B00CO8L910 EBOK (36 page)

Elizabeth smiled brightly at her husband. “You have not, Mr. Darcy.”

Darcy laughed gently as he placed his other hand to cover hers. “Then allow me to do so immediately. You, Elizabeth, are more beautiful to me today then you have ever been before.”

“Thank you, Mr. Darcy. I am glad to hear it.”

* * *

Later, at the wedding breakfast, Mr. Bennet was proudly looking around at his friends and family as they conversed with each other. The bride looked luminous on her husband’s arm as they spoke with the Gardiners. His neighbors were each engaged with other members of his family. Mr. Bennet became overwhelmed as he considered how blessed he was. Looking about for his greatest blessing, he frowned when he could not find his wife.

Just as he was about to stand and look for her, Mrs. Hill approached him and handed him a note. Thanking the housekeeper, Mr. Bennet slipped out of the breakfast room, where the guests were assembled, and went to his study to read the note.

A few minutes later, a dazed Mr. Bennet made his way up the stairs slowly. His mind was reeling at the news he just read in the note. He was trying desperately to make sense of it and to control both the fear and happiness that were warring in his breast as a result.

Coming to his wife’s bedchamber door, he knocked and waited for her summons. As soon as he entered, closing the door firmly behind him, he asked, “Is it true?”

Fanny Bennet sat nervously at her dressing table, ringing her hands in her lap. She turned around to face him and replied with a feeble, “Yes.”

“How can it be? I mean, it is at the same time wonderful as it is . . . ” Mr. Bennet shook his head. “How can it be?” he repeated.

His wife blushed. “I believe you know how it could be, sir. The process has not changed since the last time.”

Mr. Bennet stood there for just a moment absorbing it all. Slowly his face broke into a wide smile as he went to his wife and took her into his arms. “Congratulations, my dear!”

Nervously, his wife looked up into his face. “Then you are not unhappy to hear it?”

“Unhappy? Of course not. Concerned for your health — terrified really — but unhappy? Not at all.”

Mrs. Bennet laughed uneasily. “It was quite a surprise for me; I assure you.”

Mr. Bennet nodded. “I did not realize there was still a chance . . . ”

“I am not that old, sir!” she stated with offense.

Mr. Bennet smiled wider at his wife. “No you are not that old, Fan. You are more handsome today than the day of our own wedding, my dear.”

He laughed as his wife blushed. Still a little bewildered at the news, he whispered disbelievingly, “A baby.”

Her own eyes clouded over with disbelief. “A baby.”

* * *

Elizabeth looked anxiously for her parents. The newlyweds had taken their leave of the rest of the family after the wedding breakfast, and they were even then at the carriage ready to leave on their wedding trip. But she did not see her mother or father anywhere. Unhappily, she turned towards the carriage, preparing to enter it with resignation and disappointment at not being able to say goodbye.

As Darcy was handing her into the carriage, her father called out to her from the door of the house.

“Just a moment, my dear!”

He rushed to her, with her mother’s hand in his, coming along behind him.

Elizabeth stepped down and turned quickly to give her father a warm embrace.

“Where were you both?” she asked. “I was worried I would have to leave without saying goodbye.”

Mrs. Bennet answered, “That was my fault, my dear. I had a matter of importance to speak to your father about. Come here, child, and give your mother a hug.”

Elizabeth happily complied and held her mother tightly, filled with tenderness for the woman. “I will miss you, Mama.”

“Shh, Lizzy, you have a husband now. Think no more of us, but do come and visit often.”

“I will.”

She released her mother as her father shook her husband’s hand. Mr. Darcy gave her a smile as he extended his hand again to assist her into the carriage. This time she was ready. When they were both comfortably settled, she looked out the window and waved goodbye to her friends and family as the carriage began to roll away.

Turning in her seat, Elizabeth looked across to her husband. “Did you ever think that, when you brought me back from Rosings in this very carriage, you would take me away from here one day as your wife?”

“I had certainly hoped such would be the case.”

Elizabeth switched sides and pulled her husband’s arm around her as she snuggled into his side. Sighing, she said, “I admit, I had never considered the possibility at the time.”

“Well I, for one, am glad that you have come around to my way of thinking, Elizabeth.”

They laughed together for a moment until Darcy asked, “When did you first fall in love with me, Elizabeth? I can imagine you going on charmingly once you started, but —” Darcy laughed as he squirmed away from her jab in his side.

“I suppose I could say something highly romantic like, ‘I was in the middle before I knew I had begun.’ But I shall not deceive you. I believe I first knew I loved you after seeing the beautiful grounds of Pemberley,” she teased.

Darcy laughed and pulled her closer to him. “Then it
was
my fortune and home that you were after.”

Elizabeth reached up and placed a hand on his cheek. She smiled when he turned his face and kissed her palm. “It was in the field of bluebells, Fitzwilliam. That is where I first realized you loved me and that I loved you.”

“Then it was not my home after all,” he said with a smile.

“No, but you did promise me when you proposed that I could make my home your love.”

Darcy kissed each of her cheeks before placing a gentle kiss on her lips. “Indeed, I did, my love. Welcome home.”

The End

Epilogue

Within seven months of their second daughter’s wedding, each month more stressful and agonizing than the next for both Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, the birth date for their surprise baby came. While Mr. Bennet paced his study, running his hands through his hair and praying for his wife, his two sons-in-law looked on helplessly. Neither had ever experienced having his wife in labor and certainly had never expected to be present when the situation visited their mother-in-law. Darcy offered his father-in-law a drink to help calm his nerves.

Mr. Bennet took it in his hands gratefully but, in his distraction, never drank it. Darcy looked towards Bingley who simply shrugged his shoulders.

Upstairs in her bedchamber, Fanny Bennet was surrounded by the midwife and all of her daughters as was their wont. Fanny had not been easy in her confinement. She had never imagined being with child again at two and forty years when her other children were grown — not to mention her fears of a repetition of Sammy’s birth. But here she was, supported by her daughters, crying the tears of a mother about to be renewed again.

Elizabeth had insisted on being there as soon as she received word from her parents that they were expecting a new sibling. She marveled at the thought, stunned beyond words at first when she learned of it. After a few minutes, she began to cry happy tears as she realized that this child was the blessed result of her parents’ reconciliation.

“It is time, ma’am,” the midwife said.

Elizabeth took one of her mother’s hands and Jane took the other. She smiled as she looked across her mother to her older sister, the first signs of life just beginning to swell in her belly. Jane noticed Elizabeth’s smile and smiled knowingly in return. Elizabeth was excited for her sister and Mr. Bingley. They would be excellent parents. Elizabeth placed her hand on her own flat belly in satisfaction.

Her mother’s moans brought Elizabeth back from her thoughts, and she turned to give her mother words of encouragement. Emotions were high, and the excitement of the moment filled everyone. After several more arduous minutes, Mrs. Bennet cried out loudly through her last push before delivering her seventh child.

The gentlemen all locked eyes with each other when they heard Mrs. Bennet’s voice cry out. Her husband grew white and sat himself slowly into a chair, terrified. Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy stood quickly and went towards the door, determined to do something, though neither knew what. Opening the door, they both tried to exit together, their broad shoulders thwarting their departure.

Elizabeth ran down the stairs at that moment and came rushing towards the room, calling for her father. Running to her father’s side, she knelt beside him. “Papa! It is finished, and Mama and the babe are both healthy and fine.”

Mr. Bennet’s unfocused eyes rested upon his daughter as he processed her words. As color returned to his cheeks, he stood and walked to where he had placed his drink and swallowed it down.

He turned to the stunned faces of his sons-in-law and smiled triumphantly. “Well, boys, did you hear that? I am a father again!” He laughed and kissed his daughter on the cheek as he quickly exited the room and bounded up the stairs as if he were twenty years younger. Mr. Bingley followed, eager to see his wife, having been a little shaken by the experience he knew was to be his in a few short months. Mr. Darcy remained with Elizabeth and pulled her into his embrace.

“I cannot say I enjoyed that experience, my dear. I have never seen your father so shaken.”

Elizabeth snuggled into her husband’s chest, wrapping her arms around his back. “I shall remember not to tell you when my time comes then, so you may remain unaffected.”

Darcy tightened his arms and rested his chin on her head. “No, you must tell me. I shall just have to prepare myself.”

Elizabeth smiled against his chest, feeling so much love for him in that moment. “And how much time do you think you will need to prepare, my dear husband?” she asked as she looked up at him.

Darcy puffed out his cheeks and shook his head, “A very long time, I think.”

“Well, then, you may wish to begin preparing now, Fitzwilliam.”

Darcy’s brows lowered as he looked down at his wife, trying to discern whether he heard her correctly. Upon seeing her smiling eyes, his own began to crinkle at the corners as his mouth drew up into a wide smile. “Really?” he asked incredulously.

Elizabeth nodded and then was crushed instantly against his chest as he lifted her up off the floor and swung her around in his excitement. Realizing her new condition warranted extra care, he immediately put her down and worriedly looked towards her abdomen. “Oh, I am sorry, Elizabeth. Did I . . . Are you all right?”

Elizabeth laughed and reached up to place a quick kiss on the concerned lips of her husband. “I am well, my dear.”

Meanwhile, upstairs Mr. Bennet hesitated only a moment before knocking on the bedroom door. When Kitty opened the door widely for him, all he could see was his lovely wife on the bed, flanked by Jane and Mary, and holding a tiny bundle in her arms. Slowly, he entered the room.

As he approached the bed, he roamed his eyes all over his wife, assuring his mind that, indeed, she was well. When his eyes met hers, she said, “Come here, my dear, and meet your new son.”

Mr. Bennet’s eyes welled with water as he looked down at the tiny body in her arms. The thought crossed his mind that he had forgotten how small they started out as he slowly reached for the little hand. His voice broke as he said, “My son.”

* * *

Edward Samuel Bennet grew up in the warmth of his parents’ love, and he was doted on by every one of his older sisters, their husbands and his nieces and nephews — many of whom were very close to his age. The entail to the estate was broken, of course, with his birth. He was especially close to his older sister, Mary, who never married but instead went on to write several popular romantic novels. She lived with him and his eventual family the rest of her life.

Kitty Bennet often visited her eldest sisters at their homes. She became especially close to Georgiana, and together they were introduced to society. One year, shortly after her twenty-first birthday, she was introduced to the handsome Major George Whitman, a friend of Colonel Fitzwilliam. The two of them fell quite in love at first sight, and they were married not long after.

Georgiana lived happily for several years with her brother and new sister until her heart was swept away by a young gentleman by the name of Mr. Cummings. He was a second son who inherited a pretty property that was located in a neighboring county to Derbyshire after his older brother died in a carriage accident.

Their courtship was long and as filled with misunderstandings as was her brother’s with Elizabeth until one day she found herself locked in the library with him at Pemberley. Neither her brother nor Elizabeth would admit to having locked them in, though both had a very innocent look about them when questioned later. The result of their incarceration was fortuitous though, as it forced the two to clarify their misunderstandings. Miraculously, the missing key to the library was found not long after the happy couple came to an understanding. Upon telling her brother the happy news, Georgiana could have sworn she heard him call her a ‘bumblehead’ under his breath.

When Darcy received the news a few months after his wedding that Wickham did not survive his voyage to Australia, he did not seem much affected. After hearing of the condition in which Wickham boarded the ship, he was not altogether surprised. Although they never spoke of him much, Elizabeth and Darcy understood at that moment that finally they could put that history behind them forever.