A/N: We're going back in time for this chapter to the November following Henry's birth.

There was a question about Lady Pembroke's sons and the age gap between them in the last chapter, and I'm so sorry if it wasn't clear. More information is given in this chapter.

I also want to thank everyone for the warm welcome last chapter. You guys are so sweet!

Chapter 2: Duo

06 November, 1797
London

Mrs. Bennet, so enamored with her new son Henry, found herself increasingly irritated with the presence and needs of her five daughters. This was true even with her favorites Lydia and Jane. When she heard through the Meryton gossip that dowager Lady Pembroke was going to London, she immediately arranged to send all five of her girls to London to visit her brother Edward Gardiner and his new wife, Madelaine.

Madelaine Gardiner nee Brown was an eloquent and elegant young lady of gentle birth and great education. Her fine manners and soft but well-spoken voice ensured that neither she nor Mrs. Bennet found any enjoyment or appreciation in their new relation to one another. Fortunately, the new Mrs. Gardiner absolutely adored her new nieces and nephew. She and her husband eagerly welcomed any opportunity they had to spend time with the Bennet children. So, while the Bennets settled into Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner's tastefully furnished house on Gracechurch street, the former Lady Pembroke and her son Noah settled into Addington Cottage on Grosvenor.

If Mrs. Bennet and the other gossiping matrons of Meryton had known what the Netherfield party was doing in London for the beginning of the winter season, they all would surely have found excuses to be in London as well.

The English aristocracy was not all that far apart in relations. For centuries, cousins had married cousins and so on and so forth. The practice was falling out of use and popularity now, but that did not mean those old family ties didn't exist anymore. One example of this far-reaching aristocratic relation was that of the dowager Lady Pembroke and her cousin, Margaret Addington.

Dowager Lady Pembroke had been born Phoebe Addington, an only child of a minor Baronet, and she and her cousin Margaret the only granddaughters of the Earl of York. The two young ladies did not often see one another, but still felt an odd kinship being the only daughters of such a male-dominated family.

The cousins had grown up sending regular letters to one another, though they rarely saw one another in person. Their frequent communication did not suffer after Phoebe Addington married and became Countess Pembroke and then gave birth to five children, though only the first survived. Margaret was the only one with whom Phoebe spoke freely of her despair over her son Vincent, as he became more and more absorbed in visiting brothels and gaming hells, sinking deep into sin and ruin. Only Margaret knew of the fear that drove Phoebe from the Earldom's main estate of Whitecliffe after her husband suddenly died.

Then, during the first week of the new dowager's mourning and almost twenty years after her firstborn, Margaret was the first to receive the news of a surprise pregnancy that eventually resulted in the darling Noah.

Noah was Lady Pembroke's pride and joy and had flourished in Hertfordshire. Netherfield was a lovely home, despite some of her more conniving neighbors. Margaret often laughed reading Phoebe's highly amusing descriptions of these matchmaking mamas, Mrs. Bennet in particular. Despite the obvious mercenary intent behind Mrs. Bennet's coarse behavior, Phoebe was enchanted by the woman's children. She had first met the two eldest Bennet girls in November of 1792 as Mrs. Byrne had taken them on outings near Oakham mount, and it had not taken her two chance meetings with them before she had decided to envelop them into her life and declared that they should call her Great Aunt Phoebe.

During all of this, Phoebe and her cousin Margaret, while almost two decades apart in age, were almost the only relations either had left in England and were steadfast friends, and yet had not seen one another in person for almost two decades.

This was because when Magaret Addington was eighteen she had married Prince Sergei Ephrussi, a visiting noble from Russia, and upon her wedding day had moved to her new husband's primary residence in St. Petersburg to perform her new duties as Princess Margaret Marie Althea Ephrussi.

It was a particular branch of the Ephrussi family tree that Margaret had married into. While the newly christened Princess Margaret held the title of Princess, it was not because she was a member of the ruling family, but instead due to the usual Russian custom of all children born to a title, or marrying a peer with a title, therefore receiving that same title, unlike in England where only the firstborn received a title until their death where it passed to the next heir, and so on and so forth.

Princess Margaret, despite not longing for England for herself, found herself in a similar situation to Mrs. Bennet in the fall of 1797. With mounting concerns surrounding her 'social circle' (a frivolous array of countesses and bankers' wives who provided social engagements Margaret attended, ostensibly to gossip and giggle with the other empty-headed social climbers while in actuality using her reputation as a non-Russian speaker, which was quite false, to gather gossip and intelligence on the political power plays in the tsardom to pass on her husband), Princess Margaret decided to send her children to England to stay with her cousin Phoebe from November until March of the next year for their safety and their parent's peace of mind. Upon first being asked to agree to the scheme, the dowager heartily agreed, and on the third of November in 1797, Phoebe had taken Noah to meet and bond with his distant cousins in London and happily arranged for the Bennet girls to join them.

Prince Nikolai Albert Ephrussi, eleven, was quiet and highly observant. He was aloof and reserved, but well mannered and intensely, unabashedly adoring and protective of his younger sister. Princess Sophronia Marie Ephrussi, nine, was the singular most inquisitive child Phoebe had ever known, and she was certain that Sophie and six-year-old Lizzy would be great friends upon meeting.

Quietly, the dowager Countess was also reveling in the fact that none of the gossiping, matchmaking mothers of the Ton or (more importantly) Meryton knew that she was about to welcome an actual Prince and Princess into her home for the winter. She knew it would not matter to any of them that Nikolai and Sophie were not actually in line for the Russian throne, and their ages likely wouldn't stop any of them from attempting to 'catch' them for their children.

It wasn't often that Phoebe felt viciously satisfied in misleading others, but any opportunity she found to give her beloved Bennet girls a reprieve from Mrs. Bennet was an opportunity that the Lady Pembroke took.

The Monday following the Bennets, Ephrussis, and Archers arrivals in London, Phoebe met Edward Gardiner at Phoebe's solicitor's office near Hyde Park. After meeting the man at a Meryton event the previous year, Phoebe Archer had immediately picked Mr. Gardiner out as a shrewd and intelligent businessman. Now, she was finalizing her investment with his shipping company in preparation for his ship's next voyage.

While they were already supposed to be near Hyde Park, Mr. Gardiner had suggested they each bring the children of their house along, sending them to spend some time outside with a few servants to ensure their safety in the park.

Eager to see the Bennet girls introduced to her niece and nephew, Phoebe had readily agreed.

Lizzy Bennet had a lot of reasons to be smiling as she climbed out of her Uncle's carriage with Jane and Mary. Even though she was sad that Kitty and Lyddie had been declared too young to join them and Aunt Madelaine on the outing to Hyde Park, the four of their party were still a merry group. She was getting to spend time in her beloved outdoors, the sunshine was abnormally strong for an English November day, and they were set to see Great Aunt Phoebe later that afternoon for tea. Many reasons to smile, indeed.

Aunt Madelaine waited a moment to make sure all of the carriage passengers were safely disembarked before she gave the coachmen instructions to return for them in an hour and a half. Aunt Madelaine's ladies maid Addie and one of Uncle Gardiner's footmen, Tom, remained with them.

Turning to the Bennet girls, Aunt Madelaine smiled brightly. "Well, while we wait for your uncle and Lady Pembroke to arrive, what do you say we take a turn around the park?"

The three eldest Bennets eagerly agreed, and the group went on their way through the crowded park.

While Lizzy was happy that they were outside, and even walking, her very favorite activity, she was too distracted by the promise of seeing the Archers and their guests to properly enjoy herself. Great Aunt Phoebe, never Lady Pembroke or Mrs. Archer to the Bennet sisters, was quite possibly Lizzy's favorite person in the whole world. She was certainly the most elegant and educated woman Lizzy knew. While Great Aunt Phoebe's manners were beautiful and entirely ladylike, the thing that Lizzy loved most about her was that Great Aunt Phoebe was both Mistress and Master of Netherfield Park.

From Mama's wailings and vitriol-studded statements on the subject, Lizzy knew that it wasn't considered a 'ladylike' occupation to care for and run an estate if you were a woman, but Great Aunt Phoebe was still the most elegant and ladylike woman that Lizzy knew. So, Mama's cries and waspish comments went unheeded. Lizzy wanted nothing so much as to be exactly like Phoebe Archer, Dowager Countess of Pembroke.

Though she was, of course, grateful that Great Aunt Phoebe had decided to take on the task of ensuring that the Bennet sisters were properly educated by employing Masters directly from London to visit and teach them the arts of all accomplished ladies, Lizzy had somehow craved more. Sensing the same sort of intrepid spirit and craving for knowledge in Lizzy that Phoebe Archer had known in herself, she had answered that calling by taking Lizzy along with herself and Noah when the two of them toured the Netherfield estate with her steward, Mr. Morris.

And so while Mr. Morris and Great Aunt Phoebe had taught Noah all he would need to know to run an estate, they had also taught Lizzy. At first, Mr. Morris had assumed that the little Miss Elizabeth had only been brought along so she could work off some energy. Then, Miss Elizabeth asked him a shockingly insightful question about crop rotation, and Mr. Morris, ever eager for another intelligent student like the young Master, took great pleasure in catching Miss Elizabeth up on the lessons he and the Lady had already taught.

Lizzy eagerly learned everything she could on the subject. She even began reading farming books mixed in with her Master appointed classics, secretly proud that she was sharing this interest and 'unladylike' education with her dearest Great Aunt Phoebe.

There was something else about Great Aunt Phoebe's direction of their education, and the way that Lizzy had noticed she spoke to all of the Bennet children, even little Lydia and baby Henry. Unlike most of the other adults in their lives, Great Aunt Phoebe spoke to them like they were adults. Or, at the very least, capable of making their own decisions and choices when given proper education and guidance.

She didn't baby them, and she also didn't expect them to be automatic adults even at their young ages, both of which applied to Mama's treatment of her daughters that somehow managed to happen simultaneously.

Great Aunt Phoebe, in another manner entirely unlike Mama and Papa, did not expect or even like it when the girls blindly agreed with her. "Seek out your own facts on matters," Great Aunt Phoebe would say, "Gather your own information from trusted sources. And then, form your own opinion independent of being concerned about what others think."

To date, Lizzy's proudest moment had been when, just a few days before they had all left for London, Great Aunt Phoebe had posed a hypothetical question about business to Lizzy and Jane.

Jane often took longer to think over estate or business problems that were posed to them due to her careful nature, which was why Lizzy had been the one to answer first, quoting something she'd learned from Mr. Morris about the rising price of foreign textiles due to the war.

Smiling fondly at Lizzy, Great Aunt Phoebe had said, "You have great instinct, Elizabeth."

Lizzy was still thinking about that in the back of her head as she, Jane, and Mary were walking with Aunt Madelaine and Addie.

Tilting her head back as she walked, Lizzy let the soft chatter of her sisters and her new aunt simply float over her, the chill of the air biting happily at her nose though she was warmed through her thick pelisse by the strong sunshine.

A small hand tugged at Lizzy's cuff. Turning to look down, Lizzy smiled at Mary. "Yes?"

Mary looked over her shoulder at Aunt Madelaine, who was talking with Jane about the wedding the Bennets had been unable to attend. "Do you like her, Lizzy?"

"Yes, I like her," Lizzy answered immediately. "But I'm not the one with a gift for knowing a stranger's character at a glance. I think I should be the one asking you if you like her."

Quiet, somewhat somber Mary was only five, and yet she of all of her sisters had proved the most insightful when it came to their first impressions of other people. Jane tended to be too kind to think poorly of anyone, and though Lizzy had taken up their father's habit of studying characters, she could be too suspicious. Mary was neither too kind nor too suspicious, she was careful. Love her sisters though she did, she did not try to emulate either of them when it came to first impressions.

Mary paused, frowning slightly in her concentration. She thought about how Aunt Madelaine had complimented Mary on the way that the soft sage green of her pelisse had paired with her dark hair and pale complexion, whereas Mama had just bemoaned that Mary was not 'beautiful like her Jane'. How Aunt Madelaine had smiled and offered her approval after Mary had quietly stated she wished to read Shakespeare and Plato like her sisters, whereas Mama had always insisted no woman needed an education, only to 'catch' a man.

A soft, sweet smile spread over Mary's face. "Yes," she murmured shyly. "I like Aunt Madelaine."

For the life of her, Lizzy could not understand why Mama insisted on calling Mary 'plain'. Lizzy knew that she was young, and her sense of fashion and beauty had not fully presented itself yet, but anyone who could see Mary's smile would surely not think her plain, and Lizzy defied anyone who did.

There was a moment when Lizzy poised to wrap her arm through Mary's, pull her sister close, and continue extolling their new Aunt's virtues. Then, she heard something, saw a flash of movement from the corner of her eye.

Hyde Park was a busy place, full of the people of the Ton coming to see and be seen. Many dramatic scenes had unfolded against the green backdrop, and more than their fair share had already happened at the beginning of the November winter. Thus, Hyde Park was almost crowded that late morning, the streets thick with carriage traffic.

So busy, in fact, that one Hackney carriage had crashed near a gate to the park. The horse, who was very new and green to such a task, had become frightened by the noise and the crush of carriages, horses, people, wagons. When an overexcited daughter of the Duke of Northumberland had foolishly urged her carriage driver to hurry instead of using caution, crashing the Hackney and her father's second-best carriage together, the Hackney horse had decided enough was enough.

Breaking away from his reins and his former burden that had now been reduced to splinters, the horse charged into the park at break-neck speed.

Lizzy had heard this crash from a distance and had seen the horse break away from the wreckage and sprint into the park. She watched in horrified silence as the horse drew closer, people flying and jumping out of the way of both beast and the sharp, splintered edge of wood trailing behind him from his harness.

In all the commotion and rise of noise, there was one group of three near the Bennet and Gardiner party that did not seem aware of the doom now bearing down on them, the thundering hoofbeats beating ever towards the warmly dressed maid with two finely dressed children.

Without even thinking, Lizzy darted forward. Mary cried out in fear, reaching to try and grab her sister, but Jane held her back while Aunt Madelaine and Addie looked on in shocked horror.

She was no natural-born runner, but Lizzy just barely managed to get to her target ahead of the frightened horse. The taller child, she was close enough to realize he was a boy, had noticed the horse, and though he reached for the other child, a girl, screaming in panic, he was pulled away by the nurse first. The girl turned towards Lizzy and the horse.

Lizzy had just enough time to notice that the girl left in the path of the rampaging horse was only slightly bigger than Lizzy herself, with eyes that were as wide and dark as the night sky. Then, Lizzy tackled her to the ground, rolling both of them out of the way of the rampaging animal just in time for the beast to thunder past them.

The two lay there on the ground, breathing hard but otherwise silent in the shock following the rescue until the girl with the pretty, dark eyes finally spoke, her voice rich and faintly accented. "Thank you, I think. This is certainly far more interesting than introductions usually are in Russia."

It took a moment for the girl's words to fully register in Lizzy's still-frazzled mind. When they did, her face broke out into a beaming smile, and she and the other girl laughed. Then, a pair of hands took one of each of theirs, helping the two of them untangle from their unladylike and improper sprawl on the ground and then stand.

"Sophie," the owner of the hands said urgently, and Lizzy found the other child, the boy, now cupping the face of the little girl with the dark eyes and studying her in worry. The two children then started speaking rapid-fire in a language Lizzy did not understand. 'Russia' she remembered the girl saying. Odd, that Lizzy should find herself running into children from Russia when Great Aunt Phoebe was also supposed to be taking in distant relations from Russia for the winter and spring.

Just then, Mary and Jane, followed closely by Aunt Madelaine and Addie, reached Lizzy's side. After both parties thoroughly reassured themselves that the little girl they called their own was safe and unharmed, the two parties turned to face one another.

Facing her rescuer, the little girl beamed wide at Lizzy and her sisters, then curtsied to them while the taller boy, who shared the girl's rich sable-dark hair, though his eyes were a piercing pale blue, bowed. The Bennets and Aunt Madelaine returned these greetings with curtsies of their own. "I am Princess Sophronia Ephrussi of St. Petersburg."

While Aunt Madelaine and Addie blanched at the prospect that they were in the presence of a princess, the young Bennet girls, in the way of all children who have met a new friend, did not even pause. Lizzy's smile was still bright and cheerful as she completed her side of the introductions. "I am Elizabeth Bennet of Longbourn in Hertfordshire. These are two of my sisters, Jane and Mary, and my Aunt Madelaine. It is a pleasure to meet you."

Princess Sophronia's smile now contained a hint of mischief as she curtsied again. "This is my brother, Prince Nikolai Ephrussi. It is a pleasure to meet you all as well. Especially seeing as how you have saved my life."

"That's our Lizzy for you," Jane said sweetly, smiling. "Though I am sorry that we met under such circumstances."

"As am I," Prince Nikolai said as stately as any eleven-year-old boy could. Then, the hint of a good-humored smirk came into his expression. "And yet I am grateful all the same."

Unconsciously, Jane and Elizabeth turned to look at Mary, waiting for the middle Bennet sister's silent verdict.

Mary was used to being overlooked in her own home by both Mama and Papa. In truth, the only person she expected any amount of undivided attention towards herself from while at Longbourn was Jane and occasionally Lizzy. So it was with pleasant surprise that Mary noticed that the polite, warm manner in which the prince and princess greeted Lizzy and Jane was extended to Aunt Madelaine and Mary, even to Addie. She also was certain that the smiles on their faces were genuine, and it was that beyond anything else that she thought as the glimmer of their character shining through.

With a smile somewhat more subdued when compared to Jane's, but still brilliant in and of itself, Mary said, "It will surely make for a grand story to tell in letters or in parlors over the winter. How long have you been in London, your highness?"

Princess Sophronia and Prince Nikolai both blinked at the honorific, but then recovered quickly. Shaking her head, the diminutive princess assured them, "Oh, please, do not bother with the 'your highness's and the 'Princess' and 'Prince's. My brother and I are royalty in name only and hold no claim to the throne. Please, simply call us Sophie and Nikolai."

Nodding alongside his sister, Nikolai's slight smile increased by a breath. "Please do."

Honored, Lizzy and then Jane and Mary requested the same courtesy of their first names be used by the siblings in turn. More would have been said, only the group was interrupted by the arrival of Great Aunt Phoebe and Uncle Edward, who were initially pleased by the two parties having already met, and then worried and finally relieved as they heard the story of how it had come about.

"Well," Great Aunt Phoebe sighed, smiling fondly at the children's eager faces. "Why don't we all get out of the cold? Noah would never forgive me if we forgot our scheduled tea, he's missed his friends very much."

Uncle Gardiner, who had taken the children's distraction to kiss his wife's hand and whisper a loving greeting to her, reluctantly stepped back into a proper distance from his wife and nodded at Phoebe. "A splendid idea. Children?"

Just as Phoebe and Margaret had schemed, friendships were forged that day as the group traveled to Addington Cottage where Noah had just finished his lessons with his Classics master to join them all for tea. Over three weeks, all of the children, even Kitty and little Lydia, spent a great deal of time together. They fell in together in the ways that many children often do, in situations where youth allows differences to be viewed as interesting and exciting, rather than something to be abhorred. Many afternoons were spent laughing while the Russian siblings attempted to teach the guttural, but somehow musical language to their new friends, or answering questions about Jewish holidays.

When it came time for Great Aunt Phoebe and the Bennet sisters to leave for Meryton at the end of November, the Gardiners threw them all a fond, intimate farewell party. That winter in Meryton was spent with the children of Longbourn, Netherfield, and even Lucas Lodge all flitting from one dwelling to the other. There were many parties and teas, frigid winter days spent laughing and talking in front of fires.

The Ephrussis would return to Russia every summer, but from that November day onward, whatever time they spent in England, they spent it in Meryton.

Such jubilation upon hearing that her daughters had met and befriended an actual prince when such news found Mrs. Bennet will go unsaid, save that it was both great and of long duration. In fact, Mrs. Bennet forwent berating her daughters over the time they spent with Dowager Pembroke for a whole season. Even her least favorites Mary and Elizabeth received the benefit of this lightening of the overbearing pressure their mother held over them all.

Mr. Bennet, for his part, did not see what all the fuss was about, but he appreciated that the wee prince had some interesting thoughts on Cicero, and that despite her young age, the little princess was almost as good at chess as his Lizzy.

A/N: I hope that you guys will be kind to Sophie and Nikolai. I have always been fond of the certain Romantic appeal in the old era of the Russian monarchy, so this is my ode to that. Sophie and Nikolai will feature in this story, so we will check in on them from time to time, but the stars of this story truly are the Bennets, as it should be. Also, the introductions they performed might not be strictly proper, but they are children, are from different countries and cultures, and their meeting circumstances are a little strange.

So if anything about the timeline of Phoebe Archer nee Addington, dowager Countess Pembroke is unclear, here it goes. Phoebe married Lord Pembroke twenty-one/twenty-two years ago (early December 1767), and their firstborn child was a son, Vincent (January 2, 1769). Over the course of nineteen years, she became pregnant four more times but no other child survived the pregnancy or infancy. Then her husband died of undiagnosed lung cancer (he smoked) on September 15, 1788, when her son Vincent was nineteen. She moved to Netherfield almost immediately and discovered within a month that she was once again pregnant, which resulted in Noah, who was born April 6, 1789. He is nineteen days older than Jane. Now, her age doesn't come up in the story, but Phoebe was twenty when she married Lord Pembroke, twenty-one when she gave birth to Vincent, and forty-one when she gave birth to Noah. Women can still become pregnant up until menopause, which hits at a different point for different women but usually around forty-five/fifty. Margaret, her cousin, married Sergei when she was eighteen in 1785, Sergei was born July 7, 1786, and Sophie was born July 14, 1788.

If you could not tell, I have a very complex timeline that I am constantly referencing in an effort to keep all my timelines and dates correct, haha. If something doesn't add up to you, please PM me to let me know!

Ephrussi: The Ephrussi family is in fact a Russian family name, specifically that of a Russian Jewish banking and oil dynasty family. In this work, I'm adapting that slightly by imagining someone of the family married someone with a title that was then passed down to Nikolai and Sophie through their father Sergei. And yes, Sophie and Nikolai are Jewish, as is their father Prince Sergei, though their mother still belongs to the Anglican Church of England following her upbringing.
Judaism in Europe: I realize that there are a lot of major racism and bigotry issues that come with writing Jewish characters, especially in the setting of Regency England. I use fiction as an escape from a lot of the realities of the world, so major issues like sexism, racism, and other bigotry common to that day and age I will only briefly reference. This is an idealized fictional history, not a 100% accurate one in many respects, though I will always give reasonings for some of the more farfetched changes, or if I think it is an interesting enough fact. I am not particularly comfortable writing characters who do nothing but suffer during the course of a story because they are a minority. Minorities have existed throughout all of history, and they have done so living lives just as full, vibrant, and fulfilling in settings where Hollywood has told us not to expect them. Like, for example, Regency England. Jewish people existed even in the highest circles of English Regency society, though that typically went hand in hand with downplaying their religion or even outright hiding it. The Ephrussis will not hide it, but they are also not extraordinarily traditional in the sense of garments, so they do downplay it some for the sake of moving easier in society as a reflection of this unfortunate history.
Russian Titles: Yes, Russia's tradition of passing on titles to all offspring, not just the firstborn, is a real one. There were many, many Russian people with a title when the Tsar still ruled, though having a title did not necessarily equate land or wealth. There were plenty wealthy people moving through the highest circles of Russian society without titles, and plenty titled Russians who were penniless.

Edit: A guest reviewer pointed out that Judaism is traditionally passed down through the maternal line, and not the paternal line. Meaning that if a child's mother is Jewish then the child would also be considered Jewish. This is something that was pointed out to me, and I thought I had made a note of it somewhere, but I can't find it. Thank you 'guest' for pointing this out, and I'm so sorry for not addressing it more clearly. So the reason that Sophie and Nikolai are Jewish though their mother is Anglican is because of Sergei's mother, their paternal grandmother. She died before the events of this story, and she will likely only be mentioned once or twice, but she was an incredible woman who was very close to Sergei, Margaret, and Sophie and Nikolai. Margaret had a lot of respect and love for Sergei's mother and encouraged her and Sergei to bring Sophie and Nikolai up Jewish. In this case, I believe it would be considered that they converted to Judaism instead of being born Jewish? Feel free to pm me if you have more information or questions! And thank you again guest for pointing out my oversight!