At first, we were shy of this great tall man who had come on business with papa, but he who was so distant and reserved in public had no difficulty in making himself agreeable to three children. He talked away, as if we were only small and innocent adults, deeply flattering Margaret and entertaining Edward. We knew he was a good man, because our parents liked him.

The second time he came, we ran to him right away. Papa remonstrated with us, but Mr Darcy smiled and said he didn't mind, and when I held up my arms he picked me up. He was the tallest person I had ever seen, and I loved the feel of the air swishing past and the ground so far beneath me. I knew he would not drop me. I did not like Mr Wickham, who was marrying cousin Lydia, because I never knew whether he would drop me or not, and he talked to us like we were kittens or mice, not people.

When Mr Darcy came for dinner that last time, I ran ahead to meet him. Margaret and Edward were sleeping, and papa had some business with Mr Haggerston, and John was sick so mamma had to take try and put him to sleep so he could get better.

"I am to entertain you," I informed him, and he smiled and said he did not doubt but that I would do an exemplary job of it. Working my way through Mr Darcy's words was often an enjoyable challenge. He used a great many of them. "Do you have any children?" I asked. Mamma and papa did not let me ask questions, they said it was not polite, but I was very curious.

"No," he said, with a rather peculiar look. "I am not married."

"You have to be married to have children?"

He winced. "Usually, yes," he said.

"Is cousin Lydia going to have a child? Is that why she is marrying Mr Wickham?"

He stared at me for a moment. "No, she — she loves him," he said. By the expression on his face, he found this concept as bewildering as I did.

"That's very strange," I said. "I do not like Mr Wickham. Do you like Mr Wickham?"

"I — no, not particularly," he said, "but it's not polite to say so."

I pouted, and he bit his lip, looking away. "It's not polite to say most things. That's not fair. I don't like Mr Wickham 'cause he's bad, I heard my papa say so, and you shouldn't like bad people, should you? My cousin Jane says you don't know if people are really bad because there's too much you don't know, but if papa says that Mr Wickham is bad it must be so because he is never wrong."

Mr Darcy smiled again. "Sometimes you cannot say all you think, Miss Gardiner, even if it is true."

"I am not Miss Gardiner," I said immediately, "that's Margaret, I'm Amelia. Like cousin Jane is Miss Bennet but Lizzy is Elizabeth."

He straightened, his hands laced quite tightly together. "Miss Amelia, then;—do you know, you are very like my Amelia?"

"You said you don't have any children because you aren't married, sir," I said primly.

"My Amelia is my god-daughter and cousin, not my own daughter," he informed me. "She is just about your age, I think."

"I am six years old," I said proudly. "Is your Amelia as tall as I am?"

"She is perhaps a little taller, although she is only five," he answered.

"Oh. Is she pretty like my cousins?"

"I believe so," he said.

I considered this. "Does she look like you?"

"Yes."

"Then she must be very pretty," I said decisively. Mr Darcy blushed and dipped his head slightly. "My aunt Bennet says that if you're pretty you have rich gentlemen coming to see you, like Mr Bingley and cousin Jane, although he went away" (Mr Darcy seemed rather paler than usual at this) "— so your Amelia will have lots of gentlemen. Do you think I shall have that many?"

"I am certain you shall," he assured me gravely, and I would not find out until much later that the little girl I always thought of as Mr Darcy's Amelia was a duke's daughter with fifty thousand pounds to her name.

I clapped my hands. "That shall be nice, but I do not wish to be married just now."

"That is very wise of you."

I blinked at him. "Do you not wish to be married?"

"I — I — " For the first time, he seemed utterly at a loss for words. "I do not wish to be married to just anyone," he said, after a moment's awkward silence.

"Mamma says you and cousin Lizzy are going to be married sometime, I heard papa asking if she knew if Lizzy understood you and she said she thought you did but it was impossible to be sure."

Mr Darcy started, turned red, then white, then red again. "Don't you like cousin Lizzy?" I asked.

"I — I do," he said softly, and just then, mamma and papa walked in to the parlour, both looking just as pleased as they had when the Wickhams had finally left, which said a great deal about how much they liked Mr Darcy.

"Mr Darcy, I hope we have not kept you waiting too long," mamma said, and he instantly got to his feet.

"Not at all," he said, smiling at me. He smiled a great deal now that Mr Wickham and Lydia were gone, but I had never seen or heard him laugh. Perhaps he would do so more when he married Lizzy, I thought, because one could not help but laugh when Lizzy was there.

A/N: Back to 1812, we have the second Gardiner child, Miss Amelia Gardiner. Another one I've had in my head for awhile, although in P&P we don't even know her name and she is simply part of the collective Gardiner children.

Kyra3: I'm glad you like John. I always had the idea of a "good" Wickham to go with the various unpleasant ones, and had assigned that place to George — but he went his own way so I moved on down to John, who became a clergyman to boot. He's really the best of the Wickham lot.

June W: June, please, please, please do not use the genealogies in Chapter 11! Like much of LtF, they are no longer accurate. I did list the Wickham children with the other Gardiner descendants in Chapter 8 ("Lord Stephen Deincourt"), but here they are again, in order of age: Elizabeth "Betsey" (middle name Lydia), George, John, Thomas "Tom", Frances "Fanny", Susan, and William. The most up-to-date charts are the Fitzwilliam chart in Chapter 7 ("George Wickham") and the Gardiner one in Chapter 8. The written-out one at the beginning of Chapter 8 only goes up until that chapter. I may cut out the A/Ns and simply include the two charts and the explication at the end of the last vignette once I'm done, for reading convenience. Oh, they should get John's letter quickly, and relieve Anne's suffering for a time (evil cackle).

Teresa: Yes, poor John. He's not a major character but there's a story there. Tom is — let me check my birthdates — eighteen. So not a child or adolescent but a very young man. Considering his background, hardly surprising. Yes, OC is "original character." Sorry, I have a habit of acronym-making. I hope this update is quick enough for you!