Over the years the Bennet parents had become much closer with Lady Elaine and Lord Reggie. In addition to sharing a good number of grandchildren, they very much enjoyed one another’s company.
Lord and Lady Matlock still lived at Snowhaven, but the plan was to turn it over to Jane and Andrew in the next year, and then Tom would take possession of Hilldale as soon as he graduated from Cambridge in some few years.
Lord Reginald Fitzwilliam felt his age as everything hurt much of the time and he had slowed down in the last half year. When his time came for God to call him home, he was prepared. He had had a good and long life seeing that he was more than halfway through his eighth decade so he had nothing to repine when it was his time.
Lady Elaine was still a vital and spry lady. She was more than ten years her beloved husband’s junior so she had only begun her seventh decade recently.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
“Our children have all benefited from Jenki as their governess,” Elizabeth noted as she smiled thinking about Anne’s former companion.
“She is more like an aunt to them,” Darcy pointed out. “She has no need to work. Anne is very excited she is to have Jenki as a companion like her namesake did.”
“No she does not, but she loves it. I am not sure who is more excited about that, Anne or Jenki. As Anne pointed out in her final letter, Jenki would never feel easy sitting and wasting the day away with no occupation. I know Anne is pleased that the daughter we named for her has always been so close to Jenki.” Elizabeth cogitated for a moment. “Jenki is younger than Mama and could you imagine her doing nothing all day?” Elizabeth responded.
Even though Elizabeth had married soon after Mrs. Jenkinson came to work for the Bennets, she was companion to Kitty while Mrs. Annesley had been with Lydia. The latter had chosen to retire after Lydia married, while, as expected, the former had come to work for the Darcys as soon as Anne had been born.
Much to her delight not only the Darcy offspring, but all of the children in the family called her Jenki. One day when she chose to retire, she had a cottage waiting for her at her pick of family estates.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
“When do Mary, Richard, and their brood arrive?” Darcy enquired.
“I believe on the morrow,” Elizabeth averred.
“It has been three months since we saw them; I am looking forward to hearing about the latest horses Richard has acquired for breeding stock,” Darcy stated.
“You have seen how close Mary and Catherine are, haveyou not?” Darcy nodded. “Growing up, Kitty, as she used to be known, was always closer to Lydia while Mary gravitated towards Jane and me. It does not hurt that Cloverdell is less than three hours by coach from here.”
“For me, I would have loved Mary and Richard’s estate to be that distance from Pemberley,” Darcy mused. “Charles and Richard are as close as Richard and I are. I am pleased that over the years Bingley’s friendship with me has deepened beyond that of just a brother-in-law.”
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
With the proximity of Cloverdell in southeastern Northamptonshire, the Bingleys and Fitzwilliams saw one another rather often.
About seven years past, Richard had added even more land to his estate, and with it, additional stables and breeding stock. For some years now, Cloverdell had been the premier horse breeding programme in the country.
The first child Mary and Richard had been blessed with was a large, strapping babe and heir, Andrew Lewis, in December 1811, just a few weeks before their first wedding anniversary. In February 1813, Rosemary Elaine had joined the family. She was followed in September 1815, by Thomasina, called Sina.
Mary had not become with child again for a little more than two years, when she felt the quickening in October 1817. On the final day of March the following year, Philip Frank made his appearance in the world. He was followed by two more sons, Harry in June 1819, and Ian in May 1821. Mary had thought she was done bearing children when Madeline Elizabeth arrived in October 1825.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
“I am sad Jane, Andrew, and some of their children will not attend the Easter gathering this year because of Andrew’s broken leg,” Elizabeth stated wistfully. “At least it was not likesomeone, whose name I shall not mention, who broke his leg to stop meeting us and attending Jane and Andrew’s wedding.” Elizabeth arched one of her eyebrows playfully.
“You and I met at the exact right moment,” Darcy responded as he leaned across the small gap between the horses and kissed his wife on her lips.
At one and forty he had not lost a step, and his hair had only now begun to grey around the edges in the back. Elizabeth was more in love with her husband today than she was the day they had married. Darcy worshiped the ground his wife walked on.
“Besides,” Darcy continued, “I was riding my horse who was frightened, while mymucholder cousin (by three years) slipped and fell down three steps on the veranda at Hilldale.”
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Lord and Lady Hilldale’s eldest child, Tom—he had asked not to be called Tommy on turning sixteen—was in his final year at Eton and would finish at that school in May upcoming. At the age of seventeen, he would enter Cambridge in September.
In early August 1811, Jane had delivered their second son, Reginald Andrew. He was finishing his first year at Eton. In April 1814, her wish for a daughter had been granted. Elaine Frances had been born. Her facial features were very much like her mother’s, but she was shorter like her Aunt Elizabeth, and had her father’s sandy blond hair.
In June 1817, and then again in October 1819, Jane had delivered two more sons, Henry and Rupert, respectively. Like her parents, she and Andrew were blessed with five children, but unlike her mother, four of them were sons.
