Elizabeth smiled as she thought about Mary and the close friendship that had grown between her and Elizabeth’s Uncle Wes. He did not have much time with them as his sister had, because he assumed the role of the Earl of Jersey. However, when not busy in the House of Lords, Wes could be found not far from his niece’s family, specifically not far from Mary.
The more Elizabeth came to know her Grandmother Sarah, the more she came to love the woman. Grandmama Sarah, as Elizabeth called her, had apologised many times for not being stronger in standing up to her late husband. Since Elizabeth shared her philosophy that one should remember the past only as the remembrance gives one pleasure, Lady Sarah chose to live in the present. Her year of mourning ended in December, six months after Wes and Marie’s mourning period. Elizabeth had been willing to add her grandmother’s name back as a middle name, but Lady Sarah demurred telling her the names were perfect as they were.
Elizabeth spent hours asking questions and hearing all about her birthmother, as a little girl as she grew up, whenever they were in company. She loved hearing how similar she was to the woman who had given her life.
As Lady Sarah came to know the Bennets, it was not long before she understood why Priscilla had chosen them to raise Elizabeth as a normal little girl rather than the childhood she would have had in a gilded royal cage. It was not many months before Ladies Sarah and Francine became quite close.
Fanny told her new friend how sorry she was that Priscilla went to her grave believing she had been rejected by both parents, which had led to Lizzy changing her middle names. Sarah relayed she had no ill feelings about the name change, as it was done with the information at hand and no one was aware of the control her late husband used to exert over her. She relayed to her new friend the conversation with Lizzy which put the issue to bed for all time.
Elizabeth liked her other grandparents, aunts, and uncles—the King, Queen, Princes, and Princesses—and cousins. However, given their positions in society there was always a formality that none of the others in the extended family had. Elizabeth was told the King had become ill some years earlier, but she never saw any evidence of sickness during the times she was in company with her royal grandfather.
Of all of her royal aunts, Elizabeth was closest to Princesses Elizabeth and Amelia. When with the royal family and her Aunt Elizabeth was present or not, the rest of the family called her Princess Beth—as the Queen had decreed—to differentiate between them.
Elizabeth put her book down as she had an epiphany. She loved William so very much that if Uncle Robert had been unwilling to accept elevation to the dukedom, or if there were no option of elevation, she would have renounced her royal title happily in order to be with William.
There was not a shred of a doubt in her mind that William was the right man for her, and theonlyman she would ever be willing to marry. Oh, how ardently she loved her William.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
At Darcy House, a day before the Darcys were to return to Hertfordshire, William knocked on his father’s study door. “Welcome, William,” Robert Darcy said as his son took a seat in front of the huge oak desk. “Why the pensive look?”
“Lizzy will come out in a month, or little more, and I know she loves me as I love her, but I have remembered something about who can be allowed to marry a prince or princess,” William reported.
“You mean that you must be a marquess or above to marry a Princess of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland?” Darcy surmised. “It was a rule the King instituted after the Prince of Wales and his so-called wife, and then Uncle Freddy marrying the daughter of an Earl.”
William nodded. “We have an ancient and noble line, but you are not a duke, nor am I a marquess,” William pointed out.
“You heard I, and my father before me, turned down a title from the crown, did you not?” Darcy asked.
“Yes Father, I heard that,” William responded with a quizzical look.
“We were offered the Dukedom of Derbyshire. The last duke died without an heir some sixty years ago. You will be a Marquess, the Marquess of Derby, before asking the King for permission to court Lizzy,” Darcy told his son.
“You would do that for me so I might be with my Lizzy?” William asked, in awe of his father.
“William, I would doanythingI needed to in order to secure your and Gigi’s happiness,” Darcy returned, his voice gruff with emotion. “When we see the Prince at Netherfield, I will ask him to pass my acceptance on to the Crown.”
Chapter 30
There was an air of excitement, for the family was anticipating the arrival of the Fitzwilliams, and as little Andy, almost three months old, was travelling for the first time with his parents, Fitzwilliam grandparents, aunt, and uncle.
Fanny and Bennet were excited. Fanny had the nursery aired out and cleaned from top to bottom, as it had not been occupied since Tommy was moved into his own bedchamber when he had turned ten.
At fifteen and fourteen, respectively, Kitty and Lydia were growing into estimable young ladies who were looking forward to their nephew’s arrival. When they saw him on the way home from Pemberley at Christmas, he had slept almost the whole time they were there. Now, according to Jane’s letters, little Andy was interested in the world around him and would gurgle happily when someone played with him.
The two youngest Bennet sisters were not quite as proficient as their older sisters on the pianoforte, although they were by no means deficient. Their true strength in the musical arts lay in singing. Both spent many hours with Mr. Mercury, who encouraged their talent. They now had the best voices among the five Bennet sisters. They sang a duet for the Queen during Little Season just past, not just as part of a larger group—as they were the first time they exhibited for the monarch.
In addition, Kitty excelled at drawing and spent almost as many hours with Mr. Lambert as she did with the singing master. Sketching was Kitty’s strongest discipline, but she was also quite talented with both water colour and oil-based paints. She could not wait to sketch little Andy and wondered if he still had deep blue eyes, or if they had begun to change, as she had been told was possible. If Jane and Andrew agreed, Kitty planned to make a sketch of them with one of them holding Andy, and then she would use her oils to make a portrait for them as a gift.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Further exciting the level of anticipation at Netherfield, the Darcys and Wes were expected later in the day; the Fitzwilliams including Cassie and Richard on the following day; and Anne and Jamey Carrington the day after that. Everyone was expected to arrive before the upcoming assembly except the Carrington parents, who would arrive the following week along with Lady Sarah.
Elizabeth was looking forward to the upcoming assembly with glee; she could not wait to see William again. Although she was not out in society in London, she was out locally and had been for the last six months.
What really amused Elizabeth was considering how the harridan that was Miss Bingley might behave. The woman had alienated the local populace with her airs and graces. She had denigrated the ‘country hoyden’ who had the temerity to turnherMr. Darcy’s eye and had let it be known she would put the nobody in her place at the assembly.
The Bennets and the Prince quietly let it be known around Meryton not to correct the shrew, so she would be allowed to discover her own insignificance in a way she could not but accept. If Miss Bingley thought she would be able to cow her rival—a rival only in her mind as William cared not a whit for Miss Bingley—she would be sorely disappointed, as Elizabeth’s courage always rose at every attempt to intimidate her.
