This story is based on a plot bunny provided by FanFictionAddict13 on the forum 'Talk P&P'. There are others, but here's the one I'm working with, copied word for word off the site: Elizabeth is a relative of the Bennett family, she still takes offense at comments about them but she herself is a well bred lady of an esteemed estate. She returns to her own family after the first assembly and Mr. Darcy's offensive comments because of a family emergency, she has an older brother who dotes on her as Darcy does Georgiana. Her father is known to have married beneath him but the entire family believes in marriage for love.
Credits to FanFictionAddict13! You inspired this story!
"It is for only two or three months, Darcy!" Charles pleaded.
"Out of the question!" his friend snapped. "I would not leave Georgiana at this time for anything in the world."
"That is no problem," Charles replied. "You can bring Georgiana with you to Netherfield."
"Are you joking, Bingley? Are you mad? You know how your sister is - what kind of brother would I be to expose Georgiana to her simpering after - after Ramsgate?" Darcy slammed down the letter he had been perusing. "Now, if you cannot provide any more inducements to me, I shall return to my business, thank you very much!"
"I looked a bit into the families in the area," Charles offered. "Apparently there are Bennets who live nearby!"
"Bennets? What care I for them?" Darcy said, his eyes scanning the correspondence in front of him.
"Oh, Darcy, do you not recall?" Charles asked in the closest thing Charles Bingley could come to exasperation. His ginger hair was wild, but his bluish-grey eyes shone beneath his kindly brows. "Do you not remember our old schoolmate at Cambridge - Edmund Bennet?"
"Edmund Bennet? Yes, I remember him; but why should I be inclined to go to Hertfordshire for the chance of seeing him? I never cared much for Bennet - barely spoke to him, in fact." Darcy did not raise his eyes to his friend as he drafted out a reply to one of his letters.
"Of course you did not," Charles said. "He was your rival in everything, and, as you say, rivals do not befriend each other."
"No, they do not," Darcy said with an air of finality. "Friends may become rivals, but no two rivals can befriend each other with no ulterior motives."
"Still, I always wondered why neither of you bothered to speak to each other. You were very alike, you know - always cooped up in the library or in the fencing rooms - or studying." Charles looked curiously at his friend. "I even know for a fact that Edmund Bennet befriended everyone at Cambridge but you."
"Exactly," said Darcy. "Even you befriended him - but then, you befriend everybody. Still, I have no reason to believe he was any better than those other young men at Cambridge: dissolute, lazy, and irresponsible. After all, you are the company you keep - with the exception of you and me, Charles, because you are agreeable and friendly, while I am generally not."
"I happen to know for a fact that this Bennet family is the same Bennet family Mr. Bennet belongs to," Charles said triumphantly. "And, for the record, Edmund was almost exactly like you - fastidious, scrupulous, and punctual. I also know that he was very responsible, looked after himself, and departed after graduation to care for his father, just as you did for yours."
"And?"
"And his uncle, Mr. Thomas Bennet, inherited Longbourn from a great-uncle. I remember Edmund saying that his father and uncle Thomas were almost copies of one another, except for that Thomas Bennet is apparently more indolent than Walter Bennet."
"That closes the case, Bingley," Darcy said. "I will not keep company with an indolent layabout. If you have no more to say, begone." He stopped, and sank his head into his hands. "I apologize. Bingley, you were not the cause of my bad mood, and you should not have to suffer the consequences. If only I could find that blackguard Wickham and call him out!"
"It is alright; you are distraught," Charles said gently. "Perhaps a change of scenery might do both you and Miss Darcy good. Hertfordshire might be a palace of vacation for both of you if you will allow it. And no, I shall not require Georgiana's presence at social events. She shall not have to receive visitors at all, and I will not allow Caroline to harrass her."
Darcy looked up from his hands and sighed the sigh of a tortured man who has been set free. "Very well, Charles, Georgiana and I will accompany you to Hertfordshire."