Chapter Twenty-seven
Beth was stunned at the beauty of Pemberley.
When they arrived, the coach had stopped on a tall hill that had a view down to the valley where the house lay.
The Peaks were a backdrop, with woods surrounding the valley, a lake before the house, and a river flowing off into the distance.
The house itself was made of a white stone, and you could see it was in a U-shape from the upper vantage.
Her father had made the manse at Rolling Meadow in its very image.
The house she grew up in was smaller in scale, but just seeing it made her homesick.
“My father must have loved Pemberley very much. Rolling Meadows is almost an exact copy, just a bit smaller.”
Mamie and John stood on either side of her and nodded in agreement. Mamie understood the tears that started slipping down Beth’s cheeks and wrapped an arm around her. John gently patted her on the back. They got back into the large travel coach and continued on.
“Well! I was wrong, mark this day, John. Rolling Meadows is more than a bit smaller! I could not tell from so far away just how vast Pemberley House is! Gracious! This must have more than a hundred rooms!”
“That is a very good guess. There are one hundred and five rooms. This main house in the front was built almost a hundred years ago when the old house burnt down. The two wings were added in my grandfather’s time.
Where the old house was, they built the dower house.
It is about a mile away through those woods there.
” Darcy pointed at the obvious gravel lane cut through the trees.
“The lake does not look quite natural?”
“It is not. There was a natural crevasse there, which was dammed and allowed to fill off the river which was re-routed a bit. Doing that helped with the flooding of the valley during big rains.”
“I imagine it was flooding that caused the gully to begin with. That was an interesting solution to the problem, and a beautiful one.”
“Most people do not realize that. Our family are innovators.” Darcy winked.
Mrs. Reynolds, the housekeeper, and Georgiana took the three newcomers on a tour of the house.
Beth stopped dead at a portrait of her father, and who must have been her uncle, standing together.
George Darcy stood in front, and was slightly taller than her father, Andrew.
They were so obviously brothers. Same eyes, same brows, same mouth.
The only difference was Uncle George had a slight cleft in his chin.
The same as her brother Ethan had. William did not have one.
Neither Ethan nor Will had brown eyes either.
She had the Darcy brown eyes. Ethan had gotten light green eyes from their mother.
Lizzy was the only one with Ethan’s eye color.
The rest of the Bennet girls had blue or hazel eyes.
Georgiana had a lighter version of the Darcy brown eyes, but her hair matched the color of the portrait of her mother.
She looked very much like her. Round face, strong chin.
“This is so very…fanciful…almost. To be surrounded by people who look so very familiar who I have never met.”
Darcy walked up, “This is your family…or part of it. Did the Bennets have a portrait hall?”
“No, Longbourn is not big enough to have a gallery like this. They do have many portraits though. Kitty was not the only artist in the family. It appeared there were many. Nearly all the portraits were signed by some Bennet or other. There was a small one of my mother as a girl. Lizzy and Mary resemble her, and so do I.”
“You could not be mistaken as other than a Darcy. Did your mother resemble any of these portraits? Maybe we were distant relations on the Bennet side too.”
“Actually, yes.” She walked a few feet away and pointed to a portrait of a man and a woman from the early 1700’s. “That woman looks similar to several of the Bennet portraits. She could have been related to them.”
“Interesting. I need to do a bit of research. That is my three times great grandmother. I do not remember what her maiden name was, but I also do not recall any Bennet names in our bible.”
“It is a small island, and an even smaller community of gentry. It seems likely our extended families crossed at some point. Or several points.”
They finished their tour and went on to dinner. Everyone had a very pleasant time and retired early. It had been a very long day.
~~~~~
Summer was over and harvest began in earnest at Pemberley.
William was busy every day, and they saw little of him.
Beth helped Gigi and Mrs. Reynolds ready for the harvest celebration which would happen at the end of September, right at Michaelmas.
They would leave two days later to join the Bingleys in Hertfordshire.
They also helped to arrange meals next to the fields being harvested.
Many workers were hired from all over the region during this time and feeding them was part and parcel of their labor.
Darcy preferred Georgiana not come out to the fields.
He said it was no place for a lady. Beth, or course, disagreed and said she was always part of feeding the hired hands during harvest time in Virginia.
An argument ensued, but you might guess who won.
Elizabeth Darcy knew just how to state things to her cousin, the same as she did to her brother.
This was an important part of Gigi learning to be the mistress of her own estate.
Mamie said it in a kinder way. John just nodded in agreement. Darcy was defeated.
Gigi did not realize that many of the workers took off their shirts during hot days.
She had never, ever, seen a man with a bare chest. She had seen her brother in shirtsleeves, and even his banyan in the evenings, but not a half-naked man!
Darcy saw his sister’s shock and glared at Beth.
Unsurprisingly, Beth laughed at them both.
“Come cousin. Let us set up under the tree there today. The men are hot and could use some shade.” She continued to chortle and tease poor Georgiana about the size of her eyes.
Gigi tried to look anywhere but at the sweaty men.
Suddenly harvest was complete, and it was time for the celebration.
Mrs. Reynolds had overseen that for more than a decade.
Georgiana and Beth learned a great deal from her.
“I will take some of your ideas back to Virginia with me Mrs. Reynolds! Having a big tent set up for both shade and in case of rain is wonderful! We just set up between the stables and the barn so there is somewhere to run if the weather turns. We’ve crammed everyone in the barn on years the weather turned early.
It’s a bit tight, but always a good time.
Next year, I’ll make sure to have a tent. ”
Two days later they were off to Hertfordshire.
They went by the Rosemont estate to pick up Theo.
Beth was magnanimous in allowing the viscount the use of his former carriage, as she preferred riding with the Darcys.
Will and John joined him the first day as they were tired of the tittering of the ladies about ‘bare chests’.
John was just amused. He had grown up with Beth, after all, and knew her ways.
She was needling William for being so stodgy.
“You cannot keep your sister an innocent her entire life, Will! Men are hairy and sweaty and dirty. She needs to find that out before the wedding night!” That was when William turned red and rapped on the ceiling for the carriage to stop.
He got out and walked back to the other carriage and got in without a word.
John tried his very hardest not to laugh as he got out and followed.
The women’s laughter was heard by everyone nearby.