Legally Darcy: A Modern Retelling of Pride and Prejudice

by Denise O'Hara

  Chapter Thirty

  Someone was knocking on the door.

  “Ugh, it’s too early, Mom. I’ve got a splitting headache,” Elizabeth mumbled, hoping her mother would go away and leave her in peace.

  The door opened and she heard a stranger’s voice say: “Housekeeping!”

  Not fully comprehending what was going on, Elizabeth began to try to move her body but was having difficulty.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry! There isn’t a do-not-disturb sign on the door. I thought you had checked out already,” the woman said. “I’ll come back later.”

  Elizabeth’s brain was starting to clear a little, though her body didn’t want to cooperate yet. Where was she? She remembered. The conference. She was in her hotel room. The last she remembered was having a drink at the hotel bar. Wow, I really can’t hold my liquor.

  She willed her body into a sitting position. She had the feeling that something wasn’t right. Looking down she saw that she didn’t have any clothes on. Well that’s different. Where are my pajamas?

  “Uhhhhhh…”

  Elizabeth’s eyes widened when she heard what sounded like discomfort coming from someone else in the bed. A male someone. She froze but could feel the fast beating of her heart.

  She wasn’t quite sure what to do. Where were her clothes? Looking around she spotted them on the floor, mixed in with a man’s suit. A very expensive suit. And a red tie.

  She remembered seeing a red tie last night. Yes, it was at the bar. The sudden realization of who was wearing that tie last night filled her with horror. She looked over at who was in the bed next to her, hoping she was wrong.

  No, no, no,… She had to get out of there and fast!

  Quickly wrapping the blanket around her, she slipped out of bed as quietly as possible and began to gather her clothes. She wanted to run out of the room and dress elsewhere but decided against it. Going into the bathroom she shut the door behind her as gently as possible. Please don’t wake up, please don’t wake up, went thru her head as she started getting dressed. As she pulled on her sweater something caught and she couldn’t finish pulling it over her head. Of all times for this to happen!

  She pulled the sweater back off but whatever had snagged it was still attached…to her finger…on her left hand. She knew what it was even before she untangled it from the intertwining threads. She let the sweater drop.

  Wrapping the blanket back around her, she sat on the cold bathroom floor and stared at the mosaic tiles on the wall. She wasn’t sure how long she sat there, unable to move or think.

  She was brought out of her fog when someone turned the knob, trying to open the bathroom door. She jumped.

  “What in the world?” she heard him say as he tried the knob more forcefully.

  She chastised herself for not getting out of there when she had a chance! There was no discreet way out of this now. She was trapped.

  “I’m in here, Mr. Darcy. I’ll be out in a minute.”

  Silence was the only reply she got.

  She hurriedly threw her clothes on, careful not to repeat her earlier mistake, being more careful with the biggest diamond on her finger that she’d ever laid eyes on. She finished dressing only to discover she was missing her shoes. “Oh that’s just perfect!” she said angrily, wishing she could hit something. She took a deep breath and opened the door.

  William Darcy was dressed and sitting in the chair by the desk. Somehow she managed to notice that he was also in his bare feet as her eyes began searching for her shoes. She walked around the bed but they were nowhere in sight.

  “Have you seen my shoes?”

  Will shook his head in response.

  “Well, never mind. I’ll buy some flip flops in the gift shop if I have to.”

  “Miss Bennet, Elizabeth, would you like to talk about…last night?”

  “That is the last thing I want to do, Mr. Darcy. But I suppose it cannot be avoided.” She looked around for a place to sit, taking a seat on the love seat in the front part of the suite. Will turned his chair around to face her.

  “Mr. Darcy, I honestly don’t remember much, nothing beyond seeing you in the bar. Do you want to fill me in on the rest?”

  “I have no recollection beyond the bar either.”

  They sat in silence for the next few minutes, each looking at the floor before Will finally said, “Miss Bennet… Elizabeth, have you noticed the ring on your finger?”

  Elizabeth looked at the ring and nodded her head slowly.

  “Hmmm…Well, I happened to notice this when you were in the bathroom.” He picked up a paper from the desk and held it out to her.

  Elizabeth took the marriage certificate from his hands and stared at it. The signatures were shaky but she recognized hers.

  He asked, “Is that your signature?”

  Again she nodded slowly. “Yours?”

  “Yes. Which brings us to the extremely awkward topic of how we’re going to handle this.”

  “Brittany Spears got an annulment after something like fifty-five hours. I don’t think, under the circumstances, that we’ll have any problems doing the same. After all, you are a…”

  The ringing of her phone interrupted her sentence. She instantly recognized the ringtone. “That’s Jane. She must be worried sick about me.” She followed the sound of the music, locating it under the sheets of the bed. Things just keep getting better and better.

  “Hello, Jane! I’m so sorry I didn’t call sooner…”

  “Lizzy,” Jane interrupted. “I’m so glad I reached you! Mom’s in the hospital. We’re not sure if she had a heart attack or what. But it sure looks like it. Oh, Lizzy it was so scary. When is your plane landing?”

  “Oh, my plane! I think I missed it. I’ll call you back as soon as I find another flight. I love you, Jane. Tell Mom I love her too. I’ll be there as soon as I can!”

  Elizabeth had never been so disoriented in her life. “I have to find a flight immediately!”

  Will was already standing. “What has happened?”

  “My mom…” was all Elizabeth could get out before she burst into tears.

  Seeing her in this state pulled at his heart. He spoke softly, reassuring her, “Don’t worry. I’ll bring you home. Do you have everything? I’ll call the concierge and locate your luggage and such. We’ll leave within half an hour.”

  “No, you can’t. I’ll figure it out myself.”

  “This is no time to be stubborn. I’ll take care of everything.” He made a few phone calls and within fifteen minutes a driver was putting their bags into the trunk of a hired car. Within half an hour they were at the small airport.

  Richard Fitzwilliam was walking towards them.

  “Is everything good to go, Richard?” Darcy inquired.

  “She’s good to go. It’s good to see you again, Miss Bennet, though I wish it were under better circumstances,” Richard said with genuine sincerity.

  “Thank you so much! I can’t tell you how much this means to me!”

  “It’s my pleasure.” Turning his attention to his cousin he asked, “Are you sure you don’t want me to fly her? It would be no imposition at all.”

  “Thank you, Richard, but I can manage just fine.”

  Within minutes, Elizabeth was sitting in the copilot seat of a private plane.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  “I had no idea you were a pilot.”

  “It was mainly out of necessity that I became one. There were no law schools within an easy distance of Pemberley. My cousin Richard’s dream was to become a pilot and I took lessons so that I could fly myself if he ever fell ill and couldn’t. Plus, it’s really cool.” He looked at her and smiled.

  “So, by the time I started graduate school we could commute by air. It worked out beautifully. It was invaluable on days when I had a heavy work load. He’s made many sacrifices for me and Georgianna.”

  “He sounds like a good guy.”

  “He is. And as it turned out, he loved flying. He originally worked
for our local Art Association, but it wasn’t necessary for him to always be in the office. Most of what he did, well does I should say, is out and about, finding talent, meeting with local artists who apply for grants, that kind of thing. Because of the scope of the job he was also able to start a company that charters flights. This is actually one of his planes. He lets me borrow it whenever I ask. In return, I bought him a beautiful stallion and keep it stabled at Pemberley.” She was surprised to find he loved animals, especially horses.

  “Do you ride, Elizabeth?”

  “Oh, no, not at all. I’ve never been on a horse. They are beautiful animals, though. I can see their appeal.”

  He kept talking and kept her talking throughout the flight, taking her mind off of other concerns.

  The conversation eventually turned to the law and she found him to be a wealth of knowledge. But more than just having the knowledge, he was able to explain to her some of the nuances of cases in a way that she was easily able to grasp. He really was as brilliant as his reputation claimed.

  There was a car waiting to take them to the hospital when they landed.

  Before arriving at the hospital, Elizabeth took off the ring she had been nervously twisting around her finger throughout the flight. “I believe this belongs to you,” she said with a genuinely friendly smile.

  “Why not keep it as a souvenir of sorts,” he smiled back. “You know, this little adventure of ours has all the makings of an interesting story.”

  “That’s one way of looking at it,” she laughed. “But I can’t accept it.” As she handed the ring to him her fingers brushed against his which had the effect of raising both of their pulses. Will had a very strong desire to kiss her right then and there. It made him wonder what had happened between them last night.

  ******

  “Lizzy!” Jane spotted her first, having been on the lookout since getting the call that her sister’s plane had landed. “Oh I’m so glad you made it!” She said as she embraced her sister.

  “And how wonderful of you to bring her home to us, Mr. Darcy,” Jane said as she reach over and hugged him as well.

  “It was the least I could do.”

  “How is Mom?” Elizabeth asked anxiously. “Is she going to be alright?”

  “They’re still waiting on the test results. Her blood pressure was sky high when they brought her in but they gave her something that brought it down, so that’s good. We should hear something soon. The others are in the waiting room on the third floor.”

  Jane’s phone vibrated and looking at the text she said, “It’s Mary. She says the doctor just arrived and is talking to Dad now. We should get up there.”

  “Do you mind if I join you?” Will asked. “I’d like to make sure everything’s all right before I go.”

  “Of course, Mr. Darcy,” Jane answered immediately.

  The doctor was still talking to Mr. Bennet when they arrived in the small conference room. “So you need to make sure you check her blood pressure several times a day for the next month. We’re going to put her on one of the new medications we have to keep her blood pressure under control. I’m going to write a prescription. We don’t want it to get that high again. Contact your family doctor immediately if it does. Otherwise, she really needs to start getting some regular exercise and watching her diet. And as much as possible, try to keep her stress levels down.”

  “Thank you, Doctor Pierson.”

  “Alright, well, she’ll be ready to go home soon. Take care.”

  After he walked out, Elizabeth went to her father and hugged him. “So she’s going to be ok?”

  “Yes, yes. She didn’t have a heart attack after all, thankfully. It seems she has high blood pressure that’s probably gone undetected for a while now. It caused her to have shortness of breath. She thought she was having a heart attack, which caused her to have a panic attack.”

  “Oh poor Mom! That must have been so scary! I’m so sorry I wasn’t here for you all.”

  Jane, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia all gathered around Elizabeth and their father, joining in a group hug.

  On hearing the news, Will let out a sigh of genuine relief. As he watched the display of love and support among the family, he felt…lonely. It occurred to him that all these years when he thought of someone growing up without parents, he usually considered Georgianna. He worked hard over the years to make sure she was taken care of, to try to lessen the pain for her in any way he could. He had been successful in pushing his own feelings aside and focusing solely on his sister’s.

  At this moment, seeing the Bennets together as a family, he felt the loss of his parents with such great force. He was quick to remind himself that so many were much less fortunate in countless ways than he. But he allowed himself a moment to think of how much he missed his Mom…his Dad… and admitted that Georgianna wasn’t the only Darcy that was suffering.

  “There, there, girls,” Mr. Bennet was saying as he freed himself from being suffocated. “All’s well that ends well. Now, I think I’ll go grab another cup of coffee while we wait for your mother to be released.” Walking towards the door he stopped and put his hand out to Will. “You must be Mr. Darcy. Thank you for bringing our dear girl home safe and sound. Can I interest you in a cup of joe?”

  “Maybe another time; I really should be getting home. I’m very glad to hear the good news about your wife, Mr. Bennet.”

  “So am I,” the older man said.

  “I’ll be right back,” Elizabeth told her sisters. “I’m going to walk Mr. Darcy out.”

  When they got to the front doors leading to the car park Will turned to Elizabeth. “I am sincerely happy that your mother is going to be ok. I hope all goes well from here on out. But please don’t hesitate to call if the situation changes and you need my assistance. I can pull a few strings and have her flown to the best hospital in the country at a moment’s notice.”

  “That is very kind of you. Thank you for everything, Mr. Darcy. I can’t express my appreciation enough.”

  “Think nothing of it… Or maybe you can think a little differently of me now?”

  Elizabeth gave him a warm smile. “Maybe a very little,” she said teasingly. “You will take care of that other matter soon? Just let me know what I need to do on my end.”

  “Of course. And I’ll have your luggage dropped off later today. Goodbye, Elizabeth. I hope everything turns out well for your mother.”

  “Thank you…for everything, Mr. Darcy.”

  “I think we’re past such formalities, don’t you? Please call me Will.”

  Elizabeth smiled and nodded. “Goodbye, Will.”

  She turned and walked to the elevator. As she was getting on, she looked back and saw Will still standing there. He waved and smiled.

  As she entered the elevator, she wished he wasn’t leaving. She had a strong desire to have his arms wrapped around her protectively.

  After she was out of his sight he walked out to the car. During the drive to Pemberley, he couldn’t shake the feelings that had resurfaced when he was worried Elizabeth might lose her mother. But another feeling was intruding as well; something was missing in his life. He was lonely. And he didn’t like it.

  As he walked through the front doors of his childhood home he felt drained, both physically and emotionally. He realized that tonight the grand estate felt like a house rather than a haven. And he admitted to himself there was only one person who could change it back into the home needed. He suddenly realized it was what he had been desperately yearning for just… for a very long time.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  William Darcy woke up happy. Things had taken a turn…admittedly a strange one at first… but he had managed to break down the prejudices Elizabeth Bennet held against him. He liked her. He liked her a lot.

  Those sentiments began to change when he arrived at work on Monday morning.

  He entered the car park and was surprised to see Ruthie’s car there already. Since having a baby, she had not once been at
the office before Will. She was waiting for him in his office.

  “Ruthie, you’re here early. Does this mean Rebekah has finally started sleeping through the night?”

  “I wish. No, I wanted a few minutes with you before the others arrived. Maybe you should sit down for this.”

  “Ok.” Will hung up his coat before sitting down at his desk. “You’re not quitting are you?”

  “You’re going to wish I was. Will, some pictures turned up last night on social media sites,” she handed him her iPad, already opened to a page he needed to see.

  The pictures were of him and Elizabeth and they ranged from extremely unflattering to unbelievably embarrassing. They both looked like they were drunk in just about every photo. How they both came to be inebriated after only one drink each remained a mystery.

  Will was thoroughly ashamed. He would have never thought he could behave in such a way even when drunk, which he never was.

  “I know, I’m really sorry, Will,” Ruthie said consolingly as she reached for her IPad. “Unfortunately…it gets worse.” She went to Face Book. “Somehow the pictures spread like wildfire and several memes have been made from the pictures; like this one…” she said reluctantly as she handed the tablet back to her boss.

  The picture was of both of them sticking their tongues out as far as it would go - Miley Cyrus style…and the caption read: When your plastic surgeon injects your tongue instead of your lips, call Darcy and Associates!

  “Scroll down…”

  The picture was of them in front of the hotel lobby’s fountain with their arms intertwined, each drinking from the other’s…shoe. The speech bubbles had her saying: “I love you from your head to your feet, my darling,” and his reply: “Prove it!”

  Will had never felt such embarrassment in his life.

  “Pull whatever strings necessary to get those posts taken down,” he said between clenched teeth, handing the tablet back to his secretary, and burying his face in his hands.