A/N: Thank you for all your reviews so far, I liked reading your thoughts on chapter one. Some of you seem confused about how E&D haven't been able to contact each other so let me clear that up for you, Reginald Darcy forbade Elizabeth from ever contacting their family again hence why he gave her the cheque even though she tore it up. They only spent a few months together and only swapped numbers. I can't reveal too much to you now because there would be no point in carrying on this story so I hope that if you continue to read as this story progresses that it will become clear.

As for how often I will be updating this story, the answer will be every weekend at some point as is the same with Never What They Seem if you've already started reading that story.

Anyway, here is chapter two and please review.


It may have only been September, but Autumn had come early to Pemberley. The leaves were already turning a rich red or a golden yellow or a light brown and some had fallen on the woodland paths and turned crispy underneath a foot. The mornings and evenings were starting off a little chillier than normal too, causing the staff on the estate to start changing over the duvets from the summer ones to the winter ones so that nobody complained of the chill.

Fitzwilliam Darcy woke that Saturday morning to the smell of bacon frying in the kitchen, the scent drifting through the large manor house and entering his bedroom; the smell filling his nostrils that it immediately made his mouth water for one of Mrs Reynolds's fry ups. He sat up in his four poster bed, stretching his arms out wide to see that the other side remained empty. It wasn't unusual for Eleanor to rise before him on the weekend, she liked to keep herself busy. The empty side of the bed smelled like her; coconut shampoo that she liked to use when she showered.

Leaving his suite of rooms, he walked through the house until he reached the dining room where Mrs Reynolds was already serving a full English breakfast to his father and girlfriend as he entered the room. He greeted his father with a nod of the head and placed a tiny kiss to his girlfriend's cheek before sitting in his usual seat opposite Eleanor. His eyes met the sharp blue ones of his girlfriend and he smiled, he had always thought Eleanor rather pretty; with long blonde hair and blue eyes that lit up whenever she saw him. They had been in a on-off relationship since their first year together at Cambridge but now they had been together properly with no breaking up for three years and she had got a job as a lawyer whilst he completed his master's degree.

He thanked Mrs Reynolds as she served him a plate of food and started to eat, listening to the conversation that Eleanor and his father were having about Georgiana and his father's hopes that he would propose soon; the usual conversation that his father brought up each weekend when they spent any sort of time together, but to do it in front of Eleanor was adding to the pressure. In truth, he wasn't ready to propose to her yet, despite having known Eleanor for the past six years of his life. His relationship with Eleanor was comfortable, they were in a nice routine now that they lived at Pemberley together and he wasn't sure if he was ready for that to change just yet.

"So, how is Georgie?" William asked.

"She's fine, she's settled in at boarding school. Georgiana is trying to persuade me to join some website called Facebook or something." Reginald replied.

William took a mouthful of bacon as he rolled his eyes. For about five years now his little sister had been trying to persuade him to join a social media website. But he didn't see the point of it, after completing his bachelor degree and now his masters degree a year ago and ever since he had been running the family's estate agent business, he didn't have the time to sit behind a screen and 'update his status' whatever that meant. He liked to spend most of his free time with his girlfriend.

"For some businesses, social media can actually rise profits." Eleanor added.

"My dear, our business is doing quite well." Reginald replied.

"I know that. Fitzwilliam, can we spend the afternoon together?" Eleanor asked.

Nodding his head, he swallowed the last mouthful of his breakfast and took a large gulp of orange juice. Before he could ask his girlfriend what their afternoon would entail, his phone beeped on the table. William picked it up and swiped the screen, smiling to see that the text message was from his best friend.

Proposed. I'm getting married!

"Who is it, Fitzwilliam?" Reginald asked.

He looked up from his phone, "Charles. He's getting married." William replied.

"Oh that's great!" Eleanor squealed.

His girlfriend always liked a wedding.

"To the interior designer? What was her name again?" Reginald asked.

"I think her name is Jean or Jane or something and yes, she's the interior designer." he replied.

Eleanor laughed, reaching across the table and patted his hand.

"Her name is Jane, darling. It's quite bad that in the three years that Charles has been dating this girl, you don't even know her name." Eleanor pointed out.

"It's not my fault. Charles doesn't exactly bring her along when we meet up-"

"And nor do you make the effort to meet her."

To be fair, it wasn't that William didn't want to make the effort to meet the woman his best friend was head over heels in love with. He had heard about Jane every time his best friend visited and knew that they only lived three miles apart from each other but if he went to the effort of meeting Charles's girlfriend, it meant that he would have to stay at Netherfield. And whilst Netherfield was quite a nice estate, it meant having to avoid the wandering hands and cringe worthy chat up lines from Charles's little sister Caroline. And Caroline Bingley was the main reason why he declined his best friend's invitations to stay at the Bingley family home.

"I suppose I should call him." William said.

"Tell him we send our congratulations." Reginald replied.

Standing up, he gave his girlfriend a parting smile and exited the room. He could already hear the new conversation that his father had started with his girlfriend, the usual of 'I hope my son proposes soon' and 'It will be yours and Fitzwilliam's turn to walk down the aisle next my dear, I'm certain of it' and rolled his eyes. As much as he loved Eleanor, he wasn't ready to propose yet. They had only moved in together four months ago and whilst they had gotten into a lovely routine, he still wasn't ready to take that step.

He walked down the hall and entered the study, sitting behind the desk as he dialled his best friend's phone number.

"Darcy." Charles greeted enthusiastically.

"Bingley, congratulations on the engagement." William replied.

"Thank you, I can hardly believe it. I'm the luckiest man in the world!"

William smiled, his best friend always had been a hopeless romantic when it came to this girl.

"I'm thrilled for you Bingley."

"We're holding an engagement party at Netherfield next Saturday night, you and Eleanor are invited to come and stay if you're able to."

As much as he wanted to let out a frustrated groan at that moment, he held it in. William knew he could hardly say no, even if he didn't want to spend an entire weekend in the same house as Caroline, he couldn't not be there at his best friend's engagement party.

"Of course we'll come. I'm sure it will be nice to finally meet the mysterious Jane." William replied.

"You can come on Friday if you're able to or Saturday morning if not. Stay the night."

"Thank you Bingley, I'll let Eleanor know."

"Bye Darcy."

The phone call ended and William left the study and went to his bedroom to change out of his pyjamas. As he took of his top and chucked it to the floor, he opened his wardrobe and picked out a t-shirt to wear, only for it to fall off the hanger and to the base of the wardrobe. Bending down to pick it up, he saw the little white shoebox that he hadn't looked at in a long time.

Curiosity got the better of him, he should have thrown out the box when he and Eleanor got back together but he couldn't let the memories go. Picking up the box, he wiped away the thick layer of dust on the lid and opened it, sitting on the bed as he picked up the contents on the box. It was mostly photographs of him after finishing his bachelor degree at twenty-one and deciding the spend the summer at their holiday home in Spain. Having graduated early, he had spent from the end of May to the middle of August with a girl he had met in a bar. A beautiful eighteen year old named Elizabeth Bennet. Of course, they hadn't gotten off to a good start.

She had been working in her Uncle's bar and had tripped over a stool and spilled a beer down him and he being the idiot that he was, called her a stupid cow. The next night he had come back to apologise to her and they had gotten to know each other better. By the end of June he had fallen in love with her, had made love to her in his hotel room after a romantic meal on her uncle's yacht and then asked her to return to England with him to meet his family. Elizabeth turned nineteen in the second week of August and they had gone to his family home in Chelsea to meet his sister and father.

But then it had all gone downhill. He had gone out one afternoon to buy school supplies with Georgie and returned to his father telling him that the girl had accepted a one hundred thousand pound cheque from him and wouldn't be seeing her again. William had felt devastated, that the girl he had fallen in love with and the only girl who had insisted she pay her half of everything that they did, had been after his money the whole time. That the things they had shared, the secrets they had told each other were all lies.

"She's a good actress, I'll give her that," his father had told him, "My boy, she wasn't the one for you. A little summer fling was all she was."

But she hadn't felt like a summer fling. He had never felt the way he felt about her with anyone else. And so, by September, he had turned twenty-two and started his masters degree and resumed his relationship with Eleanor by Christmas and ever since, he had tried to forget about the girl who had broken his heart.

The pictures showed how happy he had thought they were, several of them pulling funny faces or a couple of them kissing but the look in those green eyes of hers showed how much she cared for him. Was it all a lie? He had wanted to contact her and demand an explanation but his father had talked him out of it, after all she had taken that cheque and if that didn't prove what she was like, his father didn't know what else would. His father had always said he had given her the cheque as a test and her taking it showed that she had failed to prove that she wasn't a money grabber.

There were a few shells in the box that they had found on their first date after walking along a sandy beach close to her uncle's villa. That summer had been the best of his life and even now, four years later, he wasn't ready to let go. He sometimes thought about Elizabeth, wondering if she was telling the truth about her teaching degree and if she had been in a teaching job by now, she'd be twenty-two now. Well, whatever she was doing; he hoped that she had gotten her money's worth to walk away from him.

Sighing heavily, he placed the contents back into the shoebox and shut the lid and put it back in it's place in his wardrobe. He didn't know why he wasn't able to let go of a box of memories but a part of him still ached for the way that Elizabeth had ended their relationship. If anything he wished that she had given him the opportunity to say goodbye and go their separate ways because at least then, he would be able to stop wondering how things went wrong.

William pulled on the t-shirt and shut the wardrobe door, pulling on a pair of jeans as Eleanor walked into the bedroom.

"Shall we head out?" Eleanor asked.

"Where are we going?" William asked, zipping his jeans up.

"I thought we could go for a drive an a bit of shopping. We need to buy Charles and Jane an engagement gift."

Nodding his agreement, he kissed his girlfriend gently on the lips and exited his bedroom, all thoughts of the past pushed out of his mind, for now it was time to look to the future and what better way to do that than to celebrate your best friend getting engaged?