Darcy had thought he would beat the child quickly: instead, here he was with four pawns left to guard his king, while the girl had lost almost none of her pieces. In any other case, he would have tipped his king, but given his scoffing at her before the game, he refused to acknowledge the obvious truth that she had beaten him long ago and could checkmate him any time she chose to.
Elizabeth received her father’s message. She moved one of her bishops. “Checkmate, Mr Darcy,” she said in a sing-song voice.
“Do you remember I told you about the girls I had met with rather special abilities?” Harold reminded Darcy. The latter nodded. “These young ladies are the ones I told you about. Do not allow Miss Elizabeth’s size to fool you. She is fourteen, notten, as I am sure you think. Her sister, Miss Bennet, is the one who would show up the math professors at Cambridge.”
“I would not go so far,” Jane demurred as she blushed deeply.
“What young Hurst said is accurate,” Bennet disagreed proudly.
“Harry, please introduce the gentleman we have not met,” Hilldale requested. His eyes were still drawn to the blonde who had been working on a ledger, the one who was evidently a wizard with maths.
Harold introduced Bennet to the three men.
Still reeling from his drubbing—there was no other way to describe it—Darcy did not pay attention to the fact that Hurst seemed to be completely sober. When Miss Elizabeth asked if he would like a return game so that he would have a chance to beat her and offered to remove her queen, Darcy politely refused. He had an idea her removal of the queen would not change the outcome.
Hurst spoke to Gardiner, while Hilldale, Fitzwilliam, and, to a lesser extent, Darcy had an interesting conversation with Mr Bennet, who, like them, had studied at Cambridge.
At some point, with her father’s permission, Fitzwilliam asked Miss Elizabeth to recite a page of a book she had read. He chose one Darcy knew well, and from what Darcy could tell, she was able to recall everything as if she were reading from the tome.
Neither of the sisters fawned over the cousins and did not seem to care how high in society or wealthy they were. Hilldale and Darcy found this a new and very refreshing experience.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
On the tenth day of July 1805, at close to three in the morning, the Bennets’ unexpected shock was brought squalling into the world in the same birthing chamber where the three Gardiner children had been born at 23 Gracechurch Street. Fanny was attended by her sisters, Hattie and Maddie, Sir Frederick Gillingham, and two of his specially trained nurses.
Fanny and Bennet had agreed they would like the accoucheur to attend Fanny during the birth.
For this journey, when the Bennet parents departed Longbourn three weeks previously, it had beensansany daughters. All five were expectantly waiting for news at home with the governess and companion.
“Our sixth daughter?” Fanny managed while one of the nurses was working on delivering the afterbirth.
“No, Fanny! This one is not a daughter. You have been blessed with a son!” Hattie exclaimed excitedly. Seeing that Fanny was not ready to accept the truth yet, she looked to their sister-in-law.
“Fanny, it is true; Hattie did not err, you have a son,” Maddie confirmed.
Hearing the words she thought she would never hear, Fanny burst into tears. She lifted her eyes to the heavens and gave thanks, wondering if the reason God had so blessed them now was because she and Thomas had finally repaired the relationship between them.
With her eyes dried, she was helped out of the bed by Hattie and Maddie’s housekeeper. The latter helped Fannychange into a fresh nightrail. As soon as a maid had the bedding changed, Fanny climbed back into the bed.
There was still a shred of doubt in Fanny’s mind until Maddie placed her son in her arms. Determined to see for herself, Fanny pulled the swaddling back and then the babe’s napkin. It was irrefutable proof. How good had God been to them that he allowed them a son who would break the entail one day!
She knew that according to the entail documents, her son needed to reach the age of eighteen to break the entail with his father. Even without the knowledge of the land Thomas had purchased and the dower house being built there, this babe secured the Bennets’ future and ensured that a Collins would never be the master of Longbourn.
“Thomas?” Fanny asked tremulously.
“I will go and ask him to come see you,” Hattie volunteered. She made her way down the stairs to the office where her husband, brother, and brother-in-law were waiting to hear the results. On entering, she gave Thomas a nod, and he was out of his chair and practically running up the stairs before she said a word. “They have a son,” she informed her husband and brother.
Bennet took the stairs two at a time as if he were a man of twenty again and not in his mid-forties. He saw Sir Frederick exiting the birthing chamber as he arrived.
“Your wife and babe are as well as any I have seen,” Sir Frederick reported.
Rather than ask about the sex of his child, Bennet entered the chamber and saw his wife holding a swaddled babe, sitting against and propped up by large pillows.
“Come meet our son, Thomas.” Fanny beamed.
“Son! We have a son! How well you have done, Fanny.” Bennet had a thought and grinned. “My cousin, Clem Collins, will not be pleased by this.”
“I care not for that brute,” Fanny insisted.
