Chapter 38 #2
“Lizzy, what is the meaning of your father getting so close to Mr. Darcy? From what your father has said, I almost feel I should try to secure him for one of you.”
Lizzy was momentarily tongue-tied. Her mother needed tranquility during the last critical weeks of her pregnancy. She weighed every word in her answer.
“Dear mamma, just as you need to concentrate on nourishing the possible heir to papa’s Dukedom, papa needs to work ceaselessly to ensure the Dukedom will prosper.
It was providential that papa reconnected with Mr. Darcy from the very beginning of our elevation, when everything was overwhelming.
Mr. Darcy has been associated with the Northampton Dukedom since his youth.
He helped raise the funds to rescue the canal network when it almost collapsed because of overexpansion.
His expertise in managing vast estates successfully lends itself to assisting papa, Uncle Gardiner, and Uncle Philips in running our many newly acquired holdings.
Mr. Darcy’s uncle, the Earl Fitzwilliam, is a renowned parliamentarian whom papa deeply respects, and papa needs guidance as a new member of the House of Lords as well.
Perhaps most important of all, Mr. Darcy, the Earl, and His Lordship’s younger son helped secure papa’s inheritance by exposing Earl Dunham’s treachery to steal the Dukedom. ”
“Why has Mr. Darcy helped your father so tirelessly? Does he intend to ensnare one of you girls for himself?”
“Oh, Mr. Darcy was married to his cousin, the former Miss de Bourgh, when he began his involvement in papa’s affairs. He has behaved as a gentleman and has never flirted with my sisters.”
“What about toward you…”
Elizabeth was again surprised into speechlessness by this direct line of questioning. Fortunately, the babe kicked just then and distracted the Duchess.
“This one never sleeps… always kicking. How can it not be a boy?” Her Grace rubbed her extended stomach tenderly.
Elizabeth breathed a sigh of relief and thanked her unborn sibling for lending a foot.
“Well, so long as he apologizes for slighting you, I do not mind him marrying into our family. We are indebted to him for our current good fortune. I understand how your father must have felt when first faced with what his elevation entailed. Every time I had to meet this lord or that lady as their superior, my nerves nearly overcame me. I was simply fearful that my not knowing the rules would ruin our family reputation. This child,” the Duchess again caressed her belly fondly, “has been a Godsend in more ways than one. I will have had an extra nine months to learn to be a duchess.”
“But, mamma, Mr. Darcy is untitled. Did you not insist we all marry dukes?”
“When I said that, I was still thinking like Mrs. Bennet. Now, I know more about the peerage. The glittering veneer hides a great deal of unspeakable rot. My abigail, Maria—thank heavens Jane switched maids with me—is a fount of information about the noble families she has served. Do you know the late Duke of Devonshire lived in the same house with both his wife and mistress, each a daughter to an earl? No, I want my daughters to be well-married to gentlemen who will treat you with affection and respect.” The Duchess could not suppress the smile that appeared from thinking about her own husband’s recent improved behavior.
When Elizabeth told her betrothed about her mother’s approval, he was so overjoyed that he almost broke his promise to kiss no more than her hand, and both were extremely impatient for the birth of Elizabeth's sibling.
When that day came, a boy was born to the Northampton family—the long-awaited heir not only to the Dukedom but also to Longbourn.
Both mother and child were well, although the birth had been quite a trial for the Duchess.
It had not been as difficult as the birth of Lydia, but Her Grace felt trying for a spare might just kill her.
Once she had been churched, and Lord Charles Thomas Bennet-Fitzstuart appeared to be thriving, Elizabeth broke the news of having accepted Mr. Darcy’s offer of marriage. The Duchess was still in a state of bliss.
“Lizzy, you have always been sensible. If you have accepted him, and your father has given his blessing, I shall have no objection. Even though he is untitled, he is very rich, and you will always be addressed as Lady Elizabeth.”
Lady Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy were married nine months after his first wife’s death.
By then, very few people remembered the scandal of her death because the drama created by the poet Lord Byron and Lady Caroline kept the town’s gossip mill turning.
The few who did remember sided with Mr. Darcy as the innocent party in that sordid affair.
More importantly, the shame and guilt enshrouding Mr. Darcy concerning his first marriage had finally dissipated.
Elizabeth and her Fitzwilliam could start anew in their union.
Of the four remaining Bennet-Fitzstuart sisters, three married untitled gentlemen from distinguished families shortly after their second sister.
Mary and Kitty came out into society the year after their brother’s birth, and both were snatched up quickly.
Mary’s husband was a member of Parliament and a follower of Mr. Wilberforce.
Kitty married a fellow connoisseur of the arts who was also a neighbor of Mr. Darcy, fulfilling her wish to be wedded to a landed gentleman.
The following season, it was finally Lydia’s turn to debut.
She and Miss Darcy entered society together.
While Lydia enjoyed every ball of the season, Miss Darcy, even with the tutelage of her new sister, needed some nudging.
Despite Lydia’s many protestations about not marrying anyone less than heir to a duke, she ended up with the third son of a duke.
The marriage mart was flooded with gallant officers fresh off the battlefields of the Continent at the close of the Napoleonic Wars.
Lydia’s long-standing admiration of dashing officers surged at the sight of a young colonel decorated with a chestful of medals for his bravery at Waterloo.
Miss Darcy accepted an offer of marriage from a young naval captain.
The newlyweds lived mainly in town at a townhouse she inherited from her great-aunt while her husband established himself as a designer of warships for the Admiralty.
Not once did the Duke consult Debrett’s before giving his blessings for his daughters’ marriages.
Jane, the belle of the ton during her first two years in high society, seemed to be as serene as ever toward the eager gentlemen hankering for her favor.
She was overjoyed when her little brother was born, and four months later, when her closest sister married her soulmate.
Jane was ever more determined to find the match her soul demanded.
Then, one after another of her sisters married.
She was happy for them; even so, she did not act.
She jokingly told Lizzy that she would be the spinster aunt to her nieces and nephews, and a doting sister to her little brother, Charlie, teaching all of them how to make color dyes out of flower petals and destroy all the upholstered furniture in their homes.
Richard eventually took over the management of Rosings but was in town for the season.
He was continually around the Duke’s family and was treated as one of their own.
Not only was he a cousin to Darcy and Lizzy, but he was also a friend and former comrade of the Duke’s three other sons-in-law.
He preferred to spend the holidays with the Darcys and, inevitably, was thrown in company with the only unmarried Bennet-Fitzstuart daughter.
One Christmas, the Colonel was watching Jane tend the flowers in the conservatory at Kennington Castle. There was no one else around. It was now or never.
“My dear Lady Jane, will you accept my hand in marriage?”
Jane was thrown off-kilter for a moment by this abrupt offer of marriage. However, she returned to her steady self almost instantly.
“Of course, Colonel. I am honored.”
The rest of the family were happy that Jane had finally chosen her match.
The Colonel’s attentions to Jane were never beyond what was proper, but his cousin Darcy could see the stringent military discipline the Colonel exercised to suppress his admiration for Lady Jane, and Lizzy noticed her dearest sister was most tranquil in the Colonel’s company.
Rosings had finally become the Colonel’s legal holding, and like most men of this time, wealth defined his self-worth.
And Jane, ever perceptive and considerate, had patiently waited for the day Richard felt ready to ask for her hand.
He had been the one to make her feel safe and at ease.
In marrying him, her circles of friends and family would remain the same, but that was no longer the main reason for favoring the Colonel.
Through the years, she had acclimated to her elevated position.
The people from her past had been firmly left in the past. They were thought of from time to time, but their lives seldom intersected except for Mrs. Collins, whose proximity to Rosings greatly enhanced Jane’s enjoyment of being its mistress.
Lady Catherine, ever observant of the distinction of rank, grudgingly accepted her former position being occupied by a daughter of a duke.
Of her previous acquaintances, Miss Bingley had initially attempted to maintain a connection to the Dukedom, but her interest was not reciprocated.
Mr. Bingley continued his friendship with Darcy but found himself frequently kept at arm’s length because he seemed unable to loosen his sister’s hold on him.
He eventually married the daughter of an impoverished viscount to appease his sister, who was desperate to find a new way to stay in the Duke’s circles.
Mr. Bingley lost more than half of his fortune paying off his father-in-law’s debt, but his marriage turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
What he could not achieve, his wife easily did for him by not including Miss Bingley in their invitations.
Mr. Bingley felt uneasy at first, but between pleasing his wife or his sister, there was no contest. Miss Bingley got what she feared most: irrelevance.
As for Wickham, whom everyone wished to forget, no one had heard anything of him since his letter to Darcy. Perhaps he had for once kept his word and sailed across the seas to a new life.
In the end, the Duchess of Northampton had no titled son-in-law.
Mr. Darcy decided not to claim the barony held in abeyance because his Darcy family name was extremely important to him, and he did not wish to be known as Lord de Aubrey, or his wife as Lady Elizabeth de Aubrey.
The title made little difference to him, as his great-aunt had already bequeathed the unentailed part of her estate to him and Georgiana.
He would manage the entailed property until one of his or Georgiana’s children wanted to petition for the title and terminate the abeyance.
Her Grace had no cause to repine. She had adjusted to and now enjoyed being the Duchess of Northampton, a position that allowed her freedom to act as she wished.
If she occasionally committed a faux pas, the offended party, more likely than not, would apologize for inconveniencing Her Grace.
The Duchess remained bewildered by being asked to grant forgiveness to the wronged party, but she became accustomed to being never wrong.
Her confidante and companion, Mrs. Trimmer, made sure Her Grace was kept abreast of all things aristocratic, and, over time, accidental errors in decorum became rare.
The most important reason for Her Grace being content with her lot could ultimately be traced to the inalienable fact that she was mother to Charles Thomas Bennet-Fitzstuart, Lord Fairwater—the future Duke.
-The End-