Darcy in Want of a Wife

Epilogue chapter 3

Mr. Bennet’s Bedchamber

Pemberley

Morning

September, 1825

Elizabeth Darcy tilted her volume of The Tempest toward the window, the better to read the small letters, and continued reading aloud.

Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears; and sometime voices, That, if I then had waked after long sleep, Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming, The clouds methought would open, and show riches Ready to drop upon me; that, when I waked, I cried to dream again.

She turned the page, glanced at her father, and then started slightly to see that Mr. Bennet’s dark eyes were open.

“Father!” she said, closing the book and setting it aside on a small table. “How are you feeling?”

Mr. Bennet stared at her in obvious bewilderment, and then his expression cleared. “ The Tempest .”

“Yes, Father,” she said, standing up and walking over to a pitcher and an empty cup. She poured water into the cup and asked, “Are you thirsty?”

Mr. Bennet began pushing himself up, though with some difficulty, and his valet, who had been seated quietly in a corner, hurried over to lift his master into a sitting position, while Elizabeth inserted two pillows between the old man and the headboard.

“Thank you,” Bennet replied, drinking his water with enthusiasm. A moment later, he frowned and glanced around. “I need ... Where is the ... the...?”

Elizabeth looked at the valet, who said, “I will assist Mr. Bennet, Madame.”

She planted a quick kiss on her father’s wrinkled cheek and retreated out of the room, knowing that the strong valet would help her father with the chamber pot and his other necessary ablutions.

She made her slow way toward the staircase which led downstairs, only to halt as her mother stepped out of her own bedchamber.

“Lizzy? How is your father?” Mrs. Bennet asked worriedly.

Elizabeth sighed and put an arm around her mother, who had lost weight in the last weeks and was looking frail. “He is about the same, Mamma. He recognized The Tempest today, at least, whereas yesterday he was bewildered by Macbeth .”

Mrs. Bennet sighed gustily as mother and daughter made their way down the massive stairway. “Do you think he is getting better, Lizzy?”

“I do not know,” her daughter said truthfully. “Doctor Morrison said that sometimes the victim of an apoplexy does improve with time. Do not give up hope.”

Her mother seemed to shrink a little. “He was always so clever, Lizzy, you know that! I used to find it annoying and frustrating that he hid in his library all the time and spent so much money on books, but oh, he cannot read well anymore and it breaks my heart!”

“I know,” Elizabeth said soothingly, though her stomach twisted painfully within her. Her father’s apoplexy three weeks earlier had been a shock to them all, and now they lived in a constant state of uncertainty as to whether Mr. Bennet would recover or fade away. It was draining and exhausting, made more so by Mrs. Bennet’s fretfulness and distress. For all that the Bennets had not enjoyed a particularly successful marriage, they did, in their own way, care for one another.

“Did you break your fast in your room?” Elizabeth asked.

“No, no, I did not! I have such tremblings, such flutterings, such beatings of the heart, that I am not hungry in the least!”

“You must eat, Mamma, and keep up your strength,” Elizabeth said firmly. “Come to the breakfast parlor and I will have the servants bring tea and toast.”

Mrs. Bennet was still protesting when the pair stepped into the small dining area and then shrieked so loudly that Elizabeth’s ears hurt. “Lydia! My dearest Lydia!”

Lady Lydia Trebein put her tea down and hurried over to wrap her arms around her shorter mother. “Mamma, how thin you look! Have you not been eating enough?”

“She has not,” Elizabeth said. “She is worried about Father and has lost her appetite.”

“That will not do at all,” Lydia said with mock severity. “You simply must keep up your strength, for Father’s sake and mine. You know that the children were asking about you for the last four hours of the journey. Indeed, that is why we arrived here so early; we left at dawn so they could see their grandmamma.”

“Where are your dear boys?” Mrs. Bennet asked in a quavering tone, and Lady Trebein replied, “They are in the nursery having a meal. They never seem to stop eating, you know. But as soon as you have broken your fast, I intend to go upstairs and check on them. Would you like to join me?”

“Of course I would!” Mrs. Bennet cried out, and Elizabeth, receiving a nod from her youngest sister, slipped out of the room, confident that Lydia would do a better job with Mrs. Bennet than she would.

Elizabeth glanced at her watch, which was pointing to the eleventh hour, and decided to speak to her housekeeper, Mrs. Bentley, who had replaced old Mrs. Reynolds five years previously. It would be a busy few days at Pemberley as all of Mr. Bennet’s daughters, along with their respective spouses and children, made their way to the great estate where the old man lay in his chamber, recovering, or not recovering, from his apoplexy.

Sir Anthony and Lady Trebein had traveled the farthest, as their small estate was in Kent, only twenty miles from Rosings. Indeed, Lydia had met her husband at Rosings, when she had been a guest of Mrs. Anne Storey and her husband, mistress and master of that great estate.

Elizabeth, her mind shifting back more than a decade, could only be grateful for the changes in the former Lydia Bennet. Three years at a strict boarding school had molded the youngest Miss Bennet into a lively young woman with a good sense of propriety. Her marriage to Sir Anthony had been a successful one, and she was now a devoted mother to two young sons.

“Elizabeth?”

She turned around and smiled in delight as Jane Bingley entered the entrance hall of Pemberley with a well-wrapped infant in her arms. A moment later, her expression changed to one of joyful astonishment, and she rushed forward. “Aunt Gardiner! I had no idea you would arrive with Jane and Charles. What a wonderful surprise.”

“My dear Lizzy,” Mrs. Gardiner exclaimed, wrapping her niece in an embrace as a horde of children, along with husbands and servants, hurried in behind her. “It is so good to see you! Yes, we left London earlier than anticipated and arrived at Bluefields last night.”

The large vestibule was, by now, absolutely full of Bingleys and Gardiners, many of whom were young, and the clamor was sufficiently uproarious that Elizabeth set aside any further remarks for the moment and said loudly, “Let us settle the children and then we can talk more.”

“That sounds very sensible,” Mrs. Gardiner declared.

/

Drawing Room

Pemberley

An Hour Later

“Wine, Bingley?” Darcy asked.

Charles Bingley accepted the glass and proceeded to pour it down his throat with surprising rapidity.

Darcy chuckled. “I had no idea you were so thirsty. Would you like another glass?”

“I would, yes,” Bingley said, holding out his glass to have it filled, after which he drifted toward a window that looked out toward the trout stream running near the great house.

“I love my children beyond my very life,” he remarked, “but Susannah was traveling with us, and she did not enjoy the journey from Bluefields. I think she cried the entire four hours.”

His fellow fathers groaned aloud, and Sir Anthony said sympathetically, “Neither of our sons enjoys riding in the carriage. It is exhausting, and I hope they will grow more stoic with age.”

Bingley nodded, closed his eyes, and smiled. “Listen to that.”

Darcy frowned. “To what?”

“To the beautiful sound of silence.”

This provoked laughing from the other men, and Bingley grinned widely at his joke and looked at Gardiner. “Did you tell Darcy that you are hoping to lease an estate near here?”

Darcy turned curious eyes on his older guest, who said, “I have not yet, but Bingley is correct. I am no longer young, and neither is Madeline, and we both would enjoy living away from London during part of the year, especially the summer months when it is so hot in Town.”

“Can you afford such a move?” Darcy asked. He would not dare to ask such a question of most men, but Gardiner was a genuine friend.

“I can,” Gardiner said. “As you both know, I have worked hard for many years, and my work has been profitable. I cannot afford an estate like Bluefields or Pemberley, of course, but I hope to be able to lease or purchase a small estate in the next year.”

“I am certain I speak for Bingley as well when I say that we would be glad to assist you in your search,” Darcy said.

Bingley nodded his agreement. “Certainly!”

The door to the drawing room opened, and Jane entered, with Mrs. Gardiner and Elizabeth following behind her. Bingley, noting the tears in his wife’s eyes, hurried forward. “Jane?”

“Father looks dreadful,” Mrs. Bingley sobbed, and Charles, heedless of his audience, drew her into his arms as she wept.

“It is rather a shock,” Mrs. Gardiner confessed. “I have never seen him so feeble, and I will be truthful and say that your mother does not look well, either.”

“She is very worried about Father,” Elizabeth explained. “I know we are all aware that my parents’ marriage had difficult seasons, but with all of us girls well married, she has not been fearful of her future for many years, and their relationship has improved. I am confident that, for all that she does not entirely understand Father, she is genuinely fond of him now.”

“She must eat,” Jane said, releasing her husband and wiping her face with her handkerchief.

“Lydia has that well in hand,” Elizabeth said. “You know that she is far better at cajoling Mother than any of the rest of us.”

“Indeed,” Sir Anthony remarked, “my dear wife has a remarkable ability to bend people to her will in the most charming of ways.”

This provoked nods and chuckles, and then the door opened again and the Earl and Countess of Matlock entered, both dressed in black, along with Mr. and Mrs. Hyde.

“Mary, Kitty!” Elizabeth cried out, and Darcy watched as his wife hurried forward to enfold her two younger sisters into her arms.

“Good morning, Darcy,” the former Richard Fitzwilliam, now the Earl of Matlock, said, holding out his right hand. Darcy shook his hand and the hand of Kitty’s husband, and then he gestured for the gentlemen to retreat into the billiard room, which was adjacent to the drawing room. Elizabeth, noting his thoughtfulness, smiled gratefully; he knew that she had longed to speak to her female relations about her father’s illness.

Once the male guests had settled into chairs close to the crackling fire, Darcy poured drinks for them all from the brandy bottle nearby and said, “Thank you for coming, Richard. I know it was not an easy time to leave Darlington with the harvests ripening.”

“I would never deny Mary the opportunity to see her father during such a time,” Richard said. “Besides, while my brother may not have been a diligent master of the estate, he did at least choose a truly excellent steward who can oversee the work and tenantry in our absence.”

“You have my condolences regarding the death of your brother, Lord Matlock,” Mr. Hyde said, and Richard sighed and nodded. “It was indeed a dreadful shock to us all. I knew, of course, that I would eventually inherit the earldom since my brother sired no sons, but I did not expect Vincent to pass away before the age of fifty. But he always was a reckless horseman, and this particular stallion was too much for him.”

“How is the Dowager Countess?” Darcy asked.

“Mother is well,” Richard said. “She never really got along well with Vincent’s wife, Penelope, who is – not to put too fine a point on it – arrogant and demanding. Mother far prefers living near Mary than Vincent’s widow. Penelope, of course, is outraged that she was forced to give up her position as mistress of the house in favor of my wife.”

“Where are Penelope and her daughters residing?” Darcy asked with a frown.

Richard cast his eyes heavenward and said, “They are visiting Rosings for now and have been for the last three weeks, but that is in no way a permanent solution. I have already received more than one letter from Benjamin Storey telling me that Penelope is a most tedious guest and that he will throw her and her daughters from the estate if necessary to protect the well-being of his wife and children.”

“Perhaps it is unfortunate that Lady Catherine has been banished to the north for so many years,” Darcy remarked. “She is adept at clearing a room and even a house.”

Richard grinned but shook his head. “I have not seen Lady Catherine in many years, but her caretakers keep me well informed. Her temperament has apparently changed a great deal; she is quiet and extremely forgetful and would be completely bewildered and overset by Penelope.”

“It sounds like your sister-in-law is as annoying as my sister Caroline,” Bingley muttered.

“Yes,” Lord Matlock agreed, “but you do not need to interact much with Mrs. Trent since, if memory serves, she lives in Scarborough with her husband?”

“Yes,” Bingley confirmed. “And you are entirely correct. I have not seen Caroline for a full three years, which is fine with me. The Hursts, of course, are now settled on their family estate in Yorkshire, and they see far more of my younger sister.”

“When did she marry?” Mr. Hyde asked.

“Oh, only six months ago, to an older widower. My sister Louisa said in a letter, very directly, that Caroline was desperate for marriage after so many years on the shelf. The man is a country gentleman with two sons from his first marriage. I did not attend the wedding as Jane was nearing her confinement, but I hope Caroline will be happy enough. I am pleased she will stay in Scarborough, anyway. But forgive me, Matlock, you were speaking of your brother’s family.”

“That is quite all right,” Richard said. “We are, of course, connected to your sisters through marriage, and I am happy that both of your sisters are settled in Yorkshire as opposed to making frequent jaunts to London. Though I will say that on the only occasion that I met Mr. and Mrs. Hurst, they seemed a pleasant couple.”

“They are,” Bingley agreed with a grin, “though Darcy will tell you that my older sister was once nearly as tiresome as Caroline. Parenthood and age have steadied them both, along with being master and mistress of an estate. I believe I speak to us all when I say that bringing children into the world changes one’s outlook of life.”

There were murmurs of assent from the others, and Darcy said, “Without a doubt; there is so much responsibility! But Richard, I confess to being concerned about your brother’s family. Will Penelope and her daughters be able to live off of her jointure?”

Richard wrinkled his nose and said, “My sister-in-law is a spendthrift, and her jointure is moderate but not handsome, so Mary and I may well be forced to provide some financial support…”

He trailed off and shook his head quickly. “But enough of that, as I would like to change the subject to estimable ladies, not irritating ones. To that end, I propose a toast.”

The gentlemen looked vaguely surprised but obediently held out their glasses to be filled, and then Richard lifted his glass high and said, “To the former Bennet daughters!”

“Hear, hear!” the other men chorused, and lifted their glasses and drank.

/

Blue Room

The Nursery Wing

Pemberley

One Week Later

Midday

Lady Georgiana Ravenswood rocked back and forth in her chair, her adoring gaze fixed on her newborn son, who was slumbering in her arms.

“I never knew that I could love someone so much,” she mused aloud and then lifted her head and said, “Of course I love Joseph very much, but…”

“But it is not the same,” Elizabeth Darcy said with a chuckle. She was rocking Jane’s baby Susannah as she continued, “I understand completely, Georgiana. I am confident you love your husband as much as I love Fitzwilliam and in much the same way. We are equal partners, different but complementary. It is not at all the same with the babies; they are so fragile, so helpless. It is a different kind of adoration.”

“That is it exactly,” Georgiana said in a relieved tone.

“I am very happy for you both. I know that it took quite a while…”

Georgiana’s eyes grew shiny, and she nodded. “Indeed, I was afraid we would never conceive, and it broke my heart. Not that Joseph expressed his disappointment, but when four years went by, we nearly despaired. But let us speak of something else. How is your father?”

Elizabeth blew out a breath and said, “It is hard to know. He is not noticeably worse, but he is not noticeably better either.”

“That must be painful.”

“It is,” Elizabeth agreed, lifting Susannah to her shoulder as the baby began mewling and squirming. This, thankfully, calmed the infant, and within a minute, she was silent, with her left thumb stuck firmly in her mouth.

“When the apoplexy occurred,” Elizabeth continued, “my greatest fear was that Father would die without my sisters being able to see him. That fear is gone, since all of my sisters and their families have arrived with commendable haste. Indeed, this last week, for all of our concerns about Father, has been a precious time; we have not all been together for so many years.”

“I do hope you do not mind that Joseph and I are here as well,” Georgiana said timidly.

“Oh, my dear, of course not! You are as much my sister as Jane and Mary and Kitty and Lydia. I can think of nothing better than to have you here, and we are grateful that you came. Indeed, I hope you will stay as long as you like.”

“I may stay for a few days,” Georgiana admitted. “Norfolk Park is only fifteen miles away from Pemberley, but even a short journey can be challenging with a baby. Moreover, Joseph has a great deal of work to do on the estate with fences and harvests and other matters. I am aware that the Matlocks have some of the same challenges that we do; we both inherited estates which require substantial work at the moment.”

“I understand entirely.” Elizabeth said. For a minute, the two ladies were silent, and then Elizabeth continued, “The truth is that for all that the doctor does not know what will happen to Father, I have a feeling that he will not live much longer. Perhaps I am wrong – I hope I am – but that is my sense.”

“Does it distress you that Longbourn will pass out of the family?” Georgiana asked sympathetically.

“Not at all.”

“Truly? It would break my heart if one of my relations no longer resided at Pemberley.”

“I have known for most of my life that Longbourn will pass on to the Mr. Collins, and his wife Charlotte is a very dear friend, as you know, and I correspond with her frequently. Moreover, she is mother to two fine sons, along with two daughters, and they sound as clever as their mother. In part my contentment is due to my certainty that Longbourn will be in good hands in the future.”

The door opened at this juncture, and Jane Bingley entered the room on soft feet. Baby Susannah Bingley, who had a preternatural awareness of her mother, opened her soft blue eyes and immediately began to squawk in outrage and hunger.

“I promise she was not crying this whole time,” Elizabeth said with a chuckle, rising to her feet and handing the infant over.

“Oh, I know,” Jane replied, planting a kiss on Susannah’s nearly bald head, and sinking into a rocking chair. “Lizzy, your husband has requested the honor of your presence in the rose garden.”

“Oh!” she cried out, blushing even after more than a decade of marriage. “I will see you at dinner, then?”

“Hurry up, you adorable lovebird!” Jane said with a laugh.

/

Rose Garden

Pemberley

Fitzwilliam Darcy sat on a bench under an arbor, his eyes fixed on the tinkling fountain in the middle of the gardens.

The sun was at its zenith, and it was a warm day, and he was grateful for the cooling breeze.

He closed his eyes and leaned back against the bench, and as he did, his hearing sharpened. He listened to the sound of young voices calling from the west of the mansion, where he knew his sons and many of their cousins were playing with spaniel puppies under the careful eye of both nursemaids and stable boys.

His two daughters were currently having a tea party in the conservatory under the oversight of their aunts and grandmother, along with many of their female cousins, but he could make out no sounds from the august gathering.

The youngest members of the truly enormous family party were napping, or playing, or eating, in the nursery wing of the great mansion. He thought, fondly, that the house had never been so full of children, and he could even hear, through an open window, the laughter of a little one.

The last week had been both wearying and wonderful, composed as it was of concern over Mr. Bennet and the reunion of so many arms of a truly large family tree. He had woken early and stayed up late and now, as he waited for his wife, he felt himself slipping into near sleep. Various memories marched along in his mind – of his first sight of Elizabeth across the floor at the Meryton Assembly Hall, of her marching through mud to Netherfield to tend her sister, of the first time he saw her the following spring at a ball…

And then, more recent memories, of the birth of his children, each unique and precious, of pleasurable times in London and peaceful times at Pemberley. How blessed he was, he thought drowsily. So very blessed.

“Fitzwilliam.”

He opened his eyes and looked up, and his eyes crinkled with delight at the sight before him. Elizabeth was as beautiful as he had ever seen her, dressed in a simple pink muslin gown, her head covered with a close straw hat, her chin tilted in that beguiling way that always made his heart race.

“Would you like to sit down and enjoy the view with me?” Fitzwilliam inquired.

“Very much, darling,” she said, and promptly sat on his lap.

He laughed and pulled her to him, and kissed her briefly on the lips, and then they sat together, husband and wife, father and mother, lovers, friends, grateful for one another and all that God had done in their lives.

The End

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