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“You are correct, Caroline. I know not why I am so sensitive when teased about William.” She admitted.

“Do you not, Lizzy?” Franny asked as she escaped the slap aimed at her hand.

“What are the plans for today, Caro?” Louisa asked, and Elizabeth appreciated her changing the subject. “I still cannot comprehend his Grace’s generosity in gifting the house to Graham and you.”

“His Grace is your cousin Bennet now, Louisa, and it was his, the whole family’s pleasure,” Lizzy assured her.

“We will go to Phillips House and overnight there, then leave for the cottage on the morrow early in the morning,” Mrs. Caroline Phillips informed them.

“If you are not too tired to rise early sister,” Franny interjected impertinently.

“ FRANNY! ” Caroline blushed as scarlet as Elizabeth had before. “Let us join my husband before he thinks that you three reprobates have kidnapped me.”

The ladies descended and returned the bride to her very relieved groom who could not imagine what was taking his beloved wife so long.

As she hugged her mother-in-law, Caroline was reminded of how much warmth, love, and acceptance she had received from Graham’s parents, who she was now honoured to call mother and father.

The newlyweds waved to the crowd of family that saw them off in front of the house as the open carriage bore them to Portman Square and the newly renamed Phillips House.

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

The day after the wedding was momentous for Lady Elizabeth Bennet.

It was the first Tuesday she would walk in Hyde Park with only Biggs and Johns to escort her.

It also happened to be the day that George Wickham initiated the gathering of intelligence using his vastly enlarged group of young scalawags.

Close to sunrise, Elizabeth entered the park with her two guards trailing her.

They kept at a distance where she was in view all the time and they could reach her if needed in seconds, but far back enough so that their charge had a feeling of independence.

At the wedding breakfast, upon hearing that Lady Elizabeth planned an early morning ramble in Hyde Park, Darcy had requested the honour of accompanying her.

She had politely refused his company which had disheartened him until she elucidated her reasons for wanting a solitary stroll.

Elizabeth had explained that she missed her rambles that she used to take with just one footman as her escort before the Wickham incident.

He understood that it was not just his company that she did not want, she wanted no one else’s either.

He would have loved to spend as much time in her company as possible, but he understood her reasons for desiring some solitude.

When Lady Anne Darcy saw the change in the way that Lady Elizabeth looked at her son, she was as sure as she could be, that it was no longer a question of if, but when she admitted the truth of her feelings to herself.

She could not help but notice when William asked Elizabeth if he could join her on her walk, that it was a look of regret that she demurred and explained her seasoning to him.

On Friday they would all depart to Rosings to attend Anne’s wedding to Mr. Ashby.

Lady Anne intended to suggest to William that he offer to show Lizzy the natural areas of the park as she knew how much that lady enjoyed nature.

She was sure that Elizabeth would be enamoured with the glade and its pond.

The urchins that followed the lady and her huge footmen had been instructed to stay a good distance away and to make sure that they changed who was doing the following often. Luckily for them it was a common sight to see children begging in Hyde Park, so they did not look out of place.

Lady Elizabeth felt very good about her perceived independence.

She knew that it was not complete, but it was a lot more freedom than she had enjoyed on a ramble for a while.

She took a two-mile circuit of the park where she was always visible to the trailing guards, except very briefly just before they exited the park back onto Grosvenor Square where the path crossed a bridge over a stream.

She was visible on the incline, but then for less than a minute as she descended, and the two men reached the top of the incline to cross the bridge, she was out of sight.

It did not perturb Biggs overly much as the instant that they started the incline of the bridge the top of the miss’s head was visible and not many seconds later, all of her was seen.

On entering the breakfast parlour to break her fast, Lady Elizabeth thanked her father profusely as she had enjoyed her semi-private walk very much. She decided that she would walk on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, if the family schedule allowed it.

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

Two days after his sister’s wedding, Mr. Charles Bingley was shown into the family sitting room at Bennet House where he promptly asked to speak to Mr. Phillips.

At a nod from the Duke, Mr. Phillips and Bingley retired to the Dukes study.

Without preamble, Bingley requested permission to request a courtship from Franny’s father.

Phillips wouldn’t admit it to Bingley, but he was impressed that the young man had not been at his door begging him to relax his restrictions weeks ago.

He was well pleased as it showed that Bingley was an honourable man.

After his wife shared with him that Franny loved this man, he wanted to be sure her love was returned and now he had no doubts.

Bingley was given leave to declare himself after Phillips extracted a promise that his daughter’s suitor would wait at least a month before proposing. With that single restriction, Bingley was told to wait where he was, and Phillips returned with his blushing daughter in tow.

“You have ten minutes, and the door will remain open a crack,” Mr. Phillips stated, then left them with the door open just enough to satisfy the rules of propriety.

“Franny, will you…” Charles started to make his request, but she cut him off before he could complete his sentence.

“Yes, Charles. The answer is yes, no matter the question,” she promised.

“…grant me a courtship?” he completed his question.

When he saw his disappointment reflected in her eyes, he explained that her father had received his word of honour to court her for a month complete before any proposal of marriage was made.

A month Franny could live with. When Mr. Phillips returned, he bestowed his consent, and the courting couple joined him and announced their courtship which was a surprise to no one.

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

At long last Wickham had finally received good news!

In the intelligence provided by one of the boys that he believed was the break he had been waiting for.

The virago took a walk in Hyde Park with only two guards not following too closely behind her.

He had learned from a scullery maid working at Darcy House that the family would decamp by the end of the week for Kent for the sickly one’s wedding.

Wickham supposed that her fortune must be grand to tempt one into marriage with such as Anne de Bourgh.

Frustratingly, the Bennets would be travelling to Rosings Park as well.

He had waited this long, another fortnight would not kill him, unless the chance passed the end of April.

He was sure that this second deadline the Spaniard had given him was one with no flexibility.

It was time to contact Scarface . Wickham had hoped that once Withers was with him that the two toughs would leave.

He was only partially right. One would leave but the other stayed to keep watch at night while Withers slept to make sure that Wickham did not disappear again as he had in the past.

“What’yer want, Wickham?” Withers scowled as he had been pulled out a game of cards in which he was up.

“It is time for you to join us here, or should I tell your boss that you refused to do the duty that he ordered you to?” Wickham knew that although he did not fear many, Scarface feared the Spaniard .

“A’right, but if yer waistin’ me time, yer be none to ‘appy,” Withers vowed with a malevolent voice.

Wickham shared the intelligence, and the intimidating man agreed that it sounded like the best opportunity to kidnap the lady.

He returned a few hours later with some of his clothing and ‘tools of the trade’, and he then sent one of the two men home.

The two would rotate every few days, so Wickham had not seen the back of either man just yet.

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

Lady Elizabeth took her ramble on Thursday morning and followed the same path.

If Biggs had thought about it more, he would have insisted that they vary their walk each time, both the timing of and the path they took.

He had not noticed the boy he had tried to catch sniffing around for over a month now, nor had he seen anyone show marked attention to Bennet House or its inhabitants.

Friday she, her brothers, as James was home for a break so he could attend Anne’s wedding, Darcy, and the four girls took a ride along Rotten Row earlier than the fashionable hour, but then none of them cared about that.

Shortly after midday, a convoy of carriages with many outriders and footmen guards departed for Rosings Park.

Wearing a heavy disguise, George Wickham, accompanied by Withers, had one of the boys show them the path that the lady had taken on both occasions.

For the circuit through the park, they saw no place that they could ambush the mountain sized footmen until almost at the very end.

There was a good border of shrubbery either side of the path before the bridge.

The men had the boy go and stand the same distance away from where the lady was, from her two trailing footmen, and told the lad to walk.

They followed, keeping the same spacing between them.

Once the ragamuffin crested the bridge, he disappeared from sight!

It was only when they walked up the incline that they could see him once again.

After experimenting several times, they returned to Edward Street. “What do you think, Withers?” Wickham knew better than to call him Scarface to his face, the man had killed for less.

“I thinks it cood work. If we time tings just so, ‘es, it will work!” Withers opined.

Now all they could do was to wait for the Bennets to return and see if she kept to a schedule or if she walked on random days.

The thing most in their favour was that, so far, she had followed the same path for her walk.

Silence would be essential. They would also have to cosh the footmen, and while one restrained them the other would have to take the woman.

If they fired a shot, they would have seconds before they would be overwhelmed by footmen and residents from Grosvenor Square.

The more that they went over the plan, the more convinced Wickham was that it would work. It had to! That night he almost enjoyed being with Karen Younge in bed.