"Why don't you take your family back in, brother, and I will see to the horses." It seemed the best course of action for Mr. Gardiner. Bennet's eyes were lit with righteous indignation and nothing good would come from a confrontation at this time. That was not to say that Gardiner completely disagreed with the officers' assessment of the family.

Jane was a general favourite with everyone, but that was only because she was so very malleable and accommodating. Kitty was the same, unfortunately without any of Jane's sense and steadiness, so where Jane could be counted on to always take the proper course, Kitty would simply always follow the one who talked louder.

Mr. Bennet looked at him and wanted to disagree, but found that he could not. The brief flare of anger he felt when hearing his daughters spoken about in such terms died out as fast as it came on. To say nothing of actually being in agreement with Wickham. Had they not been discussing his own children, Bennet might have even joined them. On a second thought even now he might congratulate them on having enough wisdom to attempt to warn their companion clear of one the silliest girls in England.

He was about to chuckle aloud and only Providence steered him to take a look at his wife and daughters.

"Mrs. Bennet," he said taking charge, "our guests are undoubtedly wondering where we all are. Let us all resume our roles," he continued and took his wife's arm and began to guide her towards the side entrance. He was certain his daughters would come along.

They were almost to the side door when his wife was finally jolted from the shock of hearing her favourite daughter spoken about in such a manner. "You must call them out, Mr. Bennet! You must demand satisfaction for the insult!"

"I will do nothing of the sort!" came Mr. Bennet's prompt reply. "I have no will to jeopardize my health, my life, every time drunk young men see fit to weigh in on our daughters' merits! Would you feel better were I to die in a duel with an officer? They train with weapons, madam!"

"Oh, what is to become of us when we have no one to protect us?"

To this lament Mr. Bennet could only roll his eyes and announce he'll be in his library should he be needed, although he was sure they would not.

Mrs. Bennet asked for her salts and Hill and then declared she'll retire to her rooms, which her husband encouraged her to do.

It was probably all for the best, the two eldest thought, but they did have guests. Mrs. Gardiner would know what to do, they decided almost at the same time, although only Elizabeth opened her mouth to speak.

"Would you help Lydia to her room, Jane? I believe we will manage here, the three of us, and our aunt will help."

Their aunt Gardiner did help. She didn't know what happened and didn't stop to question her nieces. It was all too clear that something must be very wrong. Fortunately a likely excuse was easy to find: Mrs. Bennet was suddenly feeling faint and Jane and Lydia have retired along with her. Nobody questioned the story, as it was well known that they were her favourite daughters and so the neighbours assumed she would want her most beloved children attending her.

The visiting families and the officers departed as soon as it could be managed with many wishes for Mrs. Bennet's continued health. In all the commotion nobody gave a second thought to the officers being now all of them sober and very little inclined to chat and linger.

"And this, my dear, is the whole dreadful story," Gardiner said, ending his report of what he had witnessed of the evening's events.

"Elizabeth only said that Lydia was rather tired and Jane would help her settle and her mother was taken with a case of nerves. I was so stunned I didn't stop to ask where their father was."

"Oh, that is easy. I found him in his study. He cares not a whit, Madeline. He told me so. In his estimation all of his daughters are silly, except perhaps Elizabeth, and then only on occasion, and such talk, while shocking, is nothing more than what is to be expected."

"Edward, there must be something we can do!"

"Madeline, my dear wife, we cannot order the girls about. For good or bad, they have parents and we cannot dictate how another man runs his family."

"Oh, we would not be dictating anything since he does not run his family!"

"Madeline!"

"Edward, I cannot stand by and see the girls treated thusly! And to think I rather liked Mr. Wickham!"

"I give you leave to like him still, my dear. He was crass, but then he was rather drunk. In any case, his defense must be that he spoke to protect his friend."

"Yes, yes, but we must decide what to do."

There was another half an hour of back and forth between the Gardiners, with Mr. Gardiner adamant that no man would accept direction in how to manage his own household and Mrs. Gardiner pronounce that since the Bennets did not manage anything, somebody ought to do it.

The trump card was discovered in Madeline Gardiner's hand: when all was said and done, the Gardiners would have to take in any unmarried Bennet daughters after their father died. The Philipses simply did not have the space and means to do so.

The way things stood they could be saddled with all five of them. It was better to act now than to wait for the situation to become even less manageable.

Mrs. Gardiner was gracious enough not to remind her husband that she had always advocated for him to take a stronger stand with the Bennets. Her husband was thankful for her restraint, although he recognized that had he done something ten years ago, when Madeline first started to hint that it was needed, they would not find themselves in this situation.

Author note:

Thank you for all the wonderful reviews! They were all very much appreciated!

The first chapter is awful. I'll correct a few spelling mistakes right away, but at some point I will have to re-write it. Everything will happen the same, but hopefully the flow will be improved.

I guess this means I'll write a few more chapters? :)

For all the characters without a given name in the original story, I will keep the most common names given to them in fandom: Madeline Gardiner, Edward Gardiner, Thomas Bennet, Fanny Bennet, and Richard Fiztwilliam.

The Gardiners will _not_ be the awesome, wholesome, unconditional good guys. They are good people and they are nice and they have polished manners. And that's the extent of the good things I can say about them. They were not especially perceptive in the original novel, from what I can tell, so they won't be especially perceptive here either.

A note of caution: English is not my first language. It's not my second language either. There will be poor grammar and poorly phrased sentences, although I'm trying my best.