Chapter 24th October 1811
“Miss Smith!”
“Mr Jones!”
A week later, I had stopped counting or noting the time of the encounters.
We met every dawn at Oakham mount for serious courting—none of this messing about with annual meetings—then spent the bulk of each day under constant assault from Mrs Bennet.
The first day wasted several hours convincing the matron that her stubbornness had not only met its match, but its superior.
The wedding date would not be moved by anything short of an act of Parliament, though its location was not cast in stone.
To be honest, I could not account for Mrs Bennet’s desire to delay the thing.
She had been shoving daughters at men for seven years; you would think getting one attached to a wealthy man would require the utmost urgency and a special license.
That desire apparently conflicted with her ambition to have the biggest wedding in the history of Meryton, which would require more time, patience, and money.
I was perfectly happy to spend as much as Elizabeth wanted on a wedding, but she stated that on any given day I had enough money in my pocket for her ideal wedding, with enough left over to finance the ideal wedding trip.
We endured the torture, including the constant parading of the happy couple to all the neighbours for one week. I thought myself generous giving her a full calendar week instead of just five days, and she eventually accepted the inevitable.
“Are you ready?” I asked my bride after a thorough kiss.
“More than ready,” she replied with a sigh.
Her trials were worse than mine, because I managed to escape to Netherfield after dark, but she had no such relief. We would endure it but be happy for the engagement to be over.
“Did you decide on who will go to London with you?”
Elizabeth frowned. “I always thought it would be Jane, but she prefers to remain and let Mr Bingley continue his attentions. I shall take Mary.”
I could not quite fathom why Miss Bennet was unwilling to go to London for ten days for trousseau shopping, but I supposed after seven years she saw that Bingley had taken the bait, but the hook was not set.
After my showdown with Mrs Bennet, I had mostly ignored them, as had Elizabeth.
I supposed there was also the slight chance of a bit of jealousy in the elder, supposedly more eligible sister, but I would never say such a thing.
“Probably for the best. Jane is likely headed toward matrimony before long and I should like Mary to befriend Georgiana if possible.”
“If their meeting goes well, we might bring her to live with us.”
“Or send Georgiana to Longbourn,” I replied with a smirk, which earned me a rap on the forehead and a kiss.
In the end, I expected Mary to live with us for at least long enough to become as mature as Elizabeth had been at fifteen, and with the youngest two at school, Mrs Bennet could retire to whatever matrons got up to when there was no more matchmaking to be done.
Mr Bennet would retire from the fray and do exactly what he had been doing for the past decade, and I doubted he would even notice the population reduction at Longbourn.
The next fortnight was busy with all the things a man of my station must do to prepare for marriage, including the tediously predictable handling of the various objections from my relatives.
Fortunately, Georgiana and my cousin Richard loved Elizabeth, and I could care less what the rest thought.
That said, it was better to not have a full breach of the family, so I had to journey to Rosings and put Lady Catherine in her place, and argue with my uncle, which mostly consisted of asking my aunt to make him see reason.
I returned to Meryton to find Mr Collins trying his best to find a bride at Longbourn.
After consultation with Elizabeth and an hour spent in the man’s company, I forbade him from attaching himself to any of my sisters.
They could and would do better. He then tried to attach himself to Elizabeth’s best friend, who was seven and twenty.
She asked me to intervene, so feeling almost as indolent as Mr Bennet, I assigned the task to Richard.
Little did I know how that would turn out, but nobody had any cause to repine.
The Fitzwilliams live twenty miles from Pemberley, and are as happy as can be.
Richard did have to interrupt his courtship for a few days when Wickham appeared in Meryton a week after my wedding, and the less you know about his fate, the better.