Disclaimer: Don't own it…unfortunately…

The next day dawned with Lizzie sitting on the bed in her room thinking. She still felt horrible about the spectacle her family had made of themselves. But that wasn't the main thing that was on her mind. Her thoughts were occupied with William.

It was a huge step for the two of them to admit loving each other after only a short amount of time that they had known each other. If she was honest with herself, she was scared. She hadn't dated seriously since Wickham had betrayed her and when she dated him she thought it was love. He also admitted his love for her early in the relationship. But Lizzie knew William wasn't anything like Wickham. William was a gentlemen, caring, and generous while Wickham was a self-absorbed bastard.

Lizzie sighed. "I just need to stop thinking and trying to analyze this too much," she muttered to herself.

"Are your thoughts that bad?" Jane asked from the doorway.

Lizzie spun around to face Jane. "Why do people like sneaking up on me?"

"Sorry," Jane answered looking a little sheepish. "I knocked and I guess you didn't hear."

Jane walked into the room and sat on the bed beside Lizzie. "So do you want to tell me what you were muttering about?"

Lizzie sighed and wondered about the best way to say it. She finally decided that being straightforward and truthful would be the best solution. So she started talking about last night and everything came spilling out: her insecurities about herself, her doubts about the relationship, the speed at which everything was moving, etc. By the end of Lizzie's tirade, Jane knew a lot about Lizzie that she didn't know before.

"You never told me that Mom treated you like that," Jane said, first pointing out the part of Lizzie's speech that dealt with their parents.

"I tried. No offense, but you just couldn't or wouldn't see that Mom treated me horribly and no one would step in to help me. If it hadn't been for the summers and holidays with Aunt Maddie and Uncle Eddie I don't know how I would have survived as long as I did in that house."

Jane didn't really know how to respond to that, so she didn't. Yesterday was the first time she had seen how her mother treated Lizzie. She always knew that her mother was hard on Lizzie; she just didn't realize that she wasn't just hard, she was very cruel. She cleared her throat and asked, "But I don't understand, why do you have so many doubts about your relationship with William? We can all see and observe that he really cares for you Lizzie."

"In all honesty, I don't know. A good portion of it is because of Wickham. He did such a number on me that I'm bound to doubt the opposite sex for the rest of my life. As for the other portion, I don't know what it is."

Lizzie and Jane sat in silence for a few minutes, each lost in their own thoughts. Jane eventually broke the silence with, "It might be because you really do feel strongly about William, just as you thought you did for Wickham, and there's that little voice in the back of your head telling you that it's too good to be true."

After a few more moments of silence, Jane continued, "To be honest, I know how you feel. With Charles I was so swept up with him and what he did to me that I didn't stop to think about how he treated me. He made me feel like I was the only woman in the world when I was with him, but now that I've distanced myself from him, I understand that while he may have been a great guy when we were dating, the way he treated me towards the end of our very short romance is not in his favor. Even when I was at my happiest with him, I would have this little voice whispering things to me, telling me I needed to be more careful. I completely ignored it and look where it got me."

Lizzie looked like she was going to say something, but Jane held her hand up and continued, "But unlike you, I hadn't been burned yet. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you can't let your time with Wickham spoil what looks like a great relationship with William. And if you do let him spoil it, you are a fool. William is the best thing that's happened to you in a long time and you don't need to give that up."

"Well, while we're on the topic of men," Lizzie said slyly, "what about Richard?"

Jane blushed and asked, "What about him?"

"I think it's obvious to everyone within a fifty mile radius that he has some feelings for you that extend past you being his niece's teacher."

"Lizzie! I don't want to get into a relationship so soon after Charles and I don't think he views me in that way."

"Just like the way William and I see each other as platonic friends? Right," Lizzie said sarcastically.

"Why are we even discussing this?" Jane asked changing the subject. "I thought we were talking about you and William."

Lizzie smiled at Jane and hugged her. "Thanks Jane," she whispered in her ear before pulling away.

"You are very welcome," Jane said as she stood up and held her hand out for Lizzie to take. "Now, let's go find everyone else and do something fun."

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Richard and Georgiana were easy to find since they were snooping around the kitchen trying to get some food without Mrs. Reynolds finding out. William, however, was a different story. No one seemed to know where he was. They couldn't find him in the house anywhere and he wasn't answering his mobile, so everyone was left to wait for him to come back.

And wait they did. He wasn't back by luncheon, so they ate without him and Richard suggested going into Lambton to look around and do touristy things, which everyone but Lizzie agreed to do. She wanted to wait for William to come back and make sure whatever it was that had called him away wasn't too bad.

She waved to Jane, Richard, and Georgie as they drove away and wandered back into the house. She decided to go to the library to grab a book and then go upstairs to her room for a quick nap. As she searched for her book, she pondered where William could possibly be.

She gave up the search for a book after fifteen minutes when it became obvious that all the books she loved weren't going to hold her attention. She had just closed the door behind her when Mrs. Reynolds walked up to her.

"There you are Miss Bennet," she said.

"Yes Mrs. Reynolds?" Lizzie asked tiredly.

"I was coming to tell you that Mr. Darcy just called to say that he was called away on business this morning and thought he would be back by now. It turns out it's going to require a little more work than he originally thought, so he won't be back until later tonight. He wanted to make sure you weren't too terribly worried. He rushed out in such a hurry this morning that he didn't have a chance to write a note for anyone and it quite slipped my mind to tell everyone."

Lizzie smiled. It was the first good news she had heard all day. "Thank you Mrs. Reynolds," she said as she hugged the woman.

Mrs. Reynolds chuckled as she watched Lizzie climb the stairs. Lizzie walked into her room and immediately fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Lizzie was awakened a few hours later by Jane, who had come to tell her that dinner was ready. Lizzie quickly rubbed the sleep from her eyes and checked her appearance in the mirror and then followed Jane downstairs.

When she entered the dining room, she eagerly looked around, hoping to see William. But when she saw that he wasn't there, her face fell. It was apparent that he hadn't returned yet. Lizzie sighed and took her place at the table.

This dinner was very different from the night before. While everyone knew of the message from Mrs. Reynolds, they all wanted William to be with them. The night before had been full of laughter and this night was full of worry since the business that had taken William away was taking so long.

After dinner was finished, everyone went their own way and didn't dally over the table. Lizzie walked into her room and got ready for bed. Lizzie wasn't really tired, so she decided to wander the house a little and do some exploring. She wandered down the hall outside her room and looked at the portraits on the walls.

By the time she had wandered the entire floor that her room was on, it was eleven o'clock and she was ready for bed. Lizzie quickly walked back to her room and snuggled under the covers. She was asleep moments later.

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Around one o'clock, two hours after Lizzie had gone to bed, William returned to the house. He had had a very good day taking care of some matters of business. While it had taken longer than he had expected, he was glad it was out of the way because that meant he could devote the remainder of his stay to entertaining his guests.

William bounded up the stairs with a smile on his face. He couldn't wait to see Lizzie. When he got to her door, he noticed that there wasn't any light on in the room, so she was asleep. Because of that, he quietly opened the door and crept into the room, trying not to make a sound as he shut the door and walked to the bed.

He smiled when he saw Lizzie laying there. She looked so childlike curled up in a little ball. William bent down and lightly kissed her on the forehead, causing her to start to stir. Lizzie slowly opened her eyes and looked unseeingly at William.

When he eyes cleared, she looked at him and sleepily asked, "William?"

"Yes," he said leaning down to steal another kiss.

Lizzie pulled back so he couldn't kiss her and sleepily asked, "What time is it?"

"Late. Or early, depending on how you look at it," he replied with a smile

Lizzie just grunted in response. William chuckled and stood up. He placed another kiss on her forehead and started across the room to go into his. When he walked back into the room, Lizzie was already asleep again.

William crawled under the covers and pulled Lizzie to him and fell asleep fairly quickly.