Page 38 of First Impressions (Passion and Perseverance #1)

“Well, he was definitely the best yet but that’s all I’m going to say.” With that secretive comment, Jane stood up and went into the kitchen to heat some water for tea.

“I just can’t believe all this, Jane. I’m so happy for you.” Beth stared after her sister.

“Thank you,” she said shyly. “So, what happened at the ball last night? I saw Char dancing with Bill; I hope you said something to her about that. Wait a minute, I also saw you dancing with Mr. Darcy as we were leaving! Something must have happened between dinner the other night and that.”

Beth felt her face starting to heat; thankfully Jane was still in the kitchen where she couldn’t see her.

“Well, apparently Char and Bill are dating now. I know, I was floored too, but that’s what she told me this morning.”

“What! That’s crazy. I mean, awesome for her. I guess I don’t know him well enough personally, only professionally. In spite of his quirks, he is a very nice guy, very much a gentleman.” Jane could find goodness in the Grinch given the opportunity. “What about Mr. Darcy though?”

Beth started the story slowly, deciding as she went how much to divulge. She began with how she tried to blow him off at the beginning of the evening, not wanting to put herself in a position to be hurt. She moved onto the bathroom scene and her brief conversation with Anne.

“I saw how they interacted, I wonder what George has done to make him so mad. He seems like a nice enough guy and Lydia really likes him, that’s for sure.”

“Lydia likes anyone who is good-looking and willing to give her the time of day.” Beth rolled her eyes, thinking about how shallow her younger sister was.

“Beth!” Jane scolded her, “Did something else happen with him though? Mom called me this morning, mostly about Charles, but she asked if you or I had heard from George; she’d heard that something happened and wanted to make sure he was ok.”

“Well, yeah. There’s that too but I’ll get to that later.

So, I was really pissed that Darcy sent her to chase after me and warn me to avoid George.

You can’t just tell me that he is a bad guy and then not give me any reason to believe you.

Especially if I’m just meeting you for the first time.

So, I said that and left. Dinner was pretty uneventful.

I was mostly stuck between mom and Mrs. DeBourgh the whole time, who said in no uncertain terms that Darcy and Anne were a couple. ”

“Is that when you starting choking? I was worried.”

“Yep. After dinner though, Darcy asked me to dance - this was the first time - and I was about to say ‘no’ but then George came over and said that I had promised to dance with him. Since I was pretty drunk by that time and angry at Darcy for sending Anne after me, I figured what better way to annoy him than to dance with someone who he clearly hates; it probably wasn’t the best idea, but it felt good at the time. ”

“Oh, Beth.”

“I know, I know. So after that, I managed to avoid him until the end of the night when he asked me to dance again. Well, I think I ran into him and started to fall; I wasn’t very steady on my feet at that point in the evening and he asked me to dance, but since he was already holding me I think we just started dancing. That part is a little fuzzy still.”

“Did he say anything?”

“No. Well, he said ‘please’ when he asked me to dance. I wasn’t sure that word was in his vocabulary,” Beth said wryly, continuing before Jane could comment, “As I was going to leave though, George came back over to us and said some inappropriate things to me; he was completely wasted though, I doubt he even remembers. Anyway, what he said really set Darcy off, so Darcy punched him.”

“Oh my God, Beth! Is he ok? Why would he do that?” Jane was shocked.

“He’s fine. Darcy had some of the hotel staff come over and take him to his room and I think he even had a doctor sent up to the room to check on him.

I would be surprised if he remembers any of it,” Beth finished knowing that she’d reached the point in the story where she had to take the leap and tell Jane everything.

On a sigh, she heard her stomach grumble and, reaching for her phone asked Jane, “What time are you leaving for dinner?”

“Charles said he was going to pick me up around five o’clock.”

Beth found her phone to check the time. It was almost four; they had been talking for almost three hours and her mom had just tried to call her three times.

“Did mom try to call you?” she yelled to Jane.

“I don’t think so. My phone is on the coffee table; you can look.”

Beth reached over and checked the phone - no calls from their mom, just two texts from Charles. She had a twinge of frustration that she had no way of contacting Darcy and that he hadn’t gotten in touch with her yet. He had to have gotten her note by now.

“You have two messages from Charles.”

“Ok! I’ll be right there.”

Beth dialed her mom, wondering why she was the only one to be repeatedly called.

“Beth! Thank God. Why didn’t you answer your phone? Are you with Jane? Is she ok?” her mom answer frantically .

“What? Yes, we were hanging out and I didn’t realize that it was ringing. She’s fine, why? What’s wrong?”

“It’s Charles.”

“Is he ok? What happened?” Beth’s face immediately fell in worry over their friend. Jane came back into the room with tea at that moment and saw the look of concern on her face. Jane quickly reached for her phone to read what he had sent.

“Yes, he’s fine. Well, physically, but not mentally apparently. Your father just told me that the whole deal is on hold and that Charles is going back to Boston for the indefinite future.”