Chapter Text
Elizabeth had watched the entrance for several minutes, waiting for Jane's current love interest to appear.
When he entered, Charles was easy enough to spot. As in the pictures on Jane's phone, he was all smiles and restless excitement, greeting people as though he'd personally arranged their attendance at the party. With him were two couples.
One consisted of a tall, dark-haired man with a fashionable woman on his arm. The conversation between them was distinctly one-sided. Whenever she spoke, he reacted with barely concealed irritation.
The other couple seemed considerably more interested in the open bar and the buffet than in meeting anyone.
Elizabeth couldn't really blame them. Beside the desire to meet Charles, her own attendance had been decided by the availability of free food and drink.
Charles' eyes lit up when he spotted Jane and made a beeline for them. Elizabeth was introduced but clearly not needed to entertain these two. Charles looked around for his companions.
"That's my sister Louisa with her boyfriend," he said, pointing out the couple at the buffet. "And in the orange dress is my other sister Caro. The tall fellow by the window is my mentor, William."
Not a couple, then.
The man, William, stood stiffly near a wall, away from everyone else, staring out the window. He was, Elizabeth had to admit, rather good-looking and wore a well-fitting suit.
"I'm on my way to get him a drink. Come on, I'll introduce you," Charles said.
A certain someone liked to be served, Elizabeth noted. They followed Charles to the bar, then across the room to William.
"Will," Charles said. "I brought you a drink and two lovely ladies."
"Thank you."
The man held out his hand. His voice was low and pleasant, but there was something rigid about him.
"This is Tom Collins," Charles said, placing the drink in his hand. "To my left is Jane, who I've told you about, and to my right her equally lovely sister Elizabeth."
"Hello," Will said, nodding to each of them.
Elizabeth hoped the drink would loosen him up. The tension in his shoulders looked painful. She decided to try some levity.
"It's never too dark to be cool," she said, nodding towards the dark glasses he was wearing.
Charles flinched and cleared his throat. "William has a visual impairment."
Elizabeth wanted the floor to open beneath her and desperately tried to think of something to salvage the line, but complimenting the look now seemed cheap.
"Now I'm glad I didn't tell you that staring is rude," she said.
William's expression did not change. A moment of awkward silence followed.
"I'm sorry," Elizabeth said. "I feel really dumb now."
Jane and Charles had turned away, perhaps trying to be discreet.
"You'll have to prove you're not," William said.
"I beg your pardon?"
"A conversation, perhaps?"
Usually, she was a pro at conversation. But recalling the way he'd reacted to Caro's chatter made her less inclined to make it easy for him.
"If you value conversation," she said, "you should go and talk to people."
"I don't know anybody here."
"And nobody can be introduced."
"You were introduced to me."
"Cheers," she said, clinking her glass to his.
They both took a sip. Perhaps she was ungenerous.
"Charles mentioned you're his mentor. In what area?"
William chuckled and shrugged, and his shoulders finally loosened a little.
The good thing about knowing he couldn't see properly was that she no longer felt any shame about studying him thoroughly. The straight nose. Clean shaven cheeks. An old scar at the temple. With the eyes hidden from sight, she found herself looking repeatedly at his mouth. Smirks escaped his controlled expression more readily than smiles. Underneath the awkwardness she could sense real confidence. Could he be vain if he didn't see the man in the mirror?
"I'm not sure," he replied, interrupting her musings. "Life? It's not in any official capacity. He's still young and prone to ...," he paused. "Enthusiasm."
"That's not such a bad thing."
"In business decisions, it can be. Nothing some friendly paternal advice couldn't temper."
That he thought of himself as paternal seemed presumptuous. He didn't look much older than Charles, around thirty.
"You're a parent, then?"
He shook his head.
"Since he's got no parent left, and I know what that feels like, I try to be a friend and give my honest opinion."
She smiled sympathetically, then realised he wouldn't be able to see it, and reached out to touch his hand instead, the long fingers and manicured nails.
He moved it away before she'd properly made contact.
"I'm not trying to fish for sympathy," he said. "It's just how things are."
"Noted," she said lightly. "I admire that Charles kept his cheer, at least."
Jane and Charles were currently talking to his sister. Elizabeth thought Caro's smile looked forced.
"His sister has been looking at you a lot," she said.
"Do you observe everybody this closely?"
"Just interesting characters. You have the look of a spy, you know. Better to keep mum."
"She's not so dumb."
They both smiled at the wartime posters reference.
Again, she remembered that he couldn't see her smile and felt briefly lost in the interaction. Yet he seemed to appreciate straightforwardness, and she could work with that.
"I also observed that you did not seem to enjoy Caro's conversation," she said.
"She is under the impression that she's responsible for me tonight."
"But she's not."
"Of course not."
"You made a handsome pair upon entrance."
"I wouldn't know."
"Believe me," she said. "If she took you on a piggy-back ride, you two would make a perfect carrot ensemble with your green suit and her dress."
"I'm wearing a blue suit."
"How would you know?"
She was finally treated with a real smile.
"You're not dumb," he said. "You're deliberately wicked."
She decided to take that as a compliment.