A/N: I've decided to change the day each chapter is posted, from now on it will be Fridays that I post because it's turned out better for me to do so. Some of you seem intrigued by Sarah, there is a lot more to come as the story progresses and you will eventually learn the background of what happened to Lydia, who Sarah is and why Mrs. B left her daughters.
Just in reply to a guest reviewer who was surprised at how long the burial took. In regards to the burial of Will's dad within this story, I'm going off my own experiences in burying loved ones. One of my grandfathers died on Christmas day and we couldn't bury him for four weeks due to bank holidays and autopsy reports. My other grandfather it took nearly three weeks because of autopsy reports. Three or four days is a relatively short time to organise a whole funeral unless under certain religious circumstances. From my own experiences, it takes time for the coroner to release the body to the funeral home and there may be autopsies that need to be performed before the funeral can be planned. So, I decided to use my own experiences when it came to Reginald Darcy's death.
Enjoy.
Chapter Four
The following Friday came too quickly for Will's liking. The day after Sarah had turned up at his father's wake he had texted Sarah, asking her to meet him in Gunwharf Quays. He had finished up a lunch meeting with some of his father's business associates from London which hadn't gone so well. The business associates were adamant that it was time for him to head back to his office in London but he told them straight that he had responsibilities to his sister and had decided to remain in Portsmouth until after the Christmas period, with Richard stepping in as a temporary replacement to manage things in London.
As he sat in the outside seats of The Slug and Lettuce, he saw her walking towards him, wearing a pair of shorts and a bright floral shirt; the clothing threw him, it was completely different to what she used to wear.
"Hi, can I get you a drink?" Sarah asked.
Will shook his head.
"No, I'm fine thanks. Take a seat."
Sarah sat in the chair next to him.
"How have you been?" she asked.
"Fine."
"And Georgiana?"
"She's fine."
Sarah nodded, the atmosphere awkward until Will cleared his throat.
"I think you should tell me why you're here, why did you come to my father's wake?" he suggested.
"I came because I did want to pay my respects. Reginald was a good man and you take after him in that sense."
Will laughed harshly, guessing where the conversation was going.
"And you wanted to tell me that you made a mistake?" Will asked.
Sarah's eyes were glistening with tears that weren't yet falling down her cheeks. She blinked them back as she bit her lip and nodded.
"I made the worst mistake of my life when I lost you."
Will got up from his seat, checking his watch before looking back down at her.
"This meeting is over, I don't want to hear how you made a mistake, we all make mistakes but what you did, I can't forgive you for. I'm sorry, but I can't. Go back to your life, Sarah, and forget that we ever knew each other." Will said.
As he turned to leave, Sarah shouted after him but he refused to listen. He wasn't in the mood to listen to her excuses about their shared past and after the bad meeting with the business associates, he now was expected to show up at Rosings Park to socialise with his aunt's members of staff. Using the escalators that led him underground to the Gunwharf Quays carpark, he paid for his ticket and got into his car, starting the engine to make the short journey to Rosings Park.
ooOoo
"Don't worry Lizzy, I'm sure it'll be fine." Lydia smirked.
Elizabeth rolled her eyes at her little sister's words. Ever since they had moved to live with their aunt and uncle, she had been saying those words to Lydia and in the week that they had lived there, Lydia had felt the need to repeat those words to her when Ed had mentioned that she would have to attend the Rosings park meet and greet staff barbecue. A part of her had been dreading it, she wouldn't know anyone apart from her uncle and given that the school was a private school, she doubted that there would be anyone who were from similar backgrounds to her.
"Come on Lizzy, we'll be late." Ed called from the hallway.
"Coming!" Elizabeth called back.
Pulling on her shoes, she turned to Lydia, who was sat watching The Middle on Comedy Central.
"Are you going to do anything today, other than sit around watching sitcoms, I mean?" Elizabeth asked.
Lydia shrugged.
"Aunt Maddie's gone to collect my uniform for Rosings, so I may take Trip for a walk before she gets back." Lydia yawned.
"Have fun. Make sure you do get out today."
"Will do. You have fun as well."
Elizabeth met her uncle in the hallway and together they left the house and climbed into Lizzy's car, with Maddie having taken her uncle's to the delivery depot. She started the engine and pulled out of the driveway before beginning the journey to Rosings.
"Try to relax, you'll be fine. There's lots of staff there who are around the same age as you. We aren't all stuffy, old teachers with no sense of humour." Ed laughed.
Elizabeth smiled, "It's just…this means that it's really happening. A new job, a new place to live. Sometimes it doesn't feel real." She explained.
"I get it, Lizzy. But it is real and I'll be here for you and Lydia, every step of the way."
It wasn't long before she was pulling into the staff carpark and following her uncle across the road to the playing fields that her new boss had hired for the day. They walked across the field to where a large, white marquee held most of the Rosings staff members and a large barbecue was cooking several pieces of meat. When Elizabeth and her uncle reached the marquee, they sat down at one of the tables where a young woman was sat.
"Hello Charlotte, enjoying your summer?" Ed asked.
The woman called Charlotte smiled, tucking a lock of her short brown hair behind her ear.
"I am Ed, thank you, and yourself?" Charlotte asked.
"It's going well. This is my niece Lizzy; she's going to be the new school nurse. Elizabeth Bennet, this is Charlotte Lucas, she teaches English." Ed introduced.
"Hi, it's nice to meet you Lizzy. Are you looking forward to starting at Rosings?" Charlotte asked.
Elizabeth sat down next to Charlotte, as her uncle headed off to get them both a drink.
"It's certainly a new challenge, I've never been a school nurse before." Elizabeth replied.
"Really? So a new environment for you? What kind of nursing did you do before?"
"I worked as a nurse practitioner at my local GP surgery where I used to live."
"Nice job. Where did you used to live?"
"I doubt you would have heard of it, a little village called Thurston."
Charlotte smiled, "No, I haven't heard of it if I'm honest. What part of the country is it located?" the woman asked.
"It's not far from Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk. I grew up there."
"What brings you all the way to Portsmouth, if you don't mind me asking?"
Elizabeth felt that the woman wasn't really prying, they were just getting to know each other but still, she didn't feel comfortable revealing the entire truth of why she and Lydia had moved away from their childhood home to start somewhere new.
"It's fine. We just needed a change of scenery, a fresh start."
"We?"
Elizabeth nodded, "My little sister. She's starting Rosings as a student next month, she's sort of dreading it, we aren't from a rich background." She explained.
Charlotte smiled, "Don't worry, she'll get on fine. I know how it looks, the building, the fees, the background that some of the kids come from but there's a good mixture of children from different circumstances. I'm not from a rich background but I've made some good friends here, you will as well."
"I hope so, otherwise my sister will murder me in sleep." Elizabeth laughed.
As Ed returned to the table, she felt herself relaxing a little more as she continued to chat with Charlotte, eventually conversing with others as a tall, red haired man sat at their table with an older man with grey streaks in his own red hair.
"Nice to see you, Wesley." Ed greeted.
"Likewise Edward, has Catherine done the rounds yet?" the older man asked.
Ed shook his head, "Not yet, I haven't even seen her."
"I take it the lovely young lady sat next to you is a new member of staff?" Wesley questioned.
Ed nodded, "My niece Lizzy. Elizabeth Bennet, this is Wesley Bingley, he's on the board of governors. Wesley, my niece is going to be the new school nurse." He introduced.
Elizabeth reached across the table and shook hands with Wesley until the man nodded towards the younger man with him.
"My son Charles, he's starting a teaching position here." Wesley informed them.
"What subject?" Charlotte asked.
"I'll teach IT."
"Can you actually fix a computer or are you just really handy when it comes to making a spreadsheet?" Elizabeth teased.
Charles grinned, "I can build computers from scratch, install software, diagnose faults. There's a lot more to me than being 'handy when it comes to making a spreadsheet', Miss Bennet." He replied, not minding her tease.
"Charles used to be a manager at Novatech in Portchester. Catherine did have him down for Geography by mistake but it's been rectified now." Wesley informed.
"So teaching is a bit of a new area for you?" Ed asked.
Charles nodded, "A whole new area. My dad spoke with Catherine de Bourgh about signing me up for the teaching course they do here through Chichester College." He replied.
Wesley left the group, announcing that he had just seen Catherine head out to the barbecue and needed to talk to her about something, leaving the rest of them to continue their conversation.
"I wasn't aware that was a thing." Elizabeth said.
"It's a fairly recent thing," Ed replied, taking a sip of his drink, "Catherine signed up Rosings for the teaching course about two or three years ago. Anyone who has a degree already but wants to start a new career in teaching can apply for this course, they gain the experience of teaching and complete a class schedule in the evenings at the college."
"I completed it two years ago," Charlotte added, "It's hard but overall it's worth it. When I was on the course, it was a two evenings a week at the college with a two-hour lecture on both and with the teaching experience here where an examiner assessed your performance and then you complete an exam at the end once you have finished all the coursework."
"Sounds complicated." Elizabeth commented.
"It's not if you're sensible. One of the women I met doing it two years ago wasn't serious about it, she was quite young and cared more about partying and in the end, Catherine threw her off the course when she turned up to work wearing the previous night's clothes with a bottle of vodka still in her bag."
Elizabeth's eyes widened.
"This woman wasn't very smart then, was she?" she asked.
Ed shook his head.
"No she never gave the impression she really wanted the position either. She always complained about the underachievers in her maths group instead of helping them or supporting them. Catherine confided in me that her parents had pushed her into pursuing a teacher career." He replied.
"I can assure you that while I like to have a good time, I won't be coming into work in last night's clothes with a bottle of vodka in my bag." Charles chuckled.
The rest of them laughed, enjoying the conversation as they all got to know each other a little better. Eventually Charles left the table as he spotted a tall, dark haired man walking across the field.
ooOoo
Will walked across the large field, feeling a sense of dread that after his awful business lunch and the short but awkward meeting with Sarah, he wasn't in the mood to socialise with his aunt's members of staff. He picked up a can of coke from the ice filled drinks, plastic picnic box and joined Charles as his best friend met him by the barbecue.
"Glad you could make it Darcy, at least there's a familiar face here." Charles greeted.
"I'd rather be at home at the moment." Will said grumpily.
"What happened?"
"Well the business lunch was a disaster, they were trying to convince me to return to running the business from the London office instead of having Richard running things temporarily."
"Richard is perfectly capable."
"I agree, that's why I accepted his offer at the wake. I'm still checking in with Richard every few days to make sure he's coping, I'm answering emails and phone calls and I'll be making a visit to the office in Bury St Edmunds in December, we're due to discuss the charity I want to set up."
"What charity?" Charles asked.
"I haven't decided on a name yet but our office in Bury St Edmunds is the one that corresponds with the TPA volunteers who are currently in a village located in the Segou region of Mali. The local governors are quite enthusiastic about working with us to improve rural life in the region." Will replied.
"So, what will happen at this meeting?"
"Well I'll discuss with the MD of the Bury St Edmunds office what's been happening over there, discuss where to get started and then she'll write up the report of the meeting and send it to the head of the volunteer group who will then meet with the local governors."
"How long have you been working on this, exactly?"
"Years. My father started it initially, after my mother died and he watched a news report about how the Niger floods and leaves these villages half destroyed. He wanted to set up a charity to help build flood defences, access to fresh water, that kind of thing."
"You'll get things sorted with TPA eventually, Richard and I have faith in you. Is the business lunch the only reason you're in a bad mood? Or is Georgiana acting all rebellious?" Charles questioned.
"Georgie is pretty much keeping to herself, I guess she just wants the alone time so I'll give it to her. But no she's not the reason and the lunch, although a reason for my bad mood, isn't the only reason. Sarah came back."
Charles's eyes widened in surprise.
"Sarah…"
Will nodded, "She came to the wake but left after I refused to hear her out then and we met today briefly. She wanted to tell me she made a mistake." He said.
"You figured out what you're going to do?"
"I'm not having her back in my life, she caused too much hurt."
"Well, I think you need to forget about the shitty day so far, things could improve. I've met some nice people already, two women in particular who I think I could build some good friendships with." Charles said brightly.
"That's a start."
"Why don't I introduce you to Charlotte and Elizabeth? Both are quite pretty, Elizabeth especially. Lovely eyes, lovely figure, lovely to talk to." Charles said, pointing in the direction of the table he had been sat at.
Will briefly turned around and glanced at the two women, taking a quick look before turning back to his best friend.
"You're a sucker for women, Charles."
"I'm single, I'm free to look. Besides, it's too soon to say if there is anything there, I've only just met the two of them. What I do know is from speaking with them, is that they both seem quite genuine and honest, two traits I value in friendships." Charles replied.
"And you want me to talk to them…because?" Will questioned.
Charles rolled his eyes.
"It might make your day better if you get to know them. All you have to do is talk to them, not all women are like Sarah."
"I don't even want to be here, Charles. Why would I want to speak to some woman when in my experience with the ones I already know, they only want to know me because they know how many zeros come after the first number in my bank account?"
"I'll admit that Caroline is all about the wealth, I won't lie for or defend my sister on that part. But Elizabeth seems quite nice, she's quite fun from my first impression of her-"
"I honestly don't care how pretty she is, how fun she is, how nice she is. I'm not in the mood to engage in conversation with a plain stranger who might turn out to be worse than your gold digger sister." Will said, a little too loudly.
Charles shot him a look of warning as Will turned around, instantly regretting what he had said about the woman his friend was saying was perfectly nice. As his eyes met green ones, he mentally kicked himself about not thinking before he spoke.
That's the woman from the shop, those green eyes. That's the second time you've been rude, well done Will!
The woman cleared her throat and turned to Charles.
"Sorry to interrupt, but your dad was looking for you Charles." The woman said.
"I'd better see what he wants. Elizabeth, this is my friend William Darcy, he's on the school board of governors." Charles introduced.
Elizabeth gave him a small smile as Charles headed off to look for his father.
"Are you new to the school?" Will asked.
Elizabeth nodded, "I'm the new school nurse, not all of us are 'plain strangers' who are 'gold diggers' you know." She said harshly, turning around and leaving him stood there.
ooOoo
As Elizabeth walked away from William Darcy, she knew that he was the same man who had snapped at her the week before in the shop. After hearing him call her a 'plain stranger' and a 'gold digger', she came to the conclusion that he wasn't a pleasant person to get to know. He was rude, he looked down his nose at her and with that, she guessed he was probably a little bit snobby as well. It was people like him that made her nervous to start her new job at Rosings. She wasn't from a rich background. Sure, the B&B that her grandfather had turned Longbourn into was a small business, they had some money but after the previous year, they were starting again from scratch and it was only Jane at Longbourn now to oversee the family business.
As she sat back down at the table where her uncle and Charlotte were sitting, an older woman stopped at one of the empty chairs. She was about the same height as Elizabeth, her hair completely grey and tied back so tight that the skin on her forehead was pulled back as well. Her face showed a few wrinkles, nothing major that Elizabeth couldn't take a guess at how old she was and those sharp, blue eyes looked down the end of her nose that it made Elizabeth shiver down her spine; telling her that she didn't want to get on this woman's bad side.
"Charlotte, Edward, enjoying your summer off?" the woman asked.
"I am, thank you for asking Catherine." Charlotte replied politely.
"Same here, I've been kept busy." Ed smiled.
The woman made eye contact with Elizabeth and for a brief moment Elizabeth wanted to get out of this meet and greet gathering. Just the look on the woman's face made her feel like she wasn't welcome here.
"Is this one of your nieces, Edward?" Catherine asked.
Ed nodded, "My niece Elizabeth, your new school nurse." He introduced.
"Catherine de Bourgh, owner and head teacher of Rosings. Have you had the chance to look around your medical room and office?"
Elizabeth shook her head.
"No, not yet. I've been enjoying getting to know some of my future colleagues."
"Well, make sure that you get the tour of the school when your uncle takes the new teachers on the tour. You won't get another chance and I shall be displeased if you get lost on the first day of term." Catherine instructed.
"I wouldn't worry; I have a good sense of direction." Elizabeth replied.
Catherine narrowed her eyes before moving on to the next table. Starting up the conversation again, she and Charlotte continued to chat and agreed to meet up for lunch after swapping phone numbers; it felt good that she was starting to get to know Charlotte and even Charles seemed quite nice, it was just a shame about the rude man he associated with.
The rest of the afternoon went by and Elizabeth had met some more nice people such as Marie King who taught music and Aimee Long who taught girls PE. William Darcy eventually took a seat at the table opposite to hers and just stared at her for the majority of the afternoon.
He's staring at me, simply to continue to make assumptions and judge me. Is all she thought whenever she met his gaze, she didn't even know why the man had even bothered to turn up at this staff event, it was evident that this was the last place that he wanted to be. But she didn't say anything else to him, she simply helped herself to the cooked food, ate and laughed with the people she was getting to know and then Ed started the tour, leading a group of new staff members into the school buildings.
Rosings Park was a large school, split into sections by departments. The IT suites were filled with up to date technology, the science labs were kept under lock and key which the teachers had one copy of to their own lab, the performing arts section of the school was huge, with a large room, that Elizabeth guessed used to be a ballroom, converted into a dance studio with a drama studio next door. Just the entire school was completely different to the secondary school that she had attended during her teenage years.
Once the group had finished being shown around the main school, they were shown the staff room, cafeteria, and finally they were shown where the medical room was located. It was quite big, with two medical beds on opposite walls, with a filing cabinet, cupboards that contained student and staff medication which were kept under lock and key. Just off the medical room was a small office, containing a desk, office chair and desktop computer and in the far corner, a small but comfortable looking armchair.
After the tour was over, the group returned to the field where Catherine announced the meet and greet gathering was at an end and everyone started to walk back to their cars. As Elizabeth climbed into the driver's seat of her car, she looked back to see that William Darcy was staring at her again; making her wonder just what his problem was with her.
