The Beginning of Hope

Part 1

A/N - Here we are at last, with book 2 in my series - I'm so sorry it took me so long to start uploading, but I'm here now, a chapter a day or thereabouts until we're done. Enjoy! xx

Of all the places in Longbourn, Lizzy still took refuge in her favourite spot, a particularly sunny window in the small room that the Bennets rather grandly referred to as The Library, even though its one wall lined with shelves did not house nearly enough books to justify the name.

One particularly cold morning, she was hunched over a book with a shawl pulled up over her head, offering her the dual benefit of warmth and to soften, a little, the twin distractions of Mary's music practice and Lydia and Kitty's bickering. The weather outside was grey, so even in this brightest of windows she had to squint to better read the text and was beginning to wonder if it was worth the effort at all when the door to the little room flew open and Jane skipped over the threshold.

"Here you are!" She barely seemed to notice Elizabeth's position but perched on the free corner of the window-seat, forcing Lizzy's knees up to her ears in a hurried attempt to make room. "Miss Bingley has invited me to dine at Netherfield!"

Jane's voice was dreamy and Lizzy closed her book with a thump, secretly relieved to be given an excuse to abandon her attempt to read.

"I did not realise you and Miss Bingley were such close friends," Lizzy said, slyly reaching for the card that Jane still clasped tight hold of.

"Oh!" Jane straightened, relinquishing her grip on the card and allowing Lizzy to look at it. "We are not!" She coloured, smiling as if that might hide her embarrassment. "At least, we are not yet." She laughed. "That is the reason she has invited me to call, I suppose!"

Lizzy quirked one eyebrow, tracing the careful penmanship that ostensibly belonged to Miss Caroline Bingley and seeing, behind her carefully-worded request, the hand of her brother, who was surely the one who truly wished for a closer acquaintance between his sister and Jane.

"You will go?" she asked, absently returning the card to Jane's outstretched hand. A glance out of the window prompted her next observation. "You shall need to take the carriage, of course. You cannot expect to make such a journey without cover. Even if it is not raining yet, it looks set to begin at any moment."

"Yes."

Something in Jane's voice suggested uncertainty, and when Lizzy looked at her she could sense that Jane was carefully avoiding her gaze. Her heart sank.

"What is the matter?" It seemed as if she already knew the answer Jane would give, and it was with great effort that her smile remained fixed in place as Jane's words came.

"Papa is reluctant to send the carriage with only one passenger. I thought, if there was a party of us going..."

"Has Miss Bingley invited a party?" Lizzy hoped the sourness in her voice was not too obvious, but even if it had been, Jane was so bent on her goal that she neither noticed nor responded to it.

"She will surely not expect me to travel there alone!"

"You make it sound as if Netherfield Park was not a little over three miles away!" Elizabeth protested. "We are both quite capable of walking that distance - and further!"

"Lizzy...." Jane's voice took on the same pleading manner that Elizabeth had never been able to refuse. Whilst her mind rallied against her, listing reason after reason why she should not care to call on Netherfield Park, now or any other day, her heart betrayed her. Not for Jane's sake did it urge her to go, but because it would once again press her into close society with Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy. She sighed, wondering just how long it would be before her foolish heart let go of its attachment to their handsome, aloof neighbour.

She could not confide any of this to Jane, of course. As far as her sister was aware, Elizabeth had first met Mr Darcy the same time she had, at the recent Meryton Assembly. There, the arrival of Netherfield Park's newest tenant, along with his sisters and friend, had been a point of great interest and discussion amongst all of their friends and neighbours.

For Elizabeth, however, it was the beginning of a nightmare. Mr Bingley's friend had been none other than Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy, a stranger to all in Meryton except for Elizabeth, who recognised not only the name but the man himself. They had met one enchanted summer several years before. Lizzy bit her lip. Met, and fallen in love. At least, one of us did. Her feelings had not been reciprocated, though, for Mr Darcy had vanished without a word and never cared to contact her again. He had disappeared from her life and she had given up the thought of ever loving another. She had just begun to think herself free of him when fate saw fit to intertwine their paths once more.

"Lizzy?" Jane grew impatient. "I do not believe I have ever seen you so silent! Is it so dreadful a chore to accompany me to Netherfield Park? I thought you liked Mr Bingley."

"I do," Lizzy said, hurrying to smooth Jane's ruffled feathers and to prevent her from discovering the true reason for her reluctance to make the short journey and call on their neighbours. "I just thought it likely one of the others would prefer to go with you. Perhaps Lydia?" She was only too aware of the desperate edge to her voice and strove to soften it with a smile when a shriek emanated from the parlour. "Or Kitty?"

"Well..." Jane considered this, evidently a little reluctant to extend the invitation to her two youngest sisters, who were liable to create drama and upset wherever they went. Lizzy could only imagine the trouble the pair might cause to the already delicate connection between Jane and Mr Bingley and reluctantly threw herself into the breach.

"I am teasing you, of course!" She laughed, but the sound was a little wooden even to her ears. "Give me a moment to ready myself and I will be more than happy to accompany you!"

It was a lie, but only a partial one. However much her mind railed against the thought of seeing Mr Darcy again, her heart was only too eager to be around him once more, to see if they might find some way, somehow, to look past the shared disappointment of their past and forge a new friendship. More than that, she knew how well her sister thought of Mr Bingley and if either of them deserved a chance at a happy future and marriage, it was Jane, the sweetest and kindest of all her sisters. Lizzy would move heaven and earth to see her sister happily matched, and if that meant putting herself once more in Mr Darcy's path, then she would do it.

Drawing a long, fortifying breath, she shrugged out of her shawl, folding it into a pile with her book and leaving both on the windowsill, where she might easily find them upon her return, and headed towards the door, with Jane on her heels.

"Oh, Lizzy!" she trilled, clapping her hands with excitement. "What a delightful time we shall have! I am sure you shall come to admire Miss Bingley as much as I do. She is quite accomplished, you know, and her brother speaks so very highly of her..."