Jane smiled to see her sister, Elizabeth, and said "My, you look like the cat who got the cream."

"And why would you say that?" asked Elizabeth.

"Aside from your heightened colour, bruised lips, escaping curls, and sparkling smile? No reason at all."

"Well, you've found me out. William and I are to be married and …" Elizabeth narrowed her eyes at Jane. "You don't seem surprised."

With histrionics worthy of any pantomime Jane raised her eyebrows, clapped her hands to her cheeks and exclaimed "Wow!" Jane could not hold that pose and she started laughing at Elizabeth's perturbed look.

"If a pillow was at hand, I'd be beating you about the head until feathers flew. You knew, didn't you? You knew he was going to ask," said Elizabeth.

Jane shrugged. "When Mr. Darcy told us he had found you, it was obvious to those of us who are good studiers of character, as opposed to those, like you, who think they are, that he still greatly cared for you."

"Excuse me for a moment while I look for a pillow."

Jane laughed. "Now, now, there's no need for that."

"Did you encourage him to propose to me?"

"Encourage him? Not at all - at best I, which is to say Charles, gave him some hints, subtle hints, of how you felt."

"How subtle?"

"Well, he is a man, you understand. I drew up a diagram and had a wooden model constructed."

"Be serious."

"I had Kitty embroider a handkerchief with your initials and some roses, doused it in some of that rose water you favour, and had Charles give it to Mr. Darcy. Charles told him you had written me and said how much you regretted jilting him and that you'd have him in a minute if he'd just ask."

"You didn't."

"Oh, we did. Charles said that when he told Mr. Darcy it was like lighting a fuse to a bomb. There was a hsst then boom – rose petals and dove feathers everywhere. Mr. Darcy was all ready to leap on his horse and charge up here – it was all Charles could do to get him to wait until we could accompany him. You can quit shaking your head; if you want proof just tell Mr. Darcy that you understand that he has a handkerchief of yours and he'll show it to you. I'm sure that he has it next to his heart." Jane sniffed. "Although, If I had known you favoured orange scent now, I would have gone with that."

"You don't know how grateful I am that you didn't. But getting back to that 'subtle' hint of yours - what Charles told William about my letter - I didn't write that."

"But reading between the lines, it was very clear to me that you meant to say that. Now, no more recriminations; the two of you are in love, you are to be married, all's well, that ends well."

"But I don't love him."

Jane put up her hand. "Let's not waste time parsing the myriad degrees of love – the sparkle in your eye says you love him, whether you admit it or not. Now, when is the wedding to be?"

Elizabeth sighed; it was obvious that no contrition would be forthcoming from Jane. "At the end of July."

"Why wait so long?"

"I want to serve out a full year complete as companion. If I do, I will receive a bonus of twenty-six pounds in addition to my salary."

"Charles could pay you that."

"No, if he paid me, it'd just be a gift. I want to receive it from the earl as just and proper compensation for what I have endured this past year. I'll have earned it and I want it – although I suppose that it'll belong to William as soon as we are married."

"Don't worry about it; I'll make sure that in the marriage settlement agreement that your bonus and salary is yours and yours alone."

"You? I thought either Charles or perhaps Uncle Gardiner would negotiate the settlement on my behalf."

"Well, officially they might. Now when is your year up?"

"In a month."

"Good, that gives us time before the wedding to get you to town so we can buy your trousseau."

"You don't have …"

"Oh, we have to; if not us, who will slaughter the fatted calf for the first of the prodigal daughters?" Certainly not our father."

"What has become of him and mother?"

"I correspond with Aunt Phillips. Don't look so shocked; she might be vulgar, but she has always wanted the best for us; she might love to gossip but you know she has never said a word against one of us, and Lord knows that we have all done plenty worthy of gossip. Anyway, she tells me father is foxed by mid afternoon and mother is in no better a state, what with that tonic she takes for her nerves. You know it is just laudanum dissolved in gin with some spices mixed in. They maintain an uneasy armistice – he living in his book room, she in her bedroom; never the twain meeting."

"I suppose I should write him for …"

"For nothing. You are of age now so you don't need his consent; and his blessing is worth nothing. If you must write, do so after your wedding, and then, just tell him that you are married. And you had better write mother separately, father won't bother to tell her."

"Speaking of prodigal daughters, what of Lydia?"

"We don't know. Charles has had his solicitor write a firm of solicitors in New South Wales to have them make inquiries but it will take a year to get any sort of reply. If she survived the voyage, we might be able to get her sentence commuted and have her returned here. There would be a substantial cost to doing that and you know, we might want to save our money and leave her there."

"But …"

"Don't get me wrong – I love our sister but I think I would love her more if she were living three thousand leagues away from me. Please don't fret about it – once we hear from Australia, we'll have a family meeting then and we'll see who wants to take Lydia on." In saying this Jane wore could only be described as a lupine smile. "Enough of that – where is the wedding going to be?"

"Pemberley. Longbourn is obviously out, and we don't feel like facing the ton in town just yet. We still have to come up with a good reason why I jilted him."

"Don't worry about that. I have an idea and I just have to run it by Lady Matlock."

Elizabeth narrowed her eyes at Jane. "What are you planning?"

Jane just smiled, the smile of a Nottinghamshire orange tabby who had got the cream.