Chapter 56
CHAPTER 56
O n the first of September, Mr Darcy handed Elizabeth and Lydia Bennet down from his carriage in front of Longbourn, followed by his sister. Mary, Jane, and William had returned to Meryton with the Bingleys a fortnight after Lady Catherine’s operation, when it was apparent that the lady would make a full recovery. Lord and Lady Matlock returned to London on the same day; Lord Matlock needed to return to the capital after such a long absence, and also after such an event on home shores. There would be new hostilities between England and France after this, and the foreign secretary was needed without further delay. Elizabeth, Lydia, Georgiana, and Priscilla had remained in Eastbourne with Lady Catherine for another month, then accompanied her back to Rosings Park with Anne, and stayed with them for another week.
The Woodhouses stayed in Eastbourne until Lady Catherine and her guests left the village, then travelled to London, despite the heat at the end of the summer, to visit Miss Woodhouse’s sister. Elizabeth and Darcy had no more of Miss Woodhouse’s opinions of Darcy’s matrimonial prospects once Priscilla, Anne, and Georgiana cornered her and informed her that if she did not wish for tales of her lies and false illness to be spread all over London, that she would learn to mind her business and be respectful of the Bennets and their relations. Emma and Elizabeth would never become what Elizabeth considered close, but Elizabeth was resigned to seeing her occasionally, both in Highbury, while visiting Charlotte, and also possibly in the company of Lady Catherine, for that lady and Mr Woodhouse seemed to be becoming inseparable.
Mary and Mrs Bennet had their way. Mrs Bennet was beside herself in her determination to have not a double, but a triple wedding! The neighbourhood had never seen such a spectacle, and though Jane was still insistent in her refusal not to steal Mary’s special day, Mary and William were very vocal about the notion only increasing their joy and that of their family and friends. William was able to convince Bingley and Darcy of the merits of such an idea, and the other men persuaded their ladies to agree. None of them wished to wait very long, in any case.
Elizabeth had avoided returning to Meryton for as long as possible in an effort to avoid the wedding preparations and the endless fittings her mother would demand of her. She, Jane, and Mary managed to have their wedding gowns completed in Eastbourne, and so now there were only the endless rounds of visits their mother would insist upon to their neighbours before the wedding, which was to be held in just over a fortnight. The novelty of William Bennet, the hero, had begun to lose its shine in Meryton, but the arrival of Elizabeth and Darcy brought renewed interest in the tales of the invasion, and Mrs Bennet meant to enjoy the attention for all that it was worth.
The day after their arrival, a delivery was made to Longbourn. Elizabeth entered the hall to find her father accepting three parcels from a man who was familiar to her.
“Denomme!” she cried. “Whatever are you doing here?”
“A wedding gift for the mademoiselles ,” the servant answered. He declined to stay long enough to take a meal in the kitchen, nor even allow the ladies to open the gifts and send letters of thanks. “I will convey your thanks to the comte ,” Denomme promised, and departed.
An hour later, Elizabeth, Mary, and Jane were in the drawing room in the company of their beaux and their family as they simultaneously opened the boxes. Everyone gasped at the sight of the jewels inside. Each box held a positively enormous pendant on a gold chain, and a pair of matching cufflinks. Each stone was a solitary jewel the size of a large chicken’s egg, set in simple gold. Each was a different shape. The one addressed to Mary was a heart shaped garnet. Jane’s was an oval sapphire. Elizabeth’s was an emerald cut citrine. The jewels in the cufflinks matched the pendants perfectly, and were as large as the pad of a man’s thumb.
The family was hushed as they all stared at the incredible gifts with wonder. “Why on earth would the comte send you such gifts?” Mr Bennet demanded.
“He is a strange creature,” Darcy answered. “He claims to make them himself, through alchemy, of course.”
“He had a funny habit of choosing what he considered to be the perfect jewel for each lady of his acquaintance,” Elizabeth said. “One night during a dance, he amused me by speculating the perfect jewels for the ladies in the room. He told me that mine was citrine.”
None in Meryton really knew who the Count of St Germain was. Her father had read several accounts of the man’s previous detentions in London, but otherwise, the good people of the quiet country village had never heard of such a person, other than his name being mentioned many times in the tales of the attempted invasion of Eastbourne. As far as their neighbours were concerned, he was an important visiting French nobleman, perhaps an emigre from the revolution, and the Bennets had been otherwise taken in by fantastical tales as to the rest.
The wedding breakfast was to be held at Netherfield, due to the size. Mrs Bennet had been in close contact with Lady Matlock and Lady Catherine, and though it was not meant to be a great society event, it would not do for the foreign secretary’s nephew to marry, and not have certain nobles who were close to the family invited. Darcy and Bingley had refused Elizabeth and Jane’s dowries, doubling the size of Kitty’s and Lydia’s.
Mrs Bennet had spent a fortune on the arrangements, and Bennet had quietly humoured her. It was true that the Bennets’ consequence had grown considerably the last ten months, and since they were not having three weddings, he allowed the breakfast to be three times as grand. His daughter was to be related to the foreign secretary, he would not allow it to appear as if her family were poor, even if he would be obligated to curb his wife’s spending immediately after the event. It had helped that Darcy and Bingley had persuaded him that the necessary wardrobes that Elizabeth and Jane needed would be so grand that it only made sense for their husbands to assume that expense, so he had saved a fortune on clothes.
Darcy, Bingley, and Bennet had made the wedding present of Bartholomew, the pony, and the little trap to Mary and William shortly before the wedding. The couple was overwhelmed by such gifts, particularly after Sir Henry had renovated the parsonage for them. Mr Bingley promised care for Bartholomew and the pony in Netherfield’s stable for the duration of his lease, which was very nearly over, but Sir Henry informed them that his nephew would be leaving the militia and coming to take up learning how to manage the estate, and that the horse and pony could continue to lodge there until they took up their place at Longbourn.
After the wedding breakfast, Elizabeth and Darcy would travel to London for a week, then to Pemberley for the harvest. When the harvest was complete, they would take a small journey to a small cottage in Hampshire that Darcy's parents had used often when they wished to holiday alone together.
Jane and Bingley would go to his house in Grosvenor Square for a week, then to Scarborough for a month alone in a snug cottage – Bingley believed Darcy’s idea was capital – and another month visiting Bingley’s relatives. Louisa would close Netherfield for them, and open the Great House at Stoke. When the couple returned, they would live there for a year under lease while they decided whether to purchase or find a different estate further north. Caroline and the Hursts would travel to Bingley’s House in London, where they would participate in the upcoming season, where Caroline was very much looking forward to participating in society, while on her best behaviour, of course. Their months in town would give Jane and Charles some space in which to get used to each other, and their new situation.
Mary and William had declined all offers for visits to snug cottages. Their weeks in Eastbourne had been enough. Mr and Mrs Gardiner were to visit Longbourn for a week with their children, and the young couple would travel to London in their trap and stay in the Gardiners’ House in Gracechurch Street for that time, before returning to Meryton and taking up the work of their parish together.