Chapter 33

"This place is amazing," Jane said later that afternoon as she and Lizzie sat outside under one of the large oak trees, a picnic blanket spread out beneath them.

"Plus it's huge!" She added.

"Tell me about it," Lizzie chuckled, "I've been here a week and I still get lost on my way to breakfast."

"I never knew Will was so well off," Jane mused, "Did you?" Lizzie shook her head.

"I knew he was loaded, I mean, I work for him, he owns the entire company… but no, I didn't know he owned an estate straight out of 'ye olde time England'."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, staring across the pond and up towards the house.

"We're worlds apart, aren't we Jane?" Lizzie sighed, breaking the silence.

"Oh, Lizzie…" Jane sighed, reaching out to hold her hand, "Don't dwell on the money, it's obvious that Will cares about you, he doesn't care that you're 'worlds apart', he just cares about you,"

"I care about him too," she said after a long pause.

"Then that's all that matters," Jane smiled, always the optimist. Up at the house, Will and Charlie had just come out of the main doors and were making their way down the stairs. The girls couldn't hear them, being too far away, but they could see that the men were laughing together.

"Will seems different," Jane observed, and Lizzie couldn't help but agree. There was something different about Darcy when he was here at Pemberley. Something that made him seems younger and more boyish. Maybe it was the fact that he smiled more, and he was laughing a lot, just like he was now as he and Charlie pushed and shoved each other playfully as they headed across the grounds and around the house. Lizzie wondered where they were going, but didn't voice her thoughts.

"Different in a good way though, right?" Lizzie asked thoughtfully.

"Seems to be," Jane agreed. Lizzie shuffled down the blanket and lay on her back.

"I slept with him," Lizzie confessed, speaking very quietly, Jane turned down to look at her sister, "Last night, I just…"

"What?" Jane asked, concerned that Lizzie was holding back, "Did he pressure you? Is he moving too fast?"

"No, no, he's not pressuring me. It was my idea… Well technically he started it I suppose. But I don't think it was his intention, and I never stopped him, I wanted it… I want him. It's weird, you know, because I feel like I shouldn't, like I should be more uncomfortable or cautious, but I'm not. I'm just, content. As surprising as it is, being with Will is just so easy."

Jane gave her a sceptical look and Lizzie laughed,

"Not so easy that we never have problems! God knows, we have a lot of problems! And there's probably still a lot we need to talk about. But, it's easy because it's comfortable. Once we sorted through all the crap from when we first met, everything seemed to fall into place, and now it's almost second nature,"

Lizzie waited while Jane processed this new information, and eventually had her sister's agreement.

"I can certainly see that you two are more comfortable together now, and I can see how much he adores you, he's always watching you, it's like he can't take everything in and so he can't look away. And you, you almost gravitate towards him… I don't know if you even know you're doing it, but it's something I've noticed." She said, picking at a loose thread in the blanket.

"Now you're making me self-conscious," Lizzie grumbled settling down beside Jane, she chuckled.

"You know, it's funny, Ms. Reynolds said something similar about Will, I think she said, she can tell by the way he looks at me that I'm a special person, I thought she was just being nice."

"No, you are special, and Will can obviously see that, Ms. Reynolds was right. But she is nice, exceptionally so. She's almost more of a mother to Will and Georgie than a house keeper," Jane mused. Lizzie nodded her agreement.

"She's worked for their family since before Will was even born,"

"Really? But she's so young,"

"She was only 17, I don't know the whole story, just what she's told me since I arrived, that she ran away from home because she had a baby and her parents tried to hush it up. They kept the pregnancy quiet and kept her hidden away after the baby was born, she says one day she just got so fed up with it that she ran away. Packed up a few things and got on a train, she came north and went from estate to estate looking for work in exchange for board. It wasn't until she came here and met Will's mother that anyone would take her in. Apparently Mrs. Darcy, pregnant with Will at the time, took pity on her and took her in, gave her a job as a maid, and a room, helped look after her daughter Clara, and she's been here ever since. I'm sure there's more to it than that, but that's what I know. The Darcy's helped put Clara through school and university too, she's a lawyer now and she works in Manchester."

There was a long pause after that, while Jane watched her sister serenely, Lizzie seemed distracted, she was talking Jane, but she wasn't all there.

"Are you still having doubts about him?" Jane asked cautiously, which grabbed Lizzie's attention. She turned her head quickly to look her sister in the eye. She was taken aback. The look on her face was almost insulted.

"What? No!" Lizzie cried, scrambling up into a sitting position. Jane raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything.

"No, I'm not having doubts,"

"It just seems like you're still unsure of things," Jane supplied

"No, I'm not unsure. I know that I want to be with Will, I really do." She paused and sighed, "You know what it is Jane," she asked, almost whispering.

"Tell me Lizzie, you know you can tell me anything,"

"I'm scared," she whispered,

"What are you scared of?"

"It took me a while to grasp it, but I'm scared of loosing him. That this relationship won't last, and it's not because of my job or his being my boss or any of that other crap I was so concerned about before, I'm scared it won't last because that means I'll lose him…"

"Oh…" Jane was slightly speechless, "Lizzie… you do realise what this means?" she asked, carefully, because she was pretty sure she was about to say something that Lizzie hadn't even realised for herself yet.

"What do you mean?"

"Lizzie, do you think, maybe, you might be in love with him?" Jane asked, bracing herself for an argument with her stubborn, never to be told what to do or think, sister. Lizzie's mouth fell open a tiny bit, agape in shock, and she was silent for a long moment.

"Maybe…" she finally said, and Jane's mouth fell open a little bit too, which made Lizzie laugh.

"Look Jane, I don't know what I am, I don't know if I'm in love with Will or not, I don't know what that even means. But I see you with Charlie, and I want what you two have, and I feel like I might be able to have that one day, with Will. I know that sounds crazy, and I know that two months ago, if you'd told me I would feel this way I wouldn't have believed you, but now, things are just different…"

Jane nodded slightly, knowing that her sister was trying to end this conversation, Jane would let her, she'd already gotten a lot more from Elizabeth than she ever expected to, and felt like she'd helped her in some way. So when Lizzie changed the subject, Jane didn't make a fuss.

"I wish Katie had come with you," Lizzie sighed, rolling back onto her stomach and picking at the blades of grass along the blanket's edge.

"I'm still worried about her being alone in the city, at our apartment, with all the George Wickham problems,"

"The police haven't been able to locate him Lizzie, they're certain he's left town,"

"Hmm, I know, but something still doesn't sit right, I still feel like we're just sitting on a time bomb, and I don't like that Katie is alone in London while the two of us are so far away," Lizzie explained, Jane understood, she was worried too.

"I did try and convince her to come, but she's busy with her orientation and getting ready for the semester, and she was adamant about going to work, even though Charlie personally told her to take today off and join us,"

"She's stubborn," Lizzie said, Jane scoffed,

"I wonder where she learned that trait from," Jane said, nudging Lizzie with her elbow.

"Ha, you're very funny,"

"She'll be fine," Jane said after a short pause, "But maybe we'll call her when we get back to the house,"

"Good idea," Lizzie replied.

"So, how's everything going with you and Charlie?" Lizzie asked, after a few minutes of sisterly silence. Jane's cheeks pinked up at her question and the elder Bennett sister sighed wistfully.

"Things are that good, huh?" Lizzie teased,

"He's so perfect Lizzie. I don't know how I got so lucky!" Jane beamed.

"You're pretty perfect too Jane, I'm not surprised you found each other,"

"It's all because of you Lizzie," Jane insisted, "I wouldn't know Charles if you didn't work with him,"

"For him," Lizzie corrected with a smirk, "Besides, I don't believe that's true, you would have found each other somehow,"

"That's awfully romantic of you Lizzie," Jane laughed.

"Is it?"

"Yes!" Jane cried, "I've never heard you, my dear sister, say anything like that. You and your 'realistic' world views," she said, even using air quotes.

"Yeah, well I guess people really can change," Lizzie replied, sitting up at the sound of someone approaching.

Turning to look behind the tree they were sat under, Lizzie almost shrieked to see Will and Charlie approaching on horseback. Will was grinning somewhat manically and Lizzie immediately shook her head at him.

"If you think I'm getting on that thing you've lost your mind Darcy!" She yelled, getting to her feet. Darcy chuckled as he came to a halt in front of her. Sitting astride the horse he was almost twice her height and she strained her neck to look at him.

"Come on Lizzie, you promised me," he practically pouted, dismounting and jumping to land in front of her. The horse, which in her head Lizzie was calling 'the giant', whinnied and shook its head from side to side, tussling its mane.

"I never promised to kill myself by climbing onto a giant quadruped," she countered, crossing her arms stubbornly across her chest.

"No," Darcy agreed, stepping closer and extracting a hand from her stiffly crossed arms, "But you did promise to ride with me, and I'm not letting you back out of it now, least of all because Sherlock would be very offended,"

"You named your horse Sherlock?" Lizzie asked,

"I did," he answered, with a teasing grin, "Figures that you'd like that,"

"Good name," was all she replied, looking at Sherlock incredulously, "Though I don't see the resemblance,"

"You just wait," Darcy assured her. Meanwhile, Jane had already gone over to Charlie and he was assisting her onto his horse's saddle. Jane had never been afraid of horses, she was an accomplished rider. Lizzie frowned, almost jealous, there was no way Lizzie was going to look that graceful when, (and she knew it was going to be when, because Will could pretty much talk her into anything), she clambered onto Sherlock's back.

"Seriously Will, do we really have to do this? Honestly, I'm fine with not being able to ride a horse,"

"Well, I'm not, there's something I want to show you, at the far end of the property. You can't get there in a car. If not the horses…" he paused and adopted a cheeky grin, "Then it's the dirt bikes" Lizzie blanched. Nope, there was no way she was getting on the back of a motorcycle.

"Fine," she huffed, and Will beamed triumphantly before helping her up onto the beast where she balanced precariously as he climbed on behind her. As scary as this experience was, being nestled in Will's arms was making it much easier to deal with.