“As much as Caroline desired to finally see Pemberley, her daughter, Tabatha, who was born towards the end of January this year, has a summer cold, so she chose to remain home and not travel until Tabatha is completely healthy. She may join us in a sennight or so,” Louisa explained.
She and Harold were pleased that Caroline had changed her character to such an extent that she put her daughter’s needs ahead of her own desires to see Pemberley.
“And when do Lord and Lady Sandbach arrive?” Jane queried.
The Regent had granted Fitzwilliam an earldom, and with it an estate, Sandbach Dales, in Cheshire. When they had a son, he would be Viscount Congleton and have an estate, also in Cheshire, by the same name as his title. The Regent had agreed, with reluctance, that no public announcement would be made until the French tyrant was defeated.
She saw Lizzy and Louisa looking at her with arched and raised eyebrows, respectively. “I know not to use their title anywhere except in a setting like this among close family,” Jane clarified.
Louisa loved that she and the Hursts were counted as close family to the extended Bennet, Darcy, and Fitzwilliam families. They were, in fact, family by marriage thanks to Charles’s marriage to Mary. Even before that, they were always seen as part of the family and were treated as if they were family by blood and not just relatives by marriage through Charles.
“Wait until Sir William and Lady Lucas discover their daughter is a countess,” Elizabeth pointed out. “They would broadcast it far and wide, which is why Charlotte will say nothing to them until the notice from the Prince Regent is posted in the papers.”
With smiles of agreement, the three ladies walked back towards the grass park at the front of the house, where some of the older ladies were seated, entertaining, or more accurately, being entertained by Tisha, who had turned six in May past.
“Have you heard from Charles and Mary regarding the timing of their arrival?” Louisa enquired.
Mary was about six months along with child, and although Hurst had told them they may use Netherfield Park for as long as they desired after the one-year lease was completed, neither of the Bingleys felt comfortable living off the largesse of another. As he had chosen the life of a gentleman rather than returning to work at the carriage works, and with both Jane and Elizabeth in the area and knowing how close his wife was to her sisters, Bingley had recently found an estate for sale in Nottinghamshire, only about twelve miles from Pemberley. They had toured the estate and both liked it. Then, they had requested that their brothers, Hurst and Darcy, come inspect the property and give their opinions. Both men had announced it sound and a good buy. As it confirmed his opinion, Bingley had made an offer, which had been accepted, and he and Mary had taken possession of the estate in early June of this year.
“They will arrive in a few days. They were still settling some of the initial issues after moving in,” Elizabeth stated.
They stopped and watched three grandmothers and a great aunt, a Fitzwilliam, Hurst, and Bennet, the great aunt being a de Bourgh—her daughter, son-in-law and three grandchildren would arrive in two days—sitting in the shade of an old willow tree while Tisha told them a story, delighting all four matrons. As they watched, two husbands, a Hurst and a Darcy arrived, and with them Arthur and Tommy. Tisha called her brother and Tommy over to help entertain the grandmothers, or in Tommy’s case, mother and aunts; both boys refused. Tisha stared daggers at them, arms akimbo. Arthur ignored her as he walked back towards the mansion. Tommy stuck his tongue out, but as soon as he saw the disapprovinglooks on his sisters’ faces, he withdrew his tongue, looked sheepish, and followed his friend back to the manor.
“In the next few years, those two will learn that girls are not the devil,” Louisa said as she smiled. She saw her husband striding towards her, looking as fit as he was the day they had married. How she loved this man.
September 1825
Tommy Bennet graduated from Cambridge in May of the current year, just shy of his twentieth birthday, alongside his brother in all things except blood, Viscount Sherwood, who was one year older. Tommy had entered Eton the same year as Arthur, as he had been judged to be academically ready. Hence, at his graduation from university, he was at least a year younger than most graduating with him.
Lady Tisha, who had turned eighteen in May of the same year, found it infuriating that Arthur and Tommy were allowed to attend university, as all boys were, and she, who was more intelligent than both, was not, because of her sex.
She had watched as her brother and his best friend had left to attend their levee when they were presented to King George IV. Tisha was to be presented to the King during the Little Season upcoming. She found the practice archaic and rebelled against the notion.
“Mamma, please tell me I do not need to go before King George IV,” Tisha whinged.
“It is the way our society recognises that a debutante has come out and joined society. You will do it, like I had to do.” Louisa smiled as she remembered what she had been told about Lizzy’s first presentation. “Your Aunt Lizzy hated the idea as well, but her objections were about, as she called it, thehoopedmonstrositythat the late Queen Charlotte demanded.” She saw Tisha’s quizzical look. “In our day, we had to wear a hooped gown like those worn to court in the previous century. We can go into the attics one day and search for mine, and you will see. Had Aunt Lizzy had the option you do to wear a normal, fashionable gown for the presentation, she would not have complained at all.”
While she had been speaking, neither Louisa nor Tisha noticed that Arthur and Tommy had arrived.
“Is Tisha railing against her presentation again?” Arthur drawled.
“Mind your own…” Tisha began to say until she saw Tommy looking at her intently. She got all shy and blushed scarlet from the roots of her hair to the top of her gown. “Hello, Mr Bennet.”
Harold was correct; one day Tisha and Tommy Bennet would marry, bringing the families even closer together. The days of her calling him Tommy, which she had done all of her life, had ceased some six months ago, when Harold had opined the two had begun to see one another as more than her brother’s friend or his friend’s sister.
Only time would tell.
August 1829
St Hilda’s Church in Winsbury was full as the congregation waited for the wedding service to begin. They were all present to witness Lady Tisha Hurst marry Tommy Bennet.
Hurst stood in the vestibule thinking back over the years as his daughter waited impatiently while Annabeth Darcy was behind them as Tisha’s maid of honour. The six-year agedifference had not stopped the two from forming a very deep friendship over the years. Darcy was right to be proud of all of his children, especially the daughter who was a copy of her mother in looks and character.
With this wedding, the already close bonds between the Hursts and Bennets would become even closer. Through his daughter, Hurst was about to gain a plethora of siblings thanks to Tommy being a son of Fanny and Thomas Bennet and not a grandson.
That made him think of the two losses the family had suffered in the last few years. His mother had been called home to be with his father in November 1827. Lord Matlock had gone to his reward four months later. With that, Hurst and the former Hilldale were once again equal in rank—there had been some good-natured ribbing about that over the years—and the triumvirate of earls—which included Sandbach, Richard Fitzwilliam’s new title—as some called them, sat in the Lords working for the good of all.
Lady Elaine was the dowager now, but with her grandchildren, five from Jane and Hilldale and four from Charlotte and Sandbach, she never had time to brood. She was also an honorary grandmother to the offspring of Gigi and the rest of the Bennet sisters who were not her daughters-in-law. Between the five other sisters, there were more than four and twenty additional grandchildren on whom to lavish her love.
