Two days later Elizabeth was sitting in her parent's family room. Mary was on the couch with her. They were watching their mother go back and forth. She kept shouting at no one. "How could Lydia do this?" or "Lydia was supposed to have a fairy tale wedding." Elizabeth wanted to tell her mother she shouldn't be surprised. Look at how Lydia always flirted or went from men to men. This really shouldn't be a surprise but to go for a man like George Wickham?
When she got home she did her best to get a hold of George to give him a piece of her mind. He avoided all her calls. Well so be it. If he still hasn't returned her calls in a couple days she would go find him. There was only one problem. Her father couldn't even find them. They apparently didn't go far to elope but the location is still unknown. She never knew how many places there were for a person to elope.
"How could you let this happen?"
She was thinking of ways to get back at George that she didn't realize that her mother was talking to her. Mary hit her on the arm. She turned to Mary. "Huh?" Mary pointed to their mother.
"What did you say?"
"How could you let this happen? If you had dated George this would never have happened."
Why wasn't she surprised she was getting blamed. Lydia could never do anything wrong; but her? She could never do anything right in her mother's eyes.
Crossing her arms and crossing her legs she looked up at her mother who was now standing there with her arms crossed staring down at Elizabeth. "So I'm supposed to date a jerk, a player?
"I swear Elizabeth all you can think of –"
She didn't let her mother finish that sentence. She got up from the couch and grabbed her purse. She couldn't stand this. She'll just have to wait to hear from her uncle or father from the safety of her own home.
When she got home twenty minutes later she was alone. She went right for the coffee maker and started to make coffee. If she wanted to think about what she could do to get back at George and knock some sense into Lydia she had to fully be awake.
As she was sipping her coffee she eyed a pack of photos. Not thinking she picked them up and almost threw her coffee onto the floor. Jane must have gotten the pictures printed. It was pictures from a party that the two of them went to. One that George was at. She had to put her coffee down and squeezed her fists together. It was very tempting to rip the pictures apart.
She laughed to herself as her eyes glanced on the dart board they kept in the family room. She wondered if Jane would be okay if she took one picture of George and threw it up on the dart board.
Before she could even think about doing it, she heard the front door open. Jane is home. She listens and yup; Charles with her. She stands up straight. She won't let the two of them annoy her today. Today she will be strong. Besides it almost doesn't brother her. Maybe it's because of the time she recently had with Darcy. She frowned as she thought about Darcy. Before she left him he insisted on helping her. He would do anything to make things right. That's great and everything but what about her and him. Couldn't he work on that? So what if they had to travel to see each other. Maybe he was worth it. She felt her eyes start to water. She turned away from the entrance of the kitchen and went to the sink and grabbed a glass above it.
She was still reaching for it when she heard footsteps come in. "Hey, I didn't know you would be here."
She cleared her face of any emotion and turned to face them. "I had to get away. You know how my mother is."
Jane didn't say anything. She knew exactly what Elizabeth was talking about. Charles kept quiet. She could tell he wanted to say something but he kept himself busy as he came up to her and got himself a glass. She hated that he made himself at home. If this was going to keep up she was going to have to find her own place. She moved so Charles could get the water out of the fridge. He poured some and handed her the water. She smiled and poured.
Across town Darcy arrived. When he got out his car he took a look around him. Hard to believe he was here falling for a woman like Elizabeth. He picked up his cell phone and tried to call Charles again. He had a feeling he knew where Charles was and wasn't taking any chances. He didn't want it getting back to Elizabeth he was in town.
He had a list of hotels where George could possibly be. Everyone was assuming George would take Lydia out of town but what they didn't know was George would just take her to a hotel down the street and hide there.
He went to a couple hotels with no luck. He had luck when he went to the third hotel. He didn't have to get far to find him. George was sitting on a bar stool drinking a beer.
Darcy sat down next to him. "Are we having women trouble?"
George turned to him. "What the hell do you want?"
"I wanted a drink."
An eyebrow was raised. "I really doubt that."
"You know me so well, huh? Well than you know what I'm about to say."
He turned to give George his full attention. He was finally going to give him a
piece of his mind. He didn't care if there were stares already forming in their direction. George looked at him unsure what to think. Darcy was not going down without a fight.