The first part of this story is drawing near it's end so you will notice in this chapter that I have skipped ahead in time around the middle of it. ;-D

As I was writing this chapter, I started to realize just how long it was becoming and decided instead of there being one big long chapter, I would give Jane and Tom a chapter of their own.

Thank you once again to those who have added my BJ story to their Favourite Story List/Story Alert! Those actions say more to me than words ever could! ;-D

CHAPTER 10:

Jane:

Even though I was ready, I purposely took my time and then waited in my room until I heard Henry and Eliza's voices so that I wouldn't be alone with Tom again. I wasn't afraid of being alone with him, I just felt a bit unsettled at the fact that he had read Pride and Prejudice and had seen right through Mr. Darcy's character. I didn't want to have to face him about that and discuss it with him right now...or ever if at all possible. I could only hope that he wouldn't bring it up to me again.

I cautiously stepped out of my room, looked around and then made my way to the stairs as I knew that Henry and Eliza were already downstairs and descended them.

"Ah, there you are Jane." Henry said upon seeing me coming down. "We were beginning to wonder about you. Tom told us that you found some books to read. We thought perhaps you had gotten lost in reading one of them."

"Not yet." I replied quickly. "But I hope to tonight."

Apparently, the carriage was already laden with our pic-nic essentials-thanks to Tom, Henry and Berkley who had packed it up while I was in my room "getting ready".

We all set off then, a rather merry group for the short ride over to the park. Once we were there and all out of the carriage, we were all needed to help bring everything. Tom had told us on the way that he knew of the exact spot where we should have our pic-nic, so when we were all ready, we set off following Tom. He took us to a spot off the beaten track where there were plenty of trees for shade yet, we could be in the sun if we wanted. There was also a small brook bubbling nearby. We spread out the blankets, putting half in the shade and half in the sun. The two hampers were set down and Eliza and myself along with Jane's help emptied the contents in the middle of the blankets. We picked out our spots where we were going to sit and then started helping ourselves and each other to the food and drink and merry talk.

It turned out to be an absolutely splendid idea, having our tea on a pic-nic like this...I was thoroughly enjoying myself. My good spirits from earlier on in Tom's garden returned to me and I had practically forgotten about the incident in the library. After we had eaten our fill for the time being, Eliza, Jane and myself started putting everything back in the hampers so that nothing would happen to any left over food that we might want to have as the afternoon wore on. It was while we were doing this that I saw Henry stretching out to lie down on his back. I happen to looked over at Tom and noticed that he decided to take Henry's idea as he too stretched out, only on his side instead of his back, supporting his head with his hand. I had never seen him look so casual in this way before. We had been fairly formal with each other since meeting the day before. There was something about this casualness of Tom's that made me notice him even more...it was when he caught me looking at him, that I realized I had been gazing at him. He smiled at me and smiling back faintly, I brought myself back to my task. Something was stirring in me once again..or perhaps it had continued to stir since the first moment I had spotted Tom. My mind was suddenly full. I didn't know what to do...what I should be thinking...how I should be feeling...things were going very well between us and I couldn't deny that I was enjoying my time in London with young Jane, Henry and Eliza...and of course Tom. I was starting to find that it was getting harder to keep my feelings from surfacing...I had been trying so hard to keep them squashed down deep inside myself so that I would not have to face them. But this was getting harder and harder to do...and Tom...was not helping me in that regard either.

"You know..." Henry suddenly spoke up. "It's too bad we don't have enough people to play a game of cricket."

"Do you play cricket?" Young Jane asked Henry now. As everything was casual, Jane knew she was allowed to speak a little more freely amongst us.

"I've been known to play a game or two in my life" He replied smiling at Jane. "How about you young Jane? Have you ever played?"

"Girls don't play cricket, you're teasing me." She replied with a grin.

"Oh, that is where you are quite wrong, Miss...just asked my sister." He said nodding to me. There he goes again, I thought to myself.

Jane now turned to me in astonishment. "YOU play cricket Miss Austen?"

"Only when I was younger Miss Lefroy, because as my brother once said, I...well myself and my dear sister Cassandra only had brothers to play with while we were growing up. They would put on plays with us, but only if Cassandra and myself would agree to play cricket with them."

"Oh come on Jane. You enjoyed it! You were good at it too, don't deny it!" Henry persisted with a grin, while I shot him an irate look.

That was when Tom decided that he had to jump into this conversation as well. He sat himself up and said, "Ah, but you didn't only play it when you were younger Miss Austen...don't you remember a certain game you willingly joined in...oh...about 17 years ago?"

"You were there father?" Jane now asked Tom, wide-eyed.

"I was not only there, we were playing together." He told her.

"You played cricket with Miss Austen?"

Okay...THAT was it...time to settle this matter. "Oh I'm afraid that your father has it wrong, Miss Lefroy...your father didn't play WITH me..." I answered rather sweetly. Jane gave me a puzzled look. "He played AGAINST me..."

Jane continued to gape at me, so I leaned down close to her ear and said, none too quietly for I wanted Tom to hear, "And you know what? I BEAT him too." I made sure I spoke very clearly too. At these last words, she literally gasped.

"You beat my father? At cricket?"

"And quite handily, if I may say." I couldn't resist adding on, throwing Tom a bit of a self-satisfied smirk.

"It's too bad that we can't have that re-match." Tom remarked now, with a bit of a teasing smile on his lips.

"I'm sure I could still take you in a re-match, Mr. Lefroy." I replied feeling rather cocky.

"Well perhaps one day, we will have to have that re-match." He returned good naturedly. "But as we can't do that today, I have an idea. I had promised a walk in the park but as we can't all walk together and leave our things here, I suggest that we take everything back to the carriage and send it back home. Then we can have our walk in the park and walk back home from here. It's not that far, I have done it myself. And when we get back home, we can replenish ourselves with some more of our pic-nic food. In fact, maybe we can sort of continue on with the pic-nic idea and enjoy it in the garden. We should take advantage of the good day while we have it."

As everyone was in agreement with this idea and after we had all decided that we had relaxed enough, we gathered everything up and headed back to the carriage with our pic-nic essentials and loaded it in. Tom spoke to his driver about our plans after which he left with the carriage and headed back to Tom's place. Tom then took his daughter's hand and without even thinking, I took her other hand and we three lead the way, Henry and Eliza following us.

It was quite pleasant, the five of us strolling leisurely along in the park, Tom taking us to various parts that he knew about from his own time spent walking about in it. We admired the nature that the park had to offer us in the way of the various plant life as well as wildlife. Even though we seemed to spend a fair amount of time in it, it still came to an end all too soon for myself and we were once again out into the busy-ness of the city.

"I can see why you would want to spend some of your time in the park Tom, where it's so much more quiet and peaceful." I addressed him once we had left it.

"Yes...I admit that I have become quite attached to more quiet, peaceful surroundings. If it wasn't for my work, I would not be in the city at all now. But that is where I have no choice. However, I am glad that I have a country home in Ireland where I can return to after I have finished my work for the day, at least." Was his reply to me which I agreed with.

We carried on and eventually reached his home to which we were all rather glad to be back at by this point as we were hot, tired and a bit dusty from having to walk beside the city streets. We all went to freshen ourselves up once again and then met outside in the garden to "replenish ourselves" with more food and drink as Tom had suggested we do which was gratefully accepted by us all.

That night, just before retiring to my bedchamber, I found myself going back out into Tom's garden as it was still lovely out. It seemed to be drawing me to it...but I discovered that I desired to be alone with my feelings and thoughts for a few minutes too and I felt that my room wouldn't suffice this time. The moon was out and I found myself staring up at it. I found it rather odd how another memory crept into my mind at this point...but I squashed it as quickly as it surfaced...I wouldn't...I couldn't...

After a little, I was just thinking about going back in to my bed when I heard him.

"Jane..." He approached me quietly, almost as if cautiously. He stopped beside me, looked at me (I was still gazing up at the moon, but I could tell that he was looking at me out of the corner of my eye), then followed my look.

"It's beautiful, isn't it..." He stated, didn't ask.

"Yes..." was all I said in agreement with him.

"It reminds me of another night...another time..." He began.

I felt my heart quicken a bit at the mention of that night...WAS that the night he was thinking of? I wondered..

"You must forgive me Jane, I look back at that time very fondly of course, but also some anger. If it hadn't been for Wisley and hi..."

"Mr. Wisley is an honourable man! We are friends still!" I was quick to cut Tom off. He didn't know! Of course! Tom didn't know that Mr. Wisley was NOT the person who had sent the letter to his uncle! How could he know? I must straighten this out immediately.

Tom started at me in shock. "You and Wisley? Are...friends? Jane? But...how...?"

I held up my hand to Tom and explained. "It wasn't Mr. Wisley who sent that letter...nor even his aunt." I heard Tom gasp.

"But...who then..."

I sighed and replied, "It was John Warren."

Tom had a puzzled look on his face. "John...Warren?" He repeated. He didn't remember him?

"He is...I mean WAS an old friend of my family's...he came back with you and Henry when you came out to stay with your Aunt and Uncle."

Tom was thoughtful for a few more seconds before he finally remembered. "Ah...yes." He replied. "But...why would he write such a horrible letter?"

Again, I sighed before explaining. "Because...John was jealous of you, Tom.."

"Jealous? But why?"

"When I came home after leaving you, John was at our place. Not long after my arrival back home, he proposed marriage to me. It didn't occur to me right away, but within seconds of his proposal, it dawned on me. It was then that I accused him of writing the letter and...he didn't deny it...instead he said that I must have realized how much he had always loved me...I was so angry that I almost struck him myself. He left our house right afterwards and we've not seen nor heard from him since."

"And good riddance!" Tom exclaimed passionately.

I couldn't help myself...I had to smile at Tom who smiled back when he looked at me again and said gently. "But look...here we are again after all."

Henry, Eliza and myself spent a couple of more enjoyable weeks in London with Tom and Jane before we decided we must be getting back home, especially as we would be spending more than a couple of weeks in Ireland soon, as it was further away from us than London. I was glad that nothing further really happened between Tom and myself during that time. There were days Tom had to work but the three of us took it upon ourselves to entertain young Jane for which I knew Tom was grateful.

On our last night there, just before retiring to my bedchamber for one last time, I found myself going back out into Tom's garden as it had been another lovely day and I wanted to take one last ramble in it by myself before leaving...I also found that I needed to be alone with my thoughts as I realized how much I was going to miss being here...something at one time I never would have found myself actually believing. I walked down the path, stopped and stood at the same place as I had the last time, but there was no moon this time. I realized that I felt...content and even happy being here, although I wasn't sure that I should be allowed to feel this way...

After a peaceful interlude, and much like that second night in London, Tom's voice broke my reverie. "Jane?" He called out to me as he approached and then stopped when he reached me. "I've really enjoyed having you here." He said but before I could reply, he went on. "And so has Jane. I've watched the two of you together...and I've been observing her. I told you before how hard Mary's death was on her. But I never had the chance to tell you more. After Mary died, Jane, being the oldest daughter took it upon herself to be a 'mother' to her younger brothers and sisters, even though my own sisters have been there to help raise them. Jane had always helped Mary with the younger children and I think that after Mary passed away, Jane felt that she should be the one to continue on being their mother as Mary couldn't anymore."

I looked at Tom in sympathy for his daughter who should be enjoying the kind of life a girl of 13 years should be...not being a mother and raising her own siblings.

"THAT is why I have her come to London with me sometimes. To get her away from the children for awhile and what she seems to feel she HAS to do. To give her some time to BE the girl her age should be...to NOT be a parent. She's become...so serious at home...not like a child anymore. I miss her being her age. She's growing up so fast as it is, that I can hardly bear to watch her like this. She'll be an adult soon enough..." He said, his voice becoming a bit emotional as he explained the situation to me. "I realize that it's not unusual for girls her age to help raise the family...or even actually raise a family when the mother had died, but in some cases, they don't have a choice...Jane does. Her aunts are there, but she refuses to sit by and let them do the job of her mother. It breaks my heart to see her in this way..."

I nodded at Tom my eyes getting a little misty at what he was telling me. "I have been watching you and Jane...she is more like the Jane I knew before her mother died...with you." He continued in a soft voice.

That did it...my eyes were becoming more moist now..

"I am SO glad that you agreed to come to Ireland for Christmas. That time of year has been a very hard time for us, particularly for the children, as much as we try to keep it as festive as we can."

"Of course, Tom." I finally managed to get out, my own voice full of emotion in my understanding.

"And now...if I might ask it of you...could you please go up and see Jane...she is upset that you will be leaving tomorrow."

"Oh..of course...I would be happy to talk with her." I agreed.

I turned away to leave when Tom suddenly said in a soft voice, "I'll miss you Jane...when you go home again..."

I had stopped momentarily when I heard these words...my heart skipped a beat, but I had no idea how I should respond to that, so I allowed Tom a slight bow in acknowledgement so that he would know I had heard him and then left him to go up to Jane's room.

Outside her bedroom door, I knocked gently and then announced myself asking if it would be alright if I could come in. I entered upon receiving an affirmative response from her.

I went to her bed and sat down upon it. I could see that her cheeks were wet. My heart went out to her.

"Oh dearest...what is this about?" I asked of her gently taking the handkerchief she had been using and wiped at the tears on her face.

"You are leaving tomorrow...I don't want you to go.." Jane told me straight out. "I'll miss you."

"And I shall miss you too!" I exclaimed honestly. I really was going to miss her...I had become quite attached to her myself, although as with my feelings for Tom, I had been trying my best to squash them. I couldn't get too attached...I shouldn't...then I thought about Jane...it was even worse that she should become attached to me, perhaps...but I knew that it was too late already.

"Really?" She replied

"Of course I shall! BUT..." I told her firmly but kindly. "We must NOT think of this as a sad parting, but a happy ending as we have shared some good times together. AND...we will be getting together at Christmas too don't forget. And your father promised us a Christmas Ball."

I watched Jane's face light up as I reminded her of this. "So yes, we may have to part for a bit now, but think of it in this way. The more days that pass while we are apart, the closer each passing day brings when we will be together again."

"I like that thought." The young girl told me.

"Good." I smiled at her. "Now...come...sit up for a moment." I gently requested her. "This is what I want you to do for me while we are apart. I want you to practice your piano playing (they had a piano at home in Ireland as well, I had found out) and those songs I taught you, for when I return for Christmas, I will expect you to be able to play them for me. Do you think you shall?"

"Oh yes, Miss Austen." She replied happily.

"Good. I know I can trust you to do as you are told and as you say. Also..." another idea had come into my head.."When I return for Christmas, what you and I could do is learn to play some songs together...some duets." I heard a gasp at this but I went on, "And...maybe even some Christmas songs that you and I could play for your family. Would you like that?"

"Oh Miss Austen, I would love that! I promise I will practice a lot!"

"I know you will dearest." I replied softly. "One last thing...if you would like, when I return home I shall write you a letter."

"Really?" Jane replied almost unbelieving.

"Really. I do promise to write to you."

"Would you like a letter from me?" Jane now asked.

"I would not only like one, I expect one from you." I couldn't help but smile at her.

"Oh, I will write one for you Miss Austen! And..thank you!"

"You are very welcome. But now it is time for you to get some sleep. But first, I would very much like it if I could give you a good night hug."

Jane looked at me in surprise, but then put her arms around my neck while I encircled her body with my own arms. "Good night dearest. Pleasant dreams." I said softly.

"Good night Miss Austen.." She responded, happy again before she got back down into her bed and I covered her with blankets. I blew out her candle and left the room, closing the door behind myself.

I was about ready to go to my own room when I noticed Tom just arriving at his own door. He turned to me and beckoned me over to him.

"How is she?" He spoke in a low voice.

"I believe she will be fine now, Tom." I replied.

"How can I thank you Jane.." He said.

"The trick is to give her some things to do to keep her busy and give her some things to look forward to." I explained to him.

"Thank you...very much..." He repeated sincerely.

"You're welcome of course."

We both stood there in silence for a few seconds before I finally said, "Well...I should be on my way to bed as well. Good night Tom."

"Good night Jane."

The next day, Jane accompanied Tom and us three to meet the stage which would take us home and upon our inevitable departure, I hugged Jane and told her, "Now remember what I told you last night...this is NOT a sad goodbye, but a happy parting for we will see each other soon again. Each day will bring us closer to being together again. And don't forget to practice your piano and you can expect a letter from me very soon." I promised.

"See you soon, Mr. Austen, Mrs. Austen..." She turned to me now, "..Miss Austen...and thank you for..everything."

"See you soon Miss Lefroy and thank you for everything." I told her with a smile.

"Miss Austen?" Jane addressed me.

"Yes?" Suddenly she seemed shy. "What is it child?" I encouraged her.

"I was wondering...if you would...could you call me Jane? Instead of Miss Lefroy?"

I was somewhat surprised by this, but I think I understood why. It had something to with what Tom had alluded to the night before...how she was more like herself when I was around. Being referred to as "Miss Lefroy", even though is a customary title for the eldest daughter, it also suggests that she is not a child, but older. By being referred to as "Jane", it suggests that she is still young enough to be a child...not a responsible parent that she felt she must become in place of her mother.

I smiled down at her and said in a gentle tone. "If it is what you wish, I shall be honoured to call you Jane."

"Thank you Miss Austen." Jane beamed.

"You're very welcome..Jane."

Tom and Henry shook hands and Eliza held Tom's hands in her own and gave him a small kiss on the cheek. When it was my turn, Tom and I slightly bowed to one another.

"See you in a couple of months, Jane.." He said giving me a smile. I returned the smile and said,

"See you...Tom."

These were our parting words and gesture this time which was better than the last one...knowing that this time we would see each other again...

Henry and Eliza now boarded the stagecoach, then Tom helped me up and I joined them.

"I shall meet you in Limerick at the end of November, then." Tom said to us after I was seated and the door had been closed.

As soon as the stage was starting to leave, we all called out friendly "see you soons" to one another and to Jane I indicated to be happy that we will be together and that there was plenty to look forward to. Lastly, I looked at Tom who was looking back at me with a look that I had come to notice a lot of during the course of our visit...it was a look that I would take back home with me...but I was afraid to let my heart and mind accept that look for how I interpreted it...