~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Three Bennets and three Rhys-Davies sat in the drawing room at Bennet Park. Mary and Hugh had proposed a wedding date of the fifteenth day of August, a Saturday. When it was pointed out that the date was but eight days after the de Bourgh-Ashby wedding was to take place, the couple stated that they had chosen the date with that fact in mind.
Mary explained to their parents they refused to usurp Anne’s wedding. They added that most of the people that would attend their nuptials would first attend the wedding at Rosings Park, so it would only mean a short trip to Hertfordshire on fifty miles of good road. This would be advantageous as they would not have to return to their estates and then travel all the way back again. There would be more guests than had been at Jane’s given the size of the Rhys-Davies family and the Duke’s many colleagues from the House of Lords who would be invited. With Longbourn refurbished, accommodation would not be a problem, as the house was due to be ready no later than the first day of August.
After some discussion, it was agreed. Lady Mary Bennet would marry Lord Hugh Rhys-Davies, Marquess of Birchington, in the middle of August in the year of our Lord 1812.
Chapter 29
The Ashbys hied to their estates in Surrey. The party included Lord and Lady Ashbury, their daughter, and Anne de Bourgh. As arranged, Ashby and Granville were to stay nearby in Sherwood Park. Lord Harold Smythe, the Earl of Granville, had done something that he had never imagined he would in his lifetime. He had fallen in love with the beguiling Lady Sarah Ashby. Never had he expected to find a woman of her ilk. She beckoned to his heart, and it had gone to her even before he knew what had happened. The hope that his love would be requited was in the forefront of his consciousness.
He felt a compunction to be near her, to soak in her aura. In short, he was a man besotted. She was his match in every way. They were well balanced in temperament, humour, intelligence, and character. Yes, she was a truly beautiful woman and she had a very attractive dowry, but neither of those factors influenced why he had fallen in love with her. He simply needed her, and he had not ever needed anyone or anything! Now when he looked at his life, he could not imagine living it without her in it.
The very morning that the informal three-week period set by her father was over, Granville presented himself at Ashbury and requested to see the master. After greeting Lord Ashbury, Lord Harold Smythe requested and was granted a private interview with Lady Sarah, noting that her father had not put any restrictions about the subject of the interview, which he saw as a good sign.
Lady Sarah, dressed in a fine light pink muslin day dress, was ushered into her father’s study, and with the door cracked open found herself alone with the man that she esteemed above all others.
“Lady Sarah, Sarah,” the normally supremely confident man started, not feeling nearly as confident as was his want, “I find myself in unfamiliar territory. You have taken possession of something of mine, something that I never believed that I would surrender to anyone, never mind so willingly as I have.”
“What is it that I have taken so stealthily, my Lord?” Sarah felt a frisson of excitement throughout the whole of her body, hoping beyond hope that he was referring to what she prayed that he was.
“Firstly, my name is Harry. It is my heart that now and for always belongs to you. I find that I have fallen deeply in love with you. For me, there is no need for a formal courtship as I know that you are the one who will fulfil both my wishes and wants. If you feel the need for more time, or want to stop the acquaintance now, please tell me, and I will know how to act.” Granville held his breath.
She was silent for a moment.
He worried it was a signal that she was about to break their acquaintanceship.
“I find, Harry, that I have the same affliction as you, and am grateful for your gifting me with your heart as mine now belongs to you and is in your very capable hands as I have fallen in love with you too,” Lady Sarah promised softly. With great relief he dropped to one knee and took her hands in his.
“Sarah Ashby, I cannot imagine my life without you in it. I love you and always will. Will you do me the greatest honour by accepting my hand and marry me?” Granville asked of the lady of his heart.
“Yes, Harry. I love you too, so very much, and it will be my pleasure to be your wife,” A blissfully happy Sarah answered her Harry. He stood and their lips met for the first time. As their kisses deepened, they both found that there was one more thing that they shared, a true passion and desire for each other. After a round of passionate kissing, the couple broke apart. Sarah left to ask her father to join her betrothed in the study as she went to share her news with her mother, brother, and Anne.
Ashbury was not surprised by the request for his daughter’s hand. He was not blind and had not missed how his daughter’s feelings for the man before him had grown in ways he had always hoped he would see, so it was with pleasure that he consented and bestowed his blessing making the betrothal official.
In the drawing room none of the occupants were surprised by Sarah’s news or her elation. When the two men joined them, the Earl of Ashbury made the official announcement and congratulations abounded. When a wedding date was canvassed, after whispering with her betrothed Anne de Bourgh proposed a double wedding. There was more than a month until their wedding so no one would be able to claim that it was a ‘patched up’ and rushed affair. It was with supreme excitement that there was agreement by all.
They decided that the wedding would take place at Ashbury due to the fact that between the three estates, including the Viscount’s Amberleigh, there would be ample accommodation for all guests that accepted invitations. Anne was even more excited that she was able to share her day with a lady who would soon be her sister.
Anne de Bourgh hoped that one day Sarah Ashby would be a true friend who she would get to share much with through the years.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Sunday morning dawned bright and cloudless prompting Lizzy to take an invigorating ride on Mercury with a groom and footman who struggled to keep up with her. She returned to bathe and dress for the day, then she joined Charlotte and the Gardiners as they broke their fasts. She was excited as they boarded the two carriages that would bear them to Pemberley. ‘This is what I have waited for,’ she told herself, ‘to see him at his beloved Pemberley. I will soon stay there for my sojourn Friday next and we will see what happens…’ Lizzy tried to hide how much she was anticipating this now that the moment had come.
After about an hour the two carriages passed the gate house under a metal arch that proclaimed ‘Pemberley’ in bold, brass letters. It was connected to a stone pillar on either side of the gates. The gatehouse keeper had opened the gates as soon as he spied the Gardiner coaches, having been advised the previous afternoon by the master himself that very important guests were expected. Burris bowed and doffed his cap as both carriages passed, closed the gates and fired two pistol shots in the air to send the young groom waiting halfway to the house galloping at breakneck speed toward the manor house to notify the master of his guests’ imminent arrival.
Lizzy could barely restrain herself from hanging out the window. On either side of the gravel drive was the most magnificent forest. She could already imagine herself on endless rambles and rides through these majestic trees. After more than thirty minutes of trundling through the forest there was a turn toward the right. The carriage started to negotiate an incline. Just short of the crest of the small hill her uncle rapped on the roof with his cane and the equipage came to a stop; he suggested that everyone exit.
As she alighted, Lizzy blinked a little as her eyes adjusted to the sunshine. Their group walked to the crest of the incline and there she saw the most magnificent sight before her. “Oh my, of all of this I may be mistress?” She gasped aloud.
As Lady Elizabeth Bennet surveyed the sight that greeted her, she was struck by the vision of the very large, handsome, stone manor situated well on rising ground. The stonework, the same used in the building of the manor house at Dovedale, seemed to glow with a gold hue as the sunlight struck the facade of the manor house. Behind the house was a gently rising hill with trees dotted about just as nature had intended without man’s officious interference. To the left, Lizzy could see a vast kitchen garden, a conservatory, and beyond that a set of very extensive and well-maintained stables. In the centre and to the right was an area with benches and flowerbeds full of colour. In the middle of it all was a fountain with water cascading down the sides.
In front of the manor house were the formal gardens that, although well groomed, still retained the look of not being overly manicured or ordered, as some were want to do. There was a stream that wound its way lazily until it came to a lake in the front of the house between the formal gardens and the lush forest beyond. Lizzy could see a divine rose garden to one side in which benches were placed at random intervals for one to sit and enjoy the sights and fragrances. There was a gazebo in the garden where she could imagine many relaxing hours spent out of doors reading or enjoying the company of her possible future family, when the weather permitted.
‘I have put William through so much with my own indecision and hypocrisy. Will he forgive me? I pray that he will; that his love is strong enough to overlook the fact that I could have, should have relieved his pain of not knowing weeks ago! Please God do not allow me to lose him now after all that we have been through; after all of the changes that he has made to improve himself,’ she begged the Creator of all.
On the other side of the stream and lake she saw a verdant forest. Nature was allowed its head and there was no attempt to improve what God and Mother Nature had designed. Lady Elizabeth Bennet had never seen an estate where the natural beauty had been so little counteracted by man’s awkward taste. The Gardiners and Charlotte watched her silently with no little amusement at the myriad emotions that they saw on her countenance. It was not until she was able to remember she was not alone that they returned to the conveyances and made the short trip to the manor house.
