Author's Notes: Hi All! I hope you continue to be safe and healthy in this strange year. Thank you so much for the tremendous feedback to the previous chapter, I know I made you all wait way too long for it!

I am thrilled that Elizabeth and Darcy's long awaited reunion satisfied in both romance and a continuation of the mystery. I had a little giggle at how much you guys are eager for Elizabeth and Darcy to wed after a single conversation...but you're right. Being Mrs. Darcy WOULD give Elizabeth the financial power and the social clout she needs to better thwart Mr. Collins. But Lizzy wouldn't be Lizzy to me if she wasn't stubborn and had a certain "air of conceited independence" as Miss Bingley has been known to say...and this version that conceited independence is pretty warranted. She's seen a good bit of the world, and she's been making her own way for a long while, and she's in no rush to give up her freedoms in order to have Darcy solve her problems for her.

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In the small hours of the morning, a pair of lovers lay together in the billiard room of Netherfield Hall, each equally reluctant to return to their own beds. To part would mean an end to this evening of passion, and a return to the bleak and weary reality of their respective positions. Though they had found comfort in one another's embrace, their assignation should not, could not, be repeated. And so, they lingered, willing the night to go on, begging the sun not to rise, and savored one another.

Even as he held his ladylove within his arms, Charles felt his heart breaking. He had a romantic soul; he was sensitive and sweet-natured. He knew coming together in this way with Jane would be difficult for his soft heart to handle, but he had not anticipated that he would become despondent quite so quickly. Charles had been infatuated with many a pretty face, but until he met Jane Collins, his heart had remained unscathed through these flirtations. Feeling her loss already, he tightened his hold around his angel, and pressed his lips to her honey-gold braid.

In return for this show of affection, Jane nestled closer in his embrace, her head resting in the crook of his shoulder. Silently, she willed herself to be content with what they had found together this night, but she was as discomposed as her lover. Jane had married so young, and so unfortunately, that she had never experienced the first flush of infatuation, until Charles Bingley had taken up the lease of Netherfield Park. That attraction and infatuation has transformed itself into something much deeper when fate had brought Jane to Netherfield, giving her the opportunity to know Charles' heart with an intimacy with which few could boast. That she had fallen for the handsome, generous, kind-hearted gentleman was not entirely surprising…but that she had been so bold as to kiss him, proposition him, and then lay with him within the course of a single day still shocked her, even as he held her.

Jane had been a quiet, dutiful child who had grown into an obedient and obliging young woman, few would have ever anticipated that her choices would lead to adultery. Yet for all her surprise at her own actions, Jane could not repine them. Despite all the fear and anxiety that had led her to Netherfield's door, she had never been so happy as she had been during this stormy week at Netherfield. She wondered, not for the first time, if it was wrong of her to be so happy in Charles' presence, as the dearest man in all the world to her lay sick and nearly dying. Before she met Mr. Bingley, there was no man in the world Jane loved so well as the William that should have been her husband. Since the day they met he had treated her with the utmost kindness and attention, and she repaid that kindness by behaving in a wanton behavior. However logically Jane knew her behavior to be bad – she could not force her feelings on that behavior to change to better suit the bounds of propriety. She had never been so free or so happy as she was at that very moment.

Her silent reverie was interrupted by the quiet, gentle voice of her lover. "Jane, my daring…there is something I would speak to you of before you return to your chambers."

She sighed heavily, recognizing that this pleasant interlude was to be interrupted by their grim reality. "I will hear whatever you wish to tell me, Charles." She whispered in reply.

"Miss Bennet's revelation this afternoon – it was less surprising to some as it was to you."

Jane lifted her head, her confusion evident even in the darkness of the billiard room. "I have not the pleasure of understanding you."

"You now are aware that Constable Gantry was hired by Darcy in order to investigate the assault of Reverend Collins. However, in truth, Gantry was summoned not just to investigate that unfortunate affair, but also to see if there was any merit to a suspicion held by Mr. Darcy…that your family was in some way related to Miss Bernard."

Jane inhaled sharply. "I know of course, that Mr. Darcy shares an acquaintance with…Miss Bernard, as he wrote a letter of condolence to her during my time at Netherfield, but I had no inkling of any suspicions of the connection on his part." She paused, and then added softly, "But of course…why should I have suspected such a thing, being fully ignorant of that knowledge myself."

"I pray you will not remonstrate yourself for any sort of ignorance in this matter. Darcy is…well, he is as close to me as any brother could be, and I hardly had any notion of their being so closely connected that he would take a vested interest in her origins. Indeed, this information was only conveyed to me but a night ago, and my mind is still reeling. He is an immensely private man."

Jane's lips curled into a rueful smile. "I know something of keeping private feelings hidden from others."

Charles' arms tightened around her protectively. "Then I will share more with you, knowing that you can keep this knowledge in confidence. My friend is desperately in love with your sister. I think only a man as besotted as Darcy would be able to recognize the face of his beloved in the features of her family members. Perceptive as he is, he could not rest until he learned the truth…and then your cousin was assaulted. Miss Bennet's confirmation of this theory has prompted Darcy to remove to London at first light, in order to call on Miss Bernard."

These words caused Jane to sit upright, her agitated spirits apparent in the way she held herself. "Mr. Darcy in love with my Lizzy? Mr. Darcy in love with an actress? Is Lizzy so disgraced that she has become a kept woman?"

"Indeed not!" Charles exclaimed, his voice rising slightly in excitement. "As preposterous as such a notion seems, Darcy has nothing but honorable intentions toward your sister. It would be an unequal match even if she had never removed from Longborn, but her choice of career will make an alliance between them something of a scandal. Yet Darcy cares not. His affection for your sister is of long standing and has already endured many trials – and he is undaunted in his desire to take her for his wife."

"I am gratified to hear you say so…perhaps it is silly of me to be concerned with propriety as I lay here, with a man who is not my husband…but Lizzy was always so intelligent, so independent, I should hate to know that she has had to submit herself to the whims of some man of the Ton in order to navigate in society."

"In Town, Darcy will call on your sister and attempt to discover what he can about the nature of her disappearance, and how Lizzy Bennet became Adelaide Bernard. He is a conscientious man who will be sure to give us a full accounting of her story…but if it is your desire, he will invite her to Netherfield, so that you might hear her story directly from her lips."

Jane gasped. "Elizabeth, here!? Is this possible?"

"I do not see why it cannot be arranged, if you and Miss Bennet are desirous of the meeting and Miss Bernard is willing. With the abundance of ladies currently residing in my household, there can be nothing improper in bringing her here. We are convinced that Mr. Collins is in total ignorance of the association, and as he is no longer permitted at Netherfield, their paths will not cross. Of course, we do not know her story yet, but Gantry, Darcy and I all believe that her flight from Longborn and ostracization from her family must be due in some part to Mr. Collins."

"He may not be permitted, but he has assured me that he has eyes and ears in Netherfield, many of your staff were hired from the village. He can not remain in ignorance of the new arrival for long."

"Indeed, but as Miss Bernard is currently in mourning, she will spend her time at Netherfield above stairs, and you and your sister may visit with her in privacy. If any of my staff are in his pocket in earnest, word of her coming here could reach him at Longborn…but what of it? The name Bernard surely means nothing to him."

Jane wrung her hands nervously. "You can not be sure that my husband is ignorant of Elizabeth's true identity, it is a supposition."

Charles rubbed his lover's back in soothing circles. "Of course, you are correct, it is a supposition, but one with great merit." He paused, and then continued, a hard edge coming into his voice. "You need not worry for your sister's safety. If we are wrong, and Mr. Collins does seek admittance to Netherfield, he will come to regret such a precipitous action. Trespassers on Netherfield's grounds will be prosecuted to the furthest extent of the law, and if it should come to that, well…I am an ace shot with my pistol."

He cupped the face of his beloved, meeting her concerned gaze with a steely resolve. "Jane," he said, firmly but not unkindly, "do you trust me?"

She met his gaze unflinchingly. "With my very life." she whispered.

"Then allow me to perform this act of service for you, let me reunite you with your beloved sister while you remain under my protection. I can not give you my name, but this I can do for you – and nothing would give my greater pleasure than to see the happiness of your reunion."

Cornflower eyes welled with tears of gratitude and happiness. Though she did not use her words, Charles easily surmised that she had agreed to the scheme by the way she wrapped hers arms around his neck and kissed him with an exuberance he had never known before.

0o0o0o0o0o0o

In the corridors of guest wing of Netherfield Hall, a slender young man from London paced the length of the carpet with restless energy. After successfully delivering a parcel of instructions to the Derbyshire guest's room, Mr. Gantry had resolved to retire for the evening, yet his feet did not seem inclined to return him to his own chambers. Though they frequently turned in the proper direction, before they completed their mission to the sanctuary of his abode, he would find his step pivoting, inevitably leading him back toward the door of the sick room. In that room lay the wretched Reverend Collins, who's incessant, disturbing coughing was only suppressed by the administration of heavy doses of laudanum. Though Gantry had been summoned to Hertfordshire to act on that gentleman's behalf, he knew it was not Mr. Collins, but rather who sat with keeping vigil, that pulled him toward the door.

Constable Gantry had served on any number of cases that enabled him to mix with the higher classes, a privilege he had never anticipated as one of many sons to a common London surgeon. For his own part, he did not much care for the distinctions of rank, having met many a stupid person amongst those who were so often referred to as "the quality". The Constable had far too keen an intellect to be impressed by persons who's only claim to superiority were by wealth, landholdings, or lineage. In his belief, the only real superiority between people came from a superiority of mind, that some people were simply much cleverer than their peers – no matter what class of society they hailed from. There were other qualities a person might possess to lend them some merit to their character – generosity, honor, and loyalty all worthy traits in their own way, but John Gantry of London valued intellect above any other attribute.

Through his work, Gantry had become acquainted with many finely educated young ladies of the quality, but until his sojourn to Hertfordshire he had never met a young woman with quality that he could admire. He had been attempting, for the past quarter hour, to convince himself that he sought Miss Bennet's audience only because he needed to conduct a thorough interview with her regarding the Reverend's assault and her own revelations about Miss Adelaide Bernard. That only a few hours prior to this internal crossroads he had argued against his host or employer importuning Miss Bennet at such a time of the night did not occur to him. He was so eager to speak with her again that his normally rational mind had dismissed most practical considerations.

For her own part, Mary Bennet was growing rather weary of the constant shuffling of feet outside the bed chamber door. She wished that Mr. Gantry would continue his pacing elsewhere, should his insomnia continue, or else come in and say to her what he would. She was determined that if he was to continue in this stupid manner for another five minutes, she would call him to a stop. She only hoped that it was, indeed, Mr. Gantry who haunted the door, and not one of Mr. Bingley's other, more intimidating guests. She was nearly positive that it must be the small, hawkish investigator whose steps passed by again and again in rhythmic cadence.

The logical order of her own mind told her that the servants of Netherfield were surely abed, having a good deal of extra work in housing so many guests, one of them an invalid. Miss Bingley, along with Mrs. Hurt and Mr. Hurst, had their chambers in the family wing – and none of them had a particular interest in visiting the sickroom, especially at such an hour. Dr. Barringer would not walk about in the hall, having no qualms entering the bedroom and tending to his patient as best he could. In fact, the good doctor had checked on his patient only a few hours ago and told Mary that he intended to retire directly. That left only Mr. Bingley, Mr. Darcy, and Mr. Gantry as the possible culprits. Mr. Bingley was readily dismissed, as he had entered the sickroom at various odd times over the past several days, acting in his role as master of the estate. After several long minutes with only the ticking clock, her cousin's labored breathing, Tilly the maid's light snoring, and the sound of shuffling feet…Mary was as sure as she could be of the identity of the noisemaker, for Mr. Darcy stood nearly a foot taller than Mr. Gantry, and walked with long even strides.

She glanced at the clock on the mantel above the fireplace with furrowed brows. Mr. Gantry's five minutes were up, and it sounded as if his pacing had not slowed by a step. She rose, cracking her neck as she did so, and strode toward the door with purpose, swinging it open. To her astonishment, there stood Mr. Gantry, his fist raised to knock upon wood that was no longer there. They stood with but a few inches between them. His eyes rounded in surprise, but he recovered himself enough to say, "Good evening, Miss Bennet. I hope I am not disturbing you."

Mary could not help but smirk slightly, and replied, drily and quietly, "It is no bother to speak with you now, but I may ask you to wear down a carpet in another part of the house if you must continue seeking your exercise when you depart."

If Mr. Gantry's cheeks reddened somewhat at this tease, Mary had a good enough nature to take no notice of it. She gestured for him to enter the room, leaving the door ajar for propriety's sake, such as it was. He followed her nearer to the fire with apologies on his lips.

"I am sorry to importune you at such an hour of the night Miss Bennet – I had hoped that you would still be awake to receive me, but I can certainly wait until the morning to speak with you if that is your preference."

Mary's cool blue gaze drifted toward the clock. "Well, Mr. Gantry. It is morning already, and I am before you, ready to hear what you would say."

Gantry clasped his hands behind the back, telling himself he could analyze why his palms were so clammy after he finished speaking with the young woman. "I must commend you, Miss Bennet, on how well you acquitted yourself this afternoon, both in your unflappability toward your guardian's uncouth behavior, as well as your composed manner in speaking to your sister of Miss Bernard's history. I believe that neither task must have been easy, and quite admire your forbearance."

"I thank you, sir." Came the calm, cold, reply.

Unlike other young men, Gantry was not put off by the severity of her manner. In fact, her business-like attitude rather enthralled him. "Would you say that Mr. Collin's behavior this afternoon at tea was unusual? Or was he acting within his typical manner?" He asked with interest.

Mary's plump lips pursed in thought. "He was both within his typical manner, as well as in contradiction to it. Mr. Collins has a sharp temper and does not feel the need to restrain his volatile nature within the confines of his own home. However, I have never seen him behave as he did today in company. I am sure you observed the attentions my guardian paid to Miss Bingley. That is the behavior I am used to seeing outside the walls of Longborn."

"Mr. Collins has been described to me as man of considerable pride. Would you say that such a depiction is accurate?"

"Without question." Came the firm reply, "Mr. Collins takes great pleasure in being the principle landowner of the area and is deeply offended at any perceived slight to his position within the community."

"From your observation…would you say that Mr. Collins is content in life and secure in his position as Master of Longborn?"

Here Mary frowned severely. "Is anyone content in life?" She asked with mild annoyance. "Mr. Collins has had a great deal of fortune come his way, but very few men exhibit the sort of gratitude toward their blessings that they ought."

Gantry nodded vigorously and answered her with energy. "Yes! Mr. Collins has been blessed beyond measure. Such extraordinary circumstances have pulled him from relative poverty and obscurity and into the gentry. Few men have such good fortune as that. The death of your mother, taking your father's heir with her was a tragic circumstance, but hardly out of the common way. That your father should have an accident so soon out of mourning, before he had a chance to remarry and father another son…it is truly shocking. Both parents, relatively young and comparatively healthy, gone within the space of some 18 months. I doubt there are many children who have been made orphans so quickly."

"I certainly hope not. I would wish no such ill on anyone. We were very lucky to have family to take us in, though we had to be split between households all the same."

"Yes, the situation was certainly not ideal, for sisters in mourning for both their beloved parents to be parted from one another, but I suppose sometimes practicality must weight out above sentiment. Yet your sister Elizabeth did abide by the plans that were made for her…she decided to forge her own way. And once you discovered the truth of where she had got to, you kept that information to yourself. You have kept it a secret until this very afternoon." Gantry paused, his voice firm, but not unkind. "Tell me why, Miss Bennet. Why did you keep the knowledge of your sister's whereabouts and identity secret from the remainder of your family?"

The air in the room stilled around them. Gantry watched Miss Bennet's face as she struggled to find the words to answer him. She presented herself as being stoic, and unflappable, but Gantry suspected that the still waters of her heart ran deep. She parted her pretty lips to answer him, but still found herself with little to say. "…I knew that having put herself on public display, there would no way Mr. Collins would allow us to reconnect with Lizzy. I did not want to see Jane's heart break over Lizzy for a second time."

His voice as gentle as any she had ever heard, he answered her. "I can well understand your concealing such information from your elder sister in attempt to protect her from pain…however, you discovered your sister's identity in London, while in the care of your Aunt and Uncle Gardiner, while Mrs. Collins remained at Longborn. Every account I have of the Gardiners is that they are good natured, sensible, and generous. Why did you feel compelled to conceal your knowledge from even them?"

She turned away from him, wringing her hands. To a less observant man, Miss Bennet's agitation might have remained beyond detection, but Gantry was a professional…and one who had been observing Miss Bennet rather closely. He moved to stand in front of her, demanding an answer. "Why did a young girl such of yourself feel that concealment of a missing relative was the best possible course of action!? To tell nobody in all these years, after all their efforts to search for your missing sister!?"

Mary backed away from him, her anxiety increasing. She blinked owlishly. "…I can not answer for the decisions I made as young girl not yet out in society. I was unsure of what to do."

"I doubt that in it's entirety, Miss Bennet." Gantry said, moving to close the space between them, afraid of raising his voice and waking the sleeping nurse. "I do not think you've been unsure of a single action you've taken during the whole of your life. Keeping your knowledge of Miss Elizabeth from your family was a choice – a deliberate one. Tell me why it was the choice you made, at once!"

"Who was I to trust!?" She hissed in a whisper, her ice-blue eyes sparking with anger. "Tell me sir, which one of my relatives would YOU have confided in, in such a circumstance? The Uncle who sold my sister Jane to the highest bidder to spare himself a few months of inconvenience? The Aunt who was so taken in by Mr. Collins' flattery that she dismissed any complaint my sisters and I raised against him? Or perhaps I should have written to my Uncle Phillips in Meryton – an attorney so derelict in his attention to his duties that he contracted my sister Jane to that man and was too dim-witted to realize it until it was too late? Or should I have relied on his wife, my mother's sister, and one of the most insipid and gossip hungry dullards in the whole of the country? Would she have given me the advice I needed?"

As she spoke, her temper continued to rise into a righteous fury at all the adults who had so let her and the other Bennet orphans down. "I learned far too young that age does not beget wisdom, experience does! And I had more experience with Mr. Collins, the real Mr. Collins, than all my aunts and uncles combined! I know not what exactly occurred to make Elizabeth flee – all I know that is that she would NEVER have done so without a compelling reason, and I would not betray her to them."

Gantry flinched at the vehemence of her tone. "You are so certain that she ran away?" He asked softly, attempting to soothe over her anger.

"If she did not leave of her own volition, then my sister's husband surely sent her away, placing her into position far below the station of her birth, and lied to my family regarding her whereabouts, letting my uncles search for her, letting us all mourn for her! Either Elizabeth ran from Mr. Collins to London or was delivered to London by Mr. Collin's design. Which option is more palatable for you, sir? I had thought very highly of your intelligence until you ask me such a question!"

Her companion nodded deeply, almost reverently. "I beg your pardon for needling you so Miss Bennet, only I had to confirm my suspicions of the nature of Miss Elizabeth's disappearance without leading you toward the answers I sought. I have been suspicious of your guardian's character since Mr. Darcy first wrote to me of him – and now I have your confirmation, as well as my own observations, that those suspicions are warranted….now I must change direction, and speak of a topic which the dictates of society tell me are not fit for a gentlewoman's ear. However, I believe you are not cast in that typical, delicate mold of the other sex."

Mary's eyebrow arched in question. If her eyes rolled a bit at the term "typical, delicate mold", Gantry chose not to notice it. "I will not be missish and pretend at an affront I do not feel. I would have you speak plainly sir."

"I wish to know of Reverend Collins' history with flagellation."

She paled, her blue eyes growing wide. She turned to look toward her cousin, who looked thin and grey, his black hair unkempt as he tossed restlessly in his drug induced slumber, his fever raging on inside. Her voice shook slightly as she answered. "I have never seen such a thing occur before me…but I do not believe it impossible. Mr. Collins is a decidedly strict man, and he has never hesitated to use his hands for correcting his wife, or his son…but whipping?"

"I assure you Miss Bennet, that Reverend Collins has been whipped many times through out his life. Dr. Barringer observed a pattern of scaring on the poor man that confirms a history of such abuse. When the poor man was discovered he had fresh marks, as well as other bruises and injuries that clearly came from being on the receiving end of another man's fists."

As Gantry spoke, Mary raised a small hand before her mouth, her eyes misting at the horror of what Gantry described. She knew that Mr. Collins beat his son into adulthood, that had as good as promised to do so on his arrival when he learned that the Reverend would be arriving from Kent for an unsolicited visit to Longborn. What she had not imagined anything quite so dreadful as a lifetime spent at the end of the strap.

"Mr. Gantry," She said with a gulp, willing her nerves to calm so that she might speak. "I must confess something which has been concealed from you until now. The day of our visit to Netherfield, when my cousin was caught in the rain…he did not exit our carriage of his own volition. Mr. Collins was quite irritated with his son for his performance at Netherfield, embarrassed at the reverence with which my cousin regarded his patroness Lady Catherine DeBourgh, rather than expressing the proper amount of paternal pride. By now I am sure you have realized that Mr. Collins is not by any means, a good-humored man, but he does not always exert himself to be vicious. But he was irate, truly irate, and ordered his son to return to Longborn on foot, claiming that since Reverend Collins was 'ashamed' of his father, that they had better not associate too closely. Jane and I both tried to protest, but it was made clear that us in the strongest language that our disobedience would only make matters worse for all of us."

"Miss Bennet!" he whispered with energy, "Thank you for confiding in me! I have suspected as much, for the story Mr. Collins relayed to me this afternoon was full of gaps and inconsistencies, which the truth from you is helping me to remedy. Collins himself has confessed that he knew the Reverend to be under the weather before exiting the carriage, and none of us could understand why an ill man would choose to seek his exercise on foot when such dark clouds were gathering. Will Mrs. Collins corroborate your version of events?"

Mary frowned slightly, worrying her bottom lip with her teeth. "I cannot be certain." She said after a moment's pause. "Jane abhors the cruel turn of her husband's nature, but he is her husband. She may feel that she lacks the authority to speak against him, especially in front of others. You saw her deferential behavior this afternoon at tea."

"It is an awkward position to put anyone in, asking them to speak against their spouse or family member. It also occurs much more frequently than one might guess. If justice is to be served for Mr. Collins, true justice that is…than nothing but the unvarnished truth will do. Mrs. Collins testimony may prove vital in seeing a reprobate pay for the crimes he has committed, and I should hate to see the law not served due to familial attachment."

As Gantry finished his speaking, the chimes on the clock called out the three 'clock hour. In a few hours a new day would begin, and Mr. Darcy would head to London in order to learn the truth of Miss Elizabeth's disappearance from the woman in question, among other activities for the investigation that must be completed in Town. Physically, Gantry felt rather weary, but his lively mind was buzzing with the wealth of information Miss Bennet had shared with him this night. He was eager to put it all to his notes, but he knew there was more he needed to share with her.

Gently, Gantry changed tact, telling Miss Bennet of Bingley's plan to invite Miss Elizabeth to Netherfield. She remained composed throughout his explanation of the invitation, her quick mind running with possibilities of what could go wrong with such a visit. She was not entirely convinced of the safety of such a scheme, but her desire to see Elizabeth after so many years of separation, to understand how and most importantly, why exactly, she had left Longborn was a powerful sensation. In the end, she begged Gantry for privacy in order to write to her sister and implore her to come to Netherfield where they could be reunited away from the collective relations who had been the means of separating the Bennet orphans from the first.

Constable Gantry, born to a surgeon but a true gentleman at heart, left Miss Bennet in order for her to enjoy the privacy that she desired. He promised that he or Mr. Bingley would personally post the missive express, so that no time might be wasted in it's reaching Elizabeth's hands. She thanked him in her normal, cool manner, masking her swirling feelings behind the façade of a placid young woman. He bid her goodnight thinking better of her than ever.

In cases such as these, it was the duty of the Bow Street Runner to refrain from personal involvement in the case. Gantry had been involved with other sad tales of assault and murder, fraud and deception. He had seen villainy of all different kinds. Though often dismayed and disgusted by the depths of depravity mankind could reach, he had never felt personally affected by a case before. He made it a point to stay detached and aloof, to stick to the facts and follow tangible leads to an inevitable conclusion, whether satisfying or not. But the poise and dignity of Miss Mary Bennet – the way she unflinchingly spoke the truth of her situation rather than tiptoeing around the ugliness of the world…it was among the most admirable displays of bravery Gantry had ever been privileged enough to witness. She was truly a remarkable woman, wise and knowing, and fiercely protective of those she loved, shielding one sister's emotions, while guarding the other's secret. To all these admirable qualities, she had also shown herself to be a high intelligent young woman…and Gantry could not help himself but to admire her.

Still – standing together in the sickroom of a dying clergyman in the small hours of the morning was no place to make love to a woman, nor had Gantry crossed that threshold to admire Miss Bennet's many wonderful attributes. He was a professional, at Netherfield to perform a professional service, and standing before Miss Bennet not as a lover, but an investigator. He would not be distracted by contemplating what pleasures fine eyes in the face of a pretty woman could bestow! Nor had Miss Bennet acted in any sort of manner as to attract his notice. She was at Netherfield to care for Reverend Collins, just as he was in his way, and Gantry was sure that the idea of a flirtation, let alone one with him, had not entered her mind at any time. He was perhaps the only man alive who could think of love when there was a heinous crime to be solved, and a violent criminal on the loose. No matter how intrigued he was by Mary Bennet, playing the suitor would have to wait. He had a feeling these two cases were on the verge of cracking wide open, and Constable John Gantry would be the one to see the truth come to light. He only hoped Darcy would be able to convince his Bennet sister to attend in the country so that the unveiling would be complete.

Author's Notes: Constable Gantry thinks he's closed to cracking this case...little does he realize that Elizabeth will be bringing a case of her own shortly!

I am hoping to have the next chapter ready for you by the end of the month. It will be a longer installment, as Elizabeth and her sisters have quite a bit to share with eachother. Thanks for being patient with this work in-progress. Your follows, favorites, and words of encouragement have really touched and inspired me to keep going with my writing and I can't thank you guys enough for your support. Some of you have left me some comments that have truly blown me away, especially at these last few chapters.

As always I'm eager to hear your thoughts and theories about what may lay ahead, and constructive criticism is always important!

Thanks again for reading, be safe and stay healthy!