Page 48 of First Impressions
“This is where the reception for the White Party will take place. Obviously most of the furniture will be moved along the walls or elsewhere. There will be an indoor bar and the seating card table in the center,” Victor informed them decidedly.
Next, he took them into the formal living room, its marble fireplace the centerpiece of the space. Similar to the oval room, there were numerous large windows and French doors that led out onto the patio or into the gardens.
Why two people needed all this space was a whole separate issue.
They moved back into the oval room where Mrs. DeBourgh and Anne were waiting for them.
“There you are Victor; we were just about to go in. Beth,dear,good to see you.”
“Mrs. DeBourgh,” Beth addressed their hostess, “This is my sister Jane, if you remember, and Char Lucas.”
“Yes, good to see you.” She acknowledged the two girls. “This is my daughter, Anne,” motioning to the tall blonde who still hadn’t made eye contact with Beth.
The formal dining room was just as ostentatious as the rest of the house. Beth was seated next to Char at the table, across from Anne, Jane across from Victor, and Mrs. DeBourgh at the head. After a polite conversation about their trip up, and how they were finding the property and accommodations, Mrs. DeBourgh moved on to business.
“Miss Bennet, I want you working closely with Anne and Victor for the party preparation and execution,” she began.Great, she had to work ‘closely’ with Darcy’s ex.“You and Anne will decide on most of the conceptual ideas, the best way to organize the event for maximum publicity, and then Victor will sort out the logistics. Anything that you need, ask him directly.” Her tone was matter-of-fact, leaving Beth no room to suggest an alternative.
“Yes, Beth if I could talk to you after dinner we can go over a few preliminaries and arrange a meeting tomorrow to go through the layout of the event space.” Beth was shocked that Anne had addressed her directly, but the look she gave her made it clear that she was intent on speaking with her.
“Of course,” she responded tightly. The last thing she wanted was to hear another message from Darcy relayed to her through Anne, especially now after they’d slept together.
“So Jane, your mother tells me that you are going to be engaged soon. I hope I’m not too early in offering my congratulations.” Whether Mrs. DeBourgh knew what had happened or not didn’t matter; the question immediately put Jane into shock, her face turning a deathly white as she struggled to find a polite answer to the question.
“Well nothing is set in stone yet, but Mr. Bingley would be a fool to pass up such an amazing woman as Jane,” Beth interjected with a smile and a nod to her sister before it became obvious to Mrs. DeBourgh that there was something wrong.
“Ah, yes. Men are often fools, that is for sure. Just look at Anne and how long it’s taking for a certain someone to propose.” She looked at Anne with an arched eyebrow, waiting for her daughter to confirm her statement. When Anne gave an almost imperceptible nod, she continued, “Yes, well, I expect that both of you will be happily married before the end of summer. Speaking of which, Anne, has Darcy arrived yet?” With a self-satisfied smile, she looked again to her daughter. Anne clearly felt awkward every time her mother brought up Darcy, but she couldn’t understand why; maybe, like Jane, she was just embarrassed because they weren’t technically engaged.
“I’m not sure. I haven’t heard from him,” Anne responded with a glance at Beth.Interesting.Darcy was definitely here, which meant he either kept himself from seeing Anne - not quite a typical move if someone is going to be your fiancée, or she knew he was here and she was purposely hiding it from her mother.
Beth didn’t know why Mrs. DeBourgh kept insisting on flaunting her daughter’s relationship or potential engagement with Darcy in front of them. It’s not like she could know about what happened between them, could she?No, it wasn’t possible.She probably wouldn’t have a job if Mrs. DeBourgh knew that, but it did make her wonder if Darcy had said something to Anne.
Char changed the subject back to the house and grounds, her questions answered mostly by Victor and Anne.
After dinner, Anne followed through with her request to speak with Beth alone while Victor conveniently offered to take Char and Jane on a tour of the rest of the house. She followed her through the living room off to a small, private library attached to it. Anne shut the door behind them and turned hesitantly to face her.
“Thanks for meeting with me.”Not like she had much of a choice.“I don’t actually want to talk to you about the event. I wanted to meet with you to apologize for the other night,” the words came out in a rush and she looked relieved to have finally gotten them off of her chest. “I just needed an excuse that my mother wouldn’t be interested in.”
“Oh.”Well that’s not what she expected.Beth didn’t know how to respond at that moment, she was still processing the direction that this conversation was about to go; she really thought that Anne asked her in here to tell her to leave Darcy alone, or something along those lines, but definitely not to apologize to her - or to do it in secret from her mom.
“It was presumptuous of me to approach you like I did and expect you just to believe me. I’m sure you know that it was Mr. Darcy who asked me to do it, and knowing even only the small bits of information that I do about his past with George Wickham, I agreed that you should be warned; however, I shouldn’t have let him convince me that I should bethe one to do it,” Anne pressed forward, her explanation confirming most of what Beth knew already.
“It’s ok. I know how umm…overbearing… Mr. Darcy can be when he wants something done,” Beth began hesitantly, trying not to criticize Darcy too much; she was still a little wary of where the conversation was going and if it was about something more than their bathroom altercation.
“He can be a bully; you don’t have to be nice about it, I won’t tell,” Anne laughed as her comment made Beth crack a smile.
“So, what did George do that was so terrible that Darcy felt that you had to warn me right away?” Beth asked, needing to understand what happened between the two men.
“Umm…” Anne hesitated, looking down as her face began to color, “Like I said I don’t know very much about what happened but I don’t think I should be the one to tell you. I’m sorry. If there weren’t other people involved, I would consider it, but Darcy is my good friend and I can’t break his trust when he should be the one to tell you.”
She did look truly apologetic for not being able to say, even though it put an annoyed scowl back on Beth’s face that she was still being kept in the dark.Fine.If Anne wouldn’t tell her about that incident, maybe she would clarify her exact relationship with Darcy.
“Ok, I can respect that. How, though, can you say that Darcy is your ‘good friend,’ when your mother is practically taking out advertisements in the paper for your engagement?”
Now Anne’s face turned beet red, “Ah, well, I can explain that, but I need you to promise not to say anything to my mom.” The sincerity of her plea was visible in her eyes; whatever she was going to tell Beth would really upset Mrs. DeBourgh.
“Ok,” Beth gave her a slight nod in agreement.
“William Darcy and I are good friends,” she laughed a little to herself and smiled. “It’s funny to actually say that out loud. I feel like I’ve been lying about it for so long, it’s good to actually tell someone the truth.”
