A/N: To everyone who asked (me or themselves) the very valid question of why Lady Catherine thought to attack Darcy: I don't know why. Crack fic. Let's roll with it. I'm sorry that I have more imagination than logic!

"What is it, Darce?"

Darcy looks up from his seat at his cousin's entry. Thank God the soldier answers fast to a fellow man's summons.

"Can I trust you?" He asks, his voice laden with a rasp from several hours of contemplative silence.

"Trust me?" Richard sits across from Darcy in the music room. The only person in the house who ever visits the room is Georgiana, and, somehow, Darcy feels in his heart that he can trust his soft-spoken sister.

It is the best room he can think of using for the time being.

"If I find, Richard, that you are in any way connected to our aunt's ridiculous scheme - "

"What on earth are you talking about?" Now, Richard sounds truly bewildered. "If you are discussing your impending nuptials, which I still find strange that you are accepting, I promise I have never once encouraged you to pursue Anne."

"I was never betrothed to her?" Darcy cannot help asking.

"Not to my - " Richard pauses. "Are you trying to make me persuade you against any jitters you are feeling about this wedding? If you want someone to encourage your marrying Anne, I swear you ought to find someone else."

The signs were always there.

Darcy has simply been too preoccupied by a pair of pretty eyes in Hertfordshire to notice the ill sense of everything.

"I have doubts," Darcy begins slowly. "I - I fear Lady Catherine has orchestrated my attack somehow. I fear that they - she and Anne - had concocted some scheme to kidnap me and, upon its failure, chosen to use my lack of memory as a means to entrapping my hand in marriage."

Richard takes a moment before responding.

"It is strange - but not entire impossible."

Darcy nods, grateful for the understanding. "I have sent letters - inquiries about any men of crime that may have come to Rosings over the past two months. I have been promised a response within the length of a day. But there is, of course, a problem regarding such a plan."

Richard smirks. "Tomorrow is your wedding."

"Not if I can thwart it."

Richard nods. He is a kind man - of quick understanding and compassionate thought. The Crown is blessed to have such a man in its ranks.

"And if it is true - this scheme you believe our aunt has been contriving - "

"I shall break this farce of an engagement posthaste - and leave the lady to the mercy of the law."

Richard frowns before asking, "Is that best?"

"If they have indeed made designs to force my hand this way, I cannot condone that - "

"They are family," Richard counters promptly. "And any blow to their reputation is a blow to ours. Surely, you do not wish to burden our future wives and children with such a scandal."

Darcy pauses. He is frankly slightly irritated that his cousin has made such a wise point.

He leans back once more on his chair, his sight resting on the untouched pianoforte. "And what do you propose?"

"If we confirm that our aunt was indeed behind the attack upon your carriage, and that this fabricated engagement with Anne is her response to her first plan failing, we cut her - from the family - and I shall make sure my father and mother stand firm in this regard."

Darcy closes his eyes briefly. "I suppose that shall do."

"Thank you, Darce."

"We have not solved the full extent of our problems," he reminds. "There is, of course, the dilemma regarding - "

"The wedding." Richard smirks once more.

The irritation returns.

"This is not a joking matter."

"I know." Richard slowly settles himself fully into his own chair. "And I have a brilliant plan to postpone the wedding."

"Care to share it?"

"We enlist the help of your sister." Richard smiles. "For how can the groom be married if his only family is in tears over the late arrival of her special gown?"

Even Darcy has to acknowledge the convenience behind the plan, and the colonel promptly leaves to instruct Georgiana of her part in their plot to delay the union that Lady Catherine has been so very keen to implement.

And alone in the music room, Darcy calls for some stationery to be sent, that he may write in undisturbed secrecy.

My Dearest Lizzy,

Visions of a new hope have visited me. Perhaps all is not lost. If all goes well, I may find myself a free man before the month concludes.

I pray that when I return, I shall find you and your sparkling eyes ready for me with open arms.

I cannot wait until then.

Wholeheartedly yours,
Monsieur

Darcy waits by the window that evening, fidgeting every quarter of an hour as he waits for news from his sister and cousin.

Richard insisted that he avoid entering the fray. Any doubts Darcy may show about marrying Anne would only drive Lady Catherine to desperation, Richard swore.

Darcy chose to believe him.

And he waits, as best he can.

He waits and he prays.

He feels every nerve in his body tighten in anxiety. A tantrum over a simple gown may not be enough to delay a wedding, but the de Bourghs can ill afford to offend any Darcy at the moment.

"It worked!" A woman's voice declares a moment later. Footsteps scurry into his room from behind his back.

"You were stupendous, Georgiana," Richard's voice adds.

Darcy's mind whirls.

It worked - what worked?

"Perhaps I have a flair for the arts," Georgiana declares happily. "I am so glad it worked so well."

Darcy's mind continues to tumble.

In another place, another time - another feminine voice declares the same thing.

"It worked! It worked!" The words ricochet in his mind.

The memory of scampering feet and moans from his own mouth follow. Darcy closes his eyes.

Slowly, the images take form.

There was a carriage, before the cottage. There was a reason he travelled alone, in a rented vehicle. He remembers unhappiness and unease as his transport rolled towards Bingley's property. There were reasons - such as Wickham! There were fights, quarrels within the family over expectations and reputation and broken trust.

There was a maiden, a soft touch on his arm - fine eyes assessing his injured leg.

And he remembers.

And he remembers every word, every thought, and every moment.

"Georgiana!" He whips around. His sister regards him with surprise. "Are you - are you well?"

She looks up, eyes round and wide, when he strides over to her.

Even Richard looks strangely at them.

"I - I am well." Georgiana quivers.

Now, he understands the tears. Now, he understands her joy at being included in their plot to reveal their aunt's true motives.

She has missed her brother, and he is determined to be present for her now.

"Georgiana." He holds her close. She leans against him.

They embrace for a long, meaningful moment.

"She has done well," Richard says, when the siblings part, teary smiles on both their faces. "And I have news."

Darcy looks at his cousin with fresh eyes.

"One of your inquiries has returned, perhaps just in time."

A/N: Is it a horrible resolution? I think so. But my brain is too dead to offer better. I'm so sorry! I really should stick to just writing romance without all this scheming. I suck at it. Haha.