Chapter 5
Jane was over the moon the next day when the midwife confirmed their suspicions.
She was shocked at how well Jane was carrying and it made her estimate of a due date very imprecise.
She informed her that between the date of her last bleeding and just now feeling the quickening, she could be due anywhere from three months to six.
She also assured Jane that the flatulence was quite normal for expectant mothers which brought her a measure of comfort over her body’s sudden revolt.
Jane determined to tell her husband that evening after dinner and redressed before she and Elizabeth joined Darcy below stairs to break their fasts.
Jane was nearly brimming over with contentment as she let herself enjoy an extra helping of ham as she now realized that her slight weight gain was reasonable and she needed to feed the little one growing within her.
She was in awe of the fierce protectiveness and affection she already felt for one she had not yet met.
She was to be a mother. A mother! She could not wait to inform her husband. He would be over the moon!
Bingley did not appear until just before the breakfast was ready to be cleaned up and surprisingly Caroline was on his arm.
He seemed strange and immediately deposited his sister at the table so that he could turn away to make up plates from the sideboard.
When he joined them, he sat beside Caroline instead of his wife and applied himself to his food, studiously avoiding Jane’s eye.
“I am looking forward to beginning our move,” Jane declared, hoping to induce him to look at her so that she might perhaps determine what was on his mind.
Bingley only grunted in reply, but Caroline’s eyes flared with heat and she gritted her teeth as she replied, “How wonderful that you were able to find a house which you preferred with so little effort or input from those of us who are most intimately involved in the matter.”
“Charles chose to surprise all of us with the estate, Caroline,” Jane replied honestly.
“After your arts and allurements distracted him to the duty he owed his true family!” she snarled.
“As its owner, he was well within his rights to choose his future home.” Elizabeth snapped back, stepping into the fray. “He had not even spoken to Jane, his wife, before making his decision so if you feel excluded then speak to your brother about it and leave Jane out of it!”
“You shall enjoy being so near Pemberley,” Jane attempted to placate them both.
“You have always wished for Charles to purchase in the neighborhood and, how did you put it, ‘take Pemberley as a sort of model’? We shall have a wonderful time, don’t you think, looking at fabrics and finding the perfect pieces for each room.
We shall create a welcoming, comfortable, and timeless home just like here at Pemberley. ”
“The Bingley estate shall be in the first stare of fashion!” Caroline retorted with her usual smile of superiority which Jane was coming to see for exactly what it was. “My superior sense of fashion will ensure it.”
Elizabeth’s eyes flashed but Jane’s pleading look kept her from blasting the smug look from the woman’s face, likely with the use of the jam slathered roll in her hand which was in the process of being crushed to crumbs.
All through the heated exchange, Bingley continued to shovel the food into his mouth as if he had suddenly been struck deaf.
It was made obvious by his heightened color, however, that he had allowed, if not encouraged, Caroline to believe that Jane had chosen the estate or at least had the last word on the subject.
Elizabeth was nearly vibrating with the effort required to hold her tongue.
“I look forward to your input, Caroline.” Jane turned to Elizabeth, “Does Georgiana still arrive this morning?”
“Yes,” Elizabeth growled. “She was feeling better yesterday and is excited to return home today to meet her nephews. Aunt Eleanore is as well. She was extremely displeased to miss out on several days of their growth. She says that at their age they change almost hourly. She loves the newborn smell of infants she said and cannot wait for cuddles with them both.”
“They do sleep an inordinate amount,” Jane laughed. “I was not prepared for that. My vague memories of Lydia and Kitty were noisy, smelly bundles which Nurse would not let us near. It has been a whole new experience to see such new little angels.”
“It is,” Elizabeth beamed, her usual good humor restored. “The only other infants we were exposed to were the Gardiner’s, and with them in London, they were usually several months old before we made a visit.”
“Did you have much interaction with Georgiana, William?” Elizabeth asked.
“As much as any other twelve-year-old boy might have,” Darcy replied with the slightest color flagging his cheeks belying his words.
“Come now, Fitzwilliam Darcy,” Elizabeth teased. “Tell us the truth.”
“I sang her to sleep most nights,” he admitted. “My mother died in childbirth, and I thought that she needed to know everything about her and spent as much time as I could telling her stories, though she did not understand a word of it.”
“But I always knew that you loved me best of anyone in the whole world,” Georgiana announced from the doorway.
“Georgie!” Darcy and Elizabeth chorused, rising from the table to enfold her in warm hugs.
“Welcome home sweet girl,” Darcy murmured into her hair.
“Where is Aunt Eleanore?” Elizabeth asked, looking toward the door as if she might appear.
“She took the opportunity to wash and then said that you were to join her in her first grandchildren’s nursery.
” Georgiana grinned. “She claims that William and I have practically been her children for most of our lives and that she intends to claim the twins as her own as the viscount and Richard are so contrary as to be single at their advanced ages and she despairs of them ever giving her grandchildren of their own.”
Elizabeth chuckled and excused herself, followed by Georgiana and Jane, and the three ladies climbed the stairs to the nursery.
They found Lady Matlock humming to two sleeping infants while she rocked slowly in the comfortable rocking chair Darcy had had commissioned for his wife.
She looked up with tears in her eyes and attempted to sniff them away before they could fall.
“You have no idea how pleased you have made me, Lizzy!” Lady Matlock whispered. “The first and likely only babes of this generation unless Georgiana promises to do her duty and provide me with at least three as well.”
Georgiana blushed and assured her aunt that she would do her best to marry and create a family.
“But not for several years,” Elizabeth laughed. “Or you shall cost William his sanity. I believe he has said that he will allow her to marry after forty.”
Georgiana giggled at that and begged her aunt to give up a babe.
Elizabeth lifted one of the bundles from her lap, checking the color of ribbon around his wrist before tucking his hands back in the blanket, handing him to Georgiana, and informing her that it was the heir, Bennet Alexander.
The girl cuddled him close and kissed his downy head.
“He smells divine,” she whispered. “You were correct, Aunt. It is the sweetest smell in the world.”
Lady Matlock hummed in agreement, eyes closed and nose buried in her own sweet baby scent.
Jane and Elizabeth entertained them with stories of the last few days since the birth, which was only referred to with hints and innuendos out of respect for Georgiana’s sensibilities.
After the minute descriptions, Elizabeth urged Jane to tell them of her own news.
Jane frowned, wishing to tell Bingley of his heir before she began to spread it further, but suddenly remembered that that was not her only news and obviously her dear sister meant her future living arrangements.
“Charles has purchased an estate not twenty miles from here; Ivy Well. We are very pleased with our future neighbors!”
“That is wonderful, Jane!” Georgiana beamed. “I will enjoy having another of my sisters close by. Do you think you will bring Kitty with you when you return from Hertfordshire? I should enjoy practicing duets with her once more.”
“I had not thought of it,” she replied honestly.
“But it is a good idea. I should ask Mary if she has changed her mind about leaving the shire. When we invited her to join us here at Pemberley after Caroline had announced her intention to do so, she had little interest and declared that she is perfectly comfortable as the eldest Bennet daughter and that the estate had need of her.”
“It is good that she is feeling needed.” Elizabeth smiled. “I have recently regretted the distance between us. I ought to have made more of an effort to include her. I had you as a confidant, of course, and Kitty worshiped Lydia…”
Jane looked horrified. “I had never thought— I— Am I a bad sister?”
“Oh, Jane, I did not mean to make you question yourself--”
“I am, aren’t I?”
Georgiana looked between them uncomfortably and whispered, “I have always felt affection and acceptance from both of you.”
Jane immediately apologized for her discomfort. “I was just so surprised by the thought. I had always had this view of myself, and poor Mary’s situation knocked me out of my own head. I shall write to Mary and apologize for my thoughtlessness.”
“My dear Jane,” Lady Matlock cried. “You will learn, as you grow older, that it is easy to see clearly when one looks behind. There is little good in dwelling on the what-might-have-beens. Acknowledge
the past and move forward to right what one might while forgiving the rest.”
“You sound like Lizzy,” Jane smiled self-deprecatingly at her sister. “She always likes to say, ‘Remember the past only as it gives you pleasure’. She knows how often I must be reminded.”