Darcy stared down at several crumpled sheets of paper, scribbled over, and sighed. What was to be done? He bit his lip, and commenced writing the most particularly prosaic and dull of his attempts --
I hope that Mrs Bingley and her sisters are well, despite the recent tragedy, and that Mrs Collins has managed to restrain her husband thus far. You will have your mother-in-law at Baildon? For your sake, I hope she brings Miss Elizabeth with her. She would no doubt be glad of the company. Please give Mrs Bingley and the children my best wishes --
The letter was posted, and Darcy returned to the other pressing issue at hand. During the entirety of his epistolary struggles, Stephen had perched on one of the chairs, simply watching with wide solemn eyes. Darcy would not presume to speak of it, but the ramifications of his nephew's strong attachment to him had kept him awake more hours than not. Were it not for Anne, he doubted if Stephen would ever willing leave his side, and while flattering, it was also worrying. He betrayed no such behaviour with even Georgiana, let alone Westhampton. Not even Anne -- while she spent a great deal of time with him -- more than any other daughters of his acquaintance -- she was always doing something. Not simply sitting there, a small melancholy statue.
"Stephen," Darcy said gently, "it is June today, and your mother's birthday is in a fortnight."
The child bit his lip. "I have to go back to Aincourt?" he said timidly. Darcy hesitated, then nodded.
"You cannot be at Pemberley always, you know. Aincourt is your home."
"No, it isn't!" Stephen said passionately. "No, no! I miss mamma, but I can't -- I don't -- " he flushed and looked down, whispering plaintively, "Please don't send me away."
Good Lord. The experience of five god-children, four surrogate nephews and nieces, one sister, and one daughter, were all of them insufficient to prepare him for this. Darcy rubbed his forehead tiredly. "I'm not -- I won't -- " he sighed, and started again. "Stephen, do you understand that you belong with your mother and father?"
Stephen hesitated, then nodded. "Yes, sir." He added wistfully, "I miss mamma. But it's better to be at Pemberley with you and Anne."
Darcy hesitated a moment. "Stephen," he said carefully, "Aincourt is only a place."
His nephew blinked owlishly at this. "I -- I don't understand," he said, biting his lip.
"Even if very bad things happen in a particular place, it doesn't mean anything about the place. It is just a house, wood, stones, mortar, land. People are what make it more. I do not love Pemberley because it is beautiful, although it is, but because I know my father, and his father, and all my grandfathers back through hundreds and hundreds of years, have walked here; it is ours, and I belong because I am of their blood. You see?"
Stephen's small brow furrowed, then he said stubbornly, "I'm a Darcy too. Mamma -- "
"You are a Deincourt," Darcy said firmly. "More Deincourt than Darcy, because you're not just Deincourt from your father, but your mother's grandmother -- my grandmother -- was one also. Do you see?"
"I should like to see mamma again," Stephen conceded. "But I love Pemberley 'cause of you and Anne, mostly."
"Yes, I know. But you must love your mother, and father, too." Darcy crouched down, and pushed some of Stephen's wayward dark hair out of his eyes, cupping his cheek gently. "Stephen, some people -- like your cousins Anne and Cecily -- are happy a great deal of the time, wherever they are -- it's something they carry with them. It's a special gift."
"I am not happy mostly," Stephen confessed, fixing his eyes on the floor.
Overwhelmed by compassion and pity for this lonely, melancholy child, Darcy nodded. "I know." He tilted his nephew's chin up slightly, forcing him to meet his eyes. "You see, there are other people who aren't like that. People like your mother, and like me, and like you. We cannot be happy unless we try very hard at it. Do you understand?"
Stephen chewed his lip thoughtfully. "Anne makes me happy."
"Anne is like that. You cannot help but be happy when you're with her -- isn't it so?"
"Yes, exactly." Stephen smiled brightly, then said sternly, "Just so." Darcy chuckled.
"It's easier to be happy when you're with happy people, sometimes. So, when you go home to Aincourt, what you might want to do, is to spend time with your father. He is usually a happy person too, you see."
"I don't know papa," Stephen said simply.
"You ought to. He's your father," Darcy said immediately, and only realised the hypocrisy of such a statement after it had left his mouth. Stephen nodded soberly, and sighed deeply.
"I should like to get mamma something very nice for her birthday, Uncle Fitzwilliam."
"I shall take you and Anne -- " Darcy glanced sharply at the curtains, which had just twitched slightly -- "to Lambton, and you both can find something for her."
Stephen impulsively flung his arms around his neck, as cheerful as he had been morose just a moment before. "I want it to be the best present in the world, because mamma is the best mother in all the world," he explained. There was a muffled sound from behind the curtain, and Darcy sighed. I shall really have to speak to her about eavesdropping.
---
elen: Oh, that's okay. Thanks. Elizabeth and Darcy's relationship will come up in Part 3, but the fates are, er, not exactly hospitable at present.
Gemma: I'm sorry you don't like it, but this is not a post-P&P story, this is a what-if. There are hundreds if not thousands of them out there. Some kill off Mrs Bennet and give him another wife, changing the events of P&P before it starts; or some change things after the first proposal, altering only the events after that. Some operate on a premise similar to mine, altering only the very end of the novel by keeping Lady Catherine away. No, this is not what "really" happened to Elizabeth and Darcy, or even Jane and Bingley, in "canon"; I completely changed the story because I wanted to explore their characters without mucking about with that nasty reformation business that I personally find abhorrent. Out of curiosity, do you think this is badly-written, or inconsistent historically or character-wise, or is it simply the premise that you hate?