Disturbing parallels and opened eyes

After Kitty Bennet endures an unfortunately typical morning with Lydia, she is abandoned and left sitting alone in a tea shop. When she leaves, she overhears another conversation with disturbing parallels to her own situation. What happens next will create any number of alterations.

Maggie's Tea Shop, Meryton, 1811

"I don't see why Mama insisted on a new dress for Jane anyway! She's practically a spinster!" Lydia had been in a foul mood for two days, mainly due to the fact that the militia had gone out on field maneuvers two days ago and were not there to entertain her.

Kitty tried to hush her sister, "Mrs. Mattersley..." The woman was in the back. She often disappeared when after serving the two youngest Bennet girls. Kitty's purse was now empty because Lydia, typically, suddenly found her pockets empty. Of course she would almost certainly find spare coin later if she saw something she just had to have. It was always ever so.

"I do not care! She's just a shopkeeper anyway! I want a new dress!"

"Jane is receiving calls from Mr. Bingley..."

"What does that matter? I want to be the first to marry! You will see. I will have my pick of the officers and will only choose the handsomest and most amusing of all. And then I shall move to London where things actually happen!"

"I think that Mr. Bingley may ask Jane for her hand at any moment..."

"Oh sure, he will ask her to marry him eventually, but then Jane will have two of the most horrid sisters in all of England! And he is so boooring! He could never fill out his uniform... or his breeches, like Wickham or Denny... say, they will be back from maneuvers soon and you know that they will be all sweaty and dirty after two days in the mud. We should sneak over to camp, where they bath by the river..."

"Lydia! We cannot do that! First of all, we are ladies! And second, if we are caught..."

"KITTY, you are becoming just as much of a gooseberry as Mary! What does it matter if we are caught! If we are compromised then one of the officers will have to marry us... well, at least me. Who would marry a mousy girl who coughs all of the time... If that happens, should I insist on marrying Wickham or Denny?"

Kitty tried to form words, but her anger and mortification made it impossible. Lydia did not care anyway. She made the excuse that she needed to visit the privy. Since their aunt's house was only half a block away, she would hurry there and be right back.

Time passed...

More time passed...

Mrs. Mattersley, who usually absented herself to the back whenever the youngest Miss Bennets patronized her establishment, now swished her dust cloth over the other tables and audibly huffed. Kitty sighed. Lydia had done it again. She was off who knows where, most likely seeking trouble, leaving Kitty to look the fool. Rising, she nodded to the matron, "Thank you, Mrs. Mattersley. Your lemon cake was divine."

Mrs. Mattersley looked slightly surprised at politeness from one of the younger Bennets. She returned a slight smile and watched the girl walk out of the shop.

Kitty stood in front, uncertain of what to do next.

Lydia is almost certainly at the camp now! And what if she is caught? She will shame us all! But I cannot go home. Mama will accuse me of abandoning Lydia! She will not believe me if I tell the truth, she never does. Her Lydia can do no wrong and I can do no right!

~oOo~

Morose, Kitty walked along the market street until she came to the ribbon shop. She had no money left since paying for two treats, but she could at least browse. She went in and slowly looked, making her way to the back of the store. It was a long, narrow store piled with ribbons and fabrics.

At some point the doorbell tinkled and the Bingley sisters, Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley, walked into the store.

"I do not see why Charles insists on hosting this ball for a bunch of country nobodies anyway!"

Mrs. Hurst tried to hush her sister, but Caroline snapped, "What do I care if the ribbon lady hears me? She is nothing but a shopkeeper! I want to go back to London!"

"Our father wanted Charles to become a landed gentleman. To do that, he must own an estate in the country."

"What does it matter? I will marry Mr. Darcy soon and that will elevate everyone else's status... Oh yes, here is the shopkeeper. I require ten yards of this wide ribbon for my ball. It is nothing to the quality I could find in a real town like London, but it will have to do. No use throwing away good money for a country ball."

When the shopkeeper left shaking her head, Mrs. Hurst softly said, "Caroline, you saw how Mr. Darcy looks at Miss Elizabeth Bennet. He has never done the same with you. I do not think..."

Miss Bingley wheeled on her sister and moved forward until her greater height allowed her to stare down at her shorter older sister, "Mr. Darcy is an honorable man. If he is placed in an unexplainable position, he will do what is right and proper, regardless of his current infatuation!"

"You cannot mean...?"

"I DO mean! I have waited long enough for Mr. Darcy to make the right choice on his own. I intend to move things along to their rightful conclusion. Once we are married, he will thank me!"

"Caroline, please... you should not even contemplate..."

"Louisa! You are becoming as much of a gooseberry as our Aunt Gretchen! When I am the Mistress of Pemberley, you had better hope that I am willing to invite you to visit! Now, I need to take care of a personal matter. I will return soon."

"Caroline, you have to pay..." Louisa frowned as her sister exited the store, leaving her to pay for ten yards of expensive ribbon. Gritting her teeth, she made her way back to the counter, paid, picked up the bag, and walked out of the store.

"I never realized it before today, but you and I are alike."

Louisa spun around to find a pensive Miss Kitty Bennet standing on the walkway looking at her. "I beg your pardon?"

"I just had a very similar conversation with my sister Lydia, not an hour ago; almost the same words, even... though with different names, of course."

Louisa's first instinct was to scorn this insignificant country nobody, but then she realized how much her thoughts sounded like Caroline's. They walked together down the walkway in an oddly companionable silence. "You heard everything my sister said?"

"I did. Do not be alarmed. If you heard what Lydia said, you would know why I could not judge you for her words. It is strange, but as much as your sister scorns our family, she is just like Lydia... and I think that you are just like me."

"In what ways?" Louisa asked, strangely interested in prolonging the conversation.

"Lydia is used to getting whatever she wants. She expects it. She demands it. She believes that she deserves it. It does not matter what anyone else thinks or how it hurts others as long as she gets what she wants. Your sister behaves the same way."

Louisa, thinking on the matter, could not disagree, "And us?"

"Everyone expects us to give in. Our younger sisters never stop to ask what we want, only what we can do for them. Lydia gets the best of everything. So does Caroline, I imagine. What do we get? What is left... but only so long as our sisters do not decide that they want that as well. And if they decide to do something truly terrible, like a compromise, then it will be us who will be disgraced and blamed."

There was a bench located in a little circular park across from the local inn. By mutual consent they sat. It had been a very long time since she had shared an intelligent conversation with anyone. "I believe that I may have misjudged you, Miss Catherine."

Kitty shrugged, "People don't see me. They see Lydia's shadow. I misjudged you too until today. I thought you were just like your sister. I should have known better since I know how much it hurts when people think the same of me and Lydia."

"But what can we do about it?"

"I could use a friend? Someone who does not tolerate me just to spend time with Lydia, or spurn me because they despise Lydia."

"I think that I could use the same. There! It is settled. Let us form a pact. We shall be friends from this moment forward and defend each other against the wiles of our younger sisters."

Over the following weeks and months, a friendship grew in the shadows of the two more boisterous sisters.

Caroline never found the right moment to effect a compromise of Mr. Darcy, so that disaster was averted. Of course this was mostly due to the fact that Louisa put subtle obstacles in her sister's path to make such an action impossible. Louisa also found creative ways to point her sister down false trails in order to afford Mr. Darcy time to spend with Elizabeth Bennet.

On the day after the Netherfield Ball, Charles hurried to London to take care of business matters. Caroline insisted on closing Netherfield Park, Louisa and her husband had little choice but to return to London. Once there, however, Louisa spoke privately to Charles and encouraged him to return and have an honest conversation with the woman he loved. Caroline was incensed when she learned that her brother had defied her, but once again never knew the part Louisa had played.

Kitty and Louisa maintained their growing friendship through letters over the months of winter. By mutual consent they used false names on the "sender" line for the address. Neither wished for interfering relatives to interfere.

But when Lydia followed the militia to Brighton, Louisa was able to call upon a cousin who lived there for help in watching the foolish girl. Louisa did not particularly care if Lydia destroyed her own life, but she did not wish her friend to be impacted. Besides, Charles would soon be wed to Jane Bennet, so they would be family

Louisa's cousin was the owner of the local carriage works, a portion of the business that her own father and uncle began. Many locals who did not own their own conveyance would lease a rig from the man. He was also good friends with the under-constable. Working together, and using hired watchers, the two men made note of Lydia Bennet's movements and who she flirted with. When George Wickham's debts began piling up, they watched the man carefully. And when he leased a barely-serviceable horse and buggy, they knew that he was ready to flee.

On the night George Wickham pulled up in the middle of the night in front of his commander's residence, he was suddenly surrounded by the constable's men.

In the ruckus that followed, Colonel Forster rushed downstairs, prepared for a French invasion. He encountered Lydia with a packed valise first. Servants were ordered to take her back to her room and keep her there. Then he stepped outside to find his lieutenant, George Wickham, being arrested. When he demanded an explanation, the under-constable presented the colonel with merchant bills adding up to over three-hundred pounds. Since he could not pay that much himself, he allowed the men to take his officer away.

In the morning further investigation revealed a larger sum in debts-of-honor. A heated conversation with Lydia Bennet revealed her intention to elope! Expresses were sent. Lydia was collected and taken home in disgrace. George Wickham's commission was removed and he was sent to debtor's prison.

At the same time all of this was taking place, Mr. Darcy was given a second chance at romance with his beloved Elizabeth. This time it took. He apologized. She apologized. They finally allowed themselves an open conversation... several, actually. And then Darcy took the perilous step of proposing a second time. Elizabeth accepted with joy.

When their engagement was announced, Caroline Bingley threw such a public fit that she had to be sent to relatives in Scarborough in disgrace.

Charles Bingley married Jane Bennet with his eldest sister happily looking on. The absence of Caroline finally allowed the siblings to build a relationship that they had always wanted to have. When Charles and Jane decided to look for a home closer to Derbyshire and the newly married Darcys, Louisa and Mr. Hurst talked it over and decided to purchase Netherfield Park for themselves. Kitty Bennet became a frequent guest at the estate and began to meet other relatives of the couple, including the young man from Brighton who had done so much to help. One year after the Hursts took over, Kitty Bennet walked down the aisle to meet James Bingley at the altar.

Louisa and Kitty remained friends their entire lives. The Hursts and the Brighton Bingleys shared many of their holidays together, were there for the births of each other's children, and consoled each other during tragic moments. In fact, so far as most people knew, they were the best of sisters. And so they were.

Caroline and Lydia never developed a similar bond. In fact they never even acknowledged each other when they happened to pass on the street... which happened often because they both ended up marrying and tradesmen and living in Cheapside... not Gracechurch Street, mind you... just Cheapside.

AN: Do not worry, I will be posting the second half of "Late Entries," but I am still working on several details first.

The reason that I am not posting on Grandma Bennet is due to the fact it is in rewrite. Though many of the events will take place as described, one key aspect of the story will change. Please be patient with me as I try to make the necessary alterations