The stroll had been pleasant, all things considered. The day was burgeoning bright and beautiful and the songbirds were out en force that morning, bringing on the day with a melody.
Elizabeth felt the sharp pang of guilt stab her as she remember they had not just been out for a morning stroll. They were out looking for Mr. Wickham.
They had followed the trail of bloodied leaves and small puddles thoroughly but to no avail. The trail curved somewhere in the middle of the wooded area surrounding the home and they were now following it back towards Netherfield.
"Perhaps he escaped but came back for help?" Elizabeth asked the Duke, still walking close beside her, but lost in the search.
He looked intently at a spot on a leaf before answering her. "Perhaps. But, why would he have run in this direction? The road is that way" he pointed off to the left. "The only thing in this direction is more trees." He looked again to the spot on the leaf he had just examined. "The trail does not seem to make sense." He rubbed the leaf and looked towards the house. "There are small spots here, puddles here." He pointed to each. "He would need to be stopping and starting constantly for the blood to pool there but splatter here, it just doesn't -" he stopped mid thought as they heard the sounds of a carriage riding away from Netherfield. They turned to each other, wide eyed before they both began sprinting towards the house.
Elizabeth turned to shout for Mary to follow, bringing Mr. Bingley with her, and by the time she turned back around the Duke had sped far ahead of her. She buckled down, lifting her skirts high as she ran in earnest, her walkers legs burning as she pushed harder.
Something was very very wrong.
She breached the tree line and the Duke had stopped to wait for her.
"You - you… weren't… behind me." He was breathing heavily and the words were forced out with each exhale.
"No… but go on." She was breathing just as heavy. Running was most certainly not a pastime of which ladies usually indulged .
"No."
"What?" If her face weren't exhausted, she would have had scrunched it in a confused manner.
"No."
"I'm sorry, I don't quite understand." She managed to at least bring her eyebrows together.
"I am not leaving you to walk back alone." Despite his still heavy breath, he was able to move his face far more than Elizabeth.
Her eyebrows finally knit in confusion. She could handle herself just fine, why did he- ...Ahh. They had just been following a trail of blood in these very woods.
She looked back to ascertain Mary was alright.
"She will be fine, Elizabeth." Her Duke answered her thoughts. "He may not look it but Charles has the best left hook this side of London." He nodded to her as a notification then grabbed her hand and they took off running, together this time.
Her bonnet had flown back, the ribbons choking her neck, as soon as she started her sprint through the woods. Feeling freedom keenly, her hair had come loose of half its pins, the unruly curls trailing down her back, bouncing as she ran. By the time they reached the front steps, most of the pins had fled her ungrateful hair and chose the life woodland hair accoutrements instead.
Darcy and Elizabeth were both breathing heavily as they removed their outerwear, the butler having a difficult time keeping his eyes from Elizabeth's full head of tangled hair, attempting its best impression of a birds nest.
Darcy cleared his throat, pulling the butlers astonished eyes from Elizabeth.
"Can you tell me where we might find the Major General and Miss Bennet?" He kept his tone formal but Elizabeth nearly rolled her eyes as the butlers' eyes bulged when he looked at her head. Clearly, neither of them understood running with waist length, unfettered hair.
"I- Yes, Your Grace." The butler tore his horrified eyes from Elizabeth to look at him. "They took tea together in the, um, Egyptian room." His eyes darted to her head again and she wanted to scream.
"Thank you." She raised her chin and nodded in a nearly exaggerated, imperious fashion before pulling her Duke towards the hideous room in question.
She felt a pull on her head and she turned to see the Duke holding strands of her hair, examining it as they walked.
"Yes, it is a disheveled, I know. Running is not-"
"It is beautiful, Elizabeth." He cut off her protestation.
Her throat had gone dry and she had to swallow hard to push through. "Well." A slow smile spread across her face. "Thank you, Your Grace."
They stood in the hall smiling stupidly before they simultaneously remembered their urgent task with a startle.
They pushed open the double doors to the Egyptian room to a scene neither of them could have contemplated.
In the middle of the floor, on top of a large blanket, placed on top of an even larger rug, were the Major General and Jane. Their tea serving was scattered around them and the Major General had his head in her lap, staring up at her with puppy dog eyes while she sipped her tea and told him a story.
Neither of them batted an eye when they were caught in such a compromising position.
To be entirely fair, neither did Elizabeth or Darcy.
"Did you hear a carriage leave here?" Darcy questioned.
The Major General did, eventually, sit up from his very comfortable perch. "No." He looked to Jane. "Did you?"
She blinked slowly and smiled wide, entirely unconcerned by the question. "No, I believe there was a noise in the breakfast room but it sounded very much like something was dropped." She brushed an unnoticeable speck of dirt from the Major Generals jacket before looking back up at Darcy and Elizabeth.
"Who was in the breakfast room?" Elizabeth turned to Darcy, who had seemingly frozen in place, his worried look sent her mind reeling quickly.
"Lady Bedford." The blood drained from her face as she was now being pulled by the Duke towards the room in question.
They opened the door slowly, peering in cautiously. But, they needn't have bothered.
Sitting in the middle of the room, damaged beyond repair and surrounded by mismatched feathers, was a stuffed pheasant.
Lady Bedford had vanished.
/
CHAPTER 11
Longbourn
Hertfodshire, England
Elizabeth awoke to the unfamiliar feeling of deep familiarity. Her childhood bed still as lumpy as she remembered and her room still as bone chilling cold as ever. She furrowed in deeper under her covers, shivering slightly. As she pulled her covers closer, she felt an odd resistance, like the her blanket was stuck on the corner of her bed… or, shockingly, on a certain brown haired younger sister.
"Lydia?" She questioned gently. Even in her own morning stupor she knew not to wake her sister too quickly. She did not need a bloodied nose before seven in the morning.
The only answer she received was a light snoring.
"Lydiaaaa" She called still quietly but slightly louder, to which she received a very unladylike snort.
"Oh for heaven's sake... LYDIA!" She coupled her louder voice with a jostling movement before quickly covering her face.
She should have thought to cover her midsection as her sister's petite, bony elbow landed square on her unprotected belly button.
"Unghhh" She doubled over, luckily catching Lydia's leg with her own as she went in for a follow up kick to the shins. "Lydia! Stop!" She had to grunt the words through the pain of her stomach. All her sister's were deceptively strong.
"Lizzie?" A groggy voice next to her questioned sweetly. "What is wrong?" She turned to her other side to see Jane blinking her eyes open, looking fully rested and annoyingly perfect after sleeping all night through.
"What are you all doing in here?!" Elizabeth knew for a fact she had fallen asleep on her own. Both Mary and Jane reluctantly agreed they could not stay at Netherfield without Lady Bedford as a chaperone. Not with the recent… goings on romantically.
"We all wanted to discuss things with you, Lizzie but you were very much asleep as soon as your head hit the pillow." A bright eyed Mary told her, in her usual matter of fact tone.
"Mary?! How did you sleep down there?!" Mary was curled in a ball at the end of the bed, covered in her own quilt.
"Oh, do be quiet." A groggy Lydia snapped. "It is far too early for so many questions."
Elizabeth sat up fully, her bewilderment slowly giving way to amusement. "You all decided to sleep in my bed so you could question me?"
"Of course." Mary had moved from her balled up repose to standing in a quietly stern manner before the bed. "It is the best way to carry on a discussion without our parents or the servants hearing." She smiled a small, uncharacteristically mischievous smile. "And, besides, if someone were to attempt to make off with you in the night they would need to go through all of us." She nodded to Lydia now covered with her own pillow. "I doubt greatly anyone could get through Lydia."
"So much noise!" The muffled yell came from under the pillow and Mary just raised her eyebrows in triumph.
The pillow covering the little monster was forcefully thrown at Mary who plucked it from the air and placed it calmly on the end of the bed.
"What is wrong with all of you?!" Lydia sat up, her hair as wild as Elizabeths, and a faint white line leading from the corner of her mouth down her cheek, and disappearing under her chin. "Why are you awake at such an ungodly hour?!" She rubbed her eyes and blinked comically. Elizabeth couldn't help but giggle.
"It is not funny-" Lydia turned to Elizabeth but stopped. "What are you all doing here? Get out."
Elizabeth's giggle morphed quickly into a full belly laugh, effectively erasing the ache she still felt in her stomach.
Lydia looked around the room in the exaggerated fashion of someone not fully awake but trying to understand something important. "Why am I in your room, Lizzie?" She tilted her head to the side, and knit her eyebrows in puzzlement before yawning loudly and stretching her arms.
Jane, helpful as ever, leaned forward to look past Elizabeth. "You said you needed to speak with Lizzie and when you couldn't wake her, you got in bed vowing to wake with the sun to ask her something very important."
Lydia looked puzzled for a moment longer before understanding hit her. She jumped out of bed and pulled back the curtains, smiling wide. "I did it! The sun isn't up fully!" She turned to the room, looking as though she had just accomplished the impossible.
"No, the sun is not fully risen but we must get ready quickly." Mary passed out robes to her three sisters and waited patiently for them to don them and get out of bed. "Mr. Bingley will be arriving soon-" She stopped suddenly. "With the Duke and the Major General, of course." She swallowed. "We are leaving, there is much to accomplish." She began making a shoo-ing motion with her hands. "Come, Jane, we will take turns speaking to Lizzie while we pack. I will help you first." Mary grabbed Jane by the hand and pulled her from the room, both women smiling and clearly giddy.
They were leaving.
Yes. Of course. To London.
Lady Bedford.
"Lydia, Mary is right, I must pack and dress quickly, the Duke will be here very soon." Elizabeth rose from the bed and tightened her robe. Lydia was still staring out the window, the triumph on her face gone, replaced with one of anxiety.
"Lizzie?" She whispered, the quiet tone of her usually loud voice had the effect of any other person shouting as Elizabeth turned from her dresser quickly.
"Lydia, what is the matter?" Elizabeth advanced on her sister, who would now not make eye contact.
"Lizzie, I-" She exhaled. "I know… I know none of you… like me very well." Elizabeth's heart broke when she heard a sniffle.
"Lydia, no." Lydia held up a hand firmly to stop Elizabeth.
"Wait, let me finish. I - I know you don't and, honestly, I can't blame you… any of you. I have not been the best of sisters. It was nice feeling like the favorite… feeling special somehow. I know, at least I think I know, that I allowed myself to do and say things I thought Mama would like and I just… I don't know." She looked up at Lizzie, fear and unshed tears in her eyes. "Take me with you, Lizzie." She darted forward and squeezed her sister's hands in her plea. "Please. I don't like who I am here. I am better than this, I can feel it." She placed her hands over her chest in emphasis. "I will help you, I will do whatever you need, anything" Her desperation made her words come quickly. "Please. I will act as your maid, I will act as anything you want me to be, just please-"
Elizabeth pulled her sister in for a hug.
"Lydia, I was not planning to leave you behind."
Lydia pulled back from her quickly and searched her eyes. "You weren't? Because I would have never looked back if I had an escape."
Elizabeth laughed at this. "Well, then, you're lucky I am able to do as I please."
Lydia's face transformed into a beaming smile. The power and happiness behind it blinding in its intensity.
"I won't let you down, Lizzie, you have my word, I will do whatever you need, even if I really do not want to, I will do it." She stopped and looked at Elizabeth seriously. "You're really going to take me?"
Elizabeth nodded and Lydia jumped on her with a squeal, nearly taking them both to the floor. "Thank you thank you thank you!" she squeezed Elizabeth tight before releasing her. "OH!" She looked panicked again. "I have so much to pack!"
She turned towards the door and Elizabeth smiled wide, happiness flooding her chest. Lydia stopped at the door and turned back to her. "You won't regret this, Lizzie. Thank you for giving me a chance." Lydia ducked through the doorway, yelling for Sarah immediately.
Lizzie shook her head and chuckled.
Her sister's truly were insane.
She smiled to herself and turned yet again to attempt packing. They were to meet with some of His Grace's contacts in London before formulating their next plan. Operating under the assumption that the Duc had taken Wickham because of the idiot man's connection to Darcys father, they believed they would end up in Europe, gong with their first plan to intercept General MacDonald.
They were also operating under the assumption Lady Bedford had been taken accidentally, having been mistaken for Elizabeth herself. Elizabeth swallowed down the bile that had risen in her throat.
Regardless of Lady Bedford's rather… odd personality the lady did not deserve to be harmed for her mistakes.
Both His Grace and Elizabeth were so used to doing things on their own, without needing to, or honestly wanting to, consult with anyone else the idea that their actions could so upset someone hadn't even crossed their minds. Elizabeth had certainly never considered it.
The guilt threatened to paralyze her. She replayed images over and over of what could be happening to the Lady and she had to sit before she fully made herself sick.
A tapping on the window startled her immensely. Between the sick feeling in her stomach and her heart flipping over in her chest, she nearly vomited.
The Duke seemed to have quite a fright as well. He had been looking in the window searchingly and when he saw her, nearly lost his balance and fell backwards.
Elizabeth rushed to the window and pushed it open quickly, again nearly unbalancing the man.
"Aaagh." He yelled as he nearly fell back. Elizabeth grabbed his hand and pulled him back upright.
"What are you doing here?!" She whisper yelled the question for the second time this morning.
"Good morning to you as well, Miss Elizabeth." His charming smile both infuriated her further and made her want to swoon.
"What. are. you. Doing?" She made sure to space her words out so he understood her anger.
"May I at least come in?"
"No! No, you may not come in my bedroom, Your Grace. Get down this instant!" He looked down and cringed as he did so.
"I'm afraid I will have to come in the room, Miss Elizabeth, I don't believe I can get down." He hurled himself from his precarious perch into the room, nearly knocking her down.
She rolled her eyes and moved to shut her window. As she did so, she spied the Major General clamoring into Jane's room next door. She rolled her eyes again.
Once he was inside, she could see Mr. Bingley hanging on to the window ledge outside Mary's room.
She heard a desperate "Miss Mary, please!" before she saw Mary pry his hands from the window ledge and let him fall to the ground with a 'thump'.
"Are you well, Mr. Bingley?" Mary called down to him as he lay stunned in the soft grass. He raised his hand weakly. "I'm sorry but you know you can not come in. I'll make sure to ask Hill for some willow bark tea!" She called down before slamming the window shut.
Well, at least one of her sisters had a sense of propriety.
She turned to the Duke, who was nosily perusing her room. "What are you doing here, Your Grace? I have half a mind to throw you from this window like my sister Mary."
He chuckled "I told Charles not to try it." Before he picked up her bottle of lavender water and inhaled deeply. "Ahhh, I do love this scent on you, Elizabeth."
She couldn't help her slight blush but she was still angry.
" . ?" her teeth were clenched tight, both fighting back a smile and from genuine annoyance.
He put the bottle down quickly. "I needed to see you before I spoke to your father."
"Why do you need to speak to my father?"
"We need to marry soon, Elizabeth. And there is the matter of the-" he cleared his throat. "Assembly. I should have been here yesterday to speak with him."
She stared at him, fairly certain her mouth was wide open.
Right. She was engaged to a Duke.
She swallowed, closing her mouth to do so. "Yes. We will marry soon. I- Are you sure you're sure you want to marry me? I'm not much for titles, I will be perfectly honest with you, it's rather your least attractive quality."
"My least attractive quality?" He tilted his head and advanced on her. "Would you care to enumerate my most attractive qualities?"
She couldn't help but smile at the infuriating man. "Not particularly, no."
He shrugged but did not move from his close proximity. "Perhaps another time." He stared at her for a long moment before seeming to remember himself. "Why aren't you dressed Elizabeth, you're hardly appropriate in that." He motioned at her accusingly.
She spurted a laugh.
"And your hair. How is it possible to become so tangled? I suppose this is what I will awaken to for the rest of my life?" He seemed to truly have meant the words as a joke but the hinting of intimacy made them both stop and blush furiously. She wasn't sure she had ever seen a man turn so red and if the burning in her entire face were any indicator she was not far off.
"I'm afraid so, Your Grace." She smiled and tried to diffuse the palpable tension. She pushed him on the shoulder teasingly. "Perhaps you will get very good at brushing."
If anything, that only seemed to make his eyes grow darker and his breathing more rapid. He quickly sat down on her sette and crossed his ankle over his knee.
"Yes. Well." He cleared his throat as the words came out raspy. "We will just figure all of that out… at a later date." He looked away and closed his eyes and Elizabeth smiled. She was quite certain he was as attracted to her as she was to him. That was a rather unexpected revelation.
She moved to sit next to him but kept her distance. She was still wearing only her dressing gown.
"What did you need to say to me so urgently you had to climb in my window?"
He smiled and turned slightly to face her. "I will need to speak with your father and I need to know how to do so while ensuring the best chances of success. I will be speaking to him and then taking you away immediately, it is rather important that both Richard and I be given his blessing."
Huh. Elizabeth hadn't even considered he would ask her father for permission.
"Both Jane and I are of age, you truly neednt' bother." The thought of the Duke meeting her father in the state he was currently in made her cringe. She knew her father was better than the man he was at this moment in time. She knew he was wallowing in self pity, allowing himself to remain unkempt and angry at all times. "And, besides, you are a Duke, I can't imagine any father would decline his permission."
"Well, if he's anything like you, it is apparently my least attractive quality."
"Yes, whatever will we do with you?"
He smiled tenderly and picked up her hand. "I have laughed more since meeting you than I can remember in my lifetime." He began absently rubbing circles onto the back of her hand. "Are you certain you want to marry me?"
"You're playing unfair, Your Grace." He began massaging her palm and the stress seemed to flee her entire being.
"I'm only counteracting my least attractive qualities, Miss Elizabeth."
"Yes, Your Grace. I am sure I want to marry you." She could tell he wanted her to expound upon her words but she was not about to do so. "Be yourself and Papa will have no choice but to give his consent." She smiled at his dramatic eye roll. "Now, do get out. I still need to pack and untangle my hair."
He laughed and stood, offering his hand to help her rise.
She did so daintily then pushed him back towards the window.
"What are you doing Elizabeth? I am not going back out there."
"Oh, yes, you most certainly are, Your Grace. If my mother sees you in here you will never hear the end of it and neither will the rest of Meryton."
The poor man paled, his terror visible.
"Are you afraid of heights?"
"Yes. Absolutely." He nodded emphatically.
"Then why did you climb up here?!" She threw her hands in the air. This man was impossible.
"Like I said, I needed to speak with you... And, Richard insulted my honor. It is far simpler to do idiotic things when one is incensed, Elizabeth." He imparted that knowledge as though it were the perfect carte blanche.
"Lizzie! Oh, my dear Lizzie! Are you truly taking Lydia with you?!" Her mother was screeching from down the hall and her footsteps were very loudly heading towards her bedroom.
Oh no. She would absolutely not allow her reputation to be further sullied by her mothers incessant need to gossip. Even about her own daughters.
She turned to the absolutely terrified Duke and pulled him close to her, kissing him hard and with dizzying abandon. She broke the kiss and confirmed the man was rather dazed before shoving him out the window.
"I will see you soon." She whispered to him. "Now, climb!" He followed her instructions, not seeming to realize his position relative to the ground. She looked down to see Mr. Bingley waiting patiently, sitting on a rock near the wall. The poor man should have known better than to test Mary's proprietary boundaries. She looked around quickly but didn't have time to locate the Major General. She would need to speak to Jane about her actions with that gentleman later.
She spun around quickly just as her mother opened her door.
"Oh, I do hope you will put Lydia in the way of other rich men, Lizzie, you have done so well for us all." She clapped her hands together happily. "But, why aren't you dressed?! Our Duke should be here any moment! Oh, Lizzie how unlike you to be such a layabout!"
Elizabeth sighed loudly. The madness was beginning even before she had broken her fast.
/
Darcy looked up to the now shut window of Elizabeth's room, missing the space already. He had thoroughly enjoyed seeing the room of her youth, particularly her perfect curation of knickknacks and books.
He put his hands to his lips, still dazed by what he could now see as her ploy to get him over his fear of heights and out of her room.
He was quite certain he could climb to the roof and down if she would use that particular method of encouragement.
He found Charles sitting in uncharacteristic contemplation, chin in his hand, elbow on his knee, perched upon a large rock near the wall of the home.
Guilt smacked Darcy in the face, erasing the happiness Elizabeth's lips had brought him and bringing back the consequences of his actions.
"Charles, we will find her. We will leave soon and not rest until she is found."
He startled, nearly toppling over in the process.
"What? Oh, yes yes. Of course we will find her, Darcy, I am not entirely worried over Caroline. You do not know her like I do." He shook his head and chuckled slightly. "She might be a bit of a shrew but she is the strongest woman I have ever known. I doubt she will need much by the way of rescuing."
Darcy smiled politely and nodded, not wanting to contradict his friends optimism.
"No. I was actually thinking of another strong woman. Miss Mary has agreed to a courtship with me." He smiled up to his friend.
"A courtship? But I had thought you were planning to plea your troth? What changed your mind?"
"Miss Mary changed it for me, I'm afraid. She rejected my offer of marriage." He sighed dramatically. "She said it was too soon, and something about not being her sisters or somesuch. Then she threw me out of the window." He scrunched up his face. "That bloody well hurt, you know." He rubbed his backside. "She slammed her window on me but opened it up after a moment and said she would agree to a courtship." He smiled happily now. "I am absolutely going to marry that woman, Darcy. I have never been so sure of anything in my life."
Darcy chuckled happily. "Then we will be brothers, Charles, and I look forward to it."
Their moment was broken by Richard strolling from around the front of the home, carrying what looked suspiciously like a breakfast roll.
"Richard, what the bloody hell is in your hand?" Darcy was suddenly very angry at that roll.
"What?" He asked innocently. "Did neither of you have any? They're delicious. Ja- er, Miss Bennet said their housekeeper makes them herself every morning."
"How did you get out through the house?"
"I walked, Darcy, how did you get down? You didn't climb down did you? The trellis is not very stable."
Darcy's mouth hung open for a moment before he slapped the roll from his cousin's hand and started for the front of the home.
"Well, that was uncalled for." Richard declared to his back before scrambling himself to catch up. The three men all needed permission to whisk three of his daughters away.
They would need far more than breakfast rolls to get through this interview.
/
Sir Bennet was not exactly excited to see three men before him. No one would have been particularly welcome this early in the morning but especially three well dressed, perfectly hale men beaming with happiness. He had the nearly debilitating urge to slap their happy grins from their faces.
He could still do so just not very effectively. His balance was not what it once was, he doubted he could muster up enough force to do any sort of lasting damage.
He clinched and unclinched his right hand and could feel the movement mirrored in his other hand but knew it to be impossible. His left arm was now a shriveled stump of an appendage. The scar tissue surrounding the end, marled and unsightly. His own wife cringed when she saw it so he kept to himself, kept his horror of a body well hidden from anyone, despising the horror and pity he would inevitably see in their eyes.
He didn't need their pity and he most certainly did not care for their hurt sensibilities.
He rubbed his chin with his good hand, his fingers tickled by his scratchy, overgrown beard. He had no issue making the men before him wait, the red head squirming slightly while the Duke and the Major General stood stoically, unmoved. Had he cared more he might see how long it would take for them to crack. But he didn't. He needed to get this over with and get back to his studies.
His studies were all he had left anymore.
"Your Grace, I had expected you yesterday. Maybe even the night of your, rather spectacular, compromise of my daughter. Should I be glad you have deigned to appear before me now?" His tone was disinterested but he was a little bit curious as to the character of the man marrying his favorite daughter.
She probably hated him now, and for good reason, but he still thought highly of her.
His Grace had the good grace to look abashed but he did not back down.
"I am here now, Sir Bennet, and I would very much like to assure you of my intention of marrying your daughter. Tomorrow, actually. We will marry in London before setting off on a… wedding trip… of sorts. When we return, we would like to have the wedding breakfast here. Or at Pemberley if you would prefer. I am sure she would like to have you there, you and Lady Bennet are welcome in my London home."
"Is my daughter with child, Your Grace?"
"What?!" That at least got a reaction from the Duke. He quickly recovered, however. "No. She is not with child. I - we have not." His Grace took a deep breath. "The only compromise to have occurred did so in front of the crowd at the assembly, Sir." Sir Bennet doubted the accuracy of that statement but he moved past it.
"The assembly where you were pretending to be a tradesman? With this cousin of yours?" He nodded towards the Major General, whose face was reddened but remained otherwise stoic
"Yes." The Duke had regained his control quickly. Good.
"Would you care to elaborate or is this a normal occurrence?"
"Our reasons were both well intentioned and our own, Sir. I would hope that the word of a gentleman would suffice."
He moved his incomplete translation work to the other side of his desk, tiring of the interview already. It was rather dull to goad a man with such a grasp on his emotions.
"Yes. Alright. You may marry my daughter. Lady Bennet and I will not be traveling to London, I doubt we will be much missed." The Major General started to speak as well but Sir Bennet had already finished with this nonsense. "You as well. Jane will be an excellent wife to you." He looked to the clearly shocked red headed man, Mr. Bingles or something. "If you can convince Mary to marry you then you'll have proven yourself to my satisfaction." He took a deep breath, thankful this draining tete a tete was nearly over. He had never been one for socializing, and even less so in his current state.
Mr. Bingles bowed immediately and with obvious relief. "Thank you, Sir, I will do so, I am sure."
Both the Major General and the Duke glared at him. If he still had any sort of conscience or cared in even the slightest way he would have been ashamed of his own clear indifference.
As it was, he wasn't.
"You may leave gentlemen." He looked down to his beloved studies, ignoring that none of the three men bowed or took their leave.
No matter.
He had work to be done. Aeschylus did not care if he was a cripple.
\\\\\
A/N: The beginning to this should have been the end of the last post, clearly I copy and pasted with reckless abandon last week.
Originally I had planned for this to be the wedding chapter and this entire drama at Longbourn was going to be max maybe 1000 words or so but it felt cheap and they ended up having so much fun so it sort of ran away with itself to the tune of around 5000 words. Such is life.
Thanks for reading!