Beginning, Section II
Jump to new as of December 16, 1999
Jump to new as of January 9, 2000
Zes - 6 - Six
Elizabeth was the proud mother of a gold-coloured hamster called ______, because she usually called it by a different name each day. It was a lively and sweet little animal, and very bright according to its mother.
William had seen it and had thought it a good idea. He liked animals, but he could never take a bigger pet now that he lived on the fifth floor. He had got himself a white and brown hamster. He had wanted to call it Caroline, but Caroline had begun to scream when she saw the hamster, because she thought it was a rat, and she had protested at a rat being named after her. "You think I'm a rat!" she had accused him. "Thanks a lot, William! Shall I go to the next ball with Godfrey then?"
William had called it Lizzy instead, not having a large imagination when it came to girls' names, and the ones he particularly liked he wanted to save for when he had to name his two daughters.
Lizzy was not such a good hamster, because he -- a small mistake on William's part, but he was not a biologist -- frequently escaped and then William had to go and look for it. "Lizzy?" he called when it had happened another time. "Where are you, baby?" He hoped Lizzy had not gone out into the corridor, but when he did not find him, William had no choice but to look there as well. He caught a glimpse of Lizzy sneaking into Elizabeth's room. He thought she was out because nobody had bothered to answer the ringing phone five minutes before, so he could safely go and catch Lizzy.
Elizabeth had all day to work herself up into a rage over the Jane and Charles incident until William returned. She was not out, but she was sitting in her room chatting on the internet to some of her friends, which meant she could not get up to answer the phone. It would be rude to leave her internet friends waiting, and if it was her mother on the phone, all her friends would think she had rudely abandoned them, because her mother always talked for hours.
"Lizzy? Where are you, baby?" someone outside her door called.
Elizabeth froze. She absolutely disliked being addressed like that.
"Lizzy? Don't run from me. Come to William."
William?
The door opened and William entered on his knees. He did not see Elizabeth because he was looking down -- Lizzy would be running around on the floor somewhere. "Come baby. I have some sunflower seeds for you. Lizzy?"
"What?" Elizabeth cried. "Get out of my room."
"I wasn't talking to you. I was calling my hamster." As if that would make it better.
Elizabeth was only more aggravated. "Your hamster? You've named a hamster after me? She glanced at the cage with her own hamster, which was standing in a corner on the floor. She had accidentally left the door open after having cleaned the cage, and Lizzy had discovered this very quickly. He was now inside the cage, getting acquainted with _____.
"It's a he!" Elizabeth cried in disgust. "You named your male hamster after me? I hate you!"
William gave her an agonised look, sat down on her bed, and stood up again with the speed of light. "It's a he? I didn't know!" He paused. "I have tried to repress my feelings for so long, but I can't do it any longer. I want to tell you I'm in love with you."
This came as a big surprise to Elizabeth and she could only stupidly stare at him. "What?" she said when she had found her voice.
"I love you. You have been on my mind from the first day I came into this house and it has only got worse. I know it's wrong, because I'm sort of involved with Caroline, and besides, my parents would never approve of you, but my objections against your family and background were not strong enough to convince me that we are not the perfect couple. I guess I subconsciously named Lizzy after you."
The nerve! Elizabeth blinked her eyes a few times. "Excuse me? The perfect couple? You and I? No, no, no, we are far from being the perfect couple, and thought I suppose I should take it as a compliment that someone likes me, I can't, not in this case."
William looked shocked and angry. "Are you going to tell me why not?"
"Alright, I shall tell you," Elizabeth said, her agitation rising. "You make it sound as if I was rude. If I was really rude, and I don't think I was, it's perfectly understandable after that speech of yours. It would be the pot calling the kettle black! Who can blame me? You said some pretty insulting things, but that is not all. You know I have more objections to you. How could I ever like you after all that you have done to get Charles to dump Jane. Jane, my cousin and roommate, your roommate too! You must have got to know Jane by now if you had ever deigned to get to know all of us in this house, and you would have know that Jane is the nicest person on earth!"
William said nothing. He looked as if he thought she was exaggerating grossly.
This infuriated Elizabeth even more and she continued. "If you had thought that was all, think again. My opinion of you has never been good, and it has been strengthened by other people's accounts of your despicable behaviour too. I heard from George Wickham what kind of person you are."
"George!" he cried angrily.
"Yes, George! And what he told me was not a pretty story."
"I bet it wasn't, knowing him."
"How dare you say that after all that you have put him through?" Elizabeth cried.
William walked to the window and looked out. "So this is what you think of me? If I had not spoken my mind about my objections against you and your family would you have reacted in the same way? If I had flattered you, for instance?" He turned around and looked at her. "But I hate being insincere, and I meant what I said. I am not ashamed of what I believe."
Elizabeth's anger only mounted at hearing this. "Oh, not at all. I am glad you were so insulting, really, because how would I have turned you down politely if you had been civil?"
William looked incredulous.
She continued. "From the very first day you came to live here, your conduct convinced me that you are an arrogant, conceited, spoilt and selfish brat. The more examples of your behaviour I saw, the more I disliked you. After a week I had already decided that you were the last person on earth I could ever love! How can you try to seduce me when you have a girlfriend? I won't even have our hamsters become friends! Get that thing out of my cage!"
William swallowed and said icily polite, "in that case, I wish you all the best in the world. Have a nice day." He caught Lizzy, walked out and shut the door with great care. He did not slam it.
Elizabeth leant back in her chair. She felt exhausted and close to hysteria. For some reason she wanted to cry. She stared at her computer screen blankly, but she felt she could not continue chatting so she logged off. She lay on her bed and cried for at least an hour.
The next morning Elizabeth awoke unrefreshed, having slept badly because she could not sleep. Still, she had to get up because there were lectures to go to. She turned on her computer to see if there were any emails, and she opened her mailbox.
"Whoa," she said as she saw there were six new messages. She scanned the senders quickly. Five from Colin and one from William. William??? No, I won't read it, even if it says PLEASE READ. I won't. The good spirits the sun had brought her in, vanished in a second.
But after reading all five of Colin's stupid emails, she could not contain her curiosity any longer and opened William's email. It was dated almost two hours earlier, at 9.13, which meant he had sent it right after the university computer rooms were opened, because he did not have a connection in his room.
Hi Elizabeth, please read this, please continue reading. I promise I'm not going to repeat any of the things I said to you last night but I need to get some things off my heart. You said I told Charles to dump Jane, and you're right. I did. I thought it was the right thing to do. You see, I could see he was besotted with her, but she always seemed quite cool. I didn't think she was as interested in Charles as he was in her. He is my friend, I felt I had to protect him from this kind of thing. It has happened before and I did not want him to go crazy about some girl who was only stringing him along. I have tried to be objective, and I think I was. If I hurt her and you by doing so, I can only say I am sorry.I don't know what George Wickham told you about me, but I shall you the truth about our acquaintance. He lived next door to us all his live, his father was a nice man, but his mother spent so much money that they could not pay for their son's education. My father felt sorry for George, because he thought George could do better. He offered to pay his university fees. What he did not know, and I did, was that George had cheated his way through high school, and thus graduated with good grades, but he was incapable of making his way through university. He didn't show up for his exams or he failed them, and at the end of the year he was sent off. Miraculously, he was accepted onto the Military Academy, but he got sent off there as well, for undisciplined behaviour. George seduced my younger sister. He had taken her there, told her he loved her, and she was only 16! It was forbidden to have company at night, and he was found out. That, combined with other things, was what clinched it. Ask Richard, he knows because he was there. He can tell you I'm speaking the truth, even if you do not want to believe me. As for having a girlfriend, I can only say that the love is not very strong on either side. She left her previous boyfriend to come clinging onto me and I never expected our thing to last very long. Soon she will find out that I am not glamorous enough for her and she will move on, with no hearts broken or pride wounded. Again, you can ask Richard. He had her first, but he was not warned about her in advance so the deception was greater and he might be a little less rational about it than I am.
William
Elizabeth read it, and read it again. She was still angry about his interfering, and she could not forgive him for that, also because he kept insisting that he had been right.
The information about George was different. At first, she thought he was lying -- trying to slander George. But then she started thinking. Why would he slander his sister as well, just to make George look bad? No brother would do that unless he really hated his sister, and William loved his sister. That was one positive thing she knew about him. Could George really be so rotten? It had to be. William would not lie about his sister, and besides, why did he ask her to go to Richard if she wanted the story proved? It had to be true.
She could well believe Caroline switching her attention from Richard to William, given her fashionable preferences, but still...he could have turned her down. He should have. Even if she was quite aware of the fact that he did not exactly encourage her, he was not too enthusiastic in discouraging her either. Or was he?
She printed out the email so she could take it with her to her lectures. Elizabeth found it very hard to concentrate on what the lecturer was saying about the novel they had had to read for this week. During every break she re-read the email, and every time she became a little more convinced that he was speaking the truth and that she had misjudged him. She kicked herself for believing George, just because he had pleasant, engaging manners. How could I have been so stupid? I did not even know him at all! And yet I was willing to believe all he said. She was forced to review William's behaviour, and had to concede that maybe she had always been misjudging him a little.
As she rode back home, she stopped at the supermarket to do her shopping, and ran into George. She now knew to distrust his friendly ways and his agreeable words.
"Ah, William's little roommate," he greeted her with a smile, thinking she would be happy to see him. Maybe he could even squeeze a date out of her.
Liar! Cheat! His smile made her a little sick, but she greeted him back politely.
"How have you been doing? Have you had any parties lately?"
She shrugged. "Yes, we had William's birthday party, and he had some friends, and his aunt and cousins there, it was quite fun. Do you know his cousin Richard?"
"Yes, I do," he said curtly, wondering if Richard had let anything slip about him. "He's very unlike William."
"No, they are different, but is that wrong? I think you just have to get to know William." George looked alarmed. He had not expected her to say anything like that, and that was of course exactly why she had said it.
"And then, after you go to know him better, would you say he improved his manners or his character?" George asked.
"I do not think his character has changed," she said solemnly.
George frowned, not sure what to make of this answer. To hide his confusion he went to weigh his vegetables.
Elizabeth continued when he came back. "I merely meant that one understands his character better when one gets to know him better."
"Well, I am glad," he said after they had walked through a few aisles in search of things on their shopping list, "although perhaps it was more the influence of wanting to appear a good person at his own party that brought on this change -- I know what he is like, from my own experiences with him. He's very much afraid of his aunt, I know that, and he will do anything to please her, so she won't cut down on his allowance."
Elizabeth raised her eyebrows at this thought, but she was not really looking forward to a repetition of the story of George's traumatised youth, so she said nothing. The conversation ended when they joined different queues, and she chose not to wait for him until he had finished paying, but walked away quickly.
Zeven - 7 - Seven
Elizabeth did not see William very much after that. He stayed at his aunt's house to study quietly, and after his exams he went on a short vacation. She was glad she did not see him, because she did not know what she would have said or done to him. She certainly did not want her roommates to find out about it. Imagine what they would say! They were always so eager to have something to gossip about -- they had even ordered their single roommates to provide them with some gossip by bringing a stranger home. She refused to oblige them in that aspect, though.
On the other hand, she did want to see him, if only to demand child support for what his hamster -- Lizzy! -- had done to hers. Now she was stuck with nine hamsters and she had to buy food for all of them, not to mention more sawdust and more toys. There was no way she could keep all of the babies. The cage was not big enough to accommodate nine and the racket they made at night was terrible. Jane said she would take one, but because she was such a good soul, she took two. That left six babies. Elizabeth did not mind keeping one herself, so she had five to give away. She sold them to a pet shop -- too bad if William had wanted one for himself. He should have shown some concern.
Lydia came to stay for the weekend and Elizabeth remembered why she tried to limit that from happening as much as possible. Sometimes she forgot, thinking that she ought to show a little family charity, but then Lydia would go ahead and be a pain and Elizabeth was firmly back on the ground again. The last time Lydia had come, she had not only stayed out until four with Carter and Denny -- Elizabeth had already long gone home -- but she had not even come to Elizabeth's room when she did. Presumably she had stayed with one of the boys, because Elizabeth had not seen her until breakfast. She was also leaving a mess everywhere. She left the towel she had borrowed from Elizabeth in the shower and walked through the hallway in her underwear. "Lydia!" Elizabeth hissed. "We don't do that here!"
"Like I care," Lydia shrugged. "It's like a bikini."
William had been there then and he had looked on in disgust. His sister probably did not do such things.
He was not here now, and to vex Elizabeth, Lydia behaved a little better. She was excited about graduating from high school this year so she could go to university as well. Elizabeth doubted that she had the intelligence to do it, knowing that Lydia had cheated her way to 6th year -- she always had little notes everywhere during tests -- but then, her sister had to have some innate abilities, otherwise she would never have been able to pass those tests that tested intelligence and not cramming abilities.
"I'll study Law," Lydia said excitedly. "It sounds boring as hell, but I've heard you never have any classes."
"Not a whole lot, no."
"I also heard it's the easiest subject at university so I don't have to study to pass the exams and that will leave me lots of time to party."
"I thought people went to university to study," Elizabeth remarked. It was true that the Law faculty attracted a great deal of stupid people -- she knew some who had been at school with her -- and it was no wonder that Lydia wanted to join them.
"Yeah, but don't you allow me a social life? I don't want to be a hermit like you!"
"I have a social life."
"Oh come on," Lydia said contemptuously. "I asked you if you ever went to the Rave Night and you said no."
"Of course I don't go there."
"But it's a party!"
Elizabeth and Lydia were both invited to their uncle and aunt's house, but Lydia had declined the invitation, saying to Elizabeth that there was no way she was going to do something as dull as that and that she had a cool party to go to on Friday night, so she would perhaps not wake up until Sunday afternoon. Elizabeth was glad -- she would have hated to keep Lydia in line, and share a room with a party animal like her sister who always came home well after midnight.
Her uncle and aunt had moved to their new house not long ago and this was the first time Elizabeth would get to see it. She loved the house -- or bungalow, rather, since there was no upper floor. It was quite spacious, which was necessary because the Gardiners had four children, who were now staying with their grandparents.
The neighbourhood was nice. Elizabeth had grown up in a standard, seventies middle-class neighbourhood of endless mazes of crookedly-running brick 'streets' with identical houses, but this was completely different. The owners of these houses had had them built or designed themselves and the streets were asphalted and tree-lined. Consequently, the house prices were also much higher.
"The people next door have a housekeeper," Aunt Gardiner said to Elizabeth.
"You're kidding!"
"No, I'm serious. They work abroad and the housekeeper lives in their house to keep an eye on it. She has her own flat in the basement. I think I might go over and ask if I can borrow a bicycle for you." Elizabeth was too big for the children's bikes.
"Are you sure they don't need it themselves?" she asked anxiously. "I mean...I don't want to..."
"No, the housekeeper told me yesterday that the family weren't expected until next Monday and you'll be gone by then."
"Okay then..."
Acht - 8 - Eight
Elizabeth followed her aunt to the neighbours' house. A respectable woman opened the door. "Good morning," she greeted in a friendly way, as if she knew Mrs. Gardiner well.
"Hello, I have come with a question. This is my niece Elizabeth."
"Nice name. Ellie Reynolds," the woman said with a smile as she shook hands with Elizabeth.
"Elizabeth is staying with me for a few days and I was wondering if we could borrow a bike so she can get around. The children's bikes are a bit too small and Edward and I need our own."
"But of course," said Mrs. Reynolds."
"The family aren't coming back?"
"No, not until Monday and I must say that not many of them actually use their bikes. Only the children do."
Elizabeth noticed the name plate beside the door only now, because it was partly hidden from view by ivy. George, Anne, William & Georgiana Darcy it read in elegant letters. She nearly had a fit. She was about to borrow a bike from William. Or from his family, but that amounted to the same thing. What if he came home earlier? She did not want to be caught riding his bike. Fortunately Mrs. Reynolds would not give her a man's bike, so there was no chance that she would actually be riding on his, and it was uncommonly impolite to start making a fuss now because of something that was between them alone, but it took all of her strength to remain impassive and not to burst out into waaaah and wooooh and gaaaaah and other such exclamations that she would undoubtedly utter when she was alone.
"Would you like some tea?" Mrs. Reynolds asked. She was obviously very nice and glad to have visitors. Being a housekeeper was probably a very lonely job, especially if the family were always abroad. Elizabeth wondered why they kept a house here in the first place. Surely a hotel or staying at Aunt Catherine's would be cheaper. But then the thought of staying with Aunt Catherine was probably as appealing to the Darcys as it was to her and she sniggered until she realised whose parents she was applauding and then she pulled an impassive face once more. Surely if they had raised a son to be like William, they would love to spend time with Aunt Catherine. But no, she was being mean. She should remember that William was not as bad as she had first thought him to be. On paper. He would have to redeem himself in the flesh first before she would really start to think differently.
"Oh, that would be very nice," Mrs. Gardiner answered.
She and Elizabeth were led into a large sitting room by the housekeeper. "This is the family's room, but that doesn't matter. I was vacuuming my own room downstairs and the Darcys don't mind if I occasionally use this one."
Elizabeth was not really comfortable sitting in William's parents' living room, especially not with those pictures of William staring down at her from the wall. It seemed as if they had taken a picture of him every year, because there were so many of them. Picture freaks! Sometimes it was him alone and sometimes he was with his younger sister.
"Aren't they good-looking children?" Mrs. Reynolds asked as if they were her own.
"I know him," Elizabeth whispered to her aunt when Mrs. Reynolds had stepped into the kitchen to get the tea. "You actually live next to one of my roommates, how embarrassing!"
"Does he look like his pictures, Elizabeth?" her aunt asked, studying them closely. She found him a very good-looking boy indeed.
"Do you know William?" Mrs. Reynolds exclaimed.
Elizabeth smiled weakly. "Uhh yes."
"Isn't he a sweet boy? And so intelligent and handsome too! But that has never affected his behaviour in the least. He's always been a sweet boy and never arrogant."
Elizabeth opened her eyes wide. That hasn't affected his behaviour? Never arrogant? Are we talking about the same William here? We can't be! It's impossible! She studied the pictures again, standing before them. It was true that he looked very nice and smiling in all the pictures. She had never seen him like that. Wow. Sorry, but wow. Elizabeth, you're nuts! You're admiring your archenemy's pictures. Twit! Quickly she sat down again and admired the pattern on the Persian rug instead. There was nowhere else to look. William was staring down on her from every wall, saying I am nice! I am cute! I am nice! I am cute! You are a twit!
After hearing Mrs. Reynolds praise the Darcy children at length, she was glad that they could leave. "Come out the back," Mrs. Reynolds said. "I'll get the bike for you."
While Mrs. Gardiner followed her to the shed -- which at Elizabeth's house would have been five steps away from the back door, but here was closer to fifty -- Elizabeth went to take a look at the rabbit, who had a private enclosure next to a building which she would have thought to be the garage if she had not seen the garage door at the front of the house. Maybe it was the green house. She patted the rabbit and straightened her back when she heard footsteps behind her, thinking that it was her aunt with the bicycle. Elizabeth turned and gasped at the sight.
The other person gasped too and said "@%!@," but not at the sight of Elizabeth.
"Oh ooh oooh ooooh!" was all Elizabeth could bring out.