With the greetings completed, Mrs Ross showed the guests to a suite in the family wing while the nursemaids took David and Gillian up to the nursery. David could not wait until the end of the week when the Gardiners would return to Dovedale and his best friend Peter would be back in Derbyshire. With young miss Gillian now walking, life upstairs would be much livelier this week.
The Fitzwilliams all met in the family sitting room. Marie looked at Andrew who gave an almost imperceptible nod. “I am with child again. Andrew and I told Mother and Father before we departed London, but other than them, you are the first to know,” Marie said with the glow of a gravid woman.
“As you have taken us into your confidence,” Jane replied conspiratorially, “I told Richard a week ago that I suspect that I am with child. We have not told anyone else, and we will not be sure for at least another month complete. Certain foods already affect me so I did not want to cause undue alarm.”
“Oh, that is the best news. It seems the new cousins will enter this world within a month or two of each other.” Marie reached out and took Jane’s hand as if they had been sisters all their lives.
“I believe so too, Marie. Do you use an accoucheur or just a midwife?” Jane asked.
“As long as there are no problems, we use the local midwife. If I ever feel the need, I will see Sir Frederick Gillingham in Town. Our midwife has never lost a mother to childbed fever, which she attributes to the standards of cleanliness that she observes, and I have to say what she espouses makes far too much sense to ignore. Any doctor who contradicts her will be sent from my door no matter how far he travelled to come to us.”
“If you can get her recommendations for cleanliness brother, please send them to me,” Richard requested. “I wonder how our brothers, sisters and cousins are doing on their wedding trips? Jane, have you received a letter from Anne yet?”
“No Richard, I have not, but I do hope that all four sets of newlyweds are having a very enjoyable time. The Smythes are not so very far away from us in the Lake District.”
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
After a few days of sailing, the newlyweds, much hidden away in the privacy of their own quarters, enjoyed moving in harmony with the motion of the sea. Other than for meals, when they occasionally emerged from the cabins they could be found in the sitting room or on deck.
They were outside on deck promenading as the four ships docked in the port of Edinburgh. The couples would have a fortnight to explore and sightsee on their own and then they would meet the ships in Glasgow for the next leg of their wedding trip. Both couples would stay the night at the Dalhousie Castle Hotel. The following day they would part company until they reunited.
The Darcys would be traveling to their estate Broadmoor near Crieff. The Rhys-Davies would go to visit their sister and brother at their estate near Peebles as well as the Duke’s estate Lanark Heights, which was near the town of Lanark. Both couples intended to take in the sights of the Scottish Highlands as they had read far too many references to the beloved, sinister, bountiful, deadly, dangerous, and breath-taking Highlands to not want to experience it for themselves and determine the best description.
After hiring two carriagessansfootmen as Biggs and three of his not so small men had accompanied them, Lord and Lady Pemberley left for Dunblane where they would overnight rather than a long and exhausting push to arrive at Broadmoor in one day. They were on their wedding trip after all. Dunblane was almost exactly the midpoint of the journey, so it would break the over sixty-mile trip up into two leisurely legs over the two days allowing them time to sightsee at will.
When the carriages arrived at the estate, they were met by the butler and the housekeeper, Mr and Mrs McTavish. The house was the refurbished Broadmoor Castle that Darcy’s great-grandfather had purchased when the last in a line of lairds had died without issue. The heir, a distant cousin, had his own estate and had had no intention to move. Like the castle at Snowhaven, the inside had been completely refurbished so that while the façade kept true to the countryside, the interior would be unrecognisable to any of the former family that had lived in it before a Darcy owned it. The estate was large and farmed mostly sheep. There were also vast tracts of timber forest that had sections of oak, birch, and ash trees.
The Earl and Countess were shown to the master chambers, which was not a double suite but a single very large bedchamber, which neither repined, with two dressing rooms, a bathing room, and a nice sized sitting room. The bathtub was not as large as the ones that the Darcys owned back in England, but it was still large enough for them to share.
After dismissing their personal servants, they helped each other undress. Darcy suspected that neither would ever tire of seeing the other naked, even if they lived to see many centuries come and go.
“Allow me to get in first, then would you join me, my love? I have long imagined this moment.” He held his breath, relieved when his Elizabeth nodded for him to take the lead and climbed in after him, resting her back against his chest in the steaming water with a sigh of pleasure. They wasted no time in satisfying a fantasy that both had recurringly fallen to sleep to and knew that they had only started to scratch the surface of what they could share in the bath together. By the time they were done, the mess that they had made was prodigious, but neither had any regrets. Both were well pleased.
On Monday, the final day of August, the couples boarded the ship in Glasgow for the next leg that would take them to Dublin, Ireland. After a pleasant four-day voyage they arrived at their destination. Like they did in Scotland, the couples split up for the six day stay in the country. After two nights and a day in Dublin, the Darcys went to visit their estate Glen Meade in County Meath where horses were raised. The house at the estate was comparatively small and cosy, and they only stayed for one night. As it was still warm, Darcy led Lizzy to a grove he always knew he would one day share with his wife. There was a carpet of wildflowers and a maintained spot for them to picnic, and she proved to him in that very glade that his efforts were well worth his time.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
On the evening of Saturday, the fifth of September ‘The Elizabeth’ and her escorts departed Dublin with favourable easterly winds and arrived in Liverpool in the morning on the ninth. After thanking Captain Cox and his crew profusely, the two couples disembarked once again, stepping onto English shores where Pemberley and Birchington carriages were awaiting them. Once the trunks were loaded, the couples boarded their carriages. They would travel together to Pemberley where Mary and Hugh would overnight and proceed to Birchington the following day.
After two breaks along the way to rest, eat, drink, and change horses the carriages arrived at Pemberley just after five in the afternoon. Mrs Reynolds, Mr Douglas, and a cadre of footmen waited for the newlyweds to exit the conveyances. After greeting them and welcoming them back to Pemberley, the two senior staff wished both couples happy on their marriages and congratulated their master and mistress on being elevated to be an earl and countess.
Mary and Hugh were shown to a suite in the family wing while the Darcys entered the master suite where Lizzy found all of her changes were exactly as she had imagined and that her husband had already outdone himself as she had a new silver-plated vanity set engraved with ED on the handles of the brush, comb, the covered bowl that held her hairpins, and the containers for her lotion and lavender water. After washing and changing for dinner, the four met in the drawing room for sherry and port while they waited for Douglas to announce dinner.
As the clock struck six, dinner was called. After the soup had been served, Hugh raised his glass and said, “Here is to our wedding trip. It has been truly enjoyable to travel with you as my brother and sister, and I have to admit that I think I will very much enjoy glowering at all the young bucks that might think about coming close to our little sisters.” He smiled at Elizabeth when she laughed then turned to look at his wife, her happiness making his breath catch. Before he even realised it, he had lowered his head for a kiss and Darcy cleared his throat.
“We will just wait for the gong to tell us we can come back,” Darcy said, teasing Mary whose tinkling laughter filled the room.
“Papa can be quite stealthy. If I was going to compromise my Marquess, I wanted to know if witnesses would be close by,” She informed her family saucily. Her admission winning a kiss from her husband and smiling when he pulled back to lock his eyes on hers.
“You have my permission to compromise me without regard for who may be in the room,” he informed her with mock seriousness.
“Really?” Mary arched a brow in challenge.
“Except the Queen or any of the royal family, who apparently all intend to be close connections as they so appreciate you and your sisters,” he amended. “Our mothers too. Best to avoid that, I do not want to be hit with a fan and told I was not doing something right.” He tried to keep his countenance when his Mary’s laugh blended with their sister’s. “Or in front of our impressionable siblings. These two and Richard I care not. But under no circumstances are you to compromise me in front of your sister Jane. If she saw me even kissing you in public, I believe she would call me out!” He exclaimed.
Darcy laughed heartily and when he was under regulation he asked, “Why do you think that, Birchington?”
“Jane, it seems to me is much more proper than us plebians,” the Marquess informed his smiling relatives. “She also warned me that if I were to ever hurt my Mary that there would be no place that I would be able to hide from her.”
