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His ailing father. The elderly man had no idea that his son knew about his deteriorating health. Since stumbling across the information quite accidentally, Darcy had not breathed a word of it to anyone. It was evident to him that his father did not wish for anyone to know. That anyone would dare pity the great George Darcy of Pemberley and Derbyshire was utterly unfathomable.

I doubt my father intends for anyone to know his secret, save his physician. He has always guarded his privacy most fastidiously.

The elder Mr. Darcy had spoken quite often of his friend from Hertfordshire and how fate had conspired to keep them apart through the years. Just over two decades had passed since the two old friends had seen each other. Having weighed the prospect of entertaining a household of guests at what might prove an exceedingly difficult time for his father, Darcy decided to do so with the thought that being surrounded by friends and family was just what his father needed.

What Darcy had not counted on was the addition of his aunt Lady Catherine de Bourgh and her daughter to the guest list.

“Cousin Anne,” Darcy voiced aloud. Judging by the way she looked at him for the past decade, it seemed, she also cherished the hope of an alliance between the two of them. Darcy had hoped that despite Anne’s frail nature, she would have attracted the notice of some other gentleman years ago.

“How could she?” Realizing he was talking to himself, he shrugged nonchalantly.

It is not as though Lady Catherine allows Anne out of her sight long enough to attract anyone’s notice.

It was true. Aside from the occasional foray into town to visit Lord and Lady Matlock, Darcy’s uncle and aunt, and trips to Derbyshire to visit Pemberley and the Matlock estate, Anne ventured nowhere. She had not even been presented in court. Now, she could best be described as a spinster.

Or, as my aunt Lady Catherine argues, a young woman bound by a peculiar engagement … to me.

He laughed a little in spite of himself, for this was no laughing matter. Upon hearing that the Bennets of Longbourn were traveling all the way from Hertfordshire to Derbyshire, ostensibly to visit the elder Mr. Darcy, Lady Catherine had insisted on coming to Derbyshire, as well. She, of course, had her own reasons. The lady was no stranger to the fact that her brother-in-law was opposed to his only son marrying her daughter, even hoping for an alliance with people beneath their sphere.

Indeed, the one thing that Darcy was convinced his father had not counted on while making his choice was that his friend, Thomas Bennet, would in effect manage his own affairs so poorly that his daughters would have little to no dowries to speak of.

Upon deeper reflection, he arched his brow. Perhaps my father knew exactly what he was about. With Pemberley being one of the wealthiest estates in Derbyshire, the size of his son’s future bride’s dowry likely was of little concern to him at the time. On the other hand, the elder Mr. Darcy had married the daughter of one of the wealthiest gentlemen in Derbyshire, the late Lord Edwin Fitzwilliam, the fifth Earl of Matlock. It occurred to him that his father must surely have thought a lot of his friend Thomas Bennet and for that reason, Darcy was anxious to make the gentleman’s acquaintance as well.

Darcy thought back to all he had heard about Mr. Bennet from his father. A country gentleman from Hertfordshire and master of an estate named Longbourn that was entailed to the male line. A country gentleman who, for whatever reason, had married beneath his sphere to the daughter of a country attorney - a tradesman’s daughter - who brought little to the marriage. Together they had conceived not one, not two or even three, but five daughters.

Two of the five Bennet sisters will be arriving at Pemberley with their father at any hour, Darcy considered, steering his horse in the direction of the manor house.

If I am to greet them properly, I suppose I ought to head back.

CHAPTER 2

SILENT AFFIRMATION

Mr. Thomas Bennet sat across from his two eldest daughters, his thoughts a mixture of varying sentiments. The day had been decades in the making. What a stroke of luck for his eldest daughter to be introduced as a prospective bride to the future heir of one of the finest estates in Derbyshire. What an advantageous prospect for his entire family. Befriending George Darcy during his days at university had been the wisest thing he had ever done in his life. Unquestionably, nothing he had done since had been as beneficial.

He had decided early in life that the terms of the entail on his father’s estate were not conducive to a happy situation for his own future family unless he could beget a male child to inherit after him. Thus, Bennet was more than pleased to enter such an arrangement.

The fact that the bargain had been struck after a long night of drinking and lamenting their own woes of being the first-born son, or, as in both gentlemen’s cases, the only sons. The terms had been loosely defined. Clearly, Bennet held the less risky hand. Should Darcy’s first-born son and heir to Pemberley, which fortunately was not entailed, remain a single man after comfortably attaining the age of majority, Thomas Bennet would present his eldest daughter, provided she was also unwed, to the young man with considerable hope of a favorable outcome.

Decades had passed with a repetition of that agreement in one form or another in each correspondence. Bennet was wise enough to know there were no guarantees, especially given the temperament of young people of the day. Arranged marriages did take place. However, the last thing in the world he planned to do was encourage a marriage if he suspected his daughter and the young man were not a suitable fit.

Tearing his eyes away from all of nature’s magnificence that stretched before him, beautiful Pemberley Woods, he looked at his daughters again. The two of them were as different as night and day, both in countenance as well as in temperament.

The one thing he could say regarding his eldest daughters, Jane and Elizabeth, was that they made his life at Longbourn infinitely more tolerable. The three daughters who remained behind were by far the silliest girls in all of England. Unwilling to concede any share of the credit for the younger girls’ behavior, he held firm to his belief: like mother, like daughters.

I do not know how I shall endure life at Longbourn without my Jane and my Lizzy.

Indeed, if he could boast of but one of the girls as being his favorite, it would have to be his second-born, Elizabeth. Were it she that he was presenting to young Mr. Darcy as a future bride, Thomas Bennet could quite easily doubt the possibility of a favorable outcome.

Obstinate, headstrong girl is how his wife of over twenty years often described their second-born. Indeed, she could be quite stubborn when she chose to be. However, Elizabeth was also described as the brightest jewel in the country. Having always favored her with his highest esteem, Mr. Bennet was compelled to agree with this portrayal of his second-born, and it had nothing to do with boasting.

There was a quickness about her that his other daughters lacked. A man whom others regarded as having a sardonic wit with an uncanny ability to laugh at those whom he regarded as being ridiculous, he could rightfully say that he and his second daughter were just alike in said regard.

Truth be told, he was not certain his second eldest daughter would ever find a man who was truly worthy of her. She absolutely needed to marry a man whom she deemed her superior. In his estimation, Elizabeth might well become a spinster rather than subject herself to the misery which must surely accompany marriage to a man whom she did not admire and respect.

What a relief that I am not presenting my Lizzy to the young master of Pemberley.

Mr. Bennet drew on his pipe as he continued to reflect on how things had come to be. He recalled his old friend citing in his letters on more than one occasion that his son, who was more like his aristocratic Fitzwilliam relations than not, might first appear a bit aloof. Haughty and proud is precisely how the young man had been described. On the other hand, his friend had also said his son had proven on many occasions to be a most loyal friend, and one who would do anything in the world for those whom he cared about the most.