Brides and Prejudice

Family Matters

Walking into the house, Mrs. Bennet huffed before heading into the living room to lay down and properly bemoan her two eldest daughters. "My head, oh my head."

"Mom..." Jean sighed before heading to her. However Lissa made her escape before their mother guilted her for doing what her mother should have done. It was Jean's wedding. Not any of theirs, not hers, not Kady's, and definitely not their mother's. Jean deserved to love her wedding dress as all brides should.

~~~

Will had thought that he would have hated the day but he quite found the opposite. Mr. Bennet was a rather peaceful man, his movements soft but with a quiet strength. His words were never loud and he rarely said much yet Will found himself stopping to listen when he did say something. Such the opposite of his wife that Will had to wonder how those two came about.

The mill was fairly inactive, only a few workers left who had been working at the plant for years and knew they didn't know much else, so they stayed even when their paychecks where cut in half or more in some cases. They were jolly though, inviting both Chase and Will to come near; hear their stories, share a few laughs even try some food in the small cafeteria that they made fresh bread from the grains they milled. They even let the two try their hand shortly at the manual tasks, laughing when both boys rather failed, not unkind laughter though.

It was different from what he'd seen thus far yet it was the image of small town that he'd seen in the romantic movies that Georgie sometimes begged him to watch with her. He couldn't help but think that Georgie would've loved the mill and the old grandparent like workers. And those same workers would've honestly loved Georgie too.

However when he and Chase were leaving, they couldn't help but overhear a short conversation between Mr. Bennet and another worker.

Hearing that the mill would soon be going out of business, it just couldn't compete with the market at the rate everything was going and in less than six months the place would be shut down before being torn down most likely. The real estate business was booming in the upper tier of society; which Will knew was persons like him and Chase. Because the upper tier wanted country homes to escape to...

Just yesterday Will would've scoffed but after the drive in which he only saw wildflowers and a few windmills with cattle grazing off on the hills, he now understood the attraction. He and Georgie could fall in love with the peace and quiet the country side exuded.

Before they drove off, Will glanced one last time at the mill. What a tragedy... but that was life sometimes.

~~~

Carolynn Brigham was many things and didn't honestly care about the words that people called her because she knew that their words couldn't take away the privileges she was blessed with but she wasn't heartless. Her heart was just rather small and only a small number of people occupied it. Her brother being the biggest of her heart.

Chase was so genuine, everything about him. Sometimes she wanted to coddle him for it other times it made her cringe.

But he was also brash. His actions never had much forethought and that often led to trouble. She couldn't even count how many times she and Will had to play knight and rescue Chase from the latest debacle he'd put himself in. This leading to her current thoughts. She didn't think that Jean was bad, honestly Jean Bennet was probably the second most genuine person she'd met, after Chase that was. But Jean Bennet wasn't of their world. She was pretty, there was no doubt of that at all. But a pretty face didn't mean you were strong and could handle the pressure of being a Brigham. And from the little that Carolynn had seen of Jean, she couldn't help but find the blonde frail and delicate, like the finest china. A display, an ornament. All with good intentions, that was Jean Bennet, but the same couldn't be said of her family and Carolynn was unsure if Jean Bennet was strong enough to restrain her family from taking advantage of Chase's genuine feelings.