Posted on Monday, 28 October 2002, at 9:46 a.m.

Pemberley, 27 October 2002

Beth looked out of the window with a sigh. What a miserable day. The rain was beating against the window, making the landscape beyond look blurred and grey. There was no chance of escaping outside for her customary ramble - much as she loved her walks, even she was not going to risk pneumonia.

Tying an old headscarf around her head to protect her hair from dust and cobwebs, she turned to face her task -cleaning out the closets in her rooms. Yuck! she thought. Why am I always stuck with the cleaning?

Pemberley House, her family's ancestral estate in Derbyshire, had been uninhabited for nearly thirty years. Her father, an eminent archaeologist, had lived abroad since he had earned his masters, mostly on digs in Egypt or the Near East. He had met her mother, Lucy Gardiner, there, and Beth and her brothers and sisters were born out there.

There were five children in all - Fitzwilliam, the eldest, Alexander, Georgiana, Elizabeth and Madeleine. They were nearly all grown up now - Fitzwilliam had gotten married that spring, and was a successful writer, Alexander was at medical school, Georgiana in college; only Elizabeth and Madeleine were still at secondary school.

The two youngest girls were partly the reason why Fitzwilliam and Lucy Darcy had decided to return home permanently after so many years abroad; the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Near East had made their parents decide that a school in England would be much safer. Fitzwilliam - well, Lord Darcy to give him his proper title - had taken a lecturing job in a nearby college, and his wife had decided to give over her time completely to the job of restoring Pemberley, and devoting herself to the grandchild who would be arriving in a few short months.

It had all happened so quickly! Beth had expected to be heart broken when she left for England -Egypt was the only home she had ever known. England was a place known only to her from the TV and dusty old pictures in her parents' photo albums. Yet as soon as she had set foot on Pemberley estate, she had felt at home. Strange, really; but she was drawn to the place.

Whatever had drawn her to the old mansion had also made her claim this suite of rooms on the first floor as her own. The bedroom, sitting room and dressing room were all decorated in the same bright, sunny yellow, and as the room was situated on a corner of the building, with large windows, it was always cheerful and warm. Beth had loved it instantly.

Still, trust me to have picked the dirtiest room in the house! she groaned to herself as she heaved a huge, heavy crate of books out of the closet. "'The Mysteries of Udolpho'? Hmmm, sounds interesting.... 'Tom Jones', 'Clarissa', ...'Fordyce's Sermons'? Ugh, no."

Turning her attention from the books, she started to heave out the next pile of things from inside the closet. Old curtains, magazines, broken fishing rods.... "Hello, what's this?"

Hidden on a shelf, in the furthest corner, was an old wooden box. Curious, she pulled it down, and then sat cross-legged on the floor to examine it. It was covered in a thick layer of dust, which she blew off; when her subsequent coughing fit subsided, she examined it more closely.

It was a beautiful box, obviously an antique. Carved out of a wood so dark it was almost black, it was covered in the most intricate carvings Beth had ever seen. Flowers, leaves, vines and tendrils intertwined all over the surface. She ran her fingers over it gently, marvelling at its smoothness under her hands. On the top of the box, she found, inlaid in silver, two initials. E and F, in flowing italic script, entwined together.

I wonder what they stand for? she thought absent-mindedly. All thoughts of cleaning forgotten, she opened the box. Even after all these years, it opened smoothly, without any stiffness. It was obviously a masterpiece of craftsmanship.

Inside the box, there was a layer of yellowed tissue paper. Carefully folding this aside, she saw a number of different things, all jumbled together. She picked up the first one. A thin golden engagement band, set with a small ruby, very simple, with the word Forever engraved upon the inside. Beth rubbed it carefully, restoring its shine, and held it up to the light to admire it better.

"Elizabeth, I would like you to have this...It belonged to my mother, and to her mother before her. I know it is not the most expensive or ornate of rings, certainly not for the future mistress of Pemberley; but I would like you to wear it." She smiled up at him, succeeding in coaxing an answering smile from him. "My love, I will wear it always. It comes from your heart. How could I not treasure it?" His smile grew broader still, and he slipped the ring onto her finger.

Beth placed the ring to one side, and picked up the next item. A sheaf of paper, folded in two, and bound up with a length of red ribbon. Gently, she undid the bow, and opened out the paper. The paper was yellowed with age, and the ink had long faded from the original black to a pale brown, yet when she held it up to the light, Beth could still read it. It was sheet music, copied out by some long dead ancestor of her's in an elegant, flowing hand. She squinted at the first line. Andante Favori ~ Ludwig van Beethoven

Though it was only her second evening at Pemberley, Elizabeth already felt entirely at home here. She could not ever remember feeling so content, so peaceful, and so utterly happy. Her whole world was here. She smiled as she recollected the first time she had set foot here, with her Uncle and Aunt Gardiner; it seemed like another lifetime now, a different Elizabeth. For I am no longer Lizzy Bennet, I am Mrs Fitzwilliam Darcy! Even after four days of married life, the idea still struck her as strange, and she smiled a little.

She looked over at her husband - my husband! - who was sitting in the wing chair opposite her. He was ostensibly reading, though the fact that he had not turned a single page in twenty minutes showed that his thoughts were elsewhere engaged. "What are you thinking of, Fitzwilliam?" she asked eventually. He looked up at her and smiled. She knew him too well. "I was thinking of the first time I saw you in this room. Do you remember, my Beth?"

"Of course. You sat there, just as you do now; and Mr and Mrs Hurst, and Miss Bingley where I am now. Mr Bingley was standing by the fire, looking a little lovelorn as usual, and I was with Georgiana at the piano." Darcy was glad to see that the occasion was as firmly imprinted on her mind as it was on his. "And Georgiana played some music - such lovely music..." Elizabeth frowned a little. She could not for the life of her remember the name of the piece - not entirely surprising given that she had been too entranced by a certain look to pay much attention to what Georgiana had told her about the composer.

Darcy stood up, and moved over to the pianoforte. He rummaged through the neat pile of music on top of it for some minutes before he found it. "This is it. Andante Favori, by Beethoven. I remember it quite well; so does Georgiana," he added with a grin. "For I have asked her to play it so many times since that evening, that she does not need the music anymore, but can play it by heart."

He sat down at the instrument and opened the lid; Elizabeth went over to join him. "I didn't know you could play the pianoforte, Fitzwilliam," she said surprised. Not many men could. "My mother taught me," he replied. "She loved music." Slowly, he started to play; Elizabeth joined in with him, and they spent the rest of that evening at the piano, playing a perfect duet.

Beth carefully refolded the paper, and tied the ribbon around it again. The next item in the in the box was carefully wrapped in layers of black tissue paper. Slowly she peeled away the layers to reveal one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen. A christening gown, made of pure white lace, still untarnished after all these years. The intricate designs of the gown matched those on the box perfectly. Beth marvelled at the intricate stitching. She did not think she would have the patience to sit down and do something like this. It must have taken hours, weeks of work.

"Oh, Jane! It is beautiful! You shouldn't have; really, you are too good!" Jane smiled at her sister. "Well, the Bennet family christening gown was worn out after being used so many times, and I did want to give you something special for the birth of your first child." Elizabeth embraced her sister warmly. "Jane, I shall cherish it forever! You shall certainly see little Fitzwilliam wearing it next Sunday."

Beth carefully refolded the gown, and repacked it in the tissue paper. Such a beautiful heirloom was too precious to lose after so many years. The last item in the chest lay at the bottom. It was a golden cameo locket; on the front, outlined against the delicate powder blue enamel background, were two silhouettes - a man and a woman, facing one another. Beth looked for the clasp, and finding it, slowly opened the piece of jewellery. Inside, she found two locks of hair woven together; one, long, dark and curly, the other shorter, with a looser curl in it, and silvery grey. "E and F, perhaps?" Beth murmured to herself.

She wondered at finding all these items, all so precious, hidden away at the back of a cupboard like this. What were their stories? Why had some one put them away? Did something happen? Had they become too painful to look at? She did not know...probably she would never know. Just then, she heard Georgiana calling her form the foot of the stairs. "Beth! Beth, come on! Dinner is ready, hurry up or it'll get cold!"

Beth put everything back in the box, and closed it reverently. The past is another place...impossible to know what happened then...not really...all I can do is imagine. And she left the room.