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One Friday morning in September, less than a week before their wedding, two gentlemen from Netherfield arrived at Longbourn to find their fiancées in a decidedly odd mood.

Breakfast took significantly longer than usual, although very little food appeared to be actually consumed.

When Bingley suggested that they take advantage of the beautiful weather and walk to Oakham Mount, the sisters blushed and hesitated most uncharacteristically, although Elizabeth eventually answered in the affirmative.

Fitzwilliam took note of the pause and wondered. Though it was not in his nature to demand confidences, nor did he want his own natural reticence to prevent Elizabeth from trusting him with her concerns.

So it was that after about a mile of the sisters walking arm in arm, leaving their gentlemen to trail behind them, a stile necessitated that they part and Darcy managed a shift in the pairings.

Once Bingley had assisted Miss Bennet down off the fence with a comment about angels alighting on Earth, Fitzwilliam tucked Elizabeth’s hand around his arm and forged ahead on the track.

Great walkers both, the pair had long come to a mutually acceptable pace (one that Miss Bingley would have found inconsistent with her view of an accomplished lady, but which Mr. Darcy most decidedly did).

Fitzwilliam introduced the topic of a recent letter from his Uncle James and the couple soon outstripped the others.

Mr. Darcy’s first concern was that his family had done something to discomfit Elizabeth anew.

He found it ironic that he might ever have assumed that, because members of his family were accustomed to move in higher circles of Society than the Bennets, they would automatically display better breeding.

Although the Earl and Countess of Matlock had embraced Elizabeth upon meeting her in London, he knew the Viscount’s wife was not above attempting to needle his bride.

However, Elizabeth had shown herself capable of handling Lady Alameda during their time in London, and he doubted that the Viscountess would attempt anything through the post. That left his Aunt Catherine. Fitzwilliam grimaced.

“I haven’t heard anything from Rosings Park since replying to Lady Catherine’s piece of vitriol last week. She hasn’t written to you directly, has she?”

Elizabeth smiled crookedly. “No, although if you wish for news from Kent, I did receive a letter from Charlotte yesterday and Mr. Collins writes to my father with impressive regularity.”

When he looked to her questioningly, she explained, “Apparently Lady Catherine continues to express her opinions most vigorously to her humble clergyman. Miss de Bourgh has returned to Rosings, but that doesn’t appear to have lessened her mother’s discontent.

” Elizabeth smiled. “Although reading between the lines, I would say that Charlotte believes it will blow over sooner rather than later. Lady Catherine knows you will not be moved and has begun to look around for another, more appreciative audience for her attentions.”

“Mrs. Collins said all this in her letter?”

“Oh, Charlotte would never be so indiscrete. She merely informed me that Lady Catherine recently had to alter her long-standing plan of formalizing one of the gardens at Rosings Park because a very tall tree planted by her sister could not be moved.” Elizabeth’s eyes twinkled.

“Ah…” Fitzwilliam smiled, both at the story and at Elizabeth’s happier demeanor.

For a time they walked in companionable silence, broken by slight observations on the flora and fauna, until they reached the peak.

The highest point in a county of low rolling hills, it had been the site of fortifications since ancient times but, in the more peaceful present, the old walls had been left to ruin, leaving behind a half-buried jumble of rocks.

Lizzy had been climbing Oakham Mount all her life and guided her beau to a favorite perch where several large stones formed a pleasant bench with an attractive vista.

As the pair settled to enjoy the blue sky and rolling green hills, Darcy considered his companion.

Elizabeth’s mood had lifted, but he sensed that whatever had upset the Bennet sisters earlier had only been set aside, not forgot.

Although it was not always comfortable, he appreciated Elizabeth’s ability to tease and cajole him into sharing his troubles; he was just beginning to understand that he could not always rely on her to arrange such confidences.

Darcy put his gloves and hat aside before picking up Elizabeth’s hand and cradling it between his own. “Something was troubling you and your sister earlier.”

When Elizabeth colored and looked down at her feet, he knew he had been correct.

He felt her begin to withdraw her hand and held on more firmly.

“Please Elizabeth, talk to me. Is it your mother? I thought that we had agreed to see only the good. She loves you, and soon she will be my mother as well.”

He was pleased to see Elizabeth smile a little.

“No… I stand by our agreement not to judge each other by the actions of our relations.” She sighed, and then reached up to untie her bonnet and slide it off.

In her distress that morning, she had knotted it much too tightly and the ribbons had begun to cut into her chin.

Looking out across the landscape, she felt herself tense when Darcy reached for her hand again and it was that which decided her.

“Oh very well, but prepare yourself for something truly awful. It was my mother, but probably not as you are imagining. Last night, after our company departed, dear Mama decided it was time that Jane and I were told about what to expect as married women… of… marital relations… and so forth.”

At this unexpected information, Fitzwilliam jerked his glance away from her lovely face and began studying the landscape himself, feeling a blush rising in his own cheeks. “Ah… err… I see.”

His obvious discomfiture lightened Elizabeth’s mood immeasurably.

“Oh, it was not the anatomy that so disturbed us. We are country girls, after all—we grew up with livestock and, well… my father has always allowed us freedom in his library and he has a few rather explicit medical texts.” Darcy squelched a sudden urge to laugh hysterically.

“And then, well… I expect you shall be thoroughly scandalized, but once when I was twelve and Jane thirteen or so, we went walking in the woods. It was a lovely summer day and Cook had packed a bit of a picnic for us. We were well off the main trails, heading for a pretty glade I had discovered over by Fox Creek—I remember being very excited because there was an old plum tree there and I was hoping the fruit would be ripe.” Darcy squeezed her hand, smiling at such a delightful vision of her childhood.

“Well… as we neared the creek, we heard some rather strange noises. Perhaps vocalizations would be the correct term?” She cocked her eyebrow at him.

“For they were obviously human. So, we did what I expect most children would do—hid behind some bushes and peeked.” At this, Darcy’s embarrassment over the topic combined with his agreement over her estimation of the curiosity of children and he could barely suppress a guffaw that was quite out of keeping with the Master of Pemberley’s usual demeanor.

“It was the son of one of Longbourn’s tenants and a dairymaid from Netherfield.

I am afraid we peeked for several minutes, until things reached…

well, something of a crescendo. Upon which, Jane recovered her senses enough to realize that such spying was not at all ladylike and fairly dragged me back home.

We quite forgot about our picnic, I am afraid.

Two months later the couple married, and a few months after that, the maid had a lovely baby boy.

That was about the time that I became quite interested in some books my father kept up on his top shelf. ”

Elizabeth turned to Darcy. “There now—have I completely scandalized you?” Although her tone was light, he saw the anxiety in her eyes and instantly understood that his response would affect how much of herself she would share with him in the future.

Still holding her hand, he answered quietly, “I cannot very well condemn you when much of my own knowledge on the subject came from similar sources.” At her surprised look, he shrugged.

“Much of Derbyshire’s landscape is so rough that it is better used for grazing sheep than row crops.

And Pemberley has a large stable—my father involved me in keeping the breeding records from a young age—not a chore as I have always loved horses.

” Unfortunately, mentioning his father in conjunction with such a subject summoned forth other, less welcome memories.

Feeling Elizabeth rest her head against his shoulder, he attempted to put them from his mind and focus on the lady beside him.

Elizabeth sighed and admitted, “Of everything Mama said, it was not her attempt to describe the physical act that upset Jane and I so much as what she said after. She told us… she told us that we must expect that men of the first circles in Society, who spend much of their time in London, are accustomed to visiting courtesans and brothels… and keeping mistresses… and we must never fuss or protest. That, after we take care to have several sons, of course, we should even encourage our husbands to direct their attentions elsewhere.”

Focused on her hands, Elizabeth missed the storm brewing in Darcy’s eyes. She whispered apprehensively, “I… I don’t know if I could stand to… share… you in such a way.”