A/N: Here's chapter ten! I really want to finish this story over my Christmas break, so when I start the new semester, I'll also be working on something new. Anyway, thanks for all your kind words in the reviews (and the constructive criticism, I really do appreciate it, if I've learned anything so far it's that I am really bad at coming up with a plot beforehand, and so there's a lot of plot holes, as I'm sure you've discovered). So please enjoy, and I hope to post again very soon! Also this is the longest chapter so far, so I hope the wait was well worth it!
Chapter Ten
Lizzie had to hand it to Charlotte; the wedding venue was beautiful. Most of the wedding guests hadn't arrived, because it was Friday morning and the wedding itself wasn't until Saturday afternoon. Lizzie had arrived early to see Charlotte, and to enjoy the general scenery of Yellowstone. No place gave her quite the sense of home as the vast expanses that the Rockies gave her.
"Lizzie!" Charlotte turned away from the caterer and saw her friend walk up in loose jeans and an orange sweater, "I was wondering when you'd be here, have you checked into your room?" Most of the guests that were staying the weekend were staying at the Old Faithful Inn, and Lizzie was ecstatic when she had a view of the geyser, though she silently wondered if it would keep her up at night.
"Yeah, it's lovely," Lizzie hugged her friend, "actually all of this is. It's gorgeous, honestly." She looked at the large room that was going to host the reception. The main hall of the Inn was a tall room that stretched up the entire height of the building and everything was made of wood. A huge chandelier hung from the ceiling giving the entire room a warm glow.
"I was really happy when Ricky agreed to have it here," she sighed and looked up at the ceiling far above her head, "I really love this place, remember coming here as kids?" Lizzie nodded and smiled and Charlotte continued, "So, you want to check out the venue for the ceremony, it's on the shore of Lake Shoshone, and if you think this is beautiful, you haven't seen anything, yet."
Charlotte was entirely right, nothing had been set up at the sight of the wedding that was a little over twenty-four hours away, but the scene itself was breathtaking. A light breeze ushered in from the lake kissed their faces lightly, and the mountains on the other side of the lake rose up sharply. The lake itself was lined with dark green forests and the water reflected the clear blue sky.
"I had always dreamed I'd get married her," Charlotte announced, reminding Lizzie of their several middle school family trips when they had written down their dream wedding and dream husband; a fad started by the self-proclaimed most popular girl in school. Lizzie remembered Charlotte talking about a compassionate, warm-hearted man who made her laugh, and wondering how Ricky fit her adolescent ideals.
They stood in silence and soaked in the beauty of the landscape before returning to Charlotte's rental car, and driving back to the inn.
"The CEO from de Bourgh investments is arriving today, and I have to go pick her up because Ricky's not here yet," Charlotte said as she dropped Lizzie off without getting out of the car herself.
"Why is Ricky's future employer coming to your wedding?"
"Ricky insisted," Charlotte adjusted the rearview mirror, "Networking, or whatever. Anyway, I don't mind, if it makes him happy. Apparently she's invited some of her family. Two nephews I believe."
"I cannot believe Ricky forced you to invite his future boss to your wedding, and her family! Charlotte, literally no one does that unless they're best friends with their boss." A beat, "is he best friends with his boss? Oh, I can totally see that."
"No, I mean, Ricky admires her because she has been really successful, but I would hardly call them friends." Charlotte thought of the many phone calls Ricky made with her; she had never seen someone able to squander Ricky's nonstop talking as much as she did.
"Then why is she coming? It's weird to use your wedding as some 'networking' meet-and-greet,"
"Lizzie, it's not just my wedding, it's his too, and we split the number of people we could invite, and that's who he chose," Charlotte sighed, as Lizzie stepped out of the car.
Lizzie realized that fighting with Charlotte wasn't going to accomplish anything and quickly tried to amend it, "You're right, I'm sorry, Charlotte," Charlotte turned toward Lizzie standing in between the door and the side of the car, "Drive carefully."
The sincerity of her apology almost made Charlotte reveal a secret to Lizzie, but stopped herself; telling Lizzie that one of Mrs. De Bourgh's nephews was a man that she despised wasn't going to help the situation (Lizzie had often complained to Charlotte about the seemingly countless things he had done to annoy her). So, she made the decision to smile back and say, "I will!" before leaving the hotel.
This was entirely unfair, Will Darcy thought. His aunt was a whirlwind of complimenting her daughter or herself or criticizing those around her, and the talking was incessant.
"Well, Miss Lucas, don't you look tired today," she said, her face matching the reproach as she scanned the girl who was waiting by the baggage claim for them. She was small but had a friendly face, Will decided, and it was obvious that this Miss Lucas had met his aunt before, mostly because she wasn't taken aback by her rude comments, "Dear, you do look so warn down…I brought detox tea with me and I simply insist you must try it. It will boost your complexion, and the bags under your eyes will disappear!"
"Thank you, Mrs. De Bourgh." She responded politely, "You must be…?" turning toward the tall man at Catherine's side.
"Will Darcy,"
"Nice to meet you," she replied, smiling. Charlotte thought that it was quite a strange phenomenon finally meeting someone that had only existed only in her imagination on the basis of an extremely judgmental friend, and the cloud of disillusionment was lifted. He was good-looking; Lizzie had conveniently never mentioned that, she seemed to be fixated on his negative qualities; he was tall with striking green eyes that someone could get lost in. Charlotte noticed he seemed a little stiff, no doubt from the presumably draining flight with his aunt.
"And your other nephew, Mrs. De Bourgh?" Charlotte turned back to the older lady.
"Oh, dear Richard is in the restroom," she turned to look back in the direction of the bathrooms to see if he was coming, "poor boy is deathly afraid of flying and would not get out of his seat the entire time. I told him, 'Now, Richard, everyone knows how safe planes are, just use the restroom' but he would not listen to me, which agitated me greatly," she sighed, and turned toward Will, "you know how I feel when people don't listen to me, like when dear Georgiana decided to major in pre-medicine rather than pre-law, we both know she would be a wonderful lawyer," Will opened his mouth to defend his sister but was cut off again as Catherine turned her attention toward Charlotte, again, "You know, my own daughter, Anne, is studying law at Yale, quite the accomplished girl she is."
"You guys been waiting long?" a smiling face said from behind Will and Catherine. He had dark hair, almost black but the light caught it and revealed the chocolaty undertones, it was a mess of almost curls, like they had put in half of the effort to fully curl, and it gave him a devil-may-care appearance, he smiled at Charlotte, "you must be the betrothed," he smiled and extended a hand. Up close Charlotte noticed the specs of green in his light brown eyes.
She returned the smile, "Hi, I'm Charlotte Lucas, are you all ready to go?"
"Richard, you simply took too long," Catherine began to complain as they walked to the car, "if you had used the restroom on the plane, like I told you, we could've have avoided this mess,"
"My sincerest apologies, aunt Catherine," he opened the passenger door to allow his aunt to step in.
"And Miss Lucas," she adjusted herself in the passenger seat, "don't take curves too fast, it disrupts my digestive system."
"Yes, Mrs. De Bourgh," Charlotte buckled herself into the car, and turned the ignition to start the engine.
"Has any other wedding guests arrived yet?" Richard asked, leaning forward to join the conversation.
"Only my friend, Lizzie," Charlotte responded haphazardly, not thinking of the consequences, "But she was visiting her family in Montana, so she just took a bus down," Darcy was only partly paying attention, and didn't put the dots together, but the name piqued his interest enough to give his full attention.
"Is she a bridesmaid?" Richard asked earnestly.
"Oh, no," Charlotte explained, "I mean, Lizzie's one of my best friends but she only recently came back into my life, when I moved down to LA, she stayed in Montana, but she works at Caltech now, which is where I'm getting my doctorate, so we reunited."
Darcy's mind was working a mile a minute, trying to remember everything Lizzie had ever said, trying to decide if it was her or not.
"Lizzie Bennet?" Will managed meekly, and Charlotte's heart stopped. She didn't even think to stop herself from revealing Lizzie being at her wedding, but she quickly regained herself, deciding that it was no big secret, anyway, but now she was going to never hear the end of it from Lizzie.
"Yeah," Charlotte replied, "Do you know her?" lying was not something that Charlotte was particularly gifted in, but she hoped that these people didn't know her well enough to notice her methodically fiddling with her earring.
Richard and Catherine both turned toward Will to see his response, he coughed, "Only a little, we met at a party," Darcy was also not particularly good at lying, but turned to gaze out to the window before anyone could notice his discomfort.
Catherine turned back to Charlotte, quizzing her on wedding preparations, and Richard turned toward Will, "the Lizzie Bennet?" he asked knowingly. Darcy sighed. Besides Charlie and Gigi, Richard was his main confidante. He had explained to him about Lizzie, and how she confused him, Richard was quick to pick up on what Will was truly feeling.
"You like her!" he had exclaimed when they had spoken about it, nearly two months ago.
"What? I do not," Will had replied, a slight blush creeping up his neck.
"You so do!" Richard had laughed hysterically, "What's she like? Besides an obvious affinity for arguing with you."
Will had paused to think about a simple description that could be applied to her, it was far more difficult than he had imagined, "Passionate." He had finally decided on. Out of all the words that could have described her, he thought this one did her the most justice.
"Yes, the Lizzie Bennet," Darcy replied quietly, back in the car, and Catherine droned mindlessly on about the importance of geranium center pieces instead of chrysanthemum ones.
Richard smiled widely, "I finally get to meet her," he said to himself, giddy with excitement. Richard had known Will since they were infants, and ever since Will could remember Richard had a friendly childlike presence that made him well-liked wherever he went. He would like Lizzie, Will finally decided, but then was unsure if that was good or bad.
Richard soon turned his attention back to Charlotte, "this place is gorgeous, did you say you grew up here?" he asked, genuinely astonished at the natural beauty of the national park.
Charlotte laughed lightly, "I grew up in Helena, which is about an hour and a half from here," she paused, contemplating the drive from Helena to Yellowstone, "but it's gorgeous there, too, though I am probably biased."
"Hell, I'm biased after seeing this," Richard said facing the window, "Seattle will never compare again." He ended solemnly.
"You're from Seattle?" Charlotte asked, trying to fend off any conversation from Catherine about her wedding. Her nerves were already wearing thin trying to make sure everything was in order, and Catherine, try as she might, was no help.
"Yeah, well, LA originally, like the rest of my family," he explained, "but I moved up there for a job, I'm an architecture professor at U Dub," he explained. The car then went silent, until Catherine quickly took up the reigns of the conversation.
Will and Richard were silent in the back, as Will contemplated how Lizzie had possibly changed in the time since he had seen her.
When they finally reached the hotel, Charlotte helped unload the luggage and take her guests inside to find Lizzie sitting in the lobby engrossed in a book, and looked up to see Charlotte walk in.
Lizzie smiled widely at her friend as she entered with the party of three behind her, but the smile melted away almost as quickly as it had appeared when she saw Will Darcy following Charlotte and his aunt. Will's eyes rose up to meet hers from across the lobby, and her gaze collided with his for a millisecond then left to take in the rest of the group, the smile not returning.
Will was almost used to being confused by Lizzie, but her expression when she saw him baffled him beyond anything he thought remotely possible. When he had heard about her being here in the car, he couldn't stop himself from smiling, albeit internally, to hide himself from his cousin, but he had hoped that she would have a similar reaction. He was unsure if her constant arguing was her personality or if she had it out for him. And if the latter, was that a positive or negative thing. He had clearly seen her smile fade as soon as she saw him, but he had no idea what that meant.
"Ah, the infamous Lizzie Bennet," Richard stepped in front of his aunt to greet Lizzie, and as he said this her face pinched up quizzically.
"Infamous?" she laughed, "I hoped Charlotte didn't give away too much in the drive from the airport."
"Oh, Charlotte said nothing against you, I swear," he smiled at her, and ran his hands through his hair. Lizzie was slightly impressed because he was the only person she knew that could do that and actually make their hair look better, "but my cousin has told me all about you, and he has almost made me feel like I know you already, from his retelling of you."
Will felt the heat rising to his face, and was determined to stare anywhere but her. Since when did Richard make me act like a lovesick teenager, he berated himself silently. However, to his surprise Lizzie simply laughed, and he looked at her.
"Oh, I believe that." She met his eyes again "Will is my most severe critic." She held his gaze for a bit longer than she originally anticipated but quickly looked back at Richard, "Sorry, I didn't catch your name."
"Richard Fitzwilliam," he turned toward his aunt, who he could feel growing impatient with every second she was not included in the conversation, "and this is my aunt, Catherine de Bourgh."
"Pleased to meet you," Lizzie extended her hand politely. Catherine looked at it like it was contaminated with smallpox then reluctantly grabbed it, and released it soon after.
"Enchanted, I'm sure," she replied, turning toward Charlotte, "Are we ever going to check in? You know how much I seriously dislike waiting." Charlotte nodded at led her to the front desk, the three followed in suit.
Lizzie was not exactly enchanted; in fact, the way she would describe her first meeting Catherine to her friends was "I was mostly impressed on how she somehow managed to get everyone to do what she asked, even though it was evident no one really liked her."
"My aunt is a little…" Richard stood next to her by the front desk as Charlotte helped check Catherine in.
"Abrasive?" Lizzie offered, looking up at him. At that moment, the first moment he saw Lizzie's eyes up close was when he truly realized why she had captivated his cousin so strongly. They weren't particularly extraordinary eyes, but when they looked at you—when she looked at you with just the right expression, they almost glowed. It was like an entire chorus of laughter was contained in her eyes when she smiled, and the emotion couldn't help but spilling over into anyone who looked at her.
"Exactly."
"Hey, Lizzie," Richard appeared down in the lobby after he had put his luggage away in his room, "You want to go for a hike?"
Lizzie smiled at him, and Richard wondered if his cousin had ever had the same revelries about her eyes as he did earlier that day. Surely he had, Will talked about her nonstop when they were together, it bordered on extremely annoying. Richard could tell though, that these feelings weren't mutual with Lizzie, but he was determined to step her in the right direction.
"Yeah, actually that's sounds nice," Lizzie stood up and followed Richard out of the hotel into a brisk early winter breeze, "Charlotte's been going crazy with wedding stuff, so it'll be nice to take a break from all that."
Richard nodded, "So, what trail are you thinking about?" Richard loved the outdoors, it was one of the many perks of living in Seattle: the proximity to so much wilderness recreation. This was his first time to Yellowstone, and determined that he should ask a veteran Yellowstone visitor about what trails he should hike.
"My favorite is the Petrified Forest, but we'd have to drive there…" Lizzie began.
"No problem, we can just take Charlotte's rental." Richard was already heading back inside for the keys from Charlotte. Lizzie was a little uneasy about asking Charlotte for her rental car, but overcame it quickly with the idea of seeing her favorite spot in the first time in two years.
Charlotte readily agreed, assuring them that as long as they were back before dinner it would be fine, since Charlotte had to drive to the airport to pick up Ricky in the evening.
The drive passed quickly with easy conversation, Lizzie had never met someone who conversed as naturally as he did, she later came to the conclusion that there had been some sort of irregular balance between him and Will, and somehow Richard had gotten all the friendly qualities and Will was left with the ability to make any conversation awkward. Lizzie tried to direct him to the trailhead as best she could, but after they had gotten lost for the second time, she swallowed her pride and suggested they ask a park ranger, who helped them in the correct direction and they were at the trailhead within five minutes.
"I hope you're ready," Lizzie was crouching down, double knotting her shoes, "There is some serious elevation change on this trail."
"Lizzie Bennet, you have seen nothing yet, I only hope you can keep up," he laughed, extending a hand which she grabbed and hoisted her up.
"Please, you need me to know where we're going," Lizzie replied as they set out on the trail.
"You got us lost on the way here, I think I may actually be better off on my own," Richard said, turning his head to Lizzie who was walking behind him. They quickly found their pace on the trail, and the easy conversation flowed as Richard talked about his job, and Lizzie talked about growing up in Montana.
After about an hour, Richard decided to broach the subject of Will, "Lizzie, you said you've met Will before now, what was he like?" Richard hoped that talking about him would cause Lizzie to realize what a great person he was, but soon realized that the conversation would be a very different one once Lizzie groaned loudly.
"I met him at a party," Lizzie recounted, thinking of the first time she had seen him, "He was…rude."
"Rude?"
"Yeah, so I had barely even spoken to him, but I overheard him talking about how 'vile' I was. His words not mine," Lizzie felt her anger growing, "I mean, I was mostly confused on what I had done to make him hate me so much,"
Richard thought about what Lizzie was saying, it didn't seem like Will at all. He had known Will his entire life, and he had never been malicious, and certainly never to a stranger. He wondered how he could've even say that about Lizzie since every time Will talked to Richard about her it was only praise, "he said that?"
"Yeah, but it's fine now," Lizzie replied, and Richard could almost feel her contagious smile from behind him, "his opinion is meaningless to me."
After a lengthy pause Richard decided to try make Will look better in her eyes, "Will is the most loyal person that I have ever met, I mean, he's awkward, sure, but he cares so much about the people he loves."
"Really?" Lizzie laughed sarcastically.
Richard tried again, "Yeah, I mean, just recently he saved his friend from a horrible relationship."
Lizzie was intrigued, "What happened?"
"Apparently the friend was dating some girl who was only in it for the money," Richard related to Lizzie, still both walking at a steady pace, "and he told the girl that he loved her, and she was unable to reciprocate so Will convinced him to move to New York to get away from her."
Lizzie felt her head spin, and her mouth dry up, "Who was the friend?" she managed in a hoarse voice.
"Charlie Bingley, he's a great guy, you should meet him," Richard said happily.
Lizzie felt heat rise to her face, and her stomach churn. Everything came into focus in her mind; how Charlie had left so suddenly without saying anything, and how she had heard nothing from Will or Caroline. It was all his fault, and how could he think that Jane was only in it for the money, she wanted to scream, but instead slammed her foot down on an oblong rock and felt her ankle twist inwardly, then a sharp pain as her body fell to the ground. Her head hit something hard and she whimpered at the feeling of warm blood on her forehead.