Beginning, Previous Section, Section XXVIV, Next Section
Posted on Tuesday, 2 September 2003
Elisabeth would have liked to attend Jack's mother's funeral, but she was unsuccessful in convincing Bubba to trade shifts with her. She even tried bribing him with the promise of working an entire weekend for him so he could have another drunkfest with his friends, but Bubba was in a permanently bad mood since he hadn't gotten the Newton store. Accommodating anyone wasn't in his game plan, but especially not Elisabeth because she'd at least been offered the position.
Because of Bubba, Elisabeth had to be content with sending flowers, a nice but inadequate sympathy card, and her fiancé to the funeral in her place while she was stuck at Planet Earth Pizza with Caroline and Louisa on what was turning out to be a very slow Thursday afternoon. It was slow enough that Caroline was leafing through the newspaper.
"Hey, here's the obituary," Caroline said, folding the paper to make it easier to read. "'Sarah Worth Middleton, 65, died in her home.' I didn't know his mother's name was Sarah. Did you?"
Elisabeth paused from going over invoices and frowned as she realized that she hadn't known. She shook her head. "I don't know that anybody around here knew her name except Charlie," she said. "What does that say about us? We've known Jack for years and never bothered to learn his mother's name, for God's sake."
"Do you think Jack knows your mother's name?" Louisa asked as she put the finishing touches on a medium deep-dish pepperoni pizza.
"Everyone knows my mother's name. It's hard to escape the number of times Charlie, Jenna, and I have used it as an epithet."
"Well, Jack's a guy. Guys don't talk as much about things. I didn't even remember Jack had a mother until she died," Caroline said. "Why's it such a big deal that you didn't know his mother's name?"
"Because she..." Elisabeth went back to the invoices. "Because she was his mother, and he's my friend. That just seems like the kind of information you ought to know about people you've known a long time."
"Oh, yeah? What's Chazz's mother's name?" Louisa asked.
"It's Lauren."
"Our mother?"
"Veronica."
"Sean's?"
"Deirdre." Elisabeth sighed. "Charlie's mother's name is Heather. Bubba's mother is Patty. Kit's mother was Annette. Erin's mother was Tracy."
Caroline smiled slyly. "And Darcy's mother?"
Elisabeth looked at Caroline steadily before answering, "Darcy's mother's name was Amelia."
"You don't get credit for knowing Charlie's mother's name since she's family," Louisa said. "But I'm impressed at how many others you know. I'm guessing that at some point or another, we've talked about our mothers."
"Your mother always identifies herself when she calls. 'Hello, can I speak to Caroline or Louisa? It's Veronica Benson.' Like I couldn't guess. And my mom's just as bad."
"My point is, we talk about our mothers. Jack never does. I didn't even know his mom was in poor health until she died. It was so unexpected, but I guess that's why he moved back home, huh?"
"Yes," Elisabeth said, hoping to put an end to the conversation. "That's why Jack moved back home, to take care of his mother."
"Jeez!" Caroline said suddenly. "It says here that she had six kids. I knew Jack had sisters, but I didn't know he had that many. 'Anna, Abigail, Audrey, April, Alice, and Ashley.' Hey, they made a mistake! Jack's not mentioned anywhere."
Elisabeth groaned. One of Jack's sisters must've placed the obituary with the newspaper or else Jack would not be identified by his real name. "He's going to be furious," she said.
"I would be, too," Caroline continued. "If I'd been left out of my mother's obituary, I'd have some relatives with some explaining to do. Louisa, you would never do that to me, would you?"
"Of course not."
Elisabeth almost corrected Caroline. Instead, she said, "I'm sure Jack's not happy about it. Just do me a favor and not mention it to him, okay? He's going through a rough enough time as it is."
"I would never do anything like that," Caroline said, offended.
Yeah, right, Elisabeth thought, but said nothing as Caroline turned back to the paper.
"I can't imagine having six kids," Caroline said. "One, maybe two. Yeah, two at the most is what I'm having. Six would drive me crazy."
Elisabeth cringed, although she'd known those words were coming. "I'm sure his mother managed somehow." She decided to avoid further conversation by taking her work to the back.
She was in the middle of paperwork when she heard Louisa call out to her. "Storm incoming! El, your sister Lydia's here!"
Elisabeth sighed. Given a choice between the two, she'd rather do paperwork than deal with Lydia, because she knew why her sister had shown up. She'd been ducking her sister's phone calls all week, but with only nine days to go until the wedding, the situation had to be dealt with now.
Slowly, she stood up and walked toward the front counter. She arrived in time to see Lydia throw the door open and stride into the restaurant with her usual buoyancy. "Hi, El!" she said.
"Hi, Lydia. How are you?" Elisabeth leaned against the front counter, careful to remain behind it.
"Good. Great, in fact. Married life certainly seems to agree with me." Lydia giggled. "You'll find out soon enough."
"I'm glad to hear things are going great for you," Elisabeth said.
"Yeah. George is great. We spend every morning in bed, just the two of us, laughing and joking about life. He's thinking of buying a house with his inheritance. Did I tell you that?"
"I thought he was wanting to save his money instead of blowing it indiscriminately."
"Instead of what?" Lydia's brow furrowed. "You've been hanging around Charlie too long if you're using big words like indis...inde...whatever it was you just said. But he's not blowing it. He's buying a house. Ma said that's a sound investment when I told her about it. She said she was surprised you and Darcy weren't looking at houses."
Elisabeth closed her eyes and willed herself not to say anything to that. "We have a very good reason for not looking at houses. In the past year, he's moved to a different state, I've moved to a different apartment, we're about to get married, we've got a child, he's got a new business and I'm about to go back to college. That's more than enough changes for a while. The apartment's big enough for the both of us. Why would we want a house?"
"Don't you want more kids?"
"Not at the moment, no. For one thing, despite what everyone told me, I still remember going through labor rather vividly. For another, Grace is more than a handful and I suspect she will be for some time. In a few years, I probably will have managed to forget enough about childbirth to have another baby, but until then, the apartment's big enough."
"You have a point, but George and I are still looking for a house. It's not going to be some monstrosity like those ones in Park Hills, because those are way out of our range, but something...well, maybe something near Ma would be nice. There's a pretty brick house not two blocks away that's for sale, but George isn't completely sold on the idea."
Muffled snickering from behind her made Elisabeth realize that Caroline and Louisa had, true to form, stuck around to listen in on the conversation. "I can't imagine why," Elisabeth said. She decided it was time to get to the reason for Lydia's visit. "What are you doing here? Did you want to have lunch or were you just looking to hang out for a while?"
Lydia smiled ruefully. "I should've guessed you'd know I was here for more than just a chat. I have a favor to ask of you. See, because I took off of work for a week, I sort of...well, I got fired from Wal-Mart. You'd think they would be just a little more understanding about the whole thing, but nooo. I came in the day after we got back and they told me I didn't work there any more. It's almost as bad as what happened to poor George."
Elisabeth managed to stop herself from smiling. Obviously, George hadn't told Lydia everything about the night he'd been fired.
"Imagine them deciding to fire you for taking off for a week without explanation," Elisabeth said.
Lydia frowned. "You'd fire me too, wouldn't you?"
"If you'd done that to me, Lydia, yes I would. It was irresponsible of you to just run away like that, and even more irresponsible of him to do it. He was the manager of the store, for crying out loud. He should've known better."
"Well, we can't all be like you with your perfect little wedding plans and your perfect little setting and everything just being perfect. Some of us actually like a little spontaneity in our lives...and in our marriages."
"So you've said on a number of occasions," Elisabeth said in a tired voice.
"I'm sorry if the details of my life bore you senseless. I happen to find them interesting, but I'll be sure not to tell you anything again."
Elisabeth sighed. "Look, Liddy...I don't want to fight with you about this. Just...you wanted to ask me for a favor. What did you want?"
"I don't want to fight either, El. I'm sorry," Lydia said with a small smile. "It's just that things have been a little hectic the past few days, with both of us losing our jobs and everything. Speaking of jobs, did I tell you that George has a new job?"
"He does?"
"Uh-huh. He's working as a waiter at TGI Friday's. He starts tomorrow, but you know what's so amazing? He'll probably wind up making more an hour there than he did as the manager at Newton. Isn't that great?"
"Sure," Elisabeth said weakly, making a mental note to never go there again until he'd moved on. "Uh, the favor?"
"Oh! Right. Well, after I got fired from Wal-Mart, I got to thinking about what I was going to do now, and I got to thinking about Charlie. She's got that new job at Heartland now, and Jack's mother just died so he'll probably move in with her or she'll move in with him. I figure that she'll quit working here and I can have her job."
"That's not necessarily the case. Charlie has a few debts she's trying to pay off."
"Yeah, but she'll pay them off that much faster when she only has to come up with half the rent. Right?"
"I don't know if Jack and Charlie are going to live together or not. The last I heard, they were just talking about it," Elisabeth said. "Besides, Charlie might decide she likes working here even after she gets her bills paid off."
"I somehow doubt that. She's always saying she's leaving here the first chance she gets. So how about it? If I fill out an application, will you give me a job? I know you can hire people. George told me you could."
"You've talked to George about this?"
"Of course I did. He didn't really want me getting a job here. It wasn't because of you," Lydia was quick to add. "At least, I don't think it is. But George is still steamed about getting fired and everything. He hates Thomas Palmer with a passion, and the rest of the company isn't faring much better. Thank God he got that inheritance, otherwise we'd be in serious trouble."
Elisabeth wanted to ask if George had gotten the inheritance before or after he'd married Lydia, but she suspected Lydia didn't know the truth about her marriage either. While she was uncomfortable with the idea that Lydia was being deceived, she knew her sister wouldn't believe her if she told her. It was best to keep silent on the matter.
"Well, Liddy, I don't know when or if we'll be able to get you a job, but you can put in an application. I'll talk to Sean. In the meantime, you might want to go ahead and start looking elsewhere in case we can't use you for a while."
"That's all I'm asking for," Lydia said with a smile as Elisabeth handed her an application. She folded the application in half and put it in her purse. "I'll bring this back later today, okay?"
"That's fine." Elisabeth was ready to offer Lydia a job right then and there as long as they kept away from what she'd thought Lydia had come to talk about.
"Great. Oh...there was something else that I wanted to ask," Lydia said.
Elisabeth grimaced. Bennet's Bloody Law is back in effect, she thought grouchily. I can't catch a break no matter how hard I try.
"It's about your wedding," Lydia continued before Elisabeth had a chance to pretend she didn't know what was coming. "I know I should've asked before this, but everything's been happening so fast that it slipped my mind. You can imagine what that's like, I'm sure."
"Probably not," Elisabeth said.
"No? Well, anyway, I know that you weren't keen on the idea of inviting George to your wedding before..."
"You got that right."
"...and I understand. But we're married now. He's my husband, and I'm your bridesmaid. As such, it's only fair that he should be invited to the wedding and reception."
Elisabeth almost would've believed that Lydia had come up with that speech had it not been for the last sentence, which was far too formal for Lydia to have said without a little coaching.
Like from her mother.
"It's only fair, is it?"
"Exactly. How is it going to look if I have to explain to everyone that my husband isn't there because my sister refused to have him at her wedding?"
Now she knew it had been her mother's idea to have Lydia talk to her about this, because while Lydia hadn't been happy about Elisabeth's decision to exclude George from the guest list, she'd accepted it a long time ago.
"It was one thing when he was just my boyfriend, El. Then we could've said that he was out of town or something like that. But my husband? No one expects a bridesmaid's husband to miss seeing her in her moment of glory."
"Funny. I was under the impression that it was to be my moment of glory. I'm the one getting married, remember?"
"Right, right, right, but how often is it that George will get to see me all dressed up?"
"If you'd gotten married properly instead of eloping, he would've had a wedding day of his own to see you in all your glory," Elisabeth said. "The two of you chose to elope. There's nothing wrong with that decision, but it does have its' drawbacks."
"I suppose you're right. You know, I did ask George if we could get married properly instead of eloping, but he was insistent on doing it right away. And I don't regret doing it. What if I'd insisted on a proper wedding? He might have changed his mind and not married me."
He definitely wouldn't have married you if you'd refused that night because it would've cost him five hundred grand.
"So, anyway, how about it, El? Can George come to the wedding and see me in my gorgeous green dress? Pleeeease?" Lydia clasped her hands to her chest in mock begging.
"No."
Lydia dropped the begging pose and frowned. "Why not?"
"For the same reasons he wasn't invited when he was just your boyfriend. I fail to see what changes because he married you. And when you talk to Ma, tell her exactly that."
"Ma has nothing to do with this," Lydia said quickly. Too quickly.
"Sure she did. 'As such?' You wouldn't have said something like that unless someone had you memorize it. Someone like Ma."
"So what if we happen to agree on this?" Lydia snapped. "He's my husband, Elisabeth. He's family now, whether you like it or not."
"I definitely don't like it," Elisabeth said calmly. "Given the choice between having George as my brother-in-law or the homeless guy who's always begging for money at McDonald's, I'd take the homeless guy any day of the week. But you love George and not the homeless guy, so I'm adjusting as best I can."
"You don't have to put it like that," Lydia muttered.
"I do, because that's the way I feel about George and it'll probably be the way I feel about him until I die. You didn't honestly expect me to change my mind about him just because you married him, did you?"
Lydia opened her mouth and shut it twice before she finally spoke. "I guess I did," she admitted.
"Then I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but it's not going to happen. And let me ask you something else. Has George said anything about wanting to be at my wedding, or are you just assuming that he'll want to show up?"
"He wants to be there. I mentioned it to him yesterday and he said he wouldn't mind attending."
I'll bet. I wonder if he planned to get some money out of Catherine to disrupt the ceremony and wreck the reception.
"Well, you're all out of luck because I'm not changing my mind. He isn't invited to the wedding or the reception." Elisabeth noticed a pair of older women walking into the store. "Caroline, you have customers."
"Damn. Just when it was getting good," Caroline said cheerfully from right behind Elisabeth. "Keep me posted, Louisa. Hello, ladies! Table for two today?"
Elisabeth turned to look at Louisa, who gave her an innocent smile. "Watch the front for a few minutes, because my sister and I need to have a discussion."
"Don't mind me," Louisa said.
"I do mind you. That's why we're taking this elsewhere." Elisabeth headed for the driver's door while Lydia stomped out the front. Elisabeth kept walking until she reached the freezer, where she threw the door open and waited for Lydia to join her. The minute Lydia stepped inside, she started in on Elisabeth.
"Look, you're gonna have to get over this problem you have with George at some point. For God's sake, he's my husband."
"You keep mentioning this fact like I should care about it," Elisabeth said. "Well, you're gonna have to accept that I don't. George is a slimeball, and the fact that you're married to him doesn't change that fact. And if you think I have a problem with him, you should talk to Darcy. My problem with George is just a speck when compared to the problem Darcy has with him. Even if I forgave George for what he did to me..."
"Just what did George to do you, anyway? You two had sex, then he dumped you. That he got your store the same day was a fluke, and one that shouldn't matter since you didn't go back to Newton after he was fired."
Elisabeth shook her head slowly. "First of all, he didn't dump me."
"Spare me. If Charlie doesn't punch him while he's trying to leave your apartment, you wouldn't have had a clue he was gone until you woke up the next morning." Elisabeth's surprise must've shown on her face, because Lydia folded her arms over her chest and smiled smugly. "I know all about that."
"I was already awake. I watched him walk out the door, and if Charlie hadn't stopped him, I would've let him leave. I didn't give a damn one way or the other. As for our break-up happening on the same day he got my store, well, to quote you, Liddy, 'spare me.' He knew."
"You can believe what you want, but that's no reason to exclude him from your guest list."
"Really? How about the fact that he announced to an entire bowling alley that I was slut when he found out I was pregnant?"
"He panicked, El! Not to mention that he was half-drunk at the time. Do you know how he found out?"
"I always figured Caroline told him because I hadn't told anyone until that night. Earlier that evening, she insinuated that she knew I was pregnant. How she found out, I may never know."
"You're right. Caroline did tell him. He was at Randy's Landing with some friends. She showed up and sent a drink to 'the new daddy.' When he asked her what she was talking about, she told him about the baby. He had to hear about it from Caroline Benson."
"For God's sake, Liddy, I had just found out for sure myself! The only other person who knew about it was Charlie. Besides, I'm sure he would've had the same reaction no matter who told him. And even if it was, as you say, an instinctive and drunken reaction to hearing the news, then how do you explain him doing the exact same thing when we met with our lawyers about the termination of his parental rights?"
"I'm sure you misconstrued what happened then."
"You weren't there. You know nothing about what happened." Elisabeth shivered----from cold or from the memory of that day, she didn't know. "How would you like it if you had to sit in some lawyer's office and have your entire sexual history laid out in front of you? If you had to listen to some jerk ask you personal questions about your love life, and doing it with a smirk on his face? How would you feel if you knew that George had been..."
In spite of her anger, Elisabeth couldn't force the words out of her mouth. She couldn't shatter her sister's illusions about her marriage, but God, how she wanted to do just that.
"If George had been what? What has George done that you think would shock me into hating him?" Elisabeth didn't say anything, so Lydia shouted, "What do you think is so bad that you can't invite him to your wedding?"
"Lydia..." Elisabeth sighed as she wondered how upset Darcy might be if she told Lydia the other thing she didn't know about. To hell with it. She has a right to know what she's married. "Has George told you about his past with Ginger?"
"Ginger? Who's...Darcy's sister? That Ginger?"
"Yes, that Ginger."
"How would George have ever met Ginger? She lives in New York and he's here."
"He wasn't always here. Do you remember when he went to shoot that commercial?" Elisabeth waited for Lydia to remember it and wasn't disappointed when she did.
"No. Oh, no. I know what happened while he was there. He met a girl named Georgiana and they were together for a few weeks, but she was only slumming."
"She was not slumming, and Ginger is Georgiana's nickname. She was introduced to you as Georgiana at Christmas, remember? Ginger loved George, and he broke her heart. Badly."
"And now Darcy doesn't like him," Lydia mumbled.
"Exactly." Sort of. "So now you see why it's not a good idea for George to be at the wedding."
Lydia shook her head. "No, I don't see. If Darcy's sister gets to be at the wedding, how come George can't be there? People who don't get along are invited to family things all the time. Aunt Grace, Perfect Little Bethany...we don't like them, but we put up with them. You've invited them to your wedding. What's the difference?"
"Ginger is Darcy's sister. On top of that, she's one of my bridesmaids. I like Ginger. Everyone likes Ginger."
"Well, George is your brother-in-law. And people like him, too."
"Other than Ma and yourself, name someone."
"Bubba likes him. J.P. likes him. You don't like either one of them, but you've invited them both to the wedding. Not to mention Caroline and Louisa."
"I...it's not the same thing and you know it, Lydia. How would you feel if George had invited all of his ex-girlfriends to your wedding? How many of my ex-boyfriends have I invited to mine? None."
"But George is the only ex-boyfriend of yours who's married to me."
"A minor technicality which I'm not willing to overlook, especially given the circumstances of my relationship with him. Give it up. He's not coming."
"He has to be there. How will it look?"
"Who the hell is going to ask?"
"Uncle Law might ask. Aunt Amanda. Aunt Grace will definitely want to know where George is."
"Fine. If you get asked, tell them George couldn't make it. It's what you were going to say before you married him." Lydia opened her mouth to argue, but Elisabeth held up a hand. "Stop. We're turning blue out here and nothing you can say will change my mind. He's not invited. Period. If you invite him over my objections, I'll have you both kicked out of my wedding, bridesmaid or not. And you can also tell Ma that when you talk to her."
Lydia stomped her foot in anger, which caused her to skid on the slick surface of the freezer. Only Elisabeth's quick thinking kept her from crashing backwards into the door, although the effort nearly had Elisabeth slipping as well. Once both were firmly on their feet again, Lydia slammed open the door to the freezer.
The person standing just outside the door got hit in the nose, causing her to shriek in pain. Lydia merely glared down at the ground before stomping off to her car. Elisabeth looked down to see Caroline writhing in agony.
"I'd like to think this would have you thinking twice before ever eavesdropping again, but I'm not that hopeful or stupid," Elisabeth said as she walked back to the store to have Louisa help her sister out.
Elisabeth wearily opened the front door to her apartment and walked inside. The first thing she noticed was that the apartment smelled good. It took her a few seconds to realize that what she was smelling was garlic. It took a little longer to wonder why. She peeked into the kitchen, but Darcy wasn't in there. There was nothing cooking on the stove, either.
He must've ordered out, she thought affectionately. "Darcy?" she called out as she went back to shut the door.
"I'm in here with Grace!" he said from the nursery.
Elisabeth slipped her shoes off underneath the table and hung her purse on a chair. She walked to the nursery and found Darcy in the rocking chair, holding a sleepy-eyed Grace. She smiled at the sight.
"Hi," she said softly.
"You can talk normally. She hasn't dropped off yet." Darcy looked down at Grace, who promptly closed her eyes as if trained to do so. "How was your day?"
"The best I've had in a while. It was slow, I was working with Louisa and Caroline, and Lydia stopped by."
"And how did that go?"
"Take a guess."
"Judging from the four messages your mother left on the answering machine----before I got home, mind you----not too well." Darcy smiled. "I turned the ringer off the phone and unplugged the answering machine so she wouldn't disturb us tonight."
"Tonight? What's going on tonight?"
Darcy's smile grew. "You, my darling Miss Bennet, are going to spend the evening with a charming, wonderful, handsome and incredibly patient man...just as soon as this little one goes to sleep."
"Really? When will he be arriving?"
"Very funny."
"What is that I smell?" Elisabeth asked, leaning against the door frame. "Are you cooking lasagna or something?"
"No. It's a recipe Jenna gave me for garlic chicken. I hope it turns out all right. I did everything the recipe said to do, and it's got another twenty minutes to cook." Darcy took a look at Grace, who seemed to have fallen asleep. He got up from the chair and gently placed her in the crib. Grace barely stirred.
Darcy turned to Elisabeth, who contemplated jumping into his arms for a few seconds before stepping outside the door. He followed her and immediately put his arms around her once they were alone.
"My day did have a highlight," Elisabeth said cheerfully.
"Oh, yeah?"
"Uh-huh. Caroline broke her nose. And before you go thinking that's mean of me to say, she broke it because she was eavesdropping on my fight with Lydia. We went outside to the freezer because some customers had arrived and the Gossip Sisters were having far too much fun listening to us. Lydia ended our argument by trying to storm out the door, which Caroline just happened to be standing in front of. She claimed Louisa sent her to get a box of thin dough, but that's a load of garbage because we'd already finished doing what we'd need for the night."
"I would feel sorry for her, but I can't help thinking she got what she deserved," Darcy said. "So we'll be mean-spirited together about it."
"Deal." Elisabeth sighed. "It looked pretty bad, though. I didn't know that noses bled so much."
"They do when they get smashed by doors," Darcy said. He took Elisabeth's hand and led her to the dining room table. "If Madam wouldn't mind sitting here, the first course will begin shortly." He took out a box of matches and lit the three candles Elisabeth hadn't noticed on the table earlier. When he'd finished with that, he went to the kitchen and poured two glasses of wine.
"First course?" Elisabeth asked. "You mean there's more to this dinner than the chicken?"
Darcy put on an exaggerated French accent as he handed her a glass. "But of course, madame." He walked back to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, returning a moment later with two salad bowls. He set Elisabeth's in front of her before sitting down. "Hurry up, hurry up. The main course will be arriving shortly."
"I thought salad came at the end of the meal, not the beginning."
"Not on my time schedule, it doesn't." Darcy set a bottle of low-fat Italian dressing in front of her.
They were in the middle of eating the salad when Elisabeth asked, "How bad was the funeral?"
Darcy shrugged. "About what I expected. It looks like their mother's death has pretty much torn the family apart. I don't see them ever coming together on a friendly level ever again if they ever did in the first place." He sighed. "I sat with Jack and Charlie on one side of the church. His sisters Alice and the second-oldest, Abby, sat with us. Anna, Audrey, and April sat across from us. You know that old phrase 'if looks could kill?' We'd be dead if it ever happened."
"Oh, Dare. I'm sorry I couldn't be there," Elisabeth said, setting aside her salad to reach for his hand.
Darcy raised it to his lips and kissed it gently. "I kept thinking through the whole thing that maybe it was a good thing that you weren't there. You would've been angry with the three on the other side and frustrated because you couldn't say anything about it."
"You're probably right, but I still could've been there for Jack."
"He knows you would've been there if it had been possible. He's not mad at you because you had to work."
"How is he?"
Darcy shook his head. "Hanging in there for the most part. He told me that there are moments when he hates himself because a part of him feels relieved. 'How good a son could I have been if I feel anything like relief because she's dead?' he asked me. I couldn't answer him except to say that he'd done everything he could to prevent it from happening, but it was small comfort. It was good that he at least had two sisters who agreed with him."
"I was kind of surprised at that. From the way Charlie always talked, they were a unified front against him. I didn't sense that to be the case when we walked into the waiting room the other day, although as one of them pointed out, their mother wasn't dead before then."
"I got the chance to talk to Abby for a few minutes before the funeral started. She's not a bad sort. She said that Anna was their father's favorite, which was why she always blamed Jack for their father's abandonment of them."
"What about the other two? What's their excuse?"
Darcy shrugged. "Middle child syndrome? You agree with the majority in order to get along."
"Hey, I was the middle child. I never hated anyone because Jenna or Lydia said so, and certainly not a member of my own family."
"Damn. I knew I should've taken that psychology elective instead of World Domination 111."
Elisabeth laughed and turned back to her salad. She ate a bite, washed it down with a bit of wine, and said, "This is a hell of a thing to bring up at a time like this, but do you think Jack still wants to be in our wedding? He's going through such a rough time that...well, I remember what it was like at Christmas after Granny Bess died. I had other things to occupy my mind, but it was still tough."
"I'll mention it to him, or better yet, we should have Charlie mention it to him. I've got plenty of cousins who could serve as groomsman in his place."
"We might not need to replace him, given how Lydia feels about us at the moment. By the way, I hope you're not too upset that I told her a little about Ginger and George and the whole mess."
Darcy frowned. "What did you tell her?"
"Just that they dated and he broke her heart. I left out the embezzlement and his abrupt disappearance which left her as the guilty party. I'm not sure Lydia believed me, but she does know something about it now."
"I guess that was enough."
"Maybe. I'll be interested to hear how George spins it in his favor, though. He claimed that Ginger was 'slumming' when she went out with him."
"That's..." Whatever Darcy planned to say was drowned out by someone pounding on the door, which was immediately followed by Grace howling in protest at being awakened.
"Dammit," Elisabeth muttered as she stood up. "You want nursery or front door detail?"
"I'll take the nursery this time," Darcy said, retreating to where Grace was still crying. Elisabeth opened the door and found her mother standing there, looking furious.
I should've guessed. "Hi, Ma."
"Elisabeth Cathleen Bennet, I cannot believe you're being so unfeeling as this. You're not going to invite your own sister's husband to the wedding?"
"Everything's planned for the number of people we sent invitations to."
"One more person won't make that great a difference!" Ruth said angrily.
"It will to me when the person is George Wickham. How could you, or Lydia, or George for that matter, think I would even consider having him at my wedding? Would you like me to invite Walter, Jake, and Aaron as well?"
"They're not married to your sister."
"Lydia used that argument as well. It didn't work for her, either."
"I'm not leaving this apartment until you agree to invite George Wickham to your wedding," Ruth said.
Elisabeth shook her head in disbelief. "Why is this so important?" she asked. "If he was a wealthy relative you wanted to impress, I could understand. President of the United States, definitely. But George Wickham? Why is it such a big deal that he's invited to my wedding? Is he threatening to divorce Lydia if I say no?"
"How would you feel if we had a family gathering and didn't invite Darcy? How would Darcy feel?"
"George could care less if he's invited to my wedding, unless he's planning to cause mischief for me. And if you don't leave, then I will, because hell will freeze over before George dances at my wedding." Elisabeth crossed her arms over her chest and stared at her mother.
When Ruth did the exact same thing, Elisabeth knew she was in for a long night.
Posted on Monday, 15 September 2003
Thirty minutes after making her initial threat, Ruth showed no signs of leaving. She perched herself on the couch, crossed her legs, and kept a defiant look on her face that Elisabeth found strikingly familiar.
Dear God, is that what I look like to her? she wondered idly, looking down at her own posture. While she was sitting in Darcy's computer chair rather than the more comfortable couch, it was identical to her mother's. And apparently, the two of them sitting like this was enough scare mere mortals, because Darcy had returned from Grace's room to find them staring at each other and had immediately returned to where he'd been. Elisabeth had been annoyed about this, but at the same time she couldn't blame him. If she could've gotten out of having to deal with her mother, she would've.
It was kind of difficult to deal with Ruth, however, since she hadn't said anything in the thirty minutes she'd been at the apartment. The only sounds in the apartment were coming from the nursery, where Darcy had wound up a musical toy to occupy Grace and was now singing to her off-key.
Ruth's eyes wandered to the wall that divided her from Darcy and Grace. Elisabeth was startled to see what looked like a smile start to form on her mother's face, but when Ruth turned her attention back to Elisabeth, her eyes were still indignant and it was clear she still thought she was in the right.
The singing got a little louder even though there was no noise coming from the living room. Ruth again turned her eyes to the wall.
"Does he know he can't sing?" Ruth asked.
Elisabeth nodded. "He doesn't care, and neither does Grace, it seems. She never cries when he sings to her."
"I'm sorry I woke her up."
"But you're not sorry you burst in our front door and demanded that George be invited to my wedding," Elisabeth said.
"Ellie, be reasonable. I know this...situation between you and George isn't easy." Ruth's voice softened. "Lydia told me about the day at his lawyer's office."
"Well, then, you should understand why it would be damned awkward to have him at the wedding. Did Lydia tell you everything I told her? Did she tell you about Darcy's sister?"
"Yes." Ruth looked like she wanted to say something else, but instead she sighed heavily. After a minute, she did speak. "I'm going to be honest with you. This marriage of Lydia's isn't what I had in mind for her. I didn't like George Wickham when you were dating him and I'm not sure I like him now that he's married to Lydia."
"You sure don't seem to dislike him when he's around."
"I can hardly tell Lydia that I dislike her husband, can I?"
"Why not? You've made it perfectly clear to most of my boyfriends and many of Jenna's that you don't like them. And one of those boyfriends was George. You can tell Lydia what you honestly think of her husband. Don't be shy. Just go, 'Lydia, your husband is a slimeball.'"
Ruth shook her head. "She's so happy, and from what I've seen of them together, he's happy, too. He told me a few weeks ago that he knows he made a lot of mistakes with you. He knows he treated you badly, and he's sorry for it."
Elisabeth made a sound of disgust. "Unbelievable," she muttered under her breath.
"You don't think he's sincere?"
"I know he's not sincere. George doesn't have a sincere bone in his body. He was playing you, Ma. He wants you eating out of the palm of his hand so that he can put the screws to me."
"Honestly, Elisabeth, not everything George does is about you."
It does when he's been paid half a million dollars to become part of my family, Elisabeth felt like saying. "If he sincerely feels bad about the way he treated me, why hasn't he said anything to me about it? Don't you think, if he was being sincere, that he would've said something by now?"
"You're so hostile to him when you meet that he never has the opportunity. He's afraid to speak to you."
"Sure he is," Elisabeth said sarcastically. "Everyone knows I'm impossible to talk to."
"You are when you act the way you act around him," Ruth said.
"I have a damned good reason to feel the way I do about him. Several good reasons, actually. And so does Darcy. That's what all this boils down to in the end. Even if I had a change of heart about George and considered inviting him, there's no way I would because of Darcy."
"That's what I don't understand. Darcy's sister had Christmas dinner with us even though there was a chance George could show up. Why is it suddenly so imperative that she not face him now?"
"She would've left if George had arrived. Or, knowing him, it's more likely that he wouldn't have stuck around long enough to face her. Does he know she's in my wedding party?"
"I'm sure Lydia's told him by now if she hadn't before. But he's not a coward. Why would he not face her?"
Elisabeth ignored the question. "Strange how you think he wouldn't be coward enough to back away from Ginger but he's too scared to give me the apology he owes me for making parts of the last year of my life hell."
"I say that because you won't tell me why he should be afraid of Ginger! I hardly think a grown man is going to be scared of an ex-girlfriend."
"And yet it's strange how you think..."
"Don't start this with me, Elisabeth Cathleen. You know what's happened between George and Ginger."
"Of course I know. I'm about to marry Darcy. Why wouldn't I know what had happened between them? Especially considering the fact that what happened between them almost came between Darcy and me."
Ruth let out a small scream of frustration. "Would someone please tell me what's going on? I have a right to know!"
Elisabeth looked up at the ceiling before closing her eyes. She could go into the nursery and ask Darcy if it would be all right for her to tell her mother the truth. Maybe if the truth came out, Ruth would finally back off. But she really didn't think she should have to tell Ruth anything. It should be enough that she didn't want George at her wedding.
For Ruth, it wasn't.
"You won't believe it," Elisabeth said quietly. "I could tell you, and you won't believe it because you want to believe only good things about George. He's Lydia's husband, so he can do no wrong."
"I told you that I wasn't very happy with her choice of husbands."
Elisabeth looked at her mother. "But you're willing to overlook it because she's so happy. Isn't that what you said?"
"It may have been, but what I meant was that he can't be all bad if he makes her happy. People aren't all good or all bad, you know. They're everything in between, and our feelings about them can and do change. Look at you and Mel. Last year at this time, you despised him because you felt he was trying to usurp your father's place in your life. Now, you're having him walk you down the aisle at your wedding."
"So if Lydia had brought home Charles Manson instead of George, you'd be okay with it as long as he made her happy?"
"That is not what I meant and you know it."
"It may not be what you think you meant, but it's what you implied." Elisabeth sighed and prayed Darcy would forgive her for what she was about to do. "What I'm about to tell you is the truth. It happened. George admitted it in front of me and Charlie, although he didn't want us around when he was confronted about it."
Ruth uncrossed her arms and folded her hands in her lap. "I'm listening."
Elisabeth glanced toward the hallway, where Darcy had stopped singing. She opened her mouth to speak and knew she couldn't tell her mother without letting Darcy know what she was about to do. She stood up abruptly and said, "I'll be right back."
"Where are you going?" Ruth asked.
"Just to...I have to talk to Darcy. Hang on a second." Elisabeth walked to the nursery. Darcy was about to wind up Grace's favorite musical toy again. "I have to tell her," she said without preamble.
Darcy looked down at the toy. Elisabeth noticed that he was holding it so tightly that his knuckles were white. "I know. And the hell of it is, she probably won't believe you. And even if she does, Lydia won't."
"We're about to find out, but I had to tell you before I went back out there."
"Do you want me to come with you? She might believe it easier coming from me."
Elisabeth shook her head. "This is my fight. I'll be fine on my own. You just stay here, okay? Grace might need you."
Darcy smiled briefly. "I seem to recall keeping you out of a fight with Catherine once," he said.
"I know. You needed to face her alone, and I have a feeling that I may need the same thing with my mother. But thanks." She gave him a gentle kiss before returning to the living room, where Ruth was still waiting. Instead of sitting in the computer chair, Elisabeth chose to sit in the chair next to the couch.
"I don't see what's so bad that you can't tell me," Ruth said. "He didn't attack that girl, did he?"
"No, Ma, he didn't." Elisabeth took a deep breath and plunged in. "George stole fifty thousand dollars from the ad agency where Ginger was working. The same day he did it, he left New York and left her to take the blame."
Ruth blinked. "How on earth could he have done that?"
"I don't know the whole story behind how he did it. All I know is, he got access to the account long enough to take the money." Elisabeth didn't say anything for a moment. "She loved him. She trusted him. She thought he loved her in return, but he didn't."
"I can't believe he would...are you sure?"
"Ma! He admitted it!"
"When? To whom?"
"He admitted he'd done it, to Ginger, on December twentieth. Trust me when I say that I remember the day vividly. He claimed he didn't think she'd be in any trouble, which is absurd, but his reasons don't matter. What does matter is that he did it. Ginger was blamed for it, she got fired from her job and almost blackballed from any other job she might get, and Darcy was ordered not to see her ever again."
"Why would Darcy not be allowed to see his own sister?"
"Because Catherine de Bourgh told him not to. She thought he'd obey her because he always had. And when he didn't, she sent him here for a year. He wasn't here on some...some covert mission, or whatever it was he told you that night I introduced him. He was here as a punishment, only it turned out that it was the best thing she could've done for him." Elisabeth slouched in the chair. "I know it seems impossible to believe, but it's the truth. Think about it. George goes to New York but returns without shooting the commercial he went to do in the first place. So how does he come up with the money to pay for his truck? And where did he get the money for Lydia's bracelet?"
"He might've..." Ruth shook her head. "No, he couldn't have had that much money saved. He told Mel how much it cost the one time you brought him over and even then, Mel wanted to know how he'd come up with the money. If he had access to the money he took, why didn't he take more?"
Elisabeth felt like dancing with glee because she'd figured it would take a lot more to convince Ruth of the truth. She settled for shrugging. "I try not to follow his thought processes if I can avoid it. But now you see why it wouldn't be a good idea for George to be at the wedding. I'm sure once you remind him that Ginger's going to be there, he'll say he didn't really want to be there."
Ruth nodded slowly. "I wish you'd told me about this sooner. You kept telling me Darcy had reasons for not wanting him at the wedding but you wouldn't tell me what they were. I just assumed it had to do with you. Now that I know, I'll...oh, Ellie, I can't tell Lydia what he did. It would break her heart. But how else would I explain why I'm supporting your decision not to have him there?"
"Let George explain it to her. He's the one who did it." Elisabeth sat up straighter as Darcy started singing to Grace again. She looked down at her hands, which were folded, like her mother's, in her lap. "Thank you."
"For what?"
"For believing me without too much argument. I was afraid I'd be here for months trying to convince you that George was an embezzler."
"You make me sound so unreasonable," Ruth said with a huff.
"You barged into my apartment vowing not to leave it until I agreed to let George come to the wedding. Offhand, I would say that's pretty unreasonable."
"If you had just told me why, I wouldn't have pushed as hard as I did. As I said before, now that I know what your reasons are, I'm not going to continue arguing because you have good cause not to have him there."
"But I shouldn't have had to tell you," Elisabeth said. "It should've been enough that I didn't want him there for my sake. I had good cause not to have him there, too, but you keep overlooking it. How easy do you think it's been for me, having the biological father of my child married to my sister? He's just become Grace's uncle, and I have no doubt that somewhere down the road, he'll take great delight in telling her that she's his daughter."
"Oh, Elisabeth, why are you so negative?" Ruth sighed. "You always were."
"Gee, I wonder," Elisabeth mumbled.
Darcy's singing got a little louder, causing both women to turn their heads toward the sound. "You'd think he'd scare that poor baby to death with that caterwauling," Ruth said, turning back to face Elisabeth.
"Oddly enough, he's the only one she can stand to listen to," Elisabeth replied. "When I sing to her, she screams."
Ruth did smile this time. "You were much the same way," she said. When you were a baby, the only person you wanted holding you was Eric. Your father would come home from work and I'd shove you into his arms because you'd been screaming all day, and within five minutes you'd be quiet. I never understood why that was."
"Babies are pretty perceptive," Elisabeth said coolly. "Weren't you the one who said I was always Daddy's little girl, not yours? Maybe I knew, even as a baby, that you never understood me from the day I was born." Elisabeth watched as the smile faded from Ruth's face. "How could you have said that to me, Ma? How could you even have thought it about your own daughter?"
"Well...I....I..."
"You have no idea of what it was like for me when Grace was born. I kept hearing those words in my head and worried that I would feel the same about her. I didn't, thank God, but I feared that I might. I feared what kind of mother I would be." Elisabeth's eyes filled with tears. "Why did you say that to me?"
"I was being honest," Ruth said simply. "Would you have preferred for me to lie to you?"
"I don't know. Maybe."
"You were sitting at my kitchen table informing me that you were about to have a baby out of wedlock."
"Out of...what century are we in? This isn't the Victorian Age where women pretended that no one ever had sex and all the babies that were born just magically appeared on their doorsteps or whatever. This is 2003, for God's sake. Women have babies without marrying the fathers all the time."
"Yes, and our society is a great deal worse for it. After telling me you were pregnant, you then taunted me with the idea that you were going to have an abortion."
"I never said I was going to have an abortion!" Elisabeth said fiercely. "I would never have done that. If you'll bother to remember, you accused me of intending to have one and when I asked why you would even think I would, you said...that's when you said it."
Ruth looked uncomfortable and fidgeted in her seat. "Well, what does it matter now? You had the baby and you're raising her. And you're marrying Darcy, so..."
"You're missing the point," Elisabeth said. "You have no problem keeping little things from Lydia, like the fact that you don't approve of her marriage to George. At the same time, you have no problem telling me that you don't know me at all."
"If Lydia were to ask me directly, I would tell her that I don't care for George."
"No, you wouldn't, because I'm sure she's already asked you. She asked everyone else if they were happy for her. Why would you get left out?"
"I told her I was happy if she was happy, and I meant that."
"What about me, Ma? Are you happy about the fact that I'm marrying Darcy?"
Ruth made an exasperated sound. "Elisabeth, all I have ever really cared about is that my daughters grew up to be happy with their lives. When I said that I never knew you since the day you were born, it didn't mean that I didn't love you. It doesn't mean I don't love you now, because I do."
"So just what does it mean?"
"It means..." Ruth made that sound again. "It means what it means. When Jenna was born, she was my first and so naturally I felt a strong connection to her. And I knew before Liddy was born that she was going to be my last, so she was my baby. But you..." Ruth sighed. "I don't know. It just seemed that from the beginning, you had a better relationship with your father. He understood you perfectly. I never did."
"And you knew that from the day I was born?"
"Yes, when they brought you in to me and you started screaming. I handed you to Eric and you quieted down in a heartbeat."
"So because I preferred him to you at less than a day old, you decided I wasn't worth bothering with?"
"You make it sound like I gave you away to passing strangers." Ruth had allowed herself to slouch but straightened up. "I'm not sure what you mean by it, but I did 'bother with you.' I did. Our relationship may not have been close, but I did my best to make sure I knew what you were doing with your life. You may have seen it as 'interference,' and you might have called me a 'nosy old cow,' but I loved you enough to watch out for you. You didn't make things easy for me, you know."
Elisabeth frowned but let Ruth continue talking.
"Even at a young age, you went to your father for everything. You didn't want to come to me. You didn't listen to any of my advice even when it was good."
"That's because you were always nagging me to..."
"To not do the things that would get your hurt. Like Aaron. How many times did I tell you that he was never going to leave Bonnie? And every time he came back with a new sob story, I tried to remind you that he'd broken your heart enough times, but you didn't listen."
"I listened eventually," Elisabeth mumbled.
"Of course you did, after your father mentioned it to you. And he only did that because I told him I didn't think it was healthy of you to keep taking him back. Your father was always fond of saying, 'Ellie will figure it out. She's a smart girl.'"
Elisabeth thought of Aaron and Bonnie and knew what she had to say. "He was wrong," she admitted. "I probably still would've been waiting for Aaron to leave her if you hadn't prodded him into saying something."
Ruth didn't say anything for a moment, looking surprised that Elisabeth had agreed with her. "You would've," she finally said. "Your father was right about you. You were smart, and by the time he talked to you, I could see you were getting tired of Aaron's routine."
It was Elisabeth's turn to be surprised, because this time, her mother was right. Elisabeth had been getting frustrated with Aaron and had intended to tell him so when her father had talked to her about him. "I guess you knew me a little better than you thought," she said softly.
Ruth paused. "It wasn't hard to figure out since every phone call you had with Charlie began with the words, 'I'm getting sick of Aaron and all his crap.'" Elisabeth smiled at that as Ruth continued. "I am sorry I said that to you. I didn't realize that you'd...I should've known how it would upset you."
"But it was the truth, wasn't it? You probably could've gone your whole life without saying it to me, but I still knew deep down." Elisabeth looked down at her hands.
"It doesn't excuse anything. No, don't try to shrug this off. I'm apologizing because I'm sorry for it now but we both know that in five I might not be in such a mood."
Elisabeth nodded as she controlled the urge to laugh. To stop herself, she turned her thoughts back to the reason Ruth was there in the first place. "I accept your apology," she said quietly, looking at her mother once again. "Now, about Lydia..."
"Yes, of course. Oh, God, what am I going to say?"
"Tell her I'm not budging," Elisabeth said. "Tell her I'm implacable. Or since we're talking..." Elisabeth stopped herself before she insulted her sister. Things were going far too well with her mother to ruin the moment. "Just tell her I'm stubborn."
Ruth stood up and brushed off her pants though there was nothing on them. "I may have to do that. She might back out of being in your wedding, you know."
"Well, that's an obstacle we'll cross if we need to. We might end up short a groomsman anyway."
"Why?"
"You know Charlie's boyfriend, Jack? His mother died the other day. Her funeral was this afternoon, and we're thinking he might not be in the mood to be at a wedding. We haven't talked to him about it yet, but there's a good chance he'll skip out."
Ruth acknowledged this with a nod as Elisabeth stood up. "This is going to mess up the programs," she grumbled. "They've already been printed with both Lydia and Jack's names. What are we going to do if they back out?"
Elisabeth shrugged. "I'm sure you'll figure it out, Ma. You're good at this sort of thing." She threw her arms around her mother, surprising both of them. "I know I never say it, but I love you, too. You drive me crazy, but I love you."
Elisabeth couldn't see her face, but she knew Ruth was smiling. "The same goes, Ellie."
The two of them stood there embracing for a long moment, neither one seeming to want to be the one to let go. Elisabeth cleared her throat and said, "I think we've been hugging long enough."
"I was just thinking the same thing." They broke apart and smiled at each other. "I have to go...oh, wait. There was one last thing I needed to ask you. When is Darcy's family going to be coming down?"
"Darcy's grandparents are coming down this weekend. They're staying at the Comfort Suites all next week. His cousins D.J. and Jolie are coming on Wednesday, I think, and the next day everyone else will be descending on us."
"Thursday is your bridal shower," Ruth said. "And Friday is the dress rehearsal, then..."
With a groan, the two of them said in unison, "The bachelor party."
"I made Darcy vow there would be no strippers. With D.J., Jack, and probably Chazz planning the party, there's a fifty-fifty chance that he'll keep his word."
"If that Bingley boy is planning the thing, I'd say fifty-fifty is optimistic."
"Ma, you're grumbling about Jenna's boyfriend again." Elisabeth was careful not to refer to Chazz as Jenna's fiancé since Ruth didn't know about it. "He makes her happy, remember?"
"Oh, very well, so he does. But I still don't understand..." Ruth sighed. "I should go before we fight. It was nice to actually have a conversation with you that didn't end with one of us ready to kill the other."
Elisabeth laughed as her mother told her goodbye and left the apartment. She found herself agreeing with Ruth that it had been a nice change of pace for them. It probably wouldn't last, but it was nice.