All the while in the background as they worked together and spent time in each other’s company, Anne and Richard were unobtrusively falling in love. Anne had never thought she would be able to marry, and certainly never bear a child, but in the months since her mother’s passing, she had begun to feel better than she had in years.
One of the main differences was Anne was no longer drinking the elixir her mother had insisted she needed each morning. Each day it was not administered Anne had more energy. Almost three months since her mother’s death, Anne was not only feeling much better, but looking far stronger as well.
Rather than a sickly grey pallor, Anne had a glow of health about her.
In the week past, Anne and Richard had journeyed to London to visit some doctors as well as Lord and Lady Matlock who had recently returned from Staffordshire.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
One day when the three residents of Rosings Park were calling at the parsonage, Darcy told the three Bennets, his sister, and his cousin, “When Richard and Anne return, I will inform them we are to depart for London on the eighteenth of this month so Elizabeth may shop for her trousseau.”
“That will be perfect timing as Jane and Charles will arrive on Saturday the sixteenth on their way from your house near Brighton,” Mary reminded everyone. “I am sure Lizzy will be pleased Jane will be in London when she shops. Have the Gardiners responded to your request to be hosted with them?”
“Yes, Aunt Maddie wrote and told me I am welcome anytime they are home, as are any of us,” Elizabeth averred. “If they had been away, I am sure Janey would have had room for me.”
Before anyone else could speak, there was the sound of coaches passing. “That must be Anne and Richard,” Giana opined. “Why is there more than one carriage?”
Tiffany stood and looked out of the window. “Mama and Papa are in the other coach!” she exclaimed excitedly. She loved her cousins and friends but she had missed seeing her mother since their departure for Hertfordshire the previous year.
“Elizabeth, will you return with us so I may have the pleasure of introducing you to my aunt and uncle?” Darcy requested. Elizabeth nodded her agreement.
Soon the four were walking across the park towards the mansion.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
The greetings between mother and daughter were as effusive as could be expected after months of not seeing one another.
“William will you introduce your fiancée to us please,” Lord Matlock boomed.
Darcy complied and was gratified to see how easily his aunt and uncle warmed to Elizabeth, just like he knew they would.
“We would have seen you in town in a few days, how is it you are at Rosings Park now?” Darcy asked after a while.
“They are here for the wedding,” Richard stated with an absolute deadpan.
“We are not marrying until next…” Darcy caught himself. His grinning cousin was not speaking of his and Elizabeth’s wedding. “You mean you and Anne, do you not?”
“Have I not always said you are intelligent?” Richard ribbed.
“When? And when did you propose to Anne?” Tiffany enthused.
“In London. When the doctors pronounced Anne healthy, I proposed. We decided not to waste any more time so I purchased a special licence,” Richard explained. “Before you ask, Anne, like all of us thought she was not healthy enough to marry. It seems the incompetent apothecary’s elixir did not agree with Anne.”
“Do you think your mother knew she was harming and not helping you?” Darcy queried.
“For my own sanity, I will believe not,” Anne asserted. “The only person who could answer that question is no longer alive.”
Out of respect for Anne’s wishes, the subject was not canvassed again.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
The Bingleys arrived in time to be present for the wedding of Anne de Bourgh to Richard Fitzwilliam. It was conducted by William Bennet in the ballroom at the manor house with family in attendance.
After the wedding breakfast, the newly married Fitzwilliams headed for the Darcy house in Ramsgate. They would travel directly from there to Hertfordshire in early March to attend the wedding upcoming.
On Monday, Mary and William Bennet saw a line of coaches off as the rest of the combined family made for London.
The Fitzwilliam parents were for Matlock House. The Darcys, along with the Bingleys, Tiffany, and Elizabeth went directly to Gardiner House on Portman Square. Tiffany and Giana did not want to leave Elizabeth’s company after being spoilt with so much of it in Kent, but it was impressed upon them they would see her soon enough.
