Darcy found Elizabeth in the sunny lane leading to her home. She was dressed for walking in a practical bonnet and sturdy boots. And as Darcy approached, she lifted her head in a very workaday smile.

"Mr Darcy! I did not think to meet anyone abroad so early."

"You know my habits of late nights. You must surmise therefore that I am also familiar with dawn." Darcy dismounted and led his horse. Trees arched overhead and the early sun formed dappled patterns on the dusty ground.

"That is true. We have been night owls, and now are larks." Yet Elizabeth did not smile at the comparison.

They walked on in an uncomfortable silence. Darcy bore it for some distance, then stopped beside a venerable hawthorn and tethered hs horse. From his coat he drew out Elizabeth's glove. "I came to return this."

She took it and held it in one hand, awkwardly. "I had not missed it," she said.

"I came also to tell you -"

Darcy heard his voice, stiff and stern as it had been of old, and tried again. His disappointment was no reflection on Elizabeth's actions. The anger in his heart was entirely for himself. "Miss Bennet, I am going away. You are engaged to Mr Collins. I will not stay to witness his triumph. I cannot."

Elizabeth took a breath. She glanced up at Darcy with more of the uncertainty he had observed as they walked. "There has been a - an alteration in that regard."

He stared at her. Hope sprang up in his breast and he battered it down. But he had to know the facts, and at once. "What alteration? -You are too good to trifle with me, Miss Bennet. Tell me plainly."

Elizabeth pressed her lips together, nodded, then said deliberately, "Mr Collins is now engaged to my sister Mary."

"Good god." Darcy's hand went to his hair and tore a little, then fell, all seemingly of its own volition.

"She tended him after he fell from his horse. A mutual interest in worthy quotations emerged - and, I hazard, a mutual interest in despair of those who do not have a nugget of wisdom to hand every moment."

Elizabeth gave a reluctant smile up through her lashes at Darcy. He could not speak. Ideas whirled within him. She continued, "Mr Darcy, by the time we returned your sister to Pemberley, the deed was already done, and I was supplanted in Mr Collins' affections by my excellent sister."

Darcy heard her smiling tone but could not be certain of its meaning. "Elizabeth -"

"My sister is very happy in her prospects," she said, "and I am free."

He caught hold of her hands. "Then we must - congratulate her. Them. At once."

"Indeed," she said, her eyes sparkling. Her fingers pressed hard around his own and she and he stood foolishly under the hawthorn, making no attempt to pass it. "On such a happy occasion we must not be backward in our celebration. For my part, it would present the appearance of meanness of spirit, perhaps of jealousy, which as I will assure anybody, I do not feel at all. I congratulate Mr Collins and his future wife with all my heart."

"As do I," Darcy said.

They walked on, with a new ease between them. At the gates of Elizabeth's home a groom ran to fetch Darcy's horse. Elizabeth hesitated, and then gestured towards the garden. Darcy willingly complied.

"Mr Collins and Mary will marry soon, and return to Rosings. Mr Collins is eager to continue his work with his flock." Elizabeth led them into the orchard, where the early sun streamed low through the gnarled trees. "My sister Kitty is to go with them. Mary will want a companion, Kitty is very eager to please Lady Catherine, and Jane and I hope that Lady Catherine's... guiding hand will prove a steadying influence on Kitty."

Darcy pictured his aunt, guiding the wide-eyed and awed Kitty. "I'm certain they will find it a beneficial acquaintance. My aunt loves the company of those who long to be improved."

"Kitty's playing is so very indifferent that Lady Catherine can never want for ways to improve her."

"My aunt is an authority on all she sees," Darcy said. "I confess that sometimes her wisdom is a little hard to stand."

Elizabeth laughed then, and Darcy offered her his arm. She took it very naturally, and they strolled on.

"Miss Bennett," said Darcy as they roamed among the apple trees. Ripe fruit hung above their heads. "Elizabeth."

"Mr Darcy?"

"It may be too soon after your recent - disappointment -"

"-My recent change of circumstances -"

"Yes - but perhaps, at some point in the future, you might consider -" He ceased, and turned to her. "Daring and beautiful Elizabeth. You know me as master of Pemberley. You know me as a man who will not tolerate criminals. You fear nothing, have braved much at ny side, and I hope I can be no terror to you. Will you consider again my offer?"

"What offer is that?"

She would tease him, then. Well, through his own tardiness he had caused her great pain. He deserved at least this. "To honour - all your aspects."

"Good and bad?" she asked archly.

He winced. "Yes."

She raised her eyebrows.

"No! That is - Please, cast my words from your memory. They were the work of a foolish moment and a head made too hot by your proximity."

"Oh! So your offensive words are themselves a product of the qualities they describe! I find your apology somewhat difficult to identify. Which part was most regretful, the part where you accused me of bad habits, or the part where you blamed those habits for making you accuse me of them?" She was laughing, however, and ducking beneath the laden boughs.

"Stop!" He caught her hands. "You mock me. You know very well that I do nor consider any aspect of yours, a bad one."

"Even my relations?" she asked, and struck where he could not deny.

"I will be frank with you," he began.

"Stop," she said , lifting a gloved finger to his lips. "I will not make you give a falsehood. Nor do I wish to hear blunt truths. I am aware of flaws."

"Elizabeth- "

"Yes," she said . "I have considered your offer, and my answer is yes. "

He could not believe it. "Truly?"

"If you question me I may begin to question myself and doubt my answer. "

"I will never question you," he declared, and she laughed aloud.

"You set a terrible precedent," she said, squeezing his hand.

"A terrible, beautiful one," he agreed. "For if I never question you then all decisions must lie with you, and I must be ever at your side to manage the estate, the farm, the animals - "

She laughed again and wound her arm through his. "You rival Mr Collins with his practical proposal."

"Never that," Darcy said fervently.

They walked a little and then Darcy stopped. She looked up at him, her face alive with dappled shadow. "Yes," she said again, and he kissed her.

There remained several small difficulties, the main of which was to explain their attachment, when many who knew them would say they had barely spoken. "It was all in our looks," Elizabeth suggested to her father and mother, as the happy couple gave their news.

"You cannot marry on looks alone," said Mr Bennet, with a glance in the direction of Mrs Bennet. "Something more solid is required."

A heavy pistol, thought Darcy, a black cloak and a dark night, but he only nodded, and said, "I trust my household will prove solid enough for Miss Bennet."

"Lizzie," said Mr Bennet in an undertone which Darcy affected not to hear. "This must not be the work of a moment. You have lost one - opportunity, to be sure, but you need not grasp at another so soon."

"It is never too soon to marry well," said Mrs Bennet sharply. She turned a beaming eye on Darcy, who, never having been so favoured, flinched bodily.

"Our attachment has grown over many months," Elizabeth assured her father. "Were it not for Mr Darcy's - natural reticence - "

"Were it not for that we should have been wed already by now," Darcy agreed.

"I do not know what to say," Mr Bennet said. "Lizzie, if you wish this match -."

"I do wish it. Mr Darcy has been a great friend to our family."

"And Miss Bennet to mine," Darcy returned.

" -Then I must give you my blessing."

It happened as Darcy had feared. A roomful of women, shrieking their joy and amazement, and he and Mr Bennet standing by quite unnecessary, until his future father said, "My library, Mr Darcy? I've the day's papers, and good brandy, and very thick walls." And Darcy nodded in relief, and caught Elizabeth's amused smile as they escaped.

Mrs Bennet's strident tones rang out in triumph as the door closed. "Four daughters married!"

Ah, thought Darcy, the objects of life attained: a household, a spouse, and security. Except that in his case he hoped for adventure and daring and passion besides. One glance at Elizabeth, bright and teasing in the midst of her family's celebrations had told him that her heart still matched his in this, and Darcy resolved to drink his brandy, make swift arrangements for the soonest possible nuptials, and hurry home to convey his good news to Georgiana.

The End.

Author's note: Thank you for reading and for all your reviews. I have enjoyed writing this and my Nano novel this year is going to be a similar style Sherlock Holmes journal based story, if you're interested. As always, feedback on this story is much appreciated, and requests are also taken... -Sef