Chapter Text
The wedding reception could not pass soon enough, as far as Lizzie was concerned.
It was only halfway through dinner, and Lizzie was already looking longingly over at the table where Charlotte was seated, talking to Bing Lee. Wishing that the floor would just open up and swallow her, Lizzie desperately tried to avoid hearing her mother’s indignant complaints about the seating arrangements—particularly, the arrangements around the table where the Lu family were seated.
“Really, why should he be seated over there?” She all but moaned, loud enough for the next table over to hear. Lizzie wanted to bury her face in her hands and pretend that she was far, far away; or, better yet, to kick her mother’s leg and tell her to be. Quiet. “The poor man must be bored to death. Look at how Charlotte Lu is talkin’ his ear off!”
“Mom!” Lizzie hissed in mortification.
“I suppose I shouldn’t be too worried.” Mrs Bennet allowed. “They aren’t likely to have all that much in common. What with Charlotte wastin’ her time with her little filmmakin’ course, I doubt they have any common interests at all!”
“Virginia, dear,” Mr Bennet patted Mrs Bennet’s hand, thankfully keeping his voice low enough that it did not carry to the other tables, “I’m sure the young man is just being polite and getting to know his new neighbours. You remember how hard it was to be the new family in town.”
“Of course, of course!” Mrs Bennet’s sunny smile had returned. “What a charmin’ young gentleman he is!”
Lizzie stifled a grin at the wink her father threw her way when he turned from his wife, thankful that her mother had gone back to criticizing the colour of the bridesmaids’ dresses. (“Taffy pink! Could poor Eleanor have looked any worse? Girls,” and here she turned to her daughters, “you must promise me that when you have your own weddin’s, you’ll make sure all your bridesmaids look well in their dresses.”) Returning her attention to the soup course in front of her, she couldn’t help but throw a glance over toward Charlotte, praying for the next half an hour to pass as quickly as possible.
The toasts weren’t particularly exciting—the best man told a story that earned little more than polite laughter from the crowd, and the maid of honour’s speech was long and rather boring. Lizzie picked at the remnants of her soup, pushing her leftover dregs around with her spoon.
The main course was served as the maid of honour stood down—the dining hall filled with the sound of chatter and laughter as people ate, drowning out even Mrs Bennet’s criticisms. (“Beef! No, beef is not an appropriate main course at a weddin’. They would have done much better with lamb. Jane, dear, don’t you think so?”) The food was good, though Lizzie didn’t manage to finish her entire plate.
“Lizzie!” Lydia hissed from her right. Not wanting to attract any more undue attention, Lizzie leaned over to her younger sister. “You see Charlotte talking to Bing Lee over there?”
“Yeah? The girl next to him is his sister, right?”
“Right.” Lydia gave Lizzie a cheeky grin. “And that’s Darcy next to her. Doesn’t look very dubstep-y, does he?”
Lizzie followed Lydia’s line of sight, her curious gaze landing on the man in question. Even from his seated position, he looked well over a foot taller than Bing Lee’s sister (what was her name, again? Carol?), and had to bend down to listen to something the smaller woman was saying. He had a very haughty air about him, and though he was good-looking, Lizzie couldn’t get past the tight set of his jaw or the way he seemed to be frowning at everything and everyone. “Maybe if he stopped looking like there was dog crap under his nose. And lost the bowtie and newsie cap.” She murmured to Lydia, who broke out into hysterical laughter.
“Like you can talk about his fashion sense.” Her sister eventually snickered.
Lizzie tuned out her sister as she began listing all the defects that she had observed in Lizzie’s wardrobe over the last six months. Shaking her head, she caught Charlotte’s eye and made a small show of expressing her displeasure with their current separation. Charlotte grinned at her and looked down into her lap; a moment later, a vibration in the purse that Lizzie kept by her leg indicated that Charlotte had texted her.
‘Do you want to swap seats with Maria? She wants to talk to Sarah.’
Lizzie looked up and nodded; Charlotte leaned over and muttered something to Maria, whose face went from bored to smiling in a matter of seconds. Collecting her purse, Lizzie told her parents that she was going to go sit with Charlotte, and asked Lydia to take her seat so that Maria could sit next to her friend, who was to Lydia’s right. The youngest Bennet obliged, shifting over to sit next to Jane.
Lizzie smiled at Maria as they crossed each other in the middle of the room, before dropping into the vacant chair on Charlotte’s other side. “Thank god I’m out of there.” She complained, placing her purse on the floor. “I think Lydia was about to start on my hair. She’s already insulted every outfit I’ve ever owned.”
A small laugh sounded from Charlotte’s other side, drawing their attention. Lizzie found herself blinking owlishly at Bing’s sister—who was even more beautiful up close. “Is this that friend you were telling us about, Charlotte?” She asked. “Elizabeth, wasn’t it?”
“Lizzie.” Lizzie corrected, making a face at the use of her full name.
“Right, sorry.” Charlotte had the grace to look embarrassed. “Uh, Lizzie, this is Bing and Caroline Lee,” she gestured to the two of them, “and that’s William Darcy.”
“It’s so nice to meet you.” Caroline all but drawled, interrupting her brother as he opened his mouth to speak. “Charlotte was just telling us that the two of you are in grad school; that must be tough. All that work.” Lizzie distinctly got the impression that, much like her mother, Caroline Lee was not impressed by her studies—though she doubted it was for the same reason. “Of course, I got my Masters in Accounting a few years ago. It’s all worth it in the end. What are you studying, again?”
“Er—mass communications.” She managed to answer.
“Oh, well,” Caroline flipped her hair over her shoulder, smiling too brightly. “I’m sure that’s… interesting.”
Lizzie didn’t know what to say to this, and was grateful when Charlotte seemed to sense her discomfort. “Bing was just telling us earlier about how he’s studying medicine.” She told Lizzie, pretending for her benefit that Lizzie was not fully aware of this fact.
“Yeah?” Lizzie snapped out of her shock and turned her attention from Caroline to her brother. “Which school do you go to?”
“Oh, Harvard.” He admitted; Lizzie liked the humble tone he used, like he was bashful that he could afford such a good school. “But we live in L.A. My semester finished early, so, we’re all here for the summer. At least, we will be, if we can keep Darcy away from the office long enough.”
“Awesome.” Lizzie grinned, slightly perturbed at the way Darcy glared at Bing for his good-natured ribbing. “What do you do, Mr Darcy?”
The man—who, like Caroline and her brother, seemed even better looking up close (seriously, Lizzie moaned inwardly, that wasn’t fair)—started at his name. He, however, didn’t get a chance to answer before Caroline butted in for him.
“Oh, just call him ‘Darcy’, like everyone else.” She winked at Lizzie, though the act seemed very forced and not at all good-humoured. “He’s the C.E.O. of an international media empire. Pemberly Digital—have you heard of it?” She didn’t pause to allow Lizzie to answer (in the negative) before she soldiered on. “I’m actually surprised that we managed to drag him away from his computer for the wedding today—he’s normally chained to the thing.”
The conversation lapsed for a few minutes; Lizzie patted her knees awkwardly under the tablecloth as she searched for something to say.
It was actually the DJ that broke the awkward silence as he announced that it was time for the bride and groom’s First Dance. Everyone clapped politely as the newlyweds stood up together, moving to the centre of the dance floor as Your Song started playing. Neither of them were particularly good dancers—Caroline tutted a few times when Ellen accidentally stepped on her new husband’s feet.
“Don’t people know how to dance any more?” She muttered, loud enough for the entire table to hear.
“My sisters and I took ballroom dancing lessons growing up.” Lizzie felt the need to defend her town from this woman—Caroline’s condescending tone irked her. “Our Mom is from North Carolina.” She explained. “She wanted us to be able to dance and curtsey and all that stuff. My little sister never really had the patience for it, but Jane—my big sister—and I can both dance.”
“Well, we’ll have to invite you both to dance when the floor’s open, then, wont we Darcy?” Bing smiled at Lizzie, who felt the hair on the back of her neck rise. She could just imagine what her mother would say if she saw Lizzie dancing with either of them.
“Oh, that’s okay.” She held up her hands. “I don’t really feel like dancing tonight, but thank you for the offer.”
“Are you sure?” Bing asked, concern layered into his voice.
“Yeah, I’m sure.” Lizzie assured him. “I’m sure my sister would, though. She loves dancing.”
“Oh, okay.” Bing looked a little bit like a puppy that had been denied a toy, but the moment passed and he was looking toward the table where Lizzie’s family were seated. Lizzie almost buried her face in her hands at the sight of her mother, who was making large gestures and speaking hurriedly to her husband. She was obviously criticising something. Again. “Which one’s—was it Jane?”
“Yeah.” Lizzie nodded. “Jane’s the one in the brown, sitting next to our mother. Lydia—our little sister—is next to her.”
“You’ll have to introduce us to your family, Lizzie.” Caroline’s sickeningly sweet voice interrupted them. “Bing says he met your father at the club the other day, but didn’t really get a chance to talk to him.”
“Yeah, Dad mentioned that he met you the other day.” Lizzie allowed, feeling slightly uncomfortable with the turn of the conversation.
“Oh, look,” Caroline turned toward the dance floor again. “I think they’re finishing up.”
They were. Everyone clapped politely as the DJ finished up the song and announced that the dance floor was now open for everyone; the sounds of chatter and scraping chairs filled the room once more as people moved from their tables. Most simply milled around the edges of the dance floor or the bar, but some did take partners and began to enjoy the free floor.
Lizzie almost panicked at the sight of her mother and sisters approaching from across the room; her little sister’s simpering smile was more than enough to give away their mother’s already obvious intentions.
The three Bennet women approached the table—Mrs Bennet flanked by her daughters. Her mother’s approving smile as she eyed both Bing and Darcy was entirely too obvious. Lizzie cleared her throat, drawing everyone’s attention. “Uh, this is my Mom and my sisters, Jane and Lydia.” She announced to the table at large. To her family, she said “This is Bing Lee, his sister Caroline and their friend William Darcy,” indicating to each in their turn.
“It is such a pleasure to meet y’all.” Her mother was using her best ‘southern belle’ voice. Lizzie had often noted that her mother used that particular tone with the girls’ boyfriends over the years—to hear her use it on a perfect stranger was almost ominous. “We heard y’all had moved into the neighbourhood, but we haven’t had a chance to drop by to introduce ourselves yet.”
“It’s nice to meet you.” Bing smiled widely at each Bennet in her turn, his eyes eventually coming to rest on Jane. “Lizzie was just telling us that you know how to dance?”
Jane blinked at being addressed directly. “Oh! Yes.” She smiled blithely. “We all learned.”
Bing stood up, wiping his hands on a napkin that he then deposited onto his plate. “Would you like to?” He asked Jane, gesturing toward the dance floor.
Jane’s smile widened. “I would love to, thank you.”
As they moved over toward the dance floor, chatting casually, Lizzie couldn’t help but sneak glances at her mother. If the way she was smiling was any indication, the wheels in her head were already turning, assessing the situation and deciding how best to throw her eldest daughter at their new neighbour.
Lizzie inwardly cringed and prayed that Lydia and her mother didn’t make spectacles of themselves for the rest of night. Caroline Lee and William Darcy were already judging the town and everyone in it—they didn’t need any more ammunition.