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Chapter Fifty-One

Elisabeth had been exhausted from the trip and had gone to bed early, leaving Darcy and Ginger to stay up as late as they wished, talking to their relatives. By the time she actually fell asleep after forty minutes of trying to get comfortable in a strange bed, several family members had gone to hotels or back to their homes. Despite the fact that he'd been up earlier than Elisabeth and had gotten little sleep the night before, Darcy stayed up until after one talking with his grandparents. Mary had dug up photo albums and yearbooks and delighted in showing Darcy and Ginger pictures of their father. She even had three annuals belonging to Amelia.

Ginger continued to be startled by the resemblance between her and her mother. When she thought of her mother, Ginger was always reminded of a posed family portrait of the Darcys taken the year Amelia had eloped with Ron. In that picture, Amelia had her head ducked and it was clear to see that she was unhappy. In the pictures Ginger was seeing now, the sadness was gone and her mother's head was held as high as anyone else's. She was always smiling with happiness and pride when she held one of her children.

Finally, around two, Mary couldn't hold back her yawns and decided that they could continue in the morning. Darcy had thought he wouldn't sleep at all, but he'd hardly been in bed five minutes before he was out.

Elisabeth awakened at eight and momentarily panicked. This sometimes happened to her when she wasn't familiar with her surroundings, like today. Her eyes darted around the room until she saw Darcy sprawled on his stomach beside her. Then thoughts flooded her mind which reminded her that she was in Evanston, with Darcy, to meet his father's family.

She eased her way out of bed to avoid waking him up. It wasn't especially easy, given her advanced state of pregnancy, but when all he did was turn his head to the other side, she knew she hadn't disturbed him. She opened her suitcase and took out the clothes she planned to wear. She smiled as she also pulled out a sweater and jeans for him to wear. She'd forgotten to offer them to him last night, since, as she'd predicted, he was more than overdressed for the occasion. He'd discarded the jacket and tie soon after his arrival. No one had pointed out to him that it made little difference, since his dress shirt and tailored pants were obviously of the finest material, but she knew that he'd noticed.

Elisabeth waddled down the hall to the bathroom, surprised to find it empty. She took a quick shower and dressed. She decided to let her hair dry naturally, combing it out and wishing idly that her hair had a little natural curl----not a lot, just enough so that when she didn't feel like bothering with it, it wouldn't look like straw. She pulled it back into a damp ponytail, tossed her used towels into a hamper, and left the bathroom.

There were few signs of life downstairs. One of Darcy's cousins was napping on the sofa, having fallen asleep watching ESPN. One of the older children was sitting in a recliner with a book. She gave Elisabeth a little wave when she noticed her. Elisabeth waved back and followed her nose to the heavenly smell of baking bread coming from the kitchen.

Despite having gone to bed at nearly two, Mary Williamson had always gotten up at six-thirty and today was no different. She was sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee and the Sunday paper in her hand. When she saw Elisabeth hovering in the doorway, she smiled and waved at the chairs, offering her a seat.

"Thank you," Elisabeth murmured, sitting down. "I'd heard you were territorial about the kitchen."

Mary grinned knowingly. "Thomas told you that, no doubt. Don't believe him. He's the one who prefers that no one be in the kitchen while we're cooking. He just says it's me. He says that the kitchen is one of the few places where he can be alone with me when the family's here, so he tells everyone I hate people to be in here while I'm working." She set the paper aside. "Is there something I can get for you? A glass of water or milk?"

"I can get it if you'll tell me where the glasses are," Elisabeth said, starting to rise from her chair.

"You sit down. I'll get it. Milk?" Mary didn't wait to hear Elisabeth's answer before standing up and getting the glass herself. She place it in front of Elisabeth and then checked on the bread in the oven. She smiled. "I love the smell of baking bread. You?"

Elisabeth nodded and took a drink of the milk. She wished she could have some of the coffee that Mary was enjoying, but she knew that there was no point in even asking. Milk would have to do.

It's just two more days. Surely you can survive two more days. You've managed to give up smoking this far, haven't you?

"I'm afraid you probably felt left out yesterday, with all the ruckus about Darcy and Ginger. I know we didn't show it, but we're all just as curious about you. Thomas tells me that you're from Effingham?"

"Yes, I am. He said you two knew my grandfather." Elisabeth took another drink of milk.

"We knew Frank. We knew Mickey, too. Poor girl worshiped your grandfather, and look what she wound up with. Abandoned with a small child...well, that was Frank for you. No offense, honey, because I know he was your grandfather, but there are some people you look at and you know they're not going to turn out well. Frank Bennet was one of those people. Thomas considered him a good friend, but Thomas tends to look at people with more charity than I do." Mary smiled. "But even the worst of people have some good in them. Look at you. You're his granddaughter, and you're a good person."

"I don't know about that," Elisabeth admitted. "But I would never abandon my family the way my grandfather did." She frowned, thinking of how she'd wanted to give the baby away, and then wondering if maybe that didn't make her any better than Frank.

"Oh, dear. I've offended you and I didn't mean to do it. I'm sorry, Elisabeth. I shouldn't have said anything about Frank..."

"It's not that. It's just...well, it's nothing."

Mary didn't say anything. Elisabeth drank more of her milk and found it oddly soothing to her troubled mind. She'd gone to sleep well before Darcy probably had, and she couldn't help but wonder what Darcy had told his family about her. She knew that they'd asked questions----hadn't Mary just said that they were as curious about her as they were about Darcy and Ginger? But what had Darcy's answers to those questions been?

"When are you due?" Mary asked.

"Uh...Tuesday," Elisabeth said sheepishly. "But you don't have to worry about me going into labor while I'm here. I'd know if it was going to happen."

"How would you know that?"

"You'll probably laugh at this. Everyone in my family thinks it's nonsense, but they don't experience it themselves so they have no idea. I...uh, when something bad happens, I start feeling cold. Not the sort of cold that you feel from going outside without a jacket, but something deeper than that. Do you know what I mean?"

Mary nodded.

"I don't always pick up on it, but that feeling is always there when something goes wrong. It was there when I was demoted and when Granny Bess got sick and then died...and since it usually kicks in when I'm about to experience a great deal of pain, I figure that I'll know before I go into labor. I'm not feeling anything so far." Elisabeth stared at her half-empty glass. "So, is that crazy, or what?"

"Not really. I've never discarded the notion that people can sense when things happen, although I don't think they can predict the future. Not yet, anyway."

"Well, like I said, my family thinks I'm nuts, so I usually don't say anything about it."

"So...the baby's due in two days. For your sake, I hope it's not late. Darcy's father was a week late, although you wouldn't have guessed as fast as the delivery was once he decided to be born."

"A fast delivery? Do those actually happen?"

"Oh, sure. I was in labor with Ron for four hours. The others took longer, but nothing as drastic as I'm sure you've heard all about. Have you had a chance to talk much with Mallory?"

"Seventeen hours of labor, emergency C-section," Elisabeth said dully.

Mary groaned. "You'd think she had given birth to the Lord himself the way she carries on about labor with Devon. Just ignore her. I'm sure everything will be fine with you, dear."

"I hope you're right." Elisabeth took another drink and missed the troubled look Mary gave her.

"Elisabeth, I hope you won't think I'm prying when I ask this question, but...something about this situation bothers me."

Elisabeth swallowed heavily, knowing what was coming. Darcy had told them the truth about the baby, and now his entire family thought she was a slut who had managed to snag him to support her.

"Ginger told us before you arrived that you were pregnant and that the two of you were engaged, but...well, I know that these days, marriage doesn't matter so much to people about to have a child as it did when I was your age, but Darcy doesn't strike me as someone who would father a child but not marry the mother. I'm not saying he's a saint, but...well, you're about to have that baby."

Elisabeth sighed. She could've lied and told Mary that the reason they weren't married was due to vanity, and that she hadn't wanted people to think it was a shotgun wedding because she'd been pregnant. She could've said that Darcy had been proposing since she'd found out she was pregnant but that she'd refused until recently. But without knowing what Darcy might've told someone else, she wondered if she should say anything at all.

After an agonizing minute, she said, "Darcy isn't actually the baby's father."

"He's not?"

"No." In a low, hesitant voice, Elisabeth told Mary about George. She told her about meeting Darcy and how they'd disliked each other for the first few days followed by the long stretch where they hadn't been sure what to make of each other before they'd finally started dating. She even told Mary about how Darcy had dated Charlie at first and how that had complicated things later on. She finished by telling her about Darcy's recent proposal.

This last delighted Mary. "He always did have a good imagination," she said with a laugh. "He got that from his father...well, you heard the story about how Ron wanted to trap Santa Claus. It's a good thing he didn't, isn't it?"

"Yes, it was." Elisabeth's humor faded. "I'm sure you think that I'm some sort of leech since Darcy's not the father, but at least you know now that he's not ducking responsibility. It wasn't his to take over in the first place."

"I wasn't thinking that at all. I was just thinking of how much he must love you to take on such a responsibility. It tells me that in spite of growing up under the rule of Catherine de Bourgh, Darcy managed to hang on to the principles his father taught him as a child. I've seen people be corrupted by money and power such as Catherine must've dangled before him. It's not a pretty thing to see. I feared that it might've happened to Darcy, although to be honest, I worried more about Georgiana. Unlike Darcy, she never knew Ron and Amelia. All she would've known was Catherine."

"Then it was lucky that Catherine dealt with her as she did," Elisabeth said. "Until recently, I thought my family was weird and abnormal, but looking at the way Darcy and Ginger were raised, I realize now that I had it good. I can't imagine what it would've been like to be so disliked because of your resemblance to someone. That's what I can't get over when I think of Catherine de Bourgh. It's not how she's manipulated Darcy over the years. It's the way she treated Ginger."

Mary took a drink of coffee and then said, "Amelia never talked about her family much, even before she married Ron. One year, though, her sister Melissa was in Chicago and came over with her family. The two of them got to talking about the family a bit. Amelia was too upset to talk long, so Melissa talked to me. From what she said, Catherine's husband, Lewis de Bourgh, had first approached their father, old George, about courting Amelia."

"Really?"

Mary nodded. "Catherine was furious, because she'd always loved the man, I guess. But as it turned out, the one date Amelia and Lewis went on was the night when she met my son."

"Darcy told me about that," Elisabeth said with a smile. "She was stranded at the restaurant and he paid the bill for her when Lewis left her behind. I thought that was so sweet."

"That was just something Ron would do," Mary said sadly. "It didn't hurt, of course, that he was helping out a very pretty young woman. But if she'd been a crone, he still would've paid for the dinner. But now you see why Catherine had a very good reason to dislike her sister...and her sister's children."

"That's stupid. Catherine could hardly blame Amelia for Lewis de Bourgh's interest, and she should've been happy when Amelia met someone else on that date."

"Perhaps, but she also had to go through life knowing that she'd been the man's second choice. You're right, it does seem ridiculous. But it wasn't to Catherine."

"It almost makes me wonder why she..." Elisabeth caught herself before mentioning the guardianship mess. "Why she would've taken the children on."

"Melissa never said, but I always suspected that Catherine couldn't have children of her own. I told myself that to ease the pain of losing Dare and Ginger, thinking that she would treat them well because she'd never have them herself. If I'd known what she would do, I would've..." Mary sighed. "Well, it's too late now. I get worked up about this when I know it could've been much worse. She could've abused them physically, or locked them in their rooms. Instead, she gave them good educations and found them jobs."

"And controlled their lives to the point where they felt like they were being suffocated," Elisabeth pointed out.

"Well, yes, but it's not as bad as it could've been. And they both survived and seem happy...now that they're free."

The telephone rang, startling them both. Mary got up quickly to answer it, but not before it had rang a second time. She picked up the receiver of the phone hanging on the wall and said, "Hello?" There was a pause. Mary looked puzzled. She looked over at Elisabeth. "Just a moment. Do you or Darcy know a Charlotte Lucas?"

"Charlie?" Elisabeth got out of her chair and walked over to take the phone. "She's my cousin, but I don't know why she'd be calling here." Although if something serious has happened, it'll make Mary think I was lying about the sixth sense thing.

"She's called collect," Mary said. To the operator who was waiting, she said, "Yes, I'll accept the charges."

"She must be at work," Elisabeth replied with a sinking heart. She'd given Charlie the number here in case there was an emergency. She took the phone from Mary. "Charlie?"

"H-hi, El," Charlie said in a shaky voice. "Look, tell Darcy's grandmother or whoever that was that I'm sorry I called collect, but I had to talk to you and I didn't want to call so late last night when I got home."

"Has something happened?" Elisabeth said quickly. "Is it your grandmother or..."

"No, it's nothing like that." There was a slight hitch in Charlie's breathing, which told Elisabeth that she'd been crying. "I...I didn't tell you this because you were going to be with Darcy's family this weekend, but Jack decided to introduce me to his family. Including his mother."

"Oh, God," Elisabeth groaned. "Why would he do that?"

"He said that we might as well since the family knew about me anyway. He didn't want them thinking we had something to hide. A-and he was hoping that they'd meet me and not be so upset about the fact that we were dating."

"I thought they were okay with you two as long as he was living at home and 'doing his duty' or whatever the hell they call it because it's his fault she's crazy."

"He thought so, too, but last weekend one of his sisters made a comment that he was spending a lot of time with me. He's with me two nights a week, and they think that's a lot of time. We're only really together one of the nights, because the other one he teaches a class that doesn't get out until after nine and then he stays behind to take questions from his students." Charlie sniffled. "But his mother complained to the oldest one...Anna. So of course they come down on Jack and accuse him of slacking in his duties, like any of those b----es never had a life when they were stuck taking care of the woman."

Elisabeth's eyes widened. Charlie tended not to use what she referred to as 'the B word' because she felt it was demeaning to women.

"So Jack comes up with the brilliant idea to introduce you to everyone because..."

"I don't know. He thought it would help. I didn't think it was such a good idea, but Jack pleaded with me to come, so I did. And it was a disaster, just like I knew it would be. I knew I was screwed the minute Anna asked me what I did for a living."

"What's wrong with working at Planet Earth Pizza?" Elisabeth asked. "Surely they don't look down on Jack for what he does for a living...part-time, anyway."

"It wasn't waiting tables, El. It was my other job."

"Oh." Elisabeth could just imagine what the reaction had been to Charlie's announcement that she worked for Heartland.

"Yeah. Picture if you will: a table set for eight, Jack at one end of the table, me at the other to insure that we didn't play footsie or anything like that. Jack's mother sat next to him and did her best to ignore me for the whole night. I, on the other hand, got to next to his sister Anna. The minute I told everyone that I worked for Heartland Human Services, every other woman at that table turned to stare at me as though I'd announced I worked for the I.R.S."

"They probably would've liked you better if you did," Elisabeth said.

"No, they wouldn't have. They didn't like me from the minute I walked in there. I wore my nicest outfit and did my hair and even put on makeup, for God's sake! You know how much I hate doing that stuff, but I wanted to make as good an impression on Jack's family as I could. And none of it mattered in the end. They had already decided that I took up too much of Jack's time, which would be better spent taking care of his mother. Hearing what I did for a living was just the cherry on top of the sundae."

"So what did they do after you told them you worked for Heartland?"

"Well, one of them was nice enough to ask me what my work entailed. I explained that respite was a 24-hour care facility that people visited for a week or two and that we did a lot of work to help people work through the problems that were causing them a crisis. Then another of them asked if we ever told these people that their problems were all in their heads. I told her that no, people had legitimate problems that they couldn't deal with and needed our help. Then she replied, 'Why can't their families help them?'"

"With some of them, the family is the problem," Elisabeth commented.

"Exactly, and I told her that. Well, it was the worst possible thing I could've said. Every single one of them looked at Jack, and I could've died. He had this look on his face...El, I didn't mean it the way they took it! Jack's mother's problem isn't him. She's got a legitimate illness, in spite of what they think, and it wasn't caused by his birth. I tried to explain that, but it didn't do any good."

"Let me guess. You insulted their baby brother, so they were mad at you the rest of the night. Kind of the 'no one calls my brat a brat but me' syndrome."

"No. The rest of the night, they had these smug looks on their faces. No one said anything to Jack, but he knew what I'd done. I'd legitimized their belief that he was to blame for everything."

"Oh, Charlie..." Elisabeth sighed. "I'm so sorry. What happened then?"

"They had a few other questions for me after I added that I also worked with people who had chronic mental illnesses. I went out of my way to stress that residential living was not only beneficial to the clients, but also to the families who couldn't take care of them anymore. I was hoping that one of them might realize that it would be the right setting for their mother, but of course that didn't happen. Anna got this scornful tone in her voice and said, 'People like your clients' families dump their problems onto others when they could handle them just fine on their own.'

"By this time, I was fed up. I'd screwed up badly and I needed to try to make up for it. They'd been putting down what I did for a living and the people I worked so hard with all night. What I wanted to do was to b----h slap them into the middle of next week..."

There was the word again. She's really upset about this, Elisabeth thought sadly.

"But since I couldn't do that, I said, 'It seems to me that you did the same thing when you dumped her into Jack's lap the day he graduated from college. And now you've done it again. Every time there's a crisis with her, you call him and demand that he take care of it. It doesn't seem to bother you that Jack's as ill-equipped to deal with these problems as you are, as long as they're not your problem, you don't care.'"

"Go Charlie, go Charlie," Elisabeth said with a smile.

"Don't start cheering yet. April, or Audrey, or I don't know who the hell it was because their mother was an idiot who gave them 'A' names----whatever. I only know Anna for sure because she's the oldest and she looks it. One of the others asks, 'What do you know about it? You don't live with our mother and you don't know her problems.' I told her that I was there when she tried to kill herself several years ago and that I knew more about their mother's illness than any of them did because I saw it a lot and knew how to treat it."

"You could've mentioned your uncle who's a paranoid schizophrenic."

"And let them have one more thing to disapprove about me? No way." Charlie took a deep but ragged breath. "I shouldn't have mentioned that I knew about the suicide attempts. They all looked at Jack like he'd betrayed them by bringing me into the house. One of them said, 'You think we're going to let you send Mom to a home where people like her work? She doesn't need that. People like her would only make Mom worse. She'd be dead in a month...unless that's what you want.'"

"What did Jack say to that----for that matter, what was Jack doing while you were receiving the third degree?" Elisabeth was starting to get mad at the man for seemingly throwing Charlie to the wolves like that.

"His mother was talking to him so much that I don't think he knew what was happening. She started that right after I...after my mistake. As to what he said to...Alice's comment, he said, 'Of course I don't want her dead, but I want her to have the best possible care.' And that was it."

Jack was lucky there were two hundred and fifty miles separating him from Elisabeth, because he would've been a dead man otherwise.

"I know what you're thinking, El, and you shouldn't. He was mad because of what I'd said and I can't blame him."

"I can. Surely he knew you didn't mean for it to be taken the way those...sisters of his took it," Elisabeth said, making the word "sisters" a curse.

"The dinner finally came to an end and Jack said he was taking me home. The sisters just sat at the table, refusing to say goodbye to me or thank me for coming or...or anything. Then his mother stood up. She'd been ignoring me the whole night, remember, but she stood up and said, 'It was nice to meet you, Miss Lucas. Please come back soon.' I couldn't believe it. I was thinking that Jack must've been telling her what a nice person I was and how much he liked me, because she smiled when she said it."

Elisabeth felt her hopes rising. "Really? Well, that's..."

"It was all a lie. The Middleton Armada wanted to talk to Jack privately for a moment, so his mother offered to see me to the door. She didn't say anything to me on our way down the hall. She opened the door for me, but before I could thank her for it, she gave me a hard shove that nearly caused me to fall down. She said, 'Jack will never send me to one of those places. My daughters told me that you were trying to talk him into it so you could have him to yourself, but he won't send me away. My son loves me. He'll never love you.' And then she slammed the door in my face."

Elisabeth groaned. "They knew all along what you did for a living, didn't they?"

There was no noise...Charlie must've nodded.

"Oh, Charlie...I wish I had some words of wisdom for you, but I'm not sure what to tell you. Did you tell Jack what she'd done?"

"No. What would've been the point? Besides, she's right. I've been talking to him about putting her in a residential home, but for his own sake as much as hers."

"You should've told him. At least he would've known."

"Well, from the little we said to each other on the drive back to my house, I doubt it would've done any good. I apologized for what I'd said and told him that I didn't mean to be misconstrued like that. He just said, 'I know.' And that was it. He didn't kiss me goodbye and he didn't come in for a few minutes. He just said good night and took off as soon as I was out of the car."

Elisabeth sighed. "Why didn't you call me last night?"

"I didn't want to because I know how important it was, but I had to tell someone and Jenna's out of town with Chazz's family and I couldn't go to Danie or Andie about this."

"Right." Suddenly, Elisabeth wished she weren't so far away. She wished she could be with Charlie in that moment, if only to offer a pint of chocolate chip ice cream and her presence. It wasn't the same over a telephone. "Charlie, do you want us to come home early? I'm sure if I explain..."

"No! Absolutely not. I have to work all day, anyway, so I wouldn't be home for you to talk to. You guys stay there like you planned. I'll be okay...I think." Charlie sniffled. "It's helped to talk."

"What are you going to do?"

"I don't know. I don't know how things have been left between me and Jack. I'm hoping he just needed to put the night in perspective. I can't really do anything else right now." With another sniffle, Charlie said, "I have to go. I've got a client needing my help. Thanks for listening, El."

"Not a problem," Elisabeth was quick to assure her. "I'll see you tonight, okay?"

"Uh-huh. Tell Darcy's grandmother that I'm sorry for calling collect. I'll send a check or something."

"Don't worry about that. We'll get it straightened out." Elisabeth hung up the phone a moment later.

"Trouble with a boyfriend?" Mary asked.

"I wish it were that. Boyfriend trouble I could give her advice for. The boyfriend's evil troll family is a whole different matter." Elisabeth sighed and went back to her milk and her talk with Mary, though with a heavier heart than she'd had before the phone call.

The second day of their visit went much the same way their first one did. Once again, the house filled with people as it seemed everyone wanted to talk to Darcy and Ginger. To Elisabeth's surprise, Darcy handled the attention well and didn't seem to have any difficulty talking to anyone. He looked much more relaxed in the outfit she'd left for him than he had the day before.

At three-thirty, D.J. and his wife took Ginger to the airport and Darcy and Elisabeth said their goodbyes to the extended Williamson family. Darcy promised to call Mary and Thomas the minute Elisabeth had her baby, and preliminary plans were made for everyone to get back together in the spring.

"I don't think I've ever had such a good time," Darcy told her.

"I'm glad," Elisabeth replied. "And you were so afraid that you'd have nothing in common with them and nothing to talk about."

"Silly, wasn't it?" He laughed. "I felt like I belonged. Does that make any sense? I felt like they would've accepted me even if I hadn't said a word this entire weekend. It wasn't because I was related to them, but because they loved me."

Elisabeth didn't quite know what to say to this so she just smiled at him.

"I've been thinking...something. This whole weekend, I couldn't help but think that it was nice to be close to my family...in terms of proximity, I mean."

"You want to move to Chicago instead of New York?" Elisabeth asked.

"No, that's..." Darcy hesitated. "I don't know that I want to move at all. When we talked about moving before, you said that all I had to do was name the day and you'd have your bags packed. Do you hate Effingham that much?"

Elisabeth frowned. She hadn't thought about their original plan to move to New York since...well, since the day they'd talked about it. But now that she was thinking about it, she realized that some of the new plans would interfere with that one.

"I don't know that I hate it so much," she admitted. "Would I like to move somewhere else? Yes, but only because I've lived in this town my whole life."

"You don't want to end up like your mother. I remember you saying that."

"That's the thought which keeps me awake at night when the baby doesn't." Elisabeth looked out the front window, which yielded her nothing by way of a view. "So you don't want to move at all. You've come to like Effingham that much?"

"It's not as bad as I first thought when I arrived. I know it's not New York, but honestly, I think I prefer it. I have friends here. I have family within a few hours' drive. There's a bowling alley..." Out of the corner of his eye, he caught her smiling.

"What about finding a job?" she asked. "You'll never find anything like what you had in New York."

"Honestly, I don't know if I want a job like I had in New York, because when I worked for Catherine, I never had time for a life of my own." He stole another glance at her. "I never had a life until I came to Planet Earth Pizza. And while life in Effingham might not be an exciting one filled with Broadway shows and five-star restaurants, it's still a lot better than the shell I left behind. I may never find a job I like, but even if I wind up spending the rest of my life at Planet Earth Pizza----God forbid----I'll still be a lot happier than I was in New York."

Elisabeth thought about what he said. She also thought about what it would mean----moving to a new place, especially one as unfamiliar as New York. She'd miss a lot of things. Bowling on Monday nights. Kit's bawdy sense of humor. Erin's perpetually sunny disposition. Charlie's snarky comments when she had to be at work early. She thought of everything she was missing about work now and knew it would only increase ten-fold if she moved away.

But wasn't that what life was about? Taking chances? Doing new things? Was she going to be fifty years old and still working at Planet Earth Pizza because she hadn't insisted on taking a chance when it came along?

"You don't have to decide now," Darcy said. "If you still want to move to New York, we'll do it and I'll see what I can do outside of the business world. But I think you're having the same doubts as I've been having lately. So just think about it."

Elisabeth promised she would, but she had a feeling the matter had already been decided. She wasn't quite sure how she felt about that.

Chapter Fifty-Two

December seventeenth came and went without the baby being born.

For Elisabeth, who was so sick of being pregnant that she vowed never to have sex again so she wouldn't have to worry about going through this a second time, waking up Wednesday morning was a chore. She knew the odds of her giving birth on her due date had been against her, but she'd been hoping nonetheless. To be truthful, she'd been hoping she'd give birth early, as long as it wasn't so early that it put the baby in jeopardy. But now that her due date had passed, a heavy feeling of exhaustion kept her in bed well past the time she would've been up. In fact, she was still in bed when Darcy awakened at his usual time of ten-thirty.

"Hello, you," he said when he realized that she wasn't sleeping as he'd first thought. He rolled onto his side and propped himself up on an elbow.

"Hi." Elisabeth continued to stare up at the ceiling.

"Going to stay in this bed until you go into labor?" he asked.

"I might. There's nothing else for me to do but wait for this baby to show up. I can't go to work. I don't want to go anywhere. Jenna's at work. Charlie will only want to talk about Jack, and after three days where she's been dying to break the impasse between them but is still respecting his space, I'm just wishing they'd get it over with." Elisabeth had kept him updated over the past few days as the gulf between Jack and Charlie seemed to widen. She had better luck talking to Charlie than Darcy was having getting anything out of Jack.

On Sunday night, Jack had called Charlie. They'd talked for maybe five minutes, and after Charlie had hung up the phone, she'd said, "He loves me but he needs some time." It was all she'd said about it.

"You could always toss them into her parents' basement to sort them out," Darcy said sarcastically. "After everything you tried to do to throw Jack and Charlie together, you've suddenly decided to give up on them?"

That got her to look at him. "Don't start with me, Dare. It worked for Chazz and Jenna, but I don't know about Jack and Charlie. This situation is completely different and I don't know the supporting players as well. It was one thing to help out Chazz and Jenna, because the main obstacle there was Ma and I know her. I don't know, don't understand, and don't care to know or understand Jack's family. His mother, believe it or not, is the least of their problems. I think if Jack were an only child, his mother would've been in a group home a long time ago and he could be happy with Charlie. But those sisters..."

"I know." This was a discussion they'd had on several occasions. "It almost makes me think Catherine has redeeming values."

Elisabeth smiled----her first smile in two days. "Don't be fooled. She doesn't. It just looks like it because there are five of them and only one Catherine."

"And thank God for that. Can you imagine five Catherine de Bourghs? She'd be trying to take over the world. Mothers would be hiding their children away and telling them stories of when the world was a nice, happy place, before the Empire came."

"You're mixing up your metaphors. It was Pinky and the Brain who tried to take over the world. The Empire wanted the universe and everything in it." Elisabeth sighed. "You're probably going to think I'm crazy. Two weeks ago, I was grumbling about not being ready to be a mother. Now I'm grumbling because the baby isn't here. It's a no-win situation."

"Or one could suppose that you finally accepted the idea of motherhood and are impatient to get started to see if you can handle it." Darcy put a hand on her swollen stomach. The baby kicked as though she knew that his hand was there. "It seems like a miracle to me sometimes."

"What, my stomach?"

"No..." Darcy gave her a dirty look. "The baby. This is the first time I've ever really, you know, been around a pregnant woman. Not since my mother was pregnant with Ginger, anyway, and that doesn't exactly count since I was too young to completely understand it."

"No one you worked with at the Company ever got pregnant? Or was it an all-boys' club that no women were allowed to join?"

"With Catherine at the helm? You're kidding. She was a fierce believer in equality of the sexes. For every man in a high-ranking position, there was a woman with an equal rank in another area of the business. But I don't remember any of the women ever getting pregnant." Darcy frowned. "No, wait. I do remember one. Lauren DePasto. She was one of the heads of R&D when she got pregnant, but I spent a lot of her pregnancy in Japan. When I returned, she was gone."

"Gone? She was fired for getting pregnant?"

"No. She took a maternity leave and decided not to come back. But even if I'd been good friends with Lauren, this would be a different experience for me."

"Why?"

"Because this one's mine." Darcy leaned over and kissed her tenderly. Elisabeth felt, as she always did, that strong tingling of senses that took place when they kissed. With reluctance, he pulled away from her. "Elisabeth, there's something I want to tell you that I've been forgetting for a while now."

"That doesn't sound good." Elisabeth smiled slightly. "You haven't changed your mind about marrying me, have you? Or about..."

"It's nothing bad. I wouldn't do that to you. I'll never do that to you, I promise." Darcy shifted his position so he could sit up in bed. This forced Elisabeth to do the same in order to be looking him in the eye. "I don't want you to ever worry about the way I treat our children."

Elisabeth was confused. "I'm not sure what you mean."

"I'm probably going to say this the wrong way and make you mad. But someday, hopefully, we'll have a baby...a biological child of our own. And what I wanted to say was that this child..." Darcy put his hand back on her stomach. "This child won't feel like an outsider because I'm not her father. I promise you that."

"Oh." Elisabeth grew thoughtful. "I never considered that, but now that you mention it...I know you won't. You didn't have to worry about me thinking that."

"Well, I don't always know what you're thinking, remember? So it's just as well that we talk about something like this so we know what's going on."

Elisabeth pulled him to her, kissing him firmly. "I love you. I don't know that I've mentioned it lately, but I do. Very much."

"I love you, too," Darcy said before claiming her mouth again. He put his arms around her to pull her as close as possible. After a long, impassioned moment, he managed to say, "You know, if you want to bring on that baby, I've heard it said that making love can help. After all, it was you, not your doctor, who declared the moratorium on sex until the baby was born."

Elisabeth gave him a startled look. "I'm roughly the size of a baby hippo and you want to have sex? You're crazy."

"Yes, I am. Crazy about you, and it's all your damn fault for being the sexiest pregnant woman I've ever seen."

With a laugh, Elisabeth got out of bed.

Elisabeth trudged into Planet Earth Pizza for lunch following her appointment with Dr. Arnold, who was filling in for Dr. Knightley while he attended to a personal matter. Dr. Knightley had wanted to see her if she hadn't had the baby by her due date, so it was upsetting that a substitute who knew nothing about her was taking his place. Dr. Arnold checked her vitals, which were fine, as well as checking the baby's. He told her nothing that she didn't already know----that she could give birth any day now and that Dr. Knightley planned to induce labor after Christmas if she hadn't had the baby by then. Elisabeth had been tempted to shove his stethoscope in a painful place but refrained from doing so. She kept herself calm by remembering that Dr. Knightley, who never patronized her, would be back in time to deliver her baby unless she gave birth today.

She hadn't intended to stop by the store, but when she'd left the doctor's office a sharp pang of loneliness had hit her and she'd decided to stop in to see Charlie and the rest of the gang. It would be her first real chance to see Sean since the beginning of the month due to problems at the Centralia store...or had it been Vandalia this time? Elisabeth hadn't been sure, but it seemed like everyone was having trouble but Effingham, which meant Sean had to go, which led to trouble in Effingham.

For a Wednesday, the place was surprisingly full. She had to stand in line for a few seconds behind a group of nurses. Charlie seated them in the back of the restaurant as Erin caught sight of Elisabeth.

"El! Welcome to the party zone!" she called loudly. "Sean! Elisabeth's here!"

"Erin, how many times have I told you that you've got to lay off the happy pills?" Elisabeth teased. "You're too cheerful for mortal woman to bear."

"I'm off the happy pills, thank you very much," Erin said with a fake offended tone. "But Sean got some great news today that he just can't wait to tell you." Erin scooted around the counter and headed back out to the dining room with two menus in her hand.

"Hey, Elisabeth!" Sean's smile was so wide that Elisabeth almost smiled as well.

"Have you won the lottery?" she asked as she walked over to the register, where he was standing.

"Better than that." Sean took something out of a box hidden from Elisabeth's view and plunked it onto the counter. It was a pink bubble gum cigar.

"I didn't give birth yet," Elisabeth said, looking at the cigar with a frown. "I would've thought that much was obvious."

"That's not for you. That's for me. As of two-thirty yesterday afternoon, Rachel and I became parents to a beautiful little girl named Tasha."

Elisabeth gasped with delight. The last she'd heard about Sean and Rachel's adoption petition, they had been stalled pending a final determination that Tasha had no relatives willing or able to take her in. Of course, that had been over a month ago.

"It went through?" she asked.

Sean nodded. "Tasha has a great-aunt, Nellie Birch, who lives in a retirement community in Florida. Mrs. Birch consented to the adoption as long as we had no objections to her coming to see Tasha once in a while. Well, how could we complain about that? We've just been waiting for everything to be finalized, and we got word yesterday that everything was done."

"Is Tasha excited about it?"

Sean laughed. "You have no idea. She's been telling every person she runs into, 'My name is Tasha Fitzwilliam. Isn't that pretty?' She's ecstatic."

"I'm happy for you...for all of you."

"Thank you, Ms. Bennet. We're going up to Rachel's parents' place for Christmas. They can't wait for Tasha to meet her cousins. Rachel's got two sisters and two brothers and each of them has a bunch of kids, so it's going to be a madhouse. But Tasha's already been through it once with my family, so she should handle herself okay."

"Did you tell your parents about Rachel?" Elisabeth asked.

Sean nodded. "My mother was, not surprisingly, unapologetic about everything she'd said about Rachel's unwillingness to have children up to now. In fact, she immediately started harping on her for not agreeing to adoption sooner."

Elisabeth snorted. "I think your mother and my mother should have lunch sometime. They'd probably get to be best friends."

"No doubt about it. But it doesn't matter now, because we've got Tasha and that's the important thing." Sean smiled and held out the bubble gum cigar. "It's a girl."

Elisabeth took it from him and smiled. "Congratulations again."

"Thank you. Now, if I could see everyone else around here as happy as I am today, things would be even better than they already are." Sean didn't say any names, but he didn't have to. Jack and Charlie were both working that day, although she had yet to see Jack and had only had a brief glimpse of Charlie.

"You'd think they would've learned from Chazz and Jenna's example," Elisabeth said with a sigh. "Things get misconstrued and it was hardly Charlie's fault that Jack has such terrible sisters. At least they haven't officially broken up. I don't know if I could handle Charlie right now. This may sound selfish, but I'm lucky I can handle what's going on in my life right now without having to worry about her. At least they're handling the problem better than Chazz and Jenna. I have hopes that things will work out."

Sean shrugged. "They'll either work it out or they won't. So far, they're not letting it affect things around here, which makes for a nice change. If I could, I would much rather have a policy where co-workers couldn't date, but I can't get that one through the Company."

"You might give it a try now," Elisabeth suggested with a grin. "After everything that's happened, I'm sure Catherine de Bourgh would be more than happy to institute an idea like yours. You might even get a raise and a promotion out of it. Thomas Palmer should be shaking in his loafers."

"Thomas Palmer is already shaking in his loafers," Sean said, lowering his voice. "Don't tell anyone this, El, not even Darcy."

"Tell anyone what? Is he about to be fired?"

"How was everything today, ma'am?" Sean said, his voice louder as he motioned for her to move aside. Elisabeth moved and allowed a woman with a small child clinging to her right leg to pay. After she was gone, a pair of men in business suits came up to pay, followed by a group of five teenagers. Once they were gone, Elisabeth stepped back over to the register.

"Okay, you were telling me about Thomas Palmer," she said.

"Right. He's in a heap of trouble with Thomas Bertram about Newton. That's where I was the last week before you went on maternity leave. Elisabeth, you wouldn't believe how bad that store's starting to look. And it was one of the newer ones!"

"Really?" Elisabeth allowed herself to indulge in a satisfied smile.

Sean nodded. "George is turning into the second coming of John Willoughby, only ten times worse. At least Willoughby kept his screwing around limited to one woman instead of three or four. Willoughby also didn't crack lewd jokes at the front counter in the middle of a rush or make sexist comments to his female staff members."

"Hell, Sean, George used to do that crap here. It's suddenly news that he's doing it in Newton?"

"He got worse when he was promoted. He's already had two sexual harassment claims filed against him." Sean sighed. "And to answer your next question, I have no idea why he hasn't been fired yet. Anyone else in this district would've been with the first one, but not George. I guess they're waiting to see if the girls follow through with the complaints."

"He's always had a way of knowing how the system worked," Elisabeth said. "But that's no excuse. Who were the girls?"

"One of his new hires, Lynne Stone, and Frances Price."

"Frances?" Elisabeth nearly shouted. Several people turned to look at her. "Sorry," she said apologetically to those still staring. She turned back to Sean. "Of all people, why Frances? She's hardly his type."

"Which is probably why she filed the suit. He's been making cracks about how unattractive he thinks she is. She finally got fed up with it."

"Good for her," Elisabeth said with a smile.

"But aside from that, his numbers have been dropping steadily since August, and his customer complaints have risen. He's taken to hiring some of his buddies to work for him, and I'm sure you remember what they're like. So Thomas Palmer is furious with George, and Thomas Bertram is furious with Thomas Palmer."

Elisabeth hesitated before asking, "What do you think my chances of getting the store back would be?"

"Not bad, although Bertram's talking about hiring from outside the company rather than promoting within. But I have already mentioned to him that you've made improvements in your management style and would be ready for another shot...if only you weren't about to have a baby."

"They let Stacy in Charleston take maternity leave and come back to her own store," Elisabeth pointed out.

"And I mentioned that to Bertram when he asked. It's going to take some time, so if George does get fired, it might not be until after you're back from maternity leave. Keep your fingers crossed. Who knows? Maybe I will get a promotion and you'll get this store."

"That would work out." Elisabeth hesitated, thinking of her conversation with Darcy on the trip back home Sunday. Were they staying or going? They hadn't talked about it since, but she'd been thinking about it a great deal. "Well, maybe it'll work out. We'll just see."

In the first few weeks Darcy had spent in Effingham, he'd taken to jogging around town to see what little there was to do as a little reminder of just how much he disliked the place. After a time, when he'd come to accept his fate, his knowledge of the area improved and eventually he found himself growing to like a few of the places he jogged by.

Just across from the city police station was an ugly, one-story building that had once been a warehouse. The sign out front that informed visitors and potential customers that it was The Bookworm. Darcy had groaned the first time he'd seen the ridiculous name, only to remind himself that his own sister had been guilty of such ridiculous naming rituals when she'd renamed a little pizza chain Planet Earth Pizza. He'd passed it by without any intention of stopping.

After a couple of weeks, he'd decided to go in, just to see if they had anything worth reading. Darcy had been forced to put his leather-bound editions of the classics into storage when he'd moved to Effingham, so he had very little to read. He'd been surprised to find a section of the store was devoted to classic works of literature. He'd mentioned this to Mary Ann, the sixty-three-year-old owner, one day.

"We get a lot of kids in here who have to read a classic for English class. When they're done, they inevitably dump it on their parents, who bring it here. These same kids don't think to come here and save themselves a little bit on the book, so my classics collection is one of the best around." She'd smiled. "Not that I'm bragging or anything."

"Your collection is first-rate," Darcy told her as he'd set several books on the counter to buy.

Over the next several months, he'd gotten to know the woman better and had discovered that although Mary Ann had dropped out of high school to marry her husband, Lonnie, and raise a family, she was so well-read that Darcy wouldn't have hesitated to think her a genius. He'd told her that once, only to have her laugh so hard she fell off her chair and nearly sprained her ankle.

Darcy hadn't been in to see her in the past month with everything that was going on in his life, which was why it came as something of a shock to see the "For Sale" sign in front of the building. He'd never heard Mary Ann say anything about closing down, and despite the general ugliness of the interior and exterior, business seemed to be fine. There was always someone in there no matter what time of the day he stopped by.

"Mornin', Darcy," Mary Ann called from the front counter as he entered. She was in the middle of a book by Jane Green. If she'd even looked up, Darcy hadn't seen it.

"Good morning," he responded. "What's with the 'For Sale' sign? Are you going out of business?"

Mary Ann set her book aside. "No. Lonnie's finally retiring from Petty's so we can get on the road."

"Oh, of course." Now he remembered. Mary Ann had gone into a lot of detail about how she and her husband intended to spend their remaining years. She was the mother of seven children, all of whom had managed to escape from Effingham as soon as they could and were now scattered all across the country. Mary Ann and Lonnie hardly ever got to see them, so their plan was to buy their own RV and spend time traveling and visiting with their children. "I didn't think he was within light years of retirement age. You're certainly not old enough to be married to someone about to retire."

Mary Ann gave him a knowing look. "That's what I like about you, Darcy. You always have something nice to say, even if it's a complete lie. His last day is next month. By February first, we're hoping to be on the road."

"What if you don't have a buyer for the business before then? I presume you're selling everything."

"I offered to sell the business, books and all, to my cousin Linda over in Teutopolis, but she didn't want it. So I'm going to donate the books to the library and sell the building to whoever wants it. My cousin Pete is taking care of everything. That reminds me, I need to call that girl from the library and ask her what needs to be done."

Darcy glanced around at the room. It was as ugly as the outside was, but there had always been something comforting about it to him. The carpet was a worn industrial beige, which was the same color the walls had been painted. Faded hand-lettered signs on the walls told people what section of the store they were in, which was all the decoration the room had, except for the area behind the front counter, where clever little sayings discouraged people from stealing and told them to have a nice day.

Darcy felt something stir to life within him, some sense that crept up and whispered that there could be something special here. He could be the person to make it happen. He could buy this place from Mary Ann, books and all, and...

And what, genius? What do you know about running a book business? Nothing, that's what.

"Mary Ann, how long have you been in business?" he asked.

"Oh, well, let's see." Mary Ann didn't speak as she did the calculations in her head. "Well, it was a few months before Lonnie lost his job at Fedders, so that was...oh, heavens, fifteen years ago. It was the craziest thing Lonnie ever did, buying this place, but I'd been so depressed over Jennie, my youngest, leaving home and reading was the only thing that kept me together. My first customer was my mother, God rest her soul. Then my sister Linda and her book club friends came in and ordered a bunch of books they wanted to read, and it built from there. That first year, though, I thought for sure I'd have to go out of business before I was barely in business! Probably should've shut the doors, but Lonnie refused to let me do it. He said that he hadn't seen me as happy as I was in months. We made it...barely."

Darcy smiled. "And business has been good since then?"

"I suppose so. I'm not ever going to rival those big chains, but I do well enough, I think. I'm able to keep up with the expenses here. I'll never remind Lonnie of this, but most of the money in our retirement fund came from me. Why are you asking?"

Darcy knew he should keep his mouth shut and ignore the excitement that was growing. At the very least, he should've waited until he'd talked it over with Elisabeth. What he did instead was say, "I'd like to buy the business if you'd be interested in selling to me."

Three hours and a lot of preliminary paperwork later, Darcy walked into Planet Earth Pizza for his scheduled shift with his head full of ideas. Mary Ann had been shocked by his offer, to say the least, but after a few minutes she'd called her cousin and they'd started talking numbers. Not that there had been a lot of talk about there, either, since it didn't seem to him that Mary Ann was asking for a great deal of money for the place. Of course, when one had come from working at De Bourgh Enterprises, he supposed The Bookworm wouldn't seem like much.

"Evening, Mr. Darcy," Charlie said as he passed her by. She was sorting through change at the front counter. The place was deserted but for a table of two at the back of the store.

"That's Mr. Williamson," Darcy said. "Or did you forget?"

"She's been watching Pride and Prejudice again," Sean grumbled as he wrote something down on a piece of paper. It appeared that he was doing the cash count. "All day it's been Colonel Fitzwilliam and Miss Bennet. I'm surprised she doesn't have us calling her Lady Charlotte."

"The original Charlotte wasn't a titled lady," Charlie said. "And what's wrong with the movie? I watch it whenever I'm having a bad time and it makes me feel better. Imagine what I'd be like if I didn't watch it."

"I shudder to think, but I was never a colonel so cut it out."

Darcy almost chuckled until he picked up on something Sean had said. "Miss Bennet? Which 'Miss Bennet' was in today?"

"Elisabeth, and she's still here," Charlie answered. She pointed over to a table in the smoking section, where Elisabeth was engrossed in a book. "She wanted to talk to you for a minute before you get started."

Darcy glanced at his watch. "Good thing I got here a little early. We can talk for a little longer." He walked over to Elisabeth's table with his sternest expression. "What are you doing sitting in the smoking section, young lady?" he demanded.

Elisabeth looked up from her book. "Go away."

Darcy took a seat beside her and said, "Yeah, I love you too. Nice to see you and all that."

"Where have you been?" Elisabeth asked, shutting her book and setting it down. "I've been calling the apartment every half hour. You go for a jog and never return----do you know how scared I was?"

"I'm sorry," Darcy said, contrite. "I never thought about that. I got caught up in something else and...well, we'll get to that. Charlie said you wanted to talk to me about something."

"You go first. My news has to wait until Sean's in the back, anyway."

"Uh...okay. I guess I should start with a question. I know that when we talked about it last, you still liked the idea of moving to New York. If I told you that I could get a job here, a job where I would be happy and excited about what I do, and it wouldn't even require me to have a reference from Catherine, would you be willing to stay?"

Elisabeth didn't hesitate before nodding. "That kind of ties in to what I was wanting to tell you," she said. She glanced over at the register area, which was currently unoccupied. "I'll make this fast, and I can't give you details, but George Wickham might be on his way out. By the time I get back from maternity leave, the Newton store might need a new manager. Sean said he'd put in a good word for me. So what job have you applied for?"

"I didn't. I'm making arrangements to buy a bookstore."

Elisabeth gave him a puzzled look. "Lange's is going out of business? I hadn't heard that."

"It's not that one. You know that used bookstore across the street from the police station on Jefferson? The Bookworm?"

"Yeah. Charlie goes in there a lot." Realization dawned on Elisabeth. "Wait a minute. What the hell do you know about owning a bookstore?"

"Not a lot, and I'll be the first to admit it. But I've got a month to learn, and as someone once told me, I might start slow but I'm a fast learner. The business part will be easy----that's what I do for a living, right? Or did. As for the books, the former owner is helping me out, and I've already got a call in to my Uncle Mike to get what advice I can from him."

"Are you planning to do something to make the place look better? I seem to remember it being the ugliest bookstore I've seen next to the Old Book Barn in Decatur, which is just a larger version of The Bookworm."

"Oh, yeah. I've got ideas. I don't know how receptive anyone in this town would be to them, but I definitely have ideas."

Elisabeth crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a smug look. "Okay, then. Astonish me. What ideas do you have for making a success out of a used bookstore in a small town like this?"

Darcy smiled. He knew she wasn't opposed to his idea. She just had to play devil's advocate. "I thought maybe starting out with a book club would be a way to get people interested in the store. It's how Mary Ann started out."

"I think the library does that. The library also has a night set aside for children's groups if that was your second idea."

"How about this? Instead of just offering the book for sale, I could set up a night when they could get together to discuss the book. I'd have refreshments, which the library wouldn't offer, and..."

"For which you'd probably have to get a special permit."

"I know that, Elisabeth." Darcy was starting to get annoyed. This little business had him more excited than many of the things he'd done working for Catherine de Bourgh. He'd thought she was just kidding, but now he had to wonder. "I would also have a night set aside for aspiring writers here in town. Charlie could join."

"Charlie wouldn't join because she thinks her writing is terrible. She might come to listen to other people's work, though." Elisabeth nodded. "A good idea. Go on."

"Renovation. That's the big thing. I mentioned that to Mary Ann and she laughed. She said she should've done it herself a long time ago but she never felt like bothering with it. I'm going to do it. New carpet, new paint for the interior and exterior, new pavement for the driveway, a new sign and..."

"Definitely a new name," Elisabeth said with a chuckle.

"I don't know about the name. If I change the name, people might not want to come in. They're familiar with The Bookworm. Familiarity is good, and the name's grown on me. It's not too bad. It's definitely a step up from Planet Earth Pizza." Darcy took her hands in his. "I know you're probably thinking I've finally lost it, and maybe I have, but this is the first thing outside of you and the baby that I've been excited about for a very long time."

"I could tell." Elisabeth gave his hands a squeeze. "I am for you doing whatever makes you happy, you know that. I just want you to absolutely sure before you commit to this that it's what you want to do. You never mentioned this when we talked the other day, and it seems sudden. Very un-Darcy-like."

"It only seems that way at first. I like to read a lot. I know a great deal about business. What better way to combine these two things than with my own bookstore? Before you say anything, I know that there's more to it than sitting at the front counter reading all day. I'm prepared to work hard to make it a success, and I'll need all the help I can get. But this is what I want to do."

Elisabeth didn't say anything for what seemed to be an eternity. When she spoke, she nodded slowly. "All right, then. As Charlie has been saying all damn day, 'go to it.'"

Darcy snickered. "You really need to burn her copy of that movie."

"Oh, no no no. I don't dare. She had a good point when she said she watches the movie whenever she needs comforted. She says there's just something about it that makes her feel better."

"That's simple. It's because the movie has a happy ending. I would've thought she'd figured that out by now. She watches it when she's troubled because she wants to be assured that happily-ever-after happens."

"Oh, really? Maybe you should take up psychology instead of buying a bookstore."

"It's about time those ten years of therapy started to pay off," Darcy said with a grin. "They never did me any damn good, but I could probably apply what I've learned to other people. Speaking of other people, is Jack here today?"

"He was. He left around three. He's been pleasant, but I know the stress is killing him. You should see the way he looks at Charlie when she's not paying attention. If he could see himself, he'd realize he doesn't need this 'time to himself' or whatever the hell it is. Jack loves her. I just don't know if it's enough to overcome that family."

Charlie appeared then, a sad smile on her face as she joined them. Darcy and Elisabeth quickly changed the subject back to Darcy's new endeavor.

Chapter Fifty-Three

December twentieth, the last Friday before Christmas, dawned cold and cloudy. Now three days past her due date, Elisabeth was awakened by the sound of someone pounding on her front door. She'd managed to ignore the phone when it rang by waiting until it stopped and taking it off the hook. She felt like screaming. Sleep was becoming next to impossible for her even before someone decided to interrupt what she could get by calling or pounding on the door.

Elisabeth rolled over to smack Darcy awake and found the other side of the bed empty. A glance at the clock told her it was almost ten. Vaguely, she remembered that he was being forced to work the eleven-to-eight shift because Kit was in Arizona with her family, so he was no doubt already awake. She heard the door opening and wondered how long whoever was out there had been pounding on it if she hadn't heard it until now.

She heard Darcy's low growl, followed by the familiar sound of Charlie's voice. "She's not awake? It's nearly ten! Who doesn't wake up by ten?" she heard distinctly.

"You've been known not to wake up until well after ten on plenty of occasions!" Elisabeth yelled as she struggled to get out of bed, ignoring the back pain which had plagued her throughout the night. She pulled on an old robe and stomped into the bathroom, deliberately taking her time. It was the least she could do to pay Charlie back after she'd been so rude as to wake her up. Ten minutes later, Elisabeth wandered casually into the dining area, where Darcy and Charlie were standing and talking quietly.

"Good morning," Charlie said cheerfully. "It's about ten in the morning, you know."

"So you've already said," Elisabeth muttered. "Why are you so happy? Did you and Jack finally work things out?"

"No, but before this day is over, I intend to have that man worshiping at my feet. The news I just got has put me in a new, butt-kicking frame of mind and I'm determined to take advantage of it before I chicken out." Charlie beamed. "You are looking at the newest full-time employee of Heartland Human Services."

"You're kidding!" Elisabeth exclaimed. "They finally made a decision on that?"

Charlie nodded. "I got the call from Keith this morning. I'd heard for a while that they'd placed him in charge of my program, but Darla never said anything to me and so I thought that she was just not wanting to give me bad news. I was about to get into the shower this morning when the phone rang."

"Who is Keith?" Darcy asked, rubbing his eyes.

"He's the head of the residential program that I work for when we don't have clients. Now he's my boss as well. He told me that he and Linda, his boss, had lobbied hard to get me a full-time position and that it had been approved. Not only that, but I got a raise!"

"I'm so happy for you, Charlie," Elisabeth said, walking over and giving her a hug. "So I take it that Planet Earth Pizza is about to lose its' best waitress?"

"No, Erin still works there. It's just going to lose the one who's been there the longest." Charlie laughed with delight. "I can hardly believe this has happened. I've pinched myself twice to make sure it wasn't a dream, and I'm still awake."

"That's terrific news," Darcy told her. "When do you start full-time?"

"At the end of the next pay period, which is the end of the month." Charlie walked over to the living room and sat on the couch. She sighed contentedly. "Damn, this is a nice couch. Do I want to know how much you paid for it?"

"No," Darcy replied with a smile. "But maybe I'll give it to you in my will."

"Very funny. The best part of this whole thing is that I'll have insurance coverage I don't have to pay three hundred dollars a month for starting in March. I'll actually have money again! Maybe I'll buy myself a couch like this one."

Darcy didn't have the heart to tell her that the couch probably cost more than she'd make in at least two months. Apparently his face gave him away because Charlie smiled and said, "Well, not exactly like this one. But I'd love to have one of those couches that turn into recliners at each end. My parents have one of those and it's lovely. I think they paid a thousand for theirs. But I may have to wait on that for a while since I'm about to lose my roommate."

Elisabeth and Darcy looked at each other, startled. Neither of them had discussed living arrangements with Charlie, although they'd both known the situation couldn't continue to go on as it had been. Elisabeth took a seat in one of Darcy's chairs as Darcy went to make coffee for himself.

"I was kind of hoping that Jack would be able to move in with me, but this whole mess with his mother happened and now he's back there and I'm obviously not about to set foot in that house again, so...this does leave me floundering for a roommate."

"You could try advertising in the newspaper," Darcy called.

Charlie raised her eyebrows. "You're just kidding about that, right? Do you have any idea what kind of psycho I might end up with if I did that?"

"Well, she can't be any worse than Elisabeth, can she?" Darcy gave Elisabeth a wicked smile.

Elisabeth gave Darcy the finger. "Creep."

"Aah, you love me and you know it."

The smell of percolating coffee filled the air. Elisabeth ached with longing, as she did every day when she smelled coffee or a burning cigarette. Even after seven months, she still felt the longing for her bad vices.

"You could always ask Danie or Andie to move in with you," Elisabeth suggested.

Charlie snickered. "Andie and I would kill each other in a week and Danie smokes. I've gotten spoiled by the fact that you're pregnant and can't smoke, so I don't think I could room with her. Besides, neither one of them can afford it." She got serious. "Maybe I won't quit Planet Earth Pizza for a while. If I make up with Jack today like I'm hoping I will, I'll give him six months to figure out this situation with his mother. Then I'll think about going the roommate route."

"You think he's going to place her somewhere? I thought he wouldn't because his sisters would block it or something," Darcy commented, returning to the living room with a cup of coffee in his hands.

Charlie shook her head. "Legally, he's her guardian. That was one of the conditions he insisted on if he had to move home. So if something opens up in a group home, he can see about getting her in there and those sisters of his won't be able to do anything about it. I just don't know if he's going to reach the point where he finally decides he can't handle her anymore."

"You seem awfully sure that he won't be able to," Elisabeth said.

Charlie hesitated. "It's not that I lack confidence in him. Jack's managed to deal with a lot in the past and if he has to, he'll continue to manage. But he also knows where this road will lead. If we stay together, his mother's going to see me as a threat. She doesn't do well with threats. There's no telling what she'll do if he has to put his foot down about me."

"You're confident that he will stay with you, though," Darcy said.

Again, she hesitated. "I hope so," she said softly. "He said when we first got serious that he'd been in love with me for ages. I didn't believe him until recently. I'd like to think I wasn't mistaken in him."

"Well, I'll tell you the same thing I told my sister when she was faced with a similar situation recently. If he decides not to be with you because of one small mistake you made, then he's not worth your time."

Charlie nodded slowly. "Right." But there was no confidence in her voice when she said it. After a few seconds, she shook her head, as though driving the negative thought out of her mind. "Okay, I'm in full butt-kicking mode. The man doesn't stand a chance."

Charlie Lucas may have been in butt-kicking mode, but Jack Middleton had not been eager to be in the path of her newfound energy, as Darcy found out when he walked into work at eleven-thirty. Charlie had taken the day off to spend with her friends and had opted to drop by to talk to Jack before the store opened. Darcy arrived just in time to see Charlie's black Plymouth Breeze zoom out of the parking lot.

Darcy walked into the store and found Jack making extra buffet pizzas for the lunch shift. Darcy wondered if he should say anything or if he should stay out of it, but in the end his curiosity got the best of him and so he said, "Hey."

Jack nodded to him and returned to the pizza he was prepping.

"Was that Charlie I saw leaving when I got here?" Darcy asked.

"You known damn good and well that it was, so why did you ask?"

Darcy shrugged. "Maybe because I noticed she looked upset when she left. I'm thinking it had something to do with you. Why are you mad at her?"

Jack was concentrating way too much on putting pepperoni on the pizza he was making. "I'm not mad at Charlie," he said.

"You're sure acting like you are," Darcy said. "She thinks you're mad at her because you haven't spoken to her since that night at your mother's."

"I know this already. She told me herself." Jack put a lid on the pizza and stuck it in the refrigerated unit beside the make table for later use. He then started saucing a new pizza. "And I told her I wasn't mad at her. I know that what she said was an accident and I forgave her for it."

"So why did she leave the way she did?"

"Because I told her I didn't think it would be a good idea for us to keep seeing each other. She didn't agree."

Darcy wasn't quite sure what to make of this. Should he go ahead and call Jack an idiot, or should he wait to hear his side of the story? Jack didn't say anything but continued working on buffet pizzas. After a minute, he stopped to glare at Darcy. "Do you mind?" he asked. "It's unnerving trying to work when you're standing there staring at me."

"Why did you tell her..."

"None of your business. It's between Charlie and me. Just because the whole world knows about my mother and almost everything else in my life doesn't mean I wouldn't mind keeping a few things private."

"You've loved her for a long time. You've even done some completely stupid things because you loved her. Why are you giving up on her now that you two are together?"

Jack looked like he wanted to snap, but he took a minute to calm down. He said, "Because she deserves better than me. She deserves a real shot at happiness, and how happy can she possibly be when she has to deal with a family like mine?"

Darcy waited patiently for Jack to elaborate on his answer. Jack finished the pizza he was working on before turning back to him. "I knew, even if Charlie didn't seem to, that my mother was deliberately monopolizing my attention at dinner. She wanted to be sure Charlie and I didn't get a chance to talk much to each other. She wanted to show Charlie that she came first in my life. And as I sat there, listening to her and trying to figure out how to stop my sisters from insulting the woman I loved, I realized that it would be useless."

"Why should you care what they think about Charlie?"

"I don't. But I know Charlie, and while she said that their opinion didn't bother her, I could see that it did. That opinion isn't going to change. My mother isn't going to change, either." Jack swallowed visibly. "I don't know how much you know about what went on last Saturday. I'm going to assume you know the worst of it."

"If by 'the worst' you mean your mother shoving Charlie out your front door, then yes, I do."

Jack nodded. "My sisters and I saw her do it. In their minds, it was the final blow. They were already PO'd because I'd insisted on introducing Charlie to them."

"Why?"

"Because it means I'm serious about her, which means that I might actually get a life of my own again and dump our mother back on them. So they spent the entire meal putting down Charlie, her job, her life, her interests, and just about everything else they could think of. Then my mother gets up and, under the guise of a friendly hostess, tells Charlie that it's been a lovely evening. I wasn't fooled, although my sisters were for a second. They dragged me to the kitchen to ask me if I was sure Mom had taken her medicine when we saw her push Charlie out the door. Do..." Jack clenched his jaw in anger, but continued. "Do you happen to know what she said to her? We couldn't hear them and Charlie wouldn't tell me today when we talked."

"From what Elisabeth said, your mother told Charlie that you'd never send her off to a group home and that you'd never love her."

Jack nodded. "That was my guess."

"So based on all this, you've decided that Charlie's not worth it after all," Darcy said.

"That's not what I said," Jack snapped. "I don't want her to go through anything like that ever again, and if she stays with me, she'll have to. There's no getting away from my family and what they're like. They'd make her life a living hell."

"You make it sound like they'd start stalking her or sending her death threats. Surely they're not that bad."

"No, they're not. They're more subtle than that." Jack sighed. "I love her, but I don't ever want to see her as unhappy as she was when my mother shoved her out that door. That's what's going to keep happening if I don't let her go."

"Don't you think this decision should be Charlie's to make?" Darcy asked. "She knew what she was taking on when she started going out with you. She knew better than most women you'd date. She hasn't run away yet. And if you're about to feed me anything along the lines of 'she doesn't know any better,' don't. You know it's a lie."

"I wasn't." Jack went back to preparing pizzas. "I just don't think she realizes how tough it is to deal with this on a personal level. It's one thing to work with mentally ill people on the weekends because at the end of the day, you get to leave them behind. You don't leave my mother behind. She won't let you, and if you try, she pulls a stunt like she did a few months ago."

"Charlie got on full-time at Heartland," Darcy said.

Jack's hands hovered over the cheese container. "What?"

"Her new boss called her today. She got the full-time job at Heartland. I take it she didn't tell you when she was here."

Jack shook his head. "She never said a word. I wish she had."

"Why? Would it have changed this decision you've made to do what I guess you'd call the 'noble thing' and let her go?"

"Of course not, but I would've liked to have congratulated her. I know how tense she's been about it." Jack smiled grimly. "I guess this means she's going to leave Planet Earth Pizza for good this time. Maybe that's for the best. If she goes, then things don't have to get awkward and then ugly between us."

"Don't shove her out the door yet. Charlie says she'd quit working here except she doesn't think she can afford working only one job since Elisabeth plans to move out after the baby's born. She doesn't have a roommate looming on the horizon, so..." Darcy deliberately left that sentence unfinished, knowing Jack would come to the correct conclusion. He continued his argument, however. "She's going to be working with mentally ill people every day. Maybe you're right and she doesn't realize how hard you have it as opposed to being able to walk away from it at the end of the day like she can. But like I said, she knew what your situation was. She walked into it willingly. Don't shut her out because you don't think she can handle it. Charlie's handled a lot worse."

Jack filled a cup with cheese and sprinkled it onto the pizza he was making. Darcy waited until he was finished with that one before asking, "Have you looked into finding placement for your mother in a group home?"

Jack stopped working. "Yes, I have. The ones affiliated with Heartland are out because of Charlie, so I've been looking at other places. There's one in Vandalia with an opening now, but you have to have a recommendation from a psychiatrist and case worker to get in there and my mother refuses to see them. It's hard enough to get her to see a therapist. The one in Greenville is full and not likely to take on anyone new for now. There are some farther away, but if I'm ever going to get my sisters to accept this idea, she'd have to be somewhere close and those are the only real options."

"Charlie said you didn't have to get their permission to have her placed somewhere."

"She's right, but I'm hoping that maybe one of them will see reason. It would be easier if she were close to home." Jack went to work on another pizza.

"Look, I don't want to tell you what to do, but it seems to me that you're not thinking clearly if you think Charlie can't handle your situation. If anything, she can give you better clarity on the subject as long as you're willing to give her the chance. Think about it."

He left Jack standing at the make table with his thoughts. Darcy didn't know if he'd helped or hurt Charlie's cause, but he was glad he'd at least made the effort.

Darcy knew he'd seen busier rushes than this one, but he'd be hard-pressed to remember when they had happened. The usual Friday afternoon lot came in along with Christmas shoppers, teenagers out of school, and travelers on their way to holiday gatherings. Darcy began to see why Sean had insisted on working the day shift rather than closing, because there was no way Bubba could ever have handled this on his own.

Tables were being filled almost as quickly as people were leaving them. It seemed that as soon as Darcy or Erin had come around to refill glasses, people needed more to drink. Darcy could only thank God that the soda machine hadn't decided to play its' usual mind games, unless working properly could be considered a mind game...which it could. At eleven thirty, when there was a line to the door, Sean had called Chazz and begged him to come in and help out.

Chazz had shown up ten minutes later and almost immediately, the day seemed to get easier even if it didn't get slower. It didn't hurt that Chazz showed up wearing a Santa hat and ripped open the door shouting, "Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!" He got to work clearing tables and washing dishes because J.P. was out with deliveries.

Thanks to Jack's hard work in preparing for lunch and Sean's eagle eye, the buffet never ran out of pizzas, breadsticks, or pasta. The salad bar became a bit of a problem because neither Erin nor Darcy had time to refill it, but fortunately Chazz was able to take ten seconds to refill a few things which had gone empty. Erin had prepared extra items to go on the salad bar, which helped as well. It might have been busy, but for some reason, this rush seemed to be a lot more fun than Darcy had thought it would.

Around one, Elisabeth and Charlie walked into the restaurant. Darcy grinned when he saw them and walked over before Erin could seat them. "Hello, ladies! Lovely to see you. Are there going to be more joining your party or are you by yourselves?"

"Very impressive," Elisabeth said. "It's just the two of us."

"Thank you very much for the compliment. Two for nonsmoking," Darcy said, grabbing two sets of silverware and a couple extra napkins. "I think I've got this table up front available."

"I didn't say nonsmoking."

"Yes, you did," Charlie said decisively. "Think of the baby. Who knows what the effects of second-hand smoke might be on her."

Elisabeth gave Charlie an irritated look but didn't say anything as she waddled over to the table Darcy was seating them at. Before they could sit down, Darcy asked, "You guys want the buffet? It's technically time to shut it down but I'm sure Sean will make an exception for you two."

"Yes, please," Charlie replied. "But could I get an order of garlic bread with cheese too?"

"Nope. You either get the buffet or you order from the menu." Darcy sidestepped Charlie's hand reaching out to smack him. "And what would you like to drink? The usual water and Mountain Dew?"

Charlie nodded although Elisabeth looked put out. Darcy kissed her cheek and said, "Soon, hon. Very soon you can drink all the Dr. Pepper you can stand."

"I should already be drowning in Dr. Pepper," she said through gritted teeth as she walked past him to help herself to the buffet.

Darcy put in the order for Charlie's garlic bread and told Jack that she was there. Jack paused for a second to glance out at the dining room. Charlie was filling a plate with pizza. Before she could look up and see him, Jack had turned and walked away. Darcy sighed and wondered if Jack realized that anyone who'd just seen him could see the longing in his eyes. He went to get the drinks for Charlie and Elisabeth. He set them on the table just as Elisabeth was sitting down. Charlie was talking to someone in smoking.

"How's she doing?" Darcy whispered.

Elisabeth shrugged. "She seems fine. I think she's plotting something but she won't tell me what. You talk to him yet?"

"Yeah. He gave me the self-sacrificing bit about how she deserves better than his family. You ever notice how some of the truly smart people in this world are complete idiots when it comes to life?"

The moment the words left his mouth, Darcy knew he'd said the wrong thing. Elisabeth grinned slyly and said, "As a matter of fact, I have. You were my perfect example until you wised up."

"I don't know why I bother talking to you sometimes," he muttered as he walked away to help another table. He heard her laughing behind him, and although he'd been the butt of her joke, he couldn't help but smile.

Darcy continued working, expecting business to slow down after the buffet was over. It didn't exactly happen. They no longer had a line to the door, but the place was three-quarters full. He kept an eye on Charlie when he wasn't trying to keep tabs on Jack. He decided that Elisabeth had been wrong when she'd said Charlie was plotting something, because the only thing Charlie seemed interested in was having lunch. She and Elisabeth talked all through their meal.

When they were finished, Elisabeth stood up awkwardly, holding her stomach. Darcy noticed her immediately and rushed to her side. "Is this it?" he asked. "Did you feel a contraction?"

Elisabeth frowned. "No, I did not. All I have right now is back pain and the occasional twinge just like the other twinges I've been having this week. I called Dr. Knightley, who assured me again that if I haven't had the baby before Christmas, he's inducing labor the day after."

"Thank God," Charlie muttered.

"You're telling me. I feel like I've been pregnant forever. Stop hovering," she snapped at Darcy. "I'm perfectly all right."

Darcy stepped away from her and watched as she walked into the kitchen and headed to the office to talk with Sean. Jack was taking a short break by sweeping up the kitchen area, which was where Charlie headed.

Darcy almost told her that it might not be a good idea to bother Jack, but decided that he'd interfered enough. If he wasn't careful, he'd become as bad as Jack, Charlie, and Elisabeth had been when they'd gotten Chazz and Jenna back together. He settled instead of walking behind the front counter where he couldn't be seen and listening to what he could of their conversation.

"Hi," he heard Charlie say.

"Hey. I was surprised to see you here on your day off. Don't you ever get tired of pizza?"

"That's a hell of question to ask. I don't think I'll ever get tired of pizza, if you can believe it. I enjoy it too much, but you know that. You've seen the results of my overindulgence in gory detail."

"There is nothing gory about you, Charlie," Jack said vehemently. "You know that."

"Well, I don't know if I know that. I might need someone around to remind me of that every day for a very long time. Possibly forever. And I'll need this someone to tell me how much he loves me at least twice a day."

Darcy's mouth dropped open. Did she just propose to him, or did I hear her wrong? he wondered.

"Interested in applying for the job?" she asked. "Because if you are, I'm more than ready to take on the job of dealing with your mother."

There was silence on the other side of the wall. "Are you sure about that?" Jack asked in a voice so quiet Darcy almost couldn't hear him.

Charlie didn't answer him. Darcy was tempted to take a peek to see what they were doing, but it turned out to be unnecessary.

"Break it up, you two. There are young children present," Sean snarled. "Charlie, back out to the dining room. Jack, into the walk-in until you're more in control of yourself."

"Can't I go with him to the walk-in?" Charlie protested. "I always had a fantasy about the walk-in and..."

"Don't tell me any more. That's too much information for me. Besides, it would defeat the purpose of sending him back there. Now move it."

Darcy snickered as a red-faced Charlie emerged from the other side of the wall. Despite the blush, she was smiling.

Continued in Next Section