Miss Kitty Bennet was the first of the young competitors to encounter Mr. Darcy whilst he was taking his stroll around the estate. It was around the hour of noon when she came forth from behind the hedges to enage in energetic conversation with the young gentleman.

"Mr. Darcy, do I have the pleasure of being the first to see you on this fine morning?" Kitty asked. Her voice had a strange, elevated tempo as she looked about the gardens around them, observing the movements of the trees and hedges lest another competitor should leap out from somewhere hidden.

"Why yes, Miss Bennet, you are the first I have met on my walk this morning," Mr. Darcy answered. "But at the moment I suggest we leave this spot of the garden, for somewhere inside me I fear that one of your rivals will emerge from their hiding place at any time."

"That would be in the best of taste, sir," Kitty agreed, and she held onto his wrist and pulled him quickly along behind her. "I too am begining to feel as if eyes were upon my person."

Then, at length Kitty and Mr. Darcy both heard some noise from behind one of the hedges, and afterwards Lydia Bennet emerged from the shadows, running at a rather hurried pace and ignoring her fellow competitor Kitty at the same moment. "If you will excuse me, Mr. Darcy, I have an important meeting with my dear sister regarding our future," Kitty said, and then cocked the hammers of her pistol back and fired a warning shot into Lydia Bennet's retreating lower back.

Lydia fell forward into the dirt in the most unpleasant manner, to which end she cried, "Kitty! Are you incapable of realizing I have no desire to attack you or any one of my peers?"

Kitty then smartly kicked the back of Lydia's head further into the dirt. "I do wish to speak with you civilly, Lydia, but that would entail you, Mr. Darcy, myself and everyone else incorporated into this competition to explode immediately."

"Oh my, it seems that I had quite forgotten that section of the regulations," Lydia replied, "but I still cannot continue with this competition, for I personally have no real affections for Mr. Darcy, and in all actuality wish very much to escape this persecution and see dear Mr. Wickham at the militia encampment in town."

"That is an excellent idea, Lydia," said Kitty, "But I would like to ask how would you go about escaping this compound? You would, I'm afraid, experience the most dreadful detonation if you crossed over Longbourne's walls."

Lydia then stood up slowly, regaining her balance and looking in disdain at the tear in her gown the bullet had given her as it tore through her body. "I wonder at the moment if I were to dispatch dear Mr. Darcy would this racuous game terminate? Because I wish very much to present myself in a decent, unscathed manner when I meet Mr. Wickham."

"Is that so, Lydia?" Kitty asked, and she brought forth her rapier. "I not only fight for Mr. Darcy's life but for all of our lives as well, for I have a slight feeling that all of us may perish quite horribly if your plan was to be carried out."

"Then I fear I have very little choice in the matter," Lydia said.

"I suppose then that it would be in good taste if I were to stand over in that direction," Mr. Darcy added as the young ladies began their rather terrible duel. As they fought, Mr. Darcy in private noted how wretched and inexperienced their fighting form was, and secretly wished they that would do away with the rapiers and dispute in the dirt instead.

"At this moment I regret never learning any teachings of swordsmanship," Kitty said, as Lydia gave her another rather beastly hole through her chest.

"Why, Kitty, what a silly thing to say!" Lydia cried, and in that moment Kitty realized a grand opportunity and fired her final shot into the kneecap of Lydia's handsome left leg. "Truly you forget that we are all young, respectable ladies here in this household?" Lydia fell quite smartly to the floor after that rather awful and dishonest blow from her sister. "Oh, how very common of you, Kitty!"

"This game to me is quite common in my own veiw, Lydia," Kitty replied, but then at that moment Lydia removed a dining room butterknife from somewhere in her pockets and promptly planted its end into Kitty's handsome temple. Kitty was quite surprised at the rather guileless ploy from her sister, and thus fell upon her in a non-living nature.

At length Lydia removed herself from her sister, and stood up to greet Mr. Darcy, who was not at a great distance from her engagement with Kitty. "Mr. Darcy, forgive me for this quite nasty interruption," said Lydia," but it was for my own mortal defence and is justified rightly so."

To which Mr. Darcy added, "I understand your plight completely, and completely I accept your apology, even if your mishap included the murder of your sister, Miss Bennet."

Lydia gave Mr. Darcy a quite charming smile, and replied, "I thank you deeply for your forgiveness, but it seems that I must leave you here if I were to hurry to see Mr. Wickham in town."

She thus began to depart, and to that end Mr. Darcy called after her. "Miss Bennet, do you believe in Mr. Collins' rather nasty threat that included the detonation and overall termination of our party if one competitor were to depart from Longbourne lands?"

Lydia thought about Mr. Darcy's consideration for a moment and then at length duly replied, "If the rumors were true, Mr. Darcy, then I shall apologise in advance for all of our party's unfortunate and unwarranted demise." And to that end she left, and as the bells from the chapel in the town pealed over the grand countryside, Mr. Darcy wondered to himself if the competition would be adjourned in time for tea, which, as he walked lonely through the Longbourne estate, he had regretfully missed.