Darcy stood, putting Elizabeth behind him, and faced the sour trio. His wife looked at her supposed former rival with shock that quickly gave way to a well-disguised disgust.

"Oh Eliza," Miss Bingley cried. "I have so longed to see you. You must tell me all about your little adventure across the Channel."

Mrs. Hurst, who seemed a little embarrassed at her sister's hostility, moved forward to take Darcy's hand.

"Mr. Darcy, Mrs. Darcy, let me offer you my congratulations." Darcy thanked her gravely, keeping an eye on Caroline, who stalked Elizabeth gleefully.

"Mrs. Darcy," said Caroline with a particular emphasis. "How surprised we all we to find out that the two of you had gone away together. I understand Colonel Fitzwilliam was absolutely perplexed." She stared at Elizabeth with a wide smile that did not touch her eyes. Darcy tensed at the threat implicit in her posture.

Elizabeth gently pushed out from behind her husband and approached Caroline.

"How good of you to come wishing us well, Miss Bingley," she said. "I'm sure that you can understand how seeming dislike may be the very soul of love, as opposed to complete indifference. Do not you think so?"

Caroline flinched at the return volley, but rallied her smile and started again.

"Will your sister, dear Jane, be performing a similar exploit with my brother? Your family may make elopements quite the fashion this season."

Elizabeth smiled wanly and said that arrangements were apace to hold the ceremony in the church at Meryton.

"What a shame that they will have to wait so long, all of a month," Caroline smirked. "You two were much wiser, I'm sure. Indeed, if you had waited for your aunt's approval, Mr. Darcy, you may never have been wed at all."

Mrs. Hurst had been prodding her husband into action to break the uncomfortable tension that was building in the room, and he staggered forward.

"So what's this about your being drowned, Darcy? Never heard anything like it. But here you are, not even wet."

Darcy gave an abbreviated version of the events aboard the Spaniel, enough to satisfy Mr. Hurst, anyway, who used the interval to help himself to Bingley's brandy.

Servants carried luggage through the corridor, and Darcy peered out.

"Is my sister with you?" he asked Mrs. Hurst. She told him that the colonel would be bringing Miss Darcy shortly.

Caroline took the opportunity to seize Elizabeth's arm and spirit her a few feet away, bracing her for details about her marriage. She answered only with a smile before breaking away.

"Mr. Darcy, I'm sure we don't want to keep our friends from settling in. I'm sure they must be exhausted from the road." She quickly went to Mr. Darcy and they headed for the door. "But we will so look forward to seeing you sometime before the wedding," she called as they headed out the door.

"Well done," said Darcy.

"My pleasure," she replied, smiling grimly.

Safely outside Netherfield, Lizzie looked up at her husband.

"I never thought before we left. Where shall we go?"

"I'll call for a carriage. We can think of a plan once we're safely away from Miss Bingley."

She could not help but smile and agree with this wise course of action. They took the precaution of waiting near the stables, confident that Caroline would come nowhere near.

"I should never doubt that you are equal and more than equal to any of that woman's malice," Darcy said, once the carriage was ordered and they stood behind the cover of a tree to await it.

"She is bitterly disappointed, I think," she replied. "She was passing sure of you."

"That she should not have been. It has been nearly a year that my heart has belonged only to you." Elizabeth blushed.

"I think her plans were formed well before that," she said, stepping back a bit and looking around. Darcy, alarmed, looked about, but saw no one, and looked back to her, puzzled. She blushed again.

"No, I saw no one. It is only —"

"What is is, my love?" he asked, concern writ on his face. She blushed again.

"It is — strange — for me to be alone with a man." She looked up at him, a bit chagrined. "I am not used to it. It is hard to imagine that I should ever be used to it, though I daresay other women have managed."

It occurred to Darcy that they had not been in a carriage together since their hasty trip to Plymouth, nor truly alone since then.

"I am sorry, I did not think — Shall I order horses saddled instead?"

"No!" she said.

"I assure you, Bingley has some fine riding horses."

"I do not care to ride," she said softly. Darcy was mildly puzzled, but put it aside and addressed her solicitously.

"I would suggest that we walk, but you have already had a long walk today and I would not wish you to become ill with too much walking."

"I am quite rested. Why we do not walk for a time among the trees?"

Darcy concurred and let the groom know the carriage would not be needed. The pair walked into the woods.