A/N: I just want to make one thing clear before starting this chapter. Pemberly in this story is the equivalent of Graceland and Jack Darby is the equivalent of Elvis. Also, Lizzie does not know that Will owns Pemberly. Oh, and I'm sorry about the delay for this chapter. I've been working on some other projects and haven't really had time to work on this one. But I am like really super sorry. There shouldn't be so much of a wait for the next chapter. Oh, and one more thing, I don't own the song "There's Us" that I'm using in this chapter and the next either.

A few weeks went by with relative peace for the Bennett sisters. Lydia unfortunately was becoming closer and closer to George Wickham and the more Lizzie tried to warn her sister about his true character, the more it seemed that Lydia wanted to be around him. Mary had gone back to college and so the piano in the apartment remained mercifully silent in the early hours of the morning when Mary liked to practice the most. Kitty was back at home visiting their parents and so Lizzie thought everything would be calm for a while. Then one day Jane came to Lizzie with some startling news.

"Lydia wants to go to New York?" Lizzie asked Jane incredulously.

"She has an invitation to go and be on some talk show," Jane explained. "They're providing her airfare and putting her up in a hotel. She will have a car to take her to and from the TV studio, nowhere else."

"Janie, she's only eighteen!" Lizzie exclaimed. "There is nothing in New York that is safe for a single eighteen year old girl." Lizzie stared at her sister incredulously. Lydia was too young to go off to New York on her own.

"You came here when you were only seventeen," Jane reminded Lizzie patiently. She thought that sending Lydia to New York was a good idea. It would give them some peace for at least a week and Jane desperately needed a break. Mary and Kitty had both gone back to college for the spring semester. Lydia was the one haunting their apartment never giving Jane and Lizzie a moment's peace. Jane loved her youngest sister, but when she thought of Lydia going to New York, she thought of a week where she could go to the spa for a day or two. She could go shopping and pick out clothes for herself, not have Lydia picking out clothes for her. Jane loved her little sister, but she desperately needed some alone time.

"I was way more mature at seventeen than Lydia is now," Lizzie replied stubbornly and crossed her arms over her chest. Jane looked at her sister and smiled. Lizzie might seem older than Lydia most of the time, but with no makeup, her dark hair in a pony tail, baggy jeans and a t-shirt with their high school name on it, she could have passed for seventeen.

"Lizzie, we aren't going to get any peace until we let her go," Jane said softly to Lizzie so that their sisters, who were squabbling in the living room, couldn't hear. "And Mom and Dad already gave their permission."



"Fine," Lizzie sighed tiredly. Lydia was spending too much time with George Wickham anyway. Sending her to New York for a week or two would be a good chance to split them up. Although their band had not made a ton of money, Lydia still had a rather impressive bank account for a girl who seemed to spend every dime she got on clothes and makeup. She was a target for a man like him and Lizzie wanted to keep them apart at all costs.

Lydia apparently heard Lizzie's response and was instantly jumping around screaming. Lizzie looked at Jane for a long moment, mentally willing her to change her mind. She wanted to tell Jane everything she knew about Wickham, but she couldn't do that without talking about Will's disastrous proposal and what she'd learned about why Charlie left. Lizzie didn't want to hurt Jane by telling her that Charlie probably thought that she was a gold digger or something, so she kept her mouth shut. She gave Jane one last slightly disapproving look and then sauntered back to her bedroom. She was working on another new song and it was demanding her attention.

…………………………

Lizzie sat back against her headboard on her bed with her eyes closed, her foot unconsciously tapping along to the beat of the music. She'd never admit that she had downloaded the song Will wrote for her at Rosings Park and that it was now the most listened to song on her iPod, but there were a lot of things that she wouldn't admit to. Another thing that she would never admit to was that she thought that Will Darcy had a great voice. His voice just had a really great tone to it or something. She'd just listened to the song for the seventh time in a row when Jane walked into her room.

"Lizzie, Uncle Jake is on the phone," Jane informed her as she walked into the room and handed Lizzie the cordless phone. Lizzie sighed a little and put the song on pause before taking her ear buds out of her ears.

"Hey Uncle Jake," Lizzie said after smiling gratefully at her sister. Jane smiled back and slipped out of the room.

"How's my favorite recording artist?" Jake asked her as he picked up his four year old daughter off the kitchen counter and set her on the floor. His wife, Sarah, had left him alone for the weekend with all of the kids and they were running around the house like a bunch of little savages.

"Just your favorite recording artist?" Lizzie pretended to pout. "Aren't I your favorite niece too?"

"Sorry, Jane took that place in my heart when she agreed to come over here and help me out with the kids until your aunt gets back," Jake replied as he grabbed a pair of scissors from his youngest son's hands. "But you are my second favorite."

"Good to know," Lizzie said with a laugh.

"Now, about why I called," Jake said seriously as the kids took their antics into the living room, giving him a chance to think above all of their noise. "I think that you need a sabbatical."

"I don't know, Uncle Jake," Lizzie replied hesitantly. "I really just want to stay home right now and concentrate on my music…

"We're not going very far," Jake informed her. "Just back to your aunt's home town. My father in law doesn't seem to like me very much and I need an ally."

"You're not doing a very good job at convincing me to go on this trip," she laughed.

"Please Lizzie," Jake nearly begged. "If you're good, we just might go and see Pemberly while we're there."

"Really?" Lizzie asked excitedly. "Okay, I'll go. But only if we get to see Pemberly."

Jake filled Lizzie in on a few more of the details concerning the trip and they said goodbye a few minutes later, just in time for Jane to tell Lizzie that she was leaving to go help their uncle take care of his five rambunctious children. They were leaving in a week and were catching an early flight so Lizzie had to be at the airport no later than seven thirty, something Lizzie was not at all happy about. After Jane was gone and the apartment was quiet again, Lizzie grabbed her guitar and started strumming random chords as she often did when she had a lot on her mind.

She really couldn't wait to go and see Pemberly. Jack Darby had been her favorite country music star when she was little. He was the one who had inspired her to get into music. She'd mourned his death for weeks after learning at the ripe old age of seven that he had been dead for fifteen years. Ever since, she'd begged her parents every time they started planning a family vacation to take them to see Pemberly. But her mother had always insisted on some exotic island or something more suited to her tastes than to Lizzie's.

Lizzie looked out her bedroom window to the busy Nashville streets below and let her mind start to wander and think about Will Darcy again. She couldn't seem to get him out of her head most of the time. Maybe a trip away from everything and all of her memories would be just what she needed. She'd effectively ruined any chance she ever could have had with him after that episode at Rosings Park. At least, she was pretty sure she'd ruined any chance that she'd ever had with him. Lizzie sighed once again and looked over at her light blue suitcase that still contained some of her clothes from Rosings Park. Jane had been nagging her about unpacking for nearly three weeks. It looked like she wouldn't need to after all.

…………………………



"Welcome to Lambton, Lizzie," Sarah Gardner exclaimed excitedly as they drove past the city limit sign. "Isn't it just the most charming place you've ever seen?"

"It's lovely, Aunt Sarah," Lizzie assured her aunt as she looked out the window of their cab, trying to catch a glimpse of Pemberly. Unfortunately it was set some three miles from the town itself and Lizzie wouldn't catch a glimpse of it with a pair of binoculars. "So, can we go straight to Pemberly?"

Matt and Sarah laughed at their niece's enthusiasm. "I'm sorry dear," Matt apologized, "but we have to go see Sarah's parents first. I'm afraid her dad doesn't like me very much and he'll really dislike me if I keep his little girl away from him any longer."

"Could I go…"

"Lizzie, my family is dying to meet you," Sarah replied. "They'll all be really disappointed if you're not with us when we arrive."

Lizzie sighed and went back to staring out the window. The town really was charming with its red brick sidewalks and old fashioned stores lining Main Street that had probably been standing for a hundred years.

Sarah's family lived on a street just past the business section of town in a house that looked like it was probably as old as the town itself. It was a lovely old fashioned house that looked like it was as old as the town itself. It had been passed down in Sarah's family for a hundred years or more. As soon as the cab pulled up into the driveway a stream of family members flew out of the house to swarm them as they tried to climb out of the cab. Lizzie was surrounded by people and immediately pulled in to hug complete strangers. Her hands were shaken and her cheeks were kissed and finally everyone parted and Lizzie looked up to see the most intimidating man she had ever seen standing on the front porch.

"Daddy!" Sarah nearly screamed as she ran towards the man and threw herself into his arms. Instantly the man did not look even half as intimidating. He smiled with undisguised pleasure as he held his youngest daughter in his arms and made Lizzie miss her own father more than ever. Her mother had made things so unbearable for her that she'd run from home at a young age and then only rarely saw her parents or even talked to them on the phone.

Lizzie looked over at her uncle. Matt looked more afraid than Lizzie had ever seen him. "Lizzie, I'm glad you're here," he whispered. "I'm really going to need an ally here. I think Sarah's dad hates me."

"I don't think he hates you," Lizzie sighed. "He just really loves Aunt Sarah."

An hour later Lizzie was all settled into the room she was sharing with Sarah's younger sister, Sophie and she wandered out to find her aunt and uncle, who were sitting outside 

on the porch swing. "So, can we go see Pemberly now?" she asked hopefully as she stepped out onto the porch.

"Lizzie, it's probably closed by now," Sarah laughed. "It's after six o'clock."

"Seriously?" Lizzie said disappointedly.

"We'll go first thing in the morning, Lizzie," Matt promised.

"Promise?"

"Yes, I promise," Matt laughed. "Why don't you and Sophie go and do something tonight?"

"There's a movie theatre on Main Street," Sarah informed her. "They show old movies every Friday night."

"Okay, I'll go and see if Sophie wants to go," Lizzie conceded with a smile. She ran back into the house to talk to Sophie and a few minutes later they were on their way to the movies.

"So, I heard you kissed Will Darcy," Sophie giggled as they walked down the sidewalk. Lizzie had changed into a knee length floral skirt and a white tank top, the lightest clothing she owned, but the hot Alabama evening still had the loose tendrils of hair that had escaped from her hairclip sticking damply to the back of her neck.

"Yeah, well, we haven't really been on speaking terms recently," Lizzie sighed. "We got in a bit of a fight and I guess he said he was sorry, but I think we've pretty much parted ways."

"Awe," Sophie cried. "Is it true that he wrote that song the he performed at Rosings Park for you?"

"Yeah," Lizzie laughed. "That was for me."

"And then your single," Sophie went on. "That was for him?"

"Pretty much," she confessed.

"Wow!" Sophie exclaimed and pointed at a black sports car flying up the street. "Look at that car! I wonder who's driving it and what they're doing here."

Lizzie watched as the sleek car went flying past them. It looked like an Audi, way more expensive than anyone in Lambton could afford as far as Lizzie could tell. She watched as the car drove off and sighed. "I have no idea," she replied as she shrugged her lightly tanned shoulders. She changed the subject from her and her almost relationship with Will 

Darcy and had Sophie tell her about Lambton and all that she knew about Pemberly. Eventually they made their way to the movie theatre and saw one of Lizzie's favorite old movies, but Lizzie could hardly concentrate on the movie. All she could think about was Pemberly and actually being there.

The next day, Lizzie found herself approaching Pemberly for the first time. Her mouth instantly fell open with shock. She didn't know what she had really expected, but the pictures just had not done the place justice. Pemberly was everything that she had ever dreamed that it would be and more. The impressive southern mansion was four stories with at least seven different chimneys that Lizzie could count at first glance, as sure sign at the mansion's authenticity. The large Roman style pillars almost sparkled in the bright sunlight. The house was nearly surrounded by large trees that had to be at least a hundred years old. Lizzie was so excited, she felt like a child on their first trip to Disney World.

"Is this place even open to the public?" Lizzie asked her uncle curiously. "I thought that the family still owned it."

"The new owner just recently made it open to the public, but only when he and his sister aren't there," Jake explained as he slowed the car to a halt. "We've gotten here just in the nick of time too. The owner is supposed to return tomorrow from what I've heard."

Lizzie slipped out of the car and walked around to the trunk. She knocked on it softly signaling for the cab driver to open it for her and then pulled out her guitar. Jake had thought that the hallowed grounds of Pemberly might give Lizzie some inspiration and suggested that she bring it with her. She pulled the strap of the case over her head and wandered away from the car towards the gardens. "Lizzie, we're supposed to go on a tour," her aunt called as she watched Lizzie wander away.

"I don't think they'll mind if I just sit in the garden," Lizzie called back as she took off in that direction.

The garden was even more amazing in person than all of the pictures she had seen on line. She'd been almost obsessed with Pemberly ever since her father had taught her about it. She'd spent hours laying on her bedroom floor listening to Jack Darby's old records. She'd watched every documentary on Jack Darby that existed. She'd watched every concert that had been on video. In one of the documentaries he'd talked about how he got his best inspiration from his garden and ever since she'd heard that, Lizzie had been dying to see it. Actually being there was almost enough to blow her mind.

She quickly unzipped her guitar case and grabbed her guitar. She strummed a few chords, reached up to tune her guitar and then strummed them again. "There's me, wonderin' what I should do…" she sang softly to herself. She frowned a little and pulled a notebook out of another pocket of her guitar case. She pulled the pen off the notebook and scribbled down the phrase on the first blank page she came to. She looked at the words that she had just written and frowned. They just didn't seem quite right. She strummed a few more chords and hummed along.

"That sounds pretty good," Will commented off handedly as Lizzie looked up to see him standing there staring at her. "I like the tune."

Lizzie looked up at hum and her mouth gapped open. Will Darcy was standing there smiling down at her. With the sun streaming out from behind him he looked like some sort of Greek god. Her breath caught in her throat and it felt like she couldn't breathe, let alone speak. She sat there staring at him stupidly, willing something to come out of her mouth and nothing did. She finally realized that she was staring at him and looked down at her shoes.

Suddenly Lizzie and Will heard the click of a camera. "Lizzie, who is this?" her aunt called as she lowered the camera from her face.

"What are you doing here?" Lizzie asked finally. "Are you visiting too?"

"No, actually," Will smiled. "This is my home."

"What?!" Lizzie exclaimed incredulously, almost dropping her guitar. "But they said that the house wasn't open to the public when the family was there. If we'd known we never would have…I never would have…"

"Lizzie, it's alright," Will grinned. "Now why don't you introduce me to this lovely lady?"

"Will, this is my aunt, Sarah Gardiner" Lizzie stammered. "Aunt Sarah, this is Will Darcy."

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Will said charmingly.

"Sarah, where are you?" Jake called as he walked in their direction.

"Over here, Jake," she replied.

"I was wondering where you'd gotten too…" Jake trailed off. "Oh, Mr. Darcy, it's a pleasure to see you again."

"Please," Will responded as he started leading them back in the direction of the house. "Call me Will. Mr. Darcy sound like something out of some Regency novel."

Everyone but Lizzie laughed as they reached the gravel driveway. She stared at Will with a little confused frown. He was so different from the dark and moody man she'd met all those months ago. The man chatting with her aunt and uncle was smiling and pleasant. He was the perfect host telling them a bunch of interesting facts about the house and Jack Darby.



"Wait," Lizzie said suddenly as they reached the front door. "This house belongs to Jack Darby's nephew. Does that mean that you…"

"His real name was Jerome Darcy," Will explained. "He decided that Jack was a cooler name than Jerome and my father wasn't crazy about his becoming a musician. He changed his last name to Darby in order to ensure the family's privacy. He was the older brother so he inherited Pemberly when my grandfather died and then left it to my father when he died, who in turn left it to me."

"I can't believe you own Pemberly," Lizzie said incredulously. "I mean, seriously. I've dreamed about this house since I knew what it was and you own it!"

"Sometimes I can't believe it either," Will grinned. "Have ya'll had a tour of the house yet?"

"We have," Jake replied. "But Lizzie felt the need to immediately go to the gardens. Apparently they hold some magic power for Lizzie or something."

"You should see the house," Will told her. "I bet you would love the balcony room where Uncle Jack wrote his third album."

"I didn't know that he wrote that entire album himself," Lizzie replied incredulously. "What are we waiting for? Let's go…"

"Lizzie," Sarah interjected gently. "My parents are expecting us back at the house for dinner in an hour. We really need to get going."

"But I didn't even get to see…"

"It's not like we're not going to be here for three weeks," her uncle replied.

"But…"

"What if you two went ahead and went back and I take Lizzie home later?" Will suggested. "That way you can see the rest of the house and you two can go back for dinner."

"I guess that would be alright," Sarah said slowly.

"It's settled then," Jake decided and started ushering Sarah towards their rental car. He'd watched Lizzie and Will together back in Nashville and was pretty sure that his young niece had met her match. They reminded him a lot of himself and Sarah when they first met. It had taken him nearly a year to get her to agree to go out with him. He really hoped that it didn't take Lizzie and Will quite that long.

………………………………………..

"You can't tell me that you don't like Brooks and Dunn!" Lizzie all but screamed later as she and Will sat on the floor going through his CD collection. Lizzie had to admit that it was very impressive. He had a dark oak cabinet completely filled with CDs and then another filled with records. All of them were alphabetized and had to have been coded in at least seven different ways. Lizzie let Will take them out and put them back. She didn't want to be responsible for singlehandedly causing his organization system to crash.

"I've just never really cared for them," Will shrugged. "They have a couple of good songs, but they've never been one of my favorites."

"I can't believe you," Lizzie sighed in exasperation as she leaned back against the recliner that was behind her. "They are like country music legends and you don't like them. I don't understand you!"

"Well, you don't like Sawyer Brown," he replied with a grin. "They're the greatest thing that ever happened to country music and you don't like them."

"Sawyer Brown has not had near the success Brooks and Dunn has had," she retorted. "And all of their songs are so stereotypical!"

"We are not going to get anywhere arguing," Will laughed. "Why don't we just agree to disagree on this one?"

"I guess we could do that," Lizzie grumbled. "But only if you agree to go out and buy a Brooks and Dunn CD and then we talk about this again."

"Fine, but you have to get a Sawyer Brown CD," Will agreed.

"I already have all of their CDs," Lizzie replied smugly and tossed her hair over her shoulder. "I have every country music CD I've ever been able to get my hands on since I was five years old."

Will looked at Lizzie, sitting on a floor pillow all bundled up in an old afghan he was pretty sure his grandmother had knitted. She looked totally adorable and it was all he could do not to just lean over and kiss her softly on the mouth. But she was just starting to get comfortable around him again and he couldn't do anything to jeopardize that.

"Mr. Darcy, dinner is ready," one of the servants said as they poked their head into the room.

"We'll be there in a minute," he replied and rose to his feet and then offered Lizzie a hand to help her up as well. Lizzie carefully folded the afghan and put it back on the couch. Will walked up behind her and then took her hand in his. Lizzie looked down at their intertwined fingers and then up at Will. He was smiling down at her and Lizzie 

couldn't help but smile back at him. Once again Lizzie found herself wishing that he would kiss her and couldn't help but feel a little disappointed when he didn't.

"So what are we having?" she asked as they walked towards to dining room.

"In all honesty, I have no idea," Will laughed. "But I'm sure Mrs. Reynolds has made something wonderful for us."

A few hours later Will drove Lizzie back to Sarah's family's house in the same black sports car she and Sophie had seen the night before. Lizzie sat there awkwardly in the car staring out the passenger window, unsure of what to say. "I had a really great time tonight," she said finally as the car pulled into the driveway.

"I'm glad," Will replied with a gentle smile as he climbed out and then walked around to open her door for her. Lizzie reached down and fumbled with the seat belt buckle so that she could get out. After opening the door for her, Will reached down and took her hand to help her out. Lizzie expected him to drop it and then let her walk up to the door on her own, but instead he laced his fingers through hers and walked her up to the front door. "Oh," he said suddenly as they stood there under the soft glow of the porch light. "I'd like it if you would meet my sister, Gina, she's coming into town tomorrow."

"I'd love to meet her," Lizzie assured him as she caught the blinds rustling out of the corner of her eye. "I think we have an audience. It's probably Aunt Sarah's younger sister, Sophie. She thinks it's so cool that she's sharing a room with a real celebrity."

Will laughed and squeezed her hand. "Well," he sighed. "I guess I better let you get inside. Come over tomorrow for lunch?"

"I'll be there," she promised and then lightly rose up onto her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. Lizzie threw him one last smile and then slipped through the front door, finding Sophie bouncing up and down on the love seat in anticipation.

"What happened to you and Will Darcy not exactly speaking?" Sophie asked with raised eyebrows and a huge grin on her face.

"He owns Pemberly," Lizzie replied cryptically and then almost flounced from the room as she retreated to Sophie's bedroom.

"Oh, Lizzie," Sarah called as she walked past Sarah and Matt's open door. "I got my pictures from Pemberly developed this afternoon. Do you want to see them?"

"Sure," Lizzie smiled as she stepped into the room and took the bright yellow package from her aunt's hand. She walked back to Sophie's cheerful room and sank down onto her folding bed to flip through the pictures. There were some from the inside of the house of rooms that Lizzie hadn't seen while she had been there. Some were of rooms that she'd really wished that she'd gotten to see, but she was going back the next day and she 

would just make Will show them to her then. She paused when she came to the picture her aunt had taken when she and Will first met again in the garden. Will's smile was breathtaking. It was the kind of smile every girl dreamed that some guy would flash in their direction.

Suddenly Lizzie was hit with a rush of inspiration. She leaned over the edge of the bed and grabbed her guitar and notebook. Lizzie slowly started strumming the same chords from earlier and then looked at the lyrics she'd written earlier. She crossed the few lines she had written and then looked at the picture resting by her knee on the bed. "There's me lookin' down at my shoes," she sang softly. "The one smiling like the sun, that's you…"