Chapter Eighteen #2
Kellynch was sold to a wealthy sailor who had wed one of Sir Walter’s daughters.
The eldest was still unwed, and gave him a fair share of trouble before removing to Bath with some relations.
The new Lady Gardiner had Allenham for life before it was meant to pass to her nephew, but she happily gave the manor over to Mr. Willoughby so that she might remain always in London with her husband.
Mr. Willoughby devoted himself to improving the place with the intention of renting it to tenants for additional income, for he had indeed been generous in allowing his bride considerable control of her own fortune.
She spent a great sum on decorating her new home to her own liking, and she was incredibly indulgent toward little Margaret and Harriet, who was accepted amongst the household as Emma’s spinster companion.
The pair happily passed their spring days attempting and subsequently abandoning a variety of hobbies and pursuits, from reading to music to the composition of riddles.
Ere long they discovered a passion to hold their interest, and devoted themselves to the flourishing of Combe Magna’s expansive gardens.
The flowers were blooming and all was green again, displaying Combe Magna to advantage when the Darcys visited with Georgiana, Cathy, and the Gardiners.
Lady Susan joined the party, praising her niece for the improvements she had made to Combe Magna, and lamenting how tedious Hartfield had become.
Elizabeth was pleased at every sign of Emma and Harriet’s contentment in their new life, and they had the highest praise for Mr. Willoughby, who was a generous and respectful friend to his wife and his cousin.
It was late summer when Jane recovered from a second lying in, and was fit to travel after delivering her husband a son.
The Bingleys left their children with the Bennets and joined the Darcys and Gardiners for a trip to Sanditon.
The princess arranged everything, and was very proud to show Lady Darcy and her friends the improvements she had funded in the fashionable seaside resort.
It was inevitable that when Elizabeth and Cathy first embarked in a bathing machine, that they should think of Tom Bertram and his raft sinking into the moat, and they were too well amused to be afraid of their immersion in the sea.
It was an enchanting experience, and one they joyfully repeated every day of their month by the sea.
Elizabeth also spent much of her time in Sanditon with the princess, marveling at the improvements to the village that her mother had commissioned, and even suggesting ideas of her own.
All of the Bennet sisters had some great notion that the princess and Mr. Tom Parker heard in good humor.
Jane proposed a public conservatory, Elizabeth suggested miles of walking paths along the cliffs, Mary spoke of aesthetic improvements to glorify the local chapel, Kitty suggested inducing more merchants to open shops with fashionable window dressings, and Lydia advised that a regiment of the militia ought to quarter there.
Mr. Parker, the mayor and greatest promoter of the village, relished every suggestion.
General Fitzwilliam delighted him with the notion of a racing track to rival Newmarket, Sir Edward considered opening a small emporium along the cliffside High Street, and even Lord Darcy’s sardonic quip about a library for antisocial husbands was given credit.
Though Sidney Parker had been cast out of his family, and Esther Denham was never seen there again, the seaside paradise already drew quite a crowd, and the mayor cherished every hope of raising the village's importance more still.
Just as the Prince Regent patronized Brighton, Princess Elizabeth had brought fashionable crowds to the little town so determined to distinguish itself, and the mayor was in perpetual awe of her.
Not far from Sanditon was Ashford Green, a small estate in Sussex that Lord Darcy’s father had inherited from a distant relation.
Elizabeth found it quaint in a quiet sort of way, but it was certainly nothing to the grander of Pemberley.
To her delight, General Fitzwilliam intended to purchase the manor from his cousin, for he was of a mind to take a wife.
Lord Darcy and Mr. Bingley had a private bet about which Bennet sister the general would favor, but the general had other plans.
In the autumn, Elizabeth and her relations once again prepared for another London season.
Mr. Tilney began formally courting Cathy, though he was not without competition, for Cathy had acquired many suitors in Sanditon, and both Arthur Parker and Sir Edward Denham pursued her to London.
The youngest of the Parker brothers, a stout, awkward young man with good intentions if not good sense, bore his rejection well enough – and learned to prefer the company of Mary Bennet.
Elizabeth kept her promise to Mrs. Rushworth and visited her friend whenever she was in London.
Kitty and Lydia became fond of the widow’s younger sister, Miss Julia Bertram, who shared their enthusiasm to be included in the fun of their older siblings.
Mrs. Rushworth had taken Elizabeth’s advice to heart, and though she observed every proper mourning custom, she was glad when the year came to an end.
So, too, was General Fitzwilliam, who became a frequent visitor at Wimpole Street when the widow began entertaining again.
Mr. Crawford had not visited at all during his lover’s mourning period, residing chiefly at Mansfield Park, when his sister wed the new heir; it was rumored that he was courting Mrs. Rushworth’s impoverished cousin, who had long been a member of the Bertram household.
Mrs. Rushworth could speak of it with perfect equanimity; it was only General Fitzwilliam who seemed to disrupt her composure.
Lord Darcy was delighted at the opportunity to return his cousin’s teasing when the courtship led to an engagement, and Elizabeth was truly happy that her long-suffering friend had come to love General Fitzwilliam wholeheartedly.
Not long after the Fitzwilliams wed, Princess Elizabeth retreated to Clwyd Castle with her entourage, and thought it a great lark to invite all those who had passed the strangest week of their life there a year before.
The Bennets, Bingleys, and Fitzwilliams were included in the invitation, and their curiosity about the time their friends had spent there prevailed.
On All Hallows’ Eve, a macabre sort of re-enactment was staged by Mr. and Mrs. Tilney and Mrs. and Mrs. Willoughby, who play-acted the shocking events of that infamous week in the space of an hour, staging quite a production in the great hall.
They called upon the Darcys and Gardiners to assist them, and General Fitzwilliam was most energetic in presenting his small role at the end of the drama.
Kitty, Lydia, Georgiana, and the princess’s theatrical friend Lady Abernathy gleefully portrayed the villains of the tale, causing Mrs. Bennet to make a spectacle of her own in the audience as she cried out at every new twist and turn of the play, and the rest of the audience were just as enthusiastic.
The princess wept from laughter at the most chaotic scenes, and Lady Susan was present to recite a great deal of insolence, as was her custom.
Elizabeth was pleased that even her husband bore it all in good humor, grumbling only a little that it was in rather poor taste.
There was another re-enactment that pleased him much better.
He and Elizabeth walked the battlements of the castle together one evening at sunset, just as they had done one year before.
They stood hand in hand in the very place where he had asked her to become his wife, until Elizabeth took his hands and placed them on her stomach. “I have spent the happiest year of my life as your wife, Fitzwilliam, but a far greater joy now awaits us.”
His look of surprise turned into a tearful smile as his fingers gently caressed the small bump of her stomach. “When we walked here together a year ago, I thought you could never make me happier than you did in that moment… until now.”
Elizabeth smiled so widely that her face ached from it, and she wrapped her arms about his neck, leaning in for a series of small, playful pecks on his lips. “How astonished I was, when you said you loved me! But you have shown it every day since then; I wonder how I ever could have doubted it.”
He nuzzled his face against hers for a moment before releasing her and gazing out at the landscape as he held one arm around her. “Our family is to grow again.”
Elizabeth bumped her hip against his and smiled deviously.
“Had you ever imagined you would acquire so many new relations all at once? I have given you six new sisters, the four young Gardiners, two sets of in-laws, a niece and a nephew, three brothers-in-law, and we have lately acquired Maria as a cousin. And now….”
“And now, you have given me all that my heart could ever desire. I lost my parents, who often repined that I had not any siblings near my age, nor did Georgiana. I had only her and Richard for so long, and I longed for a large and affectionate family. My father was the eldest of eight, and spoke of how noisy Pemberley once was. You have made it so again, and I know it is what he would wish for me, much as I have desired it myself.”
“Eight! It is just like you to be so ambitious – I must remind you of your philosophy to let me have my own way. We shall have this little one, and then we shall see.” Elizabeth stroked her stomach and gave a happy sigh. “Do be a boy, my little Darcy.”
“I care not, so long as it is a healthy child, and hopefully one who is the image of its mother. Have you felt the quickening?"
“During our play, when we were enacting the scene of the falling chandelier. Perhaps I have a little Cathy here, to be so thrilled by the excitement.”
He chuckled. “I am all for family names, but perhaps one that is not shared by….”
“By certain terrifying dowagers?”
“Exactly. I daresay Richard will incite quite a riot amongst our hundred and fifty relations, vying for the distinction of a namesake.”
Elizabeth laughed. “Maria has already informed me she hopes to give Richard a little Betsy; perhaps I might return the favor.”
“It is the least you can do, after once brandishing a knife at her. What strange beginnings there are to female friendships,” he teased her.
“It was a pen knife, and that was ages ago!”
“It does seem a lifetime ago,” he mused, holding her hand and standing near enough for their shoulders to touch.
They lapsed into a tranquil silence as the pink faded from the clouds and the sun sank fully behind the distant hills, the colorful autumnal leaves fading into the falling dusk.
The moat curled around the castle, black in the moonless night, and as ominous as it had ever been.
But just as she had discovered that fateful week at Clwyd Castle, Elizabeth felt perfectly safe with Lord Darcy. They had kept their word to never be parted, and their happiness was utterly complete.