Pride and Prejudice doesn't belong to me.
Mothers Know Best
Catherine 'Kitty' Bennet knew that she should be happy. That this was a good day for the Bennets especially since something positive had finally happened to them. For a while after Lydia's elopement it had seemed as if the Bennets were doomed to be a topic of gossip around the village.
It was absurd. Everyone acted like it wasn't the twenty-first century; so Lydia had eloped with good-for-nothing George, such things and worse happened all the time. Kitty didn't understand why everyone went on and on about it Lydia and George were married which was more than could be said for Prudence, Mrs. Miller's daughter, she was sixteen and pregnant and her boyfriend the Wallace boy had been recently arrested for possession. Still for some unfathomable reason the neighbours went on and on about the Bennets. It was ridiculous.
Well at least today the stories would change. They would have something nice to say about the Bennet girls, Jane and Elizabeth were getting married, a double wedding, the first in the village and Mrs. Bennet would hold the proud place of having the most children married off.
Kitty had tried to point out that having the 'honour' of having her children well educated with degrees from some of the best universities in the country and the fact her children were successful; Lizzy as a pediatrician, Jane a barrister, Mary a lecturer, while Lydia was a housewife the fact that Kitty had yet to be gainfully employed hadn't come up, thankfully; would not do for Mrs. Bennet on this occasion.
"What are university degrees and careers when there is such a thing like being married?" Mrs. Bennet had asked. "Marriage is the only thing and today I show the whole of Hertford how successful I have been as a parent."
Kitty was trying, and failing miserably, to be happy that her sisters were getting married. She was happy that they were happy but such an occasion couldn't help but draw attention to her own single status and as her dear Mama had hinted she fully expected her to follow in her sisters' footsteps soon.
"Conrad, you know the youngest Sheppard boy is back," Mrs. Bennet had told Kitty the previous evening.
"Conrad?"
"Yes, Kitty," Mrs. Bennet said. "Don't pretend that you don't know who I am talking about."
"Mother," Kitty had protested. "You do know that he's only nineteen."
"So what?" Mrs. Bennet replied. "A woman of your age can't be choosy. Very soon you'll be thirty."
Luckily Elizabeth had come in at that time and Kitty had gone to help her sister.
000
Ronald Bellman adjusted his bowtie and made himself comfortable on the rock. He couldn't understand why his cousin Charles had insisted that he be part of his wedding party. First of all, it was in some place Ronald wouldn't have been caught dead visiting if his mother hadn't forced him to attend, and secondly it was a double wedding, they surely didn't need groomsmen and bridesmaids. He couldn't wait for the ceremony to end, and then he'd be on the first train back to London.
"There you are."
Ronald Bellman turned and looked at the young woman who was standing infront of him. She seemed familiar and he vaguely remembered seeing her before.
"Here I am," he replied.
"Are you hiding?" she asked him. "Because if you are this wasn't a very clever hiding place."
Ronald had indeed gone to the back of the church to hide but he wasn't going to admit it. He shrugged at Kitty as he took in her fetching pink and white dress it came to him why she was so familiar, she was Kitty Bennet, sister to the brides and one of the bridesmaids.
"Are you hiding?" Kitty asked him again.
"No."
"Good," she replied. "I have been sent to tell you that you have fifteen minutes."
"Okay."
Ronald expected Kitty to leave but she sat down next to him and he looked at her in surprise. Kitty was grateful to have a moment's rest; it seemed to her that she hadn't had any time to herself the whole weekend with helping with the wedding preparations and dodging all the men her mother insisted on introducing her to.
"You don't want to be here, do you?" she asked him.
"What gave me away?"
"Don't worry it will be over soon and then you'll go back to your life," Kitty said.
"It's not that I'm not happy for Charles, I really am," Ronald was trying to convince Kitty as much as himself, "but I don't see why I have to be part of it."
"I totally agree," Kitty told him.
"The worst part of it though," Ronald continued, "is that now Charles' getting married Mother is going to turn all her attention on me. She probably has twenty girls all lined up to introduce me to even today." Mrs. Bellman had already introduced him to three girls.
"Mothers."
000
"Do you think it'll work?" Mrs. Bennet asked.
"I have no doubt." Mrs. Bellman was very confident.
Mrs. Bennet watched as Kitty and Ronald made their way into the church and turned to her friend unconvinced.
"Knowing my son," Mrs. Bellman told her. "They've probably already come with a silly story to tell about how they're dating to stop us from introducing them to any new people."
"Okay," Mrs. Bennet was still doubtful. The two women had tried for months to get Kitty and Ronald to meet but they had failed until this weekend and Mrs. Bennet wasn't sure about this new plan.
000
"Kitty," Mrs. Bennet said to her daughter as they were leaving the reception and making their way towards Longbourn. "I hope you don't mind but I told William that you would show him around the village tomorrow. He'll come around at about noon." William was distantly related to the Lucases and he was one of the many young men that Mrs. Bennet had introduced to Kitty that weekend.
"Sorry, Mama," Kitty replied. "I already have plans with Ronald."
'Ronald?"
"You met him, he was one of groomsmen, Charles' cousin," Kitty said.
"Fine, but don't forget Nelson is joining us for tea," Mrs. Bennet reminded her.
"I doubt we'll be back by then," Kitty said.
She had to find Ronald and tell him that their plan would have to go into action much sooner than expected. Thank God they had come up with a plan.
000
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