Chapter 2 – The Extraordinary Party
Deciding every girl needed a brand new outfit for the Lucas' party, Mrs. Bennet had taken the girls into the city to shop at a most inconvenient time; when they returned, they were told by Mr. Bennet that they had just missed Bingley, who was politely returning Mr. Bennet's visit, and had been hoping to meet the famous Bennet sisters. The disappointment this caused in most of the girls was enough as to make dinner a most unpleasant affair.
The rest of the week passed with much excitement in the air; rumors were flying that Bingley was expecting as many as twelve visitors to stay with him, but according to Mrs. Lucas, only four visitors were expected by Friday.
On Saturday, the Saturday, Eliza was still sleeping soundly at 10:00 when her mother came bursting into her room, screeching at the top of her lungs.
"Eliza! How can you still be sleeping? You have to get ready! Wake up, you silly girl! Wake up!"
Eliza groaned and opened her eyes. Jane's bed was already tidily made, with her dress for the evening laid gently across. Eliza shook her head to get the last of her sleepiness out of her; rubbing her eyes, she sat up.
"Alright, I'm up! Lord, woman," Eliza muttered under her breath, getting irritated at her mother's constant shrills. Did she really need seven hours to get ready? The party didn't start until five.
She got out of bed and shushed her mother from the room. Her mother, noticing Cate had a zit on her forehead, thankfully began directing her screeches elsewhere. Eliza padded downstairs and into the kitchen, needing to find some breakfast.
"Ah, there you are, Lizzie."
Eliza turned around and saw Jane coming in through the back door, sopping wet and drying herself off with a towel.
"I thought I'd take a dip in the pool," Jane explained.
"To get away from Mom?" Eliza asked with a smile.
"No!" Jane immediately said, but then smiled as well. "Of course."
Eliza chuckled and began making some coffee. Jane chatted excitedly about the party, wondering what the visitors would wear.
"I head he has two women with him… and that they're extremely wealthy," Jane said eagerly. "They must be so elegant," she added dreamily.
"Yeah, or complete snobs," Eliza said. Past experiences with extremely wealthy people had done nothing but prove to her that they were all snobbish and haughty.
"Lizzie, not every rich person in the world is a snob," Jane said.
Eliza made a disbelieving pff and began buttering her bagel. She let Jane talk on as she ate, happy that her sister was so naïve, but also not wanting her to get her hopes up. Jane dealt with the poor every day, whereas Eliza often dealt with the rich when she had internships and research projects.
"Alright, I'm going to the basement to do my yoga. Whatever you do, do not tell Mom where I am," Eliza said to her sister a half hour later.
Jane made a cross over her heart and winked. Eliza smiled and hurried downstairs to the basement. Ah, finally, she thought, some peace and quiet. This was more like it… this party, this one stupid party, was driving her crazy. They went to a million like it all summer, but just because this one had some snooty people coming, suddenly they had to bend over backwards to please them. Well, Eliza thought, if they don't like us the way we are, they can just stay in their fancy-shmancy mansion and leave us alone. Although, she thought with a pain, anyone liking her mother the way she was might be a small miracle. She prayed her mother would not make too much of a fool of herself. She knew the party would probably be a bit below what the visitors were used to, but she hated to give them a reason to go home to their grand mansion and make fun of them all night.
She was having a rather successful yoga session – nice and quiet – but suddenly she heard the familiar screeching at the top of the stairs.
"Eliiiiiiiiiza! I know you're down there! Get up here this moment! You'll get sweaty – it'll ruin your complexion! Get up here!"
Eliza let her leg down out of the tree pose and muttered "Namaste, namaste," under her breath, trying to regain her calm. She then took a deep breath, rolled up her mat, and went upstairs.
The rest of the morning and afternoon was complete madness. While Mr. Bennet stayed in the safety of his office, Eliza and the other girls were shunted from station to station like cattle. First, she was given an allotted time to shower; this was nothing new – with five girls, they had had to schedule their showers for years. Then she was told to change into easy clothes – "Not your dress!" – and then she sat for a half hour waiting for Jane to finish with the hair dryer and curling iron. Jane was getting the most attention, as Mrs. Bennet assumed Bingley would notice and fall in the love with her all in one night. Then Eliza made quick of blowing her hair out straight and then lightly curled – seeing as that was how she wore her hair most of the time anyway, Eliza was perfectly happy. Then came some more waiting time; Eliza pulled out a book she was supposed to be reading before she went back to school, but her mother began shrieking that she would muss her hair sitting on the window seat. She and Jane chatted about nothing in particular while the younger girls showered and did their hair. Then came makeup and skin – Eliza needed a lot of lotion, owing to the fact that her skin was slightly peeling. It was nicely tanned, not sunburnt, but her mother was absolutely distraught.
"You look like a tomato!" she cried.
Finally they were allowed to put their dresses on in their own rooms. Jane looked absolutely stunning in a satin strapless, light blue dress. Eliza felt positively ugly standing next to her in a rose colored, low v-neck, knee-length dress.
"Remind me not to stand next to you all evening," she said with a fake pout. "You make anyone look hideous by comparison."
Jane laughed. "Nonsense, Lizzie. You look fabulous."
Eliza shrugged, not especially caring either way. She put on her shoes as Mrs. Bennet burst into the room, herself dressed in a surprisingly tasteful black dress, yelling that they would be late. They followed her downstairs, only to find that the driver wasn't even there yet. Mr. Bennet came out of his office for a brief moment to tell his Lizzie that she looked wonderful, and to remind Jane that "falling in love is like fishing… you don't keep every single one you reel in." He then went back into his office; Eliza was very jealous of the peaceful evening he was about to enjoy.
The Lucas' lived a mere five blocks away, in a beautiful fifteen-room mansion right on the beach, but Mrs. Bennet had insisted that they get a driver to take them. And as she always loved to appear fashionably late, the driver pulled up to the house at five after five, and the ladies all piled in to the stylish black Cadillac. They arrived at the Lucas' a scant five minutes later, but the large backyard (well, backbeach) and deck were already swarming with guests. One look around and the girls knew that Bingley and his visitors hadn't arrived yet; no one looked excited enough.
Eliza immediately went over to her friend Charlotte, who, despite Mrs. Bennet's claims, wasn't homely at all. Her strawberry blonde hair was swept up into a sort of twist, and she wore a lovely green dress that complimented her eyes. After exchanging the obligatory "You look wonderful!", they got down to business.
"So, when are they coming?" Eliza asked.
Charlotte shrugged. "All I know is that they said they were definitely coming. Perhaps they like to be very fashionably late."
"What's he like? Bingley, I mean," Eliza went on.
"Dad said he was very charming and modest. And very handsome," she added with a gleeful smile.
"Who are his visitors?"
"The two women are his sisters," Charlotte said, "thank God, and one of their husbands. And the other guy is some friend, I don't really know who," she said with a shrug.
Before Eliza could ask another question, the entire party had suddenly broken out in whispers. The music sounded very loud all of a sudden, and it seemed all the guests had become frozen.
"Oh, Eliza, look!" Charlotte whispered, pointing to the porch.
Standing at the top of the steps stood a group of five people, none of whom seemed at all self-conscious of being stared and pointed at. In the middle stood a lanky young man with wildly curly blonde hair and a wide, easy smile. It had to be Bingley – and they were right, he was adorably cute. To his left stood a tall, skinny woman with dark hair and pale skin, and a shorter, slightly stouter woman with blonde hair. The second woman was clutching onto a chubby man only a little taller than her, with very little hair left and noticeable stubble. The two women were dressed very finely in undoubtedly designer dresses; in fact, they seemed a bit overdressed. To Bingley's right stood a taller, almost unnaturally straight-backed man who was, and there was no other word for it, very, very handsome. Not hot, but handsome. He had darker, curly hair and a chiseled, brooding face. Nonetheless, Eliza wasn't interested, for he looked positively condescending and quite unhappy to be there.
"Bingley, so glad you could come!" came a booming voice that made everyone jump out of their stupor. Mr. Lucas was striding toward the party with a broad smile on his face. Bingley smiled even wider and cordially shook Mr. Lucas' hand, while everyone else pretended to go back to normal. Eliza could see Bingley introducing his friends to Mr. Lucas, who seemed awed but delighted. The tall man never smiled, but bowed his head slightly when he was introduced.
"That other man is sooo gorgeous!" Charlotte exclaimed.
"I know! I love balding, porky men!" Eliza said seriously, pretending to make dreamy eyes at the shorter man.
Charlotte slapped her on the arm, but laughed. Jane joined them a second later, and it was obvious that she was very pleased with Mr. Bingley.
"Look at him, Lizzie! Isn't he lovely?" she said.
"Dum dum di dum, dum dum di dum," Eliza started humming the wedding tune.
"Lizzie! I haven't even met him!" Jane said, but she couldn't help but smile.
It wasn't long before Mrs. Bennet was beckoning them over to meet Mr. Bingley… Charles Bingley, as a matter of fact. And sure enough, it wasn't long before Charles had asked Jane to dance.
William Darcy hated parties. All and any parties. He hated making meaningless chitchat with utter strangers; or in this case, listening to these boring people gossip about their equally boring neighbors. William detested gossip. It implied caring about someone else's affairs, and William had never cared for anyone's affairs besides his own family's.
Charles, of course, was bouncing about the large group of people, introducing himself with a large smile on his face. He and Charles had been roommates at Oxford, and now went to Columbia for graduate study together. When Charles had told him he was going to lease Netherfield for the summer, he had been most against it. Long Island? William would have much preferred the Hamptons, at least, or Martha's Vineyard. He especially would have preferred going home to England for the summer, or perhaps to France. But Charles had been set on the house ever since he saw it, and William had to accompany him, else poor Charles would be stuck with his sisters all summer.
The younger people had begun to dance, leaving the older adults to return to the house for wine and cheese. William finally descended from the porch to make himself a martini. Charles, he noticed, was already dancing with a very beautiful girl with blonde hair. William sighed and shook his head; no doubt Charles would fall madly in love (or lust) and William would have to save him yet again. No one in this entire neighborhood could be good enough for Charles, who was set to inherit his father's fortune to the tune of several million dollars. William himself had already inherited his family fortune; his father had died four years earlier, naturally leaving William their entire historic estate plus his law firm. His monetary inheritance was quite a bit higher than Charles', but he highly doubted that any of the people at this party made even a quarter of Charles' sum.
"Oh, thank you Will! You're such a dear." William's martini was suddenly taken from his hand by Caroline Bingley, Charles' younger sister and the bane of William's existence. She sipped his martini while he sighed and made another.
"Can you believe these people, Will? Honestly, what was Charles thinking? I've never met more uninteresting people in my life, have you?" she began.
"No, never," he said automatically. It was better to just say what she wanted to hear.
"Although I will admit the eldest Miss Bennet, Jane, that girl whom Charles is dancing with? She's a dear, very sweet… but I've told Charles to be very careful. Can you imagine him with a girl like that?" Caroline continued, cackling.
"Would you care to dance?" he finally asked, knowing she wouldn't be quiet until he asked, and a smile spread over her face.
"I thought you'd never ask!" she said happily.
He led her to the makeshift dance floor, where a rather awful slow song had come on, but Caroline latched herself to him and began to sway. William hated dancing, but even waltzing was far better than this.
"Ugh, I refuse to dance to this crap. Doesn't anyone listen to good music anymore?"
A voice beside him cut through his thoughts. He looked sideways to see a girl about his age walking through the crowd, followed by a young man she had presumably been dancing with.
"You don't mind if I dance with someone else, then?" the boy said as they paused near William.
"Go ahead," the girl said. "Call me back when they play some Dylan." He hurried off as she tried to continue making her way through, but Caroline was in the way. She had dark brown, slightly curly hair, tanned skin, and was wearing a pink-ish satin dress. She was nothing extraordinary, and his beliefs about the lack of anything interesting at the party were confirmed. She looked at him with her eyebrows raised.
"Do you mind?" she asked, irritated, gesturing to Caroline. He looked at her coldly – her manners were appalling – but moved Caroline to the side to let her pass. She stalked off, but Caroline, who had taken William's sudden movement to mean he wanted to be closer, wrapped her arms even more tightly around his neck so that she was practically hugging him. William groaned and prayed that the party would be over soon.
Later, Caroline had thankfully finally given up on William and was dancing with someone else. He stood in the corner by a bench, trying to restrain himself from having another martini. He had never been drunk, nor had any intention of getting so.
"Will, this is embarrassing," Bingley said, coming up to him looking flushed and happy. "You absolutely must dance. You've been standing by yourself all night."
"I'm sorry if dancing to Britney Spears doesn't exactly suit me," William replied.
Charles chuckled slightly.
"Besides, you've got the only decent-looking girl in the place," William went on.
"She's an angel, isn't she?" Bingley mused, practically gushing. "But look, there's one of her sisters. She's very pretty."
William turned to the bench to see the girl from earlier, the one in the pink dress, sitting alone sipping a drink. He raised an eyebrow and turned back to Charles.
"She's alright, I suppose, but certainly not enough to tempt me to dance to anything that involves a synthesizer."
Charles rolled his eyes at his friend, but Jane was smiling at him and beckoning him to come back.
"Suit yourself, Will," he said, and hurried back to the dance floor. Will sighed; they did look like they were having fun, but such generic amusement had never interested him. He had far too much pride in himself to stoop so low.
Suddenly, the girl on the bench stood up and walked right past him to stand with another girl a few feet away. He followed her with his eyes; perhaps she was sort of pretty, but really, he had been right before: she wasn't anything extraordinary.
But just few moments later, something extraordinary did happen. At first, all he heard was a laugh: a musical but very human laugh. To his great surprise, his stomach flipped, and he couldn't help but look in the direction of the laughter. It was the girl, the girl in the pink dress; a broad, beautiful smile was spread over her face, and subconsciously he thought he had been mad earlier to think her not pretty. She was beautiful… but just as quickly, he snapped out of it. He shook his head and looked at his drink suspiciously; how strong was this vodka? He'd had far too much to drink, and he immediately put the drink down and moved a bit farther away from the girl in the pink dress. Her laughter still carried over to him, though, and although every inch of him was screaming to move still further away, he moved back, closer to her. Her laughter had suddenly stopped though, and he breathed a sigh of relief. Now he could move away…
"But Charlotte, there are other options. If people in Africa are being slaughtered by their own kin, which they are, we need to do something! Politics should have nothing to do with it! It's about basic human decency."
Finally! William thought. Some logical conversation! The girl in the pink dress was arguing with her blonde friend, and was also clearly winning. William smiled, and edged just a bit closer. He liked her voice – smooth and clear – but he liked the way she argued even better. It was clear she was a very opinionated woman.
Unfortunately for William, though, Caroline chose this time to leech onto him yet again. Almost immediately, she began rattling off the various inadequacies of the party and its guests. The girl and her friend had suddenly dropped their voices to a whisper, but he strained hard to hear what they were saying.
"Who cares if he's hot, Charlotte? He's rich and a huge-ass snob," the girl said with a disgusted noise, and then laughed again as they walked away.
The insult brought William back to Earth. The girl had absolutely no sense of propriety… to insult someone without even knowing them! These Americans, he thought, and breathed a sigh of relief that he could never, nor would ever for that matter, marry an American.
The thing was that Will Darcy had long ago given up any desire to actually have a real romantic relationship with a woman. His job was going to be too demanding, and come to think of it, the job of tending to the great estate of Pemberley would be too demanding for just any woman. Yes, Anne would do fine… Anne Lundi was one of his aunt's many protégés, and he knew his aunt had been teaching her to do just that: be Will's wife.
Thankfully, the party ended not long after that, but even after he woke up the next morning completely sober as usual, William was troubled to find he still couldn't get Elizabeth Bennet's laughter out of his head for a long, long time.
"She is alright, I suppose, but certainly not enough to tempt me," Eliza was saying with great dramatic effect to Charlotte. Charlotte was giggling uncontrollably as Eliza related what had just happened. She was still a little stung, but making fun of the extraordinarily haughty Darcy was making everything much better. She had finally given up on hearing any actual good music, and had sat down to have a drink. There she was, innocently sitting on the bench, when she heard Charles' voice behind her encouraging his friend to dance. Careful to not look around at them, she heard Darcy (she had been told his name by Charles when he introduced himself – William Darcy) reply in a cold voice,
"I'm sorry if dancing to Britney Spears doesn't exactly suit me."
Eliza chuckled a little at that, for the thought of the tall, poised Darcy dancing to Britney Spears was nothing short of amusing. He had then gone on to comment that Charles had secured the only "decent-looking" girl in the place, which she took for a back-handed compliment to Jane. She then was very happy to hear Charles gush over how pretty Jane was, but then heard him say,
"But look, there's one of her sisters. She's very pretty."
She snorted a little; although she knew Charles was complimenting her, she hardly expected Darcy to do the same. Sure enough, he answered,
"She's alright, I suppose, but certainly not enough to tempt me to dance to anything that involves a synthesizer."
She had almost laughed aloud at his rudeness and snobbery, but checked herself. When Charles gave up and walked back to Jane, Eliza saw Charlotte standing by herself a few feet away, and immediately stood up, walked right past Darcy without so much as a glance to him, and proceeded to tell Charlotte her story, complete with British accents and facial imitations.
Eliza had to laugh at Charlotte's childish giggles, and she finally sneaked a glance at Darcy. To her surprise, his eyes were fixed on her; she narrowed her eyes, assuming him to be eavesdropping, and turned back to Charlotte, hastily changing the subject. Soon they were in an argument over one thing or another… Eliza impatiently listened to Charlotte's clearly wrong opinion (after all, her father worked for a big oil company), and then launched into her own. She was surprised yet again when, as she was taking a breath to continue, she noticed Darcy standing very close to them. What is with this guy? she wondered, but just then Bingley's sister had come over and immediately began talking his ear off. She almost felt sorry for him; Caroline Bingley seemed like a horribly tedious woman.
Charlotte had noticed Darcy and Miss Bingley as well, and dreamily whispered to Eliza, "But he's so gorgeous, Eliza."
"Who cares if he's hot, Charlotte? He's rich and a huge-ass snob," she said. She motioned for Charlotte to leave them, and they walked away toward the dance floor.
While Charlotte began to dance, however, Eliza couldn't help but keep looking over at Darcy and Miss Bingley. It was obvious Miss Bingley was desperate for his attention… Good, she thought, they deserve each other. He had been nothing but rude and haughty to everyone all evening, and it was soon obvious that although everyone had been quite taken with him (and his money) at first, the general feeling now toward him was one of very immense dislike. Nor did many people care for the Bingley sisters… it seemed Charles was the only one who was universally liked.
Eliza suddenly realized that she was standing in the middle of the dance floor – not dancing. She shook her head to get rid of all thoughts relating to a certain tall stranger, and began to dance. It wasn't too long, however, before the party was ending; the visitors were the first to leave, and after that, no one had any real interest in staying.
As Eliza walked to the door, bidding goodbye to Charlotte, she couldn't help but think that it had at least been a very interesting party… now all she had to do was brace herself for her family's thoughts of the matter.
Lord, help me.