Bennet was at Bennet Fields with the three men he hosted there, all about to go hunting as he had no desire to be plagued by talk of fashion or, heaven forbid, lace. The three men, as much as they loved their respective Bennet daughter, knew that discretion was the better part of valour and were only too happy to keep away from the wardrobe-related activities that were taking place.
There was a chorus of ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ when Jane’s wedding dress was unveiled. The sleeves were puffed and slightly off the shoulders. The dress had an empire waist and was a pure white satin with flecks of gold. It flared at the rear near the base that ended in a six-foot train. It was overlaid with gossamer that was almost clear with many diamond and sapphire chips interspersed throughout, making it sparkle like the reflection across a flat lake when the sun hit it on a cloudless day. It was one of Madame’s exclusive creations and until Jane walked down the aisle in it on the day of her wedding, no one else would have ever seen or worn anything similar. The veil was made from delicate Belgium lace with a number of diamond and sapphire chips affixed so it could only be matched to this very dress. In a separate package were twenty pins for her hair, half tipped with diamonds and half with sapphires. None present that had attended a wedding before had ever seen, nor could they imagine a more beautiful creation.
After Jane’s wedding dress fitting, the modiste, Madame Chantal, went to work on the wardrobe for Helen. While she was thus occupied, one of the seamstresses was marking any changes needed on the dresses and gowns in Jane’s trousseau that she successively changed into.
In another room Helen was poked, prodded, and measured from head to foot, including her feet for the abundance of footwear that would be purchased for her. ‘Is this what my guardians meant by a ‘few’ gowns?’ she asked herself. After the interminable measurements were taken, the modiste sat with Helen as she was surrounded by the other five girls to view fashion plates and select styles and colours for the mountain of gowns and day dresses that were to be ordered. Her sisters and friends were all very vocal with their opinions of what she should choose. Then came the undergarments, pelisses, coats, gloves, bonnets, and other accoutrements. ‘My goodness me, this is all for me and I am not even out yet. It is only now that I am grasping the vast wealth of my new family. We are ordering more now than I think I have owned all the years of my life combined. Yes, I miss Papa and Tim, but the love and acceptance that I am bestowed here is not something that I could have anticipated,’an excessively grateful Miss Jacobson thought to herself.
After Jane’s fitting was complete, Lizzy and Mary excused themselves and took a walk in the garden to the side of the house. The last time Elizabeth walked this path, it had not been as pleasant as it was with Mary. The sisters walked until they came upon a bench that was nicely shaded from the warm summer sun.
“How goes your courtship, Mary?” asked her sister. All of their sisters were truly much closer to Mary now, mostly because she had finally opened herself up to them.
“It goes very well, thank you, Lizzy. I believe that I am well in love with Hugh, and that if it were not for Papa requiring a two-month courtship, he would pay his addresses now.” Mary blushed as she offered what not long ago, she would have considered an indecorous speech for a young lady.
“Has he declared his love for you, Mary?” Elizabeth asked, worrying for her sister.
“Yes, he did, when he requested for me to grant him a courtship.” Mary blushed crimson. “I would have never before believed that any man would be interested in me, never mind a marquess.”
“You, us, we all sold you short Mary,” Elizabeth offered contritely. “However, I also think it is true that you required the right conditions in which to bloom. Once Papa, Mama, and the rest of us started to pay attention to you even if you did not wish it, the time was right. You bloomed, and what a brilliant flower you have become. Anyone who ever termed you plain, myself included, was looking at the surface and did not see the beautiful, intelligent, and witty young lady behind the façade.” Lizzy was chagrined that she used to be as guilty as anyone else. “I am sorry sister. I should have seen the truth, or at least looked for it.”
“It was as much my fault as it was anyone else’s.” Mary put her arm around her sister’s shoulders and gave her a squeeze full of sisterly affection. “By design, I wore the most severe and plain dresses that I could find in colours that I was fully aware did not suit at all. I wore the glasses that I did not need, and put my hair in a chignon like a severe, much older spinster.
“I was dressing and holding myself as I believed that I should be, that I deserved. I accepted that I was plain and found solace in what I now know as stuff and nonsense—Fordyce’s Sermons. Just because I parroted back sections that I read, I thought myself morally superior! In truth I had no concept of the meaning of the passages and the way they are designed to degrade, control, and make women less than they are. You and Jane rescued me from myself when you confided in me and took me under your wings. If there is an apology to be made, then it needs to come from me.”
“No Mary,” Lizzy denied as she returned her sister’s squeeze. “We were all mistaken. As the older sisters, Jane and I should have done whatever we could to help and guide you. I am only grateful that we took you into our confidence about our true state before you turned seventeen. If we had any inkling of the change that Papa allowing us to divulge the truth to you would have wrought, we would have told you years earlier. We are so proud of the young woman that you have become over the last two plus years.”
“That’s quite enough seriousness from you Lizzy. People will think we have swapped personalities,” Mary said as she playfully swatted her sister’s arm, smiling when her sister’s laugh filled the garden with pleasure. “What about your courtship with William? Do you love him yet? Do you think you will ever fall in love with him?”
“I, possibly, a little, not yet…” The normally glib and articulate Elizabeth Bennet found herself tongue-tied. “Yes, he is a man that I could fall in love with.”
“Lizzy? What ails you?” her sister asked with no little concern.
“You know how I always say, ‘only think of the past as the remembrance gives you pleasure?’” Lizzy frowned and Mary nodded. “I have had a hard time following my own philosophy. That he is not the same man that was a hypocrite, who made that abominable, rude, insulting, and arrogant proposal is not in dispute. Yes, some of my prejudices were based on false information and my own wounded vanity and pride, but even knowing all of that, for some reason my heart and my head are still in conflict which has not allowed me to fall in love with him the way that a woman should be in love with a man with whom she wants to spend the whole of her life; to whom she binds her life inexorably.”
“Is it that you have not truly forgiven him, Lizzy? If I may draw on one of my old platitudes and not be strangled, ‘to err is human, to forgive is Divine.’ Perhaps although you tell yourself that you have, you have not fully forgiven him yet?” Mary offered.
“You could have the right of it, Mary,” Elizabeth acknowledged thoughtfully. “If that is true, then does it not make me a hypocrite as well?”
As the weight of her self-asked question hit her, she took herself to task. ‘Is that it? Do I espouse a philosophy that I refuse to allow myself to follow?’ Aloud to Mary she offered one of the truths she was sure of. “For some reason I believe that when I see him at Pemberley, I will see the truth of him, and I will know for once and for all who the real Fitzwilliam Darcy is.”
“If you fall in love there, you will be able to say that you fell in love with him after seeing his wonderful home at Pemberley,” Mary teased, happy to see that Lizzy looked a little bit easier than she had a short while ago.
“Come sister, let us return and see if the madness has calmed in the house,” Elizabeth joked as she stood and pulled Mary up.
The smiling sisters made their way back into the house, arms linked and closer than ever before.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
On Monday, the eighth day of June, a convoy of carriages and wagons pulled into the circular drive in front of the manor house at Bennet Park. There were six carriages and two wagons. The first was one of the Gardiner conveyances that contained the parents and the oldest two Gardiner children. It was followed by one with the two younger children, the governess, and two nursemaids. The third vehicle was that of the Earl and Countess of Matlock and their grandson, newly four-year-old David. They were followed by Andrew, Marie, and eighteen-month-old Gillian Fitzwilliam and a nursemaid. The final two carriages held the two families’ personal servants and Mrs Johanna McHugh, who had been hired as companion for Lydia Bennet. Lady Longbourn had decided to retain the former governess, Miss Anita Jones, to be Kitty’s companion. It was discussed to request of Mrs McHugh if she would take on both girls Helen and Lydia who were joined at the hip, for a significant increase in wages of course.
The three residents of Bennet Fields were part of the welcoming party. In the last few days, the new wing that housed more than twenty suites and single chambers complete had been furnished at Longbourn, so if they ran short of accommodations for guests before the wedding, the Bennets and Gardiners would remove to Longbourn to free up chambers at Bennet Park.
As soon as she saw her parents, Tiffany was in their arms receiving hugs and kisses from her loving mother and father. Georgie, who was considered a daughter more than a niece received just as warm a welcome. The greeting was repeated for both girls by Tiffany’s older brother and his wife.
Helen was introduced as a new Bennet daughter to the family’s friends, her new Uncle and Aunt Gardiner, and four new cousins and was accepted without any reservation by one and all.
Lily Gardiner was over the moon that she had another cousin close to her own age, as she felt very grown up now that she was maturing and above twelve.
David Fitzwilliam and Peter Gardiner were already fast friends and had soon gotten over being peevish at their parents’ refusal that they ride in the same carriage together as both sets cared too much for the nursemaids to subject them to two rambunctious boys that fed off each other when together.
