Page 31

31. What Congratulations Will Then Flow In

Elizabeth’s wedding day dawned bright, clear, and not especially cold. The months leading up to it had been the happiest of her life, and she was rather astounded at how well it all turned out.

Her sisters had changed from likely to ruin the family to models of propriety, such that Elizabeth had to occasionally remind Lydia it was still acceptable to have some fun. Seeing Lydia trying to gently coerce their mother into better behaviour was hilarious, especially when gentle coercion seemed insufficient and more aggressive means were employed.

Other possibly unpleasant relations had been entirely handled by Darcy. While she ordinarily wanted to fight her own battles, she was willing to bend on that matter. Thus, she had not even met Lady Catherine, and would not for another year, because Darcy had travelled to Rosings to tell her personally of his engagement. Similarly, Miss Caroline Bingley had been dispatched with little fuss or bother, and while he was at it, Darcy told Bingley he could not even speak to Jane until a fortnight after the wedding, at which point they could fend for themselves. The Bingley’s were not invited to the wedding, and nobody rued their loss.

The friends from her class had all become much closer over the two months from the proposal to the wedding, and there was truly nothing she could ask for that she did not already have.

Finding out that the man who had so egregiously insulted her sight-unseen was in actuality the best man she had ever known had much to recommend it as well, though she tried her best not to carry on too much about him.

Fortunately for her equilibrium, some things could be counted on. Her father came to Darcy House, retired to the library, and was rarely seen again except at meals. He learnt early on that his sharp tongue was not quite so acceptable in Mr Darcy’s house as it had been when he was lord and master over all the eyes could see. With a few hard looks, he became by turns, less sarcastic, less capricious, and slightly more interesting. Eventually, Darcy decided he liked his father-in-law well enough, and Elizabeth took the news with supreme indifference.

She entered the church on her father’s arm, mostly as evidence that her Uncle Gardiner was stubborner than she was. She understood his reasoning but hated the necessity of conforming to expectations.

All of that went out of her head as soon as she saw her groom waiting anxiously at the front of the church. As she walked down the aisle, she was at first stunned to notice the church was bursting at the seams, with a number of men having to stand in the back. She had expected perhaps a dozen or two attendees. They had a number of friends from Meryton, but not all that many since Elizabeth already had all of her best friends staying in her house. She wondered if these were all Darcy’s friends, or perhaps just London gawkers.

She had walked about a dozen paces when she gasped as the conundrum was resolved. By the time she saw the fifth lady who had made it through her school and thence into good marriages, then recognised their husbands and former guardians, she realised they were all there for her.

She had no idea if her uncle had quietly put out the word, or they had all just learnt independently. While they all understood the reasons for remaining anonymous, it seemed likely most of her history would become London gossip soon enough. There were just too many people to keep it quiet.

Fortunately for her, she had two things to prevent fretting. The first was that she did not care . Anyone who looked down on her for her school could be disregarded out of hand, and it might be a handy way to separate out false friends. On top of that, she had the kindest and handsomest man in the world standing anxiously forty yards away and all would be well. They could always just remain at Pemberley if the ton got too tetchy.

When her groom took her hand, she truly felt like all was right in the world. In some ways, it seemed like her courtship was just too easy and orderly. A good story would require her husband to complete some great Labour of Hercules to be worthy of the fair maiden, but that was just silly. He invited eight young ladies to live with them, which was certainly heroic enough for her.

They said the words, and in some ways the ceremony seemed to take forever while simultaneously being over in a blink.

When she signed the register, she had to remind herself to sign ‘Bennet’ and not spend all day giving up Miss Bennet, Miss Gardiner, Mrs Black, and all the other aliases that had made up her life in her formative years. All in all, she thought Mrs Darcy would suffice.

The wedding breakfast was sumptuous, tasty, and there was plenty to go around, thus lending credence to her uncle having alerted the hordes. She was never entirely certain she understood all of his motivations. He might have wanted the ton to know that Mrs Darcy had powerful friends, and there was nothing like a show of brute force to bring the plebes into line. He might have just wanted her to know how loved and appreciated she was and how many lives the two of them had protected. For all she knew, he might even have seen it as a business opportunity, which might sound cynical, but since his business was trading money for safety, one could hardly criticise.

All in all, she was just happy that her parents both made good impressions. Mr Bennet was an erudite and educated man, and whilst he never had anyone to exercise his wit on in Longbourn, London had enough gentlemen to bring out his best side, and there was a certain amount of amusement to be had when he ran up against someone better read. Mrs Bennet was by any measure, a handsome woman, even with five grown daughters, one married. With a bit of happiness, and a lot of relief from anxiety about her future, she reverted more to the mother Elizabeth remembered from her youth. She could not forget the last five years but thought she could eventually forgive .

Darcy had not exactly been a sluggard with regards to bringing friends and acquaintances to the wedding, and between them and Elizabeth’s crowd, there was a great deal of boisterous conversations, many a new connexion made, and for all they knew, probably some future courtships begun.

In short, it was the most wonderful day of her life. The wedding night brought no anxiety, since she received a great deal of mortifying whispered advice from her former charges, most of whom appreciated all she had taught them and just wanted to return the favour.

As expected, their night was bliss… pure bliss.

~~~~~

Whilst Elizabeth and Darcy enjoyed London, time showed that it was best handled in moderation. Of course, they had to attend the season to launch all the ladies into it the first year or two, but once the children came, their presence was not quite so necessary.

The first season after their wedding would have been easy enough had Elizabeth not been with child, but even so, she found that she could hardly enter a ballroom or musicale without bumping into one of her old students. It was something she had never expected, having mostly paid no attention whatsoever to the ladies after graduation, but they certainly remembered Mrs Black.

She had turned the running of the school over to Mrs Rose entirely and even made her a full partner, so it continued to prosper. Elizabeth could pay it very little attention, but Mary stepped in to represent her whenever it became necessary.

During that first year, they endured the torture of making Kitty and Lydia come into at least modest compliance with both Miss Bingley’s and Mrs Black’s ideas of an accomplished lady. That said, when the time was right for Kitty and Georgiana to come out, they decided to defer it for a year and have Lydia join them.

The Weatherby sisters were of similar enough ages that they just latched onto the group, since launching half a dozen at a time seemed very efficient. The Weatherbys’ chaperonage was solved easily enough by inviting their parents to stay at Darcy House during the season, and if they got stuck chaperoning the Bennet girls, nobody complained.

Despite the offer to stay in London, Maria Lucas returned to Meryton for a year, then joined her sister in Hunsford the next. To the surprise of everyone, she effectively came out with Anne de Bourgh. They made an odd pair with a decade between them, but somehow it all seemed to work out. Lady Catherine was as proud (and nauseatingly boastful) of Maria’s eventual marriage as she was of Anne’s. By then, the Darcys had more or less reconciled, so they visited for a fortnight or two every Easter.

Mr Bingley eventually returned hat in hand to Jane. He was most disconcerted to find the colonel at the table regularly, but after a good honest conversation, which included a great deal about all the various sisters, Jane decided to give him another chance, presuming he got his house in order first.

Jane had matured in the interim, and she spent the time to teach him the lessons of Mrs Black. She even suggested they consider a similar school for gentleman, and was surprised when they did not laugh her out of the room out of hand, though nothing ever came of it.

Jane and Bingley eventually married and purchase Netherfield, where she found taking care of her far less excitable mother was not much of a chore, especially when their young children found Grandmother Bennet much like the young Mrs Bennet had been before her years of crippling anxiety. She was still not particularly decorous, but young children did not mind.

The colonel, meanwhile, quite enjoyed tweaking Bingley’s nose by speaking to Miss Bennet in a way that could not help but rile his jealousy. It was therefore a surprise to everyone in the world except Mrs Black when he proposed to Mrs Rose and was accepted. He had to promise her he would do his best to keep his brother alive so she would never have to be a countess, but alas, some tasks were beyond even him. It took the couple decades to recover the earldom’s finances from the depredations of his father and brother, but eventually, all was well with the world.

Mary quite surprised everyone by deferring her season time after time. She came to Elizabeth in the year she reached her majority and suggested setting up another school geared to servants and tradesmen’s daughters. She had been saving her pin money to start it, but it was not quite sufficient.

Elizabeth loved the idea, so bought her a building and hired some staff without even dipping into her own fortune or pin money by simply asking for donations from her former students. In actuality, she only asked one particularly friendly and well-connected student and considered the problem solved (correctly).

Mary’s school was free for servants, but otherwise modelled on Elizabeth’s pattern of charging what the guardian could reasonably afford.

She ran the school until the ripe old age of twenty-six when her luck ran out, and she accidentally captured the heart of a young gentleman. She made him work for it, but in the end, they were blissfully happy. She never moved from London or gave up control of her schools but let others take care of most instruction.

Both schools continued to prosper and grow, eventually training hundreds at a time all over the country.

For many generations, several descendants of the Bennet girls served a few years as Mrs Black, and the world became just a slightly better place.

~~ Finis ~~

[1] Brag is a high-skill, bluffing-based gambling game that originated in England and is considered a direct precursor to Poker, emphasizing psychological play and strategic betting to outmanoeuvre opponents.