"Jane, this box is wonderful. We must be certain Anne conveys our heartfelt thanks to her uncle."

Jane and Elizabeth were standing in a beautifully appointed luxury box in the theatre with Mr. Jameson waiting for the play to begin. Uncle and Aunt Gardiner had encountered some acquaintances they had not seen for some time, so they were speaking out in the hall. Anne had met a distant aunt she had not seen for years, so she had gone off to meet a distant cousin. She was expected to return before the curtain. The sisters were spending time with Mr. Jameson waiting for the play to begin.

Jane gave Elizabeth a smile that was somewhere between an inscrutable cat smile and a smirk, and replied, "Ah, Lizzy. I must agree with you on the quality of the arrangement, but I must correct you on the identity of our benefactor. It transpires that Anne's uncle needed his box tonight for some political purpose, so he arranged another. It all happened while you were at the modiste yesterday. Did Anne not mention it?"

"No, perhaps it slipped her mind. Nevertheless, I shall convey my heartfelt thanks. Do you know who our mysterious host is? Might we expect his presence, and will we be able to perhaps write a note of thanks?"

"Well, his presence is not expected, but he is not as predictable these days as he once was, so I cannot give you a solid assurance one way or the other. I am certain though that he would welcome the note, presuming it is properly directed through Uncle Gardiner."

Elizabeth raised her eyebrow in curiosity, and replied, "Pray tell, perhaps you can expand on that… or is confusion your goal. I must say that if that is your aim, you have made a good beginning."

"Of course. I have not spoken to the gentleman for several days, but at the time of our most recent conversation, his plans did not involve being in town tonight. He apparently has other urgent business away from London."

Feeling like her sister was baiting her just to see what would happen, Elizabeth kept her curiosity in check, and blandly asked, "So, it is someone you know, then. Very mysterious! Very mysterious, indeed! Might I at least know who this person is?"

Jane, somewhat impertinently enjoying the conversation, naturally decided she should increase her sister's discomfiture, so she replied, "Of course! This is your Mr. Darcy's box."

Elizabeth, who had been enjoying the banter so far paused in shock, for once, completely unable to think of anything to say for several seconds. Jane and Mr. Jameson waited patiently, enjoying the relative silence.

At length, Elizabeth said, "I can see my labors at instructing you in mathematics were ill advised, Jane. I should have had you studying English, as you do not seem to understand the meaning of certain basic words. What in the world, would make you mix 'your' and 'Mr. Darcy' in the same sentence?"

Unperturbed, Jane said, "Oh, I understand perfectly, Elizabeth. I will stand by my assertion. When I met the gentleman recently, he seemed completely transformed."

"And you did not feel some desire to mention this to me?"

Jane ducked her head, and said, "Well, I was planning to, Lizzy. I did not keep it from you deliberately, but…"

Elizabeth suspiciously said, "…but?"

"Well, you seemed so engaged with Miss de Bourgh, and I have been quite engaged with my betrothed, and then we were buying new dresses, and… well, the time never seemed quite right."

Elizabeth replied in almost a squeal, "But here in the theatre, in public, ten minutes before the show starts seems ideal?"

Jane just stared at her calmly, and said, "Yes… or at least, it is as good as any other time. But may I ask you something, Lizzy?"

Elizabeth reined in her temper, and said, "You may as well…. and I suppose it would not kill you to tell me when, how and why you met with Mr. Darcy while you are at it."

"Well, I shall come to that presently, but why do you react to me calling him 'your Mr. Darcy' so strongly. I have teased you with words of a similar nature for going on half a year now, with nary a raised eyebrow. At the most, you might have said something like…"

Jane lowered her voice in her best approximation of a man and said, "… my Mr. Darcy thinks I am tolerable but not handsome enough to tempt him."

Expecting a laugh from Elizabeth, she was surprised that what she got was more of a strangled exclamation and a weak smile accompanied by a slight blush.

Feeling guilty, Jane said, "I am sorry, Lizzy. I did not realize it might be a sensitive subject. It is just, that he seems such a changed man. I dug poor Mr. Occam up from the back yard, and he asserts that you must have set him on the straight and narrow path while visiting Rosings. That is why I called him 'your Mr. Darcy'."

Elizabeth said, "That makes no sense, Jane. By the same logic, you could refer to 'my Mr. Jameson'."

Much to her consternation, Elizabeth heard a chuckle, since she had mostly forgotten her future brother in law was present and listening. That gentleman said, "Well, Miss Lizzy… I am not opposed to that scheme. When you helped me with your 'little boxes', I became your most ardent admirer and servant. I will soon be your brother, and should the need ever arise, your protector to the best of my ability. I am quite happy to be called 'your Mr. Jameson', so long as you do not claim exclusivity."

Elizabeth laughed, somewhat embarrassed by the entire conversation, and smiled at the couple to show she was not overly distressed, and said, "Well, I suppose if that is all you meant, and it was mostly in jest, you may refer to him as such, privately. Please, by everything that is holy, do not ever say something like that among less discreet listeners. My reputation is fragile enough as it is."

"Of course, not… and I will stop teasing about him entirely if you still hate him, Lizzy."

Jane and her beau watched Elizabeth carefully, and were astonished to see a bit of a wistful something appear there, though neither of them felt in the least bit able to identify what exactly it was.

"No, Jane… Mr. Darcy and I have… well… we have… I mean to say…"

A confused and stammering Elizabeth Bennet was a sight to behold. Having her sister caught up in a mind storm and was one thing, Jane was accustomed to, but not this. She tended to go silent while her mind went in circles, but then when she came out of her cave, she tended to speak clearly and forcefully. She had since she was a child, even when what she said made no sense at all. A confused sister was entirely new ground, and Jane could not say whether it was reassuring or worrying. Elizabeth had long ago taught her to be comfortable holding completely opposite emotions at the same time, so she was not overly concerned – just curious. She waited patiently, and at length was rewarded.

"As you suspect, Mr. Darcy and I have had a few awkward conversations. Actually, I have had awkward conversations with almost everyone at Rosings except Anne's companion, Mrs. Jenkinson. We are…"

She seemed to run out of words, as Jane saw the age-old signs of an incipient thought storm brewing, so she leaned down in front of her sister and said, "… you are? … You are what, Lizzy?"

Elizabeth sighed, and said, "I cannot truly say. I imagine we are friends, although our 'friendship', such as it is, would be considered quite odd. I guess… that is to say… well, I believe we understand one another."

Jane gasped, which caused Elizabeth to look up at her, since she had been staring at her new slippers as she spoke. She saw the look on Jane's face and thought it was time to nip any speculation in the bud.

"Jane, do not take my poor choice of words to mean anything. We do not have an understanding of any kind… We understand each other in the conventional sense, not that one."

To Elizabeth's surprise, Jamison said, "Well, Elizabeth, as you probably know, there are understandings, and there are understandings. Would it be fair to say that there is no chance that your current understanding will ever be another type?"

Flummoxed and feeling cornered, Elizabeth snapped, "Stop poking, both of you. I have said all I have to say on the matter."

Jane took both of her hands, and said, "We are sorry, Lizzy. We truly did not want to make you miserable. It started out as some light-hearted teasing, and we are sorry it got out of hand."

Elizabeth nodded, and said, "All right, Jane. Let us not allow it to become acrimonious."

Jameson cautiously said, "How should we treat any friendship, or whatever it is, Miss Elizabeth? Should we treat it as a sensitive subject and refrain from mentioning the gentleman?"

"No, Mr. Jameson… all is well. Things between us are… complicated, and unlikely to simplify any time soon. Just speak about him normally. Since you brought it up, can you tell me the subject of your conversation."

Jane looked down in slight embarrassment, and said, "Well, it seemed decidedly odd at the time. He contacted Uncle Gardiner and said he would like to have a small discussion with me. Uncle Gardiner told him I was betrothed, and he said that he already knew."

She looked up at her sister and asked, "How did he know, Lizzy?"

Elizabeth thought back to that night in the parsonage and all that occurred. There was not the slightest chance she would share all of the content of that evening, so she simply said, "He visited right after I opened the dollhouse, so I… well…"

She then thought back to the Colonel's conversation, and thought better of bringing it up, but Jane continued.

"I imagine you were still angry about the Colonel's revelation?"

Elizabeth snapped her eyes back to Jane and asked, "How did you know about that?"

Jane continued, "Well, I imagine I should finish my story. He told Uncle Gardiner that he owed me an apology on a certain matter, and very respectfully asked his advice about the best way to go about it. I imagined that if Mr. Darcy was on Gracechurch Street, you were no doubt behind the scheme, so I asked him to come back the next day and talk to me along with my betrothed. I did not believe any good could come of meeting alone with a man after becoming recently betrothed."

"And he agreed to this?"

"Oh, yes. To tell you the truth, Uncle says he looked relieved. He returned at the promised time and proceeded to apologize profusely for interfering in my affairs. That was the point where I knew for certain you must be involved in some way."

Elizabeth sighed, and said, "Yes, I did make him… err… aware of his officiousness but told him explicitly that he could let it go as it all worked out for the best."

Jamison said, "Well, were I in the unlucky gent's shoes, I could not leave well enough alone, and I suspect you were waving a cape at his sense of honor with that statement, like the Spaniards do in bull rings. He came prepared to eat humble pie, and when we were disinclined to serve it, he showed that he brought his own."

Elizabeth laughed at the turn of phrase, and mentally cataloged it for later use. She asked, "So what did he do?"

"He apologized and asserted that he was shamed. He said he had not acted in a gentlemanlike manner. Oddly enough, he said that he would ordinarily offer reparations, but he was afraid I would be offended by the idea."

Elizabeth looked curious, and Jane answered without being asked, "I never thought about it enough to think one way or another, Lizzy. I simply decided it was best to confuse him some more, so I thanked him very kindly for his very nicely done apology, and then thanked him very kindly for taking the action in the first place."

Elizabeth laughed, and said, "So you thanked him for two opposite things at the same time?"

"Of course. If he wants to be your friend, or whatever he is, he needs to embrace the ambiguities of life."

Elizabeth laughed in amusement, while thinking that if Mr. Darcy was trying to learn to act in a more gentlemanlike manner, he was certainly making a good start of it.

Jameson took up the story, and said, "He said he would like to invite us to his townhouse for dinner, but he had another urgent matter of business to see to. He then indicated he had heard I was looking for an estate and offered to lend any assistance I could use."

Without thinking, Lizzy said, "You should take him up on it. He is very good at what he does."

She was so busy thinking about all that had been said, she completely missed the nod and smile between her sister and future brother.

Jameson continued, "He said that he would be honored to host us at Pemberley, should we ever be prepared to make the journey to Derbyshire."

This got Elizabeth's attention, and she said in something of a squeak, "He what?"

Jane just chuckled, and said, "You heard him. Pull it from your own head, Lizzy. We are invited to Pemberley at our convenience."

Elizabeth just nodded, and said, "Well… that is… interesting."

She was finding her thinking completely muddled by the entire conversation, and wondering if the play would ever start, when she heard a small commotion at the door to the box. Someone was in the corridor saying, "That is odd. Someone seems to be in Darcy's box."

She was just wondering if the box was about to turn into some kind of messy social debacle, when she heard the most unexpected exclamation.

"Miss Bennet! How wonderful to see you! This evening just gets better and better."