Chapter 1
It had been a hard time when Mr Bennet had passed a few months after Lydia's infamous elopement with and forced marriage to that rake George Wickham. That they had married at all had been the sole work of Mr Darcy; he saved her family from ruination. When he visited Longbourn that one time with Mr Bingley after the Wickham's' had left for Newcastle, she was grateful for his assistance and would have told him so. Yet, the mortification she experienced over the exposure of her family's foolishness had her hiding in a corner of the morning parlour of her ancestral home when he had been there; consequently, they had not spoken at all. Thinking she had time before he would be back to propose marriage to her once more, because seeing him again in her home, had told her she did love him and he would be a perfect match for her disposition. She huffed at her own stupidity. Of course, a man like that would not propose twice, but she had had hope after the pronounced attention he had given her while she visited Pemberley with her Aunt and Uncle Gardiner. Why had he helped with their predicament with Lydia then, she was still asking herself regularly. Mr Bingley had asked for Jane's hand in marriage that visit, which Jane refused in an uncharacteristic fit of resentment for leaving her the autumn before. That had been her work, for she had told Jane all Mr Darcy and the Bingley sisters had done, although she had never believed Jane would reject Mr Bingley because of it. However, she had. Jane had said that if she could reject Mr Darcy for his transgressions against her, she did not want a man that was so easily let away from her. Their mother cursed Jane when she heard she had rejected Mr Bingley, but could not do anything about it. She guessed they both regret their hasty decisions now; they had never talked about it.
Mr Collins gave them two months to vacate Longbourn after her father's demise, she was sure though it was Charlotte that made her husband wait that long. Now their mother lived with their Aunt and Uncle Philips with Mary and Kitty, who were still unmarried. Jane and she had lived with their Aunt and Uncle Gardiner in London after their removal from Longbourn. However, with the Gardiners ever-growing family, money was tight, and Jane and she needed to marry soon to lift their burden. An associate of Mr Gardiner had soon shown interest in Jane, he was older and a widower with four children, but he was amiable, and wanted a new companion in his life. Jane could have done better, she was sure of that, but time had run out and Jane had married the associate.
The lobby of the Royal Theatre in London 1816.
This was the first time that Elizabeth had been able to convince her husband to visit the theatre in the four years of their not so blissful marriage. She who always had wanted to marry for love had settled for a marriage of convenience, just as Jane had had to do.
Her thoughts were disturbed by a commotion at the entrance. The next thing she saw broke her heart. There he was, the man that she had spurned so vigorously. On his arm was the beautiful girl he had recently married, she smiled lovingly at him, and he smiled back at her with adoration spilling of his handsome and happy countenance. That could have been her. Following them was Mr Bingley and his wife, Georgiana Bingley nee Darcy, they had married in a double wedding, is what the papers had said. The looks they exchanged were of a bliss she had never experienced. Well, that could have been Jane; she thought morosely, we made our bed and must lie in it now.
She glanced at her husband and only thought she could have done so much better too, if Lydia would not have been so stupid to elope. Then she took her husband's arm to usher him to their seats, it would not do to let Mr Darcy see where she had ended up.
Fitzwilliam Darcy assessed the theatre lobby to see if his cousin had arrived already. What he saw was Elizabeth Bennet, with a tall, peevishly looking man, dressed as a tradesman doing well. God was he glad he had let that boot sail, ungrateful wench he thought. He looked at his wife and felt all the happiness she had given him in the past year of courtship and their short marriage. He lifted her hand and gave it a grateful kiss before he assessed the lobby again and spotted his cousin, Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam with his wife and guided his love towards them, having seen Elizabeth, forgotten already.