Epilogue #2
“Do not worry about it,” Kitty replied cheerfully. “I was working in here this morning and must have forgotten to lock the door, so it is my fault as well. Maria, please help Beatrice to carry Jacob upstairs for a bath. Samuel, my love, you should not play with Mama’s paints.”
The little boy gazed at her with piteous eyes which reminded his mother of the boy’s Aunt Lydia, “But Mama, the paint fun!”
“I know, sweetling, it is very fun,” she agreed, wiping off the boy’s sticky hands and assisting him down from the table. “But they are Mama’s paints and you made Jacob very messy.”
“Want my own paints!”
She looked down at her little son fondly. Most of her children were artists of one type or another.
“Very well, my dear, we will get you your own paints.”
/
Vauxhall Gardens
London
Georgiana Laurent leaned back in her chair and gazed around with pleasure. It was a lovely day, warm but not blazing hot, and the puffy clouds in the sky provided a stark contrast to the deep blue of the heavens.
“What think you, my dear?” Emil Laurent inquired with a gesture toward the stage. The orchestra had practiced for a full two hours and now were disbanding for a needed rest.
Georgiana smiled at her beloved husband, “They did quite well.”
Emil quirked an inquiring eyebrow, “Only quite well?”
“The strings section did not play entirely as I had hoped,” his wife admitted.
“This particular symphony of yours is exquisite but challenging. The strings were a trifle ragged, I agree, but this is an excellent orchestra and they will learn it in time.”
“I am certain they will,” Georgiana declared as she glanced at her watch, “Now we must hurry. I believe we told Mr. Tobias Collins that we would visit the Sugar Emporium in the early afternoon?”
“Yes,” Emil agreed, rising to his feet and holding out his hand to help her up. She did not need the assistance, of course, but his diligent attentions were one of the reasons that she loved him so much.
“Oh,” she continued as they began walking toward their waiting carriage, “I promised the children that after we visit the Sugar Emporium, we will purchase ices at the store two doors down.”
Emil laughed and patted her hand on his arm, “I am guessing the younger ones were excited about that.”
“All of them were, even Susannah, who tries to pretend that she is far too sophisticated to be thrilled by anything.”
“She has always loved ices,” Emil agreed with a slightly melancholy sigh.
Susannah, their first born, had just turned nineteen and would soon be presented to society under the auspices of Mrs. Darcy and the Countess of Salisbury.
Where had the time gone? He remembered her as a bald infant in his arms, and now she was grown.
As usual, Georgiana was able to guess what he was thinking.
“We still have four more children at home,” she murmured in a comforting tone. “It will be many years before they have all flown the nest and by then, there will be grandchildren.”
“That is true enough,” her husband concurred. “I must say that I think it was quite remarkably intelligent of us to have a little daughter when you were one and forty, Georgiana. Arabella will keep our home full of energy well into our old age.”
“Oh yes, we were very intelligent indeed,” Mrs. Laurent said with a chuckle. “Of course, my own achievements in that area pale compared to that of Kitty.”
Her husband shuddered, “Her twins are an amazing gift, but the thought of two Arabellas is terrifying.”
Georgiana shivered as well, “Absolutely, completely terrifying, I quite agree.”
/
Longbourn
“Oh, Mrs. Collins!”
“Yes, Matilda?”
“I apologize for disturbing you, but Anna’s time has come.”
Charlotte Collins, who was working with one of the maids to organize the still room, straightened up in distress.
“Surely not! She is five weeks early.”
Matilda bit her lip with worry, “Her waters have just broken, Madam, and she confesses she has been having pains every three minutes.”
Charlotte shook her head at this news. Anna was the daughter of a wealthy gentleman from London and had been violated by an impoverished baronet who hoped to force her into marriage.
Anna was blessed with kindly parents who would not force her to wed the man who attacked her, but when she was found to be pregnant, her family sent her to Longbourn for the sake of her younger sisters’ reputation.
Charlotte found her a sweet, kind, and intelligent young woman, but the girl was also reeling emotionally from all that had come to pass in the last year.
Today, Anna had probably been hoping that the pains would go away on their own, and thus waited until quite late to inform anyone of the impending arrival of her baby.
“Matilda, since Mr. Collins is in London, we will need the assistance of my son Simeon, who is at Netherfield working on the new stables. Kindly send a servant there as quickly as possible to summon him.”
“Oh, he is back here at Longbourn, Mrs. Collins. I saw him ride up twenty minutes ago.”
“Thank the Lord! Fetch him and tell him I will need his assistance with a premature delivery.”
“Yes, Mrs. Collins!”
/
“You are almost there, Anna,” Simeon Collins encouraged his young patient. “I see the head ... there we go. Congratulations, it is a boy!”
Charlotte smiled with relief at the sound of the lusty cry emanating from the small infant.
She waited for her son to carefully cut the cord and then wrapped the baby in a clean blanket.
She hoped that the infant would survive; even with more than twenty years of experience as a de facto midwife, she could not always save the babies born early.
“Oh!” her second son suddenly exclaimed.
“What is it?”
“My dear Anna,” Simeon said gently, “I do believe you are carrying twins!”
Anna shuddered through another painful contraction, before managing to gasp through clenched teeth, “Twins?”
“Yes. Do not be afraid, the baby is well positioned and in just a few minutes all will be well.”
As predicted, some fifteen minutes later another small baby entered the world, this one a girl.
Amid the vigorous cries of both newborns, Charlotte Collins leaned over to kiss Anna’s face, “My dear, you did a wonderful job and were quite incredibly brave. All is well now. Try to rest.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Collins,” the girl replied, her face sweaty, her eyes fluttering shut with exhaustion.
Charlotte gestured to the two midwives in training, each of whom held a baby in her arms, to follow her out, and Simeon came with them.
“We may well need a wet nurse,” Charlotte instructed the young midwives. “We will see how Anna does with feeding them both, but can you check with the other mothers to see if anyone can assist temporarily as needed?”
“Of course, Madam,” they both chorused, and carried the babies off to be washed and evaluated.
“Thank you, Simeon,” Charlotte said, reaching out to embrace her much taller son. “I was quite worried with your father in London, but you did a marvelous job.”
“Thank you, Mother. I am very glad that I was able to help Anna … Miss Redford.”
Charlotte froze at this and turned an intense gaze on the young man, whose face now suffused red before her eyes.
“Anna, is it?” she inquired carefully.
He looked down at the floor, “I … well, yes, Mother. I assure you I have done nothing inappropriate, but I find myself very attracted to her.”
Charlotte stared gravely into his eyes as she reached out to clasp his hands, “My dear boy, I admire and like Anna very much, but you must keep in mind that she has been harmed greatly by a man. If you wish to pursue her, you must be very careful and gentle about it.”
“I know, Mother. I promise you that I will be cautious and respectful of all that she has endured.”
/
Pemberley Cemetery
Derbyshire
“It seems odd that you have been gone five years, Mother,” Elizabeth Darcy said aloud, her eyes fixed on the grassy patch under which lay the coffin of her mother.
“Fitzwilliam and I now have four children married and five grandchildren, with another one on the way. I suppose I am getting a little old, though I do not feel old. Nonetheless, I do not have the energy of my early days, when I would romp across the country and climb small mountains with ease. I know we did not always understand one another, Mother, but I am thankful your last years were comparatively peaceful here at Pemberley, far better than Lady Catherine’s were.
She never really accepted the loss of Rosings and died an embittered old woman.
At least Anne and Alexander are doing marvelously.
I told you that they had three sons, and Alexander’s daughter from his first marriage is married now to one of Jane’s boys. ”
She now turned on the bench so that she could face her father’s grave, “Father, you will find this interesting. Mr. Collins has published a treatise on Shakespeare and the Bible, and it has been very well received by the literary community. Mr. Darcy and I have signed first editions of all of Mr. Collins’s works, and I suppose in one hundred years they might well be worth a great deal … ”
She trailed off as her beloved Fitzwilliam settled onto the seat next to her and wrapped a long arm around her petite form. They took a moment to enjoy a long kiss before Elizabeth relaxed into his embrace.
“Are you well?” Darcy asked tenderly.
“I am,” she assured him. “I realized it has been five years since my mother passed on, and I wanted to come down here to …”
“Remember,” he finished for her.
“Yes. It hardly seems possible it has been that long. I am seven and forty, Fitzwilliam.”
“I am five and fifty, my dear, and I feel every year of it right now.”
Elizabeth lifted her brows in curiosity, “Why?”
“Yesterday’s ride with our three sons and all the Martyn boys was long and hard. I had too much foolish pride to ask to turn back after a few hours, but today every muscle is aching.”