Chapter 3 #3
There had been some hushed disapproving comments in the neighbourhood about the master of Longbourn marrying a former servant, but Bennet did not care.
He had the support of his family and true friends, and that is all that counted.
After one person had been severely rebuked by the master of Longbourn for making unfounded and ignorant comments about his wife-to-be, no one else made another comment within his hearing, regardless of what they thought in private.
One who had given his unreserved support was his particularly good friend Lucas. He and his wife Sarah had admonished any who spoke against the new Mrs Bennet. Bennet thought about his friend who had become a newly minted knight of the realm, now called Sir William Lucas.
At the end of March that year, their majesties, the King and Queen of England, had made a stop in Meryton.
For some reason, no one knew exactly why, the mayor, Mr William Lucas, had made a speech of which, for reasons known only to him, had pleased the Monarch who had accordingly knighted the now Sir William Lucas.
The new knight was instructed to present himself at St James for the formal investiture, a subject on which he would expound on as many times as possible.
Sir William decided that a knight of the realm should not be in trade, so he promptly sold his business and purchased a tiny estate that he named Lucas Lodge.
Bennet did not believe that his knighthood had changed him very much; he was still the same socially loquacious man that he had ever been.
Sir William did place a lot of pride in his accomplishment, and no one had the heart to tell him that the King handed out knighthoods on a whim, whether deserved or not.
The new Lady Lucas was aware of the truth of the matter, so there was little or no change in her.
Sarah Lucas had been one of the few friends that Fanny Bennet had left until the truth of what her former friend did was revealed.
That was the last time that Lady Lucas thought about the woman!
The wedding was set on the first day of July 1793 to be held in Longbourn’s church.
Tammy had no living family members, so Edward would walk her down the aisle and Hattie would stand up for her.
The betrothed couple had discussed John.
It was decided that although Bennet would be John’s father in all ways that counted, he would not be adopted by Thomas Bennet and so would keep the Manning name.
Notwithstanding the fact that Tammy had not had much time with her husband before he had been shipped off to war and had died without knowing he had a son; her former husband had been a good man.
To honour him, she wanted her son to bear his father’s name.
Like her, John senior had no family alive so at least this way his branch of the Manning family would live on through his son.
The servants at Longbourn could not have been happier to be gaining the new Mrs Bennet as their mistress.
She had been functioning as the de facto mistress for many months and had always been kind and fair—in other words, the opposite of her predecessor.
She was never demanding and would not call a servant from his or her task to do something that Tammy could accomplish herself with little trouble.
No, there was no one in the world who repined the passing of the former Mrs Bennet, not even her former paramour Sam Hodges, who had taken up with some smugglers in Fowey, Cornwall led by a Clay Younge.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Lizzy was holding her brother Richard’s hand as the Darcy equipage came to halt at Snowhaven.
She was bouncing up and down with anticipation to see all four occupants of the lead carriage.
As they waited, her mother noticed that Aunt Anne seemed to have a glow about her as Uncle George very carefully helped her down; next out was Will who turned and helped Cousin Anne out.
Elaine looked at her sister-in-law with a raised eyebrow in question and Lady Anne returned a nod.
Ever observant, the interaction was noted by Elizabeth, but she could not fathom the meaning.
Once the arriving family members had washed and changed, they met in the family sitting room where George Darcy stood, and after an almost imperceptible nod from his wife made the announcement.
“My dearest, loveliest Anne is with child, and she felt the quickening last week,” he declared with pride. “The newest Darcy should join us in March or April of next year.”
“I am well, Reggie,” his younger sister assured him when she noticed the concern in his mien.
“I am feeling as well, if not better than I did when I carried William. If we were not certain that I am over the maladies I had a few years ago, we would not have taken the chance that I would become enceinte again.”
The Earl relaxed, feeling a lot more assured that his sister was well, especially after his brother-in-law nodded his head to show that he agreed with his wife.
Lizzy was most excited. “Aunt Anne is going to give me a baby!” she exclaimed.
Her statement caused laughter among the family.
Lady Anne called Lizzy over and helped her climb onto her lap and looked at her seriously, or as much as she could while trying to keep a straight face.
“I will have a baby, Lizzy, but not for you.” Lady Anne had to fight a fit of the giggles as her niece affected a pout. “However, your new cousin will be younger than you so he or she will need you to help.” Lizzy brightened up right away.
“Please have a girl cousin for me,” she begged sincerely, “there are too many boys and only one of me and one Anne!”
“I cannot promise, sweetling,” Lady Anne answered as she kissed her niece’s cheeks, “but I will try my best to have a little girl for you to play with.”
Not long after, Lizzy was opening a mound of gifts from her family, capped off with a huge, three tier chocolate cake with two large candles on the top.
Two footmen held the tray with the cake low enough that little Lady Elizabeth was able blow out the candles.
As the family clapped at her performance, Lizzy had a vision of a blond angel with the deepest blue eyes and the kindest look on her face.
The vision faded and her eyes grew to be large round disks when the biggest slice of cake that she had ever beheld was placed in front of her.