Mr. Bennet considered it passing odd when the wheels of a heavy carriage rolled up to Longbourn several hours before noon the day after Georgiana Darcy’s wedding in London. The hour was too early for social calls.

The window of Mr. Bennet’s study faced the garden, not the carriageway. Mr. Bennet preferred it this way, because he liked seeing the hedges and trees, especially when they bloomed in spring. Today his view consisted of the brown bare branches of winter, as his plants waited the end of the frosts and that message of warmth telling them to burst into beautiful vibrant bloom. The old oak tree in the center of the window had lived here for as long as Bennets had been at Longbourn.

Mr. Bennet shrugged. He returned his attention to a large volume detailing the excavations of the Roman site at Pompeii, with many finely done engravings and descriptions of the location. He had subscribed several pounds, he had forgotten how many in the interval, to the project which produced this volume seventeen years before. This was a better outcome than many such subscriptions, where the money disappeared, but the scholar died or absconded to foreign climes, and the promised production of science never emerged.

If this early visitor required his attention rather than Mrs. Bennet’s, such need would be revealed soon enough.

So it was while Mr. Bennet studied the fascinating paintings found on the walls of houses in Pompeii that his daughter Elizabeth burst into the room.

Mr. Bennet blinked at her and stood, smiling. “I am surprised to see you. I had believed I would not see you for several days more. Why so early? Nothing ill happened to Gardiner or Jane?”

“No nothing. Nothing of that sort.” Lizzy chewed her lip, nervously.

“Well what brought you so early? Sit; let me show you this book. We have waited for this volume since before the year eighteen hundred. The parcel arrived yesterday.”

“Papa, I—” Lizzy swallowed, glanced around the room, and ran her hand through her hair.

“My dear daughter.” Mr. Bennet stepped up to Lizzy and took her hand. “Whatever is the matter?”

“I do not know how you shall take it — this must surprise you — but I am to marry Mr. Darcy.”

“Again?” Mr. Bennet tilted his head and widened his eyes, as though surprised, though he was not. “You gave me to understand you mistook a mistake when you entered your previous engagement to that young gentleman.”

“I did. We did not speak sufficiently about our hopes and demands. But now we have made all clear.”

“All clear? That is a speedy working upon your part.”

Lizzy nodded, eagerly, her cheeks shining.

“I cannot approve of repeatedly breaking and entering engagements. What shall the neighbors think? You do gain the advantage of them offering congratulations a second time, but that imposition upon their good nature is—”

“Papa!” Elizabeth sat down in a huff. “I am not in jest.”

“I know.” Mr. Bennet smiled widely at her. “Pray tell, how did such a remarkable event come about? Darcy brought himself to London? Or was this arranged via letter?”

“Of course he brought himself to London — are you being difficult purposefully?”

“Pray tell further, have you studied this matter with your reason this time? Are you satisfied there is no chance of a mistake?”

Lizzy glared at him. Then she softened. “I am more… We have spoken, he understands why I became so angry. He will always listen to me — and he swore an oath as a gentleman to never make a choice for me, and since he is too gentlemanly, I can trust him to keep such an oath. Besides he can learn.”

“A gentleman who can learn?”

“Yes!” Lizzy grinned. “Am I not excessively blessed by fortune? I have caught in my clutching woman’s claws the only one.”

“As a gentleman, I claim also the ability to learn.”

“Oh, you aren’t a gentleman, you are Papa.” Lizzy kissed him on the cheek. “If you are teasing me so, you are not so dissatisfied as last time.”

“Nor am I uncommonly surprised. He attended his sister’s wedding?” At Lizzy’s nod, Mr. Bennet added, “It speaks well for his family feeling that he did not let pride stand betwixt them, and that he could accept such a choice as she made. And I imagine he engaged in pretty speechmaking to you.”

“Very pretty — do you wish to hear the particulars?”

“Do you yearn to share such with your father?”

“We—” Lizzy blushed and shook her head. “I am supremely and completely happy this time. A happy marriage shall require effort, work, and compromise — though to Mr. Darcy, I will not need to submit myself to him, as we are agreed in all matters to be equals. And—”

“Such an extraordinary young man!”

Lizzy stuck her tongue out at Mr. Bennet. “You shall not annoy me today. My Mr. Darcy is perfect, and tall, and he does listen to me, and he will argue matters philosophical and absurdical with me whenever I choose.”

“Then I am entirely happy for you.”

“I shall now bring Mr. Darcy in.” Lizzy clapped. “You shall not tease him excessively — but pray, question him at however great length you wish.”

“That is hardly necessary,” Mr. Bennet replied, as Lizzy went to door. “I already had one interview on this subject with Mr. Darcy, and I despise deja vu.”

Upon the door being opened, Mr. Bennet was presented with the odd spectacle of his wife berating a tall and immaculately dressed man, who made a small bow of submission each time Mrs. Bennet stabbed her finger towards his chest.

“You will let my Lizzy run on, just as much as Mr. Bennet does! Nothing like how you treated darling Georgiana.”

“Of course not, madam,” Mr. Darcy replied with a bow.

“Heavens, I am most seriously displeased with you, and it shall take at least a week of the most loverlike behavior from you towards my daughter for you to exit my black books.”

Another elegant bow. “I deserve nothing else.”

“And you will return to my blackest books if you annoy Lizzy ever again.”

“Mama!” Lizzy exclaimed. “Do not berate Mr. Darcy.”

Mrs. Bennet raised her nose and sniffed. “Someone must. He has quite too high an opinion of himself. Even if he does have ten thousand a year and likely more.”

Mr. Darcy bowed again, and Mr. Bennet ascertained a wry smile. “I do, Mrs. Bennet. Much too high.”

“Mama, you snatch my task. My chief burden and consolation is to berate Mr. Darcy until he considers himself as only a little more august than an ordinary man.” Lizzy laughed happily.

Darcy now bowed to Lizzy, in exactly the same manner he had been bowed to Mrs. Bennet. “Exactly so, madam.”

“Enough dilly-dallying! Mr. Darcy, I understand you have business to conduct with me, a second time on the same matter. In my day, we didn’t bother a father every time we had a falling out with our diamond jewel.” As the bows seemed to work so well for Mr. Darcy, Mr. Bennet imitated him by bowing to Mrs. Bennet. “Not that I ever fell out with you, my dear.”

Mrs. Bennet in reply flutteringly pressed a hand against her cheeks, and from her wink Mr. Bennet suspected her bedroom door would be open to him this night.

With a furious scowl Mr. Bennet glared at Darcy. “Fashions change. Fashions change.”

So saying, Mr. Bennet waved Darcy into the room, and waved Lizzy and Mrs. Bennet away. “You both may order the gentleman around at your leisure once I have done with him.”

They entered the book-lined study, and Mr. Bennet closed and locked his door behind Mr. Darcy.

“That is an ominous sound,” the gentleman said, walking to the desk. He put his hand on Lizzy’s chair to move it around.

“Not that chair. It is Lizzy’s.”

Darcy studied the brown gentleman’s leather chair levelly. “The chair is much like her.”

“At the least you see that. Draw that one by the window up. You ought have seen Lizzy’s face when she entered the room on the previous occasion and she saw that you’d moved her chair. I think she had not quite realized her chair could leave her spot next to me. She promptly picked up and placed the chair back where it belonged.”

“You ought to have told me this was her chair, so I could have known to leave it in place.” Rather than settling the chair he had picked up across the desk from Mr. Bennet, Darcy placed it next to Lizzy’s. “The symbolism is now appropriate.”

“You next to her, and she between you and me?”

Darcy scratched his cheek and shrugged. “Should I expect this interview to be more involved than the previous one?”

Mr. Bennet pulled out the fine cognac and two crystal glasses he kept hidden in his desk for such occasions. He did not drink a great deal. This was the same bottle he’d opened when Mr. Darcy requested Elizabeth’s hand the first time, still half filled. He poured modest helpings into the pair of snifters. “Elizabeth has my permission to marry whomever she chooses, and she has my blessings no matter what she does in life.”

“I wish your blessing as well.”

“You wish me to be happy you are marrying my Lizzy.”

“Yes.”

Mr. Bennet gestured for Darcy to pick up the snifter, and they did together and clinked the glasses and sipped. Mr. Bennet paused to savor the aroma, as he knew he was supposed to with fine brandy. “She said you swore an oath as a gentleman to listen to her in the future when you argue, and to let her make her own decisions.”

Darcy inclined his head.

“Not enough.”

“What do you wish me to do?”

“Put it in the marriage articles, that your promise will be confirmed by an annual interview where Elizabeth must testify to two of her male relations, while you are not present, that you have listened to her when she disagrees with you, and not made any decisions for her.”

Darcy looked the picture of confused curiosity. He tilted his head and placed his glass down; he scratched his forehead and furrowed his eyebrows. “I cannot tell if you are in jest. Such is a safeguard to Miss Bennet — though what threat can be placed to ensure I follow this condition? Or that Elizabeth answers honestly if I am a brute? It strikes my pride as a gentleman to have it suggested such an expedient is necessary once I have given my word. Her objection was that I was too gentlemanly.”

“Would you prefer me to jest or be in earnest?”

“I accept such a condition, if you consider it a necessary safeguard for Elizabeth.”

“Nonsense. Settlements can only enforce financial matters, and we both know you are not a brute. I wonder instead at your intention to let Elizabeth disagree and choose for herself. What about your children? If you and she disagree about a matter of education, or of who a child might marry, or how they may be entertained, who will decide? Your son shall either gain permission to marry the dairy maid who has caught his fancy at sixteen, or he shall not.”

“I consider it unlikely Elizabeth would approve of such a match either.”

“Her? She would never approve of a boy rushing off to marriage at such a tender age — you would argue for that match.”

Darcy slowly smiled and he picked up the brandy again and sipped it. “Mr. Bennet, you ought to submit a list of such conundrums, for me and Elizabeth to debate together ahead of time. Then we might be prepared for such occasions.”

“But who would choose?” Mr. Bennet lifted his glass and sipped.

“The child, in the end.”

Mr. Bennet laughed. “Well answered. Well answered. No matter what you and Lizzy choose. Children are like that.”

Darcy continued to sip from the cognac, and when he finished savoring the glass Mr. Bennet poured more for him. From his manner Mr. Bennet thought Darcy had the sophistication to enjoy such a fine spirit properly. Mr. Bennet did not.

Darcy said, “I have been informed you disapproved of my match to Elizabeth before — you ought to have said so — I do not wish to marry Elizabeth until I have assuaged your worries, not until you can give me your blessing whole heartedly.”

“If I never could? Would you delay marriage until my death, like many young couples faced with the determined opposition of their relatives?”

“Your permission I possess already — I only wish your happiness. Elizabeth adores you, but we do not need it. My sister. She was right to choose the future she wished over following my desires in her choice. And I was wrong to make her choose.”

“Elizabeth had the wrong of it. I was not unhappy. I was concerned. The two of you were precipitate. You had not tested yourselves well enough, and I worried greatly how you would act together when you disagreed. I never disapproved, I was anxious.”

“You mean to say that the manner of my return and what I have said of my intentions removes your anxiety.”

“I do not cease to worry. I shall always worry for my girl. Always. She will not cease to be mine solely because she becomes yours as well. And I care not the slightest what the law says on that matter — you recall that day I threatened you with a rifle.”

“If I hurt Elizabeth, the next time your weapon will not be unloaded?”

“That approximately is what I mean.”

“I worry for Georgiana, though she is happy, and I am happy for her. But not for the reasons I opposed the match, simply because…”

“Life is long, full of uncertainty, and marriage is an irrevocable step.”

Darcy agreed and finished his glass, and Mr. Bennet finished his own glass of cognac, unforgivably simply swallowing the end of the burning liquid without sloshing it to each part of his mouth to taste all of the shades of the flavor, as he’d been told to when Gardiner gave him the bottle. He refilled both their glasses.

Mr. Bennet said after he took another sip, “I worry in the fashion I worry when she goes to London that I might hear of a carriage accident. You both are of age, and well matured. You both have experience with each other’s sharp edges and despite that experience you desire to marry. I expect Lizzy to be happy with you. I cannot ask for more. Wait, I can! I have one condition before you might have my permission!”

“What decisive consideration must I meet?” Darcy replied dryly.

“A standing invitation to your library.”

“I thought you wished that. You may live among the shelves, if you so choose.”

“That is unkind, to not offer your father-in-law a bed to sleep in.”

“One would be dragged to the library from one of the bedrooms — I shall keep the guest bedroom nearest the library always open for you.” Darcy dragged his chair closer to Mr. Bennet with his feet. “Not in jest. That room henceforth is yours.”

“I shall use that liberty more often than you might like. Lizzy has been…she has been a great deal to me. Hertfordshire is hollow in her absence. She shall be two days journey to the north.”

“Bennet, I expect to see you often — else it would be a waste to set aside a room permanently for your use.”

“Often. Most often.” To hide his tears Mr. Bennet lifted his glass, and Darcy did as well. They clinked together, and with tears starting on his eyes Mr. Bennet said, “To you and Elizabeth and your happiness.”