A/N: Apologies that this chapter has been posted nearly a month after the last update, I've had a lot on since I last posted. This chapter takes place a week after chapter 20's events and I hope you all will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to post again with the next fortnight. Thanks for sticking with AHK.
Chapter Twenty-One
Zipping her coat to a full close from bottom to top, Elizabeth shouted her goodbyes as she stepped out of the house and met Will at his car. He was dressed in a pair of faded denim jeans, wearing a black rain coat with matching trainers, his curly hair wet from the light drizzle of rain. Taking hold of her hands, he pulled her into his arms and bent his head down to hers; capturing her lips in a fierce kiss. When she pulled away, he didn't release her from his embrace.
"Good morning." Elizabeth whispered.
"It's a better one now that I get to see you." He murmured back, nuzzling his nose against hers.
She hummed in agreement as he placed his lips back to hers and kissed her slowly with his arms wrapped around her back and hers still weaved into his hair. It only lasted a minute or two before he was the one to end it.
"I missed you. How was your week?" Will asked.
"Same old, same old. Lydia's been accepted into sixth form at Rosings and she's looking through the A Level course brochure to decide what A Levels she wants to pursue for the next two years." Elizabeth replied.
"I believe that's what our sisters are getting up to today." Will commented.
"And what are we getting up to?" Elizabeth asked, raising an eyebrow.
He grinned down at her and placed a brief peck to her lips before gesturing for her to get into the car. She complied, both closing the doors and buckling their seatbelts before he turned the key into the ignition and started the car.
"You still haven't said where we're going."
"We're having a day together. Away from prying eyes like Catherine, away from nosy and teasing sisters and away from anywhere we might get caught."
"Just the two of us?" Elizabeth asked.
"Just the two of us." Will confirmed.
While they drove to wherever he was taking them both, she asked him how his week had gone; he had spent the entire week in London on work related business. He told her about the company his family owned.
"It's called The Pemberley Association, or abbreviated to TPA. Mostly we invest in other successful business, a mixture really. Mostly retail or travel and tourism. We're quite a big investor in the Gunwharf Quays retail and leisure complex in Portsmouth and a few other similar complexes around the country. We invest in highly successful retail chains, we have shared ownership in some computer technology businesses; only small scale ones. We have our own charity which the TPA staff volunteers have returned to the Segou region of Mali with food, water, first aid, medical supplies to help the villagers. They're also building flood defences, a fresh water pump and eventually they'll build better housing conditions." William explained, a tone of fondness present in his voice.
"Wow, it seems like you have a handful where work is concerned. The charity work sounds amazing." Elizabeth smiled.
"The original plan was to let my cousin Richard run the company until Christmas, but the TPA business partners weren't happy dealing with a Fitzwilliam rather than dealing with the Darcy heir. With everything that has happened with Georgiana, I won't be taking full control of the company. During my week in London I had a meeting to discuss how each of the investments are doing, with possible new business ventures that TPA can invest in." Will explained.
"Anything exciting?" Elizabeth asked.
Will shrugged.
"Nothing I haven't seen before. Right now, I have my priorities as a parental guardian and Georgiana has to come first."
"I understand."
"Your opportunity to provide health checks in Africa?" Will asked.
Elizabeth nodded.
"Oscar and I were going to take a year off work to go and do it but with my father's death, I couldn't leave my sisters." She replied.
"Well I suppose some good will come out of the difficult times we've both had. We get to be together." Will said brightly, focusing on the road ahead.
They continued to drive on the motorway, an Ed Sheeran song playing on the radio. The rain, that had begun the day as a light drizzle, was now pouring a little heavier on the windscreen; with the wipers going back and forth in the same pace as Will continued to drive. Eventually they left the motorway, taking the junction that led off to a little country village called Wickham and then took a right instead of continuing to drive through the village, driving down a country road where there was nothing but forest to the left and fields with grazing cows to the right of them. Will continued to drive until he took another right, turning into a car park with a sign that stated they had entered the forest park called the Forest of Bere.
"The Forest of Bere?" Elizabeth asked.
Will nodded, driving the car into an empty space and parked it up before switching off the engine and unbuckling his seatbelt. He turned to her with a small smile.
"It's somewhere peaceful, away from the city and somewhere we can spend some time together without being disturbed." Will explained.
Returning his smile, she unclipped her seatbelt and opened the car door and stepped out of the car. She waited as Will went over to the pay and display meter and then came back and popped the time ticket on the windscreen before locking up the car. The couple held hands as they walked across the car park and passed the burger van, following the other families and their dogs on one of the walking trails into the forest.
For a while they walked downhill on the uneven, stony and muddy path, walking past the other families that were walking the same way as them, until they came to a junction where they had a choice to take the left path or the right. Elizabeth followed Will's lead as he pulled her gently by the hand to the right path.
"It is very peaceful here." Elizabeth commented.
"I wanted to do something different with you." Will said quietly.
She looked up at him, seeing that this place held some importance to him by the warm look of remembrance in his eyes.
"Have you been here before?" she asked.
"I used to come here as a child with my mother and father, even when Georgie was little before my mother died. We spent a lot of time here during school holidays and a lot of good memories were made. I haven't been here for a few years and with you…it's…"
As he trailed off his sentence, perhaps unsure of how to continue, Elizabeth stopped walking and met his gaze and in that moment, she knew what he wanted to say. He had already told her previously that he hadn't felt the connection they had with anyone else in a long time, he had already told her how he felt about her, that she was different to other women. But just the way he was looking at her right now, she could see in his eyes, she was important to him. And bringing her to place that held a special importance in his heart, made her smile with watery eyes. To her, it meant so much that he wanted to share this place with her.
Elizabeth stood on her tiptoes, giving him a light kiss before flattening her feet back on the ground.
"Is it me, or does it feel a lot longer than three weeks?" Will asked her.
"It's not just you." Elizabeth replied honestly.
Sharing another brief smile, the two carried on walking uphill and held the other's hand as they walked in a slow pace.
"So, you know about my company, you know about my family background, you know my history and I know a bit about yours. What made you decide to be a nurse?" Will asked.
"Honestly? I can't really pinpoint the exact moment. When my mother walked out, Jane and I had to help our dad out in caring for Lydia. We'd help get her dressed, help feed her, help get her to sleep, watch over her when she was ill to give my dad a break. Even before Lydia was born and I was a much younger child I used to play nurses with my dad," Elizabeth explained, smiling at a memory, "I used to make him lay in my bed while I pretended to check his temperature and give him pretend medicine and told him to rest up."
"It's always appealed to you then, looking after others?" Will questioned
"I suppose so," Elizabeth replied, "Nursing is quite a rewarding job, helping to look after someone but it can be hard and draining as well."
"I've never thought about the impacts of a job like that."
"For my third and fourth year of university I was on placements. My third year I was a student Accident and Emergency nurse and my fourth and final year, I was a student nurse on the critical children's ward. Having to accompany a doctor and tell a family that their loved one wasn't going to make it and then staying with them to give them whatever they needed. Having to pull double shifts in A&E because there wasn't enough staff to handle the high demand. But I got through it."
"Would you be offended if I said I rather liked you in your nurse's uniform?" Will asked, a glint of mischief in his eyes.
Coming to another stop, Elizabeth raised an eyebrow as she looked up at him.
"Have a thing for nurses, do you?" she asked teasingly.
Wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her to him.
"Nurse. Singular. You." Will whispered.
He crushed his lips against hers that the surprised moan that she had let out was covered as his tongue invaded her mouth. She wrapped one arm around his shoulder and clutched him tighter while the other hand crept underneath his raincoat and the t-shirt Will wore underneath, feeling the warmth of his hip as she lightly scratched the skin there; causing Will to shudder in surprise. The kiss turned more heated, with Will moving one of his hands from her back lower, until his hand grasped firmly at her backside. When he pulled away from her lips, he kissed along her cheek and nipped lightly at her earlobe.
"I couldn't stop thinking about you while I was in London," he whispered, "You look absolutely gorgeous in that uniform you have to wear, especially when you wear that little tunic with black leggings. It really shows off your legs and body shape well. It drives me crazy."
Elizabeth groaned as he sucked on her pulse point. For someone who claimed to be terrible with women, he certainly knew the right things to say when it came to turning her on. Hearing him tell her that he liked the way she looked in her work uniform, that he was driven crazy by thoughts of her in her work uniform, made her want to drag him back to either of their bedrooms, lock the door and spend countless hours exploring each other's bodies.
Looking up at him, she saw that same look of desire in his eyes that she saw every time things got a little heated between them. It made her feel wanted more than just desired, it made her inner muscles clench at the thought that he wanted to know her in the most intimate ways that you could know a person.
"We should calm down." She panted.
He nodded in agreement and released her, letting her walk two steps ahead of him as they continued their walk through the forest.
As Elizabeth walked further on the path, she took deep breaths to try and calm herself down. She could hear his heavy footsteps on the ground as he walked at a slower pace behind her. How was she supposed to spend the rest of the day with Will when all she really wanted to do in this moment was get to know him on a more intimate, physical level?
ooOoo
They had spent the rest of the morning walking on the hike trails in the Forest of Bere, eventually the two of them had calmed down enough for them to go back to walking together and holding hands. As they continued on their walk, they learned about what the other did in their spare time. They both liked to go for a run, both chose Southsea seafront as their preferred running route. Her favourite colour was blue and he told her his favourite colour was red. Her favourite food was her aunt's cottage pie while he told her that he'd take a steak any day of the week. She didn't really support a football team, whilst he told her that growing up in Portsmouth he had lifelong support for Portsmouth Football Club; even if the team weren't doing as well as they used to.
Will learned she liked to read, that reading for her was a way to destress after a long day; especially after a long day of seeing patients at the GP surgery she used to work at. He told her that he used to go for bike rides in his spare time, but hadn't had the time to do so in recent years because of his father's diagnosis, death and everything that had happened with Georgiana. When their walk was finished, they got back in his car and made the drive to Port Solent where they would go and have some lunch. As Will parked the car in the large carpark at Port Solent, he noticed that she was a little quieter than she had been.
"Is everything okay?" he asked.
"My mother lives in Port Solent." Elizabeth muttered, looking up at him.
"Oh…I'm sorry…We can go somewhere else…" Will offered.
"Don't apologise. But knowing my luck, if we eat here I'll run into her." Elizabeth sighed.
Walking to her side of the car, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his chest. She had told him the reasons behind why her mother had left after Lydia had returned from seeing their mother and although she said it was no big deal, he felt rage on the inside. How could someone give birth to three children and tell her daughters that she had never wanted any of them?
"I'm sorry that you were hurt by someone who is supposed to love you unconditionally. Your mother isn't worth much as a human being because of what she did to you, Lydia and Jane." Will whispered softly.
She gave him a quiet 'thank you' and a brief kiss before she asked if she could make them both lunch at her aunt and uncle's place, explaining that Ed and Maddie had planned to have a day of shopping for Jane's birthday next weekend and their sisters were at his house looking through the Rosings A Level course brochures. Nodding his agreement, they got back into the car and left the carpark.
Will drove them both down the M275 back into the city in silence, making Will think that he may have ruined his chance with her by taking her to lunch at Port Solent with the possibility they may have run into her absent mother. He had no idea how she must be feeling, knowing the real reason why her mother had left her. Sure, his own mother had died seven years ago, but he had been in his second year of university when that happened. He had been born and raised by his mother.
"Do you want to talk more about it?" he offered.
Elizabeth looked over at him and gave an appreciative smile.
"There's not much more to say. What can I do about it? I can't change the last fourteen years, I can't change how she feels, how she's always felt." Elizabeth sighed.
"It's just that, you're sitting here in silence and you've looked troubled ever since we parked up in the Port Solent carpark for retail visitors. If you were sitting next to her instead of me right now, what would you say?" Will asked.
Elizabeth exhaled heavily.
"I'd tell her that she was selfish. I'd tell her that she's the one who missed out, that I hate her for walking out on me."
"Do you have her address?"
"Yeah, Ed told me. She lives in the residential part of Port Solent. Opposite the marina."
"Do you want to have it out with her? Tell her how you feel and then walk away for good with closure?" Will asked.
She hesitated before shrugging.
"I can't do it today. Today was supposed to be about you and me, having some time together." Elizabeth stated.
"And you need to get closure on this, otherwise it's going to bug you for the rest of your life. Why not do it today? I'll be right there with you."
She hesitated again before she spoke.
"Are you sure?"
Will smiled at her and drove around the roundabout to drive back up the M275 to go back to Port Solent.
"I suggested it. I don't like seeing you upset over anything and if helping you face your mother and getting closure on her abandoning you will help, then I'm right here." Will said softly, briefly placing his hand on her thigh and giving it a light squeeze before returning it to the steering wheel.
ooOoo
Taking a deep breath, Elizabeth clenched her hand into a fist and gave two sharp, loud knocks against the front door. As she retracted her hand and took hold of Will's, she exhaled sharply as she saw the front door open and was greeted by the look of surprise on her mother's face.
A brief pause as mother and daughter studied each other before Fran cleared her throat.
"I wasn't expecting to see you. I wasn't expecting to ever hear from my relatives ever again since your uncle came her with your younger sister." Fran commented.
"I wasn't expecting to come here either." Elizabeth retorted.
"Then why bother?"
Feeling Will give her shoulders a supportive squeeze, Elizabeth took another breath before replying to her mother's question.
"I just want five minutes to say what I have to say and then you won't see me ever again."
It was Fran's turn to hesitate before she stood the side and gestured for them both to come in. Not bothering to remove her shoes or coat, she followed her mother into the living room and watched as her mother made herself comfortable.
"So, what is it you have to say?" Fran asked, the tone of her voice somewhere between irritation and boredom.
"I just wanted to say that you're selfish. If you didn't want to be a mother, then you should have been responsible and not given in to pressure from whoever pressured you to get pregnant. For fourteen years, I've not had a mum, not that you were much of a mother before, but I was nine. I was at that age where I needed a female around because Jane and I were getting to an age where we really needed an older woman to be there. But I had a dad. An amazing dad. It was dad who had to explain why my body was changing, who had to explain the emotional, hormonal, agonising changes that my body was going through. It was dad who had to listen to why me and my friends fell out, it was dad who had to listen if a boy broke Jane's heart, it was dad who was there for me when I left home for the first time to go to university. It was dad who consoled me and drove all that way when my first relationship ended after four years. It was dad who cried and told me he was proud of me when I graduated after four years of university to get my nursing degree. It was dad who was there for me through everything. He was there with breakfast made for his three girls every morning. It was dad who ironed our school uniforms and dropped us off at the school gates. It was dad who came to every school play, took us to every doctor's appointment, cheered us on when we had a netball game. It was dad who told us that we tried our best and he was still proud when we didn't get the score we wanted on a test."
"Yeah. Yeah. Your point?"
"My point? You missed out on everything. You missed out on Lydia growing up, on me and Jane becoming teenagers and then heading off into the world of university. Of Jane finishing her degree and running Longbourn alongside dad. You missed out Sunday roast dinners and family walks in the village countryside. You missed out on summers in Portsmouth with Ed, Maddie and our cousins. You missed out on making memories. But more importantly, you missed out on seeing how close 'your girls' have become. You had an obligation to three girls who could have used you fourteen years ago, but you ignored it. You should have been there when dad died because a mother should support her children when they lose a parent, despite their feelings toward the other parent. You should have been there to help Lydia grieve properly and you should have been there when she went through all that stuff with that predator and you should have been there when Lydia had reached rock bottom when she tried to kill herself. You weren't. Jane and I were. We, the three of us, are all each other needs."
For the first time since her arrival at her mother's fancy house, Fran was stunned into silence. Elizabeth couldn't tell what was going through her mother's head, she had never had the chance to get to know what her mother might be thinking, but for the tiniest instant, there was a look on Fran's face that Elizabeth would have associated with regret.
"When you on are your deathbed, I hope you realise what you could have been a part of if only you had kept your promise to Ed and came back for us. But now, all I have left to say is that it's too late. If you ever find yourself wanting to rebuild, it's too late. I don't need you now, I needed you fourteen years ago, even if you were only in the background; I still would have known you were there. I hate you for abandoning us, for putting your own materialistic desires. I hope that it makes you happy, because if it doesn't then abandoning your daughters was for nothing." Elizabeth finished with a harsh tone of voice.
Taking Will's hand, she led him out of the house and slammed the front door behind them. For the past two weeks, despite everything being fine with her and her sisters, she had felt a nagging in the back of her mind when her thoughts briefly drifted to her mother and she had forced them to the back of her mind again. She had spent two weeks trying to figure out how she felt about her mother since Fran had revealed the truth behind her leaving them fourteen years ago and it wasn't until Will had brought her for lunch at Port Solent and then had spoken to her about it in the car that she knew that he was right; she had needed to do this before she spent the rest of her life letting it get to her.
Stopping at where his car was parked she wrapped her arms around his chest and rested her head against him. Elizabeth felt his arms envelope her in his warmth and kiss the top of her head.
"Are you okay?" Will asked softly.
Breathing a sigh of relief, she looked up at him and gave him a reassuring smile.
"Thank you, for encouraging me to get this off my chest." said Elizabeth.
He returned her smile.
"Do you feel better?"
"I do. Like a weight has been lifted."
"Good," Will said quietly as he gave her a brief kiss, "Now, shall we go and get some lunch?"
"Back on track for our date?" Elizabeth asked.
"I think so. But I'm still taking you out for dinner during the week." Will stated.
Releasing him, she walked around to get into the passenger side at the front of his car and buckled up her seatbelt; looking forward to moving ahead with her life now she had decided to let go of her past.