CHAPTER 1.

He looked around the room in despair; he did not want to be here tonight; he should have resisted Charles's begging. A good book in front of the fireplace with an excellent cup of coffee, that is what he should be doing right now or at Pemberley with his sister. As it is their arrival at the Cancer Awareness and Fund Raiser had caused quite a stir, everyone had stopped talking and were staring at them, he could already see the dollar signs in the eyes of the matchmaking mama's and their insipid daughters. To add to his joy Caroline Bingley clawed his arm, the stench of her perfume threatening to make him gag, she was whispering in his ear

"Oh William, what on earth are we doing in this place? Look at these plebeian people, staring at us, as if they have never seen class in their lives before!". It was not much of a whisper and a few people standing nearby seemed to come to their senses and gasp, turning to gossip with the person standing next to them. "Mr Bingley!" A voice boomed from a rather tall but rotund man, striding towards them. "We are delighted you and your friends could join us this evening for our little get together"

"Good evening Mr Lucas, we are delighted to be here, and looking forward to meeting our new neighbours and making friends" Charles stepped forward shaking Mr Lucas's hand.

"This is my younger sister Caroline; my other sister Louisa and her husband Theodore Hurst; And my good friend William Darcy; this is Mr John Lucas, the mayor of Merryton, he also run the local estate agency with his family; he recommended Netherfield to me when I was originally looking for property." Charles, always at ease regardless of the company, introduced them. William had always envied Charles ability to interacted with just about anyone.

"…Bingley's wealth is nothing compared to Mr Darcy, he is one of the wealthiest men in this country and one of the most eligible bachelors to boot! Where are my girls? Everyone knows they are the most beautiful girls in Merryton, he must fall in love with one of them!" William could hear a woman talking very loudly off to his left, turning his head he saw a woman staring at him with such avarice as she started calling out "Jane, Lydia, where are you girls?"

The double doors at the back of the room opened and in walked six good looking, well dressed women, five of whom had hair cropped short as almost to their scalps, they were obviously related as they resembled each other in more than just their cropped hair; a strikingly beautiful blonde girl, big cerulean blue eyes, with a tall slender build, dressed in a soft pink off the shoulder dress that fitted her body to just above the knee, complimenting her lightly tanned fair skin, a brunette with emerald green eyes, not as tall as the blonde, and slight curvier in a maroon halter neck dress that hugged her curves to mid-thigh at which point the skirt split down to her ankles revealing a tanned well-shaped leg. The third girl had pitch black hair, the same blue eyes as the blonde, a very gaunt figure with no shape, her green dress seemed to cover her body without revealing anything, the green made her very pale skin glow, the last two girls had the same brunette hair as the second, but the blue eyes of the other two, voluptuous figures with tans that was accentuated by their red empire line dresses that came to mid-thigh, appropriate with their ages, which appeared to be about fifteen or sixteen, they were either twins or really close in age. The sixth girl paled in comparison, despite having long brown hair and a cream tunic style dress that flattered her figure, ending above her knee. Williams eyes were drawn back to the girl with the green eyes, she was not classically beautiful like her blonde sister but the combination of her features made her exotic and she had something he could not define but he was definitely drawn to it.

"YOUR HAIR, what have you done to your hair?" the woman started to screech at the five girls, who linked arms and stared at the woman with defiance in their faces.

"Calm down mother, we did it for Mary, to show her our support and love, it is just hair and it will grow back!" said the brunette, her green eyes flashing, daring her mother to make a further scene.

"This is your doing Lizzie, you talked them into this!" hissed her mother.

"Matilda, will you stop making such a scene, we can talk about this tomorrow" a man had stepped up to the woman, presumably her husband, he took her arm and walked over to Mr Lucas.

Charles walked over to Mr Lucas "Please could you introduce us to your friends Mr Lucas?" smiling at everyone; until he made eye contact with one of the five girls; beautiful, even with her hair so short; blue eyes, light blonde hair and a classically perfect figure. She really stood out from almost everyone in the room. She lowered her head, blushing, but then she looked back up and their eyes connected.

"Come girls, Mr Bingley would like to be introduced" the mother called the girls. Mr Lucas chuckled happily

"Mr Bingley allow me to introduce you to one of our prominent families, the Bennet's; Mr Thomas Bennet, Mrs Bennet, Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty and Lydia, their daughters. And my own daughter Charlotte" His daughter being the sixth girl that had entered the room with the Bennet's.

Hellos and nice to meet yous were exchanged and Charles again introduced his own party. Then Charles asked Jane if she would like to dance, just as the band struck up the first tune for the evening, Jane looked surprised but pleased, the two of them headed off to the dance floor. The two younger Bennet girls, who looked about fifteen or sixteen, whispered to the middle daughter who looked about seventeen, took her hands and started to head toward the buffet table.

"Just going to get something to eat Lizzie, we will look after Mary tonight." Elizabeth smiled at her sister, and her green eyes softened as the three girls walked away.

"Perhaps some good has come out of this after all Lizzie?" William hear Charlotte say soft to Elizabeth. "Lydia and Kitty seemed to have grown up."

"At what price?" Elizabeth responded. "Come on Charlotte, for just a few hours let's relax a little and just have some fun, well as much as we can." Elizabeth was looking around the room, first checking where her parents were and then checking where her younger sisters were. Just then she seemed to notice him, making eye contact her green eyes sparkled.

"Mr Darcy, are you enjoying Merryton?"

"Not really" William spoke without thinking, been taken off guard.

"Oh dear, why not? It is not all bad, despite being quite a small town" Charlotte spoke from behind her friend.

"I am sure it is fine, we arrived today and it seems that the entire town knows who we are and we know no-one" William replied.

"The drawbacks of a small town Mr Darcy, most of the people were born and grew up here and newcomers are unfortunately, of great interest to everyone." Elizabeth spoke with a hint of challenge in her voice.

"Indeed" he replied, not really knowing what else to say.

A noise erupted from the buffet.

"Mary!" Elizabeth cried and immediately she and Charlotte made their way across the room, panic very visible in her green eyes. Mary was guided to one of the chairs arranged around the room, her face very pale and her eyes red. Three of her sisters gathered around her, soothing and helping her.

"Mary" the mother screeched and made her way towards her daughters. After reassuring herself that Mary was alright, she turned on Elizabeth "This is your doing, you always think you know best, you have to do things your way, never thinking about another living soul except yourself!"

"Mother, I choked on some biscuit, Lizzie was on the other side of the room, how on earth could it be her fault" Mary spoke firmly without shouting, but her voice carried across the whole room. Her mother looked a bit ashamed, but was still glaring at her second daughter.

"What a spectacle!" Caroline Bingley's voice was heard though out the room, "Really William, we gave up a quiet night at home for this!"

"Caroline!" Louisa tried to stop her sister. "

"Louisa, seriously, first those Bennet girls flounce into the party looking like cancer patients, then everyone makes a huge big scene because one of them is choking on biscuit! Have you ever in your life seen such low class behaviour" Caroline's voice carried across the entire room, the distain and disgust obvious to everyone.