Page 30 of Stuck

Don raised his eyebrows as though he was considering it. “Can’t hurt to have options on the table. I’ll mention it to Darcy.”

“Darcy? Not Bingley?”

Don reached the bar and leant forwards to order before explaining. “Bingley’s not here, and Darcy knows his stuff.”

I wanted to reply, “He didn’t know this, did he?” but I held my tongue, thinking better of bad-mouthing the management. I was intrigued, though, because I’d seen Darcy hold his own with engineers and bean counters alike, and now the head of Legal was singing his praises. None of the other board members seemed to have their fingers in as many departmental pies.

“What exactly is his background, anyway?” I asked.

“Darcy? He’s in land management. Have you heard of the Pemberley Group?”

“You’d hope so, wouldn’t you?” I said flippantly. The Pemberley Group was one of the country’s largest agricultural conglomerates.

Don nodded. “That’s his.”

My mouth fell open, but I didn’t have the chance to say anything before the barmaid plonked our drinks down in front of Don and he was passing them back to me. By the time we fought our way to the tables where our colleagues had set up camp, talk of Darcy had been left behind.

The revelation rang around my thoughts all evening, regardless. The Pemberley Group was involved in small- and large-scale farming operations, rewilding projects, government-funded sustainability research initiatives… The list was long and essentially amounted to a smorgasbord of all my greatest passions.

I’d wondered what was behind Darcy’s cantankerous exterior. Now I knew: a multibillion-pound, environmentally conscientious agricultural empire. Be still my beating STEM-girl’s heart. I wished Bingley didn’t have me lying through my teeth to him.

Fiona eventually arrived, along with another handful of stragglers from the office, and the evening got going. Perhaps because it had been such a hard week and everyone was on a major comedown, it was an especially fun night. A little too much fun, maybe, because it took Fiona whispering that she was leaving to make me realise how tipsy I was.

“Sorry if you’ve felt left out,” I whispered in her ear. “Is it boring not drinking?”

“It’s not that,” she replied. “But I’m knackered, and it’s gone ten o’clock.”

I looked at my watch in surprise. “Already? Bollocks, I’ve got to go too. I’m supposed to be swimming first thing in the morning.”

“You swim?” Al asked from across the table. “For a club?”

“No, for fun. Wild swimming.”

“What on earth is ‘wild swimming’?” Joe asked.

“Swimming outdoors. In rivers, lakes, the sea, wherever.”

“Please tell me you’re not swimming in the Thames,” Sunita said with a face like she was sucking lemons. “You’ll die.”

I laughed. “No. A group of us meet at the Serpentine Lido.”

“That can’t be much better,” Don said, leaning over to add his two pennies’ worth. “I suppose there’s less chance of you getting Weil’s Disease, but you might still get nibbled. I’ve seen giant carp in the Serpentine.”

“Yes—one touched my leg a few weeks ago. You should’ve heard me scream.”

“Ugh,” Fiona said with a shiver.

“It’s fun! You lot should try it before you knock it.” And maybe I wasn’t alone in being a tad squiffy, because five minutes of egging each other on later, half the table and two heads of department had accepted the challenge to join me in the morning.

I got an Uber home, a little too loopy to feel safe getting the tube. That loopiness was undoubtedly to blame for the decision I took as I sat in the back seat, grinning and texting Jane, pleased as punch with my own impulsivity and not at all worried that the rational part of my brain may not have been firing on all cylinders.

Can you ask Bingley to send me Darcy’s number?

Why? Has something happened?

Everything’s fine. I’m not going to snitch on you

Why do you need his number at ten thirty on a Friday night?