaking of her hands from fear of the imminent repercussions. Knowing now that she had nothing to either fear or regret, I had to assume that she’d been crying from the hurt I’d inflicted and the unwarranted threats I’d hurled at her. I had to pray that her beautiful, determined joie de vivre was enough to compensate for the worst mistake of my life.

28

DARCY

“I’m coming with you.”

Bingley paused with his jacket halfway on, looking startled. “You don’t have to.”

I didn’t have time to argue. I grabbed my own jacket and stalked towards the door. “Trent’s been waiting in the car for the last half an hour. Let’s go.”

We were waiting for a lift down to the garage when a man I didn’t recognise jostled me, giving me a hard look. I didn’t acknowledge him, too distracted to care what his problem was, but when he continued to stare, Bingley cleared his throat.

“Is there a problem, Jerry?”

A Hydro Crops employee, then. And with that realisation, the name clicked. Jerry… Wilson? I turned to give the man my full attention—in time to see him sneer at me as he said to Bingley, “Elizabeth’s the best engineer you’ve hired for years. And a darn sight brighter than those other cretins you’ve got working in Legal. And somehow she’s escorted off the premises while this guy goes about his day.”

I wasn’t sure how I hadn’t considered that word would spread of Elizabeth’s unceremonious ejection from the building. Bile rose in my throat as I thought of the unnecessary humiliation I’d inflicted on her. She took such pride in her work.

“Elizabeth was not escorted out, nor is she being fired,” Bingley replied levelly.

The reassurance didn’t improve Jerry’s mood. As the lift arrived and the doors opened, he barked, “Still reckon I’d rather take the stairs.” With a last acerbic glare at me, he stomped away.

“Don’t take it personally,” Bingley said as we entered the lift. “Jerry’s notoriously crabby. Nightmare to work with but brilliant at his job.”

“Elizabeth had no trouble winning him over.”

“Yes, well, Elizabeth gets on with most people. Present company excepted.”

“What?”

“Well, I assumed… you know, what with the thinking she was a spy and all, that you didn’t have a very high opinion of her.”

I laughed bitterly, helplessly. “I think she’s incredible.”

He jolted, visibly shocked. “Oh!”

“Yeah, ‘oh’. If I hadn’t spent the last month believing she was with you, I might have done something about it by now.” I tipped my head back against the lift wall and closed my eyes. “I sure as hell wouldn’t have suspected her of colluding with Wickham if I’d known all her evasiveness and equivocations were to protect your sorry arse.”