Chapter 29 #3
“Except for Lizzy’s promise never to be in your company again until you have apologised for your insults,” he replied.
“I saw the letters you sent, Mrs Bennet, and I cannot blame our daughter for not wanting to be in your company until you own up to your actions. Those letters were horrid. And what does it matter that our neighbours have not met Mary’s intended—neither have we. And they will live in Derbyshire.”
She started to defend herself against such, but a moment of reflection made her realise the futility of it.
“They were,” she agreed, but it only lasted a moment.
“It is the right of the bride’s mother to plan the wedding.
Regardless of the relationship between Lizzy and me, Mary should want to marry from home. ”
“I have already explained the reasons to you, and I believe Mary conveyed many of the same sentiments to you in her letter,” Mr Bennet replied.
“Besides, it is not as though you have ever had a relationship with Mary. I believe you have spoken to her more through letters in the last year than in the five years before that.”
Once again, Mrs Bennet was reflective. Mary flourished under the care of the Darcys, which was evident from the letters sent during the time Mary was at Pemberley.
The Darcys opened the world to Mary, encouraging her to trade Fordyce’s Sermons for other texts, forcing her to change her perspective on many things.
Under their influence, she became less pedantic and judgemental of those around her.
Initially, her letters were full of her blossoming friendship with Georgiana, but those subtly changed to include more and more information about the vicar of Kympton and her growing friendship with him.
As Mrs Bennet thought about this, she wondered how she had not seen it before.
“Mrs Bennet?” her husband asked after she was quiet for several minutes.
“I was just thinking, husband,” she replied, sighing.
“Mary has changed quite a bit. I wonder if I would even recognise her were I to see her; she seems so changed in her letters. And I had quite forgotten about her praise of the vicar of Kympton long before she went to London. I think she has been in love with him for some time.”
“From what Darcy has said, I believe you are right,” he agreed.
“This is why I allowed him to act on my behalf ages ago. Mary has been under their care for some time, and I do not feel it would be right for me to attempt to exert my authority now and insist she marry from home. I have finally felt the weight of my failures as both a landowner and a parent since I have been taken to task repeatedly by a man nearly half my age. Our eldest three daughters have risen above the upbringing we gave them, and our youngest two have been given opportunities to do so as well. Unfortunately, we did not give them that opportunity, but it was our son by marriage, the one that married the daughter you despised, who enabled our daughters to do so. Do you not feel this weight, Mrs Bennet?”
Mrs Bennet did not immediately answer, only looked at her feet.
He recognised that she felt at least of the shame he felt, so Mr Bennet remained quiet as she reflected.
He had already written to congratulate the pair and grant his endorsement of the match, finding contentment in the knowledge that one more daughter was now provided for, no longer even remotely under his guardianship.
Although Darcy shouldered much of the responsibility for the last 18 months, relieving Mr Bennet of many parental duties, there still lingered an illusion of authority over his unmarried daughters.
The prospect of having one more daughter well-situated pleased him, soothing the remaining traces of any perceived shortcomings in his care for the family’s welfare.
Now, he only needed to get the youngest two sorted, and with Kitty in London with the Gardiners and Lydia at school, indeed, within the next few years, they would meet their matches, and then all of his daughters would be taken care of with little effort from him in the matter.
Eventually, Mrs Bennet sat down to write her letter to Mary.
She began by complaining about the plans for the wedding, but she grudgingly agreed and welcomed her daughter’s proposed visit in the summer.
She was pleased to reread that Mr Darcy offered them one of his carriages and the loan of a house his family owned at the seaside for a short honeymoon after visiting the Bennets.
While Mr Kingsley was initially reluctant to accept it since it was offered as a wedding gift, he found he could not turn it down, and Mary found it amusing to recount the details of the conversation.
At Pemberley, the following months were spent planning for Mary’s wedding.
Both Mary and Elizabeth preferred simplicity in their preparations, and so with little fuss, Mary obtained a trousseau from the dressmaker at Lambton, and all the ladies at Pemberley spent much of the months before the wedding sewing all the linens and other things that Mary would need as the wife of the vicar.
Soon, the wedding was upon them. Since their mother was absent, Elizabeth took the responsibility of ‘mother of the bride’ and reassured her sister and soothed her worries about what married life would entail.
Despite these last-minute nerves, the wedding went smoothly, and all too soon, Mary traded the name Bennet for Kingsley.
Mary asked Georgiana to stand up with her since the rest of her sisters were not present at the wedding.
In fact, Elizabeth was the only member of the Bennet family there, but that was fine with Mary.
She had grown closer to her sisters since leaving Longbourn, but considered Georgiana her favourite sister, despite their connection only through marriage.
Despite this lack of family, Mary was exceedingly happy with her choice and looked forward to visiting the rest of her family again.