Chapter 7

I don't know how this happened.

Her mobile was ringing... again, as she climbed the stairs to her third floor flat. It had been ringing almost the whole drive back into London from Netherfield, but fearing that it was William Darcy on the other end of the line, she had stubbornly left the phone shoved into the bottom of her purse.

It stopped ringing as she reached her landing and she was grateful, quickly fishing her house keys out before it rang again. Unlocking the deadbolt she slipped inside, and dumped her bag, and therefore the offending phone on the floor and kicked it into the corner, out of sight out of mind.

In the kitchen the answering machine was blinking with a new message. She hesitated only a moment before pressing play... whether it were Darcy or not, at least it was just a message and she wasn't obliged to hold a conversation with him.

It wasn't Darcy. The message was left yesterday afternoon.

"Hi, Liz. It's George Wickham. Look, I'm sorry but something's come up and I won't be able to make it tonight. I hope it goes well, and I'll call you next week. Bye."

"Putz," she muttered, "This never would have happened if you'd been where you were supposed to be!" she jabbed the delete button.

'Yes, that's right Lizzie. Blame George. You're the one who cheated on him after all'

She grimaced at her own thoughts. Technically it hadn't been cheating... right?

What have I done?

Lizzie dropped onto the sofa, defeated. She'd slept with William Darcy… She'd slept with her boss! She wasn't sure what was worse, sleeping with a man that you can't stand, or sleeping with the man who controls your career. No… she knew what the worst part was. She'd actually enjoyed it… a lot. She cringed, dropping her head into her hands with a loud groan.

She couldn't think about it anymore, she dragged herself into the bathroom and turned the shower on, and while she waited for it to get hot enough, started picking the bobby pins out of her hair.

She sat under the shower spray until the water ran cold, then wrapped herself in a towel and went to see if Jane was home. Outside of the sanctity of the bathroom, she could hear the landline phone ringing incessantly. Chancing a glance at the caller I.D, seeing the name 'Jane', she answered.

"Hey,"

"Lizzie, where the hell have you been?" Jane cried "I've been calling your mobile for hours!"

"You have?" she asked, she'd just assumed it had been Darcy.

"Ugh! Lizzie!" Jane sounded exasperated, "Why on earth did you go back to the city? We're supposed to go to Mum and Dad's for brunch, now you have to drive practically all the way back out here!"

Lizzie groaned, falling onto the couch, after she'd retrieved her phone from her purse in the entryway.

"I forgot," she admitted.

"Lizzie! You never forget anything, what's going on? Ugh you know what, never mind, just get out here! Mum is flipping her lid!"

The line went dead and she threw the cordless down on the coffee table.

Looking down at her mobile she saw that Jane had been calling her, over and over again. But she wasn't the only one, there were three voice mails from Darcy as well. She couldn't listen to them though... not only did she not have the mental capacity right now, but she was late for her mother... and you just weren't late for Mama Bennett, at least not without consequences.

Lizzie discovered hers when she finally arrived at her parent's house. After a mad dash to change into actual clothes, and tying her still wet hair in a messy bun she'd flown out the door into her car and still managed to show up half way through lunch. Her punishment… the only open seat was at the end of the table, right next cousin Collin.

"Nice of you to wait for me Mum," Lizzie murmured, as she came out onto the patio and took the empty seat, shifting it as far away from Collin as she could. Lizzie wasn't close to her cousin, none of the sisters were. For all intents and purposes, he was just a normal guy. But Collin was an only child and an Army Brat to boot. He'd been raised by his father's military standards, shifting from country to country every other year and never really making friends, so he'd missed a few rungs on the socialization ladder, hence he more often than not, didn't know how to act and react to conversation, and couldn't pick up on social cues to save his life.

"You know what time I serve Lizzie, you know I don't wait for anyone," her mother replied. Lizzie didn't pick a fight, but mumbled under her breath.

"Yeah, everyone except Lydia…" Lydia had been two hours late for last week's gathering and they'd all had to sit hungry until she finally made it home and brunch became lunch. Lizzie was twenty minutes late and her mother acted like she'd skipped her funeral.

"It's nice to see you again Elizabeth," Collin said, interrupting her seething thoughts. It was probably a good thing too because she was pretty sure she was about to fall back into despair about Darcy.

"You too, Collin," she mumbled, sinking further down into her chair and reaching for the coffee. She didn't pursue any more conversation, and not having anything to go on, Collin fell silent too. After several minutes of listening to Katie and Lydia argue about what to wear to Maria Lucas' eighteenth birthday party next Saturday, Lizzie felt her phone vibrate in her jeans pocket. It buzzed once, so it was a text message, not a call. Surreptitiously she drew the phone out and hid it under the tablecloth, pressing the button to open her messages. The message was from Jane. Lizzie looked up across the table where Jane was sitting between their sister Mary and their father, but she was very busy concentrating on her scrambled eggs, so Lizzie opened the message.

'What the hell is wrong with you?' it read. Lizzie smirked, well there was no point in beating around the bush. Making sure Collin wasn't paying her any attention she tapped out a reply and hit send. After a moment Jane picked up her phone from the table, it didn't take long to get her a reaction. Half way through a sip of orange juice, she did a spit take, Lizzie didn't blame her, the message has been simple and straight to the point, 'I slept with Darcy' she'd said. Across the table Jane was still spluttering.

"Oh, Jane! Are you alright dear?" their mother was asking. Their father reached over and thumped her on the back, lurching her forward with each thump.

"I'm fine," she gasped out, reaching for water "Went down the wrong way, excuse me!" She jumped up and hurried back into the house. Everyone but her father watched her leave, her father was watching Lizzie instead.

"Perhaps you should go and help her Lizzie?" he said with a suspicious grin. He held out something for her and Lizzie realized it was Jane's phone. Crap. Blushing furiously she took the phone and rushed off after Jane, wishing that the world would just open up and swallow her right now.

She found Jane in their old bedroom, or rather the bathroom attached to it, standing at the sink gulping down a glass of water. Once Jane had recovered from the acidic juice choking she came into the bedroom to find Lizzie sitting on her old bed.

"You aren't being serious?" she accused, "You didn't actually sleep with him, did you?" Lizzie raised an eyebrow.

"I thought you'd be thrilled Jane, after all you're the one who things I'm secretly in love with him," Lizzie retorted.

"God, you are serious!" she cried, joining Lizzie on the bed. "What? How?" she asked.

"I honestly don't know," Lizzie mumbled, falling back onto the pillows, "I thought he was George."

"You what?" Jane cried, "Oh god, I told you they were alike!"

"They are n…"

"Deny it now and I may actually kill you!" Jane interrupted, still hoarse from the juice "You accidentally slept with Will thinking he was your boyfriend, you're not allowed to deny it now."

"Fine!" Lizzie admitted defeat, after all Jane wasn't wrong. She hadn't had that much to drink at the ball, they were similar enough, at least in looks, that in the darkened rooms at Netherfield, Lizzie had mistaken them, "And he's not my boyfriend."

"What are you going to do?" Jane asked after allowing Lizzie a moment to wallow. Lizzie responded by rolling into her pillow.

"I don't know," she muffled into the feathers. Jane didn't say anything for a long while, but Lizzie felt her moving on the mattress, and when she lifted her head, Jane was lying beside her, her head propped up on her hand.

"Was it good?" Jane whispered. Lizzie dropped her face back into the pillow with a groan.

"That good huh?" she teased. Lizzie couldn't deny it, she gave a slight nod and Jane squealed, "I knew it, he looks like the kind of guy who'd be fantastic in the sack!" she proceeded with the giggling. Then Lizzie lifted herself up, sat back on her knees and when she was steady, threw a punch at Jane's arm, she yelped.

"That's for letting dad see your phone, doofus!" she said, then jumped off the bed, leaving her sister behind, still laughing, even though Lizzie didn't find any part of this situation even remotely amusing.