Thank you for all your interest in this story and your reviews. I have been truly amazed and delighted.

This is the final chapter (or rather two chapters in one as I did some revising based on reviews and this chapter got longer and longer). As you well know, I never planned write anymore after this. While a few of you have suggested that I continue, I'm truly not sure how much interest there would be in whatever tamer version I would come up with. So while I am now not completely discounting that at some point I may take this up again, as I laid out before chapter 1, if you want to run with this idea, you have my permission subject to giving me proper credit. I think multiple alternative versions could be fun.

5. Settlement

Mary and I walked together to Meryton quite early the next day, but not so early that Mr. Philips would still be abed. He liked to be within his office at daybreak, finishing tasks in the quiet of the day and as we could not safely leave Longbourn before dawn, we were assured we could not be too early.

Jane was already busy in the kitchen, her hair braided and pinned back, working on our daily bread. We told her where we were going and why. Mary invited her along, but I was glad when she declined, citing the making of the bread, for I did not want her to know all we would discuss with our uncle. I did leave a message for Jane to give to Mr. Darcy: should he appear before we returned, he should find us with Mr. Philips.

As Mary and I walked, we ate the ends of the loaves from the bread that had mostly been consumed the day before and discussed matters that had naught to do with the upcoming meeting. It was companionable as a walk with a sister should be.

It was well that we came early, for few people were about and it was easier to ignore how the few who were gave us wide birth.

Mr. Philips was of course surprised to see us, but when I began laying the whole matter out he expressed great relief. "I did not like the thought of you all going to that cottage. It is far too small, inadequate for every need, but of course you needed to live within your means. I shall do right by you, I shall negotiate the settlement myself and ensure that the terms for your support, for the support of your family are as comprehensive and sturdy as can be."

"Thank you, Uncle," I told him. "But beyond monetary needs, there are matters he is insistent upon that I do not believe I can abide. Personal matters, intimate matters."

As much as I was loathe to discuss such things with my uncle, I needed his help. Of course I had no plan to relate things in vivid detail. I started with easier matters.

"Yes, my dear?"

"He demands I never see my sisters again, save if they make respectable marriages, he insists on monitoring my correspondence, he wishes for me to lie to everyone that we are marrying for the deepest love, and..." I was uncertain I could get the words out. I looked helplessly at Mary.

Mary turned from me to our uncle and said in a steady and even tone, "Mr. Darcy insists that his martial rights shall be unceasing, that she shall people all of Pemberley if he desires it be so."

My uncle, whose facial expression had been smooth and bland through my prior recitation, wrinkled his brow, drawing his greying eyebrows closer together, at Mary's declaration.

"As to the latter," said he, "a husband is well within his rights to demand such. I am surprised at Mr. Darcy, however, for discussing such a matter with you. It is not a thing done. Let me at least reassure you this far. A man's capacity to act on his desires frequently lessens as he ages, and what a man says and what he shall actually do are seldom one and the same.

"Let us address the former concerns, shall we, and the reasoning he likely has behind these demands. If his concerns can be amply addressed, the specifics can then more easily be adjusted."

That made good sense to me. Mr. Philips had only begun to plan how to address Mr. Darcy's concern with avoiding any further appearance at scandal and his concern for my loyalty, when the man himself appeared. After a quick exchange of greetings, to which he did not seem to attend, he turned to me, his jaw tense, his shoulders tight, and asked "Have you decided to accept then?"

I gave a slight nod and I then saw the tension drain from him then; he relaxed, seemed more at ease within his skin. I explained, "Yes, if suitable terms can be agreed upon."

Mr. Darcy replied, "All shall be arranged as you like for your family. I rather think for the good of their reputations it would be well if they went away, if the youngest assumes a married name."

"I agree," my uncle declared and soon Mr. Darcy turned from me and engaged in a convivial conversation with Mr. Philips. They discussed suitable accommodations, what sort of lodgings could be secured away from Meryton and with very little debate decided that Bath was a promising choice, and then if my family settled there, the likely costs attending a suitable accommodation. They quickly made headway and agreed on what seemed to me a more than ample number, also arranging for their temporary residence at the Meryton Inn.

Next they considered the amount to be settled on me. Uncle seemed pleasantly surprised that no reductions were made to the total to accommodate the outlay for my family's support and that a goodly dower house awaited me, if needed after Mr. Darcy's passing. Indeed, they agreed upon all the terms quickly as it seemed Mr. Darcy was deposed to be generous.

Mr. Darcy seemed so reasonable and accommodating with my uncle, so pleasant in his demeanor (there was nothing of his intensity like before, so much so that I kept asking myself: Is it really he? Does he have a doppelgänger?) that I had much hope about what could be accomplished for me. Apparently, he then thought our discussions were at an end, saying "If that is all, I certainly must go see the parson; I should like to be married tomorrow first thing."

"There are a few more matters," Uncle Philips noted. "Lizzy tells me you are insisting on some rather onerous personal conditions." Uncle Philips puffed up his chest and straightened as much as he could. However, even seated, he was still significantly shorter and less substantial in body than Mr. Darcy (although Mr. Philips certainly had a splendid corporation compared to Mr. Darcy, who was lean and fit).

"Young men seem to feel that marriage gives them the right to demand whatever they wish, but let me give you some advice, giving way to the womenfolk where you can, helps lead to a happy life. We understand you have some serious concerns that must be addressed, but some leeway must be given."

Mr. Darcy looked none-too-pleased, but did not interrupt. He stated firmly, but not unpleasantly, "My offer on these other things is non-negotiable." He sat back and crossed his arms, pressed his lips firmly together as if that were his final word on the subject.

My hope tumbled.

"Excuse me," Mary spoke for the first time since the exchange of greetings when Mr. Darcy entered the room, "Mr. Darcy, if I may, what do you like best about our Lizzy?"

The look that crossed Mr. Darcy's face was, well in a word, cross. But to a lesser degree than when Mr. Collins had importuned him at the Netherfield Ball and introduced himself. He did deign to answer, however, in his deep rumbling voice.

"Many things, Miss Bennet. Your sister, Miss Elizabeth, is clever, thoughtful, has a keen sense of humor, is well mannered, cheerful, and can talk in a most charming way. Her devotion to others, the eldest Miss Bennet when she was ill, to her whole family," he then dropped his voice lower before adding while narrowing his eyes, "how little some of them deserve it," before returning his face to its previous expression and resuming in a normal tone, "is most pleasing. And she has the loveliest eyes."

As he said the last, he stared at me with frank admiration before looking back at Mary. I felt through his look he was telling me that there were further things about my figure that he admired.

"So," Mary rejoined, "how well should you like her if she was forever morose, dull, sad?"

Mr. Darcy wrinkled his brow in momentary confusion, but then his eyes cleared as he seemed to absorb her hint. However, Mary did not assume he understood her and explained herself.

"You see, Mr. Darcy, I believe you would be working at cross-purposes, if in enforcing your requirements for Lizzy, you made her miserable, killed her spirit. Can you not, perhaps, allow her certain things, at small cost to yourself, to give her happiness?"

Mr. Darcy turned to me and said, "Perhaps...perhaps, I can bend a bit." Then he looked at Mary and my uncle and said, "May I please speak to Miss Elizabeth alone?"

I could tell my uncle did not like to leave me alone, but he consented on condition that Mr. Darcy on his honor should not do anything untoward. Indeed, he left his office door ajar while he took Mary outside with him.

I wondered which Mr. Darcy I would meet now that there was no one to observe him. Would the hard, cruel man of yesterday assert himself, or would he remain the more amiable man of today? Mr. Darcy picked up his chair and placed it facing mine. He plucked my gloved hands up from where they rested on my lap, and squeezing them lightly. As his dark eyes blazed, he declared in his deep voice, the voice that could make me tremble, "Miss Elizabeth, know this and know this now. While we may, perchance debate the contact you shall have with your family, I shall not bend on the marital duties I expect of you. I am quite resolved on what I shall expect."

I colored, was silent. For the last six months, I had been so dull, so sad, a mere observer in my own life of drudgery. My spirit had been repressed, almost entirely missing. The Elizabeth who roundly rejected Mr. Darcy at the Hunsford parsonage would have never just listened to such insults as I had heard yesterday, never so blandly accepted what he said.

I had a choice to make then, how would I behave? If I just gave way to Mr. Darcy, I had a feeling that I would be under his heel my entire married life. Yet, I needed the benefits to him that marriage would bring. It was a conundrum to decide how to I should attempt to balance on the edge of this knife and not get cut. How was I to do it?

I steeled myself, mustered my courage, plucked my hands loose, stood up and declared, "Yes, I shall marry you, Mr. Darcy, but I do not want the kind of marriage you spoke of. I want you to respect who I am and what is important to me. I know you are a hard man, a selfish man, who is used to arranging people as he arranges pieces on a chest board, but I shall not be diminished to a pawn, have no wish to live as an empty-headed, broken doll with no purpose but seeing to your pleasure."

At first Mr. Darcy seemed amused by my little speech, but when I paused to take a breath and he began to rise, I put a hand upon his shoulder and lightly pushed him down. Of course I was no match for his strength and he easily could have gotten up anyway, but he paused, perhaps curious as to what I would do.

I declared, "I did the honor of listening to you yesterday, shall you not do me the honor of doing the same?"

Gravely, he inclined his head and settled himself back in his chair.

"I never conceived that your second proposal could be worse than your first, that my would be husband should remind me of the degradation that I daily live, tell me he desired me against all reason and then tell me he expected me to be nothing but a plaything for him. I never thought he would declare that he would tell me the unvarnished truth about the ugliness in his heart, but demand I live a lie.

"There is much I can do to try to make you happy, I can always be respectful of you, I can never complain of you to the servants, to our neighbors, treat you with the deference that all husbands deserve, even freely welcome you to my bed, but I will not give up my sisters, I will not lie every second of my life.

"You demanded the appearance of love while rejecting that there could be any love between us. Then with all your conditions you have both guaranteed that I would resent you but be fully incapable of ever expressing my feelings. Such a horrible fate it would be for both me and you.

"If you wanted a simpering woman, who would flatter and fawn, I am certain Miss Bingley would be willing to accept your terms. But I am not Miss Bingley, and I rather thought you liked me because I am not her.

"It is very unfair of you to fully foreclose the possibility of that there could ever be any love betwixt us both. You declared that you no longer love me and that I could never love you, but I have heard it said that even in a marriage formed purely for convenience, that even then, love might grow. I cannot say that I shall ever feel that way for you, but if I am forced to be bound to the lie of saying it is so, I believe it would then be impossible."

I did not know what to say after that, paused and panted at the effort it had taken to get all those words out. Mr. Darcy smiled and said, "Now there is the Elizabeth that I remember; the woman who has passion in her heart. Now what exactly do you want?"

I must have seemed flummoxed in that moment, for never did I think that he would ask me that. But given such an opportunity I quickly made up my mind about what I should request. "I want to freely write my sisters, mother, aunts and uncles, all of them. I want at least Jane and Mary, perhaps Kitty, too, to be able to visit me. If they cannot come to our home, if I could but see them once a year at the Gardiners's home in London, I think I could be content. I want to tell you what I am thinking and feeling.

If I can have these things, you shall have earned my loyalty. If you want me to show a lie to the rest of the world, think that will help them understand why you stooped to marry so low, I will do that."

I expected Mr. Darcy to tell me it was all impossible, that things would be as he had declared they would be the day before. But instead he said, "Very well, so long as we marry tomorrow morning."

6. Married

My mother was excited and confounded when she learned who and when I should marry. I hoped in the muddling this caused to her mind that I might escape the talk, but it was not to be.

No sooner had we completed our evening meal, than she took me by the hand and took me to her room. She spoke long, gave many analogies and left me both worried and befuddled. I tried to pay it no mind, but I remember her speaking of swords and piercings, of submitting and receiving. I did my best not to picture my parents in congress when she told me that a man no matter how high born must rut and jerked her hips in imitation of his movements, telling me, "Picture a large sausage jutting out here." I remember she told me that lust was in man's nature and that enjoyment was all for the man, but the price all women paid for their children.

After Mamma let me leave, just a moment after I gained the room that I would share but one final time with Jane, Lydia must have seen her opportunity to lord her knowledge over me, for she quickly slipped inside and bolted us both in. "La, I pity you Lizzy. Mr. Darcy is such a tall and stern man, and his thing-a-ma-bob is certain to be huge. I have seen how he stares at you, like a starving man awaiting a Christmas dinner. Even Mr. Wickham never stared at me like that. You'll get no rest that first night I wager, perhaps not for a few days. My George was so very eager to partake of me." Lydia then closed her eyes and sighed at what was apparently a good memory.

"Mamma probably told you some nonsense about closing your eyes and opening up your legs. That is all well and good for her I suppose, but if you touch yourself like so," here she widened her legs and moved her hand above the apex of her thighs which were well covered by her dress, "and can create a certain slickness, it will be easier to take him all in."

I had vowed to myself to get along with even Lydia for the brief time I should still have her, for if Mr. Darcy held fast to his word, I should never see her again (and indeed I had demanded no different), but her advice was maddening. I certainly did not want to gain the knowledge that she had learned from Mr. Wickham or in the nunnery. I could not imagine such a thing could be proper.

I restrained myself to replying, "That is quite enough. I shall want to get some sleep now."

Lydia shrugged carelessly. "It was kindly meant." She turned to go and I was almost ready to sigh with relief, when she hesitated for a moment and then turned around.

Lydia's face became open and soft, reminding me of how she looked when still a girl and not yet out. She said, appearing to be sincere, "Thank you for helping us." I nodded and she left.

I married Mr. Darcy on the morning of April 25th. There was no time to get word to the Gardiners, but Uncle Philips attended me. Mr. Darcy was true to his word and despite having shunned us, nearly the whole town had assembled to see the spectacle. What they were expecting, I did not know, but I did my best to seem of good cheer. I did not want anyone to know that I had sold myself in agreeing to this marriage.

I put aside my mourning when I dressed that day, wore the same gown as that I donned for the Netherfield Ball. It was a good deal too loose now, but with the aid of a tucker and a ribbon tied tight around my slimmer waist, it was good enough I supposed.

Jane, Mary and Kitty arranged flowers plucked from our neglected gardens in my hair. If I didn't feel exactly pretty, I felt more alive than I had in months. Everything was changing and it was as if this had awoken me from a long slumber.

We arrived to the church early, before Mr. Darcy. I begged a moment alone and walked out in the church yard to my father's grave. I removed a single flower from my hair (hopefully not disrupting the overall effect my sisters had struggled to achieve, and set what turned out to be a white rose next to his gravestone. I talked to him as if he were just out of view and not a moldering body inside the ground. I knew it might be my last opportunity to bid him goodbye in body, although his spirit was long-gone.

I told him, "Papa, I hope you will be pleased. I am to be married today, and better than Mamma ever expected of me. Do you know everything now Papa? If not, can you guess? I shall be Mrs. Darcy, and the family shall be cared for. I even have hope now that with time I shall at least be content.

"I do not know why you had to go away when you did, but I am sorry I was not there. How was I to know that Lydia would arrive just then? I would have tried to calm you, steady your heart, slow the flow of your blood. But not knowing what was to come, my presence may not have made any difference. I know you were not without faults, that your neglect to plan for the future put us on a precarious path, but I also know that you valued me, saw something special in me. I thank you for that."

I felt my eyes moisten, but I was determined not to cry on this day, so with one quick pat to his cool gravestone, I left him there. When I turned, I saw that Mr. Darcy was attending me. As I hardly feared he would abandon me before the ceremony, it was of no significance that he saw me then. He took in my appearance and shook his head.

"You are much too thin, we shall soon put that right."

"As you wish," was my only reply.

"It is well that your family is all here," he told me as we walked back inside the church. I did not correct him. They were not all there, for the Gardiners were absent and my father's rest in the graveyard did not make him present, either.

Mr. Darcy added, with what might be a tone of regret, "I never thought I would be alone when marrying."

I had not considered the matter. It was a bit of an oddity that he had no one, not a friend, not his cousins, not his sister.

"But no matter, I am gaining what I sought and at the conclusion of our vows, you shall be my family, Elizabeth."

Hearing my name, unadorned by a Miss, said in his low, intense tone, caused havoc in my innards, not the gentle butterflies I had expected, that my mother had said were proper for maidens in knowing the intimacy and the pain to come as needed to make them wholly wives. I nodded in acknowledgment.

We did not exchange any further words until we said our vows. It all felt very real when we stood before the vicar, the congregation and indeed God himself. I was so nervous at what Mr. Darcy expected from me once I was his wife, that I could hardly repeat the necessary forms during the ceremony. I felt too hot, too cold and on the verge of fainting many times. But I was determined not to embarrass him or myself. I would play the part I had agreed upon.

Mr. Darcy stayed true to his word in another regard, for we did indeed leave straight away for London from the church doors. I had only a moment to wave goodbye to my family before he escorted me to his carriage.

Being alone with him, my new husband, the one possessing of all the rights over me, felt so odd. Given his words from before, I almost expected him to seize me in an embrace once the carriage curtains were closed and we were underway. I both longed for and dreaded his attentions. To be the focus of someone whose mere desires have moved the whole world is truly something that most cannot understand.

But instead Mr. Darcy said, "I must make a confession, tell you something that I should not have held back."

"What is it?" I asked. We were married and that fact would not change. I resolved to accept whatever he had to say, for I had no choice, my choice was gone with the signing of my name. I could only hope that Mr. Darcy would keep his word that I would indeed be able to keep in contact with my family.

Mr. Darcy explained, "While I was honest with you about everything, I omitted something. It shall perhaps make you angry. My conscience said I should tell you, but I could not risk losing you. You see, I could have let you be happy, you and Richard, if I were not such a selfish man."

"What do you mean?" Of anything I expected him to say, I certainly had not expected the conversation to take such a turn.

Without looking at me, Mr. Darcy began to speak. "Richard and his elder brother John both visited Rosings this year. We all heard of your family's downfall from Lady Catherine at Easter; although I had heard of it before, Richard had not. The only new information I gained from her was about the fallen one having borne a fatherless child.

"Afterwards, the three of us talked. Richard spoke of you in the most flattering of terms, said he repined not making you an offer last year. He of course has no notion that I made one and was rebuffed."

Mr. Darcy stroked idly at the thigh of his pants, stared resolutely away. I felt conflict in his voice, regret but also a kind of hard steel.

"Richard always held you in high regard, was quite distressed to hear of what had occurred and what it must mean for you. He talked to the both of us and said if either of us could but give him some ready funds, he would call upon you, court you with an eye toward marriage, to save you from your situation. He feared what might befall you, declared he was almost certain he loved you, for he had never forgotten the time you shared."

"But," I felt flummoxed, "...but he told me himself that he could ill afford to marry me, as a second son."

Mr. Darcy waived a hand dismissively at that.

"He is likely to come into an inheritance soon, for a sickly uncle has made him heir not two months past, and so he does not truly need to marry an heiress now, though without a well dowered wife, he would have to live simply. Of course he could not marry before his inheritance comes through.

"John and I turned him away. I told him that I could not let him imperil his family's reputation in such a way, that you were best forgotten. I spoke about your family in the cruelest and crudest of turns, declared it all impossible, said I would have him removed as Georgiana's guardian if he persisted in such folly, tell his uncle what he planned to do. John simply declared him to be a fool to pursue a woman of no account. Richard nearly came to blows with me and his own brother in defense of your honor.

"Despite our attempts to dissuade him, Richard was determined, said he would seek some money from his friends, his father. After he went to bed, I talked with his brother about what I told you before. John thought it wise for me to remove you from the field by the simplest of acts, thought you deserved no better.

"I left for Longbourn straight away the next day. I believed Richard to be sincere in his desires, that he would indeed do what he planned. He is resolute once he makes up his mind, is loyal to a fault. Having declared his intentions to us, I was certain it would be so. I had to get to you first, Elizabeth, secure your hand and marry you. I did what I had to, honor, and friendship be damned."

I made no reply. Mr. Darcy took up my gloved hand, kissed it almost absently and then set it down again. Then his voice turned harsher, as if he was trying to convince himself.

"I do not regret my actions, though in acting precipitously as I did, my friendship with my cousin is almost certainly at an end, but I could not, would not let him have you, even if the two of you might have been happy. I am a jealous man and could never bear to have you in his embrace, warming his bed.

"You were always to be mine once I had decided upon it. In truth, I can provide for you and your family better than he ever could. But I do not doubt that at some time you shall hear something of the matter.

"Now that I have unburdened myself, let us never speak of it again. That road has been foreclosed and you are mine, now."

Mr. Darcy turned toward me, stared at me with his dark eyes, eyes that would not let my eyes go. I felt the depth of his stare, deep in my body, deep in my soul.

He spoke the truth. I knew our marriage could not be undone, that I had made my choice and there was no use of thinking about what could have been. Even if I threw myself out from the carriage door, unless I was crushed to death by the carriage wheels, Mr. Darcy would simply retrieve me. There was no escape; I belonged to him and my family's fate rested upon my fulfillment of the terms we had worked out.

Still, I was angry, angry that there had been another possible choice, one that the man who was now my husband, until death parted us, had foreclosed me from knowing about. I imagined my joy had the Colonel come and proposed. It could have been a happy life.

I wished to lash out at Mr. Darcy with vitriol, to rage and rave, but I held it all back, though I clenched my jaw so tight that my teeth ached and a headache was promised. But likely it was all writ large upon my face, revealed by my eyes.

This seemed to discombobulate Mr. Darcy, to shatter whatever self-control he had left. When I thought of it later, I am convinced that my reaction, as restrained as it was, served to fuel the jealousy that must have still dwelt in his breast despite my vows.

Mr. Darcy's eyes turned dark as a stormy night, but also somehow were lit within. His face burned with unbridled passion but also something of a restless agitation as he declared, in a deep, rumbling tone, "Well Elizabeth, you are my wife by the letter of the law. Now to seal it through deed. Once I am done with you, you shall never think of him again!" Then, quick and agile as a cat, he pounced upon me.

A/N: Yes, this really is the end. Now who is up to finishing this story off? If I have my druthers, more than one of you will give it a try. If you plan to, please mention it in a review and what your anticipated title will be so that we will all know to look for it.