***Warning: Some abusive content depicted!***

"Where is she?" screeched Mrs. Bennet as soon as she was free of her outer garments after returning from the local assembly.

"Miss Lizzy?" asked a nervous Mrs. Hill, Longbourn's housekeeper, hating the way her favorite was treated by this harridan.

"Of course! Get her down here now!" demanded the mistress of Longbourn before barging into her husband's bookroom. "Mr. Bennet! I have told you before and I shall tell you again, that daughter of yours is not fit for polite society and I will not have her attending any more functions!"

"So you have repeatedly threatened" said the unconcerned and uninterested Mr. Bennet, never taking his eyes off his book. "What horrible deed has she done this night, madam?"

"What she always does when she thinks no one is looking, called attention upon herself! With a duke no less. My Jane's duke! She was flirting with a peer of the realm and throwing herself in his path as if such a man would want one such as she."

"If you are so confident that he would never want her, what is her crime?" said the bored sounding man, wanting nothing more than his peace and quiet restored.

"She stood next to him trying to capture him with her arts and allurements for almost two hours! He of course never even looked her way" she exaggerated as Elizabeth entered the room, expecting the worst.

"You sent for me, mama?" she asked nervously.

"I most certainly did! How dare you throw yourself at your sister's intended?!" she asked in righteous indignation.

"Her intended? Has someone made her an offer?" asked a truly confused Elizabeth.

"He has not yet made the offer but it is inevitable. I am sure His Grace will be making her an offer before Christmastide."

"His Grace?" Elizabeth said in shock.

"Yes, His Grace, the Duke of Derbyshire. A guest of that nice Mr. Bingley's at Netherfield" she explained to the astonishment of Elizabeth.

She had only heard that he was a wealthy landowner from the north. She never heard mention of his title. She blushed in mortification at her daring conversation with a duke no less.

"The one you were throwing yourself at, Miss Lizzy" continued Mrs. Bennet.

"I assure you I did no such thing, mama. I never spoke to His Grace" she dissembled.

"You were standing next to him for hours and my Jane said she saw you speaking to him!"

"Mama, I only happened to be standing in his vicinity for what could not have been for more than five minutes and as I had not been introduced to His Grace, I certainly did not speak to him."

"I saw you standing next to him myself and my Jane said you had deliberately stood there for over an hour making him speak to you."

"While I do not deny I was standing near him, I assure you I did not speak with him nor him to me. I had found a quiet corner due to a headache and he happened to stand near me. I left shortly after because I was not feeling well" she said, hoping to appease the angry woman but received a slap across the face for her efforts, her father barely lifting his eyes from his book at the sound it made.

"Are you calling my daughter a liar?" shouted Mrs. Bennet in her face. "How dare you? I have had enough of you! You shall not attend another event until my Jane is safely married. I will not have you competing with her for attention."

"But as you have always said, I am nothing to Jane. What attention could I take from her?" Elizabeth asked sarcastically, holding her inflamed cheek.

"You are nothing to my Jane! But I shall not have you throwing yourself at her beau."

"Lizzy, you may leave us" said her father in his normal, bored voice.

Elizabeth could only stare at him in disappointment before taking the chance to get away from her mother.

"Good night, madam" he said to his wife after his daughter had left the room.

"But Mr. Bennet, I insist…"

"You have made your point, Mrs. Bennet. I am sure Lizzy will never again dare to stand next to a gentleman, especially one that you have reserved for your Jane. Out with you madam" he said before resuming his reading.

Mrs. Bennet left the room in a huff vowing to not allow that chit out of the house until the Netherfield party left Hertfordshire.

Thomas Bennet sat the book he had been enjoying before his sanctuary was invaded down and reflected on his life. He was a country gentleman who had reluctantly inherited his family's estate, Longbourn, when his elder brother was killed in a carriage accident and he had tragically lost his beloved first wife before their marriage could even begin leaving nothing but their beautiful daughter and hatred for her father behind.

He was stuck at an estate with nothing but his books and his clever daughter, Elizabeth to amuse him, burdened with a silly, mean spirited, miserly wife and four other silly daughters he could barely tolerate. His only joy was his Lizzy but he could not even protect her from Fanny Bennet due to his want of peace.

Mr. Bennet showered her with all the love and affections he could not show her mother while his wife abused the child out of spite and jealousy. He felt less able to intervene as Elizabeth grew older and more beautiful.

Her beautiful dark looks horrified his wife and she set out to make sure little notice would ever be paid to the girl. She continually disparaged her looks and unfairly compared her to her half-sister who in reality was nowhere near the beauty her sister was.

His wife began to hide Elizabeth away as she developed into the handsome young woman she had become, refusing to allow her out in society unless he demanded she do so. She refused to allow Elizabeth around any gentleman in the neighborhood, especially if he were in any way an eligible man. She confined her to Longbourn as much as she could while she and her daughter degraded and took advantage of her.

Mr. Bennet did his best for his daughter, sending her to visit his brother in law and his wife in town as often as he could against the strenuous objections of his wife who was afraid she would lure in a husband during her visits. She forbid Elizabeth to marry before her Jane and she warned her brother to keep her out of society and away from any wealthy gentlemen he knew.

The couple adored Elizabeth and treated her as their own and all but ignored Fanny's dictates as to the way they should treat their niece. Elizabeth was a lovely young lady who was warm hearted, intelligent, witty, and kind and they loved her dearly. They tried not to play favorites but their other nieces, who seldom visited, were hard to get along with.

Their next eldest niece, Jane, was arrogant and rude and thought everyone should cater to her every need. She was lazy and selfish and their staff hated when she came to visit. Fortunately their status as tradespeople deemed them inappropriate to the snobbish girl so her visits were few and far between.

They could not understand their mother's different treatment of the girls. Elizabeth was all that was obliging and filial while Jane was demanding and showed her little respect, yet she pampered Jane and despised Lizzy only for having the audacity to live while her mother did not.

Their middle niece Mary was all that was lovely though she had no time for society and preferred her books and music above anything else. She also seldom visited, having no interest in town. The two youngest Bennets were silly and unruly and the couple rejoiced in the fact that their mother seldom liked to send them to visit because they did not believe the silly girls should be out in society and refused to chaperone them around town.

The only benefit Thomas Bennet felt that he gained from his impulsive and ill formed second marriage was his wife's brother and his wife, Edward and Madelaine Gardiner. Two more kind and intelligent people he had yet to meet.

Edward Gardiner was a shrewd business man who had risen in the ranks of trade, though he was a landowner and gentleman in his own right having inherited his father's estate and purchased another, and he had yet to give up his business. Their affection for his beloved Elizabeth endeared them to him even more. Fanny was becoming more vicious when it came to Lizzy and he needed their help to shelter and raise his daughter.

They vowed to do everything they could to protect the innocent child from Fanny Bennet's wrath. They invited her to visit more frequently, keeping her for months and sometimes even a year at a time. They supplied her with the best masters they could find to help develop her brilliant mind and exceptional singing voice.

Edward Gardiner invested her 5000 pound dowry for her, at her own brilliant behest when she was but eight years and overheard him talking about making money grow, as well as the pin money she always saved to give to him and saw it grow into over 25000 pounds over the years.

Mr. Gardiner did everything he could to make sure she would have a good life whether she married or not and be able to fend for herself if she ever felt that her life at Longbourn had become intolerable. All along they pleaded with their brother not to keep Elizabeth's heritage away from her. She deserved to know who her mother was and where she came from, but Bennet would not relent.

Mr. Bennet also took action in his own home on his daughter's behalf. Using the yearly funds from her grandfather, paid to a loyal solicitor in London who forwarded the payments to Gardiner so that Elizabeth's location could not be traced, to hire her nurses, a governess, masters, and a ladies maid, purchased her a pianoforte and a horse, and dressed Lizzy in fashionable attire against his wife's objections. He even hired her own stable hands to look after her much beloved horse. He lied to his wife and said they were hired by her grandfather who demanded they be kept with Lizzy or he would sue them for the 5000 pounds he had given her for Jane.

The threat to anything that belonged to her Jane always worked and the ladies were allowed to care for Elizabeth and raise her as they would the daughter of the first circles. His other daughters also had access to the governess though they never took to their lessons, their mother having rendered an education unnecessary for her daughters.

As he sat in his bookroom that night contemplating what his life had become, he knew he needed to do something for his Lizzy before his wife completely destroyed her. It was all he could do to counter the attacks to her self-esteem and keep her from being physically abused.

He put his foot down when it came to the abuse she began to heap on his daughter shortly after she started walking. He caught her beating Elizabeth in the back with her fist and angrily lashed out at her, forbidding her from ever abusing his daughter so. While her verbal attacks grew in ferocity, the physical abuse stopped though she would occasionally slap her for what she called her impertinence as she had done tonight. There was little he could do to stop her but he could get his daughter away from her.

Unfortunately for Lizzy she had a brilliant mind and was a fast learner that he raised to be the son he never had and had all but turned over the running of the estate to her when she was but two and ten. Also unfortunately for her, she made an excellent master and he had no intentions of allowing her to marry and leave him or the estate. It was her responsibility to run the estate he never wanted, so although he felt bad for the treatment his daughter received he could not lose her.

Being abused for standing next to a gentleman was more than even he could stand but she would just have to tolerate it as she always had. With any luck her sister will be married soon and move away from the estate taking much of Fanny's anxiety of Lizzy outshining her precious Jane with her.

No, everything would be fine soon he decided as the indolent gentleman picked up his book to finish the tale.