Pride's Prejudice Read Online Free PDF Page A

wizened English butler, complete
with accent.  Beth laughed.  It might not be true love, but at least
he was entertaining.
    ~:~
    William
threw a disgruntled glance up the slope toward Beth.  He had seen her
scaling the hill with a lerpy blond guy, which had caused his heart to beat
erratically at the sight of her.  At first, he'd been wary - hoping she
didn't look up and see him.  But slowly his trepidation turned to
disappointment.
    Beth's
musical laughter floated down to William - a reaction to her date's stupid
butler impersonation.  William, recalling Beth's icy looks and venomous
wit, wondered what he would have to do to make Beth laugh like that.  She
had a smile line in her right cheek that almost qualified as a dimple.  He
watched her for a moment, lingering on details like her ponytail swaying when
she shook her head, and the minor wince as she took a sip of her canned
soda.  Her skin was the color of a porcelain doll's, contrasted nicely by
her dark hair.  And her eyes……..were looking right at him.
    William
blinked, wondering how long she'd been staring back at him.  He nodded
curtly in her direction and her big, dark eyes locked onto his for a
moment.  Then she rolled them and turned back to the lerp.
    "William!? 
Did you hear what I just said?"
    William
focused on the person sitting next to him, probably for the first time all
night.  Her voice had muted somewhere around the time that Beth had shown
up.  Before that, he'd only been able to hear something like 'wahn,
wahn, wahn.'
    "Sorry,
I missed it," he answered, really not caring if he caught it the second
time either.
    ~:~
    Beth
smirked inwardly at the show that was playing.  Not the one on the big
screen.  The one just down the slope and to the left.  William Darcy
sat next to an unnaturally tan redhead who had been trying unsuccessfully to
capture his attention for the last few minutes.  Now he was looking at
Red, but his expression was vacant in that 'lights are on but nobody's home'
way.  Probably the same look Beth wore herself with Brandon. 
Munching popcorn, she surreptitiously watched the progress of William's date,
only occasionally responding to something Brandon said, or flicking her eyes up
to the screen.
    Red
was really laying it on thick.  She kept arranging her hair consciously
around her shoulders and then checking to ascertain if William had
noticed.  Her makeup was sufficiently overdone, as was her self-pleased
expression.  She dripped off his arm like a wet dog after a bath. 
Admiration slid off of her in sheets like torrential rain, but for all the
attention William paid her, it could have been insignificant patter.
    Beth
smiled to herself as she decided that they probably deserved each other.
    "Hey,
Brandon?" Beth whispered, jerking her head in William's direction,
"Would you say she's a natural redhead?"
    Brandon
considered.  "Definitely not."
    Beth
grinned.  Of course she wasn't.

 
    STOMPED-ON
     
    "Stupid
men are the only ones worth knowing, after all."
    ~Elizabeth
Bennet, Pride & Prejudice
               
    Beth
struggled through the door of room 204 with her back pack, guitar case, music
bag, and grocery sacks.  As she unloaded her spoils from the Piggy Wiggly , she laughed quietly.  Anyone checking the contents of her bags
would've assumed she was suffering from one of two things:  a horrible
breakup or PMS.  It was the latter.  Out of the bags came a
gallon-sized jug of cheesy balls, a jar of peanut butter, milk chocolate chips,
a two-liter of Dr. Pepper, pink-frosted sugar cookies from the bakery, a bag of
shoestring potato chips, two half-gallons of ice cream (Marshmallow Madness and
Cherub Chocolate Chunk), and a can of whipped cream to replace the one she'd
polished off at breakfast the other morning.  Maybe I should've gotten
diet soda, she despaired, looking at the buffet of calories before
her.  Oh well.  It's only once every twenty-eight days.
    As
Beth deposited the ice cream in