Chapter 1: Not Charles Bingley

"You are not Charles Bingley! This is Charles Bingley" the young woman hissed as she stared at Charles as if he was a two headed monster, holding up a photograph.

'May I?" Charles reached out for the photograph, and for a moment it did not seems as if she was going to let go but after some kind of internal struggle, she let him take it.

"George Wickham!" Charles exclaimed, holding the photograph up so that William could see it.

"Indeed" William spat out, he turned around and walk away.

Charles turned to the two young ladies in front of him, "I really am Charles Bingley, and this creature in the photograph is a one George Wickham. I recommend that you ladies avoid this man; nothing good ever comes from being any where near this guy."

The beautiful blonde woman choked back a sob, her face turning even paler as her eyes filled with tears; her brunette friend seemed to have lost her fire, her shoulders drooping in defeat as she stared sadly at the photograph.

It was then that Charles realised that there was a young woman in the picture with George Wickham, who strangely resembled both woman – sisters? Charles looked at both women suddenly realising that despite their distinct differences in complexion, height, eye and hair colour and apparently temperament; they were probably sisters.

'Charles!" he heard William calling him, he looked up, and saw that his friend had returned, but not alone, Caroline and Louisa were with him. Charles was confused, what were his sisters doing here? William always made point of avoiding Caroline especially when he was alone

The group made their way over, Caroline and Louisa eyeing the two women standing next to their brother.

"What a strange coincidence" Caroline purred, putting her hand on William's arm, "We were on our way to your apartment when we ran into William, he said that you were being …. harassed by two strange women." Caroline was eyeing the two women from top to toe, obviously not liking what she saw. As for the two women they seemed barely aware that anyone else was there, they were talking to each other in low voices, with very urgent expressions on their faces.

The brunette turned to Charles "I am so sorry for the mistake in identity, he introduced himself to our family as Charles Bingley and we took him at face value", barely pausing for air she asked, "Do you know where we might find this George Wickham?"

Charles heard what she said but he suddenly noticed that her blonde sister was spectacularly beautiful, long blonde hair, pale skin with a slight smattering of the most adorable freckles across her cheeks and nose, large blue eyes that made him feel…. well, he did not know what he felt.

"William, you know him better, where does he live?" Charles turned to his friend, he really wanted to help these two women and he had no idea why.

"George Wickham and I parted ways many years ago, I go to great lengths to have nothing to do with him!" William snapped, the familiar frown on his face as he tried to deflect the attention of the brunette woman; her violet eyes seemed to pierce right down into his being, and he did not like that at all…well he did but look at her!

Well, there was nothing wrong with her, she was not beautiful like her sister, but she was gorgeous in a more sensual way.

But still not from their circles, Caroline and Louisa were dressed in only designer wear, their hair and nails were immaculate just like all the other women of their acquaintance.

William startled, despite their designer clothing and expensive accessories Caroline and Louisa were not gorgeous, not like this woman and her sister. Their clothes might not have been designer labels, but they were well made and fit each woman as if they were tailored specifically for them, neither of them had lashings of makeup on or long colourful nails, in fact both had very understated make up and well-manicured but neutral-coloured nails. They outclassed the Bingley sisters without even trying.

William was suddenly aware that everyone's eyes were on him. "I am sorry, I was lost in thought, did you ask me something?" Not sure where to look he cast his gaze from the brunette and then to Charles.

"She asked if you knew of anyone who could give them any information that would help them find this George guy? Caroline said impatiently, she was tugging at his arm as if to make him leave.

"What is your interest in George Wickham, he is not a good person at all." William said.

"We know he is not a good person, that is why we need to find him." The brunette was barely holding her temper in check, her eyes were flashing, and her small hands were curled into fists.

"Okay, I have a suggestion, why don't we all go to The Assemble coffee shop, we can introduce ourselves properly, tell us what is going on and perhaps we can find a way to track George down for you?"

"No!"

"Yes!"

Caroline and the blonde woman both spoke at the same time, Caroline determined not to let her brother and more importantly William spend any more time with these women than she could.

"Well then its settled" Charles smiled, "After you…" he indicated for the blonde woman to lead the way.

"Oh" she blushed "I have no idea where that is!"

"Oh, for heaven sake" huff Caroline and she stormed off, taking the lead; Louisa close on her heels, followed by Charles and the blonde sister; leaving William and the brunette to bring up the rear.

Caroline, being Caroline got them a lovely table, where they could see and be seen, but without any one being able to eavesdrop on their conversation. She organized coffee, tea and snacks for the table with the deftness that belied her often vacuous lifestyle.

She then sat down and turned her focus to the two sisters, an expectant expression on her face.

There was a brief silence, "I am Jane Bennet" the blonde woman introduced herself, "and this is my sister Lizzy, Elizabeth Bennet. As you might have guessed we are not from this area, we are from Hertfordshire, I still stay there but Lizzy travels all over for work."

She looked at Caroline, expectantly

"I am Caroline Bingley, this is my sister Louisa and that is my brother Charles, we do live here but we have houses all over, so we go wherever the fancy takes us. And that is William Darcy, our close family friend." She literally purred out the last sentence.

"Caroline!" Charles protested "you make us sound so ….shallow!" He turned to Jane, "I am a landscaper and run my business from town, Louisa is married, she and her husband live right next door to Caroline and me. They run an interior design company from their house. Caroline is an event planner."

"That would explain how efficiently you got us this table" Jane exclaimed. Caroline smiled, pleased that someone noticed her talents, even if it was not William.

"So, what is the low down on this George guy, why are you so desperate to get hold of him?" Caroline decided the direct route was best.

"We think he has our youngest sister" Jane said, casting her eyes to her hands folded in her lap.

William's head shot up; he had tried desperately to stay out of the conversation but that hit way too close to home.

"What do you mean, he has your youngest sister?" even he was shocked at how aggressively the question came out, it had caused all conversation at the table stopped and everyone's eyes were on him.

'He befriended our family, through our sister Mary. As I said, he introduced himself as Charles Bingley from town. After utterly and totally destroying Mary, he charmed Lydia our youngest sister into believing that he did it all for her, to get close to her, he then convinced her to run away with him so our family could not stop them from being together. "Elizabeth was staring straight at William as she delivery this monologue.

"We fear that his intentions are not what he told her and that he might have some other nefarious kind of plans in mind." Jane said, the fear displayed across her face. "He charmed us all, we thought he was such a great guy, he made Mary happy, he seemed to love her as much as she loved him. Then he turned on her, broke her down and then took off with Lydia. She thinks she is mature and worldly wise, but she is really just a 15 year old girl." Tear were rolling down Janes face. "He even managed to persuade our fourth sister that he loved her, her pride was injured more than her heart as she did not fall in love with him like Mary did."

In a surprise move, Caroline had moved next to Jane and slip her arm around her, "I am so sorry your family had to go through this." She comforted Jane.

Everyone at the table was shocked, it was rare that anyone got to see this side of Caroline, years of abuse from her mother had driven almost all the softness and compassion out of Caroline.

"Thank you, Caroline" Jane sobbed, "you are so kind, you don't even know us"

William sat stunned, a family of five, or more daughters and George Wickham had just carved a path of destruction right through them.

"Please excuse me, I must go." He stood up and strode off.

Everyone just sat there staring at him, totally taken off guard at his sudden departure.