Chapter 9: Daddy Dearest

After dropping their bags at the hotel, the two friends had some time before their meeting with Charlottes dad and decided to explore the big city around their hotel. They had decided to stay at the hotel rather than share a sleeper couch in the lounge of the Lucas's two-bedroom apartment. Although the Lucas's still had their house in Hertfordshire, Monday to Fridays they were at the flat because a commute did not make sense and opening a security business in Hertfordshire did not make sense either. Marion Lucas was loathed to sell their house, and rather enjoyed referring to their apartment in the big city in front of Franny Bennet, who had always wanted to live in the big city.

Despite coming from a large family, herself, Elizabeth found the Lucas family a bit intrusive, even at their home in Hertfordshire. Charlottes mother did not think she should have to knock before entering any of the bedrooms in her own home and would often try and fish for information about what Elizabeth's parents were busy with, even though Elizabeth no longer lived at home or even in Hertfordshire.

For Charlotte it was a no brainer, her mother would drop scathing remarks about someone Charlottes age not being married yet and never having grandchildren, even though John was two years older than Charlotte and perfectly capable of getting married and having the much desire grandchildren. Charlotte loved her parents and her family, but their dreams were not her dreams.

Marion Lucas was not happy with their decision and insisted that they come to the apartment for dinner that evening. They would much rather have tried out one of the new eateries in town but to keep the peace they agreed.

Elizabeth liked the hotel they had chosen, they avoided the normal run of the mill Lodge City, Lodge Town, or All Four Seasons, looking for quirky and unusual boutique hotels or guest houses. Rosings House was everything the website promised, the attention to detail in the turn of the century home was spot on, you could almost see the ladies walking through the passages in their empire waist dresses. Luckily the beds only looked old, but had modern mattresses and bedding, and there was air conditioning.

They caught a cab to the Operations Head Quarters, a very nondescript building in the middle of the commercial district, there were no windows on the ground floor and the entrance had a security detail, with metal detectors, scanners and a row of glass walled interview rooms. There was electric lighting but most of the light came from the second-floor windows and mirrors positioned to reflect the light and give the ground floor absolutely no shadows. It could have been a hospital lobby it was so sterile, no pictures or paintings were on the wall, no large clock or waiting room furniture.

Despite being the CEO's daughter, both Charlotte and Elizabeth had to pass through the metal detectors, the scanners, and a pat down by a female security guard. A young man in uniform waited for them to finish and escorted them to the lifts, and up to the fourth floor where William Lucas had his office. Here the décor changed to reflect more of an executive air, modern prints adorned the walls, contemporary furniture made up a very smart reception area. John Lucas's secretary Mary King offered the ladies some refreshments, both opted for water. Elizabeth noticed that Mary King (her name plate was on her desk) did not talk to either of them, but after watching her for a little while, Elizabeth realised that the girl was painfully shy.

They could hear the faint rumble of conversation from within Mr Lucas's office and after a short while the door opened, and William Lucas walked out of his office.

"Daddy" Charlotte jumped up and hugged her father.

"Daddy?"

"Daddy!'

William Darcy and Richard Fitzwilliam could not contain their amazement. Although Richard thought seeing the father and daughter together there was no mistaking the relationship.

"You are stalking me! I should have guessed!" Richard said, notice that the group had fallen in to stunned silence.

"What brings you to MY father's offices?" Charlotte returned, echoing the exact through going through Elizabeth's head.

"Well, I could ask you the same thing…except he is YOUR father." Richard chuckled, they smiled at each other.

"As much as I hate to interrupt, but Richard and I need to be off, we have another appointment we cannot be late for" William tried to get his cousin to hurry up before Elizabeth drove the question home.

"Yes, unfortunately you will have to stalk me another time." Richard said ruefully, as the two followed the same young escort to the lifts.

"Come into my office, can I offer you girls some coffee or tea? It's a bit early for wine." William Lucas was not sure what to make of what just happened in his office. Especially between that Fitzwilliam guy and his daughter. He would have to mind what he said at home, if his wife even suspected a romance for Charlotte, life would become unbearable for him and his daughter. But he had to admit he quite like the young man, and could see how well match the two young folk were; however he would not interfere, he had learned over the years to let Charlotte follow her own path, she always ended up exactly where she should be. Pity his wife did not follow the same philosophy.

Both women held up the water bottle provided by the shy Miss King.

"Okay then, lets get down to business otherwise you would not have made an appointment to see me." He decided to cut to the chase, he had a very good idea why they were there.

Elizabeth took a deep breath "Lydia is missing, we think…we know she has been misled into believing that the man she is with loves her, but as we have discovered he is not who he says he is. He is a man by the name of George Wickham, but he introduced himself to us as Charles Bingley, we have since met the real Charles Bingley and realised that Lydia might be over her head. We just want her found and returned home. Can you help us find her? "

It all came out as one single sentence and had William Lucas not been in conversations with William Darcy and Richard Fitzwilliam for the past weeks, it would not have made sense at all. But he had a lot more information than they did. However, he had to pretend he knew nothing.

"How long has Lydia been missing? Do your parents know?"

"It's been over two weeks now. At first my parents thought it was just Lydia being rebellious, but then after she had not come home for three days, and they could not get hold of her they realised it was a bit more serious. Kitty finally came clean and said that Lydia had run away with Charles, because she knew the family would be angry because of the whole Mary thing. "

"The whole Mary thing?"

"Mary and Charles, I mean George Wickham were dating, Mary was madly in love with him, and we thought he was in love with her. But then he started to verbally and emotionally abuse her which she hid from us, he then broke up with her. What my parents do not know is that Mary tried to take her own life because of that. A few weeks later Lydia ran away with the man she thinks is Charles Bingley but who is in fact George Wickham, who by all accounts is not a good man at all; because she is afraid, we, her family, would be angry with her dating Marys ex-boyfriend." Elizabeth hoped she was making sense, because to her own ears she sounded a bit daft.

"Do you know where they have run away to?" Mr Lucas in fact, knew exactly where they were at this precise moment but could not let either of the women know that.

"No, we tracked down the real Charles Bingley which is how we found out that Lydia had actually run off with George Wickham, we are not even sure that Lydia knows who he really is. But we have not been able to find a trace of him." Elizabeth was feeling a lot calmer, the shock of seeing William here at John Lucas's offices and the effects of the last two weeks had been catching up to her. But just sitting there telling Charlottes father like they used to do when they were kids, knowing that the grown-ups would fix whatever was wrong, made Elizabeth feel better, she knew that she and Charlotte were by all account adults, but William Lucas was more of an adult, adultier? She had to smile at this train of thought because it made her recalled a meme she saw once.

"Now girls I cannot promise miracles, but I will put out some feelers and see what we can find, if she is out there, we will find her…. which I suppose is promising a miracle!" he smiled at his own cleverness. "Why don't you girls take yourselves sightseeing or shopping and we will see you tonight for supper? Let me get the ball rolling on this side."

Charlotte hugged her dad, "Thank you Daddy"

Elizabeth gave William Lucas a hug as well, "Thank you Uncle John"

"And I gather that you do not want your mother to know about this?" he looked at his daughter "I will say you are here on business, but let's try not to lie too much, shall we?"

'Yes dad, and again thank you"

They were escorted out of the building by a woman in uniform this time, Elizabeth felt as if the weight of the world had been lifted from her soul. She felt a flash of anger towards her parents, they should be the ones leading this charge, instead her father has buried himself in work as usual, and her mother was having Victorian hysterics.

'Excuse me…. excuse me" Elizabeth's train of thought was derailed as a short chubby man waddled with speed towards them.

Charlotte and Elizabeth stared in open amazement at this sight.

"Are you Miss Elizabeth Bennet?" the man asked in between sharp huffs and puffs as he tried to regain his breathe, "Daughter of Thomas Bennet of Hertfordshire?"

"Who are you and what business is it of yours?" Elizabeth could not help but be suspicious, who was this strange little man and why did he know who she was or who her father was.

"I am so sorry, how rude of me. I am William Collins, your cousin; actually, your second cousin. Once. No, twice removed. Your grandfather and mine were brothers!" he gave an awkward bow as a way of introduction.

They did not know how to respond to this and just stared at him.

"You say we are related? How did you know who I was?" Elizabeth finally found her wits.

"I have always kept up with the family tree, I know that Cousin Thomas has five rather beautiful daughters, but because of a family feud between the two brothers; the two sides of the family no longer have any communication or contact whatsoever. My father was an only child, and I was an only child and on fathers passing five years ago I am the sole representative of my side of the family.

I work at the Operation Head Quarters; I am the head accountant and I heard you announce yourselves when I arrived for work today. I double checked my records and realised that you are in fact my cousin Elizabeth." The little man rocked back on his heels looking extraordinarily please with himself.

"Well, I am surprised, I did not know there was another side of the family but I suppose Hello is in order "Elizabeth did not know what to say, the situation had gone from strange to creepy in a very short space of time.

The little man did not seem to notice "Please allow me to take you two lovely ladies out for dinner tonight as a way to get to know my cousin and her beautiful friend a little better?"

"Sorry, we already have plans with my parents, and we are leaving tomorrow" Charlotte thought it better that she speak, Elizabeth was about to lose it.

"Going back to town so soon?" he said, both women realised that he knew way too much about them. "As we are now acquainted, I shall reach out to your parents and extent the proverbial olive branch as the sole surviving representative of my side of the family." He smiled, quite delighted with himself.

Elizabeth could not think of a single scenario where this would end well but decided if he was determined to this course of action, then who was she to stand in his way. She smiled, "I am sure my mother would be delighted! Please excuse us but we do have another appointment. It was…interesting to meeting you."

"Likewise, a total pleasure to meet you and see that the rumours of the Bennet sisters beauty are very much true" again executing a funny little bow as he made his farewells.

Charlotte hailed a cab as fast as she could, and they threw themselves into back seat urging the driver to make haste.

Charlotte caught Elizabeth's eye and the two of them just started to laugh, first it was to dissipate the nervous energy but then it turned into a full-on belly laugh.

After a short while Charlotte said, "Is it just me or has life gotten intensely more interesting these past weeks?"

"Interesting one word, I prefer peculiar" Elizabeth said, still thinking about the funny little cousin she just discovered she had.