Hiring Mr. Darcy - Valerie Bowman Page 0,35

keep silent about it until I had a chance to tell Dr. Holmes myself. I’d explained to Harrison quite logically and unemotionally (pat on the back for myself) that I was not about to abandon my months and months of preparation and not compete in the contest. Harrison had seemed surprised at first, then resigned, and finally annoyed. “You just can’t stand to see anyone else win at something, can you?” he asked.

I wasn’t certain if that meant he thought I was going to win or lose, but I agreed with him. “May the best person win,” I told him with a smile. He knew I was competitive. I figured he shouldn’t be surprised.

“Dr. Holmes isn’t going to like this,” he replied tersely.

“I know. Let me handle telling him,” I’d said.

I hadn’t heard from Harrison since. He indicated that he would be busy night and day teaching Lacey Lewis how to be Lizzy Bennet, and sort of implied that we shouldn’t see much of each other before the competition if we were going to be competitors. “Fine,” I agreed. “I guess I’ll see you in England, then.”

“Good luck, Meg.”

“Good luck, Harrison.”

That’s the way we’d left things, and while it felt weird being on opposite teams from my own future fiancé, each time I started feeling uneasy about it, I reminded myself that he was the one who’d decided to partner-up with Lacey Lewis, not me. The strange thing was...Harrison hadn’t asked me who my new partner was. He couldn’t possibly already know, could he? It would have been my first question if he’d told me he had a new partner. Why wouldn’t he ask?

I was still trying to decide how I would tell Dr. Holmes that I was going to become a virtual traitor to the department, but Dr. Holmes didn’t own the Jane Austen Festival in Bath. I had as much of a right as anyone to show up and take a shot at it. Now that I knew Jeremy was fully committed, I’d tell Dr. Holmes next week. But first, I needed to teach Jeremy how to play whist.

“Okay,” I began, shuffling the full deck of cards. “So, whist. Jeremy and I are partners and you and Luke are partners,” I said to Ellie.

“Great. I’ve always wanted to be partners with Nurse Ratched,” Luke said dryly.

Ellie gave him a tight smile. “That’s not particularly original. Plus, it’s really out of date. I thought a Stanford grad could do better. At least toss in some reference to Gray’s Anatomy or something.”

“Thanks. I’ll keep your bossy advice in mind next time I’m insulting you,” Luke replied, leaning forward and bracing both of his forearms on the table while watching me handle the cards.

“Oh, so now I’m bossy? That’s original too. Plus, it’s super sexist.” Ellie rolled her eyes, lifted her glass, and took a swig of red wine.

“Don’t get me wrong, Clara Barton,” Luke retorted. “Sometimes I like it when a woman takes charge.”

Ellie narrowed her eyes at him, but I could tell she was impressed that he’d made a reference to Clara Barton instead of Florence Nightingale.

“Let’s keep this civil,” I said, clearing my throat. “The first thing you need to know is we use a standard fifty-two card pack. I’ll be the dealer first. The cards are shuffled by the player to the dealer’s left.” I handed the cards to Luke to shuffle. “And cut by the player to the dealer’s right.” I waggled my eyebrows at Ellie.

All the while, Jeremy watched intensely, taking small sips from his beer bottle.

“Ace is high, two is low,” I continued.

Luke set the shuffled cards in the center of the table and eyed Ellie. “Your Highness, if you will.”

Ignoring my brother’s gibe, Ellie swirled her wine glass with one hand and cut the deck with the other. Luke shuffled the cards back together and handed me the pack. I spent the next few minutes dealing them so that each of us got thirteen. I turned up my final card and placed it in the center of the table. It was the five of spades. “Spades are trump,” I explained.

“Great. How do we play?” Jeremy asked.

“The player to the dealer’s left leads.” I nodded at Luke. “We play clockwise. You have to follow suit. That means whatever suit Luke plays, you have to play the same. The player who plays the highest card wins the trick.”

“What if we don’t have a card that matches the suit?” Ellie asked, frowning at her hand.

“Then you