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Mrs. Bennet was frustrated. Even the weeks that she and her youngest daughters had spent at the seaside hadn't managed to ease her frustration. What was wrong with the young men these days? First Mr. Bingley had left without proposing to Jane or even giving any sign of wishing too. And it now seemed as though he wasn't ever coming back to Netherfield Park.
On top of that, although Elizabeth had seen Mr. Darcy and even met his sister, there had been no mention of a second proposal. Mrs. Bennet had asked both Elizabeth and Mrs. Gardiner about this and she hadn't received any positive news on that regard.
What was wrong with young men these days?
000
Mrs. Bennet had a dilemma on her hands. She couldn't very well invite herself and her daughters to Pemberley, so the solution was to get Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley to return to Netherfield Park.
000
Mr. Darcy stood in the library at Pemberley and looked out the window. He couldn't believe how empty the house seemed without Elizabeth and her aunt and uncle in it. For the past two weeks, they had seemed to spend their every waking moment together, fishing and having picnics. Much to Carol's dismay, Darcy and Bingley had had a small farewell party for the Gardiners and Elizabeth on the eve of their departure.
The friendship between Elizabeth and Georgiana was all that Darcy had hoped and more and he had been glad to see them getting on so well together. They had spent a lot of time walking and talking together.
Once or twice during their stay, Darcy had thought of proposing to Elizabeth again but somehow or other he hadn't found the right moment. At first it had been because he wasn't sure about her feelings for him – what if she still disliked him – and at the end when he thought that she would be responsive, he reasoned that he had left it too late and he hadn't wanted it to feel rushed.
000
Mrs. Bennet told herself that she had no choice, and she really didn't she reasoned, which mother of five unmarried daughters with no fortune to their name had a choice. Getting ones children married was a serious business especially since their father couldn't be bothered.
She needed Mr. Bingley back at Netherfield and she now had a plan. She only hoped Mr. Darcy would return with his friend.
**000**
"Is it really in your best interest to have the house empty for so long?" Mrs. Bennet asked Mr. Longfellow, the agent in charge of letting out the properties in the area.
"Of course we want the houses to have people living in them," Mr. Longfellow replied, wondering at Mrs. Bennet interest in the house.
"Netherfield Park hasn't had a tenant living in it for almost a year now," Mrs. Bennet pointed out.
"But he has paid for it," Mr. Longfellow said. "Surely he may do with it as he wishes."
"My point exactly," Mrs. Bennet replied, "he paid but the house is empty. What if another person wanted to leave there?"
"There are any number of empty suitable properties in the area," Mr. Longfellow said. "And as I recall your daughters are all still unmarried." He left the 'so I don't see what this has to do with you' unsaid.
"That doesn't mean that we shouldn't start the house hunt early enough."
Mr. Longfellow's wife came into the room then and Mrs. Bennet left, she felt sure that she had sown enough seeds of doubt into Mr. Longfellow's mind about having the house vacant. She was pretty confident that he would write to Mr. Bingley.
"I don't know Mrs. Bennet would be interested in Netherfield Park," Mrs. Longfellow observed to her husband, "but she's right."
"Mr. Bingley paid for the house," Mr. Longfellow pointed out, "if he wishes to pay for a house that he doesn't stay in then it is his affair."
"It is his house," Mrs. Longfellow said, "no one's refuting that but for the sake of the neighbourhood can you not ask if he intends to ever come back here?"
"My dear woman," her husband began, but she interrupted him. "Young Miss Setton and Mr. Richards just got engaged the other day and she's always wanted to live at Netherfield Park and the Richards can more than afford it."
"She'll have to settle for someplace else," Mr. Longfellow replied, "Netherfield Park is taken."
Mrs. Longfellow smiled and left her husband alone, she knew he didn't like it when she got into his business but she also knew would do something about Netherfield Park.
000
'I will write to Mr. Bingley,' Mr. Longfellow decided after his wife left the room, 'just to find out if he ever means to return.'
000
Jane and Elizabeth were in the sitting room reading when Lydia and Kitty burst into the room. "You'll never believe our news," Lydia said. And without waiting for her sisters to try and guess she added, "Mr. Bingley is coming back to Netherfield Park."
Mrs. Bennet who was on her way to the kitchen overheard her daughter and smiled to herself she had also just received the news from the sister Philips whose housekeeper knew the housekeeper at Netherfield Park. Things were definitely looking up.
000
I have taken a lot of liberties with so many things and if there are any mistakes please point them and I will do my best to rectify them.