To Grandmother's House We Go

It was a normal Saturday morning at the Bennet home. After listening to Lydia whine about the one-hour TV limit and Mary list statistics about crime in America for half an hour, Susan took them with her to the café. Ben was drinking coffee, reading the paper, and debating the new economic policy with Gen, who was buzzing around, doing the dishes, laundry, and bills, baking dozens of pies for a bake sale that afternoon, and singing along to the radio. Jane and Elizabeth were sleeping in after being responsible all week. Baby Abigail was sitting in her high chair covered with mashed bananas and making cute baby noises. She was about fourteen months old and her mother and sisters enjoyed dressing her up in cute pink dresses. She had big blue eyes and strawberry blond hair and everyone loved her.

Then at nine-thirty, the phone rang. For some reason, Elizabeth and Jane were invited to her grandmother, Mrs. Catherine de Bourgh's, dinner party. After about an hour of negotiating, Gen agreed to give them a hundred dollars each if they would go. Reluctantly, they put on their nicest dresses and some jewelry and makeup and set out for what they were certain would be a disastrous night. When they arrived, they saw that Charles and Will were there as well. Jane was thrilled, in her quiet, subtle way, but Elizabeth wondered if it was a good thing or a bad thing.

At Netherfield House, Will and Charles had felt much the same way about the invitation. Charles was uncharacteristically irritable. He could have gone out with Jane, but no, he was stuck spending the evening with this snobbish rich lady and her annoying friends. He didn't know why she bothered to invite him. Aside from being a CEO in the company that had been in their families for generations, Will was also her fourth cousin twice removed or something, which was very important to Mrs. de Bourgh, so he was always invited, but she had never before extended an invitation to Charles. Of course, these feelings immediately vanished when he saw that Jane was there as well. Will's feelings, on the other hand, were less clear.

Before dinner, Mrs. de Bourgh looked at Elizabeth and asked, "Who are you?" Never good at remembering names or faces, it was understandable that she would forget her granddaughters, as she had not made any effort to see them in years.

"Elizabeth, ma'am. It's a pleasure to see you again. Thank you for your hospitality." Not!

After a long silence, Mrs. de Bourgh finally said, "Your parents married very early."

"They did," Elizabeth answered, because Jane was too shocked. Seriously? Didn't we have this conversation like, a dozen times already? And this is how you bring it up, in front of all these people?

"I trust they are still happy with their decision?" she said very sarcastically.

"They are." No thanks to you.

Suddenly Will was glad he hadn't started eating; otherwise he would have choked. Could it be true? Could Elizabeth and Jane Bennet be the daughters of Catherine's disgraced daughter, whose infamous elopement had been whispered about among friends and family for over twenty years? He had started to like Elizabeth, but now… This changed everything. He had to be sure. He leaned over and asked Charles, "So what are they doing here?"

"They're Mrs. de Bourgh's granddaughters. You know Mark Miller is their uncle?" Seriously, pay attention, man.

For the rest of the evening, Mrs. de Bourgh continued to make less-than-subtle remarks intimating that the Bennets were mercenary social climbers. One might wonder just where Mr. Miller was at this point, and why he didn't have enough sense to stop her. He was something of a workaholic and rarely ever home. Their marriage had been on the rocks almost from the beginning, when she announced that no, she would not volunteer for any more charity events, no, she would not change her name to something as common as Miller, and no, she she was not interested in taking an active role in her children's day-to-day care. Of course, divorce was out of the question, but the decision was based less on their religious beliefs than their obsession with what people would think. Tonight, after several calls from his irate wife, Mr. Miller arrived at the party an hour late, said hello to his granddaughters and coworkers, and almost immediately went up to his office. After dinner, Will slipped outside onto the terrace and sat on a bench hidden by overgrown shrubs and darkness. A few minutes later, when Elizabeth came out to make a call, he couldn't help but overhear.

"Hello Mom. No, she hasn't changed a bit. So warm and inviting… Can't imagine why you ever left… Of course… She was hypercritical of everything and he just kept going on and on about his business and the stock market…" She laughed, and Will thought, So that's what you think of me? "And then halfway through, Dad got fed up and kicked them out. That was a Thanksgiving to remember." Then she laughed again. She had a nice laugh. But he couldn't think of that now.

For the rest of the night, Will avoided her. Instead, he watched Charles and Jane. Caroline had mentioned during her rant against the neighborhood that Jane was just using Charles and would end up breaking his heart. Now Will became concerned about how much time his friend was spending with her. She was monopolizing his time, and he was getting hardly any work done. She acted perfectly friendly, but nothing else. She never called or came over on her own. When they were together, she always looked preoccupied. Something has to be done.

He would have said something that night, but shortly after they got home around midnight, they heard a sound coming from next door. Charles looked out the window to the Bennets' backyard. A few lights were hanging from the trees and off the porch, music was playing softly, and Mrs. Bennet was setting up a table full of tea and cookies. Suddenly, Mr. Bennet came up behind her, grabbed her, and spun her around a few times. The two little girls who had been catching fireflies stopped and giggled. Jane and Elizabeth laughed softly and started to sing along with the radio. From where he stood, Will could only hear a little. And honestly, what he heard scared him a little.

"…she doesn't get your humor…

… music she doesn't like…

…she brought you down…

…say you're fine, I know you better than that…

You belong with me…"

"What is that horrible racket? Don't these backwards country folks know that some people are trying to sleep?" Suddenly, Caroline appeared seemingly out of nowhere behind Charles and Will.

"They are not that loud, Caroline. It looks like they're having an after party." It was not lost on anyone that Charles was absolutely mesmerized with Jane, and Will and Caroline shared a look that said, We have to do something.

"Charles," Caroline began, "are you sure…" Suddenly, the three were spotted by Ben, who immediately invited them over. Before Will or Caroline could make their excuses, Charles enthusiastically accepted. Will sighed. This was going to be a long night.