Lizzy watched, amused. “And who is ‘she’?”
Mrs. Bennet’s eyes lit up, realizing she had stumbled into a rare moment when she had her family’s attention.
“Oh, you haven’t heard?” She abandoned the leggings to waltz into the center of the room. “Well, Donna called me last night with someveryinteresting news.”
Lizzy leaned across the glass counter and rested her chin in her hand. She knew what was coming. Her mother wielded gossip the way the Dutch masters wielded a paintbrush.
“You know that house near the end of Lily Pond Lane?” Mrs. Bennet said. “The enormous glass one that’s been empty for ages?”
“Marv’s Lament?” Kitty ventured.
Mrs. Bennet continued as if she hadn’t heard. “You know, Marv’s Lament! Well, someone rented it! A rich businesswoman from Manhattan. And you’ll never guess what she made her money in!” Mrs. Bennet paused to not-so-subtly motion down to her bedazzled purple leggings as she waited for an answer.
“Charades?” Lizzy offered.
Mrs. Bennet rolled her eyes. “No,fashion. Her name is Annabelle something or other, and she owns a chain of boutiques that’s worth millions!”
Kitty’s head popped up from her phone. “You mean Annabelle Pierce? I just saw a piece about her onBloomberg! She expanded her mom’s clothing store in Denver to over two hundred locations across the country and she’s only like thirty-two or something. She’s brilliant. God, do you think she’d be willing to look over my business plan? Maybe I could even—”
“And she’s coming here for the whole summer!” Mrs. Bennet cut her off. “Can you believe it? Just when I’ve started to break into the fashion business myself. It’s kismet!”
Lydia yawned as she ripped open a sugar packet. “So what? Rich women from New York are like a dime a dozen here.”
“Oh really?” Mrs. Bennet said, turning to glare at her youngest daughter, even as a sly grin pulled at her lips. “And how many of those rich women bring their single brother with them?”
This made Lydia perk up enough to abandon her coffee. “Brother?”
Mrs. Bennet nodded, biting her bottom lip. “The real estate agent who brokered the deal is friends with Donna’s neighbor’s sister, and she said this Annabelle woman was looking for a place for the whole summer for her, her sister, and her brother. Her single,richbrother. At least, that’s what Donna said. Supposedly there’s some other man coming in on the weekends, too, a friend of the brother or something.”
Lydia’s expression flattened. “So he’s gay.”
Mrs. Bennet shot her a look. “He’s not gay.”
“To be fair, he could be gay,” Lizzy said, barely holding back a smile.
Her mother waved her off. “If he was gay, he’d go to Fire Island.”
Kitty looked as if she was going to object, but Mrs. Bennet barreled on.
“Anyway, according to Donna, they’re all supposed to arrive today, but no one has seen them yet.” She turned back to her husband. “So?”
There was a long moment before Mr. Bennet looked up from the bills in his hand. “What?”
Mrs. Bennet gestured wildly to the door. “Has Annabelle Pierce come in yet!”
“I didn’t see anybody named Annabelle.” His attention went back to the bills. “But two guys from the city stopped in a little while ago.”
All eyes turned to him.
“Two… men?” Mrs. Bennet took a step toward her husband. “Did you get their names?”
He paused, deigning to give the query a moment’s consideration. Meanwhile, Lizzy and Jane shared another look. They both knew their father probably remembered, but toying with his wife’s nerves was one of the few joys Mr. Bennet had these days. They let him savor it. “One of them was named Charlie something. Powell? Prince?”
“Pierce!” Mrs. Bennet practically screamed.
“Yeah. That was it.”
Mrs. Bennet let out a strangled cry as Kitty and Lydia eagerly leaned toward him.
