"Drat and drat! I will never get these gowns packed properly!"

"Going somewhere, M'riah?" asked her youngest brother, chewing on an apple. The nine year old boy entered his sister's room and hopped on the bed next to the open trunk. The bed shook a bit as the boy's legs didn't reach the floor and he continually bounced them on the side of the bed.

"You never can tell, Tommy," Maria answered.

"So, where ya goin'?" the boy asked, taking another bite of apple.

"Well, Papa has promised to present me at St. James someday, so I could go there - I hear the Court is always full of intrigue; and Kitty asked if I would accompany her on her trip north with her sisters, so I could go there - plenty of adventure when visiting new places; but I'm hoping to star in a major Fan Fic Feature soon, and that could be set anywhere."

"Really? You're gonna be a main character?"

"Yes, how can I not? I mean, I have a much bigger part in the book than either Georgiana Darcy or Anne De Bough, and they are constantly the heroine of lots of stories on many boards. My future is just as vague as theirs; and I'm young and unattached just like they are. My eligibility, I'll admit, leaves something to be desired, as I have no fortune, but Mary and Kitty Bennet are in a similar situation, and they often get good roles."

"They've got rich relatives."

"Our Papa is a Knight of the Realm, and I am his eldest single daughter now; I just know I'll get my chance soon. It's only been 190 years, I'm sure it won't be much longer..."

"Ben said if Papa didn't close his business when he became a knight he'd of had more money for you girls' dowries and then he wouldn't have to be saddle with a bunch of old maids when Papa dies."

"Yes, I already know what a loving eldest brother Ben is."

"You can live with me, M'riah. I'm gonna fight pirates and be rich."

"That's very kind of you, Tommy, but I'm sure I will end up happily married and settled sooner or later, I can't be ignored forever. I appreciate your offer, though."

The boy laid back on the bed for a moment to toss the apple core out of the open window behind him, then pulled himself back up. "So, if you aren't going anywhere right now, why are you packing?"

"Practice. Lady Catherine put much store in practicing and packing."

Tommy shrugged disinterestedly, hopped off the bed and proceeded to play with a bed warmer that had been hanging on the wall.

The boy opened and closed the lid of the bed warmer so it looked like it was talking. "Mama sent me up to ask you what you're wearing to the Bennet's dinner party tonight," said the bed warmer.

"I thought my yellow gown. Oh pooh, that one's at the bottom." She started digging through the trunk.

"Mama said the Bennet's sons in laws will be there and she's heard they brought some gentlemen friends with them. She said you might have a chance with one of them if she can distract Mrs. Bennet long enough so she doesn't notice and push Kitty and Mary at them first."

"Yeah, like Mama has a chance of doing that!" Maria snickered and paused in her search. "Yet, tonight could be a chance for romance, however slight, but at a dinner party doesn't sound very exciting. I'd much rather be set on by highwaymen, or get clunked over the head in a garden and dragged off, to be rescued later by a handsome..."

Klang! Tommy hit Maria in the head with the bed warmer.

"Ouch! Put that thing down! What did you do that for?"

"You said you wanted to get clunked in the head!"

"Not by you! And not here!" she said, rubbing her head, "By a villain, in a garden, so a gentleman can rescue me."

"Like our brother Collins?"

"No, not like our brother Collins. Charlotte settled, I'm hoping to do better."

"Mama said brother Collins is going to get Longbourn someday, so Charlotte did very well for herself."

"Perhaps, but living with our brother Collins seems an awfully high price to pay for Longbourn, no matter how often she gets invited to dine at Rosings. Did Mama say who the gentlemen friends were?"

"Colonel Fitzdoodle, Commander BingBang, and Mr. SomethingOrOther."

"Colonel Fitzwilliam, remember him from Lizzy's wedding? He's Mr. Darcy's cousin, the one I met at Charlotte's. You know, I should have been the obvious choice for him, since Lizzy was already destined for Mr. Darcy when we met, but no one seemed to have picked up on it. Granted, I've no fortune to tempt him, but neither has Charlotte, and she gets him all the time. Well, that's water under the bridge, as they say. I doubt we've met the other two gentlemen, but that commander fellow must be a relative of Jane's husband, Mr. Bingley."

"BingBang sounds better. Tonight if you can get one of them in the garden, I can clunk you on the head again."

"No thanks, once is enough. What would I do without you?"

"You've always got Ben, and Will, and Jonathan, and Robby," he laughed. "They'd clunk you on the head, too, if ya wanted."

"I know, and I wouldn't even have to ask. Here it is!" She pulled out the gown and held it against herself. "Mama could be right, with three gentlemen there tonight, I will probably be able to talk to at least one of them, even if Mrs. Bennet manages to get her two girls there ahead of me - which I'm sure she will. Hey, this could be my chance at a story. Maybe one of those gentlemen will fall madly in love with me and inspire someone to write a romance about us."

"I hope not."

"Why not? Don't you want me to finally get a story of my own?"

"Nope, I like you better here. I miss you when you visit Charlotte. If you got your own story you might not come back."

"That's sweet of you to say, but you'd still have Katy, and Gwen, and Abby, and Milly to torment. Besides, you know I'd always come back eventually."

"Charlotte doesn't come back much."

"Only because she was in Kent at the end of the book. And she visits often enough, there's only 50 miles of good road between us. Anyway, if things go really well tonight, I might have a use for a well-packed trunk after all. Hey, you want to help me repack?"

"I guess..." They emptied the contents of the trunk onto the bed. Tommy picked up a boot hook and started scratching his back with it. "Ok, now what?" he asked.

"Give me a minute to think. What did Lady Catherine say was supposed to go in first?"