In her second season Helen met Lord Murray Lefroy, Earl of Carrington. He was intrigued with the smart as a whip lady who did not fawn over him or show him any special interest. He knew that her fortune and connections were unrivalled, but that is not what drew him to her. He simply fell in love.
The young Earl at seven and twenty had been alone in the world for three years as his parents and two sisters had perished in a tragic accident. He was spared as he had been visiting a friend’s estate and had begged off the trip with his family. At first, he felt a crushing weight of guilt, but he eventually acknowledged that he was given a gift by God and decided not to waste it.
He approached Lord Longbourn after his proposals were accepted by his beloved Helen. Consent and blessing were given conditioned on her brother’s approval. Lord Carrington had two estates, a very healthy income, and a good amount of assets so Bennet knew that he was not after Helen’s fortune. To be close to her late parents, she married from Janet’s Well with the blessing and support of her Bennet parents. The betrothed Lydia, her sister and soon-to-be sister-in-law, was her maid of honour. As had been ordained by his father, her brother Tim walked her down the aisle and gave her away.
They lived a long and happy life with six children born two sons followed by four daughters. The new Countess joined her sisters as one of the leaders of theTon.
Fanny and Thomas Bennet:
After having turned the running of Longbourn over to his grandson Viscount Meryton, who, since he finished his studies at Cambridge, was residing at Bennet Park; Fanny and Thomas Bennet, The Earl and Countess of Longbourn, spent the bulk of their time with their daughters’ families for a month to six weeks at a time. They would spend part of the season at Bennet House, which was a lot emptier now as their daughters were all married and had homes of their own. Eventually Bennet House would be inherited by their heir, Lord George Bennet-Darcy.
Besides spending much time with their ever-expanding family, they loved to travel around the continent once peace was achieved after Waterloo. They purchased homes in Paris, Geneva, and Tuscany and would spend part of the year at one of them. It was not uncommon for them to be joined by all or a combination of the other senior members of the family. Once a year, the whole family would congregate at one of the houses for a month in the autumn before the temperatures got too cold.
With full family support they opened schools for the children, servants, and tenants, and clinics, hospitals and orphanages around the country. So far, they were in fifteen shires, with everything fully funded by the Bennet Family Foundation. They were secure in the knowledge that after they were gone the family would continue and expand their legacy.
Lord Longbourn lived well into his ninth decade, and his wife followed him to heaven within a year of his passing. Lord George Bennet-Darcy, Viscount Meryton, became the second Earl of Longbourn on the sad day that his beloved grandpapa passed.
Georgiana Darcy
In her first season that she shared with Helen Jacobson, Georgie met no one that she felt that she could love and respect although she had many young men, titled and untitled, request permission to call on her. She returned to Pemberley to help look after her nephews and niece as her sister was increasing again.
In the middle of her second season as she approached her twentieth birthday, she met the Comté de Burgundy, André Bastillon. His family had escaped the terror in France with their fortune intact and had purchased a very large estate, Winsglade, in Cheshire, less than four hours to the west of Pemberley, and a townhouse in Mayfair. His father had passed away a year after he purchased the estate so the new Comté had inherited the entire fortune. He started to call on her and by the end of the season had approached Darcy and Fitzwilliam to request a courtship with their ward.
Lady Georgiana granted his request as she had finally found a man that she could love and esteem like all of the examples that she saw around her. In March of 1815, the Comté proposed to Georgie and she accepted him with glee. They married in July that year, six weeks after the birth of Alexander Darcy so that all of her sisters could be at her wedding as she became the Comtesse de Burgundy.
Two years after the final defeat of the Little Tyrant at Waterloo, the Bastillons, who now numbered four as Georgie had safely delivered a daughter followed by a son, returned to France for the first time since the family escaped to England those many years before. The courts restored the Burgundy lands that included many vineyards where a good proportion of the wine with said name was produced. They decided that their first son, Pierre George, would inherit the estate in France while a second son, or failing the birth of another son, their oldest daughter, Angelique Elizabeth, would inherit Winsglade.
They lived a very long and happy life together spending a lot of time with the ever-expanding extended family in England and three months a year at the Burgundy estate. Lady Georgiana Bastillon had seven children, two more sons and three more daughters. Each year, the girls that had been so close, Georgie, Kitty, Loretta, Tiffany, Lydia, Lily, and Helen, would meet at the estate of one of their husbands for a fortnight together with their husbands and children. This tradition continued for the whole of their lifetime.
Jane and Richard Fitzwilliam
Almost two years after their first daughter, Elly, Lady Jane Fitzwilliam delivered their first son, Thomas Reginald, who would be known as Tom and who took after both his grandfathers for whom he was named, most especially in intelligence. He was followed by Elizabeth for Jane’s beloved sister, and then by Rosamond. After four children Andrew Richard Fitzwilliam, who they would call Andy, made his appearance and he was the last born to Lady Jane and Sir Richard Fitzwilliam.
Lady Jane’s fortune was left to grow under the expert stewardship of Edward ‘King Midas’ Gardiner, not to mention her five percent stake that would be divided among the children, along with profits from Brookfield and the balance of Sir Richard’s fortune also invested with the company. All five Fitzwilliam children, two boys and three girls, had substantial fortunes. The girls each had dowries of one hundred fifty thousand pounds. Tom would one day inherit Brookfield, the title, and with it a fortune in excess of four hundred thousand pounds. Andy received a fortune equal to his sisters’ dowries.
The Five Fitzwilliam children all made very good love matches, Elly married the son and heir of an Earl, who had a large and very prosperous estate in Wiltshire. Her sisters too married men they loved, Beth to the son of a baronet whose family were neighbours to her Aunt Lizzy and Uncle William in Derbyshire, and Rosa married an extremely well-off businessman.
The heir, Tom, married the daughter of cousins Anne and Ian Ashby, Elizabeth Anne, known as Beth. Thomas Fitzwilliam met and fell in love with Beth Ashby one year when the family met at Rosings Park for Easter. They were very happy together and lived at the estate that one day, many years in the future, Andy would inherit, Bennet Fields.
Lady Jane and Sir Richard lived a very long and happy life together surrounded by family and friends. Jane helped her daughter-in-law learn how to run Brookfield while Tom learnt how to manage it with the help of his father, his uncles, and the long-time steward. Once they were sure that Tom and Beth were confident in running the manor and the estate, Richard and Jane turned the running of the estate over to them about ten years after they too had children of their own.
They moved into a suite in a wing that had once been added to expand the manor house and the couple spent time either visiting or being visited by family, especially their children, grandchildren, and eventually great grandchildren.
The Darcys:
The Darcys were blessed with eight children. Next was a son, Alexander, followed by twin girls, Ladies Jane and Amanda, then came the last daughter, Lady Priscilla, who was followed by the baby of the family, the eighth Darcy child and son, Edward.
For all the happiness their children gave them, not all was smooth sailing. Lady Elizabeth Darcy had a miscarriage between Alex and the twin girls, which caused a depression of some weeks. It took her mother, Jane, and Aunts Maddie, Rose, Sarah, and Elaine assisting her husband to pull her out of the doldrums she had sunk into. But it was Mary who had finally stepped in and pointed out that in twisted logic, much like her beloved William used to, Elizabeth was blaming herself. Mary took her to task with the love only a sister can give. After weeks of misery, it was a scant two hours at the end of Mary’s tongue-lashing, rivalling the one she had once given her brother William, that had Elizabeth seeing clearly. After a quip about how she and William made such a perfect pair, that she was forcing this so she could have the same story and now it was her turn to apologise profusely for the next ten months. It was music to everyone’s ears when Elizabeth’s laugh filled the halls of Pemberley and William sighed in deep relief. A year after her recovery she birthed her twin girls.
Lady Elizabeth and Lord William Darcy were in the deepest love imaginable. However, as would be expected with two very strong willed and intelligent people, they did argue from time to time. No matter how vociferous the argument, they never went to bed without reconciling, which only made the marriage that much stronger. The servants at Pemberley very quickly learned that if a door was closed, they should walk away or knock, but to never walk in unannounced. As they got older the Darcy children learned that lesson as well, electing to just walk away if a door was locked.
Lord Ben would one day inherit Pemberley, but when he was one and twenty, he moved to his estate of Rivington that was the seat of the Viscount and heir to the Earldom of Pemberley. Lord George was Bennet’s heir, Viscount Meryton and would become the Earl of Longbourn when his grandpapa, who he loved dearly, passed many years in the future and would then inherit Longbourn. Thanks to his mother’s generosity, Bennet Park was the seat of the Viscount and would go to his heir when he eventually had a son of his own.
The other two brothers would each inherit one of the additional three Darcy estates. Alex the largest in Nottinghamshire and Edward the next largest. The smaller of the estates made more than eight thousand per annum clear, so Edward had nothing for which to repine. In addition, each of the boys were given a fortune of two hundred and fifty thousand pounds that equalled the dowries of each of their sisters.
As all the money was invested with Gardiner and Associates, each of the Darcy children had incomes of more than ten thousand a year just from their investments, and that was before any estate income the boys earned or pin money the girls received. This did not include the stake in Gardiner and Associates that the eight would one day split.
As he would inherit Pemberley and the bulk of the remaining Darcy fortune as well as the Earldom, Lord Ben was relieved his siblings too had large fortunes. Ben, at the age of five and twenty, fell in love with the eldest daughter of the Earl of Holder, Lady Amelia Carrington, who at eighteen was having her first season. They married a year later, and as it had for his beloved mother, the marriage settlement left Lady Amelia’s dowry of fifty thousand pounds untouched and it was invested with Gardiner and Associates for their future children.
