Page 20 of Without Pride and Prejudice
“I know. It’s a recent development. Like as of today, recent.”
“That’s pretty new,” she laughed.
“Yeah. To make it weirder, this was supposed to be my honeymoon, and my ex-fiancé, who I haven’t seen in months, showed up and is playing Mr. Wickham. And ...” I pointed covertly at Winnifred, who was perusing her rack, complaining that she wanted to bring her own seamstress since the material and colors weren’t to her liking. “That’s Lady Winnifred Roberts. She’s totally in love with Fitz.”
“Zane and I wondered what was going on when Mr. Wickham called youbaby.”
“Ugh,” I said, disgusted, hating myself for ever thinking that was a cute term of endearment. “It’s a total mess.”
“I know what you mean.” She sighed. “Zane, the guy I’m with, is my best friend’s brother and he totally surprised me by joining me on the flight here. I thought I was coming alone.”
“And that’s a bad thing?” I asked.
“It’s a long story, but let’s just say I’ve been in love with him for more than half of my life, and it’s not reciprocated.”
“Hmm. Well, what should we do to change that?” I smiled conspiratorially. “Oh, you should probably know I try to fix all problems, but I’m awful at it, like catastrophically terrible. But I’ll try anyway.”
She giggled. “I like you. I think we are going to make great sisters.”
“Me too. So, should we pick out some dresses?”
“Definitely.” Macey pulled out an elegant ivory dress. “What do you think?”
“You should totally wear that to the Netherfield ball. You know, I think I’ve wanted to go to that ball my entire life.” Isounded like an obsessed schoolgirl, but I didn’t care. This was my dream. I was going to dance with Mr. Darcy at the ball and pretend to be annoyed with him. Could I do that now? I had a feeling I might just gaze into Fitz’s eyes and wait for every touch to see how it made me feel. Oy vey, this was going to be interesting. I would just have to see how our talk went before I got my hopes up.
Mrs. Bennet, our mother for the week, walked over. She was a beautiful Black woman with a lively, kind face. If I recalled correctly, her real name was Laila Gray. I definitely remembered she was married to the Idris Elba look-alike. His name was Davis Gray. “My lovely Jane and dearest Lizzy,” Laila said, ever so sweetly but in a terrible British accent. It sounded more like a mix of Australian and Bostonian dialect, but I liked it.
“Hello, ma’am,” I tried to phrase it the way Elizabeth would have.
“Oh, don’t be so formal. You can call me Mama.” She did her best to makeMamasound like she was in aPride and Prejudicemovie, but it sounded more like a Southern mama.
“Don’t let Lady Catherine hear you being so nice to me. I am your least favorite daughter,” I teased her. And obviously Agatha’s least favorite person.
“She’s full of herself, now isn’t she?” Laila’s Boston accent became even more pronounced. “Listen, my husband and I came here for our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. We are here to have some fun, and we’re going to be nice to anyone we want to.”
“Happy anniversary,” Macey and I said at the same time.
Laila wrapped her arms around us for a quick squeeze. “My dearest daughters.” She let go of us and grinned. “I’m off to get fitted. They are having a hard time squeezing my chest into the dresses. The old ‘girls’”—she pointed to her ample chest—“aren’t being very cooperative.”
Macey and I giggled as we watched her walk away.
“She’s fun,” I commented.
“Very,” Macey agreed.
However, the woman playing Mary—real name Calliope—did not seem to be having fun. She stared pensively at the plain dresses on her rack. They were quite dowdy. How unfair was that? That, I couldn’t have. “Come here.” I gestured for her to join Macey and me.
“Hi there. I’m Monroe.”
“And I’m Macey.”
“You’re Calliope, right?” I confirmed.
Calliope nodded, but she looked unsure about us—maybe because we were breaking the rules and using our real names.
“Where are you from?” I asked.
“Idaho. I run wellness retreats there,” she replied in a shaky British accent. She was doing a pretty good job of it. She just needed more confidence.
