Beginning, Previous Section, Section IV
Jump to new as of February 22, 2008
Jump to new as of February 26, 2008
Jump to new as of March 1, 2008
Posted on Friday, 22 February 2008
Elizabeth arrived home to quite a scene. Her dad was sitting in a chair, his head in his hands. Her mother was running back and forth in the kitchen, banging pots and pans around as she wailed about losing her favourite daughter.
"Nobody cares that Liddie is all alone in a strange city with that man! She must be so frightened!"
"She wanted to go, mom," said Kate. "She's happy."
"Happy? How can she be happy when she's broken my heart? This is just like that story I was reading in Star the other day. They never saw their runaway daughter again."
"Try and be positive mom, please," said Jane. "Dad will have her back as soon as possible, you'll see."
Mr Bennet raised his head up as Elizabeth came into the room. "Congratulate yourself, Elizabeth. You were right and I should have listened to you."
"Dad! None of us expected something like this to happen."
"Let me admit that I've failed as a father. It's not everyday you find me owning up to a truth like that."
"Talking that way won't help any. What are you going to do?'
"You should have gone already," cried Mrs Bennet, putting away a stew pot and then taking it out of the cupboard again. "And stopped Liddie from being with that man all night."
"How? I don't have a clue where they are." He turned to Elizabeth. "I've contacted Sam Gardiner. He says I can stay at his place. I'm going to Victoria in the morning. You know this George guy better than any of us. Any idea what part of Victoria he'd go to? Did he mention any friends there?"
"I'm sorry, dad. I've been thinking all the way home. He never told me anything. The only people I know that he knows in Victoria have nothing to do with him."
"He'll get her pregnant!" wailed Mrs Bennet. "My little girl an unwed mother! I'm not ready to be a grandmother."
"Liddie's on the pill, mom," said Kate.
"She's what?" yelled Mr Bennet.
Kate turned white. "She's on the pill, but she's never . . . it was a precaution in case -- that's all."
"And what about you?"
"Me?" cried Kate. "Why are you asking me? I'm not the one who ran off with a guy."
"But you and Liddie do everything together."
"No, Dad. I just like to have fun -- have guys look at me and flirt and stuff, but I don't have a boyfriend or anything. I'm not easy."
"You won't have a boyfriend for some time to come either. You're grounded for ten years."
"Ten years?" Kate began to sob. "That's so unfair. I never did anything, Liddie did."
"And you're not going to do anything either, if I can help it."
"Has anyone eaten supper?" asked Elizabeth.
Jane shook her head.
"Kate," said Elizabeth, "how about you and I cook some food? Jane, can you take mom to the living room? Dad, can you check the timers on the sprinkler system? They've been acting up lately. I'll call you when supper's on the table."
The next day a stern Mr Bennet left at 7:00 am for the three hour drive to Victoria. Mrs Bennet had succumbed to her sleeping pills and stayed in bed till noon, giving Jane and Elizabeth a mercifully quiet morning. Kate sulked in her bedroom. Mary appeared at breakfast, her head inside a book.
"You were a lot of help yesterday," said Elizabeth.
"Figured you'd handle it better than me. Looks like you did."
"When mom's up she'll be ranting about how dad had better punch George out and worrying that George will kill him, all in the same breath. I'm going to be checking on the cuttings and Jane's going out for groceries, so you're stuck with keeping her calm."
"What about Kate?"
"She's grounded for ten years, can't leave her room." Elizabeth grinned.
"I'm taking Kate to Superstore with me," said Jane. "She needs to get out of the house and stop feeling like a victim."
"I sure hope dad finds Liddie fast," said Mary. "I don't know how long I can take this craziness."
Unfortunately Mr Bennet had no luck in Victoria at all. After a week of cruising the city, stopping random people on the street and showing them a picture of Liddie, asking if they'd seen her, he gave up and came home.
"I've left our number at all the homeless shelters and women's crisis centres. I've reported her missing to the police. I've been to every grungy flop house I could find. I don't know what more I can do." He sat on the couch, looking worn out and grey, and stared off into space. "Sam's going to keep an eye out. She hasn't contacted you and told you not to tell, Kate, has she?"
"I'd let you know first thing if she did. I've tried calling her cell hundreds of times but it's turned off or something."
"Her charger is plugged into an outlet in the kitchen," said Elizabeth.
Mr Bennet sighed and closed his eyes. "She could borrow a phone if she wanted to call. I'm sure George has one. No -- she's having too much fun to give any consideration to the fact we're all worried sick about her."
The next evening the phone rang just after supper.
"It's for you, Dad," said Mary. "Sam Gardiner."
He took the call in his bedroom. He came back to the kitchen half an hour later. The girls were busy doing the dishes, but they all stopped and looked at him expectantly.
"Liddie has been found."
"Thank God!" cried Mrs Bennet. "I hope Sam did some damage to George's pretty face."
He ignored the remark and continued. "She's spending the night with the Gardiners. I'm driving there in the morning to get her and bring her home."
"That is so good of them to take her in," said Jane.
"She's willing to come home?" asked Elizabeth. "She doesn't want to stay with George?"
"Thankfully, yes. It seems her exotic experience didn't live up to expectation. George left her."
"I'm coming with you to get our baby!" cried Mrs Bennet. "She needs her mother at a time like this. So terrible that George left her. She must be upset."
"Am I glad to be home!" said Liddie, as she sat down to supper with her sisters. Mr Bennet had taken a plate of food to eat in solitude in the office and Mrs Bennet was lying down after the tiring trip. "May Gardiner treated me like a child and never even let me go on her computer. Sam looked at me like I was diseased and didn't say two words to me. You'd think I'd done something wrong!"
"Well you did," said Elizabeth. "You ran off with a man at least ten years older than yourself."
"I‘m not talking about that. But don't remind me of George. I thought living in Victoria with him would be fun, that's why I went. And it was at first, though my cell died and I couldn't call anyone to show off about it. We went to some nightclubs and had some drinks and then he took me back to this place. I thought it was his place, but I guess it wasn't. Anyway, I was a little drunk, so I passed out on the couch and the next thing I know it's morning and these strangers are looking at me like I'm an exhibit or something."
"Where was George?" asked Jane.
"The jerk must've just dumped me there and left. I never saw him again. The guys that lived there were pretty cool, though. They let me crash with them and gave me food and stuff, but they didn't have a computer or anything. But they had a TV and a DVD player so we watched a lot of movies. They were stoned most of the time, but I hardly touched the stuff -- it made me feel weird."
"They gave you drugs?" asked Elizabeth. "What else? Did they . . . did you . . ."
"Oh God no! You're as bad as May, asking that. They weren't hot, so I wasn't interested in them. Anyway, I still thought George would come back and I told them he was my boyfriend so they never tried anything. Well nothing I couldn't handle, anyway."
"You don't know how lucky you are," said Elizabeth. "But what were you thinking? When George didn't come back, why didn't you call?"
"I figured you'd all be mad at me, so I thought I'd just hang with them for a while. Anyway, they never had a phone. But I got a bit bored after I'd seen all their movies a couple of times so when that Darcy guy came and told me he was taking me to May's place, I said okay. If I knew that May's place would be even more boring, I probably wouldn't have gone."
"Darcy?" asked Elizabeth. "What did he have to do with it?'
"Oops!" cried Liddie, covering her mouth and giggling. "I promised not to say anything. It's supposed to be a big secret."
"Why was it a secret?" Jane wanted to know.
"Don't ask me. The guy's into secrets or something. Anyway, he was sort of nice to me, even if he did dis George and tell me I shouldn't go places with him. Like I would anyway, after he dumped me, the jerk."
"How did Darcy know where you were?" asked Elizabeth.
"Who knows? I never asked him." Liddie took a big mouthful of her lasagne and savoured it. "Mmmm. This is so good after nothing but instant noodles and chocolate bars. Druggies don't cook."
"You are so exasperating!" cried Elizabeth. "What you did was stupid and dangerous and you're lucky you never got hurt. Can't you take it seriously at all?"
"Cool down," said Liddie. "I won't do it again, if that's what you're worried about. I didn't have shower till I got to May's place. Do you know how gross it is to go without a shower for over a week?"
"At least I know it's a stupid thing to do," said Kate.
"Nice to know someone has learned something from all this," said Mary.
"I can't wait till I see Sandy and Dennis next and I can tell them about those guys. One of them had dreads and these really kinky tattoos. And the other guy was so funny -- he knew every line from Napoleon Dynamite and he could do that dance too. I'm not kidding you -- exactly like in the movie. I think he watched it every day."
"We're not allowed to help the landscapers anymore," said Kate. "Dad says that if we want to work for the nursery, we have to stay in the potting shed and wear coveralls. I'm even grounded, thanks to you, so you must be more grounded than me."
Liddie smirked. "He says that now, Kate, but give him a week and he'll forget all about it."
Elizabeth groaned and finished her supper quickly. She'd had enough of Liddie's conversation for the evening. There was only one thing about Liddie's whole experience that she wanted more information on, and that was something Liddie appeared to have no interest in talking about. She knew her youngest sister very well and Liddie had never kept a secret in her life.
But how and why had Darcy found Liddie and taken her to May's?
After a few days stewing over the mystery, Elizabeth decided to break down and call May. The worst that could happen was that May would refuse to tell her anything.
"We were asked to keep it confidential," said May. "But now that Liddie has given most of it away I see no reason to be secretive anymore. Anyway, Sam's much happier not taking the credit for finding Liddie. That was all Darcy Fitzwilliam's doing."
"But how? Why?" asked Elizabeth.
"I don't think you need to ask why, Elizabeth. It should be perfectly obvious. According to Darcy, he was with you when you got the call about Liddie. He did it to help you out because you were so upset that your sister was in trouble. He said something about it being his fault that George had ever gone to your nursery and met your sister, because he should have told the NTA everything he knew about the guy's prior history with the FHA. I don't really see how that was his fault. It's the NTA's responsibility to check backgrounds before hiring someone."
"Yeah, he did tell me he blamed himself about that. But he was hoping George had learned his lesson."
"Darcy told us that because of having dealt with George in the past he knew some of his Victoria hangouts. He got in touch with the lady who ran the apartments George used to live at, and she admitted she'd heard from him recently. I'm guessing he had to pay a bit for that information. Anyway he tracked George down at a seedy motel and after a bit George admitted that he'd ditched Liddie with a couple of dealers he knew."
"Why didn't he call me instead of taking her to your place?"
"You'll have to ask him that. All I know is he wanted to keep his involvement quiet."
"I'm not calling him. If he didn't want me to know it's better I say nothing. What gave him the idea to take Liddie over to your house?"
"One of the places he called at looking for George was a shelter that your father had been to. Our number was left as a contact number if any information about Liddie turned up. They gave him the phone number and he called us. We told him to bring her right over as soon as he found her."
"Thank goodness it all worked out," said Elizabeth. "I thought I'd blown it, telling him, but it was for the best."
"If you're worried that the story will get out, don't be. From what I know of him, Darcy's the kind of person to keep things to himself."
"You're right. That's not what was bothering me."
"He's a good man you've got there."
"He's not my man, May. I doubt I'll ever see him again, now the SOD thing is all settled."
"Why would you think that? He's done a lot for you and I don't think it's all because of some plant disease. I've got a friend who works at the FHA -- she's not that good with their secrecy policy. She told me that when Darcy brought your samples in and demanded they get shipped to the lab as a top priority, he even threatened to catch a flight to Ottawa and take them himself if they weren't put on the next plane and processed before anything else. Apparently he called the lab for the results so often that they put the samples through quickly just to shut him up. He was the one who figured out what George had been up to. He went to the NTA with all his evidence and exposed George."
"He didn't do that for me. He was just doing his job. He takes it very seriously and he's thorough."
"Believe what you want to, Elizabeth, but most people don't book off holiday days to search the sewers of Victoria for runaway teenagers unless they are emotionally involved in some way."
Elizabeth would have liked to believe May, but it didn't make sense. If Darcy had found Liddie because he still cared, he would have called her, not taken Liddie to the Gardiners'. But she couldn't really blame him for not wanting to have a relationship with someone who had a slut for a sister. It had almost seemed like he'd wanted to be friends again, before that fateful phone call. But now . . . he'd done what he thought was his responsibility. He'd found Liddie because he'd kept quiet about George. But that's as far as it went. He hadn't wanted his involvement mentioned. That proved he wanted nothing more to do with Elizabeth on a non-business level. When the yearly sampling needed to be done again, you could bet he'd send someone else to inspect Glacierview.
Chapter Thirteen