Page 61 of First Impressions (Passion and Perseverance #1)

Chapter Forty-Three

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

Beth rolled over, trying to make the noise stop so that she could continue sleeping.

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

“Hello?” she answered her phone groggily, not even looking to see who it was who called.

“Beth! Your sister is getting married!” her mother screamed at the other end of the line.

“Yes, mom, I know. I’m hanging up now.”

“No! Not Lydia. Jane! Jane and Charles are engaged!” her mother exclaimed. Beth wished Jane had told their mom that Beth already knew.

“Yes, wonderful mom. What time is it? I’m still sleeping. I’ll call you in a little.”

“What? Why aren’t you more ex—” her mother’s excited scolding cut off as Beth hung up the phone.

She didn’t know what time it was but she did know that it was too early and she was too emotionally drained to deal with that. She needed coffee and a shower.

Shower first. Dragging herself from the bed, she showered to try and liven herself up.

In her groggy stupor, all it did was allow her mind to drift to the memory of when Darcy had showered with her.

God, what she wouldn’t give for that right now.

Her heart was so hurt that she hadn’t even acknowledged the physical, sexual ache that she had for him.

It was like he had awakened something inside her, something that she had purposely suppressed for so long to focus on her goals that she forgot it existed.

She closed her eyes and imagined that it was his hands instead of the water caressing her body. Washing her hair, she remembered how tenderly he had massaged her scalp as he performed the task. In spite of his need for control, the tenderness with which he had treated her made her chest tighten .

She turned the shower to cold, shocking her system back to reality.

She needed to move on. No matter how much she loved him and wanted to be with him, she couldn’t pursue him now without it appearing to be out of gratitude.

Turning off the shower, she stepped out and grabbed her towel, roughly drying her body so as to not evoke any other memories of Darcy’s caresses.

Checking her phone again she saw that she had missed several texts from Jane earlier this morning, even before her mom called.

Hey, I’m on my way over to mom and dad’s now to tell everyone. Charles is meeting me there. FYI.

And then:

Just told mom and dad. Mom is being mom, prepare yourself for a phone call.

Well, she read that a little too late to be helpful. Knew I should have set an alarm. Feeling guilty for brushing her mom off so rudely, Beth called her back, steeling herself for the onslaught of excited screeches that were headed her way.

“Beth! I can’t believe you hung up on me earlier. That’s absolutely no way to treat your mother,” Irene began, briefly controlling her excitement to scold her daughter.

“I’m sor—” Beth tried to interject.

“Now just wait; I’m not done. I’m sorry that I woke you this morning but after everything that has been going on, I wanted to share with you that Jane is engaged. There was no reason for you to hang up on me.”

Wait for it.

“Can you believe that our Jane is engaged? And Lydia! I just can’t believe it!” her mother’s switch had been flipped and the offense completely lost amidst her motherly pride.

“Yes, very exciting!” she tried to match her mother’s excitement but fell short.

“To think, two daughters married. Well, one married and one going to be married. Oh, I do hope that Jane has a big wedding. We just have so many people that we need to invite. And I’m sure that Charles will have a lot of family and friends coming as well…” Irene rambled on.

Here it comes .

“ Oh! Maybe he will have a groomsman or two for you to meet. Yes, I will definitely need to talk to— Jane! You have to make sure that Charles has single groomsmen. For your sister…”

“Mom, seriously? I’m still on the phone,” Beth said loudly into the phone, trying to regain her mother’s attention.

She knew this was coming. Two daughters married wasn’t enough.

It hadn’t even been two hours since she had found out that Jane was engaged and less than twenty-four hours since Lydia had married and she was already trying to set her up with someone.

“I know, honey. But I just want to see you all happily in love and married. Like my darling Jane is going to be. Isn’t this just wonderful? Jane and Charles. Your father is so happy; the firm is going to be in such good hands,” her mother sighed in contentment.

“Yes, I’m so happy for her. Jane deserves all the happiness in the world,” she responded sincerely “I’m going to go. I have some work emails to catch up on.”

“Oh, ok. Oh, but wait Beth! Wait! Charles wants to have an engagement dinner next weekend to celebrate!”

I’m sure that it was ‘Charles’ who wanted to have a celebratory dinner…

“Ok, when?”

“I think Saturday would probably be best. I don’t know where yet, maybe here...” she trailed off before yelling, “Jane! Where should we have your dinner? Maybe it’s better to do it out somewhere, this way everyone can see you and your new fiancé together!”

“Mom! I’m still here. Jane can just let me know later this week, it’s fine. I’ll talk to you later. Bye!” Beth gave up and hung up the phone.

Well, she knew all that was coming - her mother’s exaggerated excitement, her desire to have the whole world know that two of her daughters were married/to be married.

What she wasn’t prepared for was being the object of focus again; she’d hoped all the excitement of planning Jane’s wedding would distract her mom for some time .

She didn’t want to think about meeting any more of Charles’ friends; she didn’t want to think about Charles’ friends, one friend in particular. His friends only spelled heartache for her.

Oh, God. He’ll be at their wedding, she thought as she made herself a cup of tea.

Of course, he would be at their wedding.

He’ll probably even be in the bridal party.

Her heart clenched at the thought of having to walk down the aisle with Darcy as the best man and herself as the maid of honor.

It was bad enough she saw him at his home, sat with him at his table.

The ache for that to be her normal life had been overwhelming and now she was going to have to walk down the aisle with him; it was the very thing she had blatantly refused him and consequently refused herself.

It would be torture. All she could hope was that Charles and Jane had a long engagement - long enough to allow her to move on.

She laughed to herself; the notion of moving on seemed like a joke right now, like the impossible.

She sat down on the couch with her tea and started up her computer. Opening her email, the most recent message caught her eye; it was from Mrs. DeBourgh.

What does she want?

Beth reluctantly opened up the email and read,

Miss Bennet,

I see you snuck out the morning after the party before we had a moment to chat. I’ve just learned that my other house guest, Mr. Darcy, left quite early that morning as well after disappearing for most of the night. Very interesting.

I have the most important matter to discuss with you immediately. I’ve made reservations for tea at the Plaza tomorrow at ten A.M. I will see you there.

Mrs. DeBourgh

Beth had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Granted, she knew that Anne and Mrs. DeBourgh had been very busy this past week settling all of the winning bids and making sure that the donations made it to their appropriate charities; her assistants had kept her up to date on the press they had been putting out as the donations were made.

If she wanted to meet with her about that why wait until now?

Now, if she “just” found out that she and Darcy had left around the same time that morning, that would be something that would prompt such a sudden meeting request.

Her mind began to work overtime. What would she say if Mrs. DeBourgh asked about the two of them?

Yes, it was a completely inappropriate question or topic to broach with someone that you had hired but Beth knew that that would not stop her.

If her mother was obsessed with having her daughters married, Mrs. DeBourgh was just as fixated on having Anne married to Mr. Darcy.

What could she do though? It’s not like Mrs. DeBourgh could force Phil to fire her.

Even if it meant losing the DeBourgh business, Phil would never fire her; she was certain of that.

The woman was very wealthy and knew a lot of people in high places.

She might know a lot of Gardiner’s other clients and convince them to leave the firm as well.

That Beth couldn’t let happen; she would quit before becoming the reason that Phil’s company failed.

I could find a job somewhere else, right?

She’d built an admirable career; there had to be other firms out there that would want to hire her. It was a matter of finding one that Mrs. DeBourgh wasn’t connected with and that she couldn’t ruin, which might prove difficult.

What if it meant you had to move?

What if the only way to escape Mrs. DeBourgh’s reaches was to move to the west coast, or another country. She wasn’t sure she could do it. She loved New York. She loved being close to her family, as much as they annoyed her.

Deep breath. Think. Come up with a plan, an excuse.

Ok, first she didn’t even know that that was what Mrs. DeBourgh wanted to talk to her about. Maybe Anne knew! Beth grabbed her cell phone and opened up her message with Anne.

- Hey, quick question. You ok to text?

The last thing she wanted was Mrs. DeBourgh to see her texting Anne.

~ Hey! Yeah, I’m good. What’s up? Also, I heard about Lydia and Jane - congrats !

- Thanks! So, your mom wants to meet with me tomorrow morning. She said it was urgent. Do you know what that’s about?

~Oh man. No, I’m not sure. I’m in LA this week otherwise I would come with her to make sure she behaves, but she hasn’t said anything to me. What did she say?

- Not a whole lot. Her email insinuated that she knows some information about me and Darcy. Would she even ask me about that?

~Yeah, you know she would. Oh man. I don’t know what to tell you. Don’t give her any more information that you have to. Don’t lie to her because she will find out - trust me.

- Ok, thanks. Let me know if she mentions anything to you before tomorrow.

~ Definitely. Don’t let her bully you, Beth.

- I won’t.

She’d really hoped that Anne had an idea of what her mother wanted to talk about, but she had a sinking feeling that it could only be about Darcy. If it had been about the event or any other PR needs, Anne probably would have known. Just what I need right now.

So what if she had seen them together at the party and that they left at the same time the following morning?

She was PR. She was supposed to socialize with the guests, especially ones that she already knew from other events.

There was nothing to suggest that something inappropriate was going on between them.

Unless Mrs. DeBourgh was able to read minds.

What if she had cameras in the guest house?

Oh God. Stop. Don’t even go there, Beth.

The best way to handle her was to stay calm and first assume that Mrs. DeBourgh wouldn’t be so invasive as to question her about her personal life.

If she did, all Beth had to do was have a reasonable explanation for whatever Mrs. DeBourgh might have heard because there’s no way she could know anything incriminating.

Now, to run through all those scenarios before morning. And go…