by Aimée Avery
“Oh,” Elizabeth said in a dejected voice. After finishing her thesis and reading her letters, she needed something to look forward to, and dinner had been it. “Do you have to work late?”
“More than late, honey. I’m afraid Richard and I are headed north again.”
“Again? But you were just in Newcastle three weeks ago, and two other times after the first of the year! Don’t they know what they are doing up there?” Elizabeth said with bite.
“Elizabeth, it’s only for a couple of days. I should be back by Friday. It’s not as if I’m going to be gone for weeks on end with no way to communicate.”
“I’m sorry. I just finished my thesis and…”
“What? Congratulations, sweetheart! Oh, no wonder you wanted me home to celebrate.” Elizabeth sighed into the phone and leaned heavily against the wall. “I’m sorry to disappoint you. I know with Georgie off skiing you’ll be even lonelier. We’ll celebrate on Friday when I’m back. How’s that?”
“Sure. Call me when you arrive in Newcastle, or I’ll worry,” Elizabeth said without any emotion.
“I promise, Princess. I’ll see you in a couple days.”
“Hmm, yeah. Bye.” Elizabeth didn’t wait for William to offer any ending salutations before hanging up the phone. She went directly to the closet and pulled out her jacket, grabbed her purse and went out to celebrate alone.
She rode the tube downtown to see what was on at the cinema. She would lose herself in a film.
After purchasing her ticket and finding her seat, she looked about the theatre and noticed that most of the attendees were couples. The picture was a romantic comedy, and Elizabeth imagined all the men in the auditorium had been either dragged kicking and screaming, or felt that the love scenes might spur their wives or girlfriends into action. She laughed at the thought and turned to tell William her crazy notion and realized she was alone. He was off to Newcastle. And she was off to where?
She suddenly realized that her time in England was very limited, and though she and William had been living together in the same house and same bedroom, there had never been any conversation of where their relationship was heading. In fact, the words, “I love you,” had never been uttered by either of them.
Elizabeth knew she loved William. She had for years, and now was positive that it wasn’t just a schoolgirl crush turned fantasy. She loved him. But should she tell him? She was positive he cared for her a great deal, but she wasn’t sure he wanted to marry her.
As the movie played in front of her, Elizabeth thought of the numerous times William and Richard had traveled to Newcastle since New Year’s. Never once did he ask her to join him, even though she knew from Georgiana that Richard had taken his wife with him. By the time the movie ended, Elizabeth had imagined all kinds of scenarios.
She entered the house and felt totally alone. Two and half days alone in this big house with nothing left to do on her research study, no students to tutor, no Georgiana to visit with and no William. It was the first time since she had come to England that she was in the wrong place.
Elizabeth walked into the lounge and sat down on the couch. Staring at the turned off television, she remembered the night before. She and William sat on the same piece of furniture, her reclined with her head on his lap, watching a Jane Austen adaptation on the BBC, and William reading reports and lightly rubbing her shoulder.
“Heaven one night, hell the next!” Elizabeth blurted out. “Well, I suppose I should start thinking about my career.”
She rose from her seat and found her laptop. Scanning online notices for positions, she found a job she had always coveted. Without worrying what it meant, Elizabeth applied online for a job as a Post Doctoral Research Assistant at Amherst. Then she had the strange urge to rearrange furniture. By the time William arrived home on Friday, the lounge, guest bedroom and their bedroom had found a new look. Their bedroom also managed to have one wall painted a soft, grayish green.
What irked Elizabeth the most, William hadn’t even noticed.
Chapter 11
Elizabeth’s nerves were on edge and her fingernails gone. If she didn’t receive the date of her oral defense soon, William and Georgiana would go to Greenwich and have a few words with whoever was in charge
The lack of things to keep Elizabeth occupied didn’t help matters. She swore she had visited every museum in London at least twice. More than anything, Elizabeth wished she had a job that could keep her mind off things. Her student visa didn’t allow that, and so she was forced into a life of leisure that was about to send her spinning.
The lounge now had a new coat of paint, and one wall in the foyer also sported a new color. Furniture was rearranged in every room, and the attic robbed of treasures to give the living spaces a different look.
Photo albums and boxes now sat piled on a table in William’s home office, where Elizabeth commandeered the scanner to digitize Darcy family memories for safekeeping. It was while doing the scanning that Elizabeth came across a photograph that made her want to cry. There, in front of her, was a four-by-six-inch print of the infamous Caroline Younge, wearing a white satin floor-length sheath. Standing next to her with his arm around her and kissing her cheek was a tuxedo-clad William Darcy. On the back of the photo was written, June 2002 ~ Caroline, the beautiful bride, and William on the big day!
Elizabeth hadn’t really thought about Caroline in years. Sure, she had compared herself to the young woman she had seen that last summer, but she had never wondered what happened to her. She assumed when William and Georgie never mentioned her, Caroline had moved on. Never had she thought that William had married her!
Elizabeth held the photo and stared at it for a long time, wondering if Caroline had died, or if they just divorced. Surely they weren’t still married? She could picture them being separated, but surely the subject would have come up. No. They must be divorced, and it must have been a traumatic experience for William.
“That would explain why he’s never mentioned it,” Elizabeth spoke to the glossy print in her hand. “That would also explain why he’s never…”
“Princess?” William called from the entryway.
“In the office!” Elizabeth yelled and quickly placed the photo back where she found it.
William entered the room and smiled. “What are you up to now?”
“Nothing much. Scanning all the photos in these albums so you’ll always have them.”
He sat his briefcase down and stared at Elizabeth with a smile on his face.
“What?”
“You’ve redecorated the entire house. Beautifully, I might add, and now you are preserving the family photographic memories. I know you’re anxious, honey, but aren’t you carrying things a bit far?”
“You noticed? About the house, I mean?” Elizabeth said with emotion.
“Of course. I’m a man, though, and our code of ethics doesn’t allow us to admit to certain powers of observation.”
“Ha. Ha. Very funny,” Elizabeth said and tossed a paper clip at him.
“Stop worrying. Everything will be fine.” He moved closer to her and pulled her up from her chair. “You just wait and see!”
“Easy for you to say!” Elizabeth said as she looked at his throat and frowned.
He leaned down and kissed her, making her forget all her worries.
~ • ~
Another week passed, and Elizabeth decided that she wouldn’t ask Will about Caroline. Why make him feel worse if the break-up had been a nasty one? She did feel hurt that he had never bothered to confide in her, but then again, why should he? After all, she would be going back the States soon, and their relationship would be over.
“I should have realized I was just a convenience; but I wouldn’t have traded all this for anything. I may be the dumb fool for loving the guy, but at least I was able to live a bit of my fantasy. I am sorry that my one and only sex vision never came true. Well, at least the sex is glorious,” Elizabeth whispered as she stood under the rushing w
ater in the shower.
“What did you say, love?” William said as he searched the bathroom.
“Huh? Oh! Nothing!” Elizabeth said as water ran into her mouth. “I was sort of thinking out loud, I guess.”
“Right. Have you seen my cufflinks? The ones with the monogram.”
“They’re on the dresser,” Elizabeth yelled through the wall of water as she rinsed her hair and held her breath until she was sure he was back in the bedroom. When she heard him leave that room, she stepped from the shower and began dressing. She was finally to make her oral defense of her thesis. After being a nervous wreck for weeks, she felt at ease about her research, her thesis and anything they might ask her. What she was nervous about was how she would act when it was time to leave William.
“Elizabeth! You’re going to be late!” William said as he paced in the hallway.
“I’m the one who has to defend all her work, and you are the nervous one!” She laughed.
“Yes, well… I just… I just want you to do well. You’ve worked hard for this. You deserve this degree!”
“Thank you,” Elizabeth said quietly.
~ • ~
William paced to and fro in the hall outside the examination room where Elizabeth’s interview was taking place. He couldn’t understand why she was so calm. He was about to burst with nervous energy. She had to make it through this. She just had to! He’d planned everything believing she would walk out of that room with her PhD.
They would go and celebrate at a fancy restaurant, and then go home and celebrate again. The special cocktail party he set up for the next night would allow her to mingle with the best England had to offer. One of them had to be impressed with his little spitfire. They would offer her a position. She would accept it and remain in England. Then after they settled into their new routine, he would take her on a long weekend and fly her to where everything had all started for them. He checked. The retreat was still there. Still operated. They would take a walk in the woods; go to their cave and he would present her with the ring he had been carrying in his pocket for months.
She had to walk out that door with her PhD. She absolutely had to.
William’s back was to the door when he heard it creak open. He turned quickly to see his princess with the largest smile he’d ever seen her sport.
“You may call me Doctor Bennet, Mr. Darcy,” Elizabeth said with proud happiness.
William didn’t bother to say anything. He just moved to her quickly, lifted her and twirled her around before kissing her and making her even dizzier.
~ • ~
“Good morning, Doctor Princess,” William murmured seductively into her ear the next morning.
“Mmm, good morning, my dashing knight,” she said as she kissed him lightly. “Ten-thirty! Goodness it’s late! Aren’t you going in this morning?”
“No. You know that dress you wore for New Year’s?” William asked.
“Yes,” Elizabeth answered with a bit of a giggle.
“Wear it tonight?”
“What for? Are we going out?” she asked as she played with the hair on his chest.
“No. We’re staying in, but we are having guests.”
“Who?”
William just smiled then kissed her and jumped out of bed. Elizabeth followed him and tried to extract the information she desired, but he held her off. When both were dressed, they made their way downstairs for a late breakfast.
As they struggled for who would have control of the shared coffee mug, the front door bell sounded and William let go of the crockery.
“Ah, saved by the bell!” Elizabeth smiled and took a large sip of the brew in the cup.
“Save some for me, Princess!” William smiled and went to see who dared to disturb his domestic bliss.
Elizabeth placed the mug down when she heard a somewhat familiar and happily excited voice coming from the front room. She walked toward the voice and slowed when she heard Will exclaim, “Caroline!”
“Oh, I just couldn’t wait to tell you!” Caroline delightedly spoke.
“Tell me what?”
“Oh, I’m so excited! My traveling to Newcastle paid off! We’re pregnant!
Elizabeth felt like throwing up. She peered into the room and saw that Caroline was even more beautiful than she had been twelve years previously.
“Are you sure?” William said with just as excited a voice.
“Yes, you silly man!”
“You’ve just made my day complete, Caroline!” William said and then hugged her close.
At that very moment, Elizabeth’s heart shattered and she felt like running and not stopping until her legs no longer remained on her body. But the phone rang just at that moment, and she ran back to the kitchen to answer it.
“Hello?” She tried to keep her voice from wobbling.
“Lizzy? It’s Charlotte!”
“Charlotte! Goodness, how are you?”
“I’m great. Lizzy, I called to ask you to be my maid of honor. Will you?”
Elizabeth began to tremble, and a knot formed in her throat. Wedding? Married? William and Caroline. He was meeting her in Newcastle and now she was pregnant. “It’s time to go home,” she whispered.
“Lizzy?”
“Huh? Oh! Charlotte! Yes. Yes, I’ll be… I’ll… Yes.”
“Oh, good!”
“In fact, I’m heading home. I’ve finished my degree.”
“You got it? You have a PhD now?” Charlotte asked excitedly.
Elizabeth managed to chat for a few minutes and then quickly ran up the stairs without William or Caroline noticing her. She grabbed her laptop and closed herself in the room that she had used before moving into William’s.
She logged onto the Internet and found an e-mail from Amherst requesting an interview in a week’s time. She replied positively, and then logged onto her travel account and found a flight that would take her back to the U.S. the next morning. After logging off, she packed a bag and left it in the guest room, then slipped out of the house and made her way to the park where she had spent so many hours hiding from flat mates.
~ • ~
William stared at his watch and pounded his hand on a table.
“Where is she?” he asked.
“Calm down. You said the phone rang,” Georgiana tried to deduce the events of that morning. “It must have been an emergency or something. She wouldn’t have just left otherwise.”
“Why didn’t she say anything?”
“She probably didn’t think it would take this long.”
“She should have taken her mobile!”
“Will! Calm down. She’ll be home soon,” Georgie tried to comfort her brother.
William sat, and then stood again, not knowing what to do. The guests would be arriving in less than an hour, and the guest of honor couldn’t be found. Not that he cared so much about the party; he was worried that something had happened to Elizabeth, and he couldn’t do anything about it.
The sound of the front door opening and closing sent the Darcy siblings scrambling in the direction of the portal.
“Lizzy! We’ve been worried!” Georgiana blurted out.
“My God, Elizabeth! Where have you been?” William growled. Now that she was home, his worry was turning to anger. “The guests will be arriving soon!”
“Do you need me to help you get ready, Lizzy?” Georgie asked, hoping William would find someplace to relax and cool off.
“I’ll help her!” William snarled and grabbed Elizabeth’s hand, half dragging her up the staircase. After they reached the bedroom and the door was securely closed, William let loose.
“Bloody hell, Elizabeth! What the fuck were you thinking?” he shouted.
“I just went out for a walk and lost track of time,” she answered.
“What?” His eyes seemed to shoot out daggers. “What sort of explanation is that? You lost track of time? Bollocks!”
Elizabeth had never seen him so angry, not as a child and not once sinc
e she came to live with him. The sight shocked her enough; she started to tremble with fear.
“The truth, Elizabeth. The truth and now!”
Whatever it was that William might have thought took Elizabeth out of the house, it wasn’t anything near what he expected. His shock and surprise showed as she spoke through trembling tears.
“I saw your... your wedding photo... and I heard her... Heard her say... say that she was pregnant with your baby! How could you? How?” Elizabeth began to yell, slowing her tears.
“What? Who? Who am I supposed to have married? Whose baby?” Suddenly it dawned on him. “Caroline?”
“Yes, you idiot!” Lizzy stared at him, not wanting to be alone with him any longer, and began to make her way to the door before he stopped her.
“Caroline is married to Richard! They were married in 2002. I was the best man and I gave the bride away. They have been trying to have a baby for six years! Every time Richard and I went to Newcastle, Caroline went as well. Something about her temperature and the perfect time, blah blah blah! And now, she is finally pregnant with Richard’s baby!”
Elizabeth gasped as she stood wide-eyed with her hands over her mouth. She didn’t know what to say or do.
William’s jaw was still clenched in anger as he stared back at her. Finally he said, “You’d better get ready. Our guests will be here any minute.” With that he left the bedroom and slammed the door behind him.
