“Which is about as much as we can expect,” his elder son replied.
Laughter erupted, warm and tinged with the relief that came from crisis averted and a family restored to harmony. Georgiana hugged Elizabeth fiercely while the gentlemen clapped Fitzwilliam on the shoulder with varying degrees of force.
“The remarkable thing about you,” Fitzwilliam said to Elizabeth once the chaos had subsided, “is how you always seem capable of accomplishing the impossible. Giving a speech so rousing it inspired my aunt to apologise…that may be your greatest achievement to date.”
“I knew I had to show up at my very best,” Elizabeth responded with a bright smile. “If I hoped to regain your affection, half-measures would not suffice.”
“You have it.” He pulled her close again, heedless of their audience. “My affection, my respect, my wholehearted devotion. Now and always.”
“Always is rather a long time.”
“Then I shall have ample opportunity to prove I mean it.”
And with that, he kissed her once more with passion and love that had survived testing yet emerged proven and permanent.
Epilogue
A month later
“Aletter from London,” Mrs Reynolds announced as she entered the morning room with the post arranged on a silver tray. “And one from Miss Jane Bennet with what appears to be a packet of seeds.”
Elizabeth accepted both with a smile of thanks. The seeds would be for her garden. Jane had promised cuttings and samples from Longbourn’s most successful plantings, and her sister never failed to keep such promises. The letter from London, however, captured her more immediate attention, the elegant script on the direction unmistakably Annabelle’s despite the former Irish postmark being replaced by one from London.
Elizabeth had maintained regular correspondence with her old friend throughout the weeks since their reconciliation, Fitzwilliam having not only forgiven her concealment but actively encouraged continued contact. He had also contributed to the arrangements ensuring Fiona’s travel to France, where respectable family friends would see to her care through her confinement and arrange for the child’s quiet placement with a suitable family who could provide what scandal-touched circumstances could not.
“Annabelle?” Fitzwilliam inquired from where he sat reviewing correspondence of his own.
“I believe so. The London postmark is curious, however. I had expected her to write from Ireland.”
She broke the seal, unfolding pages covered in her friend’s handwriting. Her eyes widened as she began reading.
Her husband set aside his own letters, his attention now captured by her expression. “Well? Good news or ill?”
“I confess I am not entirely certain. It appears Annabelle will not be accepting our invitation to visit Pemberley after all. At least, not immediately.”
A look of concern crossed his face. “Has something occurred?”
“Fiona is well and safely settled in France, but Annabelle has encountered an unexpected event during her own journey to Pemberley. A gentleman, to be precise. A Mr George Ramsbury, whom she met at an inn somewhere between Dublin and the port where she was to take ship for England.”
She continued reading, growing more pleased as she did so. Annabelle had described how her travelling coach had lost a wheel at an inconvenient location. She’d been stranded at a roadside inn while repairs were arranged and a gentleman dining there had immediately offered assistance and struck up conversation that extended through the evening as they discovered mutual compatibility.
Mr George Ramsbury, Annabelle explained, was travelling on business related to his family’s shipping concerns. He possessed comfortable fortune, but not excessive wealth that would have immediately marked him as a target for someone recently engaged in fortune hunting. More importantly, he possessed true kindness and the sort of steady character that suggested reliability.
What had begun as a chance encounter during enforced delay had transformed into conversations that ranged from trivial to profound. Walks were taken ostensibly to stretch legs cramped from travel but really to extend time in each other’s company. Most remarkably, Annabelle had told him everything. The details about her father’s gambling and drinking, her mother’s demise, Fiona’s situation and the desperate circumstances that had driven both sisters to attempt schemes they would never have contemplated in better times. She had confessed every shameful detail she might reasonably have concealed from a potential suitor.
And Mr Ramsbury had listened without judgement, offering practical suggestions for ensuring Fiona’s continued privacy. He demonstrated through word and action that he valued Annabelle beyond her past mistakes.
Within a fortnight of that initial meeting, he had proposed. And Annabelle, scarcely believing her fortune, had accepted with the understanding that their marriage would be devoid of the deception that had characterised her recent past. Even her grandmother had reconciled herself to Mr Ramsbury's lack of title, claiming his shipping concerns showed excellent commercial sense.
“Here,” Elizabeth said, laughing as she passed the missive to her husband. “Read it yourself. Her account is far more entertaining than my summary could convey.”
He accepted the pages, settling back to read while Elizabeth opened Jane’s letter. News from Longbourn was rendered in Jane’s generous prose, alongside updates on their family members. The seeds, Jane explained, were from the rosegarden’s most vigorous climbers, which she thought might suit Pemberley’s southern wall.
“She sounds happy,” Fitzwilliam observed, glancing up from the pages. “Happy in ways her earlier letters, even at their most optimistic, never quite achieved.”
“She does. I am almost overwhelmed by relief on her behalf. To think that mere weeks ago she was facing such desperate circumstances, and now…”
He reached up to cover her hand where it rested on his shoulder. “Now she has found someone who values her despite past mistakes. Someone willing to look beyond surface conditions to recognise the woman beneath. It is more than she dared hope for, I suspect.”
