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She took a deep, fortifying breath and picked up her tale again, “She started by giving me a set down like I had never before received.

She made me see that I had been living a delusion that would never be realised.

Lady Anne did not stop there; she pointed out that the only reason that I, my sister, and brother Hurst were at Pemberley at all was as family to a friend of the master.

It was not I that had been invited thither, but Charles.

The lady did not just take me to task, for a good few hours, we discussed the causes of my behaviour, and she helped me see that my aping the terrible things that the girls at the seminary did, would never gain me any true friends.

and that chasing after a man for no other reason than wealth and position made me the worst kind of fortune hunting social climber!

“Lady Anne asked me to be honest with myself.

She made me look at my interactions with her son, to see that the more I had tried to be agreeable to him, the more that I had tried to demonstrate what a perfect wife and hostess I would be, the more distant he became.

That is when I saw his mask for the first time.

When we had arrived, he was aimable and affable, not nearly as much so as Charles, but nothing like the man that you saw here.

My hunting of him in his own home forced him to don the persona that he uses to ward off unwanted advances from women in London.

“It was through that first conversation, and many subsequent ones, with Lady Anne that I saw the person I was in danger of becoming for the first time. Lady Anne is a mentor to me; we maintain a correspondence to this day and I will be forever grateful to her as without her caring enough to take me to task, I would still be the person I was then becoming, and more than likely be much worse than I want to admit. I guarantee you, Lizzy, you would not have liked that lady!”

Lady Elizabeth Bennet sat in silence for a long moment as she assimilated the information Caroline Bingley had just shared with her.

The story caused her to further waiver in her firm opinions and character sketching.

Surely if Caroline could have changed as she had, then others, herself included, had the capacity to change and learn!

She silently considered all Caroline had revealed.

“Why, Caroline, do you think that Mr. Darcy did not find out who was in the area before jumping to conclusions and treating the people of Meryton the way that he did?” Lady Elizabeth asked, her question not nearly as simple as it had been to ask.

“My belief is that it is part of the protective persona that he has adopted. The more he became hunted, the more attempts of a compromise made, the more he withdrew inside of himself, relying only on his own council. I think he decided that the only one that he could truly trust was himself, so once he believed that he was correct, he did not look for the possibility of being wrong. Have you met his aunt, Lady Catherine yet?”

“No, I have not, though Papa and Mama have. Oh, If the Fitzwilliams accept my Mama’s invitation then all of them, including Lady Anne and her daughter, and Lady Catherine, will be with us at Longbourn for a time.” Lady Elizabeth smiled hopefully.

“It would please me to no end to see Lady Anne again, and her daughter Georgiana. The girl is fifteen, extremely shy; for some reason the last time I saw her she was much shyer than I remembered, but she is very accomplished on the pianoforte.” Caroline Bingley paused as she remembered what she wanted to say.

“Yes, Lady Catherine. The lady that you will meet is nothing like the one she used to be. She used to be very much like the woman I was destined to become, multiplied by many times and with the confidence of rank. The same person that helped me see that there was a better way did the same with her sister, and, with assistance from her brother, it is now pleasant, most of the time, to be in the great lady’s company.

“From what I now see, as part of his protective mask, Mr. Darcy began to behave in the most off-putting way that he could. On top of everything else, I saw a great sadness in Mr. Darcy which I had never seen before when he joined us here at Netherfield,” Caroline concluded.

After the apology made in her Papa’s study, Lady Elizabeth knew the source of his sadness, but as she did not have leave to share what they had been told, she said nothing on that score. “Do you believe that I was too harsh in my reaction to Mr. Darcy?”

“In truth, no, I do not.” Caroline agreed and Elizabeth’s eyebrows arched as she had not expected to hear that answer.

“He needed a shock that would make him look at the man he was becoming. While I know that I will never be his wife, the way he was before you took him to task would have made him unmarriageable except to those who only wanted his fortune. Lady Anne shared that she will support her children in their chosen partners only as long as there is the deepest love and mutual respect between them.”

“That is the Bennet credo as far as matches go, and why my oldest sisters did not become betrothed until the age of four and twenty.” Elizabeth smiled warmly.

“He needs to feel the disapprobation toward his former behaviour. I am confident that the Mr. Darcy that I first saw at Pemberley, the one that took Charles under his wing, will be the one that rises from the ashes like a phoenix. It must not be too easy for him, and he does need to feel the weight of his past behaviour, but he will succeed. He gave his word, and once he had done so his honour was engaged, and he will not stop until he attains the goals that he has set for himself.” Caroline nodded at Elizabeth to show she believed her words.

‘ It seems that I need to look at myself as well, ’ Elizabeth Bennet, told herself, ‘ Is not my quick temper and even quicker judgement a fault as was the pride and arrogance I saw in Mr. Darcy? Unless I want to become a hypocrite, I too need to make some changes. ’ With that resolve taken, she turned to her new friend and took her hands in her own.

“I understand that what you have told me, especially about yourself, has not been easy, and that makes me appreciate it even more. You have given me much to consider about Mr. Darcy, but I am glad that you have confirmed that he is a man of honour. The best thing is that I have a new friend close to my own age in the neighbourhood, and for that I am very grateful.” She squeezed Caroline’s hand to emphasise her statement.

A tear ran down that lady’s cheek at gaining Lady Elizabeth as a friend, something that she would not have imagined in her wildest dreams.

~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~

George Wickham needed to get out of London as soon as was possible.

He was being hunted by the father of one of his conquests, and his many had become unmanageable, so much so that he could not keep his lies straight any longer.

Withers, known as Scar Face, who was the Spaniard’s man, was after him, and Wickham knew that he would end up in the Thames if he could not pay in full.

If only that prig Darcy had not spoilt his plans in Ramsgate, he would have thirty thousand at his disposal.

The sad truth was that Wickham lied to himself as much as he did with others.

He conveniently forgot that even if the scheme that his paramour had assisted with had succeeded, thanks to the restrictions on the Miss Darcy’s dowry, he would not have received a single penny.

Wickham had only twenty pounds left to his name and was at a loss as to what his next move would be when he spied an advert in a discarded newspaper from that day.

‘The Derbyshire Militia is seeking honourable Derbyshire men to become gentlemen officers and join its ranks. If you would like to serve King and country, please report to the Inn in Meryton, Hertfordshire on Wednesday, 13 November 1811 at midday. A commission for an Ensign costs ten pounds; Lieutenant, twenty pounds; …’

He stopped reading due to the restriction of his funds.

As much as his ego would have preferred a higher rank, with the twenty pounds he had, he had enough money to purchase the ensign’s commission and still have a reasonable amount left over to live on until he could win some at cards from the unsuspecting dupes he would encounter in the militia.

With a plan in place, Wickham hired a horse and rode toward Hertfordshire.

Twelve miles outside of London he found a nondescript inn away from the main road where he was unknown.

He paid for a room until the following Wednesday morning.

As much as he hated to pay for himself, he knew that he needed to keep a low profile to avoid coming to the notice of anyone who may remember him and tell the wrong people if they searched this far from Town for him.

He kept to himself, did not meddle with any girls or women as was his wont, and refrained from joining any games of chance.

He needed to be another nameless, faceless traveller.

As a further precaution he had signed in using the name ‘John Smith’.

He would have liked to use his nemesis Darcy’s name, but he knew that those seeking him would recognise that name and associate it with him.

He was not going through all of this to be caught while trying to blacken his nemesis’s name.

~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~

After Church on Sunday, where he got many looks of disdain and few that were willing to greet him, Darcy was sitting in his study at Darcy House determined that the next person that he needed to talk to his mother, again, after everything that she had been through, he needed to make this right, not just for her but for himself.

He thought back to the near miracle that had kept his mother with them rather than passing as they had expected after she had given life to Georgie.