Brides and Prejudice

Invitations

~~~

Jean was the gentle one, the rational one, the quiet one- well that was actually Marie if you excluded her piano playing, but Jean was always the good and dependable one. Though now looking back, Jean wasn't sure if she was dependable because everyone expected her to succeed or was it just that everyone thought she would marry well? Unless that was the success she was expected to achieve?

Eyes closing gently, Jean breathed in and out. Her thoughts were slowly killing her, her self-doubts were about to devour her if she didn't stop. But how could she not... This was the man she chose to give her heart to, the one she chose to expose all herself to, her every doubt, worry, precious memories, and dreams (rational or not). She trusted him with all of her and thought he could be careful because she wasn't as strong as everyone thought, as her mother thought. She was actually very fragile and utterly frightened of failing to be the perfect daughter everyone saw her as. Well everyone but her sisters. And Chase, he knew that, but instead of being the man she thought she fell in love with, he ended up being an absolute coward. He humiliated not just her but her whole family; all of the most important people to her in this world.

"How could you, Chase?" Jean asked to the empty room, like as if he was right there in front of her. "I trusted you so much, I have never revealed as much of myself to anyone until you. And now I'm not sure if I'll be able to do the same with anyone else without a crippling fear, a fear that will stop me from trusting again. You broke me and confirmed every fear I've ever had." Jean closed her eyes again. "I was so broken, I could barely breathe when I heard that you were nowhere in sight. And when it was time for damage control... I could do nothing. Lissa had to do everything to fix the mess I... no we created. And Lissa had to fix me because I was one of the messes left in the wake of the aftermath." Opening her eyes, Jean walked to the window. "But now I'm here, in a beautiful, absolutely breathtaking country and its been weeks now since you left. I'm tired of being numb. So I'm letting you go. But to let you go... I'll say it now. Not for you, not that that it would matter as you cannot hear me, but for me. So I forgive you, and I forgive me." Jean bit her lip as she watched a bright red scooter rip down the cobblestone alley. "Goodbye Chase Brigham." And for the first time in almost a month, Jean Bennet smiled, a real smile, as one last tear slid down her left cheek.

"I missed you so much."

Lissa laughed as she patted the arm of the lithe figure holding her like as if she was about to disappear. "I've been back a while. You don't have to say that every time."

"I'm not letting you go back to America ever again."

"Elisa I don't think," Lissa began but was just squeezed again by the young girl who had come to see her as her own older sister. It had started when Lissa had helped the young girl with some guys who had felt a little to entitled when Elisa had rejected them. Then after finding out how similar their names were, the young girl had basically found it to be fate and latched on to Lissa ever since.

She had even got a job at the same café with Lissa... well she kinda bought her job as the girl honestly did not have to work a day in her life and her waitressing skills showed exactly that. But her genuine innocence and exuberance for life had made everyone, including Lissa, endear themselves to her. So when glasses broke followed by a gasp of shock and regret, they simply got the pan and broom, and just moved on with their day. Even the frequent customers had gotten used to the heiress and simply kept sipping their coffee with nothing more than one glance and maybe a chuckle.

"But Lissa, next week is my seventeenth."

"Jeez, you're a baby,"

Elisa ignored her. "Birthday and I'm having a lock and key event, so there's no need for ice breakers. Rich people my father knows will be there from every corner of Europe, so I want-"

Lissa's face fell, replaced with a brief look of annoyance as at those words, an unwanted face appeared to her. Why of all people did he have to appear in her mind.

"You to be there, to keep me sane."

"Don't you like rich people?"

"Dating them, one at a time yes, but not at parties with them. They're so snobby."

Lissa's brows furrowed as she tried to understand where the young teenager was coming from.

"When there's one, they have personality, too many and it becomes a party full of one uptence in every other sentence. Its such a bore. But oh and bring your sister too. I promise Chase- I mean him, will not be there. Cross my heart."

Lissa smiled ruefully. "I wish I could say yes, but Jean rarely leaves the apartment and if she does, it's barely around the corner."

"Well I think that's all about to change." Elisa chimed as she gestured to the door where to Lissa's shock was her sister, gently pulling on the door. She was dressed in a pair of white pants, a camisole and a yellow cardigan, looking more beautiful than ever to Lissa, even if Lissa still couldn't believe she dyed her beautiful blonde hair to such a severe black.

"Hey Lissa," Jean softly spoke, almost afraid to speak up too much knowing how much of a burden she'd been on her younger sister. As of late, it was hard to tell who was the older sister of the two. But she gave a real smile, one that helped display the light slowly coming back into her eyes.

Elisabeth Bennet gave the biggest smile anyone in the café, save one had ever seen. Because Lissa had finally got her sister back.

Meanwhile, back in England, a fairy like creature almost skipped her way to the foyer where the mail had just arrived.

Humming Bach to herself, Georgie Darcy opened a slightly bulky silken envelope that revealed a neatly engraved invitation as well as one ornate lock, the size of a rather big locket, and one gorgeous skeleton key.

You are hereby invited to the birthday ball of Elisanna Del Veccio