Minutes turned into an hour and anxiety nipped at her heels like an annoyingly exclusively bred dog. Diving into the law book she shunned before, obscure wording repelled all attempted interest.

"Miss Bennet." A familiar voice broke through the cloud of motivation frustration.

She started. "Mr. Darcy." Manners prodded at her. "Please sit. If you wish to sit. You are under no obligation to, but if you want to, I do not object." She rushed to speak, face burning. Uncurling her legs, she crossed her ankles delicately and clutched the law book in her lap.

He glanced around the sitting room. Confirming only Elizabeth sat in the room, he hovered into the doorframe. "I would not wish to compromise- "

Please do, Elizabeth thought, end my misery.

"-your reputation." Holding a top hat in his hand, he looked afraid of her. "Should I summon a servant for tea?"

She checked her progress in the book. Three pages. Three whole pages! "Tea will not make this easier to read but I appreciate the gesture." Determined to keep the word to Mrs. Ariti proved more difficult than she expected. Hopefully the lessons Jane endured were not as dry as this law book.

His eyes flicked to the cover. "I can list the laws I am well versed on."

Tempted to accept the offer, she closed it and gently placed it on the arm of the settee. "No. Again, I appreciate the gesture." This awkwardness disrupted her happiness, and her longing to hang on his arm and hear him say her full name thrust her in a position she was learning to despise. She was acting like a silly young lady – another Lydia, except more mature.

"Have I upset you, Miss Bennet?" He shifted his hat to the other hand.

She shook her head. "It is not you, Mr. Darcy. I am distracted and in need of a purpose. I have always protected Jane or corrected Lydia or- "She pressed a hand to her forehead. "-tried to rein in Kitty and convince Mary to take up different interests. Now I am without a sister to guide." She huffed and stared hard at a door across the corridor.

Mr. Darcy followed the direction. "What happened?"

"Mrs. Ariti offered to make me an immortal." Elizabeth told the truth. "She is speaking with Mr. Archwood as we speak."

He deadpanned.

She breathed deeply, wishing he said something. "I accepted, Mr. Darcy."

The world stopped, and God himself parted the clouds to their game of hide and seek.

Mr. Darcy bowed his head, lips trembling.

The door creaked open and Elizabeth was on her feet. Mr. Archwood cut her off a few feet from Mr. Darcy. "Miss Bennet, it is your true wish?" An awkward Mr. Darcy fingered the rim of his hat and avoided looking at her. It wounded her.

She nodded.

"You wish to join the Archwood Coven." Mr. Archwood stated.

She glanced at Mr. Darcy and frowned. "Yes, Mr. Archwood." Why was he not lost in the joy? They could marry without anyone raising a brow at it. The dream – at her fingertips – taunted her, demanded she act. And she acted! What more could she do for the gentleman to act?

He turned to Mr. Darcy. "I have no objections. Do you, Fitzwilliam?"

He finally looked at her, except the shield blocked any reading of his emotional state. "Miss Bennet displays a willingness to learn and a loyal commitment to family and self."

"Yes or no." Mrs. Ariti clenched her hands.

Elizabeth bet Mrs. Ariti wanted to strangle him because that's how she felt.

"She will make an exceedingly respectable addition." Mr. Darcy answered flatly.

The energy shifted. Mr. Darcy excused himself abruptly leaving her alone with the leaders of the Coven. Had she upset him? Mr. Archwood squeezed her hands. A surge of activity at the corner drew them to Mr. Darcy and Saji Nagayasu face to face in rapid hushed whispers.

A small hand rested on her arm. "Have you visited Scotland, Elizabeth?"

"No." Elizabeth listened to them argue in French, the accents a distinct mismatch and oddly satisfying to hear. "I am eager to join Jane and be your willing companion."

"No, Selene." Julian said in a tone Elizabeth never heard him use before. It scared her more than she liked to admit. "You promised me twelve years without traveling again. Political tensions are on the rise and you take too many risks." He whined. Wait, Mr. Archwood was capable of whining? How foreign an action for the gentleman, Elizabeth thought.

"Julian, I am wise to wait at least half a decade before dragging Miss Bennet." They whispered. Elizabeth did not understand why as they likely heard each other across the short distance.

"I said no."

The married couple bickered as happily married couples do and Mr. Darcy mad dashed up the stairs leaving Elizabeth to wonder what she did wrong. Saji Nagayasu bowed to her and strode toward the library as naturally as a royal floating through their own palace.

"It is decided." Mr. Archwood declared at normal conversation volume. "You will return home and return tomorrow with the totality of your precious belongings. We will inform you of the plan to escort you to Scotland afterwards."

Like an outsider to a new play, Elizabeth nodded along and bore all the guilt of causing the havoc.

A familiar overbearing enthusiasm thrust itself on her and she fell into Mrs. Ariti's charms. "Are you prepared to visit Longbourn one last time?"

Her heart swelled.

"It is time." She announced confidently.

Mrs. Ariti wrapped an arm around hers and beamed at her husband. "Julian, I will walk Miss Elizabeth to the carriage. You will speak with her father. After all, we ladies are not taken seriously unless we are older than five and twenty, and Mrs. Bennet does not want me in her home. Elizabeth must be alone with her thoughts and emotions, I am sure. A truly monumental decision that will change her life forever"

Elizabeth nodded. She said yes, partly to be with Mr. Darcy and partly due to the family she'd inherit. Except for Mr. Bingley, who irritated her consistently, she adored all of them. Her heart chose, and she'd never be at peace if she went against her heart.

Julian shook a finger at his wife, wished Elizabeth a pleasant evening, and returned to his manuscript, an ever-evolving headache that he griped about under his breath.

They walked to the stables, intercepted by the stable hand and sent back to the veranda to wait for the carriage. Elizabeth paced and paused, facing the lane again and remembering the first time she met Mrs. Ariti.

Not an entirely different person, but someone changed. That's who she was – a changed lady with bigger dreams and horizons.

She credited Mrs. Ariti with opening her eyes.

She wanted more than her family and her own happiness. She longed for the freedom Mrs. Ariti possessed – a freedom she thought she possessed before the Archwood Coven arrived in Hertfordshire.

Elizabeth Bennet wanted to find herself again.

Clearly, she lost her way, or never found it, and if she truly wanted to be wholly content with Mr. Darcy, she needed to believe and trust in herself. She used her sisters as a crutch, and her friends mocked her unpopular opinions on love, marriage, social expectations for ladies and gentlemen…A fresh start. A fresh start and a new self before she bore the name Mrs. Darcy, Elizabeth decided.

The carriage pulled around, the driver slightly disheveled.

Mrs. Ariti handed Elizabeth into the carriage and waved after her. Encountering her father in the study at Longbourn, she said hello before walking the empty house. Without Lydia to argue with Kitty, and Mary not playing her music, she mourned. Mr. Collins would inherit this home. Nothing of her would remain in these walls.

Standing alone in her room, she stared at her beat up trunk dejectedly.

Was this adjusting? She didn't like it.

Adjusting shouldn't be this painful and foreign. Maybe she needed foreign in her life. Maybe, just maybe, she ought to step out of the normal boundaries and embrace what appeals to her.

Immortals made their own rules. Mrs. Ariti defied fashion law and Elizabeth loved the eccentric boldness the elder glowed in. Only time would tell with how Mr. Darcy received the newer Elizabeth Bennet and if she was just acting out in anxiety rather than a genuine interest in discovering the truth.

Her eyes drifted across the room, remembering the letters she hid from the prying eyes of her sisters and mother. Her father never cared enough to invade their ultimate sanctuary.

Dropping her favorite and most read books into the trunk, she sighed. This was it. She was finally becoming a full-fledged adult. What were a few books missing from the library when her family flirted with disaster at any given moment? Tossing in a hand cloth Kitty made for her for Christmas, she crossed her arms. Best not forget her bonnets or the rest of her dresses. One trunk may not be enough, she chuckled. Lydia's three trunks of clothing, a source of teasing from the rest of the sisters, made her singular trunk appear as minimalistic living.

The weight lifted off her chest the more she packed into the trunk, the clothes heaped in haphazardly. She hid the books better at the bottom and the letters in their box in the middle.

Laying in bed that night after an eventful upbeat dinner, she stared up at the ceiling and reminisced of the days long since passed.

From child to young woman, the world changed in graduating dissatisfaction and now it all started to improve. She wished Jane were next to her so they could whisper and giggle like girls again. She wished Charlotte hugged her, but a letter would suffice. Charlotte would never believe her, and she chose to expose her choices to Meryton after she left for Scotland, not before.

Closing her eyes, she soon succumbed to dreams too hazy to remember when she woke up the next morning.

Mr. Archwood and Mrs. Ariti arrived at 10:30 am sharp.

Kitty and Mary lingered, wanting the truth from the horse's mouth.

"Mr. Bennet, a moment of your time." Mr. Archwood motioned to the study. Her father raised his brow at her in passing and the two closed the door in the face of the curious ladies.

Mrs. Bennet stared down Mrs. Ariti, lip quivering. "Ma'am."

Mrs. Ariti bowed her head. "Mrs. Bennet, I must thank you for letting your daughter in my company again. She is a blessing. A mighty distraction." Elizabeth sighed, already picking up the cues before they even departed for Netherfield Park.

Kitty squealed. "Oh, Mama, might I call on Lizzy on Sunday?"

"No." Mrs. Bennet forced a smile. "I intend to visit Lady Lucas and you'll attend. Maria Lucas has information on Mr. Barnett, and he is a handsome young man who shows interest in you."

Mary rolled her eyes and bit her tongue.

"Mary, you will not either. You are Kitty's escort now. You need to help each other now that Elizabeth has set her sights on traveling – as I assume, you'll travel and wish my daughter's company?" Mrs. Ariti nodded. "So, you see, Mary, you'll join us on Sunday. Mr. Brook will offer to you. He has already asked Mr. Bennet for permission."

Mary's jaw dropped. "Mama!" A squeal pierced the emptiness and Elizabeth winced. "Lizzy?" She faced her elder sister, a slow grin spreading across her face like a lantern in the dark.

She shrugged. "He hinted at it at the party, Mary. Were you not listening?"

A red-faced Mary crossed her arms. "Little words are not promises."

Mrs. Ariti bowed her head and stepped back.

"He cares for you. Introduced you to his family. Even if his mother is objectionable." Kitty cut in.

They all nodded. Mary uncrossed her arms. "He hasn't offered yet. Stop speculating."

Kitty threw her hand up. Elizabeth stepped back to stand next to Mrs. Ariti, an arm's length and inches safer from Mary's wrath. Mrs. Bennet huffed.

"Does no one care to be married?" A stressed mother eyed up her children mutinously.

They all looked at their mother. "We are not naïve, Mama." Kitty said. "Not everyone will meet a Mr. Bingley."

Mrs. Bennet protested their idiocy vehemently regardless of Mrs. Ariti's presence and the general disapproval of her daughters, much wiser in age and experience than she cared for. The study door gradually opened, and Mr. Bennet stepped forward first. He placed his hands-on Elizabeth's shoulders and kissed her forehead.

"You have my blessing, child. Think of us. We will of you." He said to the bewilderment of everyone except Elizabeth, Mrs. Ariti and Mr. Archwood.

She relaxed. "Thank you, Papa."

"Go. I will inform your mother and sisters. A joyous moment in your life." He hugged her close, like a father should, and released her into Mrs. Ariti's care. Before anyone moved, Elizabeth bear hugged Mary and Kitty telling them to pursue their gentlemen without fear. Light on her feet, she hummed to herself and when the last of Longbourn faded from carriage window view, she sat back and sighed.

Mr. Archwood tipped his hat to her. "Your father offered no resistance, only shock."

She nodded. "I distrusted immortals before your arrival. I have erred and ask your forgiveness."

"No need to." Mrs. Ariti's open smile and Mr. Archwood's easy pleasantries convinced her she was safe from their censure. "You are not the first nor last we have cured of this distrust. Nor are all immortals the same. We are people."

Elizabeth fully relaxed. If only Mr. Darcy opened his own schedule so that she might measure his current thoughts and emotions surrounding her choice to join the coven. All but one obstacle stood in her way.

The gentleman that yanked her heart – Mr. Darcy.