Mr Bennet left Longbourn one morning with a travelling bag and no explanation, and a month later Elizabeth Bennet still cannot say where her father has gone.
She has little patience for Fitzwilliam Darcy of Derbyshire, who once tossed a shilling to a young woman discussing the harvest and rode on, never guessing she was a gentleman's daughter.
When they meet again at the Meryton assembly, he sees both his mistake and how precarious her situation has become, yet Elizabeth will not believe genuine harm has come to her father until her mother presents a finished scheme to marry her to Mr Collins, the next heir under the entail.
With no one left to intervene, she tries to save herself by boarding the stage to London, only for Darcy to stop her with a plan of protection he will not allow her to refuse.
The proud man she thought unfeeling proves the last ally she expected, and the only one to whom she could give her heart as Longbourn's future hangs in the balance.
