A/N - Thank you for your patience and I hope you are still enjoying! I'm busily editing as I go and keep stumbling on spelling mistakes and the dreaded homonyms - I think I've caught most of them but apologies if any have slipped through the net.

More tomorrow! xx


"Jane, you look beautiful as always!" Elizabeth sang, taking a moment to admire her elder sister before turning her attention to her own reflection.

Mary hung back near the door, shyly wondering what right she had to be in the room with her two elder sisters and wishing she had refused Jane's invitation with more determination.

"There! Now, Mary, it is your turn!"

Mary wondered if her intent to leave had been audible, for it to attract Jane's attention so decidedly. She frowned, and glanced, worriedly, at Elizabeth, but was surprised to see her smile matched Jane's.

"I have had a lot of practice in wrangling unruly curls into elegant style," Lizzy said, brandishing a handful of hairpins. "And so, Mary, I turn my attention to you!"

This thinly veiled threat of torture was accompanied with a laugh, and the gentle escort of her sister, who tugged Mary into a seat in front of the mirror, so she might watch their progress.

"I don't see any need of all this fuss -" Mary began.

"Fuss? What fuss?" Jane dismissed her. "Now, sit still, while I check your gown. If it belonged to Elizabeth there is every chance there will be a tear in it somewhere, or a stain, or some - ow!"

Elizabeth had turned her attention away from Mary for half a second to give her sister a punishing pinch in return for her comments abut the state of her clothing, never mind the fact that it was generally true that Elizabeth's gowns suffered from her romping ways.

"It looks very pretty on you, Mary. I am glad you will be wearing it this evening," Elizabeth said, jamming a pin into Mary's scalp, and muttering a hasty apology before Mary had time to wonder if it was intentional.

"Surely Lydia and Kitty will need help as well…" Mary ventured.

"Lydia and Kitty?" Elizabeth snorted. "The only help they will need is in wearing marginally less finery to what is only a dinner, but Mama will see to that. You know they spend half their lives preening before a mirror anyway, so one more evening will offer little in the way of challenge to them.

Mary smiled, pleased not to be on the receiving end of Elizabeth's scornful assessment for once. Or rather, not merely for once. It seemed to her that Elizabeth had grown altogether pleasanter to her in the past few days. Last afternoon, when Mary had made a recommendation to her sisters, Elisabeth had even hushed Lydia's outcry, in order that they might all listen to what Mary had to say. She had thanked her for sharing her opinion, and agreed that they would all do well to follow Mary's example and dwell a little more on charity and a little less on hair-ribbons.

Jane, too, had actually sought her out for company, bringing with her a piece of sheet music that was giving her particular trouble and asking whether Mary, being the more skilled of the two, would very much object to sitting with her for ten minutes and helping her to learn it. Their ten minutes had become a happy hour, where Mary showed off her skills on the piano, at Jane's prompting, and blushed happily under her sister's hearty applause.

"I hope you intend to play for us this evening, Mary," Jane said, as if she, too, recalled the meeting, and wished to bring it to mind again.

"I am sure everyone will be eager to hear you," Elizabeth agreed. "For goodness knows they shall not wish to hear me! Jane may venture a piece, and I dare say Caroline Bingley will play something, but you are the real songbird of the house, Mary, and must not be too shy to demonstrate."

This was the closest thing to a true compliment that Mary had ever received from her sister, and she was so shocked at it that she turned around in her seat, causing Elizabeth to move with her, in order to pin one last offending curl in place.

"Why are you being so nice to me"? she asked, glancing across at Jane as well. "I cannot imagine I deserve it, and cannot think what has happened to change your opinion of me so drastically in so short a time."

"Change our opinion?" Jane laughed, and patted Mary warmly on the arm. "When have we ever not had a fond opinion of you, dear?"

Every day of my life, Mary thought. She was afraid to voice it, in case the admission ended this current period of felicity.

"Jane!" Mrs Bennet's voice called upstairs, and ever-obedient, Jane hurried down to see what was the matter. Mary stood to follow after her but Elizabeth laid a hand on her arm, staying her progress for half a moment.

"Mary," she murmured. "I am sorry if you have ever thought I did not care for you as a sister, or as a friend."

Mary blinked at her, quite shocked to hear such words coming from her sister's lips.

"I know we are not very alike, but I do not see why that means we must be at odds. I hope - I hope we can try a little harder to find some common ground in the future."

This little speech may have been short, but it was uttered with feeling and conveyed much, much more than its direct content. Impulsively, Mary threw her arms around her sister, not trusting herself to speak. She, too, had not always been particularly gracious towards Elizabeth. She had dismissed her as silly on many occasions, albeit not as silly as Kitty and Lydia. She had been jealous of her confidence, for little ever seemed to shake Elizabeth out of being just exactly who she was. Mary, on the other hand, constantly felt as if she were singing from a hymn sheet in a slightly different key to everybody else, and it took all her will to keep to their tune.

"I do not always make it easy to love me, I know," she muttered, while they embraced, so that she could talk to the back of Elizabeth's head and not be forced to look at her while she spoke. "But I am very glad that you are my sister."

"Girls!" Mrs Bennett's voice squawked. "Come along or we shall very likely be late! Kitty, Lydia, you must surely be ready by now! Elizabeth! Mary, do come along!"

With a shared laugh at their mother's anxiety, the two girls hurried down, and Mary felt a flicker of excitement about the evening that lay ahead, and a growing affection for the sisters who would accompany her.