“We will,” Andrew answered with a chuckle. “We will not leave you to just the newlyweds who will not see or recognise any but each other.” He winked at his mother who laughed in a low, sultry laugh he loved to win. “We depart for Hilldale on the morrow.” He again focused on his father. “I want to meet with my steward and take care of any problems that may be. We will return to Snowhaven at least three days before you are ready to depart for Surrey.”
After some more conversation, the rest of the Fitzwilliams retired for the night.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
When they arrived at Pemberley the next morning, Jane was surprised to see a row of Gardiner carriages waiting in position to depart the estate. Jane soaked in the house and grounds her sister would be mistress of and was truly impressed and could not but be happy for her. They had barely stopped and alighted from their carriage when they were swarmed by a horde of young ladies and Gardiner children. After Tiffany threw herself into her brother’s arms and hugged her newest sister, they fought their way through the young people, Jane all but fell into Lizzy’s arms in her excitement. She had missed her best friend and sister even though she was blissfully happy, and when she looked at Charlotte, she could not help but smile the smile Richard swore could light up the sun when she saw that Charlotte too looked incandescently happy. Jane would only understand why later when Lizzy described the blossoming friendship between Charlotte and Pemberley’s pastor. It was then that Jane noticed that everyone was in traveling attire and that three Darcy carriages had joined the Gardiner conveyances.
After they joined their uncle and aunt in the largest drawing room, Jane enquired why they were already getting ready to travel. Lizzy related the contents of the express from their parents calling them all back to Hertfordshire for wedding planning. When Jane asked if she and her husband should join the trip, she was assured that they should continue to Brookfield as planned and they would all meet in Surrey for the weddings. Elizabeth took her sister aside. “Jane, will you please be my matron of honour? I cannot imagine getting married without you standing up with me.”
“It will be my absolute pleasure Lizzy. When we have more time, we need to talk sister,” Jane said cryptically. The sisters hugged tightly relishing that they were together, albeit for a very short visit.
After a much shorter visit than had been anticipated, the Fitzwilliams headed to their estate while the rest headed to Snowhaven to return Tiffany to her parents on their way to Hertfordshire.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
As the carriage carrying the newlyweds approached their estate, they espied the gates that proudly proclaimed ‘Brookfield’ in large enough letters it was readable from a good distance. As the carriage passed the newly manned gatehouse, the gatekeeper, one of the newly hired staff members, waved his hat to them as they passed.
The staff had consisted primarily of Murray Lefroy, the steward, Joshua Durand, the butler, Karen Ross, the housekeeper and the head gardener, Jim Cross. During their meeting in London, Richard had instructed Lefroy to oversee the employment of a full complement of staff. His Jane, like her mother before her, loved gardening so the gardener was to be given any resources needed in order that his domain would be flourishing by the time he brought his wife home. The estate’s head gardener had appreciated the extra in funding and the expectation of a full complement of under-gardeners as he had been managing the work on his own.
The carriage travelled for a little over a mile with open meadows on either side of the drive. The meadows were dotted with a profusion of wildflowers, giving a pleasing pallet of colour to the eye. The drive turned to the right and crossed over a strong flowing brook; the one that was the genesis of the estate’s name. After the carriage crossed the bridge, they spied the formal gardens on either side of the drive, and to Jane’s delight the gardens were extensive. Cross and his newly hired staff had been hard at work to restore the gardens to their former glory and had made significant progress. Jane, who truly loved working in the gardens not just appreciating the aesthetics, noticed a wide variety of flowers which gave her gardens potential many estates could not support. As they approached the circular drive in front of the manor, they could see the fully restored rose gardens on either side of the drive which sported roses in various hues of reds, pinks and whites. Jane was very excited to take up the reins of the estate’s mistress. This was her home with Richard, without her husband it would not be a home, only a house.
The manor was a four-storey house plus a cellar built with the stone used most in Derbyshire. There had been one new wing added to the west of the house, and from what they could see the manor was similar in size to Bennet Fields, maybe a little larger. In front of the house the three senior staff were waiting. Lefroy, after being introduced to Lady Jane by Mr Fitzwilliam, introduced Mrs Ross and Mr Durand to the master and mistress. Lady Jane thanked them all for their diligent care of the estate before it was inhabited. They were led inside the manor house where lined up to greet them were all of the newly employed, and some re-employed, servants. After the introductions, Richard addressed all those assembled.
“My wife, Lady Jane Fitzwilliam, and I wish to extend our thanks to those of you who worked here while the estate was unoccupied, to welcome the new members of our staff, or welcome home those of you who have returned. You will be treated with respect and paid well as long as you are loyal to us,” he promised, knowing that he and his wife would need to earn their trust just as they would need to earn theirs.
“Thank you, sir. We welcome you and your Ladyship to Brookfield,” the staff chorused.
Jane asked her housekeeper to conduct a tour as their belongings were brought in from the carriages. In the cellar was a cold room, a wine cellar, general storage, gun storage, and the pantry. On the ground floor was a smaller family dining room and a much larger formal dining room, two large drawing rooms, a small parlour, a ball room that could comfortably accommodate one hundred and fifty, and a music room. Off the entrance was the master’s study, and next to it, with a connecting door between them, was the study that belonged to the mistress.
The kitchen, scullery, and housekeeper’s office were on the lower level with two sets of stairs, one from the butler’s pantry near the dining rooms and a much wider one from the rear entrance where the deliveries were made. They would be able to entertain large parties as sections of walls could be removed in the public rooms to expand the ballroom to a capacity of full three hundred. In the newer west wing was a library that rivalled the new one at Longbourn and already sported a nice collection of tomes that Richard’s ancestors had collected and had been bequeathed with the estate thanks to his grandmother’s will.
Upstairs on the first floor, the family wing included the very large master and mistress suite, ten additional two person suites plus six single bed chambers. There was a nice sized nursery in the family wing with room for at least six nursemaids and wet-nurses to sleep. In the additional space from the added wing there was a family sitting room that had large windows with window seats where one could sit and admire the peaks some miles distant. There was a family music room with an old pianoforte they would replace, and they planned to place one of Jane’s harps near the windows.
In the guest floors located on the second and third levels and accessed by stairs that bypassed the family floor, there were twelve suites and eight additional bed chambers on each floor. Each floor also sported a guest sitting room. Should there ever be a party that filled Brookfield to capacity, then guests could be hosted at Pemberley or Snowhaven without inconvenience, as all three estates were within fifteen miles of each other.
The fourth floor had the school rooms and the sleeping quarters for governesses, companions, and tutors. In the large attic that covered the original house and the added west wing there were ample servant quarters, the female and male quarters separated by a space for storage, and each gender’s section was accessed through separate staircases.
The kitchens, which had been recently refurbished with all of the latest equipment as a gift from Richard’s parents, only needed a cook and baker. The housekeeper, Mrs Ross, a five and forty year old widow, informed her mistress that she knew of an excellent cook who was very good at her craft and very pleasant, Mrs Edith Millar, Additionally, Miss Fran Bronworth, an excellent baker, was also available. Both ladies were not happy with their current situation. She reported that they had left word with her that they would be pleased to be considered for positions at Brookfield when it was once again occupied. Jane authorised the housekeeper to employ the cook and baker, and gave her leave to add four more maids and three more servants for the kitchens in addition to those already present.
While Jane met with the housekeeper in her new study, her husband had a similar meeting with the butler, Mr Durand, a man of one and fifty years whose wife was a very good seamstress. He informed Richard how many footmen had been taken on in addition to the one man who had been part of the skeleton staff, and Richard requested that he hire an additional eight. When they discussed the empty wine cellar, Richard shared that it would be well stocked as libations would soon arrive from Pemberley, Hilldale, and Snowhaven in addition to an order from Gardiner and Associates.
He advised the butler that his own collection of books would arrive shortly to be added to those already in the library. Before Durand was dismissed, he was asked to have his wife contact the housekeeper as he knew that Jane would be very happy with a seamstress on staff.
He then asked Lefroy to join him when he met with the head gardener. Cross was told to work with the steward to employ as many additional personnel as he needed to keep the gardens and the park in excellent condition. The new master shared his approbation for the progress that he and his gardeners were making. Richard had not missed the pleasure his wife took when she first saw her gardens. He informed Cross of his desire that all external rose hedges consist of red, pink and white roses.
After dismissing the gardener, Richard Fitzwilliam sat with Mr Lefroy who had been the steward at Brookfield for over ten years. He was eight and forty years old and along with his wife and children, lived in the steward’s house a little under a half mile from the manor house. The master agreed to the employing of an under-steward. The two men then discussed the repairs on the existing tenant houses, the six empty ones, and the construction of four additional tenant houses on nice sized sections of farm land that Richard had authorised when they had met in London. Lefroy reported to his master that there were applications from tenants to fill the empty tenant farms, including the ones not yet fully built, all of which could be occupied as soon as the construction and improvements were completed. With the added tenants, the steward agreed that the master’s aim to raise the income by three to five thousand pounds per annum was very realistic. Lefroy was grateful to finally have a master of the estate that would not ignore his tenants, but address their concerns as a priority.
The next subject of discussion was the extensive new stables to be built and the horse breeding programme that the master wanted to initiate at Brookfield. Fitzwilliam had practically been born in the saddle, and his love for horses had only grown when more than one mount had saved his life on the battlefield. As he laid out the scope of the programme he intended, Lefroy realised that once fully implemented, even after hiring an extremely experienced stable master and additional grooms, the ambitious programme Mr Fitzwilliam was planning would add an additional two to three, or more, thousand pounds a year to the estate’s income.
The next morning Lady Jane Fitzwilliam was busy meeting applicants that the housekeeper favoured for the additional servant positions the mistress had authorised, one being Mrs Durand who was happy at the opportunity to use her skills as a seamstress again.
The Honourable Mr Richard Fitzwilliam would ride their estate with his steward to see the proposed site for the new stables, paddocks, and other buildings needed for the scope of his vision. He planned to meet all of the existing tenants and view the progress of the construction, repairs, and improvements for himself. Although he was no longer a colonel, he saw that he would need to bring his strategic abilities and precision management to bear as he ran his estate just as he had in his military days. While there was no enemy charging the ramparts, he was starting to understand the difference between his Cousin William, who took a very active role in the management of his estates, and the majority of landowners who left the running of their estates to stewards and overseers. Those owners did not care what was done in their name so long as the funds to pay for their dissolute lifestyles kept rolling in. After his military career, he knew he could not be like them and decided to emulate the men in his family, taking an active role in the day to day running and management of his estate.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
On the third day after the departure from Derbyshire, the convoy of coaches arrived at Bennet Fields and were enthusiastically welcomed by the Bennet and Rhys-Davies families. For propriety’s sake, Darcy would stay at Longbourn, but again would not be alone. Since his betrothal to Mary, Lord Birchington had been a resident of said house, riding the three miles between the two estates each morning before he broke his fast and returning when his Mary retired for the night. Longbourn was much closer to completion than was scheduled so it would be no hardship for the gentlemen to reside there. Their lonely nights would be at Longbourn, the rest of the day they would be with their betrotheds. This arrangement would work very well for Darcy as it would not curtail time with the woman that he loved and whose company he craved, even when she was across the room and watching him.
Zeus had been left at home so he would ride to Longbourn later that night on one of the Bennet’s thoroughbreds. The arriving travellers repaired to their chambers to wash and change. Carstens had given a set of clothing to the butler for Darcy before he departed for Longbourn to put all in order there, as he was assured his master would be assisted by one of the manservants who regularly attended gentleman guests as necessary.
