Pride: an austen reimagined novel | 1

Chapter Eighteen: Austin

Annoyingly, I saw her the moment she walked in.

And, I have to admit, I stared shamelessly.

She wore a glittering green dress, the bodice tight and hugging her figure, the skirt hanging in swathes of fabric I expected would flare when she twirled. She wore tall gold heels that only served to make her amazing legs even more beautiful. Her hair was swept back from her face, but half of it fell down her back in soft curls.

There was no denying she was beautiful, but I'd never admit as much to Cass.

Thankfully, she wasn't with Anders, who so far hadn't deigned to show his miserable face. She did, though, walk in with Sebastian and Anne, who was looking equally gorgeous in a soft peach dress. Jax clapped me on the back and forced me to go with him to say hello to them.

Lily looked between us with a slightly confused expression until she looked me in the eye. Jax kissed Anne's hand. I realised I was smiling at them. With our hair, long sleeves, and, it seemed, matching ridiculous grins, I wasn't surprised Lily had taken a moment to work out who was who.

"Good you could come," I said, unbuttoning my cuffs and rolling up my sleeves so we'd be easier to tell apart.

"Thanks for having us. I see a fair few of the Military College boys took up your invitation," Lily replied. But, by the way her eyes scanned the room, I suspected she was looking for a certain person.

My grin faltered, but I tried to hide it. "That they did. Gemma and Kate are somewhere, too."

She nodded absently, then started as Sebastian cleared his throat.

"Oh, right, Austin, have you met Seb? He's Gemma's cousin," Lily said.

"No, we've not had the pleasure." I shook his hand, but didn't look at him.

"It's very good to meet you, Aus...Mister Cooper." Sebastian and his weak handshake did not impress me.

"Sure, why not," I said, still watching Lily.

When I noticed Lily still looking around the room, her enthusiasm falling, I felt annoyance and anger rise in me. I bowed my head and walked away to find Cassandra.

I found her in a corner. She held a cup out to me, unnecessarily full; she obviously thought she'd save me the bother of needing another any time soon. I took it with more pleasure than I should have had.

"Thanks. She's looking for him, you know."

"He's not going to show," Cass scoffed. "He wouldn't dare. He knows you'd beat the living daylights out of him."

I took a sip of the whiskey, watching Lily as Sebastian drew her onto the dance floor. God, she looked bored out of her mind, but she danced with him politely enough.

"What do you know about this Sebastian guy?" Cass asked.

"Not much. He's their cousin, something about Claire Brewer's heir or something. I don't know really." I shrugged.

After Lily extricated herself from Sebastian, she was chatting with a Military College guy I'd seen on the pitch that morning. I stared at her so long that I didn't notice Cass had wandered off or that I'd run out of drink.

I dragged my eyes from Lily and headed to the drinks table. Where, I ran into Lily. In her heels, she was taller than I was used to and I was forced to look more into her eyes than usual.

"Hi," I blurted out.

"Hi," she replied. "Having fun? Well, as much fun as you can have anyway,"