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Elizabeth knew who would not be asleep, so she climbed up to the guest floor above and knocked on Aunt Anne and Uncle Robert’s sitting room door.

His valet opened the door and pointed to the Fitzwilliams’ suite.

Elizabeth crossed the hallway to the other sitting room and repeated her knock.

This time the door was opened by Aunt Elaine.

As soon as Elizabeth saw her, the hold she had gained on her emotions slipped, and she burst into tears.

Lady Elaine pulled Lizzy into a hug as Lady Anne joined them and the three of them stood swaying and crying together in the middle of the room while Matlock and Darcy looked on sadly.

“We are so sorry for your loss,” Lady Anne said as she and Elaine guided Lizzy to the settee, the two older ladies seated themselves either side of the grieving new widow. “We are here to support you in any way we are able. All you need do is ask anything and it will be done.”

“He was a great man,” Matlock said to no one in particular.

Darcy nodded his agreement. “A truer friend one could not have met or wanted.” As soon as Lizzy left them, Darcy would compose a letter to William at his estate. He knew Anna would come with the Phillipses.

“Lizzy, did you send a missive to Mary and Richard?” Lady Elaine enquired when the younger woman had calmed somewhat.

Elizabeth shook her head emphatically. “I do not want to disturb their honeymoon,” she revealed after she had dried her eyes and inelegantly blown her nose into one of Archy’s handkerchiefs. Seeing it in her hand, Elizabeth had to exert all of her self-control to not begin crying again.

“Is there anyone you need us to notify with a note rather than waiting to see the death notice in the papers?” Matlock asked, trying to be helpful. The looks from his wife and sister told him he had been too direct.

“I sent letters to the family and Archy’s closest friends.

If you will notify the Regent and Her Majesty, that would be very good.

They were aware Archy was sick, but I think they need to know of his passing before they read anything in the papers,” Elizabeth replied with as much composure as she was able.

Darcy handed Lizzy a finger of brandy to help calm her nerves.

Elizabeth had enjoyed brandy with Archy occasionally, so the taste was not foreign to her.

Slowly but surely, she sipped the amber liquid, the burn momentarily taking her mind off the tragedy of losing her Archy.

Almost two hours later, Elizabeth wished her guests a good night and slowly made her way to the bedchamber she had always shared with her beloved.

She decided it was too raw to sleep in their shared bed, so for the first time since her wedding, Elizabeth decided to sleep in the mistress’s chambers, which she had only done briefly after she had given birth.

Thinking of giving birth made her sad all over again.

She had had her courses about two weeks past, and since then, they had not joined.

Three wonderful children had been birthed, and she would be forever grateful for those blessings, but Elizabeth would not have objected if she had been carrying one more of Archy’s children.

Lettie was waiting for her when she reached the suite. “I will have some dresses and gowns dyed by the morning, Your Grace, and I can order more mourning clothes from Lambton as soon as you tell me I may,” the maid told her mistress.

“Thank you, Lettie. I will always be grateful to Mrs Greaves that she assigned you to me, even if it was meant as a temporary position,” Elizabeth told her ever efficient maid. “Order what you think I will need.”

Lettie Jennings bobbed a curtsey acknowledging her mistress’s instruction.

It did not take long before Elizabeth was ready for bed.

She dismissed her maid and before she climbed into the bed, she crossed the sitting room to the chamber they used to share.

She removed the two pillows on Archy’s side of the bed.

She drank in his scent as she walked back to her bedchamber.

Elizabeth moved her pillows over and replaced them with Archy’s.

When she climbed into bed, she pushed her nose into the pillows, so she had something he had touched touching her. It did not take long before the tears flowed again, although they did not last as long as the previous time.

How she already missed her Archy. She had an urgent need to touch anything he had, especially when she could smell his scent like she could on the pillows.

The last thoughts she had before she finally fell asleep were that she would not allow the pillows to be washed—ever—followed by many memories about her beloved.

~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~

Elizabeth had made her way to the nursery as soon as she was awake and dressed.

There she had broken the news to her three children.

Gracie and Winston did not grasp that they would never see Papa again and kept asking to see him.

Matty, on the other hand, was very sad and clung to his mother as if he let her go, he would not see her again.

Thanks to a note which had arrived at the parsonage first thing on Tuesday morning, Adam and Eve Lambert were at Castlemere by eight that morning.

Although their children were older than Lizzy’s, they brought them with them to help take the Chamberlain children’s attention from their sorrow.

The two girls and one boy were a welcome distraction.

It was only when the children who were counted as cousins, even though there were no blood ties, joined them that Matty was willing to let his Mama go.

As the weather was not too hot yet, and they had an icehouse at the estate, Elizabeth told Uncle Adam they would hold the funeral until after the family and close friends had arrived.

He would conduct the service, because Castlemere being his favourite estate, Archy had decided he would be interred in the crypt below the chapel right here rather than at Falconwood.

He would not be the first of his ancestors laid to rest here, in fact, his beloved mother, Grace, rested below the chapel.

For Elizabeth, as much as she knew it was, it did not seem real yet. She walked around as if in a daze, but when Mr Harrison suggested she take tea with a drop of laudanum in it to rest, she had demurred. Like Archy, she would only take that vile drug if there was no choice.

Marjorie and Lawrence Portnoy arrived with Andrew and Marie Fitzwilliam a little after the midday meal as their estates were not far from one another in Staffordshire.

~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~

It was after midday when a Darcy courier arrived bearing a black edged letter. William had been sitting in his study, reviewing ledgers, when the butler handed his master the missive.

The instant he saw it, before he broke Father’s seal, William knew it was to tell him that Hertfordshire had passed away.

He broke the seal and read.

6 April 1812

Castlemere

William,

As I am sure you have surmised, the Duke of Hertfordshire passed away. He is with God now and no longer in pain.

Make your way here as soon as you are able. Lizzy, Lady Elizabeth, will need much help and support in the coming days. She has sent notes to everyone she needs to, bar one.

She does not want Mary and Richard to cut their honeymoon short, so she has chosen not to inform them and have them come rushing back to her side.

We agree with her decision given your mother and I as well as your Aunt and Uncle Fitzwilliam are here with Lizzy now.

With the notes she dispatched this morning, we expect she will have a house full of support in not too many days.

As you can expect, knowing what would come has not lessened the devastation of her loss. She is trying to be strong, but does not always succeed.

I am sure you are intelligent enough to know that now is not the time to think of advancing your desire, and that of the late duke’s, to come to know Lizzy better. Come be a friend, confidant, whatever she needs, and things will grow naturally from there.

In my estimation, unless you are in the middle of a task you cannot break, we will see you here later today.

With regards,

Father

What father advised him was almost exactly what Richard had said when they had discussed what William should do. It was what he had decided to do, so his father’s words only reinforced his determination to act in an extremely circumspect manner.

He called for Carstens and told him to pack and bring his clothing in the coach. William changed into riding attire and mounted Zeus and made for Castlemere.