Lizzie was silent all through breakfast, a common event since she and Jane had returned last week. This unusual behaviour did not go unnoticed by her father.
"Lizzie, come to my study when you are done child" He gently instructed as he rose from the table. The vacant nod was enough to send yet more bells of alarm through him.
It wasn't long after, when he'd settled at his desk, estate accounts before him, that he heard hesitant knock at the door.
"Come" He called out, not at all interested in getting up an opening the door himself. Elizabeth, almost shyly, opened the door and walked in. Her normal playfulness not to be seen.
"This! See this, right here!" Mr Bennett yelled, with a surprising amount of emotion "What is this? Dear child, what is wrong?" The last came out demand.
"I… papa…. You see…. Oh, it's nothing" She stuttered out.
"Nothing?" He beseeched. "Please tell me. Did something happen at Netherfield?…. Those men, they… " He paused, not entirely sure I've had to put this abhorrent thought into words. " They were gentleman?"
First confusion, then slow realisation filled Elizabeth's mind. A deep flush exploded upon her face. She was quick to clear up any, and all of his concerns." Oh yes, papa. Quite! It's just, I simply can't explain. You wouldn't believe me and you'd only think me mad." The look of anguish on his favourite daughter's face was enough to hold any sarcastic comment he had.
"Never the less, I'd like to know," He probed with uncharacteristic gentleness.
Looking to her father, she made the instinctual decision to speak her mind.
"We had decided to tell no one but… Oh papa. Have you ever heard of two strangers, not being strangers at all? But lifelong friends, though only in their dreams?"
Whatever Mr Bennett was expecting to hear, it wasn't this. Quite frankly, he was unequipped and had no idea how to parent such an outburst. Or how to even begin too process such a thing. In fact, he could only find it in himself to utter a simple " I beg your pardon?"
"It's Will…ermmm Mr Darcy. I've known him since I was a small child, these past 15 years. I have seen, spoken, even played with him. Every night, but only in my dreams. And now he's here and he's actually real. And papa he has been having the same dreams and…." The look on her father's face stopped her in her tracks. He didn't believe her. And why should he? He came to stand at her side with exaggerated calmness.
Although she was saved from having to look at him by the arrival of two horses outside. She fast identified Will as being one of the riders, along with Mr Bingley.
Mr Bennett noticed the flicker of a smile grace his daughters lips. He stepped aside slightly to be hidden from outside view. He watched as Mr Darcy noticed Lizzie, who now wore a serious expression once again. Concern soon filled Darcys normally unreadable face. And then something else. A brief spark of something, that on anyone else, Mr Bennett might call mischievousness. But surely not on the overly serious Mr Darcy. He watched in shocked wonder as the man, casting a covert glance about him, intentionally caught his daughters eye, and proceeded to poke his tongue at her. Just as a naughty schoolboy might in the playground. The childish glint in his eye was unmistakable. Lizzie let out a small laugh as she returned the gesture having briefly forgotten about her father's presence. A large grin broke free on the man outside. Who knew a man with such haughty demeanour could smile so. It immediately took years off the lad.
Mr Bennett had seen enough, stepping forward, he lifted the sash window and called out " Mr Darcy! My study please. Now!"
Shock, confusion, and perhaps the tiniest hint of fear knocked the youthful look from the gentleman's face.
Pulling himself back inside, he turned back to his daughter " Sit" He instructed pointing to one of the two seats in front of his desk before taking his own chair opposite. And there they sat, and there they waited. In a time somewhere between a moment and an eternity a hesitant knock came from the large oak door.
"Your childhood friend?" Mr Bennett enquired "Come" He bellowed.
A sheepish Mr Darcy self-consciously shuffled into the room.
"Oh don't look so Will!" Lizzie demanded. The unexpected turn of events was making her rather tetchy. "I've told him everything"
"Told him?!" The mans eyes buldged from his head as he rushed forward towards the desk.
"Sir, you must think us mad" turning to his side he hissed " Lizzie, I thought we decided to not discuss this with anyone else. You never listen to me! We were to figure this out ourselves"
"Oh yes, because that worked out so well for us so far. 15 years and we still have no idea what's going on"
"Well to be fair, up until a few weeks ago I didn't even realise you were real. The things I shared with you, if I'd known you were a true person, I would never. I…"
"Oh my goodness!" Lizzie interrupted. In horror and shame she leapt from her chair and hid herself in the corner of the room. "My courses… I told you when I started my courses... I was so afraid. I told you all about them!" Mortification filled her like air in a balloon. A thick silence, heavy and awkward, filled the room.
" Yes….. err yes... I remember... That was definitely one of the more..err... challenging and…..well…educational discussions... that we've had." Darcy had never felt his face burn so as he fiddled with his hands in his lap.
Only the birds outside could be heard, until a strange rumble sound which fast became a hearty guffaw. Mr Bennett did nothing to control his laughter.
" Alright Lizzie, come. Sit. I think it's best that I hear this tale from the beginning."