Hiring Mr. Darcy - Valerie Bowman Page 0,81
coming this way,” she whispered.
I had to smirk at the term ‘light o’ love.’ I might have used the word ‘harlot.’ But either worked.
“Thanks for the heads-up,” Jeremy whispered back before grabbing his hat and whisking me out the nearby back door into the fresh, cool morning air.
When we got outside, he turned to me and smiled. “I asked Patsy to keep an eye out. Figured you might still want to avoid him.”
“Thanks,” I replied. “I know I’m being childish. I plan to talk to him, of course, but not until after we compete today.”
Jeremy nodded. “Sounds smart. Want to practice?”
“Absolutely.” I gave him a bright smile.
We ran through the entire scene. I recited it all woodenly, but I promised myself I’d do better later. I just wanted to make sure the trauma of seeing Harrison kissing Lacey hadn’t damaged my crappy memory further. At one point, Jeremy had to feed me a line, which caused me to panic, but the moment he whispered it to me, I jumped on it and managed to remember all the rest of the scene. I forced myself to take three deep breaths.
“Ready?” Jeremy asked after we finished.
“As I’ll ever be,” I replied, pressing a gloved hand to my middle. At least my potbelly wasn’t swelling today. Skipping dinner last night had been good for something. Despite the beers, I might have actually even lost a pound per the half-ass diet.
“Let’s go watch the others.” Jeremy offered me his hand.
We were scheduled to go last in this particular competition, which meant we could sneak into the back of the audience and watch the couples ahead of us. The first few did a fine job, especially Marianne and Elinor, who acted out a sisterly scene from Sense and Sensibility, the one in which Elinor exhorts Marianne to use more sense in her dealings with Willoughby. I’d always loved that scene. It made me want to be an older sister.
I was temporarily worried about Migel pulling ahead of us as they recited the scene from Emma where Knightley dresses Emma down for meddling, but at the last minute, Nigel backtracked and repeated himself for a few lines, which caused Lady Waverly-Jones to shake her head. It caused me to squelch a smile.
Lacey and Harrison were about to perform when Jeremy leaned over to me and said, “Are you sure you want to watch this?”
I swallowed and nodded. “We need to know what we’re up against.”
I actually didn’t want to see it, but it would be cowardly to hide. I’d watched all the other couples perform, hadn’t I? Plus, there was a small sadistic part of me that truly thought if I saw them act out this scene together—this beautiful love scene that I’d memorized and performed with Harrison myself—that I would be able to tell if they were truly in love. I couldn’t look away.
When they took the stage, I sucked in my breath. It was more difficult to see them together than I’d thought. Jeremy must have noticed me tense because without saying a word, he moved his hand over to squeeze mine where it rested on my knee. I squeezed back, then lifted my chin and sat in tense silence while Harrison, wearing a Regency costume I’d helped design, declared his undying love for Lacey.
Lacey, it turned out, was a better actress than I’d given her credit for, or she truly was in love with Harrison, but either way she did such a good job that the entire audience stood and gave her an ovation when it was over, as the papparazzi cameras flashed. I sat there feeling like the wind had been knocked out of me again. Still holding my hand, Jeremy leaned over and whispered, “They’re only being nice to her because they know she’s a professional actress. It’s a pity ovation.”
It wasn’t true, but it was nice of him to say. We scurried out the back while everyone was still clapping. Jeremy had just been trying to make me feel better. Lacey was good...really good, and Harrison hadn’t been a slouch either. The crowd cheered again when they received a ten. We heard it over the loudspeaker.
My heart hammered in my chest, and I was doing my best to control my panicked breathing. We had to get a ten. We had to get a ten to maintain our tie with Harrison and Lacey. No pressure or anything.
“Don’t worry, Meg.” Jeremy gave me a reassuring smile. “We got this.”
Two more recitations were