"Oh! Oh - I concieve it not! Our Wickham? Our dearest George Wickham? And Celia Woodbourne! Of Penning's Estate! Why, what a story of talk this shall be! Oh... you read wrong Mr Bennet! You read wrong. For those spectacles of yours have long begged retirement! Give the paper here; I must read myself!" Mrs Bennet prated with electricity.

Mr Bennet handed over the paper with surety.

All the girls had their hands over their mouths; speechless.

Mary felt a tenuous pang of guilt. Why did she feel this guilt? It was perhaps, because she recognised the source of such an event so personally. The foolish lust of immaturity.

"Oh! It is true! All apparent in this very article girls! How I abhor the thought of his gentlemanly acts to be only deceptional sanctimony! Oh, I do regret our every polite exchange - hateful man! What lies he must have sung to us -"

"Oh Mamma, how can we trust only an article, they seem to have a magnified perception of every little tale and transform them into scandalous chronicles! But perhaps it is not their fault they are misfavoured with intellect or understanding, I am very sure -" Jane began.

Lizzy seemed to have found her voice again, and her feet. "Iam nothing but certain now. How I gave him the benefit of my deminishing doubt, yet now he so publicly disgraces himself I rebuke myself for any credit I ever gave him. For he steals it from himself so shamelessly! Oh, Wickham. I am remorse for any pretential relation he ever shared with us!" She seethed, stalking out of the room with an angry foot followed quickly by Jane.

The shock was stunning to the bone. A man of such close aqquaintance in the past few months, how could it be?

"...Oh and I see! These two wooed in Brighton! The very venture our dear Lydia refraned from!" Mrs Bennet continued from behind the article with bright eyes, filled with absolute astonishment.

Lydia and Kitty were no less the same. However Lydia did not seem more horrified then dazzled. "How I should have liked myself a handsome officer of my own! Oh - what more romantic than a quick, sure vow of eternal love! What a time she must have had. " She laughed.

"Lydia... you learn the very wrongest lesson. From this sisters, we should take into mind a valuable lesson." Mary set down her cup with chastising eyes. "A woman's reputation, is no less brittle as it is beautiful. And therefore, we cannot be too guarded in our behaviour towards the undeserving; the other sex." She said, and with that she learnt something more valuable than a handsome officer of her own. And it truely resinated.

"Well said, my dear. Well said." Mr Benned grinned with all the signs of amusion.

And that was the end of a good start.

- Author's Acknowledgements -

My genuine thanks to everyone following. I never expected all this feedback, whenever I read your encouraging reviews I have a new motivation. I know this might have gotten a tad boring by the end but I had this journey for Mary Bennet in mind for a long time. It was really fun to write, so a special thank you to you guys who commented, helped and read all the way through.

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Love from Phoebe x