Duped and the settling of scores.

AN/ again I post a story on a whim. I do not know how long it will take me to finish this, but I will finish it somehow as well as the Darcy twins. I still have a muddled mind, and I do not think it will ease soon, (I am not happy with it, -understatement- but it is as it is,) so you will have to have patience.

This is an AU story, which partly follows canon. Blurb; when Elizabeth goes to Hunsford, she is aware of Wickham's character. Bingley and his sisters are the villains here. In this story, Darcy did not steer Bingley from Jane and is unaware about what happened to her. Darcy did not slight Elizabeth at the assembly. ;D. Well, nobody heard it, that is. Darcy and Elizabeth had had a tentative friendship in Hertfordshire before Bingley and his sisters abruptly decided to leave the neighbourhood.

Chapter 1

When Elizabeth Bennet found out about the wrongdoings of Charles Bingley to her most beloved sister Jane, she vowed Charles Bingley and his sisters would be held accountable. After the disastrous ball at Netherfield Park, the Bingleys, Hursts, and their friend Darcy left on a caprice or had it been intentional, nobody had seemed to know, but she intended to find out. The letter Miss Bingley had sent to Jane had all the telling of duplicity.

In all of her life, Elizabeth had under no circumstances seen Jane that troubled. Thank God, for their discreet aunt Gardiner. Finally, after a lot of anguish for the oldest Bennet sisters, the Gardiners visited at Christmastide. Their staid and dependable aunt had helped Jane see that there would be no consequences as she had feared, before they took her to London to get some reprieve from her mother's lamentations over losing Mr. Bingley's suit.

This experience had altered Elizabeth and Jane, Jane had always been, more so than Elizabeth, an innocent, unassuming, and gentle girl, but now she had become angry and disillusioned of men. Although Elizabeth and her aunt were relieved Jane did not cower and retreat into herself, Elizabeth would never forgive the cad, ever!

Then when Jane and Elizabeth's life turned upside down, an upset Lydia and distraught Kitty had told Elizabeth and Jane about the conversation she and Kitty had overheard in Meryton only days after the Netherfield ball. Their former favourite and his comrades had fallen hard from their pedestal, and had confronted the young girls with their own faulty comportment and lack of propriety, which the older sisters thought was a blessing in disguise. The realization that hit Elizabeth and Jane the hardest was that even when their comportment was beyond reproach it was not a given that they would be treated as a lady, it was daunting.

All this commotion had changed the Bennet family. Their parents were ignorant to all that had happened to their girls that autumn. Although Mr. and Mrs. Bennet were coming aware that their youngest daughters altered significantly as they did not chase officers any more and took on a education in comportment and the general accomplishments expected from a gentlewoman, which their eldest sisters started to teach them before Jane left with the Gardiner's and Elizabeth went to visit her friend Charlotte in Kent. Their mother had ranted that her girls must get out and catch a husband, but the girls had kindly declined the privilege, knowing now what their fate might be if they did not change. Only Mary was happy because she was the one teaching them on the pianoforte and that gave her a sense of belonging and regard, she had even quit her moralizing in the process.

Moreover, it might be a surprise but the youngest girls had the same experience, they had now a place in all their sisters' esteem and they felt a little secured again.

Mr. Bennet was thus astounded by their conduct, that he welcomed his 'silly' daughters to read from his library and even discus the contents of what they read for their education and understanding. This left Mrs. Bennet mostly on her own, as she did not have a clue how to proceed and was shocked into silence at the turn of events.

Elizabeth thought it most likely that Darcy might have information on Bingley, however, how was she to contact Darcy without compromising herself that was still a mystery? How she hated that man Bingley, and how had her view on the world and of men altered in that fateful autumn.

Mr. Darcy had been reticent and aloof most of the time he was in Hertfordshire for sure, but in hindsight, she found he had behaved, as a gentleman should. He did not go around, raising hope and doing despicable things to women, while Wickham, the militia officers, and Bingley behaved immorally.

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think please.