Chapter 13- To Marry A Cousin

Lizzy woke the next morning with a splitting headache and a terrible premonition of things to come. She groaned and almost rolled off the side of her bed. With a sigh and a wince she rose, creeping gently out of bed via the ladder she only ever used in this particular state of dishevelment. Wandering into the kitchen she found Jane bright eyed and bushy tailed, inconceivably having risen at her usual hour - seven am - a whole five hours earlier.

"Morning!" Jane chirped, visibly floating around the kitchen.

"Irk," Lizzy grunted, "it's too early to be chipper." She flopped onto the table almost knocking over the glass of fresh orange juice Jane had prepared for her.

"Well if you didn't feel the need to 'drown your sorrows' in alcohol then you would be your usual chipper self too." Jane smiled, patting her twin on the head as she glided past. "Mama is still abed, she said that the party was too much for someone with her fragile nerves and we're not to disturb her until tomorrow."

Lizzy laughed slightly, determined not to move from her slouch over the kitchen table. She was looking forward to a hang over without repercussions from her mother, or the pain of her mothers voice cutting through her headache. With as content a sigh as possible from a 17 yr old girl with a hang over and the memory of a mortifying night, Lizzy moved to make herself some vegemite on toast. She was joined by Cathy who wrinkled her nose at the lingering smell of coffee, earning herself a laugh from Lizzy who also hated coffee. By now Lizzy was feeling relatively better and could actually have a conversation that didn't involve grunts and one syllable answers. However her headache, which had cleared when she started munching on her vegemite toast and orange juice, returned with a vengeance when two of the people she really didn't want to deal with today arrived in the kitchen.

"Lizzy!" Mrs Bennets voice echoed through the silence of the house, "Lizzy, Billy wants to talk to you! It's important." She burst into the kitchen almost bouncing in glee. An equally excited Billy right behind her. Across the table Cathy repressed a laugh into her wheetbix, raising an eyebrow at her sister. Across the table however was Lizzy, food mid journey to her mouth, wearing an expression of utter terror. No, no, no, no! She shook her head at Cathy. "Don't you dare leave me, honest to god, if you do I will never, ever drive you anywhere!"

"Don't worry, Mama will have to drag me out of this chair." Cathy joked quietly, not realising that her mother planned on doing just that. "Sorry," she mouthed as she was dragged out of the room by Mrs Bennet amidst Lizzy's pleading looks. The kitchen door closed with a sharp click and Lizzy looked about, seeing the study door resolutely shut and the stair well empty, she turned dejectedly to Billy and flopped backwards into her chair.

"Go on Billy." She said, breathing deeply, some inner premonition yelling at her to run, but knowing she had to face this.

Billy was standing straight in front of her, pressed up against the side of her chair, close enough for her to smell that he hadn't showered this morning and to see bits of what looked like -it couldn't be!- lipstick on his neck. He was sweating profusely and kept rubbing his hands together. "Dearest Elizabeth, you cannot know how honoured I aim to see you alone, and so modest! As if you cannot know the deepest desires of my heart! The revered Catherine De Bourgh has offered me a job, and not even a month into my internship! I shall be working as her assistant and moving my internship to de Bourgh & Fitzwilliam, so she has offered me a apartment in the de Comfort Hotel to live and advised that a marry as soon as possible." Billy was pacing, back and forward infront of Lizzy's chair, throwing his arms in the air as though thanking the Lord for a miracle, and the bad feeling Lizzy had gotten when he first arrived only a few weeks earlier, multiplied. 'RUN AWAY!' the voices in her head screamed, and pleaded with her to do anything to escape. She was about to do just that, was infact rising from her chair when Billy grasped her hand and held it in both of his.

"You will like her dearest Elizabeth - Lizzy - and I am sure with time she will groom you in her image and you will be as much a lady as her dear daughter Anne. This may seem sudden to you, and I know you wish to finish school, but perhaps you could move with me to Sydney and complete it there and then we can wed. I spoke with your mother and she finds this perfectly agreeable and I know, dearest heart of mine, that you shall become the perfect house wife and before long we may have some little Collins running underfoot. You would be a wonderful moth-" Here Lizzy snatched her hand away finally in control of her senses again. Here Lizzy stood in outrage at his words. Here Lizzy drew a breath and interrupted Billy in a voice of deadly calm.

"Stop." He looked bewildered. "You forget cousin that you have yet to receive an answer. First let me say that I'm flattered that you would chose me as your future wife, but I must decline." Lizzy took a deep breath and looked at Billy, expecting to see some sort of hurt or bafflement at her refusal, instead she saw a self satisfied smile.

"Dearest Elizabeth! If you think to further my love by playing hard to get you are belittling my feelings. I do care for you my sweet. But if you need further inducement, I can be obliged to give you a sample of what married life may bring." Billy quirked his eyebrows, and licked his lips reaching for her but Lizzy's fear and revulsion gave her feet wings. As Billy groped the air his eyes closed and his mouth puckered, Lizzy fled to the opposite side of the kitchen.

"There is no way, in any lifetime, that I would marry you, live with you, give up my ambitions for you or gods help me, sleep with you! I don't want to hurt you Billy, but we are family and I must be honest. I have no wish to leave my home, or to give up my future to be turned into a clone of your employer. I'm not ready for marriage and even if I were, I cannot see myself living in harmony with you for the rest of my days." Lizzy glared at Billy, disgusted at the thought of ever spending another moment in his presences again, let alone marry him.

"I am astounded Elizabeth. I had thought you would be honoured" Lizzy choked on her laugh, and Billy's gaze hardened and his tone became cruel. "From what I have observed and your mother has told me, very few men are at all interested in you, one of your boyfriends even cheating on you with a friend. This is likely the only proposal you will ever get and much better than you deserve. Thus this must be a mistake and an example of your modesty, so I shall leave you to stew in your love for me until your parents can convince you to act in sense."

Lizzy merely let out a scream of frustration and stomped her way up the stairs, glaring at an apologetic eavesdropping Cathy on her way. Throwing open her door and closing it again with a resounding bang, she threw herself onto Janes bed in fury. Jane who had been sitting at the desk completing homework turned to look at her with a concerned face.

"He fucking proposed! He wants me to go and live with him in bloody Sydney, then marry him and have his children!" Lizzy said through Janes pillow. "He tried to kiss me!"

If Lizzy wanted sympathy she had come to the right person, but for all that Jane was Lizzy's twin and managed to see the humour of the situation. Jane burst into laughter so hard that her entire body shook and tears ran down her face. Lizzy glared at her, jaw set and her eyes a bright sea green. Jane's laughter stopped however the moment their mother found out what had happened.

"ELIZABETH JANE BENNET!" The voice of Francis Bennet thundered up the stairs. Lizzy scrambled up off the bed as she heard her mother follow her screeches. "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND! SELFISH, THOUGHTLESS CHILD!"

Lizzy glanced about desperately and with a kiss blown at Jane managed to climb out her window and into the tree opposite, sliding quickly down and running into the bordering parklands with a wave.

From: Fitzwilliam Darcy mailto:
Sent: Sunday, 13 April 2008 10:30 AM
To: Gee Gee Darcy
Subject: RE: Charlies Party

It was quite pretty, Charles was so eager to please Jane that he went all out. It was an amazing ocean theme, everything was blue or green and there were bubbles everywhere. You would have been able to pull out your mermaid costume, you were always very cute in that.

I think we're leaving Hertfordshire soon, the situation has heated up a little. Wickham is here, and I found out that Jane is just a social climber. She planned his whole attraction, she probably even played hard to get just to make him want her more. I'm going to talk to Charles tomorrow, and I suspect that we shall be seeing you very soon, ofcourse Caroline's schooling might be a problem if she hadn't skipped so often that she was half way to failing anyway. She agrees with me by the way, apparently she caughty Jane and Lizzy hitting on some guys from their school, so either Jane is in it for the money or she's not interested, either way Charles is going to get hurt. I won't let that happen. Let Marsh know to expect me soon.

Love from your favourite confectionary.

P.S Pemberley here we come!

From: Gee Gee Darcy
Sent: Monday, 14 April 2008 8:45 AM
To: Fitzwilliam Darcy
Subject: RE: RE: Charlies Party

Fitzwilliam Darcy think before you speak. Do you know, for certain, that she's a gold digger? I mean she might be shy, and didn't say she and Charlie were waiting for her 18th which is another two weeks away. She seems really nice, and from what you have said about her and her sister I wouldn't believe it.

As for Wickham, stay away from him. I don't want you to get hurt again, he's in the army you know. Don't let what happened to me influence your judgment, please. Think about what your doing Will, there's a lot of people who could get hurt.

I love you brother, but you can get a big head, don't let your paranoid suspicions ruining someone's relationship, or your own.

By the way, I wore that mermaid costume when I was 11...

-Gee Gee-

-xoxox--xoxox-

From: Fitzwilliam Darcy mailto:
Sent: Tuesday, 13 April 2008 6:05 AM
To: Gee Gee Darcy
Subject: RE:RE:RE: Charlies Party

You weren't there Gee Gee. I heard Lizzy and her Mother talking, granted Lizzy sounded sarcastic but she always does when talking to her mother. And that's not the only problem, their sisters are atrocious! The youngest are terrible and have scary sex drives and the gothic one just freaks me out. I'm pretty sure she's a lesbian…

That family is too outgoing for Jane to be shy, I had always thought it odd that she was so subdued when that whole family is so, insane. It is part of her plot, I just know it. No Gee Gee, you cannot convince me otherwise. It is time for Charles and I to move on.

Love from your favourite confectionary.

A/N Sorry it took so long to update school has been hard and I've had a lot to do. I want to address a critique I received, I know the time is out of wack but I am really bad at maths, I cant even count the days right so just ignore it and pretend it's an episode of Star Trek where the magic of science fixes all! Also before fan was fixed I had to fiddle and convert things strangely and I lost all my which pointed things out and separated Lizzy from Will. So from here on in -- changes the perspective from Lizzy to Will. And any flash backs or thoughts will be in italics. Critique is good guys, points out problems. Please enjoy and review because good reviews make me feel loved.