Page 1 of First Impressions (Passion and Perseverance #1)

Chapter One

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that a single woman approaching the age of thirty, with a good education and promising career, must be in desperate need of a husband.

Beth Bennet wasn’t usually so preoccupied with the idea of marriage or the need to find a husband, but mentally preparing herself to visit her mother generally precipitated this train of thought.

This internal debate and defense built as she got into the Uber she had called to take her to her parent’s house on the Upper East Side.

It wasn’t that she didn’t love her mother, but Irene Bennet had very specific goals and interests in her life, and having all five of her daughters married well was on the top of the list. Let’s face it, it pretty much was the list. However, tonight, a “serious family matter”’ is what her mom was focused on.

She had left Beth a voicemail earlier asking if she would be able to stop over after dinner to discuss this ‘serious matter’.

Now, most things were ‘serious matters’ to Mrs. Irene Bennet but when they were serious enough to warrant a post-dinner personal visit, Beth knew it was either one of two topics - some sort of gossip going around at her father’s law firm or her mother had set her up on yet another blind date with the newest marriageable associate or junior partner.

Cringing at that thought, she fished through her purse for her phone deciding to call Jane and see if she had any idea what was going on .

Jane was her older sister and was your textbook, first-born child.

She was kind, generous, patient, modest - and all those other ideal traits that most women can only falsely claim to have; Jane truly possessed them all.

She was, by far, the most beautiful of the five Bennet sisters.

She excelled at everything that she did and believed the best of everyone; whether that last was a blessing or a curse, Beth was still undecided.

She was also a paralegal at Longbourne Associates – her father’s law firm that had been in the family for 3 generations.

Since she worked directly with their father, Jane usually had better insight into what their mother was preoccupied with.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“Hey, I’m on my way over to mom and dad’s now. Were you invited over too and do you know what this ‘serious family matter’ is that mom is talking about?” Beth asked.

“I’m not sure. I was out of the office most of the day on errands, but I know dad was in a meeting this morning with lawyers from a Boston firm that’s not related to any case that I’m aware of. I’m almost to their place now so I guess we’ll find out.”

“Ok, I’ll be there in two. Text me if mom is trying to set one of us up again and I’ll make up some emergency to get you out of the house,” she half-heartedly joked, dreading the very distinct possibility of it being true. Jane laughed as Beth hung up the phone.

As the Uber pulled up to her parent’s house Beth thought that this was decidedly not how she had planned on spending her Friday night, but it was better to address whatever drama was unfolding than to let it fester until her mother did something drastic about it.

She got out of the car and stood on the sidewalk for a minute to collect herself.

Her parent’s large brownstone was on 71st Street, right off of Park Avenue, a pretty typical living situation for the managing partner of a respectable law firm.

The house had been in her family for as long as she could remember but the apartment that she and Jane shared in Tribeca always seemed like more of a home to her.

With a deep breath, Beth steeled her nerves and climbed the steps to the front door .

Her parent’s home was extremely well-furnished, collecting art and decor over the several generations that had inhabited it.

Her mother had changed a lot though, remodeling several of the rooms in the old Victorian style that she felt was an essential indicator of old wealth and status.

As expected, Beth barely made it through the doorway before she heard her mother’s heels clicking frantically on the marble floor announcing Irene’s approach moments before she came rushing into the hall.

“Beth! Thank goodness, you’re here. Jane just got here and Mary, Kat, Lydia, and I have been waiting. Your father has some news he says he wants to talk to us all about. Everyone is in the den waiting for you; I’d offer you coffee but we’ve waited so long as it is,” said Mrs. Bennet agitatedly.

While a kind and loving mother, Irene Bennet was a force to be reckoned with when it came to information acquisition and propagation, more commonly referred to as gossiping.

Beth never remembered her mother having a job and with not much else productive to do with her time or occupy her thoughts, Irene tended to get caught up in the social drama and intricacies of her family and her husband’s firm.

She did yoga every day and while she had been very beautiful when she was younger, she relied on some minor plastic surgery over the years to reverse the effects of aging.

The past few years had put a particular strain on Beth’s relationship with her mother due to her lack of interest in dating or marriage, which Irene considered to be one’s major accomplishment in life.

Since Jane and Beth had moved out, things between them had calmed down somewhat; although, she had a feeling that her father might have intervened on her behalf.

It was either that or her mom had decided to concentrate all her efforts on Jane who, while also still unmarried, was a more complacent personality for her mother’s schemes.

As much as Beth loved her family, she only got along with Jane and her father really well, mostly because they were the most easy-going and never pressured her into doing things that she didn’t want to do; they were the most supportive of her career and personal choices and genuinely cared about what her goals were for her life.

Her mother and her two youngest sisters, Lydia and Katherine (or Kat), on the other hand, loved drama and gossip far too much for Beth to enjoy, or really be able to tolerate, their company for any prolonged period of time.

It was ironic that she chose a career in the PR world, surrounded by gossip, but her job there was to set the record straight whereas her mom and siblings thrived on news with little concern to the validity of the stories they propagated.

Her other younger sister, Mary, was the middle child and was on the autistic spectrum; she was very smart but also very solitary and socially awkward.

Her disability made her very anxious and stressed around other people, especially those she didn’t know, so she preferred to stay at home and read, clean, and cook.

Sure enough, her father and four sisters were all in the den chatting as Beth and her mother walked in.

As one entered the room, the large gas fireplace that was lit sat straight ahead on either side of which were two huge bookcases, mostly filled with compilations of case precedents that her father would reference from time to time; the den also served as a mini law library and home office for her father.

Facing the fireplace was a loveseat, where her father and Jane were sitting, discussing a recent case that was in the news.

Opposite them, Mary was curled up in a chair intently reading the new ‘Hamilton’ biography.

On Beth’s immediate left sat their baby grand piano, where Lydia was seated on the bench talking to Kat, who had pulled up a chair next to her, deciding whose party to go to this weekend.

They were both home from college on summer break; Lydia was a junior and Kat had just finished freshman year at NYU.

“John, Beth is here. Can you please tell us what this is all about?” asked Mrs. Bennet exasperatedly.

Mr. John Bennet rose from where he had been sitting by Jane on the couch and came over to give Beth a hug which she returned with enthusiasm.

If there was one thing she missed about living at home it was seeing her dad every day.

They would spend almost every night drinking tea in that very same room either talking about life or reading quietly, just enjoying each other’s company.

Beth regretted not stopping by more to see him, but she honestly just never wanted to deal with her mother’s persistent interrogations about the men who were (or weren’t) in her life.

Of all his daughters, Beth knew she was the most headstrong and determined and she always felt that her dad, maybe not loved her more than her sisters, but admired her just a little bit more for it.

“Hi, sweetheart. I hope your mom didn’t have you thinking the world was ending when she called you to come over tonight.”

Beth laughed as she responded, “Well, she wouldn’t be mom if she didn’t.”

“Well there’s nothing to worry about, but I guess I should get on with it before she has a heart attack,” Mr. Bennet continued as he turned to face the rest of his family.

“I’ve been talking to your mother about this for some time now but I’ve finally made the decision that I want to retire and sell the firm.

I know that she made tonight into a bigger deal than it should have been but I wanted to tell you all in person so we could move forward as a family. ”