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Lydia was apparently the new Bennet spokesman. “So, we are to do useful things? How Wonderful! I cannot wait.”

That left me wondering what they had been doing and with whom for the past year, if cooking and cleaning counted as an improvement, but I thought that subject could keep for another day. We needed to set ourselves to the tasks of visiting a few shops in the village, including the butcher and baker, bringing their trunks, and otherwise making the parsonage liveable again.

Before we moved on to the specific tasks, Mrs Hewes and Sergeant MacDonald came in from the library, where Sergeant MacDonald had no doubt been attending my husband while trying not to stare at Mrs Hewes, so I introduced them all around.

Much to my surprise, Mr Darcy went over to my friend and bowed deeply. “Mrs Hewes, I am very happy to see you. I did not know you left Rosings, and I was dismayed at the manner of it. I have not strangled my aunt yet, but it was a very near thing, and her fate is in your hands.”

My sisters and I gasped, while Mrs Hewes laughed like I had rarely seen. She was in general a very even-tempered woman, but she was one of the few to witness some, though not all, of the debacle with Mr Collins. Even from a distance, it took a toll on her as well as me.

Mrs Hewes looked at Mr Darcy with clear amusement and the biggest smile I had ever seen on her face. “I will hear none of that, you little rapscallion. I have been in good hands with Elizabeth and the sergeant to watch over me. I have been precisely where I needed and wished to be, doing precisely what I wanted to do. I knew you would set things to rights when next you came to visit, and it did not even take you a day once you learnt of the situation. I trust you have overcome the difficulties of this year? Flooding and fires and highwaymen from what I hear! I dearly missed you at Easter, young man.”

We all watched in amusement as Mr Darcy answered cordially and gave an accounting of his year at Pemberley, which sounded a bit on the harrowing side. I never realised just how many people depended on his judgement, and just how badly things could go with such a large estate. His year was not as bad as mine or my sisters’, but certainly bad enough.

Mr Darcy looked at all of us with a bit of a grin. “Mrs Hewes has known me since I was four years old. She has been known to administer bandages to skinned knees, hugs or pastries for a lonely boy, and occasionally the well-earned boxing of the ears. Sometimes, all three in rapid succession!”

We all just looked in amazement at this version of Mr Darcy, and perhaps, just maybe, I thought he might work his way into my good graces eventually, should he still be so inclined. He was still a very confusing man, but after that day, he was no longer a vexing man. I doubted I would ever truly understand what made the both of us do what we did that week; but I did have to reluctantly admit to myself that when he went to do his duty, as I most painstakingly pointed out he must, I would miss him.

Poetry

Jane

We were all diverted from any possible pursuits by the sheer joy of reunion and completely caught up in the moment. There was laughter and tears and hugging and all else you would expect after a year apart, but eventually the excitement died down, and I got my first unguarded look at Elizabeth, while she examined us. Something fundamental had been changed. Something was definitely lost. The happy-go-lucky girl seemed to be completely gone as if she never existed. She was replaced with a woman that was hard and unyielding. To be honest, I found her a bit frightening, but I could not put my finger on why. It was more of an instinctive reaction than a proper analysis, because she gave nothing away with her countenance, and by that, I mean nothing! I was once the one person in the world who knew her the very best and was privy to all her secrets. Now I did not know her at all. I felt the loss more keenly than I ever felt the loss of Mr Bingley—a trifle by comparison.

There was something noticeably odd about Lizzy. Of course, we all knew to expect that before we left Longbourn. One would anticipate a certain amount of oddness based on the circumstances of her marriage, and her subsequent letters seemed to prove the case. It was as if Mr Collins wrote her letters for her, they were so bland and innocuous. I could not possibly believe anything could produce a year’s worth of such dull letters except something extraordinarily bad. Even the pain of her forced marriage and her forced company with the stupidest man in England should have eventually worn off as she found a way to cope with her new situation and stay out of the way of her husband as much as possible. I could well imagine her setting up her own parlour where he was banned, sending him to Rosings every five minutes to fawn on his patroness, and sending him to his garden the rest of the time so she only spent a few minutes in his company each day. Or she might spend a large part of each day visiting parishioners and establishing her own society independent of her husband. She might even have made friends with the de Bourgh daughter and enjoyed her time that way. Those were what I expected, but those would have eventually produced a sensible letter. No, something very-very bad must have happened, and I was determined to discover it from the moment I walked around the edge of the parsonage and saw her there among her poultry, looking every bit the farmer’s wife.

I had just barely absorbed the enormity of the change when she shocked all of us by conjuring Mr Darcy, of all people, from thin air. One moment, there was not the slightest sign, and the next, he was greeting my sisters as if they were his most cherished acquaintances. He had either the arrogance to chide my sisters on their deportment, or the kindness to ease their discomfort after Lydia tried to do the same. It would be some time before I could hazard a guess as to which, but it was indeed perplexing.

I indicated my surprise at his presence, with him being the last man in the world I expected to encounter next to my sister Lizzy, and he entered on an even more perplexing explanation that apparently included his use of Lizzy’s Christian name. I simply stared in confusion as he talked cordially to each of my sisters as if… as if… it was almost as if they were important to him; or at least their good opinions were. Perhaps he was looking forward to the day Lizzy was a respectable widow, which I heard was not so very far in the future. Charlotte and I thought he had stared at her quite a lot in admiration in Hertfordshire, though she just scoffed at the idea. Perhaps he was back to stake his claim?

My ruminations were deferred for a while when both Lizzy and Mr Darcy started herding us towards the parsonage, both at the same time, and both seemingly working together like a couple that had been shepherding children for a decade. I watched in amusement as he snagged Lizzy’s hand to his arm, and caught a bit of perhaps surprise, perhaps confusion, perhaps approval in her eyes, but she did not object.

During the entire encounter, nearly everything he said about Lizzy and everything he said to her were confusing, and I was determined to work it out as soon as I might.

During the short walk to the front door, he showed that he had a sense of humour, as he had apparently invited his sister, some cousin, and perhaps an earl, to supper. We all looked confused, so Lizzy explained that by some unparalleled and odd circumstances, she had invited Lady Catherine to dine at the parsonage the very next day. We all abruptly stopped at that unexpected news, but she simply told us to stop fretting; she was only a lady, and we were not intimidated by Lady Lucas, were we? Something told me that, other than her sex, Lady Catherine would have nothing whatsoever in common with Lady Lucas, but Lizzy simply acted as if she invited the lady to the parsonage every week.

There was a very odd sort of communication between Lizzy and Mr Darcy. Something had happened over the last year, as they now somehow seemed to communicate with nothing but a glance.

After we were all settled in the parlour, we were once again shocked by Mr Darcy cordially greeting Lizzy’s companion Mrs Hews, whom we all adored instantly, and the story of their acquaintance was quite amusing. Once that task was complete and Lizzy gave us our instructions for our safety and the news that we might be obliged to work for our keep, we set about the task of preparing for our stay.

Elizabeth thought for only a moment before dividing the sisters between the bedchambers. She, oddly enough, assigned Lydia and me to the master’s chamber, saying she had not set foot in it in some time, and something in her look told me she never would again. How she knew Lydia and I would share a bedroom was beyond me, but it suited us. Mary and Kitty shared another room, leaving a spare for guests. We were paired up as we were accustomed to, and left one room prepared for any of us to use without question when we wanted to spend an evening or a night alone, or to handle any guests. All we needed were Charlotte and Maria to make our old group complete.

Mr Darcy then showed yet a different side of himself. Lizzy just glanced at him to make sure he was watching her (of course), then glanced at a stool in the corner, at a quilt that was hung before the stairway, and a cabinet in the entrance hall. The man surprised us by removing his waistcoat, then he simply carried the stool to the stairway, jumped up on it like a little boy having some fun, and removed the quilt before once again jumping to the floor. The whole thing took only a couple of minutes, and Lizzy watched him with a touch of amusement. When he landed next to me, I took one end of the quilt without a word, and we folded it neatly as if we had been doing it together all our lives. He put it in the indicated cabinet. Then, as Lizzy led us all towards the stairs up to the first floor, he took another stairway that looked like it might go down to a kitchen and disappeared… all without a word.

We all followed Lizzy upstairs and she showed us our respective bedrooms. My suspicions were confirmed when she pointed out the bedroom for Lydia and me from across the hall and would not come within two paces of the door. I made no effort to coerce her and told Lydia my suspicions when we were alone together for a moment. Later, we would all do our best to make sure Lizzy never had to climb the stairs again. She told us she was perfectly happy with Mrs Hews on the ground floor; and in fact, she much preferred it.

When we all wandered into our respective rooms to inspect them and plan where our things would go, we were once again surprised by Mr Darcy, who seemed intent on acting as far out of character as possible. He came up carrying a bucket of coal in each hand and spent the next hour acting like a cross between a footman, a scullery maid, and a master. He carried coal to each bedroom, then carefully cleaned out the fireplaces, even though Lizzy and Mrs Hews seemed incapable of allowing a speck of dust in their home anyway. Once each was clean, and he had inspected the chimneys, he not only laid a fire in the grate to ward off the winter chill, but then he gathered us together for lessons in how to light and manage the fires safely and efficiently. First, we were afraid of him, then we were perplexed by him, and now we were in awe of him. Lizzy just watched all his antics with an expression that as much as said he was incapable of surprising her any more.

Once all that was done, Mrs Hews put a nice luncheon of cold meats, bread, and cheese in the breakfast room. The parsonage did not have a formal dining room, and Lizzy had obviously not planned for ten people at her supper the next day, but we all spent a half hour discussing how it could be done and finally came up with a more or less workable plan.

Immediately after luncheon, Mrs Hews and Sergeant MacDonald offered to take some of the girls into the village to acquire our trunks and check with the butcher and baker for victuals for the supper. The sergeant told us he knew a boy with a pony cart that would deliver our trunks and anything else we needed, so most of the sisters went to the village, leaving only Mr Darcy, Lizzy, and myself cleaning and arranging rooms.

An hour or so later, I came to the parlour just in time to see Mr Darcy enter carrying a tray with tea and biscuits with Lizzy following behind. Apparently, Mr Darcy was capable of acting as other kinds of servants, and I think he surprised both Lizzy and me at the same time by pouring the tea exactly the way Lizzy would, including a few of her slightly eccentric mannerisms. I was unsurprised that he knew how to prepare Lizzy’s tea, but astonished that he knew how to prepare mine.

We sat down to our tea, and for the first time that day, or really, the first time ever, I noticed Mr Darcy showing some real nervousness. It may be that the skulking about he did in public places like that first assembly was another sign of nervousness, but this was different. He was very bothered by something.

Lizzy noticed as well and ran out of patience. “Out with it, Fitzwilliam! It cannot possibly be any worse than the other things we discussed this week!”

He looked carefully at both of us. “It may be. I have one more confession to make to… to… to both of you. I am sorry I did not tell you earlier, Elizabeth.”