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“Indeed, pardon my poor memory,” William responded. “Miss Bennet looks well. I assume the lady I do not know is your half-sister. Would you agree to introduce us?”

Elizabeth beckoned Jane over and made the introductions.

“It is Jane’s first time in London for a season. We no longer refer to her as my half-sister, only sister.” Elizabeth raised her hand, seeing that William was about to apologise. “No need to beg my pardon; you had no way of knowing.”

“If my friend Bingley were here, he would be slack-jawed to see your sister. He has a list of physical attributes, and your sister fills them all.” William saw the way Lady Elizabeth was looking contemplative when he mentioned the name.

“Yes, it was his sister who attempted to lie her way into Madame Chambourg’s shop and insulted you.

He is nothing like her, there are no pretensions or aspirations of rising too high in society. ”

“I understand from your parents he is a good friend of yours?” Elizabeth enquired.

“He is, but in the past, I have not been as good a friend as I should have,” William owned.

Seeing Lady Elizabeth’s arched eyebrow, he explained.

“I allowed him to use me as a crutch when it came to making decisions in his life. Rather than giving him my opinion and stepping back, I would point him towards the direction I had judged best. Knowing he would not oppose me, I would practically make the decisions for him. I never allowed him to learn and grow, essentially keeping him dependent on me.”

“But you have seen the error of your ways,” Elizabeth pointed out. “We all err. The important thing is the lessons we learn and not to repeat the same mistakes again.”

“You, Lady Elizabeth, are wise far beyond your years.” William paused as he thought about the Bingleys.

“As much as Bingley used to enable his sister, so did I. It was my habit to tolerate her, and I never corrected her when she held herself above those she was so far below. I suppose she thought my silence to be tacit agreement with the way she behaved. A shrewish harpy is an apt description of her without being unduly cruel.”

“You take too much on your shoulders, William. You are not her guardian, are you?” Elizabeth questioned.

William shook his head, allowing she was correct.

“Then it was not your place to correct her. I assume her brother is responsible for her?” There was a nod.

“In that case, it was his bailiwick, not yours. Did you make it too easy for him to abrogate his responsibility? Yes, but in that too, you are not the only one at fault. He sounds rather capricious and immature. You only did that which he allowed you to do. I dare say he preferred it that way, as he did not have to do anything he found distasteful.”

“It seems that you are right, Lady Elizabeth.” William bowed to her. “While I was at Glen Morgan Heights…” William told her of the letter he had received and his reply to Bingley.

“You obviously saw that you were not helping him by not allowing him to stand on his own two feet,” Elizabeth praised. “How did he react?”

“Far better than I could have hoped. He has laid down the law as far as his younger sister goes. In his letters since, I have seen a marked change in Bingley. He also took responsibility for his sister’s actions because he had never checked her before.

In the first letter from him after mine, he apologised to me for requesting I intercede on his behalf.

He wrote that who but him should suffer for his past inaction.

” William grinned and did not miss the questioning look from the Duchess.

“Miss Bingley is not at all happy with her brother’s resolve, and even worse, he will no longer allow her to shop using his accounts.

If she has no ready funds to pay for items, she has to go without. ”

“That is as it should be,” Elizabeth agreed. “When will he chance bringing his sister back to London?”

“In his last letter, which was surprisingly legible…” William stopped when he saw Lady Elizabeth’s eyebrows shoot up.

“His letters used to be nigh on impossible to read. I have seen children who have just learnt to scribe with better handwriting than him. My guess is that it is part of the maturation process. He realises it is not amusing to post missives full of blots and crossed-out words as if it is a first draft. I dare say he used to take amusement from my vexation in attempting to decipher his letters.”

“I agree it is part of his improving himself. You were about to say something about his last letter,” Elizabeth prompted.

“Yes. In that letter he says it will be at least another year. Miss Bingley still fights against his rules, but he will not let up on his resolve,” William revealed. “I am prodigiously proud of the changes he is making.”

“As we are of the way you have amended your character,” Elizabeth returned.

Before William could respond, Killion called dinner. His father had the honour of escorting Lady Elizabeth into the dining parlour, while Hertfordshire did the honours for his mother. The rest of the diners followed.

Richard Fitzwilliam, in a suit befitting the master of an affluent estate, sauntered into the dining parlour as everyone was taking their seats. “Aunt Anne, please excuse my tardiness, but I was delayed by some issues at Fitzwilliam House,” he said as he bowed to his aunt.

“Richard, it is a happy occasion whenever you are able to call,” Lady Anne stated as she smiled at her nephew. “Find an open seat.”

The first open one he found happened to be next to Miss Bennet.

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

Once Jane had been accepted as a true part of the family, the sisters, all now in residence at Hertfordshire House, had begun a new tradition. They would meet in either Mary’s or Jane’s sitting room to speak of things of interest to them, or just to simply spend some time together.

“What did you think of Mr Richard Fitzwilliam, Mary?” Elizabeth asked teasingly. “Once Richard had arrived, he spent almost no time with anyone other than you.”

“I was asking about the war, and how he is enjoying being out of the army,” Mary insisted rather defensively. Then she smiled. “He is a very amiable gentleman. He is able to speak intelligently of much more than just his time in the army or his estate.” Mary had a dreamy look on her face.

Elizabeth and Jane looked at one another knowingly but said nothing to tease Mary.

After all, it was still more than two years before she would come out.

Add to that, Mary had an innate shyness, so neither older sister wanted to say anything which would cause her to withdraw before she had plumbed her feelings for Richard Fitzwilliam.

The fact that Jane could support her younger sister while not feeling any envy or having thoughts of turning his head towards herself, demonstrated how far she had come on her road to redemption.

Jane found that since she had truly moved past her late mother’s lessons on how to behave—essentially doing the exact opposite—she felt happier than she had ever been before.