Page 74 of The Next Mrs Bennet
Meryton, May 1833
T he vast extended family had come together for the wedding of His Grace, Lord William Robert Alexander Darcy to Miss Edith Sarah Portnoy, eldest daughter of Charlotte and Lawrence Portnoy.
“If Mrs. Bennet had been alive, Charlotte’s daughter about to become the next Duchess of Hertfordshire would have surely caused her an apoplexy,” Lady Jane Fitzwilliam, the Countess of Matlock said quietly next to her sister, the Dowager Duchess of Hertfordshire.
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The afore mentioned lady had taken a walk in October 1807 to try and burn off her anger at reading of Lady Elizabeth Darcy’s success of birthing a son. As the weather was rather foul, unbeknownst to her a snow storm was blowing in, none of the watchers thought she would venture out of doors.
When she was not seen for a few days, one of the men watching over her braved the frigid temperatures and entered her cottage. He had seen no sign of her there and also the bed had not been slept in for some time. A search had been mounted and after a day of searching, her frozen body had been discovered in a shallow gully. Evidently, she had tripped or slipped and more than likely become unconscious. The cold had done the rest.
When the final report from the man in charge of the watchers had reached Elizabeth, she had passed the information on to her sisters, but like her, none of them chose to mourn the woman.
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“I dare say you would be correct,” Elizabeth agreed.
“We are all much better off for her not being in our lives,” Jane stated.
Jane and Andrew had moved to Snowhaven when Lord Reginald Fitzwilliam had passed away peacefully in his sleep some six years previously. Lady Elaine, the Dowager Countess had joined him in heaven just over a year ago. Just as Elizabeth had predicted, Jane had refused the gift of an estate in addition to the massive dowry Elizabeth had bestowed on her. Per her vow to herself, Elizabeth had not argued to convince Jane to change her mind.
Elizabeth looked to her side where her beloved husband sat. At almost fifty a fair amount of his hair was grey, but he was as handsome as he had been that first day she met him near the lake. Next to her husband sat her Mama. Lady Anne, just into her seventh decade, was rather spry for one of her age. Her beloved Robert, close to eighty by then, had gone to his final reward just on five years after his brother and best friend, Reggie. As sad as she had been to carry on without the other half of her heart, on her Robert’s deathbed, Lady Anne had promised him she would not give up on life and their bevy of grandchildren.
As the adopted mother of the other four Bennet sisters, when added to William and Anna’s children, she had over thirty grandchildren.
Taking her husband’s hand as she looked at her firstborn with pride as he recited his vows, Elizabeth felt nothing but contentment in the life God had granted her. Ben, the first child born to her and William, was standing up with his older brother.
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Benjamin Robert Darcy had been born in July 1809. Edward William had arrived in February 1812, then the twins, Annabeth and Joshua were next in January 1815. Almost four years had passed and Elizabeth had thought she would not be blessed with another child when she started missing her courses and then felt the quickening before the end of 1819. Mary-Jane was born in May 1820. The youngest Darcy, Alexander Frank, joined the family in December 1822.
Since Alex’s birth, Elizabeth had never conceived again. She and William agreed seven were more than enough.
The Darcy offspring not involved with the wedding, were interspersed among their many cousins. Edward was sitting between two beautiful blonde haired, blue eyed Fitzwilliams. Elaine Madeline was seated on his right. She was called Ellie by everyone and was Jane and Andrew’s eldest daughter, born about a year after Annabeth and Joshua.
Before that, Jane and Andrew had been blessed with three sons. Andrew Reginald was born in March 1808, twins Richard William and George in February 1811. Ellie arrived in January of 1813. Until Ellie’s birth, Jane had been convinced she would only have sons. After Ellie, almost three years later, Madeline joined the family. Four years after Maddie, Catherine and Paul were born.
The other blonde seated next to Edward was not one of Jane’s daughters, but the eldest daughter of Mary and Richard Fitzwilliam.
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Mary had come out just after her eighteenth birthday in April 1810. By the end of that season, she and Richard were courting one another, and they married in April 1811, a few days after her nineteenth birthday.
Mary had been overwhelmed by the gift from her sister, the expanded Longbourn which in size and earnings was only slightly less than their estate of Rosings Park. It would be turned over to Robby when he gained his majority.
Anne de Bourgh had signed Rosings Park over to Richard six months after he had taken up residence at that estate. She had lived there happily without any responsibility for running the estate. Once Mary and Richard married, she and Mary had become the best of friends, and until Anne’s passing—more than ten years after her mother left the mortal world—in 1822, she had been aunt to the Fitzwilliam and other children in the expanded family.
Lady Catherine had not survived long at the asylum to which she had been relegated. In the winter of 1809, she caught a trifling cold, and regardless of her protestations, that one of her rank did not get ill, she had been very sick. It eventually became pneumonia and that malady had been what ended her delusional life.
Mary and Richard’s first child, Lydia Anne, was born in June 1813. In April 1815, James was born. He was followed in August 1818, by Robert, Robby to his friends and family, by Bethany in March 1821, Priscilla in November 1823, and the babe of the family, George in September 1827.
Both Ellie and Lydia Anne, having large dowries and impeccable connections, had been relentlessly pursued since they had come out after they turned eighteen. Being close in age and best of friends, they had their coming out together. In the two seasons since then, they had refused every offer for a courtship. They had made a pact they would only accept one when they found a man they would be able to esteem, respect, and love, and who would return the same in full measure. Besides their own parents, there were too many examples of felicitous and loving unions among their aunts, uncles, and grandparents to ever settle for anything less. Even at twenty, neither worried. They had more than enough of a fortune if they never found a man to marry.
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After Mary, next to marry was Kate in February 1813. Kate had met Viscount Westmore, Lord Wes De Melville, at her coming out ball. He was already eight and twenty, ten years her senior, but that had not stopped their romance from blossoming. By November 1812, he had proposed and she, very much in love, had accepted him.
Given her husband would one day be the Earl of Jersey and have more than enough estates, Kate, like Jane, had refused Elizabeth’s gifting her an estate.
As it was Wes’s father who had sent him to hell, Elizabeth felt it was kismet that one of her sisters should marry him. So far the Earl and Countess of Jersey—Lord Cyril had passed away in 1824—had two sons and three daughters and Kate suspected she was with child again.
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As only a few months separated them in age, Anna and Lydia had come out together during the little season in 1813. During the season of 1814, Lydia met Lord Mark Crieghton, Marquess Kingsford and son of the Duke of Devonshire.
Due to her love of the castle, Lydia accepted Castlemere from Lizzy, but left her sister and brother and their family living there until Papa Robert passed away and they moved to Pemberley.
The estate would go to her third son who did not have an estate of his own.
At around the same time, Anna met the young Earl of Granville, Lord Harry Smythe. The two couples met and were granted courtships within days of each other. They proposed to their respective ladies in January 1815. Both were accepted. Anna and Lydia were married in a double wedding in March 1815, a few days after Anna turned twenty.
Lydia and her Mark were blessed with a daughter born in late 1816, and a son born the same year—three months before—his grandfather went to his eternal reward. The late Duke of Devonshire passed away in 1819, making Lydia a Duchess. Since then, Lydia had birthed two more sons and two more daughters.
Thankfully for Robert Darcy, Granville, Anna’s husband’s estate, was just across the Derbyshire-Yorkshire border in the latter county. As such, it was barely more than four hours in a coach for him and his Anne to visit Anna and her family.
To date Anna had four children, three girls and the youngest, a boy and heir. She suspected she was with child again.
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Elizabeth looked across the aisle to where Charlotte, Lawrence, and the rest of their extended family were seated. Besides their daughter marrying Will, Charlotte and Lawrence had four more children, two girls and two boys. They were the owners of the Portnoy estate as Ernest Portnoy passed away in 1821.
Sir William had gone to his eternal reward three years previously. Elizabeth could not but smile when she thought how pleased he would have been to see his granddaughter become a duchess. Lady Lucas was seated next to Charlotte.
Of her uncles and aunts, only the Gardiners were still with them. Uncle Frank had passed away seven years ago and Aunt Hattie had followed him six months later.
Eddy Gardiner, married for six years now, ran his father’s business with his younger brother Peter, also married. Lilly had married the owner of a large estate in Oxfordshire in 1819 and May, the youngest of the four Gardiner children, had waited until she was three and twenty to marry in 1827. From their four children, Madeline and Edward Gardiner had thirteen grandchildren—so far.
They had retired to a medium sized estate less than two miles from Madeline’s beloved Lambton.
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What of George Wickham you ask? He settled in New York and finally decided to get himself educated. After university, he read the law. He was one of the most sought after lawyers in New York and amassed quite a fortune.
He married and ended up having four children, a son and three daughters.
Wickham maintained a correspondence with his father, and when the latter informed him of his retirement in 1817, George sent an invitation to live with his family in New York. Contained within was not only the fare for a first class ticket, but a bank draft to Mr. Darcy repaying him in full for all debt markers that man held in his name. Having missed his son for so many years and once again being proud of the man he had become, Lucas Wickham accepted his son’s invitation.
The ex-steward had lived with his son until his passing about a year past.
Other than a letter of thanks she posted him, Wickham never had any contact with Her Grace. He did follow the news about her and had been pleased, not envious, when he had read about William Darcy marrying her.
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Charles Bingley and his wife Rebecca were attending the wedding.
After his sister ruined herself, Bingley had sent her to live with a spinster aunt in Scarborough. The day Caroline turned one and twenty, he released her dowry to her and washed his hands of her.
The still Miss Bingley lived with her sister at Louisa’s husband’s estate in Surrey. She never showed her face in London again.
Once Bingley had proved he had grown a backbone, the friendship with William Darcy had been rekindled, although not at the same level it had been before. The Bingleys had four daughters and one son.
Bingley had remained in trade and was doing very well for himself having decided entry into the landed gentry was not for him.
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Clem William Collins had attended a seminary and after a few years, taken orders. He had begun as the curate at the church in Wiltshire, in the town where he and his mother lived.
Until he was awarded the living five years later, he had lived in the house he and Ophelia Collins had purchased. Not long after being preferred to the living, he had married a very sensible local lady. They had two sons and a daughter.
Between his mother and his wife, Collins became a lot less silly. Over the years, they would be invited to one of their high-ranking cousin’s estates for a visit now and again.
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At the rear of the church were the ever vigilant John Biggs and Brian Johns—among other guards present. They were into their fifth decade, but had not lost a step.
Thanks to Her Grace’s generosity, as if allowing them and their families to live in spacious cottages at Castlemere was not enough, all of their children had enjoyed very good educations. This gave them entrée to employment that was not based on service or the males having to join the army.
Although they had never had to do so, after all of these years they would still do anything, including risking their own lives, if Her Grace, or any of her family was threatened.
For many years now they had been in command of the guards, some fifty men, who were employed to watch over the family. The Duchess paid them three or four times what they expected to be paid, but they had long ago learnt not to try and gainsay Her Grace as she could be rather stubborn when she wanted to be.
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The wedding breakfast was being held in the Portnoy estate’s ball room. The brides and groom’s parents were seated at a table with Jane, Andrew, and Lady Anne.
“This is the first of the next generation to marry,” Lady Anne remarked. “I can only pray He will allow me to meet some great-grandchildren before I see Robert again.”
“Mama, I am sure you will see great-grandchildren born,” Jane asserted.
Elizabeth watched her son and new daughter as they made their way around the room to greet each of the guests. “Thankfully Will looks much like his father. If one did not know the truth, they would never suspect my William was not his father by blood.”
“By the Grace of God, he does not bear any similarity in looks or character to his birthfather,” Charlotte stated. “Eliza, you told him the truth when he reached his majority, did you not?”
“I, no, we told him.” Elizabeth looked at her beloved husband warmly. “He thanked us for sharing all with him. Then he said he had only one true father, and whatever happened before did not interest him.”
“It was good that the former Prinny, the late King George IV, never mentioned the late duke at Will’s official investiture when he reached his majority,” Andrew noted.
“Speaking of the late King, how many times did he offer you a title, even a dukedom?” Lady Anne enquired of her son.
“It was four times, and like Father before me, I respectfully refused,” William stated.
“Thankfully the late King had more discretion than that,” Elizabeth recalled. She looked at her eldest son and his new wife again. “As much as I was wishing for a daughter so I would have been able to cast off the titles which had been forced on me, I will never regret for one second we were blessed with Will. He has already proved to be a man worthy of the titles he carries. A man who cares deeply for all those who depend upon him.”
“You gifted him the three remaining satellite estates after you gave one each to Mary, Lydia, and the three Darcy sons born after Ben,” Jane verified.
“Yes, that and more of the wealth I inherited were all part of his wedding gifts,” Elizabeth confirmed.
“How many schools have you opened, and kept funded with the money you continue to set aside for charity?” Charlotte asked.
“I think it is over forty now,” Elizabeth guessed. “It is the least I could have done to do some good with what I gained.”
“As I have said before, in your case Her Grace is so much more than something referring to your rank,” William stated lovingly.
“I, my one and only, forever true love, am not the only one at this table to display grace to others.” Elizabeth looked at her husband of six and twenty years lovingly.
The others at the table could do nothing but nod in agreement.
~~~The End~~~