When I see two sisters, both of them pleasing and both esteemed, living together without jealousy or envy, yielding to one another without affectation, and generously contending who shall do most to advance the consequence and happiness of her friend, I am highly delighted: dare I add the more highly, that such characters are not very common! - Sermons to Young Women, Dr. James Fordyce

It was not that Elizabeth Darcy didn't love her sister. She and Mary had actually been quite close as children: not as close as she and Jane, to be sure, but Mary had been a steadfast support in the elder three girls constant struggle to be paid any attention by their mother, who was usually too busy doting over the youngest two. Defending the safety of their dolls and arguing for sweets and ink had forged a strong bond of comradeship not easily broken.

And yet here she was, happy to share her house with their old nemesis Kitty for months on end and dreading a few weeks spent with Mary. Still, there was nothing to be done about it, and perhaps the varied company would help Mary mature as it had their younger sister.

Elizabeth put on her friendliest expression. "Hello, Mary! What is that you are reading? French excitements? What would Mrs Murray say?"

Mary stood quietly in the main hall of Pemberley as her family made the usual greetings and questions that came with any extended separation. She avoided the watchful eye of several generations of (presumably) larger-than-life Darcy ancestors and considered her immediate future. She would never suspect Elizabeth of any such pecuniary motive, but if she had chosen her husband for his house she certainly could not have done much better. Bingley had said that Darcy's library was significantly larger than the one at Netherfield (he had declared himself unqualified to judge its quality) and even from here she could make out several airy looking rooms which appeared perfectly suited to reading in comfort. Hopefully Mrs Bennet would be too distracted by Elizabeth and Kitty to bother Mary too much, and she would be left in blessed solitude.

She eventually realised that Elizabeth was speaking to her and drew herself out of her reverie.

"Mary, I must apologise. I had planned for Kitty to be here during your visit, but she is gone traveling with friends. Perhaps this will give you a chance to get to know your new sister."

This did not bode well. Mary did not enjoy spending time with new people, and Darcy's sister had always seemed too insipid to be interesting.

Elizabeth turned to her parents and gave a sardonic smile. "But we are not to be entirely abandoned. I received a letter this morning from Lady Catherine, saying that she is to visit in a few days. I had given up hope of mending the breach...but it would appear that she has forgiven me for existing after all."

"Good heavens!" exclaimed Mr Bennet. "Lady Catherine de Bourgh? Unbending enough to grace us with her presence? We are blessed indeed." He and Elizabeth shared a wry look. "But I may have to leave your esteemed aunt to you and Darcy's superior tact and hide myself in the library. I am not sure I could face her again after what she said to me at your wedding."

Mrs Bennet was less phlegmatic at the news. "Blessed?" she cried, "I should think not! That woman is lucky her nephew is too much of a gentleman to throw her out into the street! Mary, you and I shall have to show Lady Catherine what it means to be a real Lady. I shall expect your finest gowns and manners while she is here, none of this skulking off into corners and being unsociable!"

Oh no, thought Mary. This did not bode well at all.

Mary was not sure what to expect from the infamous Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Certainly everyone in her family seemed to hold her in very low esteem, but as far as Mary could tell this stemmed largely from the fact that she had disapproved of the match between Elizabeth and Darcy. She had been wrong in this disapproval, but Mary was not sure it was fair to blame her for doing what she felt best served her nephew's interest. Moreover, Mary had a fairly low opinion of her family's judgement of character: had they not all loved Wickham and disliked Mr Collins? Even Darcy himself had been roundly despised in the Bennet household up until less than a year ago.

She placed more weight in the opinions of Mr and Miss Darcy, especially since they had known Lady Catherine their whole lives, but they were clearly uncomfortable expressing themselves openly in front of Mary and her parents. Despite being family in name, they were still relative strangers to each other, and were not in each others' confidence. The only other person she had heard express much of an opinion on the Lady was Mr Collins, and he had been all praise. So Mary decided to reserve judgement until she could form her own impression.

She did not have to wait long. As promised, Lady Catherine arrived within a few days of the Bennets, and for a while it was exactly as Mary had feared. She was expected to spend all her time defending the Bennet family honour by accompanying her mother in being "ladylike" (what this should entail being a point of much contention between the two). Her father, meanwhile, spent all his time in the library, and while he was willing to share the space with her, they would both have much rather been alone. Luckily within a few days things reached an almost comfortable equilibrium, but this was still not the holiday Mary had hoped for.

As the sun rose on an unexceptionable autumn day, the whole mismatched household sat down to breakfast.

"Well!" started Lady Catherine. "I must thank you for your hospitality, Mrs Darcy, but I do not know for how much longer I will be able to trespass upon it. My poor Anne is all alone at Rosings, and with her companion so ill, I do not wish to leave her by herself for too long."

Elizabeth made some faint sounds of regret at her leaving, but was not able to muster much enthusiasm. Lady Catherine had said words much to this effect every day for two weeks. Much longer, and she would outstay the Bennets.

"Georgiana, my dear," continued Lady Catherine, "what are your plans for today?"

Her niece replied in a soft and wavering voice, looking down at her plate. "Mrs Bennet, Mrs Annesley and I are to visit Lampton and look at fabric."

"Indeed? It is very kind of you to keep Mrs Bennet company on such a trivial excursion. I am to help Mrs Darcy get to know her tenants, understanding as I do that people such as ourselves have certain important duties to our dependents." Here she looked very significantly at Mrs Bennet. She then turned to smile thinly at Mary. "Miss Bennet, would you not agree that it is important to extend charity to those of a lower station, to help them improve themselves as much as they are able?"

Never one able to resist a direct question, Mary replied, "Oh yes. It is the duty of each of us to share what benevolence we can with the less fortunate, without expectation of praise or–"

"Well," interrupted Mrs Bennet, "I might have had the time to go gallivanting around the countryside myself, but somebody insisted that it was vital that somebody replace the drapes in the east drawing room. I merely wanted to help Miss Darcy with the heavy tasks other less thoughtful folk see fit to load her with."

"It...it is no trouble...," said Georgiana.

They continued in this manner for some time. Mary concentrated instead on her breakfast, as always making sure to chew each bite thirty times to aid the digestion.

The next time she looked up almost everyone had left: the women on their various errands, and Mr Bennet to the private study Darcy had eventually found for him – it did not have as much to read as the library, but it was out of the way, and it had a lock. The only other person left at table was her brother-in-law.

Darcy smiled awkwardly. "Good morning, Miss Bennet."

"Good morning," she replied.

"I know the circumstances of your first visit to Pemberley have not been ideal, but I do hope you feel welcome here." He paused for a moment to give her a chance to reply, but Mary, still chewing, said nothing. "I understand how you must feel: I myself am never entirely at ease except amongst friends and famil...close family. It must be very difficult for you with your sisters all taken away so suddenly. But I hope you might come to see Georgiana and myself as a new brother and sister."

Mary was not quite sure what to say to this. She paused and said, "I think of Georgiana much as I do of Jane." Mary took a moment to be proud of this response: it was completely true, but elided the fact that, their accepting and optimistic natures aside, the main thing she found in common between the two was that they were both unobjectionable and very dull. But then she realised she had lost track of what Darcy was saying.

"...and when Charles and Jane move north you will not have many friends left in Meryton. We have spoken to your parents and they do not object. Elizabeth and I would be glad to have you, and I am sure Kitty and Georgiana would appreciate another companion. I have seen remarkable improvement in them both under Elizabeth's guidance: they are growing into fine young women. It is our hope that you could all be happy here together."

Mary pondered what Elizabeth could have done to cause such a "remarkable" change in Kitty in a few months when she had made so little effect over the last seventeen years, but decided this was an impolitic observation. It was only after wondering what could motivate Elizabeth to invite Mary to live with her when they got along so poorly that the full import of Darcy's statement came upon her.

"Jane and Mr Bingley are leaving Netherfield?"

"Yes," he replied. "They are looking for property here in Derbyshire."

"So I will be alone with my parents in Meryton, unless I come and stay here with you. And Kitty. And Elizabeth."

"And Georgiana, yes." His voice was sympathetic.

"Oh."

Mary stood silent a while longer, not knowing what to say or do. Eventually she looked up at her brother-in-law and said, "Thank you for your kind offer. You have shown yourself to be a true brother by holding forth the hand of friendship without the bond of blood relationship to prompt you. I will now... I would like some time to myself to think, if that would be acceptable."

"Oh, yes, of course. I apologise for bringing this up so unexpectedly, but we thought it best to discuss it with you before you leave, and the right moment seemed never to arrive. What matters is that you know that you will always have a place here if you want it; that duty discharged I shall leave you in peace." He bowed and left.

Mary considered her lot unhappily. Trapped in Meryton with her parents, or trapped here with Elizabeth and Kitty. But there were worse fates. While she would miss being able to visit Netherfield, if she remained in Meryton she would still be able to stay with her Aunt Phillips or the Lucases when she desired a respite from her parents. And perhaps she could be happy here at Pemberley: she and Elizabeth had settled into their old pattern of comfortably ignoring each other, and her new brother and sister had treated her kindly and were pleasant enough. Unfortunately, she was unconvinced that a sufficiently large change could have come over Kitty in such a short time as to make her a desirable companion, but hopefully in such a large house, and without Lydia's bad influence, they might find room to live amicably together.

If nothing else, she would have continued access to the wonderful library. It was to this room that she took herself now, needing a quiet place to collect her thoughts and consider her situation.

Entering the room she took a moment to enjoy the sense of stillness, and the familiar smell of leather and old paper. But a moment later she was disappointed to realise she was not alone: the top of someone's head was just visible over the back of one of the chairs.

At first she thought it might be her father, but she quickly realised it was not. In fact, she did not recognise them at all: unless her senses deceived her, there was a stranger in the library.