"Elizabeth! Do you not hear me child?" Mrs. Bennet quizzed her daughter.
"I do apologize Mama, I did not hear you." Lizzy sat in the front parlour of Longbourn gazing out of the window and watching the afternoon fade slowly into evening.
"I asked you to go and call on your father. Dinner is almost ready to be served, and he has been held up in his study for that last hour, truly ever since Jane and Mr. Bingley have departed us." Mrs. Bennet sat on her sofa twirling a lone peacock feather in her hand. "I swear your father would live in that room if I allowed it!"
Lizzy stood and slowly departed her perch by the window, beginning her walk to her father's sanctuary.
Mr. Bennet had not spoken a word to Lizzy through lunch, actually she could not recollect him uttering more than a few words to anyone the entire day. Even Jane and Mr. Bingley seemed stunned into silence from the events of the morning. Jane's colour appeared to have been drained from her checks, and Mr. Bingley sat silently gritting his teeth.
Lizzy was not confident if Mr. Bingley's agitation came from hearing of his friend's shocking behaviour towards his sister-in-law or if it was due to his nearness at lunch to his wife's mother.
Mrs. Bennet sat blissfully unaware that anything untoward had occurred on her property and instead engaged her time interrogating Mr. Bingley on the specifics of his London home.
In fact Mrs. Bennet was beyond pleased that her eldest daughter and new husband had come to call, and during their honeymoon!
She was truly sad to see them depart, but took comfort in the fact that two of her five daughters were married off; Lydia to a handsome husband, and more notably Jane to a rich husband.
Mrs. Bennet had been so adamant on staying near her newly married daughter that Jane only had a small window of time to speak with Lizzy of her newly exposed secret.
"Lizzy dear, I am sure that Charles will seek to remedy the state of affairs between yourself and Mr. Darcy. I must divulge that I am quite surprised at your affirmation of love for the man! Up till this morning I understood you to despise him. I can see now how wrong I was! If you love him, trust that everything will work out for the best." Jane smiled and hugged her sister.
"Jane I pray you are right. I have been so imprudent! Mr. Darcy is so kind and so altered from what I thought him to be. In the future I hope to be able to tell you all the wonderful things he has done for us!"
Mrs. Bennet was quickly approaching again!
"What he has done for us? Lizzy whatever do you mean?"
Before Lizzy had an opportunity to reply their mother had interjected herself back in the conversation.
Lizzy and Jane would not have another private moment to dialogue again, and before too long Mr. Bingley was helping Jane into their carriage and departing from Longbourn.
Within moments of the Bingleys' send-off Mr. Bennet had returned to the house and locked himself away in his study.
Lizzy was uncertain of the reception she would receive from her father when she finally made it to his door.
She knew that he was shocked by her disclosure on the lawn, but could he be cross with his favourite daughter?
Lizzy began to feel ill as she walked past her mother and sisters to make her way into the vestibule.
Kitty sat restyling her latest bonnet as Mrs. Bennet had just begun to review the loveliness of Jane's wedding breakfast, for the third time, as Lizzy fully departed the room.
Lizzy could still her mother's voice drifting down the hallway as she came to stand in front of the study door.
She knocked on the door, and cautiously waited to hear her father's answer.
"Who is it?"
"It is me Papa, Elizabeth. May I come in?"
"Yes, yes come in Lizzy."
Lizzy opened the door to reveal her father sitting behind his cluttered desk, with his back to the door. He was, like Lizzy had been, gazing out of the window and admiring the changing sky.
"Papa, dinner is ready to be served. Will you come out and join us?"
"Not yet." Mr. Bennet twisted his chair to face his daughter. "Shut the door please Elizabeth, we need to talk."
Lizzy shut the door behind her and moved closer to her father, her hand ran down her side to touch the hidden necklace that still lay in her pocket.
"Lizzy I feel that I have done you a great disservice."
"In what way Papa?"
"I have been too withdrawn these last few months, and I have failed to see your anguish."
Lizzy moved closer to her father, and sat on the chair across from him.
"Papa, none of this is your doing and I am sure that everything will be fine."
"Lizzy you do not understand the workings of men like Mr. Darcy. I fear that he has taken advantage of you!"
"No. He has not Papa! In fact he is so different a man that I had first thought. Over the past months he has shown himself to be a caring and compassionate person through his actions."
"His actions! What actions are these daughter?" Mr. Bennet's mind raced with the possibilities and the anger inside of him began to grow again.
"Father if you knew all that Mr. Darcy has done for us, for Lydia, for Jane, and for me. Your opinion of him would be much changed!"
"Lizzy then you must tell me everything, for I daresay my judgment of Mr. Darcy is somewhat low at the moment."
Lizzy sat with her father for some time, and began to apprise him on the finer points of Mr. Darcy's character.
She told him of Mr. Darcy's dealings with Wickham, and his plight to save Lydia from ruin.
She even spoke to her father about her own bias against Mr. Darcy and his subsequent repairing of Mr. Bingley and Jane's connection.
Lastly she talked of the money Mr. Darcy had paid guaranteeing the Bennet sisters' reputation would not be sullied by Lydia's relationship with her now husband.
Mr. Bennet sat dumfounded.
Moments before Lizzy had entered his study he was ready to run the man thru, now he contemplated how, if he saw him again, he would help himself from not embracing Mr. Darcy.
"Lizzy what you have told me tonight is truly a greater shock then the conversation this morning. It is no wonder now why you feel a connection to the man. I must say that if he does call on us I would have no qualms allowing him to wed you within the month!"
Mr. Bennet smiled down at his daughter, a sense of relief washing over him.
"Hey truly is a different man then his manners would have you see. He has saved us all from a great deal of misery. I am not sure I will ever be able to repay him!"
"Papa, I am glad that you now know the truth, but I fear you will not see Mr. Darcy for some time. We did not part as friends, and I doubt he will come to call on me." A tear forming in her eye, Lizzy pulled out the necklace from its hiding place and held it up to her father. "I wonder how I will ever return this to him."
Mr. Bennet moved closer to his daughter, and put his hand gently on her arm.
"Lizzy, how could he ever stay away from you child?" Mr. Bennet smiled. "The only thing you need worry about is keeping that necklace away from your mother's eyes."
"I do hope you are right Papa."
Lizzy was helped to a stand by Mr. Bennet, and as the two embraced a knock was heard on the door.
"Papa, Mama bids you to come to the dining room. She is very adamant that you come right away, a letter has just arrived!"
Darcy sat soaking in his bath, the memories of the last few days still plaguing his heart and mind.
He rested his head back against the tub, his eyes closed in the steamy room, waiting for his manservant to bring another pitcher of hot water.
The door creaked open and Darcy was greeted with a surge of warm water that travelled down his head to his bare chest.
He sat up in the bath and ran his hands over his face and hair. Looking over he was shocked to see that his company was not who he anticipated.
Colonel Fitzwilliam stood across from Darcy in the bath, holding a now empty pitcher.
A wide grin plastered on his face and a look of surprise spreading on Darcy's.
"Cousin, I thought you were known to have the most exceptional manners in the county? But still you have me wait down stairs all day!" The Colonel spoke all the while positioning himself on the towel draped chair in the corner of the room.
"Well cousin, this is a greeting! Welcome, welcome! I do apologize for your wait, but in all sincerity I did not know you were coming to call! What do I owe the honour of your visit?"
The Colonel's grin widened still.
"Well Darcy I could not possibly stay away. Not after reading the letter I received this morning from our Aunt!" He began to pull out the letter that was clearly branded with Lady Catherine's seal. "Hmm, very curious!" He began to silently read the letter again as Darcy made his way out of the bath and into his robe.
"Give me the letter Fitzwilliam!"
"Of course Darcy but only after you tell me the truth." The Colonel placed the folded letter neatly into his inside jacket pocket.
"The truth about what?"
"Well to begin with, why I clearly heard a moment ago you say her name aloud as I stood outside this door."
"Who's name?"
"Well Miss Bennet's of course or should I say Elizabeth?"
Just then a knock was heard at the door.
"Enter!"
A young male servant entered the bath, eyes down and wary of the master's tone.
"Sir, I beg your pardon, but you have a visitor waiting for you in the front parlour."
"Who is it then!" Darcy was beginning to feel that the fates were toying with him.
"Mr. Bingley sir. He expressed his desire to speak with you at once."
"Bingley?" Darcy looked to his cousin hoping he had an explanation for the sudden change of events.
The Colonel looked as astonished as Darcy.
"Tell him I will receive him shortly, until then have him wait in my study."
The door shut and Darcy was faced with the task of dealing with Fitzwilliam.
How he wished he had stayed in the carriage.