A/N: I appreciate my reviewers so much. I'm not Jane Austen and I don't own Pride and Prejudice.

Chapter 4: Once Upon a December

Lizzie's POV

Sunday morning, Jane told me that we were having Charlie, his sisters, and Will Darcy over on Friday night. She wanted to just have dinner and watch a movie, but she was wondering if I would make dinner. "You're just such a good cook," she had said. Jane knew that the way to get me to help her was flattery. And so that was why I left Lakeview almost as soon as the school day ended and found myself in the kitchen cooking dinner for seven people, and I wasn't even very fond of most of them. But Jane wanted to make a good impression on Charlie and his family, and I wanted her to be happy, so I was making dinner. Dinner was going to be a menu of Jane's favorites. First I was making hummus and toasted pita bread for hors d'oeuvres along with canapés. Then I was making a salad with lettuce, spinach, feta cheese, pine nuts, and tomatoes, all topped with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing. The main course was going to be pork roast topped with a chipotle raspberry sauce along with two side dishes, linguini and winter squash with brown sugar and cinnamon; and for dessert, we were having a homemade rice pudding with cinnamon and raisins.

I liked the spread. Granted there were desserts I like more than rice pudding, but Janie loves it and I have to make something she likes. Jane loves pork roast especially with raspberry chipotle sauce. I prefer it with a nice topping of sautéed or fried mushrooms, but Jane has never liked mushrooms. One time I cooked them up in olive oil and used them as a topping over grilled chicken; she ate them willingly but later told me she hated them.

So I was making dinner and singing along with the original Broadway recording of the Beauty and the Beast soundtrack. I love the Disney movie, but I adore the musical. So I sang along with Lumiere on "Be Our Guest" while fixing the squash and I joined Mrs. Potts on "Beauty and the Beast" as I made the rice pudding.

Jane came home just as I was setting the table. "How is everything?" she asked as she put her coat in the closet and deposited her messenger bag in her bedroom.

"The food is coming along nicely. I just put the rice pudding in the microwave to keep warm until it's time, the salad is in the refrigerator, the pork is in the oven with the squash, and the pasta is on stove. So all we need is our guests."

"And for you to get changed," Jane told me. "Will you please wear a different top? And put on some shoes. I don't want Charlie and his sisters to think you're completely classless."

I was wearing dark wash jeans with a bright pink sweatshirt that had "Grand Valley State University" embroidered in white letters. I knew I needed to change, but I really want to mess with Jane tonight. I just like pushing her buttons. "But what's wrong with my sweatshirt?" I asked. "Is there something wrong with the fact that I went to a Division II school?"

She smiled and shook her head. "Just go get change. I'm going to make sure that Jack Lewis is in the basement if you'll make sure that Audrey and Gene will stay upstairs all night."

"Why?" I asked. Jack Lewis is our dog, named after C.S. "Jack" Lewis. Audrey and Gene are our cats. Audrey is a friendly calico cat I named after Audrey Hepburn while Gene is an independent-minded gray tabby named after Gene Kelly.

"Charlie said that his sisters don't like animals. He wants to meet the animals, but his sisters will leave and complain if they see any evidence of our pets."

I sighed. "Fine, if we must, I'll put up the gate."

"Thank you, Lizzie," she called as I hurried upstairs. "I'll pay you back for this later."

"She'd better pay me back," I said to Audrey and Gene who were lying on my bed. I'd discarded my sweatshirt in favor of a black cowl neck angora sweater I'd bought at H&M when I was in Chicago last Christmas. My uncle Edward Gardiner, his wife Sophie, and their five children live in Chicago; Jane and I go visit them every year around Christmastime.

Audrey yawned as Gene contemplated me very seriously. I smiled as I pulled a pair of pointy-toed kitten heeled shoes on my feet. "You cats have it so easy. You do as you please and you don't have to worry about your sister bossing you around so she can impress some silly boy."

I put on a pair of blue earrings and applied a light coat of clear lip gloss. Then I inspected myself in the mirror. "I suppose I'll do for dinner with my sister's new beau and his snooty sisters and his ridiculously snobbish friend." I turned to face the cats. "What do you think, my loves? Will I do passably well?"

Gene meowed and Audrey sneezed. I smiled at them and then kissed the tops of their heads. "You two will have to stay up here until after our guests leave. Apparently the esteemed Mrs. Hurst and the charming Miss Bingley do not care for animals, cats or dogs. So you two will stay up here and Jack Lewis is going to stay in the basement. I wish I didn't have to do this to you two, but we must make our guests happy."

I put the baby gate up at the top of the stairs and then headed downstairs. Jane's room was right at the bottom of the stairs and I observed that the door was still shut, meaning my sister was in there primping and preening still. So I went back in the kitchen and turned on the CD player again. As the sounds of "If I Can't Love Her" filled the room, the doorbell rang. I opened the door to reveal Charlie, Will, Louisa, and Caroline. "Welcome, welcome," I said. "Please do come in. I hope you found the place all right."

"Oh yes, Jane's directions were perfect," Charlie told me.

"It was easy to find, but this place is so far from our place," Caroline sighed. "Couldn't your father have built his hotel and these condominiums closer to the Netherfield?"

I smiled at her; I suppose I was trying to kill her with kindness. "Actually, Caroline, my great-grandfather, Alexander Bennett moved up to Meryton and built the Longbourn in the mid-1920s before Mr. Jacobs even thought of the Netherfield. Ethan Jacobs was only two years old when Longbourn Estates opened." I smiled at them all again. "Now please do let me take your coats and put them in the closet for you. Was Mr. Hurst unable to come this evening?"

Louisa Hurst shook her head with a condescending smile. "Jeffery flew back to Chicago on Tuesday. He just couldn't leave his job for more than a day or two."

I put their coats, two wool pea coats for the ladies and two leather jackets for the gentlemen, in the closet. "Jane will be out in a minute. She got home from work a little late and she wanted to change into something a little more comfortable."

"It's perfectly fine," Will said with a smile, and he had quite a nice smile, too. The thing was that I didn't want him to have a nice smile. He was supposed to be a bad guy and easy to ate, not good looking with a fantastic smile.

Jane came out of her bedroom just as Jack Lewis started barking down in the basement. I smiled and Jane cringed. "Do you have a dog?" Louisa yelped. "I'm allergic to dogs."

"I hate dogs!" Caroline shrieked. "They are load and vile and disgusting and they always have fleas. And they are mangy."

"I love dogs," came Will. "What kind of dog do you have?"

"He's a black lab," I replied.

"I cannot stay if there is a dog in the house!" Louisa yelled. "Charlie, come along; we are leaving. Come along, Will. Don't stand there talking. We must get out of here now."

"You and Caroline may leave if you like," Charlie told his sister. "I don't think the dog is a reason for Will or me to leave. We both quite enjoy dogs."

She sniffed. "Fine, then, Caroline and I will be leaving. I am allergic to dogs and I see no reason for Caroline to stay here alone with you and two girls she barely knows."

"Fine, leave," her brother told her. "But you're not taking my car."

"If you need, you can use our phone to call a cab," I offered, trying to be helpful.

"Charlie, give me your car keys!" Caroline yelled. "You and Will can find your own way home. I will not be forced to ride around in some small-town taxi service. I want to drive your car."

"Too bad," Charlie replied. "I don't trust you with the Mercedes. If you and Louisa want to leave, you can call a cab. Or you can stay here and be happy with the fact that the dog is in the basement."

His sisters were both staring at him, glowering when Jane inserted, "Or I could drive you two. It's no trouble for me."

I sighed. "Jane, this is your dinner party."

"I know, but Jack Lewis is my dog and I feel like this is my fault. Just let me grab my coat and I can take Louisa and Caroline home."

The bratty Bingley sisters immediately jumped on this idea and within five minutes, they were leading my older sister out the door. As Jane left, she told Charlie, Will, and I to feel free to start dinner without her.

Will's POV

I looked at Lizzie as the door shut behind her older sister. She seemed stunned and more than a little frustrated; then she turned to Charlie and me. "Would either of you like anything to drink?"

"Do you have any wine?" Charlie asked.

She nodded. "I believe we have both red and white. Will, would you like anything?"

"I'll have the same as Charlie."

"Then come into the kitchen with me and I'll pour us all some wine. And while we're at it, we'll let Jack Lewis up from the basement."

"I'll go get him, if you like," I told her.

She nodded and we followed her into the kitchen. She pointed to the basement door and I opened the door to find a very excited black lab bounding up the stairs toward me. After he sniffed Charlie and me, he went into the living room and settled himself on a dog bed in front of the fireplace. "That's Jack Lewis for you," Lizzie said with a smile.

"How'd he get named Jack Lewis?" Charlie asked as she passed each of us glasses of white Zinfandel.

"Jane named him after C.S. Lewis who nicknamed himself Jack after his dog. When Lewis was a child, he had a beloved dog named Jacksie who died and young Lewis nicknamed himself 'Jack' in honor of the dog. So since the nickname had originated with a dog, Jane felt Jack Lewis was the perfect name for her dog."

I smiled as Charlie said, "That seems like Jane."

Charlie and Jane had gone on a date Saturday night, had brunch together Sunday, gone on a date on Tuesday night, and gone to the movies together on Thursday night. He seemed to be over the moon every time he came home from a date with her. I hadn't seen them together yet, so I didn't know how she felt around him. I had been invited to brunch with them on Sunday and had been planning to go when Georgie called me suddenly. So I stayed home and talked to my little sister. I missed Georgie and I wanted to see her. The only thing that was keeping me in Meryton was spending time with Charlie and my small crush on Lizzie.

Lizzie looked wonderful tonight. She was wearing a black turtleneck sweater, which really flattered her. Her dark brown hair was up in a bun and she was wearing some dangly blue earrings. She was so pretty. She wasn't like Caroline, constantly demanding attention. She was just a normal unassuming person.

"If you like, we have some hors d'oeuvres," she offered, pulling a bowl and a few dishes out of the fridge. "It's just some hummus and pita bread and some vegetable canapés, nothing too fancy."

I took one bite of her hummus and pita bread, and was in love. Maybe not with Lizzie herself, but I was definitely in love with her cooking. "How did you end up becoming a chef?" I asked her.

She looked surprised by my question but recovered with a quick smile. "When I was in high school, I was dual-enrolled at Lakeview, the school where I now teach, and Meryton Community College. I graduated from high school at the same time as I finished my associate's degree in culinary arts. I went into college with about 60 credits already done, so I graduated from college a year early."

"I guess I'm more wondering why you picked culinary arts," I said.

She smiled. "Ethan Jacobs, who used to own the Netherfield, had four children, three daughters and a son. His oldest daughter, Claire-Marie, had trained in France as a chef and then come to work at the Longbourn. I grew up watching Claire-Marie cook and eating her cooking. I fell in love with cooking and I wanted to do what she did. But while I was in school, I also started studying Spanish and I fell in love with the language. So cooking was my hobby, my side job. Spanish is my passion."

She seemed so happy and then Charlie spoke up. "Jane said you know the story about why Ethan Jacobs's son didn't inherit the Netherfield when Mr. Jacobs died."

The three of us settled ourselves in the living room with our wine and hors d'oeuvres and Lizzie sighed. She leaned back in her chair. "Ethan Jacobs owned seventeen hotels throughout northern Michigan. He was based out of Meryton and he and Fran raised their family in the penthouse suite at the top of the Netherfield, but he was very rarely actually in Meryton. He was always traveling around the area, visiting his other hotels and making sure they were doing well. Now, Ethan was about my grandfather's age and Fran was about fifteen or twenty years younger than him. He hadn't married until later in life; up until then, he'd been too busy with work to have a serious relationship with a woman."

"Were his kids about your age then?" Charlie asked.

She shook her head. "No, Fran was twenty when she married Ethan and he was forty, and that was about forty years ago. Claire-Marie is about forty now and she still works for my father at the Longbourn."

"Why did she start working for your father?"

"It's actually simple," she replied, taking a sip of her wine. "Her father told her that no daughter of his was ever going to be 'one of the help' and told her to go get a real job. She took her credentials to my father, or maybe it was my grandfather, and he hired her in a heartbeat. She practically runs the place now."

"What about the other children?" I asked. "What happened to them?"

"After Claire-Marie, there was Ted. Ted was supposed to be the next Ethan, except for one little hitch. Ted saw how the business consumed his father and how little time or energy his father had for his family; he decided he wanted a normal nine-to-five job where he could be there for his family. Then when Ted was eighteen, he went off to college and studied engineering. Ethan accused him of abandoning the family and leaving his mother and sisters 'out to the wolves' but Ted didn't care; he wanted to be an engineer. He graduated from college, came home and married his high school sweetheart, and then moved to Houston. He used to come and visit at Christmas every year but then Fran died and he just didn't care anymore. He still pops in every now and then to see his sisters but he's never cared much for his father, especially after he was disinherited. But of course, he was the one who paid for his father's funeral and the one who took care of everything when the old man died. But Ethan never forgave Ted for not being the good loyal son like my father was."

I looked at her and shook my head. I never wanted to be like, so consumed by business that I had nothing left for my family. Ethan sounded a lot like my Aunt Catherine who wanted everyone to be absolutely perfect for the same of the law firm. If one single area of my personal life was off, she'd give me hell about it. I had to date the right women and be seen with the right friends, or I wasn't good enough to be her nephew or her law partner. I think she even wanted me to marry my cousin, Anne, because Anne was a good decent human being. Of course the fact that Anne was a simpering idiot meant nothing to her mother. She had passed the bar and that was good enough for her. But Anne was also a hypochondriac, and she'd been secretly carrying on an affair with her mother's pool boy since she was sixteen years old. Anne had two very Hispanic looking children she claimed were the result of a sperm donor but everyone, except Aunt Catherine, was well aware of how much the boy looked like Enrique.

I was brought back to earth by Lizzie's announcement that it was almost eight-thirty and maybe we should have dinner. She promised to tell us about the youngest two Jacobs girls over dinner, so Charlie and I followed her into the dining room. The table had been set for seven, so we removed three plates and settled ourselves around the table. The food looked beautiful and it tasted even better than it looked. And as we ate, Lizzie told us about the youngest two Jacobs girls.

"They were two peas in a pod," she said. "And they looked like twins. Norah-Francine was the older one. She was a good student and a great girl. Everyone had high expectations for her. But she had one weakness in life and that was the porters in her father's hotel. She was in love with a different one every day it seemed. Right after she graduated from high school, she started publicly dating one of them; his name was Jake Norris and he was not acceptable to her father. So Ethan fired Jake, so Jake went and got a job working at Lucas Lodge while taking classes at Meryton Community College. Then Norah-Francine, who had shortened her name to just plain Norah by then, got pregnant, so her father went out and demanded Mr. Lucas fire Jake. But Mr. Lucas wouldn't do it. He said it wasn't right and there was nothing wrong with Jake as a porter. So then Ethan told Norah to have an abortion, but she wouldn't do it. So he disinherited her and she went off and married Jake. Eighteen years later, Norah and Jake live just outside of Meryton with their three kids. Norah works at the dentist's office and Jake is now the assistant manager of Lucas Lodge; they aren't rich or anything, but they do pretty well for themselves."

She sighed, ate a little food, and took a sip of water. "And then there was Olivia-Therese. She looked like Norah and she acted like her too. Everything Norah did, her little sister did too. When Norah became a cheerleader, Olivia became one too. When Norah fell in love with a porter, Olivia did too. This would have been fine if Norah had done what her parents wanted but when she got pregnant, her parents locked Olivia up; she was going to be their 'good child', the one who did what they wanted. So Olivia-Therese graduated from high school and then went to college and became a nurse. Then she married a doctor and had a baby. Ethan and Fran were thrilled. They finally had their perfect child. Olivia had her family with a dog, two-point-five children, and a white picket fence. And then, five years ago, Fran died. Olivia had been married for about five years and she had two young children. But with her mother out of the way, she could finally tell her father what she thought of him and what he'd put her through all those years. And she did; she told him she thought he was worse than the devil and he could burn in hell for all she cared. She told him he'd been a horrible father and had never been around when she was growing up. Then she dropped the real bomb on him and told him that if he was looking for perfect children to go look at Claire-Marie who was thirty-five and head pastry chef at the Longbourn. And then she reminded him that Ted had his PhD in aerospace engineering and was working for NASA. She told him that perfection doesn't mean doing exactly what your parents tell you to do; it means becoming the best possible person you can be."

"What did he do then?" Charlie asked.

"He started drinking and stopped caring about the business. Now some of that had to do with losing Fran but some of it came from what Olivia said to him. He realized how alone he really was and he became scared. He tried to improve things with Olivia, but he still kept Norah, Ted, and Claire at a distance. He was a real idiot about that stuff and not many people in this town were sad to see him pass away. They like his children around here. People are proud of the fact that Ted Jacobs works at NASA." She shook her head and took another sip of water. "My goodness, it's after nine o'clock. Where is Jane?"

Just then, as if in answer to Lizzie's question, the phone rang. She talked mostly in monosyllables for a few minutes and then hung up the phone. "That was my dad. The snow is really coming down out there so he's keeping Mary at their place tonight, doesn't want her out in this snow. He got a call from Jane a couple minutes ago saying she was going to stay at the Netherfield tonight; she doesn't want to chance the roads and they both recommend that you guys stay here tonight. One of you can stay in Jane's room and the other can stay in Mary's room. Hopefully, the roads will be better in the morning."

Charlie and I readily agreed to her offer. Then we finished dinner and ate her amazing rice pudding. After that we all watched The Muppet Christmas Carol and then went to bed. And I was starting to think that maybe, just maybe, Lizzie Bennett might not hate me so much anymore.

But unfortunately, unbeknownst us that night, the wind that brought in the snowstorm had also brought in Damien Wickham, charmer extraordinaire.

A/N: Please review! I'll try to get the next chapter up soon. I know I got this one up awfully fast.