I'm sorry it has been a while since the last chapter. I appreciate all of your reviews. And now we have finally gotten to the Thanksgiving dinner and its aftermath.
Chapter 7
Darcy barely noticed the prayer or the Thanksgiving food (for all that he dished some on his plate). He kept passing the dishes that Gigi set down until she whispered in his left ear, "Everything has already been around, let it be!"
While Darcy had tuned out most everything going on around him, he was hyper-aware of Elizabeth, who was sitting right across from him. Although he did his best to pretend to be paying attention to everyone, it was hopeless. Darcy tried to participate in the conversation that flowed around him, but felt his comments were inane. Darcy was too distracted from being in Elizabeth's presence. He kept trying not to stare at Elizabeth, but had already memorized how her dark curls hung around her shoulders in errant corkscrews, tousled from their release from her earlier bun. He noticed how the candlelight bounced off a strand that curved around her neck and hung down the front magenta cotton blouse which she had substituted just before dinner for her faded t-shirt. He noticed that the blouse was graced with an orange and yellow leaf motif, with a keyhole neckline tied with two long strands of the same material with little yellow pompoms on each end that gently bobbed when she passed each dish. He noticed the soft pink of her lip glossed lips, and her rosy cheeks, pinked from working on the dinner. She wore no makeup, besides her lip gloss, but he felt that she was perfect just as she was.
Elizabeth was also very aware of Darcy, but she was not as run away with her feelings. She did notice, however, that remembering how handsome Darcy was from a memory was nothing to seeing the man in person when he was looking right at her. She wished they were not separated by so many dishes and candles.
From the foot of the table, Jane noticed how Darcy and her sister kept looking at each other. She and Charles exchanged knowing looks. They had pondered before whether his best friend and her favorite sister might not be able to make a go of it, if they could ever get past the misunderstandings from before.
Darcy chewed mechanically, making sure his mouth was closed, but he barely tasted the mashed potatoes or any of the other dishes. Even the turkey with the added zip of the cranberry sauce which was for some inexplicable reason (which he did not even feel a faint need to explore), Pepto Bismol pink, barely engaged his interest past the first bite. He did not even notice that Caro had not appeared until she alighted in the empty chair on his left side, laid a hand on his shoulder that had fingernails painted brown and said, "I am so glad to see you. Finally, some good society! Oh, and hello Gigi."
Darcy felt the slight in her words that was directed at everyone besides him and his sister, but seemed most specifically meant to needle Elizabeth. He began to pass dishes to Caroline and even through his daze noticed that she put only the smallest dollops of her plate. Darcy was holding the bowl of rolls, waiting for her to accept it, whether or not she would actually take a roll from the pile, when he heard her gasp: "What on earth is this ghastly thing?"
Darcy who had not noticed anything about the rolls (despite the early praise of them from his earlier dining partners who were anxious to be kind to Anne), but for the fact that he knew he had eaten one, glanced at Caroline. He was perplexed as to what she could be talking about, until she elaborated, "Is there a toddler in the house that I did not see? Is one of Eliza's younger sisters about? Canister rolls? Really? And who made them into, well, whatever these are? They look like a primary school art project gone awry!"
He glanced at the bowl and noticed that each roll was a floppy figure in the prone position, curving left or right, which appeared to be formed from balls.
"They are snowmen!" Anne exclaimed. "I thought you all liked them!" Darcy saw her get up, a trail of tears already traveling down her face.
He started pushing his chair back to get up but he was slower than Gigi and Elizabeth, who had already gained their feet, and Gigi motioned him down when he would have stood, telling him, "We've got this."
It then fell to Darcy, rather than to console Anne, to explain to Caroline what she had done. He waited until Anne was safely ushered from the room to tell her, "You just insulted my cousin, Caro. Anne has not had much experience with the larger world and those rolls were the first thing she has baked."
"That was Anne, your cousin that keeps almost dying? Dear me, I had no idea!" The look on Caroline's face was filled with horror as she realized that her sharp tongue had hurt someone that Darcy was close to. She stood up and said, "I'll go see her and straighten the whole thing out. I was just joking. You all know that, don't you?"
Caroline looked around, appealing for someone to stand up for her, but no one did. Louisa told her, "You should sit down, Caro, you've done quite enough." Surprisingly, Caroline listened to her and did sit down. Caroline was quite subdued for the rest of the meal and did not express a single opinion even when the pink cranberry sauce was passed to her.
Jane did her best to start the conversation back up again, complementing Darcy, "Does everyone know that Darcy made the salad? He even made the dressing!"
There were several murmurs about how delicious it was and Darcy noticed that Caroline was suddenly interested in consuming the salad on her plate. She took a large bite and then exclaimed, "Darcy, this is divine!" She took several bites and tried to maintain eye contact with him as she chewed.
It was then that it occurred to him, "Caro, I am not sure you should eat that. Aren't you allergic to pecans?"
A look of horror overcame Caroline's face and she suddenly stopped chewing, her mouth freezing mid-chew. Elizabeth, who had just rejoined the table with Anne and Gigi, exclaimed, "Oh, Caro, I didn't know you had any allergies!"
Darcy gave Elizabeth a look. Although Elizabeth had said nothing improper, with even her tone of voice sounding appropriately concerned, he had the feeling that she wasn't entirely dismayed that Caroline might be on the verge of suffering an allergic reaction.
"I didn't either!" Jane added. Her concern was entirely genuine plus the dismay of a hostess having missed an important detail about what could be served to her guests. "I asked Charles if it would be okay to have pralines in the salad and he didn't say it would be a problem for anyone."
"Pralines have pecans?" Charles asked.
"Charles, don't you know anything?" Louisa asked.
Caroline got up and ran for the kitchen. Louisa who got up to help her, saw her spit the half masticated bite into the sink. Louisa found her eyes drawn to the spitty blob which still had noticeable chunks of lettuce and orange segments. It turned her stomach, just a little.
Louisa watched as Caroline rinsed her mouth out with water; when she spit out the water, it entirely missed the glob of salad in the sink. Caroline asked her, "Do you think I should try to throw up? Would that help anything?"
Louisa shrugged. Her own stomach rebelled a bit at the thought of her sister up-chucking. She had no idea whether throwing up was a good idea or not in this situation. Then she noticed something. "I'm not sure if it would help, but your lips are starting to swell."
Caroline raised a hand to her lips and felt them. "Oh no! I need my EpiPen! Now!"
"Where is your purse?" Louisa asked, but Caroline brushed past her. Her face felt tingly, itchy and tight.
Fortunately, Caroline was able to find her EpiPen, not in the main compartment of her purse but inside her makeup bag, but just held it for a moment in her shaky hands. She had never had to use it before.
Louisa rushed in, seized it from Caroline's hands and without hesitating plunged it through Caroline's pant leg. Caroline gasped a bit, it hurt! But she told Louisa simply, "Thank you. That should help, but they said if I had to use it . . . well, I think I still need to go to the E.R."
Louisa nodded and said, "I'll get Charles; he should know where to go."
Before Caroline knew it, her brother was driving her to the nearest hospital while Louisa sat in the back of the car with Caroline trying to reassure her.
Back at the Bingley house, the remaining guests and their hostess Jane did not know what to do with themselves, that is except for Quentin. Q immediately liberated the contents of a liquor cabinet and took an ample swig from a bourbon bottle without offering it to anyone first. He commented to the room at large and no one in particular, "This is quite a bit better than synthehol and it might even give bloodwine a run for its money." He waited for someone to acknowledge his Star Trek references, but when they did not, consoled himself by tipping back the bottle and taking a couple more swallows.
For something to do, Jane began clearing the table and the remaining guests helped her take the plates and silverware to the kitchen. Darcy volunteered for dish duty. While he worked on that, Jane with Elizabeth's help started boxing up the food in Tupperware. Gigi got a rag for Anne and asked her to wipe down the table. Anne did not seem to have any idea of how to go about it, but Gigi was just glad that it seemed to distract Anne. Gigi swept, repeatedly having to sweep up new crumbs that Anne pushed onto the floor.
When Anne finished wiping the table, she stood still, clutching the blue rag tightly against her Vineyard Vines shirt with its happy whale on a plaid background. Her blue eyes stared out at nothing in particular. She morosely told Gigi, "It is strange not to be the one going to the hospital, but it is sure to be me next time." She then began recounting all of the times she had gone to the hospital, which hospital, how long she was there and the various diagnoses she left with. During her recitation, gradually everyone else drifted into the dining room as they finished their tasks, all but Q who was watching season four of his Enterprise DVD boxed set on the Bingleys' big screen T.V.
Anne's current topic of conversation was really bringing everyone down more than Caroline's sudden departure had. Elizabeth in hearing the recitation had the horrible realization that this must be the cousin whom Darcy had missed her sister's wedding over. She felt very small when she realized that, telling herself, It really wasn't about him avoiding you; he really was telling the truth. And then, I am such a fool.
"We've got to get Anne off of this topic," Darcy whispered to Elizabeth. She could feel his warm breath on her neck and ear and had a desire to step closer to him, a desire that she resisted. He asked, "Do you have any ideas for what we can do? Does your sister have any board games, maybe?"
Elizabeth shrugged, "Jane isn't much for board games, but she probably has a puzzle or two around. She is fond of the 5,000 to 10,000 piece ones." She had a sudden image of being next to Darcy at the table as the hunted for edge pieces. She could imagine their hands brushing as they picked the pieces up.
"No good," he told her, banishing her little fantasy when he inclined his head slightly towards Anne, indicating that she could not handle such a complicated puzzle.
"Jane," Elizabeth called, "Do you have any activities planned for the evening? Anne needs something fun to do." She added to herself, And I do, too, so I don't keep thinking about how kissable Darcy's lips look tonight, even if they are chapped.
Jane replied, "I've got the perfect thing. Who likes decorating gingerbread cookies?"
"I do, I do!" Anne exclaimed with a big grin. "Now how do you decorate cookies?"
Later, after Jane had mixed up the frosting, she and Elizabeth took turns dipping the cookies before laying them on a cooling rack to let the excess frosting drip off. Darcy, Gigi and Anne added sprinkles and tiny red hots as the sisters dipped more cookies. When they were finally ready to decorate some cookies themselves, Elizabeth did not start on her own decorating right away. Instead she stood watching the others and most especially Darcy.
She was intrigued by the look of concentration upon Darcy's face as he meticulously added individual candy dots to make the eyes, nose, mouth and hair of a gingerbread woman. As he added "buttons" down her dress, he bit his lower lip as he concentrated. Elizabeth, felt her eyes being drawn to that lip. She wanted to trace his lip and teeth with her finger, to tuck back the hair which was hanging down along his face, to feel the stubble along his cheek from him not having shaved since the morning.
This was the completely opposite approach of Anne, who was dipping the cookies in a plate of sprinkles after Gigi showed her that technique. She had completed many more cookies than Darcy judging by what the completed cookies looked like.
Elizabeth sat in the unoccupied chair next to Darcy and started working on decorating a tree by shaking green sprinkles on it. Once, just once, their arms grazed, and then they turned a bit towards each other and smiled. Elizabeth felt happy. She hoped Caroline was alright and Charles and Louisa weren't having too bad of a time in the emergency room, but did not feel the least but guilty about enjoying this simple time with Darcy.
Darcy drank in each smile he earned with Elizabeth, listened to each little anecdote about her childhood. He found himself falling deeper under her spell but rather than fighting it, welcomed it.