A/N: Just two chapters left and an epilog. All three will go up tonight.

The most surprising thing about the fact that I practically dragged Charles to the altar by his hair was that it was perhaps the least surprising part of that entire episode. In less than five months our entire world was turned upside down, and all of our lives were changed almost beyond recognition. By the time I'd saved Charles the trouble of making up a superfluous proposal, I imagine I was just like Lizzy; impatient to stake my claim; impatient to have my own share of happiness; not particularly in a mood to be denied or delayed or curtailed. In a sentiment I would not learn for some time exactly matched my mother's, I found that I had waited a year and a half for my boy to become a man, but I had never really forsaken him in my heart. I am not entirely certain I would have ever let anyone else in if things had not worked out as they had. Perhaps that is overly pessimistic since I have found that all of us are much more resilient than we ever gave ourselves credit for, but at this point it really matters not. I had what I wanted and I was more than content with what I had. And of course, there was also the convenient fact that after St. Giles, he probably would have stalked me like a madman if I had not accepted anyway.

After Easter services on Sunday, we managed to enjoy a leisurely afternoon with our beaus and our sisters, the very last day of this chapter of our lives, before he started the next chapter on Monday morning. The Archbishop arrived on Sunday afternoon. Apparently Mrs. McCarthy had added a few lines to indicate the relative availability of strawberry scones on Sunday luncheon, and the near certainty of their disappearance, considering she planned on hosting at least two men that were nearly indistinguishable from wolves, at least with respect to scones. True to a man of his stature, being asked for three common licenses hardly caused him to even raise his eyebrows, although the fact that brother Fitzwilliam asked him in the middle of luncheon probably helped matters along. Within five minutes the common licenses had been arranged, and the archbishop was well engaged in a much more important topic, which apparently included the relative availability of venison pie for supper.

As difficult as it was, I finally put my foot down and banished the gentlemen to billiards or port or whatever other manly pursuits they wish to engage in during the evening, because I felt it important to relieve all of my sisters of a certain bit of ignorance they had about the events of that spring. We could not go in good conscience to on to our men without a full accounting, and full knowledge. I gathered them together, and began.

"Sisters, before we engage in this next phase of our lives, I believe you are all owed a few answers."

Mary, naturally it was Mary, answered, "Such as exactly why you invited everybody at the parsonage to tea on a Saturday afternoon, hmmm? Or maybe you care to elaborate why you had a screaming match with Father in November and we found ourselves here two days later, hmmm?"

I might have blushed at those comments earlier in my life, but certainly was not inclined to do so now.

"Yes, those among other things! But let me begin earlier in the story."

All of my sisters gathered around, with any semblance of any other occupation tossed to the side like debris.

"It began last November, when Father came to make that ridiculous bargain with Lizzy!"

Lizzy flinched as if I had slapped her, and the rest of the ladies gave me their utmost attention, whilst alternately stealing glances at Lizzy. I knew this was terribly unfair to Lizzy, but I wanted to make absolutely certain that any tiny residual remnant of an idea about keeping that bargain was dead and buried. I would burn Longbourn to the ground myself before I let her sacrifice so much as a toenail for it. I also thought I owed it to her to let her sisters know in no uncertain terms what she was willing to go through for their sakes. She would survive the embarrassment, although she would probably be mad as a wet cat at me for a while.

To her credit, Lizzy said nothing, and I continued.

"Father played on her sympathies mercilessly, and convinced her to have a child that could be passed off as the heir to Longbourn before Mr. Collins died, because the next distant heir to Longbourn was actually Mr. Wickham. He wanted her to produce a male child… any male child, before ten months after Collins death."

I do not love analogies as much as Lydia, but I would have to say I could have smashed a hornet's nest in the middle of the room and gotten less reaction. Lizzy turned absolutely pale, and I felt bad about exposing her, but she would get over it. The rest of the girls went absolutely mad and started talking at once, competing for the loudest voice.

Lydia eventually prevailed, so angry that I can see the telltale vein pulsing in the side of her neck. She turned to Lizzy and, said, "Is this true?"

Lizzy nodded, and in barely a whisper said, "It was the only way to save you… and to save myself. Yes, I agreed to it and planned to keep the agreement right up until I no longer could."

Mary, ever the analytical member of our little family said, "it actually does make a certain amount of sense, given who you knew and what you had available to you at the time. Perhaps in a week I might think of another way, but I certainly cannot now."

She took her turn with Lizzy's hands, and said, "It was bravely done, Lizzy! Very bravely! Does Fitzwilliam know about this?"

Mary was always faster than the rest of us, and got to the heart of the matter almost instantly.

Lizzy's embarrassment disappeared instantly, to be replaced by her fiery temper, and she said, "Do you truly believe that would marry a man and keep such a secret from him?"

Mary, not one to be intimidated, said, "Of course not! But I wanted to hear you to say it!"

Lizzy, lost in her memories said, "Fitzwilliam accidentally overheard me make the bargain. We had the discussion in the exact spot we spent yesterday, since I would not let Bennet into the house. He knows… he has known all this time."

She stared around at the sisters, and whispered, "He knows everything. Every little secret. Every bit of shame or remorse or violence, and yet he still loves me."

The sisters all started at the word 'violence', and Lizzy explained in some gruesome detail exactly what Fitzwilliam knew she had done, and then they just stared at her in awe. Perhaps she shared more with our mother than you might think.

Finally, she stared into herself in reflection, and said, "All of this he knows, and still he loves me!"

She looked around at all of the sisters, and added, "… and he loves you too. He took you under his wing for me, but he loves you for what you have become to him completely independent of me. The same is true of Aunt Catherine. I suspect my mother seeing to the two worst men we know only sped up the inevitable."

Mary, satisfied that she knew enough about that particular debacle turned to me, and said, "Pray continue, Jane!"

I blew at a breath, and said, "While father was over making that bargain…"

Had it not been unladylike to spit on the floor after that word I would have done so, but then I continued.

"… I had a conversation with our mother. It was the very first time I used what you like to call my 'commanding tone', the very first time I found that particular voice, the very first time I well and truly understood what the infamous Bennet fiery temper can encompass. I used it all mercilessly. For the first time in my life I actually wished physical harm on someone. Mother told me what she had done, which we had all suspected, but never confirmed. She also told me what she suspected was happening in Hunsford. She also had some vague idea of what father was going to propose, although he never brought her into his confidence and she was only guessing. It is fortunate there were no ready weapons in the house of the time, because I may very well have killed her."

All my sisters sat stunned, trying to imagine the conversation that they had missed, and also I suppose, trying to work out how I had managed to keep this from them all that time.

"When father came back, I dragged the details of his conversation with Lizzy out of him with words I will not repeat in polite company, or any company. It was worse than my conversation with Mother."

Their heads were no doubt spinning in circles, while I was getting as angry as Lydia just from the memory. They all stared at me in rapt attention.

I reached across, took Lizzy's hands in mine, and squeezed them as reassuringly as I could, before whispering, "He threatened Lizzy with the only thing she truly feared! He threatened her with our welfare. He said he would marry the rest of us off to husbands of his choosing before he allowed his family estate to come under the power of Wickham!"

Lydia was back ready to kill someone, starting with the first of our parents that stumbled into her view, but I stared at her until she managed to calm down before she said anything she could not take back.

Lizzy said, "Calm down Lydia. I offered him a choice, one of which included me killing him where he stood. He has received a setdown you cannot possibly imagine, far worse than anything Jane thinks she may have said. If he is ill, there was a good chance I could have killed him with my words alone. Please let it rest. Retribution is not yours. His reckoning will come soon enough."

I continued before the two of them might say any more, and I did not want to know any more about what Lizzy had said to our father.

"I was not about to be a party to any such thing. I forced Father to send all of us to Kent instead of just me as he had agreed by threatening to expose the entire mess. I told him if a single Bennet sister was still in Longbourn by the end of the week, I would tell every gossip in Meryton the story myself."

Now my sisters just sat in stunned disbelief, none of them capable of saying a single word. Such a threat was so far beyond what they thought me capable of that they had no idea how to react.

I continued implacably, "I would have done it! I made him see in no uncertain terms, I was perfectly willing to drag him down with us."

I again took Lizzy's hands, and said, "Lizzy, I have one more confession. I do not really know how or why I did it, but when I left I agreed to write to Mother and tell her the truth. She had earned nothing from me, but some instinct made me agree to it. She agreed to keep my privacy, and why I managed to trust the most prolific gossip in Meryton I do not know, but I did it."

Lizzy by now was so shocked she really could not say anything, but I had to finish the story.

"Lizzy, she knows what she did! Do you know she talked to Charles for perhaps half an hour whilst waiting for Wickham and Collins to do themselves in? She knows what she did, she knows what she is, but in the end she did her best to undo the damage. I do not ask for forgiveness for her, only acknowledgment."

Lizzy looked at me and said, "You did the right thing Jane. It all worked out for the best, so do not chastise yourself. All of us can only do our best, and you were looking out for your sisters. I have no complaints. I am curious though, how you managed to keep Aunt and Uncle Gardiner out of this, considering how long I was gone."

That question was at least one I could answer without causing any more distress.

"Initially, I simply bludgeoned Uncle into submission on our way here. He was my next victim after father, but I was certainly not going to allow another family to come to ruin just because ours was. He let us go along only under the most intense objections, but he had to look to his family first."

I blew out a careful breath, and added, "After the attack, I do not believe there is a single thing in the world that would have kept him and Aunt from our door except the protection of your Fitzwilliam. Aunt Gardiner knew of him and trusted him. Your man made it abundantly clear whose protection we were under, and Uncle accepted it."

With what I suspect there were our last secrets now exposed to all, I think we all felt a great sense of relief. Those of us who are planning to be married on the morrow were relieved that we could go to our new husbands and our new lives in our new homes with our new children with nothing hanging over our heads. Those who would be married later knew that they had good men, good sisters, good family to see to their entry into adulthood, and I firmly believed all would be well.