by Aimée Avery
Elizabeth hated the woman on sight. Not only was she tall and beautiful, she looked good no matter what she wore. From an elegant summer shift dress to old cut-off shorts and a ragged T-shirt, Caroline Younge looked fabulous. Elizabeth felt short and plain around the woman, and therefore, fell back on what she could do. In all her girlish enthusiasm, Lizzy tried to show off her talents for sports and impress the boy turned man. But William saw her only has a child who could use her lack of height to infiltrate the front line and foil the opposing teams attempt to spike the ball.
What made it even worse was the afternoon before the summer finale, a party to celebrate the end of the summer fun, Elizabeth managed to secure Will’s promise that he would dance at least one dance with her. Lizzy was nervous enough without her sisters making fun of the fact she was to actually wear a dress, that she needed to escape the cabin and the company of a ten, twelve and thirteen year-old following her about with their jeers. Jane’s wise seventeen years managed to corral the younger girls while Elizabeth slipped out and walked into the woods where she had once been the damsel in distress.
There was a tree near the spot where Will had “rescued” her she liked to climb and look out over the lake. As she stood and looked at the tree, she had her first dream of dread, and knew this would be the last summer retreat in a very long time, if forever. Though she could not see what was to happen, it was to be something sad, and important enough to end these beautiful summers, and she felt the need to climb the tree and take that one final look about the lake and make it a permanent memory.
Sitting on a high branch with the wind teasing her face, Elizabeth heard a woman’s laugh, followed by a man’s just below her. Turning to look down at the intruders, she watched as Will Darcy pushed Caroline up against the tree trunk and kissed her passionately. Lizzy watched as her heart shattered. Tears began to stream down her cheeks as she listened to the conversation exchanged between the lovers on the ground below.
“I wish we thought to bring a blanket,” Caroline spoke as she pulled at Will’s shirt.
“We don’t need a blanket.”
“William! I am not going to do it in the dirt.”
“Hmm, getting dirty sounds quite nice,” Will’s voice was husky.
Caroline chuckled before saying, “Yes, but everyone will know, and your father already is disapproving enough.”
Elizabeth was happy that George Darcy wasn’t very fond of his son’s girlfriend. It was obvious to even her that Caroline Younge liked Will more for his money than anything else. Well, maybe she liked this part too, except for the getting dirty.
“Besides, Will, I’m not like that little girl that follows you everywhere.”
“What are you talking about?” William asked as he pulled back from Caroline to look at her.
“Your little Miss Eliza. You do know she has a crush on you?” Elizabeth felt dizzy and quickly hugged the tree to keep from falling.
“The Princess?” Will laughed. “Lizzy is just a child! She is more interested in learning to Jet Ski than boys, let alone have a crush on someone who is more or less a brother figure.”
Caroline gave him a look as if he had to be a dense fool. “William, she begged you to dance with her at the party tonight. I know the female mind, and she has a crush on you; not to mention the little bitch has tried to sabotage me with your father!”
The ringing of Will’s mobile phone interrupted the conversation, and the two left the woods hand in hand. Elizabeth managed to shimmy down the tree and make it back to the cabin, where she claimed not to feel well. She never made it to the party that evening, and the Bennets left for home early the next morning. Three weeks later, George Darcy suffered a heart attack, putting an end to the family summer retreats the company sponsored. Corporate expansion was emphasized instead of family retreats, and Elizabeth Bennet decided that white knights no longer existed.
Lizzy returned to the flat and resumed her studies with fervor. She also continued tutoring, and six months managed to slip by without notice, as did any remnants of her psychic sex daydream or summer retreat memories. Margaret Martindale transferred to Avery Hill, and a friend of Mary King’s took up the vacancy in the flat. All seemed well until Elizabeth awoke one morning with a feeling of dread. Something was about to happen, but she could not see or feel what it was. But whatever was to come was making her nerves itchy, just as Charlotte’s teasing had done, and Lizzy knew that this dreaded happening was going to take her down a path leading directly to William Darcy.
Chapter 3
William sat at an outside table with his cousin, Richard Fitzwilliam, and hoped the throng of tourists eating at this pub didn’t trip over themselves and dump their drinks all over him
“This pub seems a bit popular with the tourists. Why did you choose to meet here, Richard?”
“I didn’t. Caroline suggested it,” Richard smiled and nodded toward the entrance to the patio. “Speak of the devil. Or should I say she-devil?”
“Watch your mouth, Richard!” Caroline sashayed up to the table and slapped his arm as the two men rose. She leaned and kissed Richard’s cheek as Darcy spoke.
“I believe she prefers “witch” to “she-devil.” Darcy’s voice was full of amusement.
“You watch it too, mister!” Caroline snapped and then kissed William’s cheek. “The two of you are too cheeky for your own good. I’m going to have to do something about that.”
Richard’s head snapped up, and he quickly looked between his two companions. “You’d better not do the same thing to Will that you’ll do to me!”
“I’m sure Caroline will have something much better worked up for me than you, Richard.” Darcy said with a smile and a wink to Caroline, and then let out a laugh when Richard’s eyes seem to slip from their sockets.
“Stop teasing him, William. He still hasn’t recovered from that summer I went with you to the States,” Caroline chastised.
“Yes, Darcy! Caroline is my wife! Stop making the moves on her!” Richard growled.
“Calm down, cousin. I am not making the moves on your wife! She’s not my type anyway.”
“Okay, you two. Stop with the male struggle for dominance. You are the one I want, Richard. Always you. Just you.”
“Except for that summer,” Richard muttered dejectedly.
“No, Richard. Not even then. Not that I didn’t try my best,” William said kindly. That summer had been a hard one on William. His mother had passed away just months before. The retreat was something his mother planned every year, and it seemed wrong not to continue with it after all the work she had put into it. He promised his father he would attend. His younger sister, Georgiana, was only eleven, and the loss of her mother affected her acutely. She seemed to slip further within herself. The only time she seemed to enliven was when her older brother was present.
He hadn’t attended the retreats for the three years previous to that last one. He thought it best under the circumstances. After the lecture his father had given him the summer before he entered university, it seemed best. But that last year, his father almost begged him to come for his sister’s sake. He thought it might be prudent if he took along Caroline. She had recently broken up with Richard, and they thought it would be mutually soothing if they struck up a fancy for each other. Only George Darcy could see past the show, and he wasn’t too fond of the pairing.
“I’m sure you did!” Richard scowled.
“Richard. William and I never did anything. Yes, he tried, but neither one of us really wanted the other. I wanted you, and William here wanted his princess,” Caroline explained to her husband.
“I believed you when you said that you two never, um, well, got it on. But what is this ‘princess’ business? Neither of you has ever mentioned this before.” Richard Fitzwilliam was intrigued. His cousin never seemed to stay in a relationship more than a few dates. Could this “princess” be the reason?
“It isn’t something I like to talk about,” William said.
“Darcy! I’m your cousin. Your blood. My wife knows, but I don’t! Now that makes me suspicious!” It didn’t really, but Richard wasn’t about to let his cousin slide on this tidbit.
William sat for a moment and fingered the condensation on his drink glass. Without looking up, he began to speak. “You remember the story where the little girl was lost in the wood?”
“Yes. The one you found? You were, what? Ten?”
“Yes. Elizabeth Bennet was five. She dubbed me her ‘knight’ for saving her; she was the damsel in distress. I called her ‘Princess’ after that. Every summer, she would follow me around. It bothered me a little at first. After all, when you’re twelve, the last thing you want is a seven year-old girl following you about. But I just began to expect it. When I was seventeen, she was twelve and…”
“Okay, so I get you’re five years older, so what does that have to do with the rising price of crude oil?” Richard asked before his wife could get her hand on his arm to belay the comment.
Darcy looked up at his cousin with shame and sadness in his eyes. Richard sat, almost stunned at the expression on his cousin’s face.
“That summer, I realized that the Princess was growing up. She always liked to swim in the lake, and that year she wore her older sister’s hand-me-down bikini. Only Lizzy, at twelve, filled out the bikini better than Jane ever did. Her body had blossomed into a woman’s, but she was still a kid. But that didn’t stop me… um, wanting her.”
Richard seemed a bit shocked, and then realized that his cousin, even at seventeen, would never do anything foolish.
“No one seemed to notice that I looked at her that way, or so I thought.”
“Uh oh!” Richard mumbled. “What happened?”
“Both Mr. Bennet and my father noticed. Neither was pleased. I would never have done anything, but I couldn’t help looking. I was just a kid myself. My father took me aside and spoke to me. I have never been so embarrassed in my life. I managed to finish out that summer, but decided not to attend the retreats anymore, not until mother died and father begged me to go for Georgie’s sake. You and Caroline had broken up, and I thought if she went with me, she could distract me.”
“Only it didn’t work,” Caroline added in. “Now he was twenty and she was fifteen, and a beauty if I do say so myself. William kept himself in check, but he would have to get away from her after a while. That’s when he tried to hit on me. But I knew he wanted little Eliza. Funny thing was, his little princess had the hots for him too. She even begged him to dance with her.”
“Really now?” Richard smiled.
“The night you came to claim your girlfriend, there was a dance. She had asked me earlier in the day if I would dance with her. I waited for her, but she never showed. Apparently she wasn’t feeling well.”
“You never told me that!” Caroline exclaimed with surprise.
“I don’t think she was as infatuated as you thought.” William smiled. “I haven’t seen her since. I was invited to her high school and college graduations, but didn’t attend. My father did go to the first, and took her the gift I bought for her, but…”
“I suppose she is married with two point five children now?” Richard said before he took a drink from his glass.
“No. She is here in London, studying for her PhD,” William added casually.
“And you haven’t seen her?” Mister and Missus Fitzwilliam asked in unison.
William chuckled. “No. I haven’t. Though she does visit with Mr. Reynolds and his wife every so often. They keep me apprised.”
“Well, I, for one, think you should look her up. After you barked at me that day for saying she was trying to incite problems between your father and me, well, I just think you should.”
“What’s this?” Richard asked, wanting to know all the facts that existed in this secret between his wife and cousin.
“Oh, I was being a witch, and said something about Eliza using her influence with your uncle against me. I know Mr. Darcy was not at all happy with how Will and I were using each other, and he wanted Will to spend more time with Georgiana. Seems Eliza spent time with Georgie when we would escape. I thought she was saying things to… well, it doesn’t matter anymore, does it?” Caroline was ready to move off the subject, even if her husband wasn’t. She could also tell that it was beginning to weigh on William.
“Oh, before I forget, it seems as if my baby brother is taking after Terrance’s example,” Caroline changed the conversation.
Richard looked at her and asked, “Why? What did Therrin do?”
~ • ~
Elizabeth was tired. She spent all her time either working on her thesis or tutoring. She was a popular tutor, if only because she never asked for money for her services. She couldn’t. She held only a student visa, but enough students would gift her with twenty pounds or so an hour that she could get by. As long as her rent remained the same and there were three other flat mates paying every month, she would have enough to finish her education.
But things in the flat were not going well. Mary and her friend, Jennifer, were loud, messy and liked to party. Unfortunately, the parties usually ended up in their living room. Lizzy spent more and more time studying away from home, the neighbors and landlord were beginning to complain, and Sally seemed to be drifting over the to dark side and joining Mary and Jennifer with their gaiety. Lizzy was glad that she would be going home to the States for Jane’s wedding. Two weeks away would do her good.
Elizabeth looked up to the deep blue of the sky and stretched. She loved coming to Hyde Park to relax. It was a quiet place, even with all the people strolling the paths and children playing in the grass. She smiled, thinking people had been coming to this park for hundreds of years to enjoy the gardens and the beauty. She smiled at a little girl passing by, then gathered up her things and starting walking to the northeast corner of the park. She thought she would stroll past the shops on Oxford Street before heading back to Greenwich.
“Lizzy! Lizzy!”
Elizabeth turned to see Sally running across the lawn toward her.
“I thought I would never find you! This place is so big!” Sally said as she tried to catch her breath.
“Sally! I thought you had a date today?”
“I did, but you’re leaving tomorrow, and I needed to talk to you.”
“Sure. Do you want to find a nice spot here or…”
“I have a craving for ice cream. There is a vendor there. Let’s get one and walk,” Sally said with a sad smile, and headed toward the vendor who stood just outside the park.
Lizzy pulled her wallet from the pocket in her backpack and paid for her cold treat, and the two women walked just outside the park toward Marble Arch. The day was warm, and their treats were melting in the heat of the sun. As they came to a shady spot where they could lean against the wall separating the park from the street, they rested and watched as people made their way in and out of a tube station while others enjoyed themselves on the patio of a pub.
“Lizzy…” Sally spoke meekly. “I… I think…No! I know… I know I’m…”
Elizabeth listened, but had a strange feeling – a touch of dread and a feeling as if she were being stared at. Both feelings were disconcerting, and she had a hard time concentrating on Sally’s slow speech.
“Elizabeth, I’m pregnant.”
Lizzy’s eyes widened as she looked Sally. “What?”
“I should never have gone to those parties with Mary and Jen. But I felt so out of place…”
Elizabeth couldn’t understand what Mary and Jennifer’s parties had to do with anything, but she could feel the dread swimming nearby.
“… That is where I met Therrin. He’s so handsome, and I just couldn’t help but give myself to him.”
Well, at least now she knew what the parties had to do with everything.
“I told him today. He… he said it wasn’t his – that it had to be someone else’s – but he is the only guy I have ever slept with. I can’t get rid
of my baby, Lizzy, but I’m going to have to tell my parents. My father is going kill me.” Sally broke down and began to cry.
“Sally, your father is not going to kill you. Yes, he will be disappointed in you; but he will love you no matter what. I’ve met him, I know he loves his little girl.” Elizabeth put her arm around the girl and tried to comfort her. “He might want to hurt this Therrin guy though.”
Sally laughed as she sobbed. “I thought that he was the one, you know?”
“Yeah, I know.” Elizabeth smiled at her flat mate.
“You want some company going to Heathrow tomorrow?”
“Sure. You want to come see me off?”
“I do. But right now, I think I would like to do some thinking. I have this strange urge to ride all over the city on the Tube; nothing like traveling underground while you think.”
“Do you want me to go with you?” Lizzy asked.
“No. Thank you. I’ll see you back at the flat this evening,” Sally said as she pushed herself from the wall and took a mad dash across the street to the Underground Station.
Elizabeth watched her until she disappeared into the building across the busy London street. She took in a deep breath and sighed it out as she turned toward the pub and looked directly into the eyes of William Darcy. Startled by the recognition in the man’s eyes, Elizabeth fled, taking Sally’s path to the Underground.
Chapter 4