Title: Dare to Refuse Such a Man
Rating: T (PG-13) – Most of this story is turbulent, but relatively innocent. However, there are some scenes which hint at/depict domestic violence.
Disclaimer: Though I write stories based on the novels and characters of Jane Austen, this work belongs to ME and no one else. Unless given express permission, no one besides myself has the right to distribute or profit from my intellectual property. All rights reserved.
Setting: Regency
PSA: I hope that you and yours are safe and healthy during the COVID-19 crisis. Take precautions for yourself and others and please don't hoard any goods that your family doesn't need; we're all in this together, even while we remain physically apart.
Thanks: Many thanks to R, my sometimes beta and legal researcher, for her suggestions related to Darcy's "Plan B" and Collins' ultimate fate.

Summary: It had never occurred to Fitzwilliam Darcy that, once he had chosen a bride, her father might dare to refuse his consent. However, a woman worthy of being pleased is also worth fighting for. DE, Regency, clean romance.

"He is the kind of man, indeed, to whom I should never dare refuse anything which he condescended to ask."

Mr Bennet, Pride and Prejudice Volume III, Chapter 17

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Elizabeth was already walking circles through the rose garden when William concluded his meeting with Papa and that was where he found her. The plants were little more than scraggly sticks covered in thorns at that time of year, but Elizabeth was still reminded of the time, several months and a season prior, when she and William had been in a similar setting. That day had been warm and the flowers fragrant while this one was chilly and comparatively barren, but she suspected that both memories would be equally dear to her before the day was done.

Indeed, the first objective William attended to upon meeting her was to gather her up in his arms and kiss her, in full view of the windows along the back side of the house. Elizabeth smiled against his lips and made no chastisement; they were officially engaged now, after all, and in the wake of so much strife propriety could hang. She reciprocated William's overture by reaching up on her toes and entwining her arms around his neck to stabilize herself in their embrace. William's hands planted themselves upon the crests of her hips and pulled her closer.

"May I assume that your interview with my father was more productive this time?" Elizabeth quipped after drawing back an inch or so, her breathing less even and measured than it had been before.

"You may," William agreed, nuzzling their noses together.

"And we are to be married?"

"Yes, on the twenty-sixth." When Elizabeth drew further back and arched her eyebrows at him, William cleared his throat and amended, "If you approve, of course."

She could not help but chuckle at the look of contrition on his face. He had learned much after his transgression at the beginning of their courtship. "The twenty-sixth sounds like a fine date to be married. I assume you must have obtained a license while you were in Town?" William nodded in acknowledgment. "Mama will not be pleased to have so little time to prepare, however."

Elizabeth felt William's shoulders shrug up and down beneath her arms. "Your father said as much, but we have waited so long already that I pressed my point. I did concede to wait a week, however."

Amused, Elizabeth asked, "What was your first suggestion?"

"Tomorrow."

Elizabeth's laughter gushed forth like a waterfall. "Tomorrow! Poor Mama would be beside herself!"

"Which was why I agreed to the twenty-sixth." William's smile was teasing and irrepressible. Elizabeth took a moment to kiss it from his lips.

"How magnanimous of you…" Elizabeth whispered against his mouth. "But I still fear that she will not think so."

She felt William shrug again within her hold and the tickle of his kiss across her injured cheekbone. "Perhaps not, but even she will admit that we have been patient enough."

As William daringly flicked his tongue against her earlobe, a joyful shriek from the house startled him back a few inches. Elizabeth laughed again at his half-lidded befuddlement. "I suppose Papa must have told her our good news." Another shriek, this one more to the tone of panic, rent the chill November air. "And our wedding date."

Before Mama could race outside and demand Elizabeth's attendance to discuss wedding details, she unwound her arms from around William's neck and grasped one of his hands within both of hers, tugging him toward that prettyish little wilderness Lady Catherine had attempted to lure her into the day before. They would be better hidden amongst the tall grass and stone ruins, at least for a short time. William followed her without protest, perhaps understanding without explanation what she was about. He always seemed capable of that.

After pulling him through the artfully crumbling stone arch, Elizabeth slipped her arm around her fiance's and set a more leisurely pace. A few minutes of companionate silence later, she ventured to ask about his sudden trip to London. "I understand that you could not tell me specifics in your letter, but I must admit that I have been an impatient mix of concern and curiosity since you left. I know that you would not have departed at such a time unless something of magnitude had occurred and my imagination has been jumping to all sorts of horrible conclusions in your absence. Will you not tell me what has happened?"

William sighed in response, his cheeks puffing out with his forceful exhale. The breath exploded in a plume of mist in the frigid air. "Georgiana eloped."

Elizabeth, in her shock, stopped walking where she was. She felt dimly that her slackened features must express her shock quite openly. "Eloped? Is she – "

"She is well and the crisis was averted before I arrived," William reassured her with gentleness, halting his own steps to turn and soothe her. Elizabeth felt some of her initial tension melt away, though many troubling emotions remained and intensified as William revealed his sister's folly. "My cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam, is also Georgiana's guardian and gave chase the moment after sending the express which tore me from your side. Thanks to the snow coming in from the north, Georgiana and her beau did not make it very far before Richard and a contingent of soldiers caught up to them and truncated their flight. They were gone a mere handful of hours before being captured and she was returned home without being harmed."

Elizabeth reclaimed one hand from William to place over her rapidly pattering heart. "Just as you predicted might happen to us if we had eloped."

"Quite," William agreed with a grimace. It apparently assuaged him little to have been right on that point.

"I cannot believe Georgiana would be so thoughtless!" cried Elizabeth, still more surprised than angry at what the younger girl had nearly done to her own reputation and that of all her family. "I might have expected it of Lydia, or even Kitty, who are not used to thinking seriously on any subject, but Georgiana seems so level headed for her age..."

"She is but fifteen," William reminded her, rubbing his hand up and down the length of her arm in a mollifying fashion. "All girls of that age, I have recently learned, are prone to dangerous romantic whimsy."

"Is she very disappointed that she was not able to elope after all? And what happened to her lover?" Elizabeth could not help but ask.

William's upper lip lifted in disdain. "Georgiana will be well once some time has passed. As for Wickham, he is exactly where he belongs – in jail. He was undoubtedly after her dowry to alleviate the crushing debt he found himself under, but now he must pay it with his freedom. It is no less than he has always deserved, the blackguard."

Though it was perhaps not to be wondered at that William despised the man who had encouraged his sister into vice, the snarling tone in which he conveyed his anger startled Elizabeth. It seemed to her that he was taking the events as a personal affront rather than the act of an opportunistic stranger. "Forgive me, but it sounds as if you have a previous acquaintance with this gentleman."

William scoffed at her terminology. "Gentleman is too strong a word for George Wickham. He was born the son of a steward and, though my father may have educated him with hopes of elevating his station, he has indulged in too many vile habits to truly earn the moniker. Even growing up at Pemberley did not make enough of an impression upon Wickham's base nature to encourage him to better things; it merely made him covetous."

Elizabeth was yet more shocked at this revelation. "He grew up at Pemberley?"

William nodded, his expression set in grim lines. "He did. We were friends as boys, inmates of the same house. However, as we aged, Wickham developed a disturbing penchant for using his easy amiability and gift at deception to make his way through the world. It began with charming my father and devolved into debauchery of every sort...I would not disturb you with even half of the things I am aware of.

"My father never knew any of this – or, if he did, he never believed it, such was Wickham's ability – and so recommended to me in his will that I assist my old friend in the church, should Wickham take orders as my father had intended. He did not, of course, and so I paid him what the promised living was worth and hoped that our acquaintance was at an end. However, some time later, when the living fell vacant, Wickham applied to me again for it, having spent the entirety of the four thousand pounds I had already given him. You will understand, I am sure, when I tell you that I refused him unequivocally. Undoubtedly this was part of his motivation for attempting what he did with Georgiana the moment I was away."

Though Elizabeth was not in the same habit as Jane in thinking all the world moral and every person in it full of good intentions, it was still quite disturbing to hear of such villainy. A man – for William was correct in that this Mr Wickham was no gentleman – gifted with so much unlooked for and apparently undeserved beneficence only to betray the family which had elevated his place in the world was more than simply ungrateful, he was absolutely malevolent! Worse than showing simple ingratitude, however, he had marked an innocent as his victim and nearly ruined her life. Despicable!

"My goodness…," she said after a long moment, her words coming out in a gasping breath, "to think that such evil rests in all of humanity, much less one man, is...well, it is quite shocking. We are all extremely lucky that his plans were foiled before Georgiana was tied to such a scoundrel for life. How did the colonel discover the scheme?"

"Mrs Younge."

"Mrs Younge?" Elizabeth repeated, her brow lightly furrowed in confusion at this apparent non-sequitur.

"Yes. Mrs Younge," William acknowledged with a nod, "who we suspected last summer of being indolent in her responsibilities, has actually been quite the opposite. Of course, she also had a hand in bringing it all about, as well..."

They began walking again as William revealed Mrs Younge's role in Georgiana's attempted elopement, explaining how she had once been in league with Wickham only to later be convinced by her own conscience to break with him and protect her charge from his machinations. She had certainly been in the wrong to even consider selling Georgiana's future for the promised five thousand pounds, but Elizabeth's sympathies were engaged with a woman who, for all her faults, had been desperate to alleviate her mother's suffering as she withered slowly away from consumption. Had Mama been afflicted with the wasting disease, Elizabeth's desperation would have known no bounds and she might very well have done something unwise. Perhaps not at the expense of another, but one generally could not know what they would do until actually in the midst of such a calamity.

All of that aside, Mrs Younge had come to her senses in time and done whatever she could to alleviate the damage she had already caused, proving herself a heroine at the end by raising the alarm as quickly as she could at expense to her own employment. Elizabeth was inclined toward forgiveness, although she knew William likely would not be. That would be something to discuss in the future when everything were more settled.

In the meantime, Georgiana would require some better guidance than she had thus far received from her male relatives and hired educators. Elizabeth hoped that her new sister would be more receptive to advice in the future considering how she had nearly ruined all her chances at happiness. Mistakes were meant to be learned from, after all.

Once William had exhausted all that he was willing to say on the subject of Georgiana and her near disaster, he insisted on knowing more about what had gone on in Hertfordshire during his absence. "I have heard something of the story from your parents, of course, but I would have it directly from yourself. What happened with Mr Collins?"

Elizabeth sighed. She was tired of revisiting that morning and the humiliation she had experienced at the hands of her cousin, but William deserved to hear about it directly from herself. "Mr Collins, taking your sudden removal from the neighborhood as an opportunity which could not be passed up, decided to press me one morning for an immediate marriage. I have no doubt that Lady Catherine put him up to it as much as my father, but he carried his point too far."

"'Carried his point too far'?" William repeated, his tone colored with incredulity.

Elizabeth sighed at him with exasperation. "Yes, as I said. He would not take me at my word when I told him 'no' and grew angry. As he was still shouting at me, Mama came in and...well, Mr Collins will never underestimate a woman's power again, I suspect. Though I would not wish to see Mama in such a state again," Elizabeth shuddered at the risen image in her mind of Mama's furiously burning eyes and flailing fists, "she gave him a hearty dose of his own medicine."

William's eyes widened to twice their normal size. "Your mother hit Mr Collins?"

"Repeatedly and with much energy," Elizabeth affirmed with a wry quirk of a smile. As terrible as her rage had been to witness, Mama had beaten back Mr Collins with a ferocity which had to be admired under the circumstances. "Papa was forced to pull her off of him to restore the peace."

"No less than Collins deserved." William nodded his head sharply, his face set implacably in a scowl as his cloudy eyes swirled with his suppressed anger.

Elizabeth could not help but agree, but she regretted the toll it had taken upon her mother. "Certainly, but Mama was entirely beside herself; it was best to put an end to it. After that, as she has already told you, Papa stepped in and threw Mr Collins from the house and into the hedgerows my mother has always feared."

"But he came back?"

"In the company of your aunt, yes," Elizabeth confirmed. Then, squeezing his arm tightly within her hold, she reassured him, "But I doubt that he will return to bother us again; he is quite fearful of both my parents now. And I further doubt that he is any more eager to meet with you, dearest, considering his behavior."

William growled – a deep, feral sound which Elizabeth could feel reverberating through his chest at her close proximity – and attested, "Collins is fortunate that I was not present to teach him a lesson myself."

Elizabeth put a steadying hand on his forearm. "Do not say such things, William. It is much like what Mr Collins said before he…," she paused to swallow as her throat began to close up, "before. I would not wish you to think the way that he does."

Immediately affronted, William whipped his head in Elizabeth's direction to object, "Never! I would never – "

"I know, my love," Elizabeth replied, her tone somewhat sharp in her own distress, "but such thinking should not be indulged. Not even for Mr Collins' sake. I have been on the receiving end of his notion of 'correction' and found it disagreeable and humbling in equal amounts. To hear you championing the same methods is inexpressibly disturbing to me and I wish that you would stop."

Immediately, William's face softened from its hardened aspect and adopted an expression of utmost contrition. Softly, in a shamed whisper, he begged, "Forgive me, Elizabeth. I had not meant to disturb you..."

Elizabeth halted their progress once more and turned to face her beloved, slipping her arms about his waist. William reciprocated by drawing her close against his chest in a rather desperate embrace. Elizabeth sank into it with a sigh of relief and contentment. "I know," she murmured into his lapel, against which her cheek rested, "but you must see how distressing it is to hear you speak in such a way, even in regards to a man who likely deserves it. I do not wish to think you have anything at all in common with Mr Collins, especially such tendencies."

Elizabeth felt William's large hand cup around the back of her head, experienced the warmth of his palm through her bonnet, and settled more deeply into his arms. "I would not wish it either, my love. Forgive me for distressing you."

"You are forgiven." It was easy to forgive him this trespass, considering how unconsciously inflicted it was and his desire to protect her behind it. She leaned back to look into his eyes – now merely overcast rather than stormy – and offered him as easy a smile as she could provide. "Now, let us change the subject, at least slightly. Can I suppose that you may look forward to a visit from your aunt in the near future?"

William's face contracted into a grimace and Elizabeth laughed, her mood instantly lightened by his visible distaste at the notion of Lady Catherine. "As a matter of fact, I have already had that pleasure. Lady Catherine paid me a visit at my townhouse just this morning to make her objections to our match known."

"Oh no!" Elizabeth attempted to stifle her amusement, but a little snort of laughter escaped her best efforts.

With a shake of his head and a tilt to his lips, William expressed his own wry humor at the notion of his aunt making herself more than usually disagreeable. "Oh, yes. Of course, her intent was to scold me into obedience to her wishes, but she instead she taught me to hope, as I had scarcely allowed myself to hope these past weeks, that all of our troubles were behind us. She let slip – without divulging any of the pertinent details, of course – that your father had rescinded his approval of Mr Collins and refused to oblige her in continuing to reject my suit. I cannot adequately describe the sense of relief and excitement which came over me then; I was giddy as a schoolboy. I ordered my carriage immediately and raced here as quickly as I could to see this miracle for myself."

Smiling at the image of her beloved William skipping about with the enthusiasm of youth long past, Elizabeth again pulled herself close to his body and nuzzled her nose deeply into his cravat. The scent of his cologne surrounded her and she derived comfort in its beloved familiarity.

When she had sufficiently indulged in this whim, Elizabeth tipped her head back to look directly into William's face, finding him staring back with a softly affectionate smile of his own. He raised his right hand and palmed it to her cheek. Elizabeth's lashes fluttered as if they intended to close over her eyes and savor the sensation of William's gloved fingers against her skin, but she fought the instinct; it had been far too many days since she had been allowed to gaze upon his dear countenance, far too many months of turmoil which kept them separated, and she could not bear the thought of even the barrier of her lids between them.

William, perhaps feeling the same as she, maintained the steadiness of his own gaze as he lowered his face closer to hers. Instead of another kiss, he rested his forehead against hers and continued to stare. "Elizabeth...I have missed you so."

"And I you." Her voice was thick with the longing she had experienced during his absence and she was finally forced to blink as tears blurred his image. She felt one droplet escape the fringe of her lashes and cascade down the crest of her uninjured cheek, only to be swiped away with William's thumb. "I have missed you so, so much, William. Never leave me again, swear it."

"Never," he swore just before swallowing up her sob.

As they made their short journey back to the house some time later – Elizabeth had thought merely a quarter hour had passed in William's embrace, but his watch proclaimed it more than four times that long – their conversation took a turn she had not quite expected. It all began with an irreverent quip designed to lighten the mood between them. "I suppose, in a way, we must thank Mr Collins and Lady Catherine for playing their roles as they did. Had they not, we might still be caught up in the purgatory of a disputed engagement."

"Not so," William had disagreed with a sniff which denoted how little amusement he felt at her jest. Apparently, it was too soon to make light of the missteps which had ended her supposed cradle betrothal with Mr Collins, though Elizabeth preferred to view it all with a black sort of humor. To do otherwise made her far too melancholy.

"Oh?" Elizabeth prompted with a little nudge to William's side. "Were you, against all reason and even your character, going to sweep me up and carry me off to Pemberley regardless of the wishes of anyone else?"

This time, William rasped a little chuckle. "Do not doubt that I considered it. But, no, that is not what I was referring to. I was returning today, regardless of Lady Catherine's intervention, in order to put an ultimatum to your father and had great hopes of my success."

Now Elizabeth was intrigued. "What could you have possibly threatened him with?"

"A stint in Bedlam."

She jerked in surprise and whipped her head up to stare at him. "Bedlam? What on Earth – ?"

"Upon the suggestion of my cousin Richard – Colonel Fitzwilliam, you recall that I mentioned him earlier – I spoke to my solicitor while in Town. It was Mr Knightley's suggestion that I petition the Lord Chancellor and claim that your father's obstinacy in regards to our match was symptomatic of insanity which would, therefore, render him incapable of denying his consent."

William explained his plan with such cool detachment that Elizabeth found herself quite aghast at him. "You would not!"

"I can assure you, I would," William replied, rather gruffly, "if he continued to stand in our way. However, I had intended to bribe him first and save all of us quite a scandalous mess. Had he not accepted that offer and continued to be so wholly unreasonable, I had planned to threaten him with a suit and have him declared non compos mentis. It has never been attempted before, but Mr Knightley thought the argument worth a try. Besides, considering Mr Bennet's apparent fear of frivolous lawsuits, I thought just the threat of it might be enough to sway him. Either way, I felt it a viable option to force his hand or, at the very least, keep him occupied until you reached your majority in June." (1)

Elizabeth was not quite sure how to feel about William's apparently well considered plan to have her father committed to an asylum, a hellish place of madness and nightmares, in order to achieve their ends. It seemed an excessive punishment for a man who was guilty of nothing worse than stubborn selfishness. "I see."

Apparently reading the disturbance in her features, William dipped his head down and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I would not have actually sent your father to Bedlam, my love; I only ever intended to threaten him with the possibility. I would never have let it get that far."

Elizabeth's horror melted away at William's reassurance and she sighed deeply, releasing the tension. "Good. I am no longer ignorant of his flaws, but Papa is not the kind of villain who deserves to be consigned to such a place. I would not wish to see him brought so low..."

"Though he is not exactly my favorite person," William conceded, "I would not wish it for him, either. For your sake, if nothing else. Truly, my love, the suit was only ever meant to be leverage against his authority, that is all. Although, speaking of lawsuits, your father did convey an interesting plan to see some justice brought to Mr Collins' door..."

o0o

When Elizabeth climbed the stairs later that evening, her head was light and fuzzy with the lingering sensation of William's lips upon hers. Her family had already gone up ahead of her to leave the newly engaged couple to bid their farewells in relative privacy and they had taken advantage. Elizabeth tingled all over with the recollection of how their mouths moved together, their tongues reaching out to taste one another…

"Lizzy, could you come into my library a moment, please?"

Elizabeth jumped at being so suddenly addressed from above and her head snapped up to where her father stood on the top landing, apparently waiting for her. He looked far more like the Papa of old than he had of late with a smirk quirked up on one side and a teasing eyebrow elevated on the other. Elizabeth flushed to realize that he likely knew the cause of her abstracted thoughts, perhaps even saw something of her fevered goodbye with William. How mortifying.

"Of course, Papa," she replied with more ease than she felt, the burn in her cheeks unabated. Having frozen in place at his startling appearance, Elizabeth set herself into motion again and conquered the last few steps between herself and the upper floor.

Papa stood in the doorway to his book room, turned to his side to allow her easier ingress to his sanctum. She slipped past him and moved directly to her favorite chair where she sat down and waited for him to do likewise. After closing the door to the hallway, he joined Elizabeth at the desk but, instead of sitting behind it, he dragged another lesser used chair over to sit at her side. This alteration in dynamic was slightly surprising to Elizabeth, but then so was this impromptu interview.

Once he was settled, the bare wooden seat beneath him creaking like a complaining old man, the library descended into absolute silence. There was no wind at the window pane, the fire in the grate only popped faintly very occasionally and it seemed like her mother and sisters had gone to bed for there was no giggling or wailing outside in the corridor. It was as perfectly quiet as anyplace was ever likely to be, time stretching between Elizabeth and her father like a vast ocean of awkwardness.

At length, Papa cleared his throat and, with some indecision, began, "Erm...how is wedding planning going? Has your mother enough funds for all her fripperies and lace?"

Breath whooshed from Elizabeth in the form of a small laugh, a nervous titter. "It is going well, though I suspect William is a little overwhelmed. He has never seen Mama plan an event, after all."

"Yes, well, he shall have to become accustomed to it, I daresay," Papa's accompanying chuckle was fond. "Your Mama is always quite...enthusiastic when she entertains. I cannot imagine that she would be any less for one of her daughters' weddings. Tell me, what has my future son-in-law so out of sorts?"

An image of William's face and a memory of his stuttering response to her mother's exuberant plotting rose up in Elizabeth's mind and she bit her lips together to prevent the laugh which insisted upon coming out at his expense. "Mama has determined that we are to have a ball," she said once the immediate danger of a giggle was past.

Papa's brow raised and a more natural smile spread across his mouth as he leaned back in his seat, arms folded; his chair squeaked in protest at the change in position. "Oh? Even I had not suspected her of such a grand scheme at this late notice. And how does she intend to bring this ball about only a week from the settled date?"

"Most fortunately," here, Elizabeth rolled her eyes in a dramatically wide arc, though her impish smile remained, "Lydia recalled that Mr Bingley has promised us all a ball at Netherfield and suggested it to Mama as a possible venue. Mama, always understanding her own limitations, has enlisted William to ask Mr Bingley if he would not mind loaning us the use of his ballroom on the twenty-sixth – as a wedding gift, of course."

In contrast to the silence which came before it, Papa's laugh filled the room and reverberated between the four walls in an echoing pattern. Elizabeth's own mirth overflowed an instant after his did and she joined in; the tension was thus broken between them.

When he had calmed, Papa pressed for more details. "I can only imagine your Mr Darcy's expression at Fanny pressing him to wrangle such a promise from his friend – tell me, was he very shocked and offended?"

"I should say the first more than the second, but it was certainly an education in how the female Bennet mind works," Elizabeth replied with more solemnity than she felt. Poor William, already put to an errand which his sense of propriety objected to. She had made a token attempt to dissuade her mother from the scheme, but Mama was now absolutely set on having a ball and could not be swayed otherwise. Elizabeth's only comfort was that Mr Bingley was unlikely to be offended, even if William was on his behalf.

"Something he should acclimate himself to sooner rather than later, my dear," Papa teased. "At least you have more of a quickness than your mother and sisters; it should not be so very difficult for him. But I cannot help feeling that Miss Bingley will not be pleased to host your wedding ball in her brother's house; according to Sir William, the silly fishwife, she has had some hopes in your Mr Darcy's direction, as well."

Elizabeth had noticed that for herself, unfortunately. "Oh, Miss Bingley need not lift a finger; Mama declares that she has all the planning in hand."

"Naturally."

As the amusement drifted slowly away, the room was returned to its former quiet. It was less strained, however, and that ocean between herself and her father felt more akin to a channel now, still significantly present yet not quite so impossible to traverse. Elizabeth rather wondered if this was how it would be with them from now on. Always at least slightly apart.

"Ahem, yes, well," Papa began again, sitting upright in his chair and dropping his conjoined hands into his lap, "I did wish to speak to you, Lizzy, and offer you my sincerest apologies. I cannot say enough how deeply I regret my actions these past four months and...well, I...I am sorry."

Elizabeth could hear the remorse in his voice, see it reflected in his face, but recognized even the midst of this that it still was not quite enough. That she could not simply forgive and forget the petulance, the pettiness and the selfishness he had inflicted upon her. "Can you tell me why, Papa?"

The way Papa's eyes flinched, just slightly, she could tell that he was not oblivious to the fact that she had not absolved him. "It is...complicated. And yet also very simple; I was fearful of losing you to the wilds of Derbyshire and the protection of a man whom you would inevitably love better than myself. I had pictured in my mind these past fifteen years that you would remain here at Longbourn, with me, and when you instead chose a different path for yourself, the disappointment I felt was so great that it made me angry. And so I convinced myself that what I wanted for you was better, that you should be flattered to become my heir and that I knew best for you. I was wrong, as it turns out, so utterly and completely that you were harmed as a result. For that I shall never forgive myself."

"I had not intended to disappoint you, Papa." Elizabeth's words were softened by the sympathy she felt for him. It could not be a simple thing to raise a child for twenty years only to see them move away from you to begin a new life with another. "It was most unconsciously done, but – "

Papa held up his palm to her in a gesture to desist. "But, of course, it was not up to me to determine the path your happiness would take. I know. All I can say for myself is that it is difficult to give up on a long held dream and that I did not handle my dissatisfaction well. There is no excuse, only this explanation. Again, I am so very sorry, my Lizzy. I hope that you might one day find it in the vastness of your heart to forgive me, but I shall entirely understand if you are incapable of it."

Elizabeth reached out and grabbed hold of the hand which he held before him, pulling it into her lap and squeezing tightly. Papa responded in kind. "I am certain that I will be able to forgive you, Papa, though I cannot promise that I will ever forget what has happened. My understanding of who you are has been so fundamentally changed that I do not believe we can resume our relationship as it once was, no matter how much we both wish it were otherwise. You...you have wounded me deeply these last weeks."

"And I am heartily sorry for it. Especially for my role in what Collins has done." His gaze flicked momentarily to her bruised cheek before withdrawing in shame.

"I do not blame you for that," Elizabeth was quick to reassure him. "You have committed many sins against myself and William of late, but I cannot lay that particular one at your door; you have made it perfectly clear that he did not have sanction to...to..."

"He most certainly did not!" agreed Papa with an indignant, almost angry huff. "However, I cannot absolve myself entirely for he intimated the night before his attack that he was prone to such behavior and I did nothing to stop him, assuming – quite wrongly, as it turns out – that my warnings would be enough to stay his hand. I should have thrown him from the house the moment he so much as hinted that he would strike you."

"Perhaps," Elizabeth agreed, tentatively, as she stroked the back of her father's leathery hand with her thumb, "but hindsight, as they say, is always clearer than foresight. You could not have known that Mr Collins would ignore your warnings so immediately; I am not even sure that he did so consciously. I have quite the talent for being vexing, as you are well aware." She followed her tease with a wry smile which made him chuckle.

Shaking his head, Papa replied, "Still, I should have done more, for you as well as the others. But I am determined to be better from henceforth; this debacle has at least taught me the lesson that I cannot simply lie back and leave so many of my responsibilities to others as I have throughout your life. No, I must put forth the effort to take better care of you all."

"William did mention your plan to serve Mr Collins with a lawsuit."

"That is one measure I intend to take, it is true," agreed Papa with a solemn nod, "but only the beginning of what I must do to ensure a better future for your mother and sisters. It is too late to increase your dowry – or Jane's, I suspect," they shared a conspiratorial smile at this allusion to Jane's no doubt impending betrothal to Mr Bingley, "and I am fortunate that you both have found yourselves worthy young men who are capable of maintaining you. However, Mary, Kitty and Lydia shall require an increase in dowry and I suspect that your mother will not be comfortable on the interest of her five thousand pounds. I am sure that you would do much to care for her once I am gone, but it is not something which should rest upon your shoulders."

Elizabeth was surprised, and not a little skeptical, that such a change in her father's outlook should be wrought by their recent circumstances. "And so now you will attempt to save?"

"I can see that you are dubious over my new inclination toward industry," Papa laughed openly at the expression upon her face, which Elizabeth realized belatedly was slackened with her disbelief. She closed her mouth with a snap and affected as much polite placidity as she could manage. "And I will be the first to admit that Rome was not built in a day. It remains to be seen whether or not I will be so diligent next year, or the next after that, but I have been reviewing the ledgers and consulting with some of the tenants these past few days and have some ideas about where to make improvements. I was hoping, if you are not still too incensed with your poor, remorseful Papa, that you might take a look and offer your own suggestions. You are perhaps more familiar with the workings of Longbourn than I at this juncture and I would welcome your input."

Suddenly, Elizabeth recalled a conversation over the dinner table in which Mr Collins had disdained her help, against the advice of the gentleman before her, and she was softened somewhat with gratitude toward her Papa. He was not a perfect man, and she was still not convinced that these improvements in character would become permanent, but his effort in the short term were to be commended and it was clear that he respected her opinions where other men would not. "I would be happy to be of assistance wherever I can be, Papa. And perhaps we could ask William his thoughts; he is a successful landowner himself, as you know."

Papa's face crumpled into a grimace for an instant, but then he cleared all traces of it from his features and said, "If you think he would be willing, I would be pleased to accept his assistance." His tone was modulated and without much expression, but that in and of itself was telling. Elizabeth was torn between annoyance at this lingering petulance and amusement at how he struggled to conceal it. It was progress, at least.

"Then I shall ask him," she replied lightly, a smirk twitching at her lips, "and lend you my assistance whenever I am not being monopolized by Mama over wedding plans."

"In that case, we should probably expect to meet after your beau leaves for the day and everyone else has gone to bed," was Papa's dry observation.

"I expect so."

They parted for the evening not long after, Elizabeth headed off to her bed and her father, presumably, intending to remain at his desk some hours more. As she burrowed into her covers half an hour later, Elizabeth fell almost instantly asleep, the tension of the past four months all but gone.

Author's Note: This chapter was mainly intended to get all the characters on the same page, tie up a few loose ends and indulge in some fluffiness this story has lacked the last few installments. Dunno how much I like parts of it, I might go back and flesh it out more later, but I think I covered everything necessary. Hope you enjoyed all the making out, at least. The final section between Elizabeth and Mr Bennet I wrote just this morning, so do your best to ignore any minor mistakes (but tell me if you spot a major one). Coming up, they actually get married! Huzzah!

Okay, we really are winding down now. Just Mr and Mrs Bennet's POVs left and the epilogue. Whew! The last bits are just wrap up and the drama is over. You can come out from behind the blue couch now if you're still hiding there.

Next Update: July 24, 2020 (FRIDAY)
Expected Completion: July 31, 2020

– MrsMarySmythe

Footnotes:

(1) non compos mentis – the idea to threaten Mr Bennet with a suit to declare him non compos mentis came from R, my sometimes beta and legal researcher, who derived it from the language presented in The Marriage Act of 1753 which had a clause about what to do in cases where permission was difficult/impossible to obtain. It was primarily related to mothers and other guardians and didn't mention fathers specifically, hence the reason why Mr Knightley might be unsure of their success. Below is a scene written by R which explains it (and more) better than I can. Consider it a "cut scene" since it fits perfectly within the story.

Advice from Darcy's Solicitor re filing a Petition

"Mr. Darcy, you asked about exceptions to the Marriage Act that would enable you to marry Miss Bennet without her father's consent even though she is not yet 21. As you know, there is no impediment to your marrying in Scotland as such marriages are recognized as valid in England."

"My preference is to marry in England if at all possible."

"The only other exceptions do not appear to be applicable. The Royal family is exempt from the Marriage Act as are members of the Jewish faith and Quakers." Mr. Knightley looked up from his papers with a twinkle in his eye. "I do not suppose you have plans to change religion in the near future?"

Darcy shook his head.

"No? Well then let us move on."

"There is a provision in the Marriage Act that provides a colorable basis for you to obtain consent to marry notwithstanding Mr. Bennet's rejection of your suit. In cases where consent is unobtainable because a minor's parent or guardian is out of the country or is Non compos mentis, a term that means mental incompetence, or where consent is withheld unreasonably and with undue motives, the law permits the persons wishing to marry to petition the Lord Chancellor for consent."

"Let me caution you. I cannot represent that such a petition would be successful. Aside from anything else, the specific text of the provision granting the right to petition could be interpreted as applying only in circumstances where a guardian or mother refuses consent. It is unclear if it also applies to fathers. However, even if the law does not specifically refer to fathers, it is my belief that the Lord Chancellor possesses the authority to grant consent for a minor to marry if her father is deemed mentally incapable of giving such consent or unreasonably withholds his consent."

"Given what you have told me of your bride's circumstances and that of the man her father demands she marry, you may be able to establish Mr. Bennet is Non compos mentis or at least that he is unreasonably abusing his authority to give consent. Indeed, I can conceive of no rational reason any man would decline consent for his daughter to marry a gentleman with your fortune and reputation, a man who courted his daughter for months, a man his daughter wishes to marry. But to reject your suit in favor of a penniless man of unknown reputation who is not even a member of the gentry, someone who is completely unfamiliar to his daughter, belies reason."

"At the very least, I recommend that I send Mr. Bennet a letter notifying him of your intention to petition the Lord Chancellor for consent to marry Miss Bennet and encouraging him to obtain representation as his capacity to grant consent has been challenged. If you wish for me to do so, I will include the marriage settlement so he can understand exactly what he is refusing by denying his consent."