Pride, Prejudice and the Perfect Bet by Marilyn Brant

Author:Marilyn Brant
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, friends, humor, romantic comedy, chicago, funny, contemporary, weddings, jane austen, pride and prejudice
Publisher: Marilyn Brant

***

Bingley was still mightily pissed at Caroline.

In his house on Tuesday morning, in his office with a picture-window view of the sunrise over Lake Michigan, he observed his gardener in the yard, readying the weeding equipment.

In the hall, he heard his cousin screech, “What? I have to wear sunscreen? That means he’s sending me outside again, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, miss,” Ms. Vee, his sweet-tempered housekeeper, replied calmly. “Mr. McNamara asked me to give this bottle to you.”

“Does that say SPF 50?”

“It does,” Ms. Vee confirmed.

“Grrr. I’m not even going to get a tan then!” Caro grumbled, and Bingley heard her footsteps clomp toward the bathroom. The door slammed.

He sighed, drank his espresso, flipped through various newspapers for the business reports and finished writing down the rest of the day’s agenda for his young Vancouver cousin. Caro was going to learn to do something useful here if it killed her.

Or him.

On Sunday, he’d had a long phone conversation with his Aunt Louisa and Uncle Edward about the events of the weekend. Even they had been quick to admit that their daughter’s behavior had gotten out of hand.

“If you want me to send her back to you today or tomorrow, I will,” Bingley had told them. “But I’d rather that something positive came out of this experience, so I have another idea…”

With a tearful Caroline listening on the other line, he explained his plan to her parents. They all—even his cousin—agreed to his terms.

Aunt Louisa said, “Thanks, Bingley. You’re a good man.” Then, to her daughter, she added, “If you don’t follow his directions, Caro, I’m coming to Chicago to get you myself. Don’t let that happen.”

Caro sniffled a few times, but she promised to behave.

Bingley had to admit that, almost forty-eight hours later, disaster had not yet struck, despite assigning his cousin more daily household and garden chores in these two days than she’d done in her entire lifetime. She was still belligerent and short-tempered, and he hadn’t come close to forgiving her for all the trouble she’d caused Saturday night, but he could feel they were on the right track.

He could even see a few hints that she—if only on some subconscious level—was relieved to have a few guidelines in place now. Maybe even pleased that she’d finally caused enough trouble to achieve her main objective: Getting the full attention of her parents and having someone (in this case, Bingley) care enough about her to step in and show her that there were consequences for her actions.

His excellent cook, Mrs. Morton, looked surprised when Bingley told her that Caro was going to do all of the chopping for both the veggie soup and their salads on Sunday, and that she’d be on hand to scour pans after lunch and dinner that day. But he couldn’t help but notice Caro’s flash of pride when Mrs. Morton later praised her on the finely sliced red peppers and the gleaming copper pots.

And Bingley’s gardener, Mr. Hoyt, a man of few words, said nothing at

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