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28th November 1812, Thursday

The next day, right after breakfast, Elizabeth did not waste a moment more before setting off for her Uncle Phillips.

Deliberately, she had chosen to visit him at his firm in Meryton rather than his home where she very well might encounter her aunt too.

Mrs Phillips, along with her own mother and Lady Lucas were notorious gossips and Lizzy knew one wrong word uttered in her aunt’s presence would lead to the entire town knowing about Mr Wickham and Mr Darcy by luncheon.

Christopher Phillips, unlike his wife, was a sensible man.

The Phillips had never had children of their own, and had therefore, doted and cared for the Bennet girls as their own daughters.

Amongst them, Elizabeth, always willing to help with ledgers and accounts, was much favoured by the town’s solicitor.

Elizabeth was walking along the streets of Meryton, the package of documents in one hand and her straw bonnet with its pretty green ribbons dangling in another when she encountered the officers just across from the milliners.

They were coming out of the gentlemen’s tailor shop, three regimentals out of whom Mr Wickham stood in the middle.

He smiled charmingly when he noticed her walking in his direction, and along with his fellow soldiers, greeted her with a deep bow,

“Miss Elizabeth! You look lovely as ever this fine morning. ”

She glanced at the bags in their hands, then back at the tailor shop, and wondered if they’d paid the owner or if the poor man was to be swindled.

However, she gave them all a polite smile, curtsied and thanked the lieutenant for his new little bit of flattery,

“You were missed at the ball, Mr Wickham.” She hinted, smiling teasingly all the while trying her best not to tense in his presence,

“Ah, yes. I had been planning to attend, you see. Indeed, I had accompanied my fellow officers all the way over to the main gates. But alas, it seems it is not in me to provoke unnecessary conflicts.” Wickham said, looked over at her shoulder for a moment before meeting her eyes.

His smile was saccharine and almost too wide and she wondered how she had never noticed how artificial it was,

Between Mr Wickham’s wide, oft-bestowed grins, and Mr Darcy’s rare, quiet quirk of lips, Elizabeth realised she vastly preferred the latter.

“I hope my absence did not take away any pleasure from your evening, Miss Elizabeth.” He continued flirtatiously and though Elizabeth wanted to scoff at his audacity, she simply matched his look at replied,

“Oh, not at all, sir! Indeed, it was a night of the most surprising revelations for me.” She gave him a sharp little smile, then curtsied again, “You will have to excuse me, gentlemen. My uncle is expecting me.”

She did not give any of the officers another look, but knew that they were watching her walk away.

Keeping her shoulders straight and her back tense, she did not relax until she was safely inside her uncle’s firm.

Uncle Phillips had just been coming out of his office and his eyes brightened at the sight of his favourite niece ,

“Lizzy! This is a surprise. Did Thomas send you over here with this season’s harvest ledgers? I keep telling him to hire his own accountant instead of using my clerks.”

“No. No, I-” Elizabeth hesitated, looked down at the parcel in her hands.

Phillips, recognizing the look on her face, quietly opened the door to his office and motioned her inside,

“Come. Your aunt sent over some biscuits just this morning for me and the boys. We’ll talk inside.”

Lizzy nodded and so they settled on either side of her uncle’s large dark-oak desk.

Quietly, she pulled out the documents from their packaging and handed them over.

Phillips, though confused, examined them thoroughly, his brows rising as his eyes roved over each figure, and the names of the persons involved,

“I dearly hope you did not just find these laying around, Lizzy.” Phillips said at the end of his perusal, “And if you did, I would implore you at once to deliver them back to the man in question, no matter how you dislike him.”

Elizabeth blushed.

Really, she had been a little too careless with her words when it came to Mr Darcy.

Like Charlotte said yesterday, everybody and their mother in Meryton knew how he and his pride had offended her and hers.

And while his initial insult at the country assembly still rankled at her vanity, she could not in good conscience dub the man too proud or dishonourable considering the evidence of the opposite right in front of her.

He had saved her from humiliation at the hands of Mr Collins just yesterday.

And he had taken Charlotte’s words to heart when confronted with Wickham’s lies.

Instead of taking offence and leaving a county to which he could have no possible attachment, he had instead tried to prove to her his innocence .

“Mr Darcy gave them to me.” She told her uncle quietly, “He found out that officer Wickham had been telling tales about him- to me specifically and thought it imperative to save his reputation before the lies could spread over town.”

Phillips frowned, his own curiosity piqued, “Why would the ever proud Mr Darcy care what his reputation is in a town as small and inconsequential as Meryton?”

Flushing, Elizabeth nodded at the papers, “You’ve seen for yourself, haven’t you? How many debts he has paid, how many women he has helped? How could a man so supposedly proud care so much?”

Her uncle turned his face away, but still Elizabeth saw when his lips twitched up in a smile.

Quietly, he leaned back in his chair and then raised a brow, “I see your view of his character has improved much in these past days.”

Elizabeth looked away, “He’s a complex man, Uncle. And so confusing! For weeks, we have been acquainted and yet, I find I still can’t quite sketch his character.”

“Maybe it was your own initial judgement that held you back, niece.” Her uncle replied, “You seemed quite content to hate the man from the very first meeting.”

“In my defence, he was quite abominably rude that night at the assembly.”

“Yes, he very neatly sealed his fate by slighting you and every other young lady in town. However, at Lucas Lodge, did he not ask you to dance? Did you not then refuse him ?”

“Only because it was quite clear that Sir William had forced him to ask!”

“Lizzy, I don’t think Mr Darcy is the kind of man who can be forced to do anything he doesn’t want to. ”

Elizabeth huffed, but did not contradict him.

Instead, focusing back on the documents, she asked her uncle what could be done to protect their village from that wastrel of a man,

“We could warn the merchants of his debts, I suppose. And one word to your aunt will see to it that the young ladies in Meryton as well on their guard.”

“Oh uncle, we can’t!” She protested, “Mr Darcy doesn’t want his name involved. He said there was a young lady in his acquaintance whose reputation would be in danger if Mr Wickham ever realised that Mr Darcy was trying to discredit him. He gave me these documents as proof so that I would believe him, but otherwise he wishes to not be involved.”

Phillips frowned thoughtfully as he surveyed the documents again, “Without material proof and pointed sources, it is going to be difficult to warn anyone about Mr Wickham’s profligate character.”

Elizabeth sighed, having realised the same.

Still, she could not just leave things as they were.

Hertfordshire was not London, nor was it Derbyshire where Mr Darcy and Mr Wickham hailed from.

Meryton itself was a close knit community- people Lizzy had known and loved, celebrated and mourned with all her life.

It would be difficult to convince people- and maybe not all of them would take heed.

But if she and her uncle could save one life- one family from either destitution or ruin, then that would have to be enough.

29th November 1812, Friday

Darcy had woken up early the next day.

The Bingleys and the Hursts still preferred to follow Town hours, but Darcy had been brought up in the country.

It did not seem to matter how late he slept, he woke at the crack of dawn.

And while an estate as large as Netherfield could feel eerie in its early morning silence, with only a few servants out and about and none of the family awake, Darcy found himself breathing a little easier instead.

Last night at Netherfield had been a trial.

While Mr and Mrs Hurst usually blended very well into the background of any social situation, Bingley’s insistent pronouncements of his newest angel’s many divine qualities and Miss Bingley’s subsequent rage with each remark had been more than a little difficult to ignore.

It had led to a tense supper and even more strained after-dinner entertainment.

Darcy had excused himself quickly that night, knowing Caroline’s patience was almost at an end at her brother’s lovesick rambles, and was therefore thankful to be the only one present at breakfast the next day.

Dressed as he was in his sturdiest boots and a thick coat, Darcy did not waste any time before walking outside.

Silently, he was hoping he might encounter Miss Elizabeth somewhere near the grounds between Netherfield and Longbourn, knowing first hand for himself how fond she was of walking.

Anticipation was bubbling in his chest no matter how he tried to squash it.

After all, he could not be sure that he would encounter her.

He had tried the day before and had been disappointed when he had met no one on his morning ride.

That afternoon, when he and Bingley had called at Longbourn, they’d been told by her elder sister that Miss Elizabeth was running errands at Meryton.

The elder Miss Bennet had looked at Darcy a little differently that day, though he hadn’t given her much thought.

Before Elizabeth, he hadn’t given any woman much thought.

Darcy sighed.

Got his hat and his cane before venturing out.

He hadn’t even taken a half step down from the stone steps before he stopped, his heart freezing for an instant before starting back up erratically- there, just at the end of the clearing where the woods began, she stood- her morning dress a pretty pecan pinafore that she wore over a billowy white blouse.

She was carrying the package he had given her yesterday, was holding it against her chest with her eyes on her feet, leaning against a tree and essentially- waiting for him.

Darcy was not sure if he was still capable of breath.

Almost as if in a trance, he stumbled down the rest of the stairs and made his way towards her.

Elizabeth, sensing movement, looked up and straightened, lips quivering up into a nervous smile.

She was breaching proprietary for him- by waiting for him thusly, and the thought made his soul shiver.

That after all that had happened between them, she would trust him!

“Mr Darcy.” She greeted, curtsied, “I was hoping you would go for a walk.”

Darcy bowed, made sure to maintain his distance lest he gather her in his arms and carry her to church,

“Miss Elizabeth.”

She seemed at a loss for words for a moment, looking everywhere but him before their eyes sought each other again and he was accosted with a smile, “The weather is quite nice today, is it not?”

“Yes.” Darcy agreed, it could have been storming and raining and pelting snow and his answer still would’ve been , “Yes, it is wonderful.”

Anybody else in the world would’ve deemed the impending silence uncomfortable but to the two people between which it reigned, the air itself was so heavy with all the words being left unsaid that the quiet felt like a necessary reprieve .

“I came to return to you these.” Elizabeth suddenly started, handing him over the documents she had kept so close to her the past day.

Darcy seemed to hesitate, then took them gingerly,

“Do you believe me then?”

“I do!” She took a step forward, placed both her hands behind her back so she would not reach out- “I believed you the moment you came back.”

That statement startled him, and Darcy looked up from where he had kept his eyes very decidedly on the package only to once again lose his breath from the look in her eyes-

This, I cannot mistake.

He thought to himself desperately, Everything else could have been contempt I’d taken for flirtation, but that look in her eyes, I cannot error in interpreting.

“Nonetheless, I hope they helped.”

“Oh yes!” Elizabeth nodded, “I took them to my Uncle Phillips, you see. I thought he might be able to help with this.”

Uncle Phillips.

The attorney.

Darcy remembered listening to Miss Bingley crow about the Bennet sisters’ low connections.

The idea of having a connexxion in trade or in law had been unsavoury just a few days ago.

Now, Darcy was realising he could not care less.

“And did he?”

It surprised her for a moment that that was the only question Mr Darcy had.

After all, he had entrusted her with something very close to his heart.

But, he did not look upset or even concerned that she had shared this piece of information with anybody, as if he knew she would not let it get into the wrong hands.

And it was that belief he seemed to have in her sense and capabilities that more than anything, endeared him to her even further.

“Uncle said we can’t single out Mr Wickham alone, not if we want to keep your name out of it. But, we can warn the town about the militia as a whole. Not to extend too much credit and to keep an eye on the ladies. The members in the militia who are innocent won’t have any trouble either way, but Meryton will be safe from the more sinister of them. Including Mr Wickham.”

She could tell he was just as dissatisfied by the solution as she was.

But, there really was not much they could do without making Mr Wickham aware of Mr Darcy’s help.

“It isn’t a lot.” She tried to explain to him, “But it is more than what was being done before.”

Darcy, lost in thought, seemed to come back at that statement, and he shook his head, “No, you’re correct, of course. This does seem to be the best answer for it all. I confess, I’m much obliged. Wickham is my responsibility. I should’ve done my part in warning the town as soon as I became aware of his presence.”

“And risk an innocent lady’s reputation?” Elizabeth shook her head, “With regards to Mr Wickham, you have already done more than your part. I am grateful you felt me trust-worthy enough to confide in me. I am also terribly sorry that I ever believed his tales over your character.”

Darcy’s lips twitched, “In your defence, Miss Elizabeth, Wickham is a practised liar and since the very beginning of our acquaintance, I have done nothing to endear you to my character.”

“You might have been a bit too standoffish when we first met, sir, but I had no reason to doubt your honour. ”

Her argument, her refusal to accept his reasoning that could explain away her stupidity seemed to amuse him more than anything else and he huffed out a laugh.

The sight of him, with his intimidating shoulders ever so slightly softened, the corners of his eyes crinkled and his cheeks giving way to the most boyish dimples gave Elizabeth a start, and she found herself staring at him mawkishly with her lips parted.

“Very well, then.” Darcy sighed, “I will accept your apology, however unnecessary, if you will accept mine.”

Elizabeth frowned, “Your apology? What do you need to apologise to me for?”

“Oh, I’m sure there are a million things, Miss Elizabeth. But, this one is especially for the most grievous lie I ever told someone in your presence.”

When she still did not seem to remember, Darcy huffed, then took a step closer to her,

“I was my most disagreeable self when I was introduced to you that night at the assembly. It is no excuse, but I was tired and averse to crowds and much too proud for my own good. I was directed by my friend to dance with a lady that night- but I had always hated dancing, and I could feel the eyes of every matron in the room on my person, waiting to see who I would grace with my attention, that I insulted the most enchanting lady out of them all just to get my friend to go away.”

Elizabeth flushed.

It had never occurred to her- that he might apologise- that he had even realised -

“Will you forgive me, Miss Elizabeth, for not only the slight but also the blatant lie of my words? ”

She could do nothing in the moment but nod.

Her tongue was too heavy, her mouth too dry and her mind too stunned to even comprehend words and how they were formed.

Darcy smiled.

She really was quite delightful- with her eyes wide and arrested on his face, the most becoming blush flushing her cheeks pink.

He looked up at the sky, there was still time before the Bingleys would wake for breakfast.

He looked back down at Elizabeth, offered her his arm,

“Will you accompany me on my morning walk, Miss Elizabeth?”

Silently, she placed her hand on his arm, and though her manner was still tentative, her hold was anything but hesitant.

Darcy congratulated himself on this little bit of progress.

Now to just make her fall in love with him .