Foundation of Love: The Gypsy Blessing 2 (3 page)

William nodded and took a sip of coffee.

Anne continued. “She asked if she could join us for dinner, you know, but I told her I wanted you all to myself. She’s got a crush on you.”

William stiffened and cleared his throat. “Charlotte is a nice girl, but between Georgiana and work, I don’t have time…”

“Relax, Will. It’s not a serious crush—she just thinks you are about the
hottest
man alive.”

William replied with nervous laughter.

Conversation ceased as the waiter delivered their salads. After a minute, William feigned innocence and prodded. “A few minutes ago you mentioned that you had no boyfriend?”

Anne smirked. “Well, I
had
no boyfriend at the time I was visiting there.”

“Richard told me he visited you here for Valentine’s Day weekend.”

Anne’s face lit up expectantly. “And?”

William chuckled. “It seems you’ve finally done it, Anne. Whenever he talks about you, he’s overcome by such a sappy look, it’s absolutely sickening!”

“Excellent!” She beamed with happiness.

~%~

After he dropped her off at her dorm, Anne set about emailing the photos of her roommates, but refrained from adding any information, eager to see how he would react. In her opinion, William and Lizzy were perfect for each other. There was no doubt in her mind that William would be interested in Lizzy from the first moment he saw her.

She’d wait a while before letting them meet in person—until Lizzy turned eighteen—because Anne knew that once they met, they’d both fall hard. Of all people, Anne understood what it was like to fall in love and have to wait years before there was any hope of being with that person, as had happened with her and Richard. Well... her, anyway. Richard’s noticing her was much more recent.

On the other hand, it couldn’t hurt to plant the seed by sending him photos of her with her friends every once in a while. After all, she’d already started showing Lizzy plenty of pictures of William.

~%~

William returned to his hotel room and set his laptop on the counter in the kitchenette. While it booted up, he tried to decide which variety of flavored coffee pods provided by the hotel he should try this time around.
What happened to coffee-flavored coffee?
He expected to make his way through all the flavors—as long as they were caffeinated. If he’d be busy with Anne during the day, it was pretty much guaranteed he’d get little sleep if he wanted to catch up on work this weekend.

Monday’s upcoming visit to the future site of Lambton Village with a prospective architect was one that William had a good feeling about. He had specific ideas for Lambton Village, and up until now, nobody else he had spoken to was on the same page as he was. Surprisingly, when he described the hospital over the phone to Edward Gardiner, within a few days, Gardiner had emailed him a rough sketch of almost exactly what he had already envisioned. William hoped Gardiner’s staff would do the same for all of the buildings he had planned, especially his own residence, for which he was even more demanding in his specifications.

Adding to the attraction of using this firm, Gardiner seemed to understand and respect his fastidious nature. William knew what he wanted, and nobody was going to talk him into anything else unless there was a darn good reason for the change.

Hearing the distinctive sound he had assigned to his email inbox, he turned back to his computer. The clatter of letters dropping through the mail slot at Pemberley Manor in Derbyshire County, England, always reminded him of the happy summer vacations he had spent there while growing up. Answering several business messages first, he clicked on one from Anne. The preview of the photo she sent was too large to fit on the screen, but what—or who—
was
visible chased all other thoughts from his mind.

Those eyes!

The bells of a nearby church chimed the hour and broke William’s trance. Opening the attachment to view the entire photograph, he didn’t recognize two of the girls pictured. While he had to admit the blonde was beautiful, the girl with the emerald green eyes and the long, silky, brown hair was perfection itself. He prayed this was not the seventeen-year-old.

Before he realized what he was doing, William had dialed Anne’s cell phone, and he heard a very sleepy, “Hello?”

“Anne? Did I wake you?”

“William? Is something wrong?” When he told her that all was well, she grumbled, “Of course you woke me up! When you dropped me off, I
told
you I was going straight to bed.”

“I’m sorry. Everything’s fine; I just didn’t realize it was so late. Why don’t you call me when you get up. It isn’t important.”

“Don’t you dare hang up on me! I’ll be up all night wondering why you called. Tell me.”

He hesitated a few moments before blurting out, “I received your email... which is which?”

“Which is which
what
, William?”

“In the photo. Who is who… which girl is which…?”

“Oh!” At least Anne
tried
to cover her giggle by clearing her throat. “The girl with the blonde highlights is Jane. Elizabeth has dark hair.”

William didn’t answer right away; he was too busy swearing silently. “But you said… how old are these girls?
Neither
of them looks seventeen. They don’t even look like sisters.”

“I know Lizzy doesn’t look that young, and she certainly doesn’t
act
it either, but she’s seventeen. Jane just turned twenty.”

“How’d you become suitemates with these girls anyway?”

“They grew up in Charlotte’s home town, and she thought we’d get along well. After having the ‘party animals’ as suitemates last year, we wanted roommates that took their studies as seriously as we do and requested Jane and Lizzy. You
know
the university won’t deny me anything within reason.” She laughed. “They fear that if I’m not kept completely happy, I’ll put a stop to the de Bourgh family’s donations!”

William sighed deeply.

“You still there, Will?”

“Yeah. Sorry I bothered you, Anne. Sleep well.”

“Good night.”

He hit the “end” button on his phone and returned his attention to the photo that was still on the screen. The formal “Elizabeth” fit her much better than “Lizzy” though his opinion might change once he met her.

Charlotte’s neighbors, eh? They probably couldn’t afford to go to university any other way than scholarships,
William thought with another sigh.

Even before he had been old enough to consider girls as anything more than annoying pests, Anne’s mother, Catherine de Bourgh, had already begun to badger him about what she named as his “duty to connect their ancient, noble, and superior families” with a marriage between Anne and him. The two were such good friends, it really was too bad they had never felt that way about each other. However, it could never have worked. Anne had always been like a sister to him, and she had been in love with his cousin Richard for as long as he could remember.

Because William was the heir to the business empire that the Darcy family had built over many generations, even as far back as high school, he had been chased by quite a few girls.

At first, innocent and ignorant of the motive behind their interest, he’d thought himself lucky. After several disappointments, William saw a pattern developing—their pursuit of him had nothing to do with
him.
Their attention was completely mercenary in nature, although Anne continued to insist that his looks had something to do with it, as well.

The quest to win his affections continued once he entered university. Even though he was younger than the majority of college girls, he found they were willing to sacrifice almost anything to gain the prize of his fortune. A part of him died when he overheard the girl he had been seriously dating tell her friend that she would use her
talents
to make sure William never asked for a prenuptial agreement, making sure she would get a nice settlement when they divorced.

That’s when William decided he would never find someone who could meet his requirements for the perfect woman: one who cared for him, not his money or status, and did not put up a façade to attract him. He vowed never to trust another woman so long as he lived.

When his parents were lost in the car accident two years ago, he found there were only three women alive he could depend on—his sister, Georgiana; their housekeeper, Mrs. Reynolds; and his friend Anne.

Even before his parents were buried, the hunt doubled in intensity under the pretense of offering him
comfort
. Unlike those men he could name who used their “friendship” with him to obtain
favors
from these women, all the while promising to put in a good word with William, he cringed inside at the thought of using a woman’s greed for his own satisfaction.

The overwhelming demands of suddenly becoming a businessman and an employer when his parents died, as well as the responsibilities of his new role as guardian to his sister, kept him so busy that he barely had time enough to sleep and eat, let alone do anything else, like date. Earlier this year, when a very popular and well-respected magazine had named him as one of the “Top Ten Most Eligible Bachelors,” he found he couldn’t turn around without gold-digging women practically chasing him down the street. Thinking of entering into a relationship with
any
woman left a bitter taste in his mouth.

His cousin Richard teased him from time to time, saying that his “all work, no play” attitude was turning William into a “dull boy.” He always shrugged off the comment, claiming contentment. Truly, he had been
somewhat
content—right up until the very moment he first saw that photograph.

“Seventeen!” William sighed and moved to close the message, but not before he saved the photo to his hard drive.

~%~

Monday morning, William climbed into Mr. Edward Gardiner’s SUV, and the two rode out to the land that William’s father had bought a few years prior, when the local Native American group was first petitioning for Federal and New York State recognition as a tribe, and rumors were circulating that the tribe was considering opening a casino.

William’s excitement mounted as they rode through the area that would one day be Lambton Village. Every time the two men stopped and spread out the survey map on the hood of the truck, Gardiner made notations as to where William would like to place each building.

The most beautiful parcel of land, William intended to keep for himself, with plans to build the American counterpart to Pemberley, his estate in England. Though he did not wish a duplication of the manor house, he wanted to incorporate many of its features into Pemberley Deux.

A multitude of fields filled with wildflowers surrounded a small lake. As William stood on the rising ground where the house would be built, his chest expanded with pride. From here, he would witness the sun rise and set over the woods that edged the property, which were guaranteed to exhibit a glorious display of color in the fall. He could
see
it, as if time had sped up and the seasons had changed swiftly all around him.

“It’s perfect.” He sighed.

Gardiner caught up to him. “You know, I’ve spent a bit of time on this land. My niece enjoys hiking, and she comes here whenever she gets the chance, so she wanted to show it to me and my family. I hope you don’t mind, but she brought us here to picnic by the lake several times. As there weren’t any ‘no trespassing’ signs posted, we didn’t think we were doing anybody any harm. She’s a very talented architectural student, and it’s been her dream to buy this land and build a house of her own.” Gardiner looked around at the scenery. “It
is
beautiful here.” He hesitated. “If you’d like, when we return to the office, I can show you the model my niece is building for a school project—it’s the house she imagined for this land. It’s not quite complete, but it will give you an idea.”

“Yes, I would. Your family may continue to use this as a picnic spot until the construction begins.”

“That’s very generous of you, Mr. Darcy.”

After a few more stops, the pair returned to Gardiner’s office. Gardiner seemed surprised when William asked to see the model.

“My niece’s office is down here.” Gardiner led William down a hall.

“I thought you said she is a student?”

Gardiner nodded. “At the university, yes, but she has been working here part-time as an intern. Her ideas are wonderfully creative, and some have been the basis of almost as many of our firm’s designs as any of our senior architects. Actually, she sketched the hospital that I faxed over to you the other day—the one you were interested in developing further. After seeing the model, perhaps you’d like to see some of her other works. She would make an excellent addition to the team for your project.”

Gardiner stopped at a door and flipped on a light switch. William could only stare at the model while Gardiner gave a “tour” of the grounds. Gardiner removed the roof to show William the features of the inside of the building.