~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
“A letter from Cilla,” Elaine Fitzwilliam, Lady Matlock, exclaimed excitedly. “She must have delivered their third child.” She looked across the settee at her husband. “It is a great pity the session of Parliament would not allow us to be with her, Joseph, and the boys. At least the letter is in Cilla’s hands which is a good sign.”
Like her brother-in-law, Elaine had worried about her sister surviving the birth and had her husband not needed her in London, she would have been at Cilla’s side. She broke the Wendell seal and opened the letter. She decided to read it aloud.
6 March 1791
Willowmere
My dear sister, Elaine,
I am well. The midwife and Mr Harrison both announced that there was nothing out of the ordinary with the birthing process. Your little sister is notleaving you yet!
Elaine, you have a niece!
“Drat! I lost a bet with Darcy,” Lord Reginald Fitzwilliam exclaimed. “I was certain it would be a son.” He saw his wife watching him with raised eyebrows. “Carry on, my dear.”
Her name is ElizabethElaineWendell. We are calling her Ellie. She has the same-coloured hair as we do. Only time will tell if it is wavy like ours. Her eyes are the dark blue that you would expect to see in a newborn. We will have to wait and see if her eyes will change to the emerald-green colour you and I have.
Yes, she has the birthmark in the same shape and location the rest of us do.
Elaine, Joseph and I would like to request that you and Reggie stand as her godparents. Will you pass on the news to Anne and tell her we would like her to be her other godmother?
I will write to her in a few days. I just do not have the energy for more writing now.
I need to rest. You know my Joseph; he wants to make sure I recover apace. I look forward to seeing you, Reggie, and my nephews as soon as this session of parliament closes and you are able to travel north.
With much joy, I send my love and regards,
Cilla
“Even though He did not grant us a daughter, I am so happy for Cilla,” Lady Matlock said. “My sister’s happiness is palpable even from this short note. I am sure Anne will not refuse to be Ellie’s godmother. Reggie, how soon before we are able to leave London?”
“Yes, her joy is obvious, and I am sure Wendell is no less happy,” Matlock replied. “It should not be more than afortnight before we are able to travel north. I agree, Anne, who very much would like a daughter, or even another son after all of her disappointments, will accept the role of additional godmother.” Matlock paused as he thought about something. “Catherine will not love this news. Even though she has not presented de Bourgh with a son, she would always crow that Anne was the only girl in the family; not so any longer.”
“At least she has accepted that neither we nor the Darcys will betroth one of our sons to Anne. That is another reason she will not love the news of Ellie’s birth,” Lady Matlock opined. “Unlike Anne, Ellie will not be related to William by blood.”
Neither the Darcys nor the Fitzwilliams held that marriage between cousins was healthy, and especially not first cousins.
“True, but Anne and Robert will not engage William to anyone and take his choices away from him. That was one of the reasons they gave Catherine, in addition to William and Anne being close cousins,” Matlock returned. “I gave her the same reasons we would not allow Andrew to become betrothed now.”
“At least she receded without any unpleasantness. Marriage to Sir Lewis has softened her somewhat,” Lady Matlock stated.
That evening the Darcys joined the Fitzwilliams for dinner. It did not hurt that their houses in London were across the green in the centre of Grosvenor Square from one another, making calling on each other’s houses rather easy.
As expected, Lady Anne Darcy accepted the role of godmother to Ellie and promised to write to her friend as soon as she and her Robert returned home.
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Dronfield was a town in the north-eastern part of Derbyshire. It was an unremarkable market town, as manywere, in the realm. The oldest church in the parish was St John the Baptist’s Church. The rector was one Thomas Bennet, the second son of James Bennet, the master of Longbourn. Longbourn was near the market town of Meryton, in Hertfordshire. Meryton was, in essentials, much the same as Dronfield. His older brother Henry was the heir to the estate and worked hard with their father to improve Longbourn.
Henry had been too busy with his projects at Longbourn to think of marrying. He was two years older than Thomas, who was eight and twenty.
There was an entail to heirs male which would end with the generation after Henry and Thomas. As Bennets traditionally had sons, and more often than not, more than one, there was no concern that the Collins branch would inherit the Bennet estate.
Unlike his older brother, Thomas was married. After graduating with a degree in theology from Cambridge, the younger Bennet son had served as a curate at the Longbourn village church. Two years later, after he had taken holy orders, Thomas met Mr Elias Gardiner’s youngest daughter. Mr Gardiner was Meryton’s only solicitor.
Her name was Frances Gardiner, but everyone called her Fanny. Her mother, Jane, had passed away when Fanny was five, so she had been raised by her father, older sister Hattie, who was ten years her senior, and her brother, Edward, who was five years older than her.
