His faith, which ran deep, told him his mother was suffering no longer and was receiving her eternal reward in heaven. That belief did nothing for the fact William felt like a piece of his heart had been cut out.
William tamped down his feelings and knew he needed to do his duty as a Darcy. His sister needed comforting and he would assist his father in any way he could.
He sought solace in the company of his two Fitzwilliam cousins.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Over the subsequent five years, the friendship between the two de Bourghs and the Bennets deepened. The Bennets had been hosted at both Rosings Park and Oak Hollow multiple times.
Easter was at Rosings Park; Anne was hosted at Longbourn for at least two months each summer; and Christmas was either at Oak Hollow—where the Bennets, Gardiners, and the Philipses celebrated—or at Snowhaven.
The Fitzwilliams would visit Rosings Park for Easter, but even though the mourning for her mother was completed, the only Darcy who would join them most years was the youngest one.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Since his wife’s death, Robert Darcy had withdrawn from society and did not leave Pemberley. William, when not at Cambridge, felt it was his duty to be with his father, so he did not attend either Easter in Kent or Christmastide in Bedfordshire. Unfortunately, he had become a much more serious and aloof young man.
Alongside the steward, Lucas Wickham, William was more or less running Pemberley as Darcy was not as conscientious regarding his estates as he had been before his great loss. He still participated in the management, but his son had to learn all there was about the Darcy holdings some years before he had expected it would be required of him.
In June 1804, William graduated from Cambridge before he turned twenty. He had accelerated the pace of his studies to graduate a year before Richard so he could turn his full attention to Pemberley and the other Darcy holdings.
His sister, when she turned nine, insisted Gigi was the name for a young girl, she had told her friends and family they were allowed to use either Georgiana or Giana. When she told him of her time with the de Bourghs and their friends, he would nod as if he was listening politely, but William’s mind would be thinking of all of the duties he needed to fulfil.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Anne and Elizabeth had become more like sisters than friends over the years since they had first met. The former still rode her pony-pulled phaetons—one was still available to her at each of her father’s estates—but when the latter turned thirteen, she had been gifted a mare who she named Penelope, for the wife of Odysseus in the Iliad.
Hector had been given to Lydia and whenever Lizzy went to ride Penny—as she was commonly called—she made sure to present Hector with a treat if he was not being ridden at that moment.
Bennet and Fanny decided regardless of the fact many of their neighbours brought their daughters out locally at the age of sixteen, their daughters would enter local society at seventeen and London’s when they turned eighteen. Lady Matlock had pledged herself to sponsor the girls so they would be able to be presented at court.
One afternoon, not long after Jane turned sixteen inFebruary 1804, Bennet invited his wife to join him in his study. “Fanny, you know I began to invest with Gardiner right after our wedding, do you not?” Bennet reminded his wife.
“I do, why do you mention it now?” Fanny enquired.
“With Jane a year from her local come out, I felt it prudent to write to your brother and ask for a recent accounting,” Bennet explained. “It was a rather big surprise as I have not had Gardiner send us annual reports.”
“A good surprise, I trust?”
“If you think over eighty thousand pounds a positive, then yes, it is so.”
“Such a sum! How Thomas?”
“Gardiner achieves excellent returns, and additionally Longbourn has been producing more than three thousand per annum income for some years now. Rather than blindly sending our brother one thousand pounds, I have been sending him anything above two thousand pounds each year.”
“It should all go to dowries for our girls,” Fanny insisted.
“No, my dearest wife. As much as the sentiment does you credit, twenty thousand pounds will be set aside for you if I leave the mortal world before you. As things stand today, each of our girls will have twelve thousand pounds as a dowry.”
“Thomas, I am concerned such sums will attract fortune hunters.”
“It pleases me to hear you say that. I propose the only thing which should be shared with those outside of the circle of our family is they only have one thousand on your passing and that Longbourn’s income is not above two thousand pounds per annum.”
Fanny had no opposition to her husband’s suggestions. If men were to form an attachment to one of her daughters, she would know it was not for their dowries.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Lady Catherine de Bourgh was still languishing in Bath in her husband’s unfashionable house.
