I just want to say thank you very much for your feedbacks and comments.
I appreciate it, you guys!
For those whose curious about why there's a big age gap between Jane and Lizzy or why the Bennett family coddled Lizzy a little too much, please be patience. It will be revealed in due time.
Anyway, I was watching a tv show where the couple have a huge age gap, when the idea pops up in my head where Lizzy and Darcy have a big age difference and in a modern setting. *They do have a 7-8 years of years between them in the original. I just added a couple more.* The plot just flows in my mind like a silent movie that I have no choice but to write it down.
The taboo aspect of it also intrigues me and with her being his intern, it will amped up the level of scandal.
*Hint: There certainly will be a scandal. A huge one.* *wink*
5 Years Later
May 2016
Longbourn, Hertfordshire.
Jane drives around the circular driveway of her childhood home and parks to the side. Opening the door, she got out of the car and halfway walk to the manor front door when it burst open.
"Jane you're here!" Lizzy runs toward her and gives her a big hug.
Jane chuckled and patted her back, "I miss you too."
Lizzy grabbed her sister hand and dragged her to the house. "Well, come in, come in. We just about to start breakfast. Mrs. Hill made your favorite blueberry muffins."
"Jane dear!" Mrs. Bennett cried, fluttered down the grand sprawling staircase with the clicking of her high heels and embraced her. She pulled back and put her hands on Jane shoulders.
"Let me get a good look at you. Oh, you look positively glowing. The tropical weather agrees you, darling."
"Thank you, mama. Yes, Hawaii was great. But, it's good to be back. I missed my family."
Mrs. Bennett patted her cheek."Oh, you precious girl. Where's Charles, by the way?" She looks around when she realized the absence of her son-in-law.
"He was called back to the office about some urgent matter."
"Hmmph... You young people these days always busy busy busy. " huffed Mrs. Bennett. "And tell that Mr. Darcy to not over work Charles too much. He needed to start working on my grandchild."
Jane rolled her eyes behind her retreating mother's back, making Lizzy giggle before following her to the dinning room.
Jane surrounded by the rest of her sisters with hugs, and patiently answer each excited question about her Hawai when her father ambled from his study.
"Dad!" Jane hugged her father. "How are you feeling, today?"
"Ah, Janie. Welcome back, dear. I'm afraid my old bones aren't as spry as they used to be. But don't worry, I won't leave your mother to the hedgerow anytime soon."
''Tom! Don't even joke about it. You don't have compassion for my nerves." She twacks her husband's shoulder.
"Forgive me, darling." with a twinkle in his eyes, Mr. Bennett kissed his wife hand. Their affection clear on their face.
As usual, meal times in the Bennetts household was always chaotic, with alteast 2 conversation going on at once, loud voices trying to out loud each other to get their point crossed and be heard above the other. Jane always find it annoying in the past but now she missed it a little, their closeness. And camaraderie.
"Is something on your mind, Jane?" Mr. Bennett peers under his reading glasses, bottom half of his face hiding behind the morning paper.
"Oh, nothing Dad. Just... I forgotten how noisy my sisters can be." Jane smile affectionately toward her younger sisters.
"I'm sure after leaving Longbourn for so long, you used to a more mature and meaningful conversation now instead of idle teenage blabber."
"No.. no. Nothing like that. Truthfully, I kind of missed the noise. The flat can be so quiet sometimes."
"Then I suggest you start popping babies." Mrs. Bennett waved her butter knife. "Nothing kills quietness like children does. Lots of children." She ended her statement with a righteous nod.
Jane sigh. "Now is not the right time, mama."
Mrs. Bennett looked up from buttering her toast with a furrowed brows, "When is the right time, Jane? You're not getting any younger, and you have been married for 5 years. You're turning 30 this year. By the time I was 30 I already have you."
"Mama, we're just too busy to start a family now. Babies need lots of time, which I don't have aplenty at the moment. I don't want to be like some of those mothers that throws their kid at the nanny as soon as her maternity leave ends. When I have a baby I want to be able to give my full attention and care to the baby."
"Then you better make time, Jane. Or you might regretting when it was too late." Squeezing her hand, Mrs. Bennett sigh, "I just wanted the best for you, my dear. I want you to enjoy motherhood. Children, they really are a miracle of life- eventhough they sometimes make you crazy and causing premature grey hair." eyeing her younger daughters fighting over the last pastry.
Jane turned her head away, sipping orange juice, the longing expression unnoticed by the rest of her family.
Lizzy curled up on the soft velvet Victorian chaise in the library with a book of poems when her father enters, "I know you'd be in here." Mr. Bennett sat next to his daughter and pat her knee. "Have you packed your bags yet?"
She shook her head and distractedly answer her father, " I'll do it later. Besides, Lydia's the one who have the last say in which outfit to bring anyway. God forbid, I wore something mismatched." She murmured the last words, rolling her eyes.
Mr. Bennett chuckled and snatch her book away, "Hey, dad! Give it back!" Lizzy tried to grab the book from her father but he held it far away from her position on the chaise. "Dad, stop it. It's not funny. DADDY!"
"Alright, alright" still chucking, her dad gave her the book and settles next to her. Mr. Bennett put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her to him.
"I know you're not excited about the internship, but do you realize how big of an opportunity this is? Others would kill to be in your place."
"I guess..." Lizzy shrugged, laying her head on her father shoulder.
He kissed her head and looked down at her. "You know I won't force you, Lizzy, but promise me you'll try and give it your best. You'll never know how it'll turn out in the end."
"Hmm...mmm." She just nodded and snuggle deeper.
"I'm going to miss you, Daddy."
"I'm going to miss you more, Lizzybee." with a kissed to her father cheek Lizzy left the library.
Mr. Bennett smile wryly, watching Lizzy take the book with her.
Ah, she's going to take the book with her too.
Mr. Bennett walks to the huge build-in bookcase behind the chaise and fingers the books gently. It stands from floor to ceiling, spanning the whole side wall, made from dark oak. Unlike the other rooms in his ancestral home, this room cater exactly to his taste. He spend a lot of time— and money procuring from rare hardcovers, to first editions and rare historical books to the interior design and furniture.
This is his— and Elizabeth sanctuary. Next to his study that is, and he was proud of it. All the hard work pays off in the end.
He finally chooses a book to lost into and sat on his favorite— navy high back Louis XVI bergere wing chair.
He was on the third chapter when the door opens and Jane walk in, making he raise his brow in surprise. "I never thought I'd see the day you walk in here without force."
Jane shrugged her shoulder, her back to him standing in front of the french windows.
Another daughter in distress
"Well, your mother certainly would never thought to find you in here." He mused, turning another page.
It was awhile later, when Jane broke the peaceful quiet. "I wish mama would stop pressuring me about grandchildren."
Sighing, he closed the book with a thud, and gave his full attention to his eldest daughter. "Well, I do want a few grandchildren to bounce on my knee and read to in this huge room." He lifted his hand gesturing around the room.
"Dad, not you too!" gasped Jane, looking at him over her shoulder.
"Alright, alright." Mr. Bennet raise his hand in surrender. "Your mother's in a grandbaby tizzy because her sister's daughter— your cousin gave birth to a son, and her competitive spirit just won't let her lose to her younger sister." He shakes his head and watch his daugther shoulder slump.
Oh, Janie.
His firstborn. His serene and independent daughter.
The least troublesome too.
For a while, he thought she's going to be his only child. Until Lizzy came into the world screaming, 10 years later. Unlike Lizzy, Jane however knows exactly what she wants to be since childhood and work tirelessly towards that goal. He remembers when she was 10 and came home from school crying, because a schoolmate of her came to school with a body full of bruises. He has the unpleasant job of trying to explain to the soft-hearted girl about the evilness in the world.
"Then dad, if their parents, who supposed to care for them, hurting them. Who's going to help them?" asked a teary 10 year old Jane.
"Well, there are some professionals out there whose main job are protecting those innocent children."
"Really?"
"Yes, really."
"Then I'm going to be one when I'm grown up!"
And she done exactly that.
Now, Jane is a succesful family law attorney but spend most of her time taking pro bono cases in helping abused and abandoned women and children. As her father, he was so proud of her archievement.
To distract her, he changed the subject. "Lizzy will start her internship at the Darcy corporation on the day after tomorrow."
She snorted inelegantly, "She's going to blow a gasket when she found out that you asked Mr. Darcy personally for her internship."
"Well, I have to do something. She just drifting, having no direction whatsoever for her future."
"She just haven't found something she's passionate about yet."
Mr. Bennett narrowed his eyes, " Let see, in two years she already changed her major from business administration to english literature, liberal arts, forestry and back to business administration. She also join cooking classes. And, did you know there was an ancient alien study class?" Jane shakes her head no, "Yes, there is, and she joins them too." He removes his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose.
Jane laughs and rub her father's back, "Relax dad, she's 20. She's entitled to have some rebellious phase. It's a part of growing up and transcending into adulthood. She just trying to find herself."
Mr. Bennett just sighs loudly.
Elizabeth sat cross-legged on her four poster bed, suitcases laying open on her feet.
"You have to bring a few sexy dresses too, you'll never know when you bump into handsome men." said Lydia from her closet, making Lizzy frown.
"I'm not you Lydia, I not going to clubs and 'bumps' into handsome men." Raising her pointer and middle fingers together she air quoted the word bumps.
Lydia rolled her eyes, "That's why you're still a virgin."
"Hey, I'm not going to sleep with some guy just for sex. I'm waiting for—"
"The one." She air quoted back at her sister. "Yes. we know."
Folding the dresses into the suitcase, Lydia stand facing her sister. "I know you wants love. A deep, abiding, true love and for your sake, I do hope you find it, Lizzy."
Touched, Lizzy thanks her sister.
"And to find it, you need some killer heels to match with the dresses. Oh, I just know the one. Wait here, I let you borrows my louboutins." She dashed to her room to grab the said shoes.
Lizzy plop back on her bed and sighs.