Georgie didn't even hesitate. "He's the best brother in the world. He's always been there for me. Always. And ..." She looked at the ground.

A knowing silence fell over the table. It was only broken by my cell phone's ringtone. I apologized while I reached for it and saw it was Jane. I walked away from the table as I picked up.

"Lizzie?" I could instantly tell from the sound of her voice that something was wrong. "I don't know what to do. I need your help."

"Of course. What is it?"

Her voice was winded. "I can't find Lydia. She left a few hours ago, and the one time she picked up the phone she said she was with Wick and that she was sick of being treated like a child and was going to have some real fun. I have a really bad feeling about this. She isn't answering her phone. I know you said he can't be trusted, and I'm really worried about her."

I'd never given Jane the full details of what Wick was capable of, and I started cursing myself for not having been firmer about Lydia's obsession with Wick.

"I'm heading into the city now. Just keep trying her and tell her that she cannot trust him."

I turned around and was startled that Darcy was right in front of me. "Is everything okay?"

I glanced over at Georgie and kept my voice down. "No, things are not okay. It's Jane's sister, Lydia. She's gone missing ... with Wick."

Darcy instantly tensed at the sound of his name. He clenched his jaw and straightened up his back. The calm, relaxed manner was gone, and the Darcy that I first met seemed to be back.

"This is all my fault," I said.

"Your fault?" Darcy pulled out his cell phone. "No, this isn't your fault. It's my fault."

"But if it wasn't for me, Lydia would've never met him."

Darcy's voice was very controlled, almost too controlled. "No, we should have put him away...." He glanced over at Georgie.

"I have to go into the city. I don't really know what I can do, but I really need to be there for Jane."

He nodded. "Let me talk to Georgie. I want to help you."

"You really don't --"

He cut me off. "Don't be silly."

Darcy leaned down to his sister and whispered something into her ear. I didn't know what he said at the time, but she responded in a positive way. So I had to assume she had no idea Wick was involved.

We quickly walked to the train station, and the short ride into the city felt like an eternity. I wasn't a good enough actress to pretend that I wasn't nervous, so I kept asking Georgie questions so I wouldn't be forced to lie about anything.

When the train pulled up to the first stop at Christopher Street, we all got out. Darcy flagged down a taxi and put Georgie into it. "Have fun!" she exclaimed as the cab pulled away.

"What exactly did you tell her we were doing?" I asked.

Darcy hesitated. "I don't think you will be happy to hear this, but I figured the only thing I could think of that wouldn't have made her want to come along or get her suspicious was to tell her that we were going on a date." He flagged down another cab and we got inside.

As we headed toward Jane's family's apartment in Tribeca, I studied him. He was so tense. I could tell that anger was bubbling up inside of him.

"I'm so sorry," I said. "Darcy, I'm so sorry that I've brought him into your life again. I didn't know...."

He stared straight ahead. "How could you know? I should have done something. It isn't your fault."

"But I believed him. I thought he was like me. I was so stubborn and thought that we were similar, with the whole scholarship thing."

Darcy handed the taxi driver the fare as we arrived at Jane's. Before he got out, he looked at me.

"Lizzie," he said, "you are nothing like George Wickham."

Twenty-Six

JANE WAS IN HYSTERICS WHEN SHE OPENED THE DOOR. BUT IT didn't take her that long to realize that I came with a guest. "Darcy?" she said in between sobs, glancing between the two of us.

Darcy took over, asking Jane where Lydia was last, what she had said, where she liked to hang out. Then he did probably the hardest thing -- he told Jane the truth about Wick.

I looked down at the floor when he recounted the story he had e-mailed me. He kept control of his voice, but the one time I dared to look up, his hands were balled up in fists.

"I'm sorry that I didn't tell you this sooner," he said to Jane. "But the only reason I'm telling you this now is not to make you feel worse, but for you to understand what we have to do next."

Jane and I were both confused.

"We have to call around to hotels to see if they checked in anywhere."

"What?" Jane exclaimed. "She's fourteen years old!"

"Does she have a credit card?"

"Of course."

He studied me for a second. "Lizzie, I need you to start calling hotels."

"Like the Waldorf?" I had never stayed at a hotel in the city in my life. There were thousands of hotels, and I had no idea where to start.

"No, Wick would want the trendiest hotels." He thought for a second and then rattled off about a dozen hotel names to me. I grabbed a pen and paper out of my purse and started writing them down.

"I have a phone call to make, excuse me." Darcy exited to the kitchen.

I got the phone numbers for the hotels and started calling them one by one. First asking for Lydia, then Wick. Nothing. I was distracted watching Jane repeatedly try to call Lydia. When the fourth hotel operator said, "One moment, please," and then the line started to ring, it took me a second to realize what was happening.

"Darcy!"

Darcy came running out of the kitchen right when Wick picked up the phone.

"This better be about why our room service is taking so long," Wick slurred on the other end of my phone, loud enough for all of us to hear it.

Darcy grabbed the receiver. "I'm just calling to confirm the room number, sir," he said in an unrecognizable voice.

"What? Didn't you just call the room? How can you call a room and not know the room number? Didn't you have to dial room four two seven?"

Darcy quickly hung up. "I don't think you guys should come," he told us. "I can handle this on my own."

Of course, Jane and I ignored him and followed him out the door. Darcy didn't protest, he just sat in the front of the taxi and was on his cell phone the entire time.

Jane was practically shaking. "I can't believe how irresponsible Lydia is. They are clearly drunk, and she has the nerve to use her credit card to get an expensive hotel room to do who knows what. I'm the worst sister on earth!"

"Jane, how is any of this your fault? Lydia should know better."

She leaned back in the seat and put her hands over her face. "And here I thought everything was going to be okay, now that I was with Charles. Of course I couldn't be that lucky." I'm sure it didn't help that Charles was away with his family in Greece for the break.

We pulled up to the hotel and none of us waited for the bellman to open up the door. We hurried inside and a tall, muscular gentleman in all black approached Darcy.

"We can't gain access to the guest room floors without a key card. I didn't want to call security until you arrived."

"Security?" Jane was panicked.

"I'll handle this," Darcy assured us. He walked to the front counter and spoke to a manager. The guy stood guard near us, but didn't speak a word.