Legally Darcy: A Modern Retelling of Pride and Prejudice

by Denise O'Hara

  Ruthie shook her head, “It’s not that easy. I’ve already filed complaints on several sites to have the posts removed, but like I said, the pictures have already spread. People find these kinds of things funny, and they get shared and shared. But I’ll do the best I can to minimize it.” She got up to begin the process of locating the individuals who originally posted the pictures but stopped when she got to the door.

  “Uh, Will? There’s a woman walking this way who looks a lot like the one in the photos.”

  Elizabeth walked into Will’s office, closing the door behind her and slumped down in the chair Ruthie had recently vacated.

  “You’ve seen the pictures?” he asked, already knowing the answer.

  She nodded her head still in disbelief. “Lydia came running into my room early this morning. One of her friends recognized me.”

  Will stood up und began pacing the floor. “In reality you don’t have anything to lose. But I’ll be the laughing stock of my profession! It’s almost as if this was orchestrated intentionally to…” He stopped as a thought formed in his head. Turning to look at Elizabeth, he studied her. “Wait a minute. When I left the bar to go into the dining room, Wickham was at the bar. When I came back…after someone sent my drink from the bar to my table… obviously spiked… YOU were there instead of Wickham. Did you and Wickham plan this whole thing to ruin me?”

  “Of all the ridiculous accusations to make!” Elizabeth retorted. “In REALITY you’re not the only one affected by this. Despite what you think of yourself, the world doesn’t revolve around you, Mr. Darcy. I’m worried about what impact this will have on my future and being taken seriously. People will assume I slept my way into whatever position I ever get!”

  “But they will have heard of you, won’t they? That’s very convenient for someone about to start applying for a position in such a competitive field. Unlike when you couldn’t get anyone to hire you as an intern, any connection with me, no matter how embarrassing, will get your name recognized. And we both know that your family is quite used to being embarrassed anyway,” he angrily snapped.

  Elizabeth was furious. “I thought my first impressions of you were wrong! Thank you for reminding me that you’re just an ambulance chaser dressed as a gentleman! I should have never allowed you to weasel your way into my good opinion after what you did to Jane!”

  “Ah, now the picture is complete! You wanted revenge for my breaking up Charles and Jane! Well, if I regretted my role in that before, I certainly don’t now. It seems I was kinder to him than I was to myself, and look where it’s gotten me!”

  “What it has gotten you, Mr. Darcy, is the title of biggest jerk that has ever lived! I wouldn’t want anyone to connect me with your arrogance and disdain for the feelings of others. Not if all my hopes of practicing in this city depended on it!” She threw open the door to leave, then turned around and yelled, “And I want that annulment immediately!” She slammed the door behind her.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  The pride William Darcy had always felt for his demeanor and station in life took a blow that he wasn’t sure he or the firm would ever recover from. But it was Elizabeth Bennet’s betrayal that disturbed his thoughts even more. If he was honest with himself, he was feeling something akin to heartbreak.

  By eight that morning Ruthie was on the phone and had their PR send over their top agent who specialized in Reputation Management. Ruthie brought him up to speed before he met with Will.

  Fred Barnes was sitting at Will’s desk by ten for a consultation. Will knew Fred from various events they mutually attended over the years, but had never personally needed his help. Ruthie had once shown Will a clip of Danny of The Mindy Show and asked him who it reminded him of. He instantly saw the resemblance to Fred Barnes, in the way he spoke and his mannerisms, as well as his looks.

  “This is an unfortunate incident,” Fred said truthfully.” But I want to stress that it is just an incident. While it can be a challenge to recover from, it’s by no means impossible. So here’s our plan of attack: first and foremost we need to plaster your web presence with our own pictures and information about all the positive aspects of the Las Vegas conference. I’ve already got Ruthie working on it and my staff will join in right after our meeting.

  Second, today we find out who posted and ask them to take it down. It’s already been downloaded by a large number of other people but it’s still important to stop it from spreading at the source.

  Third, when we ask these people to remove the post, we also offer them an incentive to replace the post with something that puts you in a more favorable light. My first thought is to replace the meme caption, the one with the tongues, with the caption What happens in Vegas. That’ll do a few things. One, it’ll let the world know that this particular bad display happened in Vegas. That in turn will instantly minimize how bad it appears. It’s become an accepted norm that anything goes in Vegas. It’ll also start a new meme that will take attention away from the original. We’ll also circulate a few pics of you at home in casual clothing, planting the idea that you’re not the stuffed shirt everyone thinks you are. You’re not perfect. People can relate to that.

  “Fourth,”

  “Back up a second, Fred. What kind of incentive are you talking about offering the people who originally posted?”

  “With your resources we have tons of options. The first thing that came to my mind was a voucher for an all-inclusive weekend at your golf course resort. But it could be a gift card, a spa day, whatever. People like freebies; they respond to it. Don’t worry it’ll work.”

  “I don’t know if I want to reward people for smearing my good name.”

  “You can’t look at it that way. Most of the pictures were probably taken with cellphones by others attending the conference, and their motive was to get a laugh, likes and shares on social media. Of course we could always strong-arm them, use intimidation… but trust me, we’ll get better results with a freebie that makes them happy.”

  “Alright, do whatever you think is best,” Will consented.

  “Now for the big question; are we going to have any problems with the woman in the pictures with you?”

  “I really don’t know.”

  “Why don’t you tell me about your relationship with her? Start from your first meeting her until the last time you saw or spoke with her.”

  After Will finished giving Fred all the details of his interactions with Elizabeth, including those with her family, Fred nodded his head and grinned. “Ok then… Wow. I mean…wow, Will. This is your real problem. Way bigger than these photos. Taking care of those is going to be a walk in the park compared to dealing with your wife. She’s legally a Darcy now. If she is behind all this and out to get you, I guarantee she’s lawyering up right this second, if she hasn’t already. Go ahead and get the annulment papers over to her ASAP, but if she’s what you say she is, it’s not likely she’ll sign them. On our end, we have to get proof that she set this whole thing up with malicious intent, drugged you, or tricked you into marrying her while you were in that state. I’m going to send one of our investigators to Vegas this afternoon to dig up some facts. Meanwhile, keep a low profile for the next few days and whatever you do: don’t speak to Elizabeth Bennet. Don’t say anything negative about her or her family to anyone. We don’t want to give her any more ammunition that she already has.”

  “I can assure you that I want to distance myself as far away from her and every other Bennet as I can. I never want to be reminded of that night or that woman again.”

  ********

  A courier for Darcy and Associates was waiting for her as she exited her final class of the day. He had her sign for the sealed envelope and turned to leave.

  “Wait!”

  The courier turned back around to face her.

  “I’m sorry, but, can you hold on a minute? I’m pretty sure I know what this is,” she waved the envelope. “Can I sign them now and have you take them back with you?”

&n
bsp; “I could but I believe the papers require two witnesses.”

  Looking around, Elizabeth saw two acquaintances from the class that had just let out lingering around the doorway. “Charlotte! Maria! Can you help me out for a second?”

  “Sure, what do you need?” Charlotte spoke for them both.

  “Two witnesses for some legal papers.”

  “Oh, course, no problem.”

  Elizabeth was right about the contents of the envelope; it contained the annulment papers. She cringed remembering the last time she’d spoken to William Darcy. The nerve of the man! She fished out a pen from her purse and scanned the papers…just basic legalities, requiring her signature as agreement to the fact that they were both inebriated. She signed and dated the papers, then had Charlotte and Maria do the same. She thanked them as she folded and put the papers back in the envelope. “There you are,” she handed them back to the courier.

  “Thank you, Miss.”

  “I’ll catch up with you later, Maria,” Charlotte said. Turning to Lizzy she asked, “Hey, are you alright?”

  Lizzy took a deep breath and sighed. “No…but I will be.”

  “Wanna go for a cup of coffee and talk about it?”

  Lizzy considered her offer for a second. She knew she couldn’t tell her family what Darcy had accused her of this morning. They had been upset enough by the situation. “You know what…I think I’ll take you up on that.”

  “Good! My treat.”

  Over coffee Lizzy told Charlotte the basics of what had transpired, being vague about the specifics and never naming Darcy. It felt good to get it all out. Charlotte listened and backed her friend up that the guy in Lizzy’s story was pretty full of himself.

  As her family sat down for dinner that evening, everyone was unusually and awkwardly quiet. After a while Mrs. Bennet put her fork down forcefully. “We can’t ignore the pink elephant in the room forever, you know. I for one will never forgive that Mr. Darcy, whose praises we were all singing just yesterday. If a man can’t hold his liquor he has no business drinking! And the nerve of him to get Lizzy mixed up in it all! If I were him I would be thoroughly ashamed of myself and leave the country. If only he were to give you a partnership at his firm to make up for it! Bennet and Darcy; now that’s my idea of how to apologize! I know it would go a long way to soothing my nerves!”

  “I don’t see what all the fuss is about,” Kitty chimed in. “It’s really quite normal nowadays. Anyway, it was very funny! Especially the memes!”

  Lydia gulped down a forkful of rice. “Oh, I know! Did you see the one where Lizzy can barely stand and she says, “I’m having trouble staying on my feet? And then it zooms in on Mr. Darcy’s face and he says, “I DON’T object, Baby!” Lydia barely managed to get it out before she and Kitty burst out laughing.

  “I don’t see anything funny about it,” replied Mary stoically.

  “Oh, what else is new, Mary?” Lydia retorted with a roll of her eyes. “I just wish it were me! I would be promoting it instead of trying to hide it!”

  Lizzy and Jane were staring at their plates, both understanding as their younger sisters could not, the negative ramifications a thing like this on social media could have on one’s professional life.

  Mr. Bennet cleared his throat. “Well, now, I believe Lydia may have a point. In this day and age, such things are all too common and will soon be forgotten when the next big sensation catches on. I like to think we live to give others something to laugh about and laugh at them when it’s our turn.”

  Lizzy looked up and forced a smile. She supposed she would rather her family view the situation lightly than for the whole house to be in turmoil about it. And she knew on some level he was right about the incident fading away, even if it would never be forgotten.

  She went to bed feeling some relief. Now that the papers were signed, at least all connections to Mr. Darcy were severed. She just wanted to get on with her life and put this behind her.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  With each passing day Will became more worried that he’d made a terrible mistake. Elizabeth had signed the annulment papers without any coercing or incentives. His temper had calmed down and other feelings replaced his anger. He found himself thinking about their conversation on the plane and smiling at something she’d said. The smile she gave him at the hospital had made his heart flutter; her touch made his pulse race.

  He’d made inquiries and couldn’t find an attorney within a hundred miles who was representing her. If she turned out to be innocent…What had he done…

  By the end of the week he had his answer.

  “Fred Barnes to see you, Mr. Darcy.”

  “Please send him in, Ruthie,” Will answered, putting the brief he was working on down.

  After exchanging greetings with Fred and getting settled in their chairs, Will impatiently asked, “Well, what have you found?”

  “We found that you owe Elizabeth Bennet quite an apology. She had nothing to do with it.”

  Unexpected relief flooded Darcy and he couldn’t suppress the smile from spreading across his face. “You’re absolutely sure?”

  “One hundred percent. Here’s a copy of the reports,” Fred confirmed, handing the manila envelope over to Darcy. “We can go over them together.”

  “With Roger’s permission, we questioned the employees from his firm who attended the conference. Most were very cooperative. They all knew who had uploaded the photos. The culprit turned out to be just one person.”

  “Let me guess, George Wickham?”

  Fred laughed. “Don’t quit your day job, Will. No, it wasn’t Wickham. It was a young woman by the name of Stacey Stevens. She’s only nineteen, which explains a lot, and has a huge social media following. Does the name happen to ring any bells?”

  “No. Should it?”

  “Not sure. But an interesting fact is that she went to school with your sister, even had a few of the same classes with her. When my guy looked deeper he found that the classes they shared happen to be the ones that George Wickham subbed for. Now, the word around the office is that she obviously has a crush on Wickham, but he’s dating one of the girls in their research department.”

  “So there is a connection to George. I knew it!”

  “Well, it’s certainly nothing solid that links them, but it is curious that there’s any association at all. Anyway, she looked scared when I talked to her but I assured her there wouldn’t be any action taken… not that we could take any action, but she didn’t know that… and she removed the photos while I sat there. I asked her to put just the one we had about Vegas up in its place, which she did. I asked her to delete the pictures from her phone, which she also willingly did. I thanked her and decided on giving her a gift card for the day spa for her and a friend. You should have seen her face light up. Works every time,” Fred smiled.

  “And how do you know Elizabeth wasn’t involved in any way?”

  “Well, that brings us to Vegas. Our investigator, Pete Kennedy is well connected. He knows the manager of the hotel and was able to look through the videos from the security cameras, which cover literally every square inch of the place,” Fred paused as he reached into his messenger bag and pulled out a disc. “Shall we see what he found?”

  Darcy took the disc from Fred and popped it into his dvd player.

  “So first we have the footage of Elizabeth going to the bar. A minute later, Wickham walks by, spots her and surprises her. She leaves. Pause it right there, Will.

  “Pete questioned the bartender, showed him the video to refresh his memory and the guy remembered Wickham well, he being a frequent customer over the weekend. And he remembered Elizabeth too once he saw this part of the video, overheard her excuse herself to freshen up. He also said George wanted to take her to dinner but she shot him down, said she was going to a Celine Dion show.”

  “He must have a very good memory,” Will responded skeptically.

  “He does, but as you can see on the video she was his only c
ustomer at first, then George. And remember, Pete talked to the guy on Monday night just two days after this all went down. I trust his word. Go ahead and press play.”

  “What’s George doing here?” Will asked.

  “This is when it looks like he put something in her drink. She was gone, and he orders a drink. If you notice right when the bartender turns his back, right there, see Wickham’s hand going to Elizabeth’s drink?”

  Will pressed pause again. “We’ve got him. Here’s the proof we need.”

  “Not really. He must have had whatever it was in his hand and by opening his hand right above the drink the drug went in. But the video doesn’t show he had anything in his hand to begin with. My guess is he’s done this before. It just looks like he’s gesturing. Next frame you come in, you know what happens…and you leave with Oliver.”

  Darcy pressed play and watched what Fred had just described.

  “You’ll notice a group comes back when Elizabeth does and when she’s distracted talking to them he gives her drink a little shake, no doubt to blend it in. To anyone else his actions would go unnoticed. We only see it because we’re looking for it. You’ll see him make his way over and here it is… wait for it…his hand hovers over the drink you left behind.”

  Wickham was despicable.

  He shakes the drink as he brings it to the hostess, she brings it to you. He gets rebuffed by Elizabeth again, the girl in the red dress whispers something to him, and he leaves with her and the rest of the group. My guess is he had plans for him and Elizabeth but changed his mind when another offer came along.”

  “And he was out to make a fool out of me.”

  “That’s as good an explanation as any,” Fred agreed. “He must have known the effect the drug would have on you.”

  Darcy shook his head in disbelief that they had ever been friends.