P&P FF

"The Captain's Concession: A Bennet's Destiny"

Note: P.S. part of Captain's note has been edited to clarify he has a soft spot for the English and why. And I do thank you for the review about Bath (I made wrong conclusions about Bath, sorry. I changed the town to Bristol in Ch. 3)

Previously:

"My land is not at risk, so do not worry, debtor's prison would not be my fate."

"Your money, not mine." The man wrote out a receipt and handed it the captain. *"May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind always be at your back."

Strange Answers

CH. 5

In the small, private drawing room of Longbourn, where the walls were adorned with portraits of ancestors and the shelves lined with leather-bound books, Mr. Bennet found himself in an odd state of hesitance. The room, usually filled with the soft rustling of pages and the occasional chuckle at a well-loved passage, was now heavy with unspoken words. Elizabeth, sensing the shift in her father's demeanor, pressed for answers amidst the backdrop of the familiar. The garden, visible through the open window, was a tapestry of greens and florals, the air fragrant with the scent of roses and the earthy promise of rain. It was here, among the whispering leaves and the soft hum of bees, that Elizabeth sought the truth from her father. Elizabeth, sensing the shift in her father's demeanor, pressed for answers amidst the backdrop of the familiar.

"What is going on, Papa? Mother is not her usually bubbly self. She shows no interest in going to town even though I invited her to go with me, and you are not reading any of your books in your study."

"We told you things changed after Lydia left," Mr. Bennet replied, avoiding the heart of the matter. "Did you not believe us?"

"Well, not completely, I must confess," Elizabeth admitted, her gaze drifting to the garden where the petals of the evening primrose prepared for their nocturnal bloom. "However, it is more than that. There is a melancholy appearance in your eye. As if someone has taken a snuffer and killed the sparkle in your eye. And so, I ask again, what is going on?"

"Ah, Lizzy," Mr. Bennet began, his voice a soft echo of its usual jest, "you seek clarity where mystery prefers to dwell. In the garden of life, not all blooms are eager to reveal their colors at the first light of day. Some, like the evening primrose, wait for the cloak of twilight to unfurl their petals. The stillness of the house, much like the quiet before the dawn chorus, is not absence but anticipation. And as for the sparkle in one's eye, it is not extinguished but merely cloaked." Thomas was simply not willing to open up without having conversed with the captain first.

Thomas stood up and laid a hand on Elizabeth's shoulder, his gaze momentarily caught by the delicate dance of the firelight reflecting off the polished wood of the grand piano, a silent witness to their conversation. A part of Mr. Bennet shouted he was being unfair to Mrs. Darcy. And yet, he had run through different scenarios in his mind as to Captain Pedersen's post. Hence, without solid answers from the gentleman himself, Mr. Bennet was not at ease giving details and had begged Mrs. Bennet not to say a word. Shockingly, she was complying.

"Let us go in and enjoy your visit; you did say you can stay but an hour if that," he said, leading Elizabeth away from the garden's allure and back into the comforting embrace of Longbourn's walls, where every creak of the floorboards spoke of familiarity and every whisper of the drapes told a story of days gone by.

"Unfortunately, yes, we are just passing through." Mrs. Darcy frowned. "Mr. Darcy has pressing business in London." Her mouthed turned upward as she laid her hand on her midsection. "I wanted to be the first to tell you, there will soon be a set of extra feet around Pemberly."

"I am delighted to hear the news." Mr. Bennet smiled wide and put his arm around Elizabeth. "You shall make a fine mother."

The Bennets would have sat in the parlor only the maids were in the room cleaning and Thomas did not wish to ask them to leave. However, he still offered to ask them to leave if his daughter preferred to visit there instead rather than around the dining room table.

"I do not mind sitting here." Elizabeth, being the stubborn lady she was, tried a different tactic in getting answers-even thinking her mother would crumble, when her father had stepped away. However, she was shocked when not only Mrs. Bennet did not crumble but her answer was just as odd. So surrounded by a space where her family had shared countless meals and conversations Mrs. Bennet's second to oldest quickly looked around before speaking.

The room was bathed in a soft, golden light coming through a set of muslin curtains, casting warm glows of light onto the family's polished oak table. Longbourn's walls were adorned with Kitty's oil paintings of pastoral scenes and their frames caught the flicker of candlelight from the brass chandelier overhead. Elizabeth than ignored a look she-for the most part still recognized- and pressed her mother for answers.

"My dear Lizzy," Mrs. Bennet spoke with no real energy in her voice, almost as if the subject had to be spoken but one that was too heavy to be born, "in the wide expanse of our existence, there are currents that flow deeper than the surface of our family's quiet pond. Just as the lotus does not disclose its roots beneath the water's mirror, so too do the truths of our world conceal themselves beneath layers of silent understanding. The absence of my normally cheerful self is not an empty space but simply one filled with the substance of contemplation. The mind, like a lock whose owner has lost its key, awaits the turn of understanding to open the doors of perception. And so, I choose to sit in quiet repose, not idle, but engaged in the silent dialogue of thought."

Elizabeth listened, puzzled by the depth of her mother's words, and she could not help but deduce her mother was simply repeating a new script carefully written down by her father, one handed to her mother and ordered to memorize and repeat if asked to give an answer.

Mr. Bennet returned and suggested they take a walk. "Your sisters will be later than expected. They had unexpected visitors and Jane needed some extra help. So, by the time they arrive you will either already be gone, or just leaving."

Mr. Dary, Elizabeth and her parents strolled down a path which led past the house, the gardens and to the side of a stream. Elizabeth reminisced meandering down to the creek with her sisters to pick wildflowers, read books or play in the water. Mrs. Bennet laughed over the pranks Lydia had pulled on Kitty knowing not all of her youngest daughter's stunts had been bad.

"I seem to recall a few frogs in my cup by one very responsible young lady." Mr. Bennet cleared his throat when Elizabeth kept mentioning her younger sister's pranks.

"Once, only one on time." Elizabeth protested and then giggled. "And they were small."

"You put frogs in your father's cup?" Mr. Darcy tried to look all serious, but his eyes were twinkling far too much to think he was appalled.

"Oh, I could tell you a few stories about my second to eldest." Mr. Bennet purposely put on most solemn face, pretending to be a judge, it only served to make his wife and Mr. Darcy laugh and Elizabeth to let out something akin to 'wellllllll'.

"Do tell." Mr. Darcy spoke when he quit laughing but his tone still held strong amusement to it.

"Well, there as the tar coffee she brought to me when she was seven." Thomas's eyes twinkled as Elizabeth's face turned beet red. "I had the servants teach her how to make coffee that day though they could easily do it themselves. Figured if she wanted to make her father a cup that bad, I was going to make sure my throat was not going to be sealed off."

"Tell me more."

"Mr. Darcy!" Elizabeth exclaimed "I think those two are enough." She titled her head.

"Do you have any stories to tell?" Mr. Darcy turned and asked Mrs. Bennet.

"Those types no, but..." Mrs. Bennet gave a soft smile. "I may not have been the mother I ought to have been when she was younger; however, one time when I was honestly very sick, Elizabeth brought me my favorite flowers in a vase and put them by my bedside. I kept them there for a whole week."

"I did not know that." Elizabeth's eyes widened. "Why did you not say anything?"

"I did not think I had to."

The rest of the walk was done mostly in silence and, just as Mr. Bennet suspected, the Darcys were loading up when the other Bennet sisters were arriving home.

"Sorry, we did not make it home sooner." Kitty hugged Elizabeth.

"Our sister said if you were still here when we arrived home to ask you to come by Netherfield if you had time on your way back from London. They were hoping to discuss possible move closer to Pemberly with both you and Mr. Darcy."

"We will be sure to go to Netherfield before going home if we have time." Elizabeth hugged her sisters climbed in the coach and waved goodbye, but then became bothered when she noticed a strange look in Mary's eye. What on earth was going on?

"When we come back, I want answers." Mrs. Darcy told her husband, "And I am not settling for any riddles either."