She made a pleased little sound in the back of her throat. “Well, you may be correct. But I should like it very well if you were my brother, sir, and I shall tell Mary so if she asks.”
“I am flattered by your approval,” he said lightly, and it was her turn to laugh.
“As well you should be! There are few gentlemen to whom I should be willing to trust her happiness, you know. I have worked very hard these last months to increase her confidence, and I should hate to see it reduced by an unworthy fellow,” she concluded with a toss of her head.
* * *
Mary’s curiosity was piqued when she heard a familiar voice inside her father's book-room. Her surprise was even greater a few minutes later, when Mr Bennet came to her and told her she had a visitor waiting for her there.
“Why, Captain Carter! Papa told me I had a caller, but…” She trailed off, her hands twisting together before her, then drew breath and continued. “Will you not come into the parlour? Lydia would be disappointed to miss your visit.”
He stepped up to her, possessing himself of her restless hands. “I shall not speak if you had rather I do not, Miss Bennet, but I do have your father’s permission for a brief, private meeting.”
“Speak of what? …Oh!” Her eyes widened.
He smiled. “Surely you are notverysurprised? I have called upon you most faithfully these last weeks, and we have been known to one another for many months. The regiment are to Brighton in a fortnight, and I cannot bear the thought of leaving you behind forever. I have little to give you now, but you know my prospects—we have spoken of Morton Grange and my plans for its improvement, on some distant day. Will you cast your lot in with mine, my dear Mary, and be my wife?”
Mary ducked her head, concealing her shocked expression. When she felt tears misting her eyes, she took a shuddering breath and lifted her face and said, in a shaking voice, “If you will give me yourself, I need no more. Yes…my answer is yes.”
He whooped with joy and swept her up into his arms, swinging her about in a delirious spin before setting her gently back onto her own feet again and even more gently setting his lips against hers. She melted into him for a moment, and then drew back, murmuring, “And that will keep until we are married, sir.” She smiled and placed her hand on his cheek, hoping to convey some inkling of the warmth and joy he stirred in her.
“Then we had better join your family in the parlour, and give them our news.”
She blushed then, and blushed even more moments later, when he communicated the news to Kitty, Lydia, and their father, and they were surrounded by embraces and well-wishes.
“I told him not an hour ago that I should very much like to have him for a brother, but I did not expect him to actquiteso speedily!” Lydia exclaimed, nearly squeezing the breath from Mary’s lungs in her enthusiasm.
* * *
Two weeks after their betrothal, Captain Carter was off to Brighton with the regiment. Their betrothal gave them licence to write to each other, and the letters positively flew between Brighton and Meryton during those weeks.
Mr Bennet smiled wistfully at Mary’s eagerness to claim the latest page from her betrothed one afternoon in the parlour. “Kitty, Lydia,” he addressed his other daughters, “I hope you will not be quite as eager as your elder sisters to wed and leave your poor papa all alone.”
“Do not worry,” said Lydia, “It is likely I shan’t marry at all, and no one has caught Kitty’s eye yet.”
“I shall wish for you to visit me on occasion, Lydia, and you, too, Kitty, if Longbourn can spare you,” Mary remarked, peering over the top of her letter at her family. “But perhaps I might wait until Jane has returned, so our father will still have a daughter in the county.”
She quirked an eyebrow at her father, who chuckled before noticing that Kitty was regarding him with rare intensity. That evening after dinner his second youngest daughter knocked upon the door of his study and slipped inside when he called out.
He set his book aside and looked at her curiously. “Good evening, Kitty, this is a surprise. What brings you here?”
She sat in the chair across the desk from him and, visibly gathering her courage, spoke haltingly. “It is only…I have been thinking about what you said earlier, about being all alone when Lydia and I marry.” She could not quite bring herself to meet his gaze.
“You will be mourning Mama for some months yet, but…later, I really think you ought to consider remarrying. You might live another forty years and I do not see why you should not have a pleasant companion if you wish it. You have your own estate and are quite handsome for your age—surely many ladies would wish to receive your attentions.”
Mr Bennet was thrown into red-faced silence for a moment by this speech. “Would not you and your sisters resent me for replacing your mother?”
“Mama will always be our mother and we are all grown or nearly so—we need no other. So long as you pick a lady who will be pleasant to us, I do not see why any of us would be angry with you for seeking happiness.”
“Well, I cannot at present imagine actively seeking a wife when my mourning ends, but I shall think upon what you have said, and perhaps fate will be kind enough to place an amiable widow in my path in a year or two.”
Kitty rose and came around the desk to kiss his cheek. “Just do not insist that being alone is your only option, Papa, and I shall be content.”
* * *
On a late December afternoon at Pemberley, Elizabeth was startled from her contemplation of the household ledgers by a discreet cough in the doorway.
“Pardon me, madam,” said Mr Harding, the butler. “But I believe you have been in anticipation of this letter for some time.” He held forth a silver salver upon which lay an envelope which had obviously travelled no little distance, addressed in a flowing feminine hand.
