During the four days between Friday and the Netherfield ball, there was such a succession of rain as to prevent the Longbourn ladies from walking to Meryton once. Fortunately for said ladies, any Derbyshire coachman worth his salt considered the Hertfordshire rain as unworthy of his concern (barely sprinkling) and the difference between the Darcy coach and the Bennet coach was as a mouse to an elephant. Granted, none of the Bennet ladies had actually seen an elephant, but all doubted it could be any more impressive than the Darcy coach.

Friday morning found Darcy and Georgiana venturing to Longbourn to return the Bennet ladies to Netherfield for luncheon. Naturally, since a Derbyshire gentleman was not quite as hardy as a Derbyshire coachman, they elected to dine with only the three eldest. Since Netherfield only had one officer and he was away for the day; the two youngest Bennet sisters vastly preferred to spend the time with their Aunt Philips where numerous officers were bound to show up sooner or later. Darcy dropped them in Meryton, and the remainder returned to Netherfield.

Bingley was busy with Mrs Ashford on ball preparations until luncheon was served, so the three elder Bennet sisters spent the next hour or two conversing quietly with the Darcy siblings. Having survived an afternoon with Lydia and Kitty, Georgiana was gradually losing her shyness and found she quite liked all the Bennet sisters (though some should be taken in moderation).

Mr Bingley dropped by occasionally for a few minutes at a time, but there was still a surprising amount to do. He was gradually discovering that Caroline, while annoying in the extreme, was at least quite competent. She had only been organizing for a couple of days before returning to London (preceded by a couple days of trying to talk her brother out of it), but most of the bigger tasks were complete.

Mrs Ashford was hostess as a favour, and while she was happy to do it, she did not want to work herself to death, nor deprive her nephew of a good opportunity to improve his character. She was of the decided opinion that most men needed to improve their characters, so such a chance was not to be wasted.

Lunch was an interesting affair. It was not as boisterous as the Bennet table, but still livelier than one would expect with the Darcy siblings present. Elizabeth was starting to feel quite comfortable with both, which she still found slightly unnerving. A week had yet to pass since Darcy's apology, yet she could barely remember the time before. She was still full of misgivings and nervousness but found some comfort in the fact that her beau seemed inclined to give her all the time she needed.

Miss Darcy turned out eventually to have a subtle sense of humour that meshed very well with Mary's. Elizabeth was quite happy with the relationship, not least because she suspected that Mary would end up in Derbyshire with her if she accepted Mr Darcy.

Jane was another matter entirely. The informal seating allowed both gentlemen to sit next to their objects of affection, but Elizabeth was considerably less anxious than her sister. Jane had given the man a chance, but Elizabeth thought it might take some time to regain their ease.

She was slightly puzzled by the whole affair. The fact of the matter was that Mr Bingley had not actually committed any grave offense against Jane, with the possible exception of conversational neglect. He failed to correct his sister, but Elizabeth had failed to correct her mother when she set about disparaging Mr Darcy often enough. She had mostly given up on her younger sisters, and they said far worse things than the Bingley sisters ever did on a regular basis. To be honest, Elizabeth also had to admit that any conversation involved two people, both capable of speaking; so, if Mr Bingley knew nothing about Jane, it was not necessarily his fault. It was all most perplexing.

All in all, Elizabeth wondered if Jane was nervous about making herself vulnerable to a possibly weak man, whether she was giving him enough rope to hang himself, or she was simply not over her anger.

A stray thought occurred to her, followed by the shocking realization that the first thing she wanted to do was discuss it with Darcy. Unlike using his given name for the first time, which was a deliberate ploy to make herself easier with it; the desire to discuss her private thoughts fell out of the blue, completely unexpected.

Once those thoughts occurred to her, she could hardly be bothered to make decent conversation. Fortunately, it all happened during dessert, so after taking some time to refresh themselves, they were off to the drawing room for the afternoon.

Mary and Georgiana immediately abandoned their elders in favour of the pianoforte, and ten minutes later there was a surprising amount of giggling, fine music, and god-awful noise—much to the approval of their elders.

Jane went to assist Mrs Ashford and Bingley for some ball-related tasks that Elizabeth did not even want to know about, so she was left with her beau.

Elizabeth smiled. "William, something surprising happened during luncheon. Are you curious?"

"Dying to know," he said, and gave her his full attention (which naturally required him to slide half a hand closer).

"It is about Jane. She has given Mr Bingley another chance, but she does not seem very comfortable with him."

Darcy thought a moment. "I wonder if his doing his other tasks is to his favour or detriment. On the one hand, as I understand it, she wants things to be slower than last time, and she probably wants him to demonstrate some industriousness—but perhaps she feels neglected?"

"No, I think not… at least not overtly."

"What then?"

She thought a bit more, and finally said, "Before we speak of Jane, allow me to digress. I had a disquieting thought about Jane and very much to my surprise, I discovered the first thing I wanted to do was share it with you."

Darcy gave her a smile that would challenge Jane's in its radiance. "That makes me happy."

Elizabeth thought about it a moment, and finally whispered, "Me as well."

They sat in thought for some time, and he finally said, "Perhaps we should actually discuss it."

"Of course," she laughed. "Here is my odd little thought: All Jane's life, she has been denied the luxury of anger, let alone rage. She was always Jane the beautiful, Jane the steady, Jane the smiler, Jane the peacemaker. I used to try to shake her out of her shell of complaisance, but her habits are as steady as the tides."

"I suppose that makes sense. It reminds me of the ride back from that blasted assembly …" then he caught himself and looked to Elizabeth apologetically.

"You will have to curse worse than that to bother me. You should hear my uncle," she said with a laugh.

He nodded and smiled. "Bingley was carrying on at great length about what an angel your sister was, and I said she smiled too much."

Elizabeth chuckled. "Well, about that—the incident in this very room may have given her a justification for true anger that nobody could deny. For good or ill, I quite readily absolved the gentleman of offenses against myself, just so he could get on with making a proper apology to Jane—which he did, according to her."

"He told me as much, but also that she wished things to proceed much more slowly and subtly this time."

"Here is my thought: Maybe Jane is enjoying her anger too much to let it go easily."

Darcy thought about it for quite some time. "Did he shoot himself in the foot by returning to London?"

"I think not. I am not entirely certain I approve of how he is handling his sisters, nor have Jane and I canvassed the subject. In fact, she is fairly tight-lipped about the man at present."

"That is not necessarily bad."

"No, it is not, but to answer your question, I suppose Jane is trying to work out what kind of man he is, and more importantly, what kind he will be."

"Yes… apparently, Bingley said he told her we had opposite problems. He needs to grow up and I need to reclaim my childhood."

Elizabeth laughed. "Yes, Jane said you were very much like a middle-aged man before your twentieth birthday."

"That sounds like something Bingley would say."

"If this be your second childhood …" then she glanced at the oblivious sisters at the pianoforte before giving his hand a squeeze, "… do not be in too much of a hurry to grow up again."

He laughed, and tried to answer, but her hand on his essentially made him incapable of speech, so he simply returned her squeeze and smiled.

They were interrupted right in time to avoid any awkwardness by Bingley and Jane, indicating that the rain was increasing so they should probably return.

In short order, they reversed the morning's journey. Elizabeth noticed the officers leaving her aunt's house, so presumed her sisters must have been well entertained. She shuddered to think what they got up to without any of their elders, but she could not spend all her time doing her parents' job. She noticed Carter, Chamberlayne, and Wickham ducking around the corner and making a break for the barracks at a run—then never gave them another thought.

Saturday played out very much as Friday had, with the three elder Bennet sisters visiting Netherfield. The colonel made an appearance that day, and much to her surprise, Darcy asked her to get to know him, as he was his closest confidant and Georgiana's other guardian. He now seated himself by her, and talked so agreeably of Hertfordshire and Derbyshire, of travelling and staying at home, of new books and music, that Elizabeth had never been half so well entertained in that room before.

Well, that was probably an exaggeration. She had indeed had quite a number of significant conversations in that very room, but none of them were carefree enough to be readily considered entertainment. Some had been close to a knife fight, and her latest discussions with her beau were more akin to lovemaking. She was becoming more and more comfortable with Darcy, but he still made her nervous. She had decided in her own mind that she liked him, and possibly more, but he still frightened her a bit, and she wondered if she did the same to him. She would, of course, never ask as she did not have the nerve, but she could think about it.

From the colonel she learned more about the Darcys, and she found it all informative, even though she strongly suspected half of it was either wrong or exaggerated.

The day went quickly with Jane and Mr Bingley only slightly more comfortable with each other.

Elizabeth was in the middle of a conversation with Darcy, and he very politely asked her for a set at the ball.

She laughed. "We are courting. Of course, you may have a set."

"Which?"

She recognized his nervousness and smiled. "The first, naturally… unless you want to open with Georgiana, since it is her first dance."

"Fitzwilliam would kill me… and he carries a sword everywhere he goes."

"Perfect," she said with a smile and found herself meaning it. With a twinge of nervousness, she added, "And the supper, of course."

Darcy gave her the biggest smile yet, and she wondered if that statement was the moment where her fate was sealed. It was certainly not irrevocable, and she fully intended to take advantage of the time to make a good decision—but things were proceeding at breakneck speed."

Elizabeth noticed Jane and Mr Bingley go off to a quiet corner for a conversation which left him looking somewhat resigned.

Darcy raised an eyebrow questioningly.

She sighed. "Jane and I have not been talking as much as we once did for some reason. I suspect that Mr Bingley hoped for the opening set, and she gave him another."

"Oh," Darcy said, looking relieved that his opinion was not being sought.

"In answer to your question of yesterday, I believe it was the wrong question."

"Which one?"

"Did Mr Bingley hurt his chances by going to London?"

"And?"

She sighed. "I am coming to believe there is an inevitability to couples that work out. A pair that is meant to be together will work through all obstacles, and if they fail to do so —"

"They are not meant to be."

"Exactly."

He looked thoughtful, so she quickly squeezed his hand. "We cannot say if we were meant to be yet, but in the end, Mr Bingley had to leave. If he kept his sisters here, I doubt Jane would ever have spoken to him."

She glanced around to be certain they were not overheard. "Just between us, I suspect Jane is disconcerted by how quickly he abandoned them. Whether they deserved it or not, they went from his good graces to his brown books over one conversation. A woman takes a tremendous chance when she marries. Her husband has enormous power over her life, so," then she licked her lips nervously, "we cannot afford to make mistakes."

"I understand," he said, and squeezed her hand.

The return to Longbourn went about as it had the previous day. Elizabeth momentarily worried about how much time her aunt was allowing the officers to spend with her younger sisters, who by all rights should not even be out. She even considered speaking with her father about it, but her thought returned to something Darcy had said, and she forgot all about her younger sisters.

The parties met at church on Sunday. Elizabeth joined Darcy and Georgiana in the Netherfield pew as would be expected of a courting couple. She found the stares of her neighbours slightly unnerving, but reckoned she would have to become accustomed to such if she was going to be attached to Fitzwilliam Darcy. She strongly believed that London society would try to tear her apart, so if she could not stand the heat of her neighbours' gazes, she had no hope.

Jane elected to stay with the Bennets and explained her reasoning to Elizabeth. It was simple really. She would either court Mr Bingley or she would not. If she did not, then now was as good a time to show the neighbourhood as any. Her reputation was not yet at any risk, and a month in, most would just assume they did not rub along well enough together.

On the other hand, if she did allow him to court her, she could join him in church a month or a quarter hence, and everyone would just assume she was being cautious. Allowing the acquaintance to blossom too fast caused gossip, while keeping it too slow caused nothing.

Once she explained it like that, Elizabeth could see the sense of it. It did not say much for Jane's affection for the gentleman, but that was Jane's business. That said, since Jane was barely on speaking terms with the man, Elizabeth conveyed the information to him in the expected way. She told Darcy.

The rain was still falling when the services ended, so the congregation spent a quarter-hour gossiping among the pews. Georgiana had planned to spend the time with Lydia and Kitty, but Elizabeth introduced her to Charlotte Lucas and Louisa Goulding, and she found the elder women's company far more congenial. She liked the Bennet sisters well enough, but they seemed determined to discuss the officers, and about ten seconds of such talk was Georgiana's limits.

Monday found the Netherfield party partaking of luncheon at Longbourn, but Elizabeth and Jane told her sisters in the strictest terms possible that they did not want the officers mentioned at all. That was partially because the three elders were sick to death of hearing about officers—but also because doing so would be rude beyond belief. She found it surprisingly easy to convince her younger sisters to mend their ways—after Elizabeth threatened a fate worse than death.

They spent most of the day preparing for the ball. For Georgiana, it was her first dance of any kind, and she was quite nervous. When she had accepted the invitation, she had not really thought through the fact that she had no aunts or cousins to help her. She did not even have her companion—just two creaky old bachelors, who seemed entirely unsuitable.

Her panic only lasted a few minutes, as Elizabeth told her early in the day that she and Mary would prepare themselves at Netherfield. It was far more sensible than adding yet one more young lady for Mrs Bennet to fuss over.

The only ironclad rule was that as soon as they went to prepare, the gentlemen were forbidden from seeing them until the receiving line started.

Jane declined the invitation, partly because someone with sense had to remain at Longbourn if there was any hope of the Bennet family showing up on time, and partly because she just did not want any whiff of scandal. Elizabeth and Mary were well known as good friends of Miss Darcy, and Elizabeth was courting. As long as they strictly maintained propriety, it would be no worse than Elizabeth and Jane staying at Netherfield while she was sick would have been without their abrupt departure. Mrs Ashford assured them she would be happy to spend the afternoon with them even if they were not surrounded by twice as many maids as the Longbourn ladies typically shared between them.

The day spent preparing with proper baths in a proper tub for all of the ladies at the same time was pure heaven, and Elizabeth sheepishly admitted to herself that she just might be able to accustom herself to such luxuries. She would not marry a man just to get such luxuries, but they did not hurt Darcy's case.

Just before the start of the ball, Mrs Ashford sent instructions through the servants that the men were restricted to quarters, then she walked through all the arrangements with Elizabeth, mostly for her benefit.

Before any of them knew it, two Bennet sisters and Georgiana found themselves descending the stairs to meet most of the important men in their lives.