The beginning of February brought heavy rains, not much sunshine and a terrible cold wind to Hertfordshire. Many of the elderly said it had never been this bad since at least 50 years and the farmers worried about their fields not recovering from the ensuing flood early enough for spring sowing.

But for Mrs. Harrison and all her worrying family, February brought only sunshine. After days of waiting at her little daughter's bed and staying up late, crying about the poor girls temperature not going down, Bitsy had finally recovered from scarlet fever. She was announced well enough to finally move from her sick bed to the sitting room on the 6th of February and she did so with so much good cheer that all the tired adults caring for her were quite startled at first, but then quickly and much relieved joined in her laughter.

—

When Lady Lucas had advised her to push Mary's wedding back, Mrs. Bennet had only laughed into her neighbors face. How could Lady Lucas even think she would consider changing something when she finally almost had another daughter married off?

But now, that Bitsy was recovered and she had only one more week till the wedding, Mrs. Bennet looked back on her laughter and shuddered. What on earth had she been thinking? A week was not even enough to plan a proper engagement party, let alone a wedding! And especially not with a child like Mary, who would need help every step of the way, to not mess this up!

Thus distraught, Mrs. Bennet sunk into her armchair, fluttering her handkerchief and trying to decide if she could call Hill for some refreshments, when her husband came in: "Oh Mrs. Bennet, please tell me these are happy tears? I do not think this household would survive another member almost dying from the rash."

Sitting more upright, looked at him reproachful: "How can you joke about this, when Bitsy has just recovered?"

"Forgive me, dear. By God, you know how relieved I am to find our little darling girl in good health again.", Mr. Bennet sighed and sat down opposite to his wife: "But what is troubling you now? Should we not be happy and rejoice in her good health?"

"Oh of course I am happy! Deliriously so! But we have to delay Mary's wedding and it is giving me a terrible headache!", Mrs. Bennet exclaimed.

"Why would we delay Mary's wedding? Has she finally gotten second thoughts about her stupid fiance? If she has, I would say we grab this golden opportunity and call the wedding off completely. I am sure Collins would come around eventually.", the older man smirked almost boyishly.

"Do not be ridiculous, Mr. Bennet. She does not have second thoughts.", Mrs. Bennet shook her head vehemently.

"Why would we need to delay the wedding then?", Mr. Bennet asked in confusion.

"Because there is nothing planned! And Lady Lucas will never stop talking about it, if the wedding breakfast lacks anything. I have a reputation to uphold! Jane's wedding was so beautiful! Do you remember how pretty she looked?"

"I am afraid to tell you this, but I do not think Mary could rival Jane's look, no matter how many weeks you delayed the wedding.", Mister Bennet chuckled: "And if it is only the preparation that worries you, I am sure we can manage. That damned husband of Jane's has to be good for something, has he not? I am sure we can get everything shipped in from London just fine."

"Do you really think so?", Mrs. Bennet asked her husband, a small smile playing on her lips.

"Of course I think so. If anyone could pull a wedding off in one week, it is certainly you, dear Frances."

—

God had forgotten her, Kitty was sure about it. And if he had not, he was strangely fascinated with messing up her life.

When she had heard that Bitsy was recovered, Kitty had rejoiced in happiness. For all her fascination with Mister Bingley, she still cared about her family more than anything and fearing for the little girl had made her completely miserable. She had at least dropped four pounds with fretting about her. We do

But now that Bitsy was healthy and there was no point in worrying about her, she began worrying for Mister Bingley's affection again. And there certainly was much to worry about, as he had not once declared any special regard for her while she had stayed at Netherfield. He had been nice of course. A good host. Jovial and always up for some entertainment, but he did not seem to care if that entertainment came from playing chess with his friend Darcy, singing to Lizzy's piano playing, joking with Laurie or talking with her.

And then there was the marked attention he paid to Jane. Of course she had it difficult with Bitsy being sick and her husband being away at work, but was that any reason to send her fruit baskets from London practically every second day? Especially in this winter cold, Kitty shuddered to think what amounts of money Mister Bingley had probably spend on them.

But of course he was much wealthier than any of them and had more money than he could spend on himself. And it certainly showed that he was a kind and caring gentleman and friend! And he was so good with children!

Maybe he only needed some more time to propose.

Maybe it was a good sign that he had not said anything while she was staying under his roof. After all that would have been very ungentlemanly. So maybe it was good that she went home now as unattached as she had been before. Surely Mary's wedding would get him thinking in the right direction again.

—

"Miss Bennet, I am not that good with children, but I thought Miss Bitsy may enjoy this book of fables?", Elizabeth looked up in surprise. Mister Darcy and her had been reading in comfortable silence in the library, but now he was suddenly standing in front of her, holding a small book.

"That is a very kind idea, Mister Darcy. She always loves to hear new stories, thank you.", she said and took the book with a smile. Opening it she found a name written on the first page. F. Darcy was standing there, in clear and round letters only a very diligent little child would write.

"Oh Mister Darcy! I cannot take it if it is one of your one books. Shouldn't you gift it to your sister? I am sure she would love to read it to her little one when it is old enough.", Elizabeth exclaimed.

"I do not think she would, Miss Bennet.", he said with an absent look on his face and then, before Elizabeth could decide on what to say to this, he suddenly left the room, closing the door behind him almost forcefully.

—

On Tuesday, the whole family had settled in at home again and preparations for Mary's wedding where in full swing.

Mister Bennet had been right. They had been able to outsource some of the tasks to London and with all of their daughters at home, there was truly nothing that could not be finished. Especially as Mary was not the most demanding of brides and spend most of her days reading her bible and not really caring what her mother decided about the flowers or how her dress looked.

To some unknowing onlooker she would have seemed like the most relaxed bride, but to her family it was clear that Mary was everything but relaxed and it was slowly but surely grating on everyones nerves.

When she had still not tried on her dress on Friday and was instead complaining that there was not enough time for a proper service on Sunday with all the hype about the wedding breakfast, her youngest sister finally had enough.

"Oh stop fussing now, Mary. One would think you are preparing to go to a monastery and not get married. You do realize that a wedding is supposed to be fun? By god, you will not be having much of it after you married Mister Collins. Try to enjoy the circus now at least. You know how important it is to Mama.", Lydia exclaimed angrily.

"A wedding is not supposed to be fun. It is supposed to enter two people into", Mary started to say sulkily, but was interrupted by Lydia again: "Oh, cut it. We both know that you are going against God's commandments anyways. What did Titus say again about loving your husband?"

"What do you know about love? You are just a spoilt child, running around the country side, trying to start some stupid revolution and not even realizing how much trouble you are for everyone!", Mary retorted with fury. That Lydia of all people would try telling her something about love!

"I am spoilt? Well, at least I am not marrying someone just to spite a man that has never even cared an ounce for me.", Lydia spit back and banged the door to her room almost into Mary's face.

Left alone in the corridor, Mary stayed looking at the dark door for a few minutes. Stupid Lydia! If she had not been trapping around that schoolhouse, Mary would have never found herself in this situation. Mister Brown would have surely realized how much better Mary was for him, if it had not been for her more prettier sister!

—

Lydia could not sleep. Wrapped in her blanket, she was standing at her open window and breathing in the cold night air. It had finally stopped raining and the sky had cleared up, stars twinkling above.

Of course Mary was confused. One might even call her crazy, after all she was marrying one of the silliest men Lydia had ever met! And Lydia did not give much for Mary's opinion even if she was not in lovesick disarray. But Mary's words, uttered in anger and without much thought, had hit Lydia with full speed.

Since Papa had hired Miss Jennings for the school, she almost felt like her help was not needed anymore. Of course the children still loved her and she still loved them, but she did just not love coming to school anymore. It had lost some of its initial excitement.

And Mister Brown was still behaving so strangely. Lydia would have never admitted it to anyone, but sometimes she almost felt afraid of him. And sometimes, just sometimes though, she woke up at night, sweating and crying and with vivid memories of his terrible proposal. Of course that was stupid and utterly silly, after all he had not really hurt her. But somehow she could not really help it.

—

The good weather stayed on and Sunday morning, the sun shone bright through Mary's window, waking her up even earlier than usual.

Looking over at the dress hanging against her door, she was surprised to find herself smiling. Not a forceful smile like the one she had bestowed on her fiance after he had arrived in Hertfordshire yesterday, but a genuine one.

Her dress was nothing extravagant like Jane's had been. But it was the prettiest pale green color that would look great against her complexion and emphasize her eyes and if there was one day a girl was allowed to be vain, it certainly was her wedding day.

Now, she only had to make sure that none of her sisters spoilt her big day after all.

—

The church in Meryton was full to the brim, when Mary Bennet became Mrs. Collins. Maybe because it was the first pretty morning after so many days of rain, maybe because nobody had truly believed that Mary would be the next Bennet sister to marry, maybe because everyone wanted to get a slice of the cake from London at the wedding breakfast afterwards.

Whatever the reason, the guests came and enjoyed themselves immensely.

While nobody found Mary pretty, they all agreed that she looked charming. While her husband was not the most charismatic one, he certainly knew how to talk a lot and while Mrs. Bennet would never stop talking about the fact that she had pulled a wedding off in just a weeks time, they all had to agree that it was nothing anyone would stop talking about. Not when there had been such lavish flowers and such fancy food!

—

Mister Darcy had been standing just two meters from Elizabeth at the window for over ten minutes, when he finally turned around and addressed her: "Miss Bennet, it seems that I have to apologize to you. I should not have left our conversation so rudely. I did not mean to."

"I did not think you meant to.", she answered and when he did not say anything else but just kept standing there she added:"Bitsy and I have read one of the fables yesterday. I am not sure how much she understood, but she loved the pictures."

"They are really good. My mother would copy them for me and I would hang them up all over my room, when I was younger.", Mister Darcy said with a chuckle and Elizabeth thought that he looked much too attractive for such a strange gentleman when he was smiling.

—

"I was so happy to see you with your daughter at church today, Mrs. Harrison. I trust Miss Bitsy is recovering well?"

"She is, Mister Bingley. I have just put her down for a nap now, all the excitement was a bit too much so early in. But we are all so happy she is back to health now, so that we can finally return home."

"You are planning on returning to London already?", Mister Bingley asked and if Jane had thought any more about him than she did, she would have noticed how startled he was.

But she did not and only said with a smile: "Of course we are. We stayed much longer at Longbourn than we had planned. The children long for their own rooms again."

"But do you think traveling now would be wise? All the roads must be in a terrible condition."

"You are too kind to worry so much about my Bitsy. But there is no reason to, my husband has travelled here from London just yesterday and he was fully satisfied with the roads. Have you been introduced to him properly already? I am sure he would be a much more interesting conversation partner than I have been, Mister Bingley."

And so, Mister Bingley was introduced to General Harrison and spent all of the remaining wedding listening to the gentleman's opinion on the roads from London to Meryton in particular and how the English roadkeeping affected the war supplies in general instead of conversing with the General's certainly much more interesting and particularly more lovely wife.

—

I just feel terrible for the long time I have deserted this story! I wanted to update it again much earlier than this, but life got in the way and I was much too busy and not nearly patient enough to properly sit down and write something that could do this story justice.
I hope you will forgive me and enjoy reading this new chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it! What do you think about these new developments? Do you think Mary can be happy as Mrs. Collins? Hopefully nobody is turned off too much by the fact that there is not as much Darcy/Lizzy interaction in my little story as there is in other fanfics. I just love to explore where live takes all the different Bennet sisters, but if it gets too confusing you have to tell me!