A/N: Hello dear readers, welcome to my third story.
The whole story has been written, more or less. Thanks to Elaine again for her expert beta prowess. I will post twice a week. Most of the chapters are very long. So, make time for them and don't forget to leave comments. The reason I even started this story was because of some comments on my previous stories on Kindle. One said, "Write a story in which the Bennets are poor." Several said, "There is no angst!" Well, I answered the challenge and here it is.

Thank you for giving this story a try! Please be aware that this story with the exception of the first 3 chapters will be removed a week after the epilogue is posted

Disclaimer: All characters and some excerpts from Pride and Prejudice belong to Jane Austen. All verifiable historical characters, buildings and events appearing in this story are borrowed purely as vehicles in a work of fiction, and any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. The description of Regency-period customs benefits greatly from many internet sites that focus on these topics.

Rating: T, Teen – 13+

© 2023 Eselle Teays. No part of this publication not already in the public domain may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or translated into other languages without the prior written permission of the author.

Chapter 1

Pemberley, Derbyshire

July 1812

The carriage was leaving Pemberley. Elizabeth Bennet turned around in her seat to take a last look at the grand stone house sitting majestically on a rise, in front of which was a stream of some natural importance that swelled to greater appearance. An irrepressible feeling of belonging surged from the depths of her heart. She had never felt more in harmony with her surroundings.

And of this place, I might have been mistress!

She sighed involuntarily when she turned to face the road again. The carriage was approaching the bridge spanning the stream. Her eyes, of their own accord, were drawn to the river.

As they say, it is all water under the bridge.

~. ~

Before Elizabeth set off on a pleasure trip to the Peak District in Derbyshire as a guest of her uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner of Gracechurch Street near Cheapside, Jane, her elder sister and confidante, expressed concern that Elizabeth might run into Mr. Darcy, whose offer of marriage Lizzy had refused.

"Derbyshire is very large, Jane. I could enter the county with impunity," boldly quipped Lizzy. Inside, however, she was indeed a little worried about the encounter, unlikely as it might be.

Elizabeth did not simply refuse the gentleman's proposal, she delivered her rejection in a fiery tirade, enumerating his character flaws and dastardly actions. She certainly had not minced words. Seeing the gentleman under any circumstances, let alone on his home grounds, would be intolerably awkward.

The morning after that regrettable event, she encountered the gentleman on her walk, and he handed her a long letter of explanation. Since then, her feelings toward Mr. Darcy had undergone so material a change that she questioned herself regularly whether she had been so hot-headed and unjust as to be unladylike. Yet she had accused Mr. Darcy of being ungentlemanly.

Mr. Darcy's letter left no doubt in her mind that her charges against the master of Pemberley were based solely on the deceit of that scoundrel, Mr. Wickham, and her own misinterpretation of Mr. Darcy's intent. After months of introspection, she had traced her intense dislike of Mr. Darcy to their first meeting at the Meryton assembly. She had laughed when telling others how she overheard Mr. Darcy call her not handsome enough to tempt him for a dance. Now she admitted that making light of the insult was but a disguise of her deeply hurt feelings. She had fallen quite hard for the newcomer from Derbyshire because of his noble mien and handsome figure, which spoke of honor and good breeding. She was shocked and humiliated when he behaved as a brute and demeaned her in public.

The only saving grace of this disastrous episode was the certainty that she would never see him again.

The pending trip to Derbyshire, however, once again stirred up these not-yet-lost feelings.

Then Mrs. Gardiner wanted to add a visit to Pemberley on their way to Lambton, her birthplace. That was an entirely different proposition from merely being in the same county. She was petrified by the possibility of encountering the gentleman in his own home, acting as a common tourist with vulgar curiosity, poking around his ancestral home and personal sanctuary.

She thus told her aunt she had no interest in touring yet another grand estate. However, after learning from the innkeeper that the Darcy family was away, an enormous sense of excitement came out of nowhere, startling her. She told Mrs. Gardiner about her change of mind, and her aunt insisted on knowing why her usually steady and sensible niece was suddenly whimsical.

"Aunt, you remember Miss Bingley, the haughty lady who came to Gracechurch Street to return a long-overdue call from Jane? It occurs to me I cannot reconcile your account of Pemberley, given your refined taste, with Miss Bingley's rapturous declarations about the beauty of the place, given how gaudy and pretentious she is. I am curious, that is all."

Elizabeth was indeed curious to see the property, but it was to see what she had lost by not agreeing to be its mistress.

Pemberley was mesmerizing. She had never seen a place for which nature had done more, or where natural beauty had been so little counteracted by an awkward taste. Inside Pemberley house, from the soaring ceiling of the grand hall topped with skylights letting in streaming natural light, to the elegant rooms decorated with exquisite yet functional furniture, everything was fresh, warm and appealing. Even the housekeeper of Pemberley, Mrs. Reynolds, was cordial and welcoming toward the ordinary visitors from London. Elizabeth's preconceptions of grand houses—magnificent but cold, and their head-servants—stoic but obsequious, began to crumble.

During the house tour, Elizabeth had to remind herself she was far better off as a tourist of the grand estate than as its mistress. Even though the contents of his all-revealing letter had exonerated the master of Pemberley of the despicable wrongdoings she had attributed to him, the tone of the letter, haughty and condescending, especially the part about her 'inferior' family being so decidedly beneath his own, reinforced her belief that he remained what he always had been—conceited and disdainful of others' feelings. He would surely forbid her, as his wife, to have any contact with her family, especially those from trade.

No, my family would be lost to me forever. Pemberley would become nothing but a gilded cage, albeit a breathtakingly beautiful one.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Reynolds showed the visiting party into a somewhat austere-looking room where many paintings and portraits were on display. Mrs. Reynolds explained, "This was my late master's favorite room. He has been gone these five years. The young master keeps the room exactly as his late father had it."

While showing the miniatures of the Darcys, Mrs. Reynolds found out that the young lady in the party was an acquaintance of the master. The old retainer became downright affable and extolled the virtues of her master in the most glowing terms: best brother, landlord, master. She had known him since he was four years old and never had a cross word from him—such a sweet temper! "There is not one of his tenants or servants but will give him a good name. I have heard some people call him proud, but I am sure I never saw anything of it. To my fancy, it is only because he does not rattle away like other young men."

These testimonies on Mr. Darcy's goodness made Elizabeth pause to think. She could not deny that the servants in a household had to be the best judge of their master's character, as they were privy to even his most unguarded moments. Her own error in discernment was once again glaring.

Am I such a simpleton that I have willfully ignored his laudable personality traits during our acquaintance?

She wished to hear more.

Her uncle came to her aid unknowingly and asked Mrs. Reynolds, "Will Mr. Darcy be home soon? If I were in his position, I would never want to leave in the first place."

Mrs. Reynolds' countenance dimmed, and she said with notable melancholy, "The master came home unexpectedly after Easter. We were all very surprised but extraordinarily pleased, as he rarely takes up residence here until around this time of the year."

She paused and spoke softly, as if to herself, "He seemed different from his pleasant, solicitous self."

"Pleasant, solicitous self!" Elizabeth exclaimed without meaning to.

The housekeeper ordinarily would not talk about her master to strangers. However, unlike all the other young ladies who came to Pemberley and insinuated a non-existent intimacy with her master, the young lady of the party claimed only a casual acquaintance. She had an inkling that this young lady might be a genuine friend and could not help but confide more of her master's life to this special visitor.

"Perhaps he had some premonition about what was to happen. Just two weeks ago, he received an express and had to leave for the Continent." Mrs. Reynolds sighed deeply. "This war on the Continent… it is a bad business!"

Elizabeth gasped audibly when she heard this. All eyes turned to her, but she forgot to be embarrassed. She needed to know what had happened.

She asked somewhat anxiously, "Mr. Darcy went to the battlefield on the Continent? Was it because Colonel Fitzwilliam…?" She stopped abruptly. It was not her place to ask such a personal question.

"Ma'am, since you are friends with both the master and the Colonel, I feel I would not overstep by telling you that the master has gone to the Continent to… escort the Colonel home since no one in the Colonel's own family could go to him at present. My master volunteered to go. He and the Colonel are like brothers. It was out of the question for him to sit in comfort at home, knowing his cousin could be in danger in those forsaken foreign lands. By now, the master is probably on-board ship to Portugal. I hear it is a long and hazardous voyage. Since the day he left, I have been worried about him. I and the rest of the staff pray every day for his safe travels."

Elizabeth reached out to squeeze the loyal servant's hand and said reassuringly, "Mr. Darcy is very capable. The Colonel will be in excellent hands. I shall join you in praying for their safe journey home. How is Miss Darcy dealing with these difficulties?"

"Ma'am, do you know Miss Darcy as well?" asked Mrs. Reynolds with even more gladness.

"I have not had the pleasure of meeting Miss Darcy in person. I have heard her mentioned frequently by her friends, the Bingleys, and her aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh."

"Ma'am, you are far more than just a mere acquaintance of the master then, being in the master's intimate circles. Mr. Bingley is but one of the very few friends whom he invites to Pemberley. In fact, the Bingley party was supposed to have arrived two days ago if not for this unforeseen journey that has taken the master away… oh, please excuse me for going on. You were asking about Miss Darcy. She is coping as best she can. She is with Lord and Lady Fitzwilliam while the master is away. It is a pity that you have not met her. She is the handsomest young lady that ever has been seen."

The housekeeper showed the miniature of her young mistress to the visitors and renewed her lavish praise, this time about her young mistress.

"With all her accomplishments, she is extremely modest, unlike other young ladies you might know…" Mrs. Reynolds gave a meaningful look toward Elizabeth, and Elizabeth knew immediately that the housekeeper meant Miss Bingley.

The party from London enjoyed an especially hospitable visit from the Pemberley staff. Everyone—from the housekeeper to the under-gardener—wanted to show friends of Mr. Darcy how proud they were of serving a wonderful master, the best in all England. Mrs. Reynolds even offered tea to the travelers, who declined with regrets because they were expected to arrive in Lambton before dinner.

Elizabeth was unusually quiet on the way to the inn at Lambton. Her last vestige of discontent against Mr. Darcy gradually, and reluctantly, faded away. When confronted with the genuine fondness and respect his dependents held toward him, even in his absence, she had to concede a truly vain and disdainful person would never be so beloved by his entire staff and tenants. The only conclusion left was that she had thoroughly misunderstood and misjudged the master of Pemberley.

This realization caused her attitude toward Pemberley to shift. The longer she had walked around Pemberley, with its magnificent house and grounds, the more she yearned to call it home… her home. This was an unexpected, and unwelcome, feeling. From deep in her heart emerged a sense of regret, because Pemberley would never be her home.

She had felt the regret most keenly when standing outside of the stable block. Suddenly, she heard behind her the rustling sound of a hound and accompanying footsteps.

Could it be… no, it could not… but what if it is…

She turned around quickly, half convinced the gentleman she both longed and dreaded to meet was coming around the hedge. Alas, the person rounding the corner was but a groom walking a pointer back to the kennel. She berated herself for being ridiculous, but she could not help being inordinately disappointed. She realized then that she had hoped for a chance encounter with Mr. Darcy ever since discovering that she would visit Pemberley. This imagined accidental meeting would have allowed her to apologize for the uncalled-for cruelty she had thrown at him during his proposal, and for her gross misunderstanding of his character. Perhaps from there…

She shook her head somewhat violently to halt her train of thought. The master of Pemberley had left for a long and arduous journey. She had to acknowledge that she would never see Mr. Darcy again.

Early the next morning, Elizabeth went out alone for a walk. The town of Lambton seemed quaint, larger, and more prosperous than Meryton. It also gave an air of being more genteel. The displays at the milliner's were more artful, and the draper's seemed grander, with finer goods. After all, Derbyshire was full of grand estates. Pemberley was but one among them. Elizabeth felt a sense of kinship with a town she had not known prior to this trip, simply because of its proximity to Pemberley.

By the time she got back to the inn, it was after breakfast. Her aunt and uncle had left a note telling her they had gone out to visit the village church and its graveyard, and they urged their niece to join them. However, she also saw the post on the table. Choosing between the ghosts of people from her aunt's past and news from home, there was no competition, especially when the last letter from Jane was from a week before.

Elizabeth took the bread roll saved for her breakfast and sat down in the window seat to read her letters. There were two letters from Jane. The first had been misdirected and taken too long to reach her. The second seemed to have the direction hastily written, which alarmed Elizabeth, and she opened this letter first.

Elizabeth ignored the uncharacteristically shaky, hard-to-decipher hand with which her habitually unflappable sister wrote the letter and devoured the contents hurriedly.

"Dearest Lizzy, I hardly know what I would write, but I have bad news for you… Imprudent as the marriage between Mr. Wickham and our poor Lydia would be, we are now anxious to be assured it has taken place… Colonel Forster came yesterday… Though Lydia's short letter to Mrs. F. gave them to understand that they were going to Gretna Green, something was dropped by Denny expressing his belief that W. never intended to go there, or to marry Lydia at all…"

Elizabeth was stunned—an elopement in her family! Lydia tied to such a scoundrel for life! Her future, and all her sisters' futures, had been utterly destroyed!

She hurriedly broke the seal of the first letter, which had been written two days prior, to see whether Jane had any inkling of how this devastating scandal came about.

As predicted, Jane was worried but still rather sanguine when the news of Lydia having run off with Wickham reached Longbourn through an express from the militia regiment commander, Colonel Forster. Sweet, kind-hearted Jane was glad the sordid history of Wickham she had learned from Lizzy was not spread beyond just the two of them, now that he would become their brother.

It turned out that Lydia had shared confidences with Kitty, who, though older by almost two years, was under the youngest's spell. Kitty, of course, had become inconsolable about her part in concealing this shameful scheme. She had thought it a lark if Lydia ran off to marry a handsome soldier. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet were extremely angry and expected the worst. Both parents were so upset they had confined themselves in their chambers almost immediately after the scandalous news came.

When Colonel Forster visited Longbourn to report the futility of his search for the missing couple, Mr. Bennet insisted on following him to London to conduct his own search. Jane tried, to no avail, to dissuade her father from taking on such a grueling journey because Mr. Bennet was uncommonly pale.

Such was the situation as it stood at the end of Jane's second letter. The only thing Jane wished was for the prompt return of her favorite sister, who always knew what to do, no matter how dire the situation seemed.

Overcome by grief and shock, Elizabeth dropped both letters onto her lap. Jane's confidence in her was obviously misplaced. What could she do? She could not go to London to help in the search, as she did not know the city well at all.

However, Uncle Gardiner does…

"Where is my uncle?" cried Elizabeth aloud, while hastily putting on her outer garment to go find her uncle and aunt. Just then, the door opened and in walked Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner, quite relaxed after a pleasant stroll around Mrs. Gardiner's old haunts.

Elizabeth, hitherto dry-eyed though anxious, burst into tears now that her relations were here to share her burden. Once the Gardiners had read the letters, and Elizabeth had explained what an unsavory character Mr. Wickham was, the Gardiner party directly quit the inn and was on the road to Longbourn.