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Putting Things in Order

Scene 6

Hitting Home

The siren sound had been a false alarm, and everyone was back inside carrying on where they'd left off.

"Looks like she's got you; she knows those stories better than you or Troy." Ned chuckled only to have Jack say, somewhat smugly, at least his friend got the Barnetts right.

"Barnett?" Charly stiffened up. "Don't you mean the Bennets?"

"No, the Barnetts." Jack listed names, orders -including spouses, and he -unwisely - harshly criticized Mr. Bennet not to mention calling him Tomo.

"That's enough!" Charly shocked everyone, but one gentleman, when she got within inches of Jack's face with her own dark red. "First, you know nothing about the Bennets. If you did you would use the English pronunciation of Thomas' name, not a Japanese one. Second, Jane was the oldest and did not marry Wickham; that was Lydia; Jane married Charles Bingley. Charlotte was NOT a Bennet -she was a Lucas she married Reverend Collins." Charly continued on with just as much ire as when her rant had started. "Yes, Thomas was unwise in his use of money when his girls were younger, but who are you to talk? If you don't shape up, you will be in the same boat if not worse!"

"Time out." Molly got Charly to sit back down and was thrown for a loop when more than one man, or woman, passed Charly by thanked for putting things in order before making their departure, including Lady Catherine who had never left the chair next to Charly's. "Where did they come from?" Molly whispered only to have Jack shrug his shoulders.

"Must have come in while we were caught up in our talk." Jack replied softly.

Charly, inside herself, was beginning to reel. Memories long suppressed were breaking out of their seams right and left. Ones of her dancing, walking, laughing and eating with people around her like the Lucas', Collin's, Lady Catherine and, more particularly, the Bennets. Glancing up her memories froze when she realized Thomas Bennet and Elizabeth had not left and, to top it off, she realized Mrs. Bennet had never been around.

"Jack." Charly spoke slowly, "What did Troy say about Mrs. Bennet?"

"Nothing, other than she was too much of an airhead."

"I wouldn't call her that. Maybe, a few other things, but not that." Charly stood up when a memory she wasn't about to share hit full force; it caused her to flee out a side door.

"What's with her? " Jack asked. "Just because Troy didn't use the right word doesn't mean Charly needed to run out on us."

"Because..." A man's voice caused the group to turn their heads as they watched an elderly gentleman, and a lady came down a set of stairs they hadn't even noticed was in existence. "Her own facts are hitting home, full force."

The group watched as the woman made who had been standing by the gentleman made her exit with no word being spoken to them. And, since it was through the same door as Charly had fled through, they figured it was to talk to their friend. However, ignoring the woman's departure they kept looking at the stranger who no one recognized as Mr. Bennet.

"Go back to the tavern. You will find plenty of food and, in the morning, you will have no problem finding fuel for your transportation. Do not worry about your friend. She will be all right here."

"You can't just force her to stay here." Fi put her hands on her hips. "She has every right to leave."

"She does at that." Thomas gave a slight nod of his head. "However, answer me this." He looked at Fi with his jaw set firmly in place. "Does she have personal commitments anywhere? Did she ever join your band? Or was she 'just' along for the ride?"

Fi went to reply only to freeze as she turned to her mother. Had Charly joined the band and Molly not told anyone? Fi's mother answered Charly had not, even though Molly had offered the previous night for such a thing to happen.

"What's that got to do with anything?" Jack asked perturbed at the gentleman's question.

"Everything." Thomas kept his gaze steady as he looked at Jack. "No one will force your friend to remain here. If she wishes there will be no blocking her from joining your group. However..." He stood even straighter, "...if she - of her own free will- is not at the tavern in the morning you must leave without a fight."

"Or what?" Jack replied with his nose flaring without realizing it.

"You don't want to know but, in my day, your tone - not to mention those words- would get your face slapped with a glove." Thomas, who Fi had finally put a name to, headed out the same door as Charly and the other lady had done.

"His day? What's that supposed to mean?" Ned asked at the same time as Jack.

"I don't know, but something tells me we need to do as he said." Fi replied as her mother had everyone, reluctant as some may have been, head out the front door and back to the tavern.