An End to Estrangement - A Pride and Prejudice Variation

Part 22

A/N - Happy Easter everyone! I hope, however your celebrations might be different this year, you are still able to make the most of this weekend and spend time doing things you love xxx

Four years previously...

"Well, Miss Bennet. How does Green Park compare with your perception of its neighbours? Or is St. James's still your favourite?"

Darcy smiled as he spoke, watching Elizabeth carefully, for her answer would show in her face long before she opened her mouth to speak.

"I like it well enough," she conceded, tilting her head to one side. "Although I confess, it is improved by the weather making it particularly lovely today."

Darcy conceded her point. Even he could not fail to appreciate the beauty of the park on that sunniest of days, fully living up to its name. Everywhere he looked was green, complementing the blue of the sky and the myriad colours of their neighbours, all clad in their summer finery and enjoying being out of doors as much as he was.

"Now, Mr Darcy, do not think I did not notice your attempt to evade giving an answer to my question by offering me one of your own. I do not for one moment think you care all that much to know my preference for London's parks and green spaces." Her expression grew serious. "You were telling me about your friend, Mr -" She paused, colouring a little as she uttered what she knew was not the correct name. "Wainwright? Rackham?"

"Wickham," Darcy said, with a sigh. It seemed, these days, he was incapable of speaking the name Wickham without a sigh, for he did despair of his friend and sought Elizabeth's advice on how best to manage him.

"Mr Wickham." Elizabeth nodded. "Go on."

"I am not sure I know how!" Darcy admitted. They walked on in companionable silence for a moment but despite his protestations he soon found himself speaking quite openly and freely. Truly, this was one of the blessings of his short acquaintance with Elizabeth Bennet. He was not sure he had ever found a person so easy to speak to, or so adept at worming the truth out of him whenever he lapsed into habitual silence. She was not put off by his reticence, which had successfully kept many other folks - men and women alike - at bay, but she never pushed him beyond what he was comfortable to speak of, and that made him all the more inclined to share.

"It is not that Wickham is a bad person...I am not sure anybody is truly a bad person, not when one cuts right to the quick, but Wickham cares only about Wickham, or so it seems to me. He does precisely as he pleases, and hang the consequences." He frowned. "Even if those consequences mean harm to other people." Glancing up at Elizabeth, he smiled. "Figuratively, at least. You must not imagine I am friends with a cut-throat."

Elizabeth laughed good-naturedly and turned to peer over her shoulder, holding one hand up to shield her face from the bright afternoon sun.

Darcy followed her gaze, separating out the figures of her aunt and uncle, who were walking rather slower than the youngsters, permitting them a degree of privacy whilst still maintaining enough of a presence to ensure propriety.

"I suppose your uncle might be rather grateful if we could find an alternative occupation to always walking," he remarked, noticing how red-faced and breathless Mr Gardiner looked in contrast to his considerably younger, considerably fitter wife. Darcy consulted his watch. "Perhaps we should stop and take tea. There is a place just beyond the next gate."

Elizabeth approved of this notion, and they walked all the quicker that they might arrive sooner, chatting light-heartedly about the weather, acquaintances, the trees they passed. Elizabeth displayed a fascination with botany, although she was but a little educated on that subject, and tested the limits of Darcy's recollection of the Latin names of various plants until his brains began to hurt.

"No more!" he exclaimed, holding up his hands in surrender. "I have exhausted my knowledge of flora and fauna and will not embarrass myself further!"

"Very well," Elizabeth conceded, with a mischievous smile. "I will acknowledge your ignorance in this instance." She laughed. "Although you do realise you might just as well have continued and invented some likely-sounding names, for I should never be able to tell the difference!"

Darcy groaned, too honest for his own good, and Elizabeth slipped her hand contentedly into the crook of his arm, growing serious at last. She glanced behind her to ascertain that they would still have a few moments together before her aunt and uncle caught up to them, and steered Darcy to a bench to await their companions.

"You know, Mr Darcy, I have so enjoyed getting to see London with you. You have been very kind to show me so many fine places."

Darcy's smile caught. Was that all she thought? That he was showing kindness to a visitor to the great town in which he was himself familiar?

"I shall return home soon," she continued, her voice wistful. "And so must bid you farewell."

"And I must return to Pemberley," Darcy said, examining his cuff with care. "I don't suppose - that is, I wonder -"

"Darcy! Here you are!"

Wickham's greeting reached the couple long before he did, and Darcy glanced up, standing to greet his guest or to keep him from addressing Elizabeth directly, he was not sure which.

"Wickham, I -"

"Yes, yes, I am quite sure you are busy. You are not alone in that." Wickham glanced past Darcy, who squared his shoulders, obscuring Elizabeth from view. "I came only to deliver this, on the instructions of your housekeeper. She said I might find you here." His smile grew smug as he handed Darcy a note addressed to him in an unfamiliar hand.

Darcy reached for it, but Wickham did not immediately relinquish his hold, forcing Darcy to meet his gaze.

"Don't you have errands of your own to attend to?"

"Quite so," Wickham said, stifling a yawn. "And if you'll see fit to give me a coin or two for my trouble I shall be on my way." He grinned shamelessly, and let go of Darcy's note with a flourish. "I have done you a favour, after all."

Irritably, Darcy found a coin and handed it over, barely raising his hand in a wave as Wickham left. He broke the seal of his note and was already reading it when he turned back towards Elizabeth, who had risen to join him. Something of his shock at the contents of the short missive must have shown in his face, for she laid a concerned hand on his arm.

"What is the matter?" she asked. "It is not bad news, I hope?"

Darcy's throat tightened and he blinked as the writing before him swam.

Your father is gravely ill. Indeed, by the time you receive this letter, it might already be too late...

"I am afraid it is, Miss Bennet. Forgive me, I must review our plans to take tea. This -" His hand clutched the letter so tightly that it creased. "This requires urgent action on my part. Excuse me. I - Good day." He paused, dropping in a quick, distracted bow, before hurrying away. "Good day."