Page 70 of The Next Mrs Bennet

S hortly after Lady Catherine had begun her journey north which would take her to her new home in Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides, Uncles Philips and Gardiner had informed Elizabeth all the transfers of the deeds for her estates had been completed, as well as the sale of the shipbuilding yards to the Duke of Bedford. By that time the number of estates included Longbourn and Netherfield Park and Elizabeth had issued orders for the latter two estates to be merged.

The two manor houses would remain as they were and any servants who desired to, would keep their jobs. All the servants at both estates elected to keep their current employment. One day, when Mary took possession of the much-enlarged Longbourn, she would decide which would be the main house and which the dower house.

Although his regimental commander had been sorry to lose Richard, he had accepted his resignation. As soon as he had sold out, Richard made his way to Rosings Park, where he would meet Mr. Lucas Wickham who had been spared from his duties at Pemberley for as long as he was needed in Kent. With Mr. Wickham’s vast experience and his excellent teaching ability, Richard would rapidly learn the duties of estate master and management. In Mr. Wickham’s absence, two excellent under-stewards would fulfil his duties at Pemberley while he was away.

As soon as all business was concluded, the residents of Hertfordshire, Darcy House, and Matlock House travelled away from London.

One of the motivations to depart London had been the fact rumours of her vast wealth had begun to spread among the Ton . The number being bandied about was a fraction of the reality, but it was still far more than any woman in polite society had. Hence, the line of men who wanted to call on Elizabeth was endless.

In an attempt to discourage these men, with the Queen’s hearty blessing, a notice of the official courtship between the Duchess of Hertfordshire and the Darcy heir had been placed in the papers.

It had slowed the stream of callers, but many still called deciding they had a chance until the Duchess was married. Any man who may have considered a compromise was discouraged as soon as he entered the drawing room where the callers were received. A little behind but right next to the seat where Her Grace was seated, was one giant man who would give a fearsome scowl to any man who attempted to approach beyond where he had been told to sit. If that was not enough, there was another almost as big and intimidating, just behind where the callers were to sit. It did not help there were two rather fearsome men posted in the hallway at the entry to the drawing room—one on either side of the door.

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

Much to Lydia’s delight she and her sisters were residing at the estate with the fascinating castle—she had no knowledge Castlemere would be hers one day. Given Elizabeth and William were courting, she could not be hosted at Pemberley, so the sisters and their escorts were at Elizabeth’s Derbyshire estate.

Andrew had accepted an invitation to Pemberley so he would be able to visit his fiancée each day—he had proposed to Jane and been accepted the day before the departure from London. There was only a short distance between the estates making it a quick ride to reach Castlemere. He was of course accompanied by William. Jane and Andrew had decided to marry on the penultimate day of May, a Saturday.

They would marry from Castlemere with Jane’s Uncle Adam performing the marriage rite in the chapel at her sister’s estate. Elizabeth was seeking a clergyman to take the estate’s living.

The Queen had spoken to her vicar and all the livings which had been stripped from the late duke’s gift would be returned. The final switch of each preferment would occur when the incumbent at each left or retired. To start with, Elizabeth would begin to offer livings at each of her larger estates which had a church or chapel without a rector.

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

The third couple was ensconced in Hertfordshire. Lawrence Portnoy was being hosted at Longbourn. He had proposed to Charlotte the day he had arrived in the neighbourhood and been promptly accepted. They would marry on the eighteenth day of June from St. Albert’s in Meryton.

The Portnoys and Barringtons would all meet in Hertfordshire soon after Jane and Andrew’s wedding. The two families would be joined by the Lucases, Philipses, Longs, and Gouldings returning to Hertfordshire as they would be in Derbyshire to witness Jane marry her viscount. The Darcys and four sisters would arrive a few days before the Lucas-Portnoy wedding.

The residents of Castlemere visited Pemberley and Snowhaven as much as the Darcys and Fitzwilliams visited them at Elizabeth’s estate.

Anna, who was counted a very close friend by the three youngest Bennets was being hosted at Elizabeth’s estate. After Jane’s wedding, the four girls would be at Pemberley until everyone travelled to Meryton for the Lucas-Portnoy wedding.

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

With Biggs and Johns ten yards behind them, Elizabeth and William were walking at Castlemere along the shore of the lake in mid-May when she stopped suddenly, and her hands shot down to the growing bulge in her belly.

“Are you well, Elizabeth? Do we need to return to the house?” William asked concernedly.

“No all is well, William,” Elizabeth averred her face wreathed in smiles. “I just felt the quickening. It was just like Mrs. Medford, Mama, and other ladies told me it would be, like a butterfly fluttering in my belly.”

The two walkers and their escorts crossed the bridges on the southern, narrow end of the lake and continued walking on the eastern shore. Soon enough, they reached the boulder where William had first encountered Elizabeth and promptly inserted his hessian into his mouth.

The couple stopped, looked at the boulder, then one another, and began to smile widely. Soon the smiles changed to giggles and chortles, and finally to a tinkling laugh and a full-throated belly guffaw.

Both had tears of mirth running down their cheeks as their first meeting and their subsequent behaviour towards one another was conjured in their minds.

“We have come so very far since that day, have we not?” Elizabeth stated once she had ceased her giggles and dried her eyes.

“We most certainly have,” William agreed. All mirth disappeared from his deep blue eyes and was replaced by a look which conveyed love and passion. “Elizabeth, there is a question I would very much like to ask you, but if you are not ready for me to ask that now, let me know, and I will remain silent until you are prepared for me to articulate what is in my heart.”

“If it is the question I am hoping it is, then I am more than willing to hear it, and in my opinion, this is the perfect place to ask it,” Elizabeth replied her eyes telling William of her deep and abiding love for him.

William inclined his head to the spot Elizabeth had been sitting the fateful day they had met. Elizabeth took a seat on the edge of the rock. William sunk down onto one knee in the sand in front of her taking her small hands into his large ones.

“Elizabeth Rose Gardiner, until I met you, I never knew it was possible to love someone the way I do you, with the power of a thousand suns. You not only have my love but my total and complete respect as well. Had I tried, never would I have been able to imagine a woman who is more perfect for me than you are. You are brave, selfless, compassionate, caring, intelligent, witty, and the strongest woman I have ever met.

“I know you come to me with a child growing inside of you and I swear,” William released her one hand and after silently seeking and receiving permission to do so, placed his hand gently over where her son or daughter was growing, “I will be a father to this babe as I would if he or she was of my own blood.

“There is nothing I can do to erase the past, but I can offer you a life where we will be partners and you will never have your choices taken away from you.”

William retook her other hand in the one which had rested over her—soon-to-be their—child. “Elizabeth, will you make me the happiest man in the world and agree to be my wife?”

“When I first met you at this spot, I thought you an arrogant horse’s hind quarters. However, it did not take me long to see you were the best of men and one who, if I had been free, would be an ideal husband for me.

“There is no doubt in me that you are my perfect match in every way. I love and respect you in a way I never knew was possible. Therefore, I could never regret, even in the smallest measure, accepting your proposal of marriage. Yes, William, I will absolutely marry you…the sooner the better.”

He wanted nothing more than to kiss his fiancée, but William was aware her two guards were not far off and were, as usual watching over her intently.

Elizabeth read the desire in William’s eyes, a desire which matched her own. Now she was engaged to a man she loved; she was impatient to experience her first kiss.

She turned and signalled her two guards who understood what she wanted from the way she was making a circle in the air with her one finger. Elizabeth was well pleased when she saw John and Brian turn their backs on her and William.

In the meantime, William had stood up. As soon as he saw the guards turn, he gently pulled Elizabeth up off her perch on the boulder until they were standing with no more than an inch or two between them. With their eyes locked onto each other, William lowered his head slowly until his lips brushed against hers.

Even though the kiss had been brief and chaste, Elizabeth felt a bolt of electricity travelling throughout the whole of her body from the crown of her head to the very tips of her toes.

William drew his head back a little to make sure Elizabeth was well. What he saw was not concern in her eyes but instead, he saw a roiling passion. He lowered his head again, capturing her lips with his own. This time it was no brush of their lips, but a hungry demanding kiss, followed by more and more kisses.

Her arms snaked around William’s neck while his went around her waist as they deepened the kisses. At some point, Elizabeth felt his tongue licking her lips. She instinctively opened her mouth to allow him entry. As their tongues danced, tasting one another, Elizabeth felt her heart racing as her breathing became rapid as well.

The bliss Elizabeth was experiencing with this man she loved beyond all reason had been worth the wait.

For his part, not even in his imagination had William been able to conjure up just how sweet her lips were. They had never discussed her past in so many words, but William believed from what Elizabeth had related she was experiencing her first kisses with him.

As they pressed together, he could feel her taut nipples pressing against his chest through her thin, summer walking dress and his waistcoat and shirt. His jacket had been left at the house.

He could feel the hardened swell in her belly, the new life growing within her, pressing against his waist. He cared not any longer who had caused her to be in this state. All that counted was he was the one who would be the babe’s father. This child— and any others with whom they may be blessed—would be raised in love.

After some minutes, neither knew how many, the clearing of a throat snapped them out of the passionate haze. They jumped back, one from the other, as John Biggs and Brian Johns stood grinning.

“We need to return to the house and share our happiness with our sisters. A call to Pemberley would then be in order,” Elizabeth stated when she stopped blushing so deeply.

When both John and Brian wished them happy, Elizabeth conveyed her thanks but could not look either man in the eye.

“I need to ride to London and Meryton,” William decided. “I would wish for our engagement to become official sooner rather than later.”

“That will only gain us a few days and you will be away for about a sennight. You would return the middle of next week and they will be here early the following week.” Elizabeth did not miss the disappointment on William’s face. “When we reach the house, you and I will scribe expresses to Uncles Edward and Frank. That way there will be no question this is absolutely my choice.”

“I knew you could not be so intelligent for nothing my dearest, loveliest Elizabeth,” William kissed her hand. “There is a chance we will have their replies by Saturday.”

“That and we will not be separated.”

William looked at the fourth finger on her left hand which was resting on his arm as they made their way back to the castle and added wing. As soon as the news of her husband’s demise had been confirmed, she had removed his wedding ring. The engagement ring was in a drawer, as it always was when not in his company. Having heard the story of how the bastard had not given her choice in anything, he was determined not to do that to her ever, including the choice of an engagement ring.

Once he had his father’s permission, he would open the vault hidden in the study and show her the two drawers where the rings were kept and allow Elizabeth to choose.

They discovered their combined five sisters sitting in the lakeside drawing room—a favourite of theirs—with, as would be expected, Andrew seated next to Jane. With the four younger girls present there was no shortage of chaperones.

Elizabeth cleared her throat garnering the attention of those seated in the drawing room. “William and I have an announcement…” Elizabeth began.

“You are engaged!” Jane blurted out excitedly.

She had not told Lizzy this, but ever since her younger sister had shared the true reason for her decision to marry the blackhearted old man, Jane had felt much guilt. Andrew had assisted her in beginning to move past it. Then, when Lizzy had accepted the courtship with William, her guilt had been partly assuaged. So, if her sister was in fact engaged, it would remove the last vestiges of her self-imposed blame.

“Jane has the right of it! William proposed while we were out walking and I accepted him with alacrity, before he could change his mind,” Elizabeth shared gleefully.

While Andrew slapped William on the back and then shook his hand, Elizabeth was surrounded by her sisters and future sister, each one vying to wish her happy first. Jane allowed the younger girls to congratulate Lizzy first before she pulled her sister into a hug, telling her she was almost as happy for her as she had been the day Andrew asked for her hand. It took some minutes, but eventually everyone had conveyed their approbation to the newly engaged couple.

“William and I need to write a letter each. As soon as we have done so, I think we need to call on Pemberley,” Elizabeth related. “Jane, be a dear and tell Mr. Toppin we need a coach made ready.”

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

Lady Anne and Robert Darcy were standing in the courtyard by the time the coach, with Andrew and William riding alongside, came to a halt.

“You are most welcome, but we did not expect to see you girls today…” Lady Anne stopped as she saw the way Anna and the two youngest Bennets were rocking on the balls of their feet, evidently trying their best not to blurt out something.

Then she looked at Lizzy and William. As soon as she saw them, she knew. “William, you have proposed, and Lizzy accepted you!” Both nodded. “How wonderful, it is the best news,” Lady Anne enthused.

She hugged Elizabeth to herself while her husband shook his son’s hand vigorously. “Should we go inside?” Darcy suggested.

Lady Anne stopped outside the drawing room. “Will you all remain for dinner? If you say yes, I will send a groom to Snowhaven so Elaine and Reggie can join us to celebrate.”

“I see no reason we cannot remain, Mama,” Elizabeth agreed. “I just need to send a note to Mrs. Bannister. I will instruct her to use what would have been our dinner as a celebratory meal for the staff and servants instead.”

“One groom will ride to your estate the other one to Snowhaven,” Lady Anne told her future daughter.

“I was sure you two would marry. I am well pleased to be proved correct,” Darcy stated after he kissed both of Elizabeth’s cheeks. “I, we, could not be happier in gaining you as a daughter. We will consider your sisters our daughters as well.”

Her Papa’s words warmed Elizabeth’s heart. She could not wait for the contingent from London and Meryton to arrive to share her joy with them as well. In the meantime, the letters she had sent with the courier would have to suffice.