“Look at us, Fanny. There have been many changes to all of us, and yet we are thriving. If only Jane was here with us to see it all,” Bennet lamented.
“She is with us,” Fanny asserted, “of that I am certain.”
Just then out of nowhere a gust of wind blew in their faces, then the air was still once again. It seemed Jane approved of the change of her family.
Epilogue
Late April, 1821
With the approach of Easter, the whole of the extended family would be at Pembroke Ridge for a fortnight. The tradition had begun with the Easter after the double wedding in 1811. At that time it had been held at Rosings Park.
Mary, Richard, Elizabeth, and Darcy had ridden up a hill which gave a good view of the pasture for the one-year old horses playing rambunctiously below them. The four would often take early morning rides together without those of their children who had begun to ride.
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With her heart not able to soldier on, when Anne passed away in June 1814, the estate became the property of Richard Fitzwilliam without any sort of entail. As such, he and Mary had fulfilled a wish that they desired to be much closer to Elizabeth and William. To that end, Richard had offered his estate for sale. It had only taken three months before one of the many offers, one a little above what he had asked for, was accepted. At about the same time, the estate of Pembroke Ridge on the Derbyshire side of the border with Nottinghamshire had to be sold thanks to the profligate ways of its master.
The estate was only six miles from Metting, and four miles from Lambert Hills. Best of all, it was a little further than twenty miles from Pemberley and Snowhaven. Due to the fact the owner needed liquid funds with urgency, he had not been in a good position to negotiate. In the end the estate had beensold for a considerable amount less than the amount netted from the sale of Rosings Park.
Thanks to the fact their new estate had plentiful areas of good pastures, Richard was able to indulge his passion for horses, and began a horse breeding programme. With the money left over from the sale of the estate in Kent there had been more than enough to build extensive stables and acquire the horses needed to seed the programme. As would be expected of one who used to be an officer, the first place Richard looked to find men to staff his estate was among soldiers who had been released from the army after Waterloo.
Now after more than seven years at the new estate, the fame of the Pembroke Ridge bloodlines was well known throughout the realm, and there was an extensive list of those waiting to purchase one of the horses. There were many more buyers than horses available for sale, so some of the men employed at the stables made sure those who were permitted to purchase one of the estate’s horses would treat them as they should and not with cruelty. In fact, there was a clause in the sale contract which allowed the horse to be confiscated, and returned to Pembroke Ridge if any trace of mistreatment was discovered. In such cases the purchaser would not be refunded, even a single penny.
The Fitzwilliams had been the first to be blessed with a child. Jane Elaine Fitzwilliam had been born in April 1812. She had been followed by two sons, James and Andrew born August 1814, and January 1818, respectively.
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The Darcys had not waited much longer than Mary and Richard Fitzwilliam to be blessed with their first child. Bennet Robert, Ben to all in the family, arrived in June 1812. Alexander Richard was born almost two years after in May 1814. In July 1816, Robert Thomas had joined the family. Darcy had begun to despair he would only have sons. That is until, much to her parents’ joy, Annabeth Frances entered the world inMarch 1818. Annabeth who had recently turned three was the apple of her father’s eye, even though Darcy was careful never to show favouritism to any of his children. The reason was simple. The mite was an exact copy of her mother in her character, colouring, hair, and eyes. Thanks to Elizabeth being far more fecund than she ever hoped to be, Mary Janine Darcy arrived in February 1820. Mary had her mother’s hair colour, but straight like her namesake, and she had the Darcy and Fitzwilliam blue eyes.
The babe of the Darcy family had turned one not long after Elizabeth had weaned her. Like all of her sisters, Elizabeth eschewed a wetnurse and fed each of her children until they were weaned.
To date, none of the Darcy or Fitzwilliam children had agreed to call Henry Thomas Bennet uncle. He had been born in September 1811. Henry had his father’s sardonic wit and although he cared not for the appellation of uncle, it did not stop him from attempting to have his nieces and nephews address him thusly.
With Henry’s birth, the question as to who would inherit Longbourn had been answered definitively. It also meant that the unbroken line of Bennets who had been masters of Longbourn since shortly before the Magna Carta was signed, would not end with the future death of Thomas Bennet. To say that Fanny Bennet had been pleased when she was told that she had finally done her duty and presented her husband with a son was a gross understatement.
The Bennets were already present at Pembroke Ridge. Over the years of Elizabeth’s marriage to Darcy, the Bennets had visited Pemberley at least twice a year, and Bennet had realised his wish of spending time—but not too much—in his son-in-law’s magnificent library. On his first visit he had pronounced himself satisfied that hisoldfriendswere very well taken care of at Pemberley.
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While Richard pointed out some of the fillies and colts he had his eye on to keep and not sell, Elizabeth leaned over to Mary. “Did you ever imagine when we came to recover at Lambert Hills after Janey was lost, you and I would be married to the best of men, and we would both be mistresses of great estates?” Elizabeth asked as she looked back towards the mansion where their children were.
“At that point such a thing had not even been a wild dream, but look at us now.” Mary looked at her sister shyly as her hand went to her belly. “I told Richard the day before you, William, and the children arrived, I believe I am with child again. No quickening yet, but I should feel it in the next few weeks.”
“I am so happy for you. Mayhap Jane will get the sister she has been begging you for,” Elizabeth smiled. It had been agreed by those in the extended family that no girl named Jane would be called Janey, there had only been one, and that name would belong to their late sister evermore.
“Only He knows the answer to that question,” Mary responded as she lifted her eyes to the almost cloudless sky which was coming alive with myriad colours thanks to the sun as it greeted the new day while it began to climb above the horizon.
“When will our other sisters and brothers be arriving?” Elizabeth enquired.
“Catherine and Charles, Lydia and Wes, and Giana and David arrive on the morrow. The Hursts will not join us this year with old Mr Hurst’s passing less than two months ago,” Mary reported.
“Who would have ever thought Lydia would be a viscountess? And Catherine and Charles would marry?” Elizabeth wondered.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Rather than give Netherfield Parkup when his one year lease was completed, Charles Bingley had renewed the lease for a further two years. Until his one year of mourning for his angel was completed, he had not looked at another woman in a romantic sense. In that year, he had become very close to those remaining at Longbourn once the two eldest daughters had been married and moved to their respective husbands’ estates.
At some point in December 1811, when everyone was at Pemberley for Christmastide, Bingley had begun to develop tender feelings for Miss Catherine Bennet. She had been out in society since she turned eighteen not long after the four Bennet sisters ended their official mourning for Jane Bennet. She was physically nothing like the women he used to think of as ideal. Her hair was sandy-blonde, she was not much taller than Mrs Darcy, and she had hazel eyes. When he recognised his feelings, he was proud that he no longer applied a physical standard to a woman. Had he done that, he would never have found the woman he had.
