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When Elizabeth stirred, Jane shushed her. “No, listen to me, Lizzy. I suppose I knew how much you have taken upon yourself over the years, but I’m just now realizing what an… ambiguous position it put you in. On one hand, you practically run the estate…”

“Jane, you are exaggerating…”

“No, Lizzy. I may not be as clever as you are, but give me credit for knowing how this household functions. Papa may sign the checks and whatnot, but it is you who spends hours each week going over the ledgers and checking on the tenants and such.”

Elizabeth shrugged uncomfortably. “I only do what is needed, Jane. You know that… just as you spend so much time with Mama, soothing her nerves and keeping her from spending so much as to drive us into penury.”

To her surprise, Jane agreed decisively. “Yes, we have both done more than one would expect of a gentleman’s daughters… yet we have kept up th e pretense.”

Jane squared her shoulders and did her best to quell her innate discomfort with speaking ill of someone.

“Lizzy, the fact is that you and I shall be marrying in less than four weeks. We shall be leaving Longbourn, and we must see that the responsibilities we have assumed here are passed on before we leave. Papa’s pride does not appear to have been hurt by having his daughter tend to his estate, so he shall just have to deal with whatever solution we come up with for when we are gone. ”

Elizabeth stared at her sister. “Jane, that is quite the most… unforgiving speech I’ve ever heard from you.”

Miss Bennet’s lips tightened. “I’m upset, I admit. Our mother and sisters were badly frightened, and it would have taken very little for Papa to write a note to reassure them. It was his duty, but I doubt that it ever even occurred to him.”

The pair sat for some moments thinking about their parents’ relationship before Jane said softly, “I’m so worried that I will not be a good wife to Charles—that I will fail at running his household and he will regret marrying me.”

“Oh Jane, no!”

Miss Bennet shushed her younger sister. “I love him, and I will do everything in my power to succeed and make him happy. I suppose that is why I’m not so willing to ignore this issue now. I’m trying to think of how I would handle it if I were mistress of my own home.”

“And if we have learned anything from Papa, it’s that ignoring a problem does not make it go away,” muttered Lizzy. She was surprised when Jane, instead of reprimanding her for the unkind comment, only nodded uncomfortably.

When Elizabeth looked at her with concern, Jane shrugged.

“Charles and I were talking—it was the day we took our little cousins to the park. He has been having problems with Caroline and wished me to know that he was doing his best to stand up to her. It was a most revealing conversation; we realized that we have a similar fault—we both try to avoid any and all conflict, regardless of the pain it causes for ourselves.”

Elizabeth blinked, suddenly recalling Mr. Bingley’s exchange with Mr. Darcy when Jane was sick at Netherfield. While she and Fitzwilliam had enjoyed a spirited debate, its resemblance to an argument had made Charles so uncomfortable that he wished to leave the room.

“I hadn’t realized…” Lizzy grinned at her sister. “The two of you truly are a perfect match… you shall never, ever quarrel!”

Jane smiled weakly. “But that is just the problem, Lizzy. We are each of us so very complying that I fear any and all will try to take advantage of us. Charles and I have made a pact. Caroline will be living with us at least until her twenty-fifth birthday, and we are both determined not to… not to… ”

“Let her walk all over you?” finished Elizabeth acerbically. She gave her sister a tight hug. “Good for you, Janie. While I rely on your goodness, I admit I worry that you trust people too easily.”

“After what Charles has told me about Caroline, I plan to be much more careful, Lizzy.”

“Oh Jane, I’m sorry… I wish I could have protected you from that pain,” said Elizabeth.

To her surprise, Jane shook her head decisively. “It was a hard lesson at first, but a most important one. One that both Charles and I must learn.”

After a few minutes of contemplation, Miss Bennet turned a sharp eye on her sister. “So, what are we going to do about Longbourn? We have four weeks, and I’m afraid that there are far more important tasks to accomplish than packing up our clothes and deciding which childhood trinkets to give away.”

Elizabeth nodded thoughtfully. “You’re perfectly right.

I can’t simply leave Longbourn and expect that Papa will miraculously begin seeing to the tenants or paying the bills…

or that Mama will begin checking the housekeeping accounts.

” The sisters shared a knowing look that strengthened both their resolves.

After a moment of consideration, Lizzy decided, “I will talk it over with Fitzwilliam tomorrow. He knows more about what sort of people might be hired to manage the estate, and I can tell him about the volume and content of the work Longbourn generates so that he can understand the requirements.”

Jane nodded. “Perhaps we could also discuss it with Charles? I believe he would wish to pay for part of the man’s salary…

and as Netherfield is so much closer than Pemberley, he might be of some help in supervising the work, although he has less experience in managing an estate than Mr. Darcy, of course. ”

Elizabeth hugged her sister. “I’m sure that Charles would be a great help, but the entire point of this enterprise is to allow us to focus on our own responsibilities, not on running Longbourn from afar.

After all, what is the use of marrying such exceedingly rich men if not to free our feeble minds from these sorts of onerous problems? ”

This jest actually prompted Miss Bennet to roll her eyes and the pair dissolved into giggles. Before they had recovered, a soft knock startled Elizabeth for a moment, but when she went to open the door, it revealed only Mary and Catherine.

“I’m sorry, but we heard you from the hall…”

“We didn’t want to interrupt, but after this afternoon…”

Seeing how distressed the girls were, Lizzy and Jane instantly invited them into the room.

After answering their questions and reassuring them that the threat of a scandal had almost certainly been averted, their conversation turned to recent events in London and Meryton.

The four sisters gathered together on Lizzy’s bed and talked late into the night, sharing fears and hopes, worries and plans.

Despite her late hours, Elizabeth still woke when the sunrise was little more than a hint of color in the eastern sky.

Dressing quickly, it was not until she was lacing up her boots that it occurred to her that she had automatically pulled on one of her most comfortable old dresses—supremely practical but not at all what most would expect to see on the fiancée of one of the wealthiest gentlemen in England.

She sighed and hesitated for just an instant before squaring her shoulders and giving her laces a last tug to be sure the knots would hold.

She was, at heart, a country girl. Her time in London had given her some confidence that she could hold her own and even enjoy Society on occasion, but she was resolved not to allow any success in town affect her demeanor here at home.

Lizzy’s worry proved quite unnecessary, for when she stepped through the small gate at the back of Longbourn’s gardens, Mr. Darcy appeared, dressed not in the crisp black superfine as was his custom in London, but in wool tweed flecked with browns and greens, patched at both cuffs and elbows.

Suddenly she remembered that she had often seen him thus at Pemberley on mornings when he was riding out on estate business.

Elizabeth burst into a brilliant smile. This was the gentleman she wished to marry; a man who was perfectly comfortable (and, to be honest, much happier) discarding all the fripperies and pretenses deemed important by fashionable society.

Like her, his attire was comfortable and practical for a stomp in the country.

They stopped, looking at one another for a moment before Elizabeth, laughing, ran the last few steps into his arms.

“You had an odd look on your face, for a moment there,” noted Darcy when they eventually turned and headed along the path, arm in arm.

Elizabeth grinned up at him. “I was just thinking how much I like your coat.”

Fitzwilliam’s eyebrows shot up. “Then perhaps you would do me the favor of informing my valet, for he is constantly trying to rid me of it.”

After some teasing about how well Derbyshire’s poor would be dressed if Mr. Hawkins had his way, Darcy’s expression became more serious and he inquired as to the disturbance he had noted at Longbourn on the previous day.

Elizabeth sighed, still feeling guilty. “Papa didn’t tell our mother of anything other than what he put in the express that first night when we discovered Lydia.

News of Mr. Wickham’s desertion and court martial has been much gossiped about in Meryton and Mama realized that he had fled on the same day as Lydia’s disappearance.

She and my sisters have spent the last two weeks terrified that Lydia had run off with Wickham, ruining herself and, by association, all of our family. ”

“Oh,” said Darcy, blinking hard. “Good heavens.”

“Indeed,” agreed Lizzy. “Jane and I both wrote to Mama from London, but only about our shopping and those events we thought she would enjoy hearing about. Oh Will, I felt so horribly guilty. Kitty and Mary came to us last night—they were so anxious and have worked so hard to keep Mama from speaking of her worries to the neighborhood…”

“I apologize—I should have thought to send news,” murmured Darcy.

Elizabeth’s agitation eased a bit and she rolled her eyes. “No sir, you cannot take this upon yourself.” She sighed again and they walked silently for some minutes.