Caroline had thought she was the luckiest girl alive when she got to know Charles had befriended William Darcy during their college days at Harvard. She still remembered how thrilled she was when Charles had brought Darcy home during one of their college breaks. She was convinced she could charm him and marry into old money and fulfill her dream of living the life of the truly rich and famous. In all honesty, she was more interested in his family money and status than the man himself. Truth be told Darcy bored her most of the time with his academic and business pursuits and she had no interest in debating with him the adverse effects of climate change or about the fluctuating price of the Euro. She did not subscribe to any of the elitist, modernistic views that some women held about liberation and emancipation and independence and such. Her requirements for a good life were fairly practical and straightforward she thought. Her happiness basically hinged on her living in a posh neighbourhood, riding luxury cars wearing the latest fashion to socialize with the upper circles. In her scheme of things having a partner to procreate was a necessary obligation but almost secondary to the other requirements.
As she now sat in the tea room of the Four Seasons hotel waiting for Catherine De Bourgh to arrive, she went over in her head the plan she wanted to put forth. She had already set the plan into action a few months ago. Completely unknown to Darcy and Elizabeth, she had captured a few compromising pictures of them in their private moments. She knew first-hand how Darcy safe-guarded his own privacy and that of his friends and family members. She had seen him enraged when a member of the press had published a picture of herself hanging on to his arm at a private event. She had seen him bite the head off of the poor media guy. And all this drama for a fairly insipid picture, she thought. The pictures she had now were atomic bombs compared to the lame pictures that the press usually managed to get. She had three sets of pictures in her arsenal - a set of pictures with William and Elizabeth kissing openly on the street in front of the Guggenheim; a set of pictures of Will erotically sucking Elizabeth's chocolate smudged fingers at Charles' barbecue; and a set of pictures of them kissing hotly and almost groping at the office party before Catherine had called them out. She had even printed one of the more decent kissing pictures to shock and awe Catherine at the meeting today. She felt extremely confident of her plan as she saw Catherine being ushered into the tea room.
"Alright Ms. Bingley. What is your plan?" asked Catherine even without so much as a hello.
"Well, hello to you too Mrs. De Bourgh," replied Caroline. "What I'm going to tell you is rather scandalous. So brace yourself and do not blame me for not warning you if you cannot stomach it. I intend to screw Darcy and Elizabeth's relationship and will not stop at anything short of that."
Catherine liked a girl who knew what she wanted. She definitely wanted to know what this girl had in mind. "Explain yourself," she said calmly.
"Alright, here is a picture of Darcy and Elizabeth that I want you to see," Caroline said as she placed in front of Catherine a picture of the couple kissing modestly. She knew she had caught Catherine unawares even as the older woman tried to keep an expressionless face. "I have more pictures in a similar vein as this one and believe me when I say each is more amorous than the other."
Catherine was definitely intrigued by the wickedness of the woman before her. "I'm impressed Ms. Bingley," she said openly, "but what are you going to do with these pictures?"
Caroline laughed openly as she said, "I'm going to sell them to the press. I know how Darcy detests the press. I'm sure he will be mad as hell if such pictures of him with his lover come out."
Catherine agreed that Darcy detested the press and the pictures would definitely make him mad but she was not sure how the pictures would actually be useful in breaking up Darcy's relationship. "I think you have not thought this through, Caroline," she said without mincing her words. "Here's what I think you should do," she continued. "For one, you need more ammunition in the form of pictures. You said you have three sets of pictures of them from different events but that may not be enough. Two, you need to leak the photos but you need to be able to do it such that you pin the blame on the Elizabeth girl."
For the first time that afternoon Caroline felt she had in fact not thought this through. She was simply amazed at how conniving Darcy's aunt was and she had to give it to the older woman for her simply brilliant ideas. She told her as much and asked, "But where will I get more pictures of them? It's not like I can get into his bedroom. I would have to use a private detective or some such to bug his place and that just seems too dangerous."
Catherine smiled slowly, "You cannot get into their bedroom but you may be able to get into their phones or computers. I hear kids these days store all kinds of perverted pictures on their phones."
If Caroline was mildly impressed before she was bowled over now by Catherine De Bourgh. No wonder this woman managed the family trust of one of the richest families in the country, she thought. "I'm bowled over by that idea, Catherine," she said. "I'm sure I can sneak into their phones one of these days but still how do I pin the blame on Elizabeth?" she asked.
Catherine considered Caroline's question for sometime before she said, "Did you know this Elizabeth writes a popular blog? What if we could get her credentials and post a blog as if authored by her on her site with a provocative story and your pictures detailing how she seduced the rich Mr. Darcy for fun and profit?"
Caroline's head was spinning. This woman before her was an evil strategist like no other. "Catherine, are you for real?" she asked, her eyes wide with admiration as she continued to say, "I have seen Elizabeth leave her computer unlocked at my brother's place when she visits her sister. May be I can work on the story before hand and quickly upload it to her site when she is away from her computer. It's a public blog, so all her readers will see the pictures and the press will pick up the story in no time."
Catherine nodded approvingly. She was impressed Caroline had a working plan in place already. She still had one more thing to clarify however. "So, Caroline, can you please clarify to me what you are getting out of this?" she asked.
Caroline breathed deeply as she wondered how she could succinctly explain her lifelong fascination for the Darcy family. "Catherine, My main goal is to break Darcy's relationship, so I don't have to fight that slut of a girl for his attentions. When Darcy looks at our fake post on the blog and realizes how his Lizzy has seduced him for her amusement, he will be livid, he will go ballistic, he will be shattered. His heart will be broken and I'll be readily waiting in the sidelines to pick up the pieces of his broken heart and mend it with my affections. I'm sure I can charm him and get him to marry me. I wait for the day when I can be part of your illustrious family. I can already see what a great team you and I will be when that happens," she beamed.
Catherine sighed. Catherine wanted to break Darcy's relationship not because she wanted to welcome this Bingley woman into the family but because she had grander plans in place for Darcy. She wanted him to marry the daughter of a shipping magnate whose family had shown immense interest in joining forces. But alas, now thanks to this miss nobody called Elizabeth, her hope of partnering in a multi-billion dollar deal was trampled. She thought for a moment before she looked Caroline squarely in the eye and said, "Caroline, I support you in your decision to break up their relationship but I'm certain Darcy will not rebound to you." Before Caroline could interrupt she continued, "Know this. If you are successful in your endeavours in breaking them up and still are unable to procure Darcy's hand, I'll promise you a reward in terms of my mentorship of you. I'll put you in the path of other rich men who are above your current social circles. I'll make sure you land yourself in a prominent New York family."
Caroline smiled. She was not a fool. She quickly understood that Catherine had in mind some other grand plan for Darcy and she, Caroline was not part of that plan. She was nothing if not practical in her pursuit of a life of luxury. A life of luxury was important to her not the source of the lifestyle itself. The source of that lifestyle did not have to be Darcy, it could be any Tom, Dick or Harry as far as she was concerned. She realized Catherine was a mastermind and it would be extremely beneficial for her to be in the woman's good books and have her mentorship. She was happy with the outcome of this meeting. She readily agreed to what Catherine suggested as she started to plan her next move.
