Colour stained Elizabeth's face as her mother expounded on her lateness and the most delightful guest who had come a very long way to see her. Darcy kept his face a mask of calmness and waited to be shown in with he wife. Mrs Bennet would have none of it.
"You come with me Mr Darcy, if you please, Mr Bennet and Mr Bingley wish to discuss the day's arrangements with you, although I imagine you would want to spend some time at Longbourn since you arrived so recently and must be tired from the journey. Mr Bennet is still in his room so you shall have to talk to him there as his refuses to quit it for any purpose, which is very vexing." She continued on this vein until they had reached Mr Bennet's room where Bingely was already seated and talking with the older gentleman who was laughing amiably in his powdering gown, book set aside for the moment.
Elizabeth, however, was not greeted by such a pleasant conversation nor indeed a pleasant person. George Wickham stood looking out the window, his back to the door, but he turned as she entered.
"Ah Elizabeth, how nice to see you." She stayed silent, smiling and curtsying as appropriate, raging and cursing her mother in her mind.
"Mr Wickham." He blanched slightly but his manner hardly changed at all even under her cold gaze.
"I have been wishing to see you for some time not sister, how is it that you felt you needn't answer my letters?"
"Your letters, Mr Wickham," she replied coldly, not taking the seat offered next to him, "are not of the type to be answered in the humour that is induced by reading them. If you remember, I did write to ask you to send no more letters, but it seems that you have taken no heed of what I write and therefore I saved myself the trouble."
"Come now sister, I meant nothing by any of those letters, of which you are well aware and so, dare I guess, is the ever intelligent Mr Darcy. Is he here perchance? Or did he take what I wrote so seriously that he wouldn't come for fear of meeting me?" The laughter evident in his voice was enough to encourage Elizabeth into a retort she would otherwise have withheld.
"He is here and he comes of his own will. I feel that you should be the fearful one sir, as I have never seen a blacker humour from my husband than when he read the letter you delivered by messenger to me while I was in London." Shock etched itself on Wickham's face and Elizabeth continued. "Yes, he did read the letter as I would not. You see, neither my husband nor myself can tolerate the idea of being apart for longer than necessary." There was a slight pause before she asked, "Where is my sister?" The thought of her youngest sister bought a frown to Elizabeth's face as she waited for an answer from the suddenly silent Mr Wickham. She waited as he tried to deliver a reasonable explanation for the absence of his wife.
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A/N: Sorry for taking so long to update and thank you to everyone who reviewed. I hope this chapter is entertaining enough to encourage more of your time when I get chapter 9 done! Yes, I'm even working on it now! Have fun :)
And special thanks to Wo Ai Ni16, hannah & stephen, bookworm0706, Witch of the Snitch, Dendera, Albinofrog88, Chaucer, Diane and Moongirl for reviewing so far, it's really appreciated and I thank you all especially for taking the time to let me know what you think. This chapter is for all of you.