Chapter 14 – Try to Remember
Several months later… late October, to be exact
"Eliza, you're driving yourself crazy. You really ought to slow down."
Winter had come early this year, bringing blustery winds and freezing temperatures before even Halloween. Unfortunately, a blizzard of midterms had come upon Eliza as well, and she was driving herself quite mad studying for them.
"I have to get an A in this class, Charlotte, I just have to!" She was speaking to Charlotte, whom she had not seen since mid-August. No matter how many times Charlotte tried to get Lizzie to meet her for lunch, something always came up.
"You will, Lizzie," Charlotte said, exasperated.
"But I have to be one hundred percent sure. If I get an A in the class, then I'll have a high enough GPA to graduate with honors," Eliza said, collapsing onto a couch. She was in the library, as usual, in her normal corner where she was rarely bothered. She had two ten-page papers and two midterm tests coming up, and had thought several times of just bringing a pillow and sleeping in the library.
Charlotte sighed. "Lizzie, I really do have something important to tell you. Can you stop studying for an hour and just meet me for drinks at least?"
Drinks. Alcohol sounded pretty good to Eliza right about now. She groaned and slammed her books shut.
"Alright. Where?"
An hour later, Eliza was walking to a bar close to the library. Somehow she had managed to make herself look presentable, throwing on jeans and wrapping herself in a thick turtleneck and peacoat. Bitterly cursing the wind, she practically ran into the bar and straight to where Charlotte was sitting at a booth.
"God I hate the wind," Eliza said with a grin as Charlotte hopped up to hug her. It was good to see Charlotte, who looked far more put-together than Eliza in an elegant cashmere sweater.
"This weather is awful, isn't it?" Charlotte said as they sat down. Eliza nodded vehemently.
"Thanks for taking a break to see me," she continued.
Eliza smiled. "Well, I was in desperate need of one."
"I'm so glad I'm done with all that," Charlotte said with a chuckle. Charlotte was three years older than Eliza, and although she had majored in biology in school and had hoped to go to medical school, her father had twisted her arm to get her to work for the family company. He had insisted it was only temporary, until she saved up some money of her own for medical school, but somehow, three years and several nonexistent paychecks later, Charlotte was still living at home.
"Charlotte, you can still go to med school," Eliza said with a pointed look; it had always saddened her that Charlotte had never gone through with her dream.
To her surprise, Charlotte grinned and said, "I know."
Eliza gasped, nearly sending her cosmo off the side of the table. "You're doing it! You're going!"
Charlotte continued to grin. "Yes."
Eliza leaned back in her seat, overcome with excitement for her friend. "I knew your father would come around and pay for it."
"Well, actually…" Charlotte trailed off, her grin sliding off her face.
Eliza gasped again. "You're making a break for it! You finally told your dad to piss off and you're moving to the city!"
"Sort of," Charlotte said, looking apprehensive. Eliza frowned, puzzled by Charlotte's behavior. What was going on?
"I am moving to the city for school," Charlotte said. "And no, my father isn't paying for it."
"But I thought-?" Eliza stammered; she knew Charlotte had very little money of her own.
"Lizzie, I'm asking you as a friend to please hear me out and save your comments until after I am finished," Charlotte said carefully.
Eliza nodded. "Of course."
Charlotte took a deep breath and then began, "In July, when you were busy with your internship, you dumped Tom, remember?"
Tom? Eliza thought. Tom Collins? What the hell does he have to do with this?
"Um, yeah," Eliza said slowly.
"Well, the following week he asked me to the opera. I said yes because… well, I really wanted to see the opera and it was the closing night, so…" she paused for a brief moment, then plowed on. "Then he asked me to the ballet, and then the theatre, and then to the Hamptons… I didn't really mind his company, and he kept buying me so many gifts, so I just sort of went along with it."
By this point, Eliza's chin was on the table. Her mind was working overtime trying to process what Charlotte was saying to her. Tom? Charlotte? What?
"I met that Lady Catherine of his last month… oh, Lizzie, wait until you see her. She's like a character from a movie just sort of leapt out of the screen and sat down next to you. She's positively terrifying… but she said she liked me by the end of the night, so I must have done something right. Then – you'll never believe this, Lizzie – the next week she asked me to have dinner with her in the city, without Tom. The moment we sit down she says to me, Charlotte, what will it take to get you to move in with Tom in the city? I have no idea what to say, so she asks me what I want most in the entire world. I say, well, I want to go to medical school to become a doctor. She says, done. I'm like, what do you mean, done? So she says – get this, Lizzie! – she says, if you move in with Tom in the city, I will pay for you to go to Columbia Medical School."
Eliza had forgotten entirely about her drink. She hadn't blinked in easily over a minute. She was still trying to process the idea that Charlotte had actually gone out with Tom in the first place, and now Charlotte was telling her that Lady Catherine was paying Charlotte off to live with Tom? What the hell is going on?
"And you said yes, obviously?" Eliza stuttered.
"Of course! I mean, I know it's probably not the most moral thing to do, but I really don't mind Tom… he's not really as disgusting with me as he was with you…"
As Charlotte chattered on about Tom's saving graces, Eliza was still sorting out everything Charlotte was saying to her. Her gut reaction – but probably not one she should share with Charlotte – was disbelief that anyone would live with Tom Collins, even if they were getting paid. She had almost forgotten Tom until this moment, but every memory made her cringe. Her second thought was that yes, it most certainly was not the most moral thing for Charlotte to do. Using a guy just to have his wealthy patroness pay for school? It was so cliché – something right out of a bad romantic comedy. But her final thought, and one which she thought she could share with Charlotte, was that if this is what it took to get Charlotte out of her parents' house and into medical school, then it had to be worth it.
Charlotte had settled into an awkward silence and was looking at Eliza with anxiety bordering on defiance.
"Lizzie, I know –" she began but Eliza cut her off with a raised hand.
"Charlotte, anything that gets you on your own and into medical school is fine by me," Eliza said, laying a hand on Charlotte's.
Charlotte grinned again and squeezed Lizzie's hand. "Thank you," she said.
Eliza finally turned her attention to her drink, and, hoping Charlotte wouldn't notice, downed it in one gulp.
"Well, now that we have that out of the way, I have a favor to ask," Charlotte said.
"Anything," Eliza said.
"Will you come stay with us over winter break?" she asked hopefully. "The apartment is huge and Tom's working all the time, and I don't start school until spring, so…"
Eliza smiled as another drink was set down next to her. "Of course."
"Adjudicate."
"To resolve judicially through a court judge."
"Qui tam."
"US citizens can take legal action on behalf of the government through lawsuits."
"Additur."
"Power of a trial court to increase the damage award made by a jury. Honestly, Georgia, if you're not even going to challenge me, you may as well go home."
By the end of the summer, Will had decided that the only thing to take his mind off of things was to increase his course load for the fall. If he took two extra classes, numbering six total, he could graduate in January instead of May, and move straight to London. It had certainly been a successful plan, but now he was paying the price, as midterms and finals started sneaking up on him.
"You know everything, Will… we've gone through all your notes and all your books!" Georgia cried, tossing aside his notebook. She had come to visit for a long weekend, but had ended up being sucked into helping Will study. She sat cross-legged on the couch in his library, her thin, petite body wrapped tightly in a fleece blanket. Will groaned and ran a hand through his hair.
"It's impossible to know everything, Georgia," he reminded her sternly.
"Well, apparently you've been wrong all these years," she said with a smile. Flipping her brilliantly blonde hair over one shoulder, she tossed his notebooks at his feet.
"Go ahead, look through them. I've asked you everything," she said.
Will looked at his watch – 6:30! His first exam was in less than twenty hours; he picked up a notebook at his feet and began flipping through it.
"No, Will!" Georgia suddenly cried, ripping it from his hand. "Food. You need food," she said, and then grabbing his wrist, began to pull him downstairs to the kitchen.
Forcing him into a chair, Will watched as his sister rooted around through the freezer for awhile before producing two frozen pizzas. He rolled his eyes, but sat back in his chair, running through his vocabulary list in his mind.
"Stop it," Georgia said a minute later when she sat down across from him. "I can tell you're still studying."
"Georgia, I have to pass these tests," he said for the thousandth time.
"And you will," Georgia said with a sigh. "But this is my last day here and we still have not have said one word about anything besides legal mumbo jumbo."
Will sighed and looked at his sister. "I'm sorry, Georgia. I know I've been no fun this weekend."
She laughed. "Oh Will," she said, patting his hand. "You're never fun, brother."
He laughed, too, even though the comment slightly stung.
"You know who I still want to meet?" Georgia said, standing and pouring them two glasses of water.
"Who?"
"That Eliza you were going on about a few months ago. Whatever happened to her?"
Will's internal studying stopped stone cold. He had not thought or spoken of Eliza in a while. Every once in awhile, he would see something or think of something that he longed to share with her, and that would bring back all the emotions and thoughts that he had tried to bury. Not seeing her on a regular basis had certainly put her out of his head, but it was those little moments when something reminded him of her, or he thought he heard her laugh, and he would start to hope that maybe he would turn a corner and she'd be standing there. Whether she still dated Wickham he didn't know, but his gut told him no. She was too intelligent… his resolve to think ill of her after that night at the museum had dissolved quickly. Instead, he had resolved to not think of her at all… and for the most part, he had succeeded.
"I don't know," he finally answered. "I haven't seen her in a very long time."
Georgia frowned as she sat back down and handed him a glass of water.
"You didn't stay in touch?" she said, sounding disappointed. "She sounded like fun."
Will smiled a little, lost in his thoughts. "She was."
Georgia was silent a moment, sensing she was overstepping her boundaries.
"So, how's Charles?" she said, changing the subject.
Will turned back to his sister, glad for the change of topic.
"Fine… he should be back any minute now actually," he said. The truth was, Will thought sadly, was that Charles was not exactly fine. Sure, he was as kind and decent as ever, but he had lost the bounce in his step. Will couldn't possibly believe that he was still upset over Jane, and had been trying to figure it out tactfully ever since he had first noticed it.
Georgia nodded, but the conversation stalled. Will relapsed back into his thoughts while Georgia stood and took the pizzas out of the oven. There, sitting at his little kitchen table, Will suddenly realized how much he had missed Eliza the past several months. His only consolation was that perhaps, somewhere, Eliza was thinking about him, too.
"This is ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous!"
Her books left forgotten on the floor, Eliza had immediately called Jane as soon as she returned from drinks with Charlotte.
"I don't know, Lizzie… she must see something you didn't," Jane said.
Eliza sighed and fell onto her friend Kate's couch, where she was crashing for the next several days.
"I guess so," she replied slowly, but she wasn't sure that was entirely possible. Tom had certainly seemed like a one-layer, shallow kind of guy. Eliza couldn't blame him for going after Charlotte; indeed, it was a step up from Eliza in most ways – Charlotte was far wealthier, and her family had an impeccable reputation. But for Charlotte, this was several steps down. She deserved so much more than Tom.
"Besides, it can't be forever, right? It's not like she's marrying him. She'll go to school, become a doctor, and then move on," Jane said reasonably.
This comforted Eliza… Jane was right, as usual. If nothing else, Charlotte was finally getting to go to med school. Eliza just hoped and prayed that she did not have to sleep with that disgusting creep.
Eliza was jolted from her thoughts by a beeping noise from her phone.
"Hold on, Jane, I have another call," she said to her sister, then transferred lines.
"Hello?"
"How could you do it? How could you do this to me? I am your mother, do you have no respect at all?"
So it begins, Eliza thought. She leaned back on a pillow and propped open a notebook as her mother screeched on. It was the usual ranting – Eliza had let the family down by letting Tom go, and had also embarrassed them by letting Charlotte have him instead. Eliza made no sound of protest, and after several minutes, her mother gave up and handed the phone to her father.
"Hello, darling," he said calmly.
"Hey, Dad," Eliza replied.
"Good job, Lizzie, you've tired your mother out. Hopefully she will rest in silence for the rest of the evening."
Eliza chuckled.
"Oh Lizzie… I would have never spoken to you again if you had even considered dating that man," her father went on.
"Good thing I didn't, then," Eliza said.
"But honestly, Lizzie, when is it going to be your turn to have your heart broken? Jane's still is, even though she won't admit it, and Lydia is currently eating an entire pint of ice cream watching some awful show on the TV, moaning about some young man named Rusty."
Eliza laughed. "I don't know, Dad."
"Come on, Lizzie, every girl's got to go through it. What happened to that Wickham fella? I'm sure he would have done a fine job."
Eliza didn't answer right away. She had almost forgotten about George; she hadn't spoken to him in months. After the gala at the museum, she had never been able to bring herself to call him, and he never called her. She had just sort of let it go, as her job and then school captured all her attention.
"I don't know… I haven't talked to him in awhile," she replied.
"Oh well… you'll find someone, I'm sure."
"Hey Dad, while I have you on the phone…"
Eliza ended up spending an hour on the phone with her father while he helped her sort out a few of the more difficult aspects of her Human Rights in Culture paper. When she hung up, she could tell she had put her father in a much better mood; he loved helping her out with her studies.
Two weeks later, Eliza was finally finished with all her tests and papers… until finals, of course, but she still had a month and a half until then. As a celebration for finishing midterms, Jane decided to take Eliza to the ballet.
"Well, congratulations, Lizzie. Only one more round of midterms to go," Jane said as they sat in the cab.
Eliza sighed and smiled. She couldn't believe she was less than six months away from being completely done with college. She had already been accepted by the NYU graduate school, during which she planned to study art history and conservation. How she was going to pay for it yet… well, she'd figure it out.
"I'm old," Eliza said jokingly. Jane laughed and settled back in her seat.
"Not as old as me, dear," she said, patting Eliza's hand.
They chatted about this and that until the taxi pulled up at Lincoln Center. Making their way inside, Jane immediately had to go to the ladies room, as usual, so Eliza went to find their seats. She was about to make her into the row when she heard an ominously familiar voice behind her.
"I told Marie, if I wanted to look like some shoddy, bourgeois twit, I'd shop at a mall, for heaven's sake. I don't come to a Milan boutique to be treated like a Hilton sister."
Eliza turned her head quickly and tried to get in to her seat. Unfortunately, the man on the end of the row didn't notice her desperate attempts to get past him, and stayed glued in his seat. By that time, however, Eliza felt a cold, bony hand clasp around her wrist.
"Eliza Bennet."
Eliza took a deep breath and then turned around. Sure enough, there was Caroline Bingley, a large, vapid smile stretched across her plastic-like face. Next to her stood her sister, Louise, who was staring at Eliza as if she had never seen her before.
"Caroline, how nice to see you," Eliza said with a fake smile.
"And you, Eliza," Caroline said. She swept her eyes up and down Eliza's frame; Eliza could just see her thoughts turning in disgust at Eliza's brown tweed pants and violet v-neck sweater. How hopelessly plain, Eliza could hear Caroline's slow British monotone say.
"Are you all alone?" Caroline asked, searching around.
Eliza bit her lip. What to do? Should she tell Caroline, the cruel bitch who broke her sister's heart, that Jane was here? She could just see Caroline rhapsodizing about her brother's new perfect girlfriend… or worse, say that Charles was engaged already. Better not, and take her chances.
"No… I'm here with a friend," Eliza said; well, technically it was the truth.
"Ah." There was an awkward pause. "It's not that George Wickham, is it?" Caroline asked.
Eliza's eyes narrowed. "No, why?"
"You really shouldn't believe a word that man says. I don't know the particulars, but he committed a heinous crime against William some years ago," Caroline said.
William? Ugh, Darcy, Eliza thought with a groan. She had forgotten all about him, but the mention of his name reminded her of all his heinous crimes. She wondered if Caroline had won him over yet.
"Forgive me, Caroline, but I think you're mistaken," she said coldly. Caroline's eyes turned to ice and she straightened her back a little.
"Fine, believe what you want. I was only trying to help," she said with a glare.
By this time the lights were flickering and Eliza saw Jane making her way down the aisle.
"Well, goodbye Caroline," Eliza said quickly.
"Goodbye," Caroline said, and then turned on her heel and marched away. Eliza hurried in to her seat, and a minute later, Jane sat down next to her.
"Were you talking to someone?" Jane whispered as the lights went down.
Eliza just shrugged and kept her eyes on the stage. "No one."
Georgia was right, Will thought with a sigh as he left his last test. He had breezed through all of his exams without so much as a pause. However, now began the real challenge: studying for his bar exam.
As Will walked into his building, his eye caught the Metropolitan Museum of Art across the way, where Charles Rochester's exhibit was still being shown. He sighed as he walked inside; Eliza had flittered in and out of his thoughts for the past few weeks, ever since Georgia had mentioned her. He couldn't help but wonder how her last year of college was going, and what she had planned for next year. By then, he would be in London at his firm's main office, an entire ocean away. Perhaps the distance would help, he thought hopefully.
Much to his chagrin, Caroline was lounging in his sitting room when he entered the apartment. It was quite late on a Saturday night, and judging from her clothing, she had just returned from one form of the theatre or another.
"Hello, Caroline."
She jumped at the sound of his voice and turned off the television.
"Will! Hi," she said, noticeably straightening out her dress so that it fell a little lower on her chest. Will rolled his eyes and hung up his coat.
"Will, you will not believe who I saw at the ballet tonight," Caroline said, springing up from the couch and following him to the kitchen.
"Who?" Will said dully, pouring himself a glass of wine.
"You probably don't even remember her, I mean, it took me at least five minutes to place her name," she droned on.
"Who, Caroline?"
"Eliza Bennet. Remember, from the beach? She had that God-awful family… heavens, remember her mother?"
Will sighed. Of course.
"Remember how rude and impertinent she was?" Caroline went on.
Will raised an eyebrow. "Not exactly."
"Oh. Well, you will not believe what she said to me. I told her to stay away from that Wickham, and she defended him! What on Earth do you think he said to her?"
"She was there with Wickham?" Will said quickly, his blood pounding in his brain.
"No, just some friend," Caroline said, looking surprised. Will let out his breath, very relieved. Somehow, the thought of Wickham and Eliza still managed to make him go blind with fury.
"But honestly, Will… I thought you said he did something wrong to you."
"He did," Will growled. "But I'm sure he's made up some batch of lies to tell everyone."
"How awful," Caroline purred, rubbing her hand up and down his arm. Will clenched and moved away from her. Someday, Caroline was going to be very disappointed when Will married Anne… or, perhaps, someone else. Someone… unexpected.
A/N: Woo! That was a pretty quick update – for me, anyway. I know, a bit of a filler chapter, but guess what? Next chapter is Rosings time! Now, don't get too excited, we're still two chapters away from more Eliza-Darcy-ness, and three chapters away from the "proposal", but still. I'm excited! So expect about the same time for another update, because I am all over writing these next few chapters.
So please review! (Please please please please) Reviews mean inspiration which means faster updates!
Love, luck, and flying Ringwraiths,
Emma the NazgulQueen
P.S. I'm not exactly an expert on law school, but I'm pretty sure you go to law school, get your J.D., then take the bar exam. If anyone knows for sure, I'd really appreciate the knowledge! Thanks!