“He sleeps in,” her dad whispered as he shuffled into the room, holding his stack of library books to return.
Elsie smiled. “Well, then let’s get out of here before anyone has the chance to demand anything from us.”
She waited as her dad slowly made his way to the passenger seat of her car and then drove the five miles to the library, making sure to park far enough away to give them a good little walk.
Mrs. Bennet, being an impatient woman, had no tolerance for waiting on him to walk anywhere. She brought his wheelchair whenever possible.
“Did you read all those mysteries or do you need to renew any of them?”
He handed them over, and she was happy to carry them for him without having to offer.
“I read them all,” he said. “I’m starting to wonder if I’ll run out of library books at some point.”
“You have an e-reader, you know. You’d never run out of books on that.”
He shrugged. “I like the feel of a real book in my hands.”
They stopped to watch two sparrows fighting over a small piece of donut before continuing up to the library doors.
“Maybe we should stop for donuts on the way home,” he suggested.
Elsie smiled. She only ate donuts with her dad. She enjoyed the time with him more than the glazed doughy things. When it came to sweets, cookies were more her nemesis.
It was two minutes past opening time, and they waited by the locked door for someone to come to the front. Mrs. Lucas, the head librarian, hurried over and flipped the lock before holding the door open for them.
“Hello, you two. I’m going to head back to finish the book order I started, but if you ring the bell I’ll hear it. Oh, and please send Charlotte my way if you see her. She’s bringing me a sweater. It always gets so cold in here, and I forgot it this morning.”
She left them to their own devices, as she knew Mr. Bennet would require at least an hour of browsing before wanting to check out. Elsie sat at a table and read while he went up and down the fiction aisles, occasionally pulling out a title and reading the back. Elsie was half-way through her own book when a tap on her shoulder alerted her to Charlotte’s presence.
“Fancy meeting you here.” Charlotte pulled out the chair next to Elsie and plopped down. “I have to be at work soon, but I’ve been dying to know what’s going on with you and Will. I know what I saw the other night at Jane’s party.”
Elsie put her book down and tried to control the blush she knew must be taking over her face. “That was just Will interrogating me about my eye color.” It sounded even more pathetic out loud and she quickly added, “I don’t like him, and I doubt he feels anything more than curiosity for me.”
“Why don’t you like him? I thought he was nice.”
“That’s because you don’t know what he’s really like. Jeff Wickham grew up with him, and one day Will Darcy decided Jeff wasn’t good enough to hang out with him or his sister anymore. Will even had charges lobbed against Jeff after a car accident. He’s had his license revoked because of it!”
Charlotte didn’t seem nearly horrified enough, considering what Elsie had just revealed. In fact, she looked skeptical. “Isn’t Jeff the guy always tagging along with Lydia?”
Normally, Elsie wouldn’t trust any friend of Lydia’s either, but Jeff was more than that. “He’s my friend too, and I know he’s not lying.”
“Well, I like Will. I think you’d be dumb to discount him, just because Jeff thinks he’s a snob.”
“Will put him in jail!”
“Um, honey, the police put people in jail. It could as easily be Jeff’s fault. Or no one’s fault. That’s why they call it an accident.”
Charlotte’s cold analysis was not helpful on this subject, and Elsie decided to drop it. “So, what do you think of Collin?”
Charlotte shrugged. “He’s very friendly. And I think he was smart to get a financial advisor after winning the lottery. Why do you ask?”
“No reason.” Except it only solidified Elsie’s feelings about Will. If Charlotte thought Collin was such a great guy, she had no right defending Will.
***
A very tanned Caroline Bingley showed up, ready to take the other guest bedroom in Charlie’s house again. Fresh from her college reunion in Florida, she had decided to, in her words, ‘recover’ somewhere quiet like Meryton.
“And you’re still here, Will?” she teased.
