Undeceived Read Free Page B

friend.”
    He finished off his coffee and expertly tossed the empty cup in the trashcan across the aisle. “As much as I hate to, I gotta run. It was great seeing you again, Elizabeth.”
    “You too.”
    “Maybe we can run into each other again.”
    “Maybe.”
    “Maybe I’ll make sure we do.”
    Time to let him down easy. “If you can find me. I plan to be all over the world for the next few years.”
    “I’m sure you will if that’s what you want.”
    “It’s definitely what I want.”
    “Well, then, since I only have one halfway decent foreign language to my name, I’ll just cop out and say auf Wiedersehen.”
    She returned the formal German goodbye. Apparently, he’d gotten her unspoken message; she was on a well thought-out career track with no time for personal entanglements. She watched him go, thinking it was a shame she wasn’t ready for a handsome, steady guy. George Wickham would certainly have fit the bill.

Chapter 3
    Elizabeth entered her apartment, groceries in hand, and instantly noticed the blinking lights on her answering machine. Pressing the button, she listened to the latest message from her mother.
    “Hi, Lizzy dear. I hope you’re out on a date and that’s why you didn’t answer your phone. Give me a call when you get in.”
    The second message was from her friend Charlotte.
    “Let’s get together next weekend for some dinner and a round of barhopping. I could use a night out on the town. You tell me the day, and I’ll round up the usual suspects.”
    Elizabeth smiled at Charlotte’s enthusiasm and mentally reviewed her calendar for the coming week. She began putting away groceries but paused when she heard the low, smooth voice with an undercurrent of excitement in it.
    “Elizabeth? Hi, it’s George Wickham. Listen, I’ve got to talk to you, and I hope you don’t mind me calling you at home. I had to cajole your number out of a little sweetheart in HR, but I think it will be worth it. Hopefully, you haven’t gone on to your next assignment yet, but even if you have, I want to bend your ear about something that just came down from the higher-ups.” He paused. “Something big. There’s a meeting tomorrow morning—just come up to my department at 9:00 a.m. Let the secretary know who you are. I’ll leave your name at the front desk. Sorry I can’t give you more time to think about it or more information, but we’re better off discussing this face-to-face. Hope to see you then.” He paused again. “Please come. I think you’re just what we need. And this meeting could change your life.”
    She played the message again, twice. She thought back to their conversation in the cafeteria. It had seemed so innocuous, like a dozen other pickup conversations she’d participated in over the last year or so, but something in it had led him to issue this mysterious invitation. “I think you’re just what we need,” he’d said. Could it be a chance to work for the coveted CI department? Even a simple assignment would look good on her track record.
    Regardless, she was going to show up and see what was what. It was flattering to be singled out.
    Her mother’s shrill voice echoed in her head. “Weird, hushed phone calls in the middle of the night…”
    “You hush, Mama,” she muttered. “It’s not even the middle of the night.”
    Elizabeth disappeared into her closet, pulling out every power suit she owned in hopes of finding the one that made her confident enough to say and do all the right things. Tomorrow, she was going to a meeting in CI.
    ***
    The director held out his hand and shook hers, holding it with his two in a fatherly gesture. “So, you’re Miss Elizabeth Bennet, Tom Bennet’s girl. It’s good to meet you at last, and all grown up too. I worked with your dad, respected him.”
    “Thank you, sir.”
    “The day we lost him was a tragedy. It’s good to see you honoring his service with your own.”
    “I’m proud to do it.”
    “Well, well. Let’s get