Chapter 11

A/N: Chapter 11 up! Hurrah!

I am, really, really sorry this took so long to post. My schoolwork has been impeding me very much. Also I have been very busy with a Chuck/Blair vid for Gossip Girl.

I know this sounds like the end, the happy ending,, but like the heartless tyrant I am, I want to prolong their pain for some time. We ain't there yet, kids.

Disclaimer: Lucky Jane Austen, to write for a living. The rest of us poor mortals have to drag through the routines of school and work. Including myself, who has no claim on her characters. All I do is mercilessly twist around the plotlines.

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Elizabeth smiled and took the hand offered by Brent's chauffeur. Brent followed her in. "Hey, Lizzie," he smiled warmly. "How's your life?"

The limo lurched through the city, densely packed with traffic as it was, while Brent and Elizabeth made small talk. It was a beautiful sunset as they finally arrived at Pemberley.

"Ready?" he whispered, and stepped out, holding his arm out. Charlie and Jane were standing on the lawn, excitedly waving to them.

Elizabeth closed her eyes for a moment. The face of Fitzwilliam Darcy ran to the center of her mind. Him escorting her instead of Brent.

Then she opened her eyes. "Ready."

The four went inside, where Richard, the butler, took Jane's shawl. This time they were redirected to the enormous ballroom. It was even bigger than the Bingleys'. The ballroom, with its huge numbers of people (six-hundred odd, perhaps), gave Elizabeth a sense of insignificance.

Caroline suddenly appeared at Charlie's elbow. A practiced trick of hers. She glared at Charlie and Jane, so obviously basking in the glow of true love, and Elizabeth and Brent, who she eyed jealously. "Charles," she said briskly, businesslike. "Thought you'd never come. Will needs to talk to you about something."

Will suddenly appeared at Caroline's elbow, and she glowed with happiness. "Will, dear," she blushed. "Of course, you remember Miss Taylor, Mr. Dawson, Miss Bennet."

Will nodded in acknowledgement. "Mr. Dawson, surely you wouldn't mind if I claimed Miss Bennet for the first dance?"

Brent frowned. Obviously he would mind, any man in his right mind would have been angry. But then he remembered Will was his boss, and Elizabeth's, too. "Um, sure."

Will was smart. He knew Brent would have said yes for those reasons only. And he was smart enough to press his advantage. "For the first couple? Is that okay?"

Brent glared. "Yes."

Before Elizabeth could say another word, Will lined her up for the dance. She rolled her eyes. That indiscernible, strange feeling at the pit of her stomach was back.

She racked her brains for the few formal dancing lessons she'd had. It was a waltz! That was the one! She almost smiled at the memory of her and George Wickham, but she suppressed it just in time, so Will wouldn't see her smile.

Will put a large, yet elegant hand on her waist. It gave her chills. She wondered why the ballroom was so cold in the summer, and hoped it was too much AC.

He whispered something, but she was too caught up in her thoughts to hear it.

He whispered it again. "Eliza- Miss Bennet. You need to put one hand on my shoulder."

She did so, accomplishing what many girls would have called the supreme moment in their lives. His shoulders were nice, broad and muscular but without fat of any kind; she could feel it, whether she wanted to or not, through his tuxedo. Then she forced herself to look up into his face.

It was even more gorgeous up close. The intensity of his gaze fit his features, the furrowed eyebrows, thick but not crudely thick, the intense eyes, shadowed by gold lashes, the aristocratic nose, the square light pink mouth and definite jaw. His ears were big but not huge, and his intelligence showed in his face.

Her stomach did little flips, and she felt dizzy. "Why did you choose me, of all people?" Her voice was rawer, and harsher, than she intended it to be, and she felt a little bit ashamed.

"I find your discomfort amusing," he grinned. It was the very first time Elizabeth had seen him crack a smile. It showcased his best features.

Somehow, she realized he was teasing, he didn't mean to be really rude. But she glared anyway. "What about Caroline? Your dearly beloved, your fiancée?" She looked at Caroline, standing next to Brent, watching them and trying very hard not to. It was comical, and she laughed.

Will didn't know why she was laughing, it only occurred to him that her laughter was beautiful, like tinkling music. Never heard that laugh before. "Forget about Caroline for a moment. Just dance with me."

"Okay," she replied, surprising herself and Will.

Will hadn't ever been this close to Elizabeth, and it gave him a thrill. Her deep-brown eyes were stars, glittering and mocking him, almond-shaped with long eyelashes. Her thin, dramatic eyebrows punctuated her white forehead. Her blue-black waves of hair, that curled at the tips, shone with a kind of dull sheen to it, like high-quality silk, without restraint. Her small, tipped nose was subtly graceful, and her round red mouth curved into a plush smile. Will wondered vaguely why all the men in the world weren't after Elizabeth, and thanked his guardian angel he still had a shot at her. She'd already raised rumors when she came in…it was almost like Cinderella. All of the people there, particularly the men, were staring unabashedly.

They were good. Everyone wondered why Fitzwilliam Darcy wasn't dancing with his fiancée, but he managed to ignore them.

O0...0O

The dancing finished. Elizabeth nodded in a kind of perfunctory way to Will. She rejoined Brent.

He looked somewhat sour, even though it was against his nature to be sour and ungenerous. "I'm sorry," she sighed. "I didn't mean to make you mad."

Brent nodded and put his hands in his pockets, then stared her straight in the face. "It isn't the fact that you danced with him that made me angry," he replied. "It's the fact that you looked unbelievably blissful when you did so."

"What do you mean?"

"When did you decide to use me as a tool in your little game?"

"I'm not playing a game, Brent," Elizabeth snapped. "I hate him."

"Then I don't think even you know what's going on in your mind."

"What?"

"Don't you know it's wrong to use people?" he asked, his face leaning close to hers. "It doesn't seem bad when you're watching it on television or reading it, but when you use people you are casually dismissing any consideration for their feelings, or the subsequent heartbreak when they realize, all of a sudden….then the illusion breaks and reality sets in, and you feel as if you will never be the same."

Elizabeth shook her head.

"Goodbye, Lizzie." Brent swept past her, outside.

"Brent-" Elizabeth ran after him. The car had already disappeared into the darkness.

She stormed in. They were just about to announce dinner, but thankfully due to Caroline's master planning Elizabeth was seated at the far end of the table whereas Will was at the middle. Uh-oh, Mrs. Reynolds had overruled Caroline with Will's desire to have Elizabeth next to him, and so after a few moments of delay Elizabeth was seated next to Will.

Caroline's feelings at seeing Elizabeth and Will gave her such a headache that despite her best efforts she could not continue. She was led to a guest bedroom by Mrs. Reynolds, glaring at her sullenly the whole time.

Will tried to talk. "Miss Bennet? Ahm….how do you like your job so far?"

Elizabeth frowned and said nothing.

"Miss Bennet?"

"Oh, yes," she snapped. "It's wonderful."

The Duchess of Albemarle smiled benignly. "Fitzwilliam, I believe you were mentioning Miss Bennet a few months ago?"

"Excuse me." Elizabeth stood up and dashed out of the ballroom.

Her heart was throbbing madly, and a million things came zooming into her head at once. She was in the garden. The moon sparkled as if just for her comfort, and the stars performed brightly and lovingly.

She sat down on a stone bench.

A fountain bubbled nearby.

Then she realized someone was coming.

"Miss Bennet."

"What are you doing here?" she snapped. "You have the gall to dismiss my date for your own enjoyment?"

"What do you mean?"

"You are really disgusting."

Will almost-laughed, and Elizabeth saw him. "Why?"

"You shoo away Brent, you separated Jane and Charlie, you disowned Wickham-"

He was moving closer towards her. She stood up.

"You fired my father, you look down on people of inferior status-"

"I didn't fire your father, and it's not my fault whether Dawson wants to go away. I separated Jane and Charlie because I thought they didn't care for each other. Wickham's a bastard, you know that."

"But what about looking down on people?"

Will came closer. "That I will not deny."

"Why won't you-"

"Tell me."

Elizabeth found it impossible to say anything.

Will moved in even closer, and before she knew what he was doing, he kissed her.

It was perfect.