The Bennet sisters enjoyed a late morning meal in the elder sister's room on the first unplanned morning of their Netherfield stay. Elizabeth managed to make her sister smile and laugh as she described in detail some of the encounters with the Bingley sisters that occurred while Jane had still been sick in bed earlier in the week.

Jane, the Bennet sister most interested in harmony between the Bingleys and the Bennets, found her laughter under better regulation faster than her younger sister. "You ascribe a great deal of jealousy and contempt on Miss Bingley's part. I wonder if you perhaps lay too much at her feet, Lizzie."

Elizabeth Bennet shook her head most enthusiastically. "She slants her eyes at me when she's truly vexed by the attentions Mr. Darcy gives to anyone but herself. I speak true that you must watch yourself around her, Jane. I do not get the impression that Mr. Bingley's sisters are as enamored with either of us as much as perhaps Mr. Bingley is." Elizabeth spread more jam on her biscuit with a wistful expression on her face.

Replacing her teacup to her breakfast tray, Jane looked at her younger sister thoughtfully. "You mean more than Mr. Bingley and his friend, Mr. Darcy."

Elizabeth's head shot up and glared at Jane as if she had just pronounced the sky should turn green. "I care not for Mr. Darcy's amorous pursuits, be they towards me or any other woman. I believe he is just as snobbish and prejudiced and prideful as Miss Bingley, but he has taken more of an effort to hide his true nature."

"I think you're being very hard on both of them."

Elizabeth shrugged and wiped crumbs from her mouth. "People are a fascinating study and it is my experience whomever they are in their most comfortable surroundings is their true self. That Mr. Darcy can muster politeness at a dining table or in company should have less weight on an estimation of his person than what he says carelessly or when he feels not observed."

Jane frowned and tenderly flipped her teaspoon over and over along the axis of its splendor spine. Elizabeth Bennet long held the title of the most stubborn sister and there was very little one could do to change her mind once it was set. Jane could only hope that with time perhaps her sister would give more estimation to Mr. Bingley's family and friends.

"I should hope you are not a victim of your own philosophy. It is very easy for one to utter words in a harmful way and not intend such harm with malice, but merely a result of a slip of tongue."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes at Jane taking on the mantle of eldest in her admonishment. "Then it is incumbent upon all to school their words."

Jane sighed. "But you must allow for mistakes."

"And I do! But I can hardly credit Miss Bingley or Mr. Darcy with an error rate so high that every other encounter with them I am insulted in the extreme and a few times, permitted myself to insult them back!"

Elizabeth's agitation signaled to Jane that she needed to change the subject. "Just promise me that while you are here, you will try to give them more forgiveness instead of censure?"

"Only if you promise we can go home the moment the roads are dry enough for a carriage."

Jane laughed. "And here I worried you would demand we walk!"

Elizabeth shook her head and helped herself to another biscuit on the basis of their lovely taste and not her hunger level. "No, no, I am quite content to take the carriage home. I prefer my rambles to be purposeless. There is no beauty in merely shuffling yourself from one destination to another."

"And if we are to have more days of rain? Your loss of walking won't affect you?" Jane knew her sister to dread being cooped up indoors.

Elizabeth weighed Jane's concern about her willingness to forgo walking home if she could not take her constitutional walks for more than one more day. It was true that two days of indoor activity stressed her nerves and three days was neigh on unbearable. Taking a deep breath, she made another oath she prayed would not come to pass. "I shall take the carriage with you no matter how many days we are trapped here by rain, but I shall take a walk at home just as soon as I am able."

Jane finished her tea and Elizabeth picked up a book of poems to read to her sister.

"Oh no, please do not begin to read. I wish to dress and go downstairs."

Elizabeth arched an eyebrow at her sister. "Are you certain you are strong enough?"

Jane nodded most vigorously and Elizabeth set the tray aside to allow her sister to rise from her bed. Although she could call a maid, the sisters were at ease in helping one another to dress, so Elizabeth happily took on such a duty for her eldest sister. It was not perhaps as fine of a hairstyle as the parlors of London were accustomed to, but Elizabeth's nimble fingers managed to pin all of the Jane's curls into a fetching manner. Before they left, Elizabeth tucked the one stubborn curl of hers that refused to remain pinned behind her ear and brushed off any remaining crumbs on her skirts.

If Jane was willing to brave most of the day downstairs, then hope remained alive that as soon as the rain might stop, they could hurry home to perhaps not peace and tranquility, but at least the raucous environment they were familiar with.

A/N: And here we have a set down by Jane, or at least the most set down I think her character will do. :) And one more so I end the day on a D&E note . . . :) XOXOXO for the reads and reviews. Like seriously. My face has NEVER hurt this much from the positive support as I work on a story. Ever.