Dear Readers, This is my first official writing endeavor and I hope you guys enjoy this story. I have re-edited this chapter for your better understanding and hope you will be kind enough to forgive any uinintentonal mistakes. The story is set in the mid 1800's American West. I have intentionally not used the name of any western state and have chosen to be be vague regarding Geography of the story because, I don't want there to be any factual inaccuracies. Hope you guys are not put out by it and have a great time reading the story.

The credit for betaing this chapter goes to the wonderful Dr-Lizzie.

Chapter I – A visit to Father Bennet

- Meryton -

Darcy was standing watching the rain fall from his balcony enjoying the sweet smell of the dry land and the first shower of the summer. He had always enjoyed his life as a farmer and now nearing thirty he had started experiencing loneliness in his daily life. He was not a man given to be overly emotional but as he saw his neighbors toiling and working hard he felt that the satisfaction he received out of caring for his rich land was not the only thing he wanted in life.

Life here was hard and he had started wish for a companion for his struggles. Someone he could come home to after a long day under the sun and share a cup of tea with; someone who was interested to learn about his daily struggles.

He was not an overly religious man, but he had some semblance of faith and had seen men arranging for wives through the local church. It sounded like a very practical arrangement and, of course, would provide children; sons, if God willed, to help him with the farm work and to carry his legacy forward.

The next Sunday after church, when Darcy visited town, he arranged a meeting with Father Bennet. Though he was older, and a man of cloth, he was the only man Darcy thought of as a friend in these parts.

As Darcy arranged for his monthly ration and bought a new mare for the farmland his mind remained suitably distracted with the thought of acquiring a wife and a helpmeet.

Darcy's father could not been called an affectionate man but despite his rough edges he had cared for his quiet gentle wife, he had loved her and had been devastated by her loss.

Darcy had adored his mother and had always cherished her advice. He fondly remembered her advising him and caring for him. He had been an only son and closer to his mother and father than most his age. His desire to help his father with the farm work and lack of childhood playmates had placed the burden of adulthood on him before time.

As Darcy entered Bennet's house for his designated appointment he could hear the man shuffling around in his library.

"Darcy, come in man," Bennet called out to him. "What problem ails you my friend that you felt a need to reserve a special appointment? You know you are always welcome in this house. Ah, your face suggests that you have come for some serious business lad. Let me be quiet now and hear your worries".

"It's not a worrying matter Father, I was just thinking of the future. I am turning thirty next year and though I have enjoyed my bachelor life, I feel my home and farm could do with a new mistress. It is time that I married."

Bennet was silent for a moment taking in the seriousness of Darcy's confession. Finally, he asked: "Have you been courting a woman behind my back Darcy?"

"No, there is no such woman and you very well know that I don't have the patience for such silly fripperies. My farm, Pemberley, claims all my time and I don't have any regrets. It is a labor of love. But, I know you arranged a wife for Hurst and for that fool Collins. I wish to have a wife too," Darcy said, before adding, sarcastically, "I would be most grateful if you will bestow this benevolence on me too."

"And here I thought I had a companion in my bachelorhood, but alas you too have been bitten by the marriage bug my friend".

"I don't think of marriage as some suffering Father, after all, as Aristotle said: man is a social animal and must have some companionship to contently survive his days. And for shame Father! I thought as a member of the church you would support a man making such an important decision of his life".

"Oh, you know me Darcy, I am not a regular priest!"

"No, you are not."

"I have never thought you to be inclined towards marriage my friend so your confession has taken me by surprise. But don't you worry we will find you a woman to your taste Darcy. Let me sleep on it and I will meet you in Pemberley in a few days" Bennet said quietly.

Bennet then enquired about the new land that Darcy had purchased and thanked Darcy for hiring Charlie, the lad from the Meryton Home for Boys.

"He is an earnest fellow, though a little too garrulous for my tastes, he will learn the ropes quickly enough" saying this Darcy thanked his friend and then went on his way.

As Darcy lay in his bed that night he could not help himself from thinking about the other advantages of having a wife. He was a thirty-year-old man and except dallying once with one of the village's scarlet ladies – a widow considerably older than him – at the age of sixteen, he had no experience with women. His father's anger and his mother's gentle reprimand had seen to that. It was mostly his mother's words that had discouraged Darcy from participating in any such dalliance. He was a man after all and those urges had been natural and primal.

But he still remembered his mother's quiet voice saying, "you don't want to hurt your future wife William, you are going to get married someday and your actions are going to hurt her. Do you want that my son?"

"No", he had replied, in the wobbly voice of a young boy being chastised by his mother.

His mother had passed away soon after that incident and caring for his grief wrought father, his own sadness on the passing of his beloved mother, along with the responsibilities of the farm, had soon made him older than his years.

He remembered being a lad of sixteen and finding his father sloshed out in the kitchen, smelling horribly of whiskey, worn out with grief and out of his senses.

He remembered how he had dragged his father to his bed and he had cried and said, "not this room son, not this room".

His father had been a strong man, but his mother's death had broken something in him. He was never the same afterwards.

His father had eventually been pulled out of his grief, but his wife's death had made him even quieter than before. Sometimes days passed without him saying anything. He still drank, but with a quiet dignity about him, even his drunkenness. Darcy never found him out of his senses on the kitchen floor again.

Thinking of the past scared Darcy a little about beginning this new phase of his life, but he was not a young lad now and realized you could live in the past for only so long; someday you have to decide to move forward.

Darcy did not know what this new change was going to bring in his life, but he was strong enough to take a leap of faith and start this new chapter.