Chapter 1: Schoolboy Error
Headington Prep School Gates, Oxford
October 2000
Fitzwilliam Darcy was having a bad day. Truth be told, he rather felt he was having a bad life. He was one month in to his A-level year at Winchester and his workload was already insane. He had a reputation to uphold both as a Scholar and Head Boy. After attending classes and a Charities Committee meeting this morning, he had driven up to Oxford, with permission of course, so he could be there for his little sister Georgie's birthday, as promised. This was his first visit home since term began and he was looking forward to spending time with her. First, though, he had managed a run in with their guardian and aunt, Victoria, and suffered another lecture on upholding the family legacy and blah blah blah. As a result he had shown up at the school gates at the last minute, head pounding.
Waiting on Georgie, he watched incredulously as an ancient and very battered Ford Cortina pulled up with a loud bang and in a cloud of smoke. A little boy came pelting out of the gates towards the car, shouting 'Uncle Onslow' at a rather overweight man wearing, oh dear god... was that a vest? He supposed it must be necessary to show off those tattoos. Two long legs appeared from the back seat, beginning with an incredibly short skirt and ending in incredibly high heels. The lady had very eighties big hair and clearly liked to display all her assets, even though she must be at least fifty-five. As she gave the boy a smothering hug, Darcy wondered when on earth Oxford had gone so downhill. A small blonde hurricane blew into him, interrupting his internal rant, and wrapped herself around his legs.
"Georgie Porgie!" he cried, lifting her into his arms "Happy birthday pudding!"
"Wills! I'm 5 now you know! I'm not a baby. Aunt Victoria says I have a proper name and you shouldn't be calling Georgie Porgie Pudding and Pie any more!"
Darcy rued the day he had been allowed to name his baby sister. A grieving twelve year old should not be trusted with that kind of responsibility. He had been determined to give her a name his mum would love. Some of his last happy memories of her was watching the new Pride and Prejudice series on the BBC, and, of course, he knew why he was called Fitzwilliam; he had heard that story often enough. So he had named her Georgiana. No doubt his mother would have been thrilled if she'd known, his father a little less so; and Darcy had found out exactly why that was after taking GCSE English class. He still shuddered at the memory of his 'friends' discovering exactly where his stupid name had come from. Why couldn't he at least have shortened Georgiana to Georgia? But no, instead he had passed on the hellish legacy to his beloved sibling.
"Sweetheart, you'll always be my Georgie Porgie, even when you have little puddings and pies of your own!' Georgie giggled. 'But if you're such a big girl now I might have to change our plans…"
"Oh no Will, I still like ice cream! Please take me to G&Ds!"
His parents had taken him to G&Ds for every special occasion since he was 9. He liked to keep up as many family traditions as he could for Georgie. It was the least he could give her.
"Well, only if you're sure."
"I am! I am sure! Pleeeeeease!"
"All right birthday girl, let's go make sure you're too full for your dinner."
"Can my friend Thomas come too? He's older than me, so he's in Transition, but we play together sometimes. He's fun."
"Well, we'll have to ask his mum. Where are they?"
Of course, Georgie pointed straight at the Ford Cortina.
"That's your friend? That's his mum?" Darcy spluttered
"Yes that's Thomas, but I don't know who the lady is. His mum is Mrs Bennet, she's married to Mr Bennet…"
Mr and Mrs Bennet are married? No shit. At least it isn't this, er, lady. Though if she entrusts her child to these kind of people I don't know if she can be much better.
"How come he goes here?" he interrupted his sister, "it's supposed to be…"
"A girls' school! I know," said Georgie. He was going to say exclusive, actually. "Some boys are allowed until Transition, if they have contacts Aunt Victoria says. His sisters are in the Senior school. Lizzy is really clever, she's a scholar like you Will!" Darcy supposed she meant she was on a bursary, her brother probably was too, considering the state of their associates. Georgie was saying something else about the Bennets but Darcy needed to think of a way out of inviting this yob out with them.
"Thomas!" shouted Georgie. Bollox, thought Fitzwilliam.
The little boy ran over and jumped up and down in front of Georgie. "I can come! I can come! That's my auntie Rose. She's supposed to be looking after me today because Mum is busy, but she said she'd rather go on the tanning beds." He turned to Darcy, "Can you bring me home after, or should I get my sister Lizzy to collect me? She's at work near Jericho. I'll just need to tell Rose and she can organise it."
Darcy sighed. Both kids had their big hopeful eyes trained on his. "Do you live in Headington, Thomas?"
"Yes, Mr Darcy"
Well at least the kid was polite. 'Okay, tell your aunt to get your sister to pick you up from G&Ds at 6pm. We'll wait there for her.'
Darcy had a mobile, but he doubted anyone in this family would. He probably should talk to the aunt himself, but he shuddered at the thought and reminded himself he was buying the child's dinner. Likely why they were so keen.
"Thank you Will" smiled Georgie.
Darcy thought it was worth it just to see her happy. Still, he wasn't sad that Thomas would be moving on next year. Headington was primarily a girls' school, and the few boys admitted were only allowed up until age 7. The all girls thing was a large part of Headington's appeal to Darcy, especially for Senior School. Luckily, Aunt Victoria believed in segregation between sexes for schooling. If she had her way, Oxford colleges would never have been made co-educational. He expected Georgie would be attending St. Hilda's. Darcy was quite happy to be the only man in Georgie's life, in their father's absence. He was glad he would be coming home next year, where he could keep a closer eye on her.
xXx
Little Clarendon St, Oxford
6.15pm the same day
Darcy was furious. Georgie was happy. Thomas was, well he was fine, actually; no trouble at all. But his sister was taking the piss. Aunt Victoria was going to give him another lecture about punctuality when he brought Georgie home. Then he had the long drive back to Winchester tonight to look forward to, and he hadn't even started on his History essay! Not to mention that if she didn't turn up soon, his car was sure to be bloody clamped!
"Sorry, sorry!"
A small brunette girl was running towards them, out of breath. She was a sweaty mess, in an old tracksuit, with damp curls sticking to her head. She looked about 12. That was who they entrusted Thomas to? This family just got better! He snorted. Bloody chavs, the lot of them.
"Are you Thomas' sister? Good. We have to leave." Darcy practically barked at her. He grabbed Georgie and turned away.
"I am sorry I'm late," the girl replied indignantly. "I got held up. But you did invite Thomas. And you didn't give anyone a mobile number to contact you, so I had no way to make alternative arrangements."
"Actually," said Darcy, in his most intentionally patronising voice (and since he was normally quite patronising without trying, it was an extremely patronising voice indeed) "he invited himself. As I said, we need to leave. Come on, Georgie."
Georgie looked a bit upset. "Sorry," she whispered to the Bennets, "I'll see you tomorrow Thomas."
She ran after her brother.
-x-
Elizabeth Bennet was seething.
That fucking, pompous twatting prick! How dare he speak about a 7 year old like that! How dare he speak to her like that!
She had long held a, slightly silly, grudge against the boy she held responsible for her ridiculous name and her mother's life long insistence that she was fated to marry 'the surgeon's son'. Now she felt all the justification of being right. He was everything she hated about public school boys. She hoped she never had to see the arsehole ever again! Poor Georgie, with that for a brother.
"Thomas, darling, are you ok?"
"Lizzy! I had an ice cream cookie sandwich! It was brilliant!"
Great. He'd left her with a hyperactive 7 year old to bring home on the bus. Wonderful. A great end to a not particularly brilliant day. She was supposedly doing work experience assisting an old college mate of her dads in editing his new book. In reality, today that had meant dusting his effing library and lugging heavy books between various piles. Men were not on her good side right now.
"Come on then T, lets get you home."
-x-
"Will! That wasn't nice. Lizzy is my friend too."
"Well, Lizzy was very rude being late to... wait a minute, Lizzy Bennet?!"
"Yes, I already told you! They're named just like us!" How pretentious, thought Darcy. "Her sister is…"
He zoned out, but still heard something about a Jane, Kitty, and Lydia. Dear God did they keep having kids just to keep up with a book?!
If real life had a narrator, Darcy's would most certainly be addressing his hypocrisy and lack of foresight at that moment. Having made such an awful first impression, future Darcy would count himself very lucky indeed that Lizzy wasn't also aware of his initial thoughts on her looks or her family's 'chavviness'. Current Darcy, however, was most assuredly living up to his namesake in both pride and prejudice, and was neither self aware nor in the mood to listen to his little sister telling him off.
"Ok Georgie. Enough about them. Let's go home and open your presents."
Darcy decided he better mention his concerns about Georgie's friends to his Aunt Victoria. With any luck, that would be the last time he ever saw a Bennet. It was the first thing Lizzy and Darcy ever agreed on.
xXx
Author's notes:
The majority of my readers are not English, and I know some terms have different meanings elsewhere. The ones I know are:
- A vest in the UK is sleeveless top, normally white, that is meant to be worn underneath other clothes for warmth. Reviewers tell me that it is known elsewhere as an under-shirt or a singlet. What Americans call a vest is known here as a waistcoat.
- Public school in the UK means a private, fee paying school. Winchester is one of the original public schools and quite prestigious. Headington is also fee paying and has boarders, so Lizzy is being a little hypocritical herself.
If there are any others you'd like to query, let me know!
In this chapter I have used a few terms that are common in UK education, but others that are specific to either Winchester and Headington schools, and later I will use some which are specific to Oxford University. Most of this information is available on google, but please ask if you want me to clarify anything. I took a little artistic licence in suggesting Headington has students with the same kind of status as Winchester's Scholars; they don't, as far as I'm aware.
I have deliberately chosen the timeline of this fic to accommodate certain things, some of which were true in the early 2000s but do not apply in 2020.
In regards to the timeline of births/school years. In England, each school year intake includes children born between 1 September to 31 August in the relevant calendar year. Darcy was born late at night on 31 August 1983, meaning that he is the youngest of his classmates and in his final year of school in September 2000 (known as Year 13 or Upper Sixth in England). Jane Bennet was born only an hour after Darcy but also after midnight, i.e. on 1 September 1983, making her one of the oldest students in the school year behind Darcy (Year 12 or Lower Sixth in September 2000). Lizzy Bennet was born in August 1984, so while she is almost a year younger than both Darcy and Jane, the intake rules means she is in the same year group as Jane and the year behind Darcy.
