“He is very well, Jane, and so is your daughter!” Aunt Maddie informed her niece, amused at the momentary shock.
“Daughter? Two?” the Duchess asked incredulously.
“Yes, you delivered two babes daughter—an heir and his sister,” Lady Rose gushed as she handed her grandson to his mother. Jane offered him a breast, and he latched on hungrily.“I am happy that you and my son hired a wetnurse for the night feedings; you will need help now that there are two mouths to feed.”
“Is my daughter well?” Jane asked, searching for her now that he was settled.
“Very much so,” Tammy promised her daughter while looking at her granddaughter lovingly.“She is smaller than her brother, but she is as healthy as any of the babes that I bore. With Kitty and Tom, it was the other way around but now look at them. They are as healthy as any other children.”
“Mother Rose, will you please ask my husband to join us?” Jane requested.
“If it is to take him to task for causing you such pain, I will make it my life’s mission to bring him forthwith!” she winked at her daughter-in-law and whirled out to find her son.“Ha, he got off easy. When I was birthing my first, I demanded that my chamber door be barred against my husband,” Hattie nodded when Jane laughed.
As Lady Rose left the chambers to inform first her son, and then the new grandfather and the collection of new aunts and uncles, Madeline Gardiner took the young Marquess, who was sated, and Tammy passed her daughter the new little Lady.
As his mother opened the library door, Perry looked at her with both trepidation and hope.“Go to your wife, my son; all is well.” The words were hardly out of her mouth when Perry jumped out of his chair and sprinted towards the stairs.“Thomas, you are the grandfather of two very healthy babes, a boy and a girl,” Lady Rose informed the new grandfather.
“And Jane is well?” he asked, needing to know that more than that the babes were well. Jane was his first born and would always be the one who opened his heart to the depths of love a parent can have for a child.
“She is, and she did very well. She did not even curse at Perry too much during her labours,” Lady Rose smiled.
“I rather wish she was less serene; I would have loved to hear what she might have said. I believe my Tammy threatened to close up my book room when she was birthing the twins.” He chuckled.
“Uncle John sounds very well,” John Manning used his new title for the first time.
“Yes,” Bennet confirmed,“you boys are all uncles now, and Kitty, you are an Aunt.”
Her mission complete, Lady Rose returned to the birthing chambers and walked in to see her son looking completely besotted as he gazed on his son’s face.
“You did so well, my beloved Jane,” he stated, his emotions choking him as he stroked his son’s head and then his daughter’s in turn.
“What will we name them, Perry?” Jane asked, smiling beatifically as she looked up at him, a much more relaxed look than when she was cursing her husband for the pain of childbirth.
“If it meets your approval, I think that Sedgewick Thomas sounds good for our son,” Perry suggested as he looked at the tightly swaddled and sleeping form in his arms.
“That is perfect for him, and we can call him Sed,” Jane approved.“For our daughter, how does Elizabeth Marie Rose sound? We can call her Beth, so there is never any confusion with her namesake?” Jane looked down at her sleeping daughter in her arms.
“I could not have conceived of a better name for her, my love,” Perry agreed, bursting with parental pride.“I would like to take Sed and Beth down to meet their grandpapa, aunt, and uncles.” Jane nodded and handed Beth to Aunt Maddie.
When Perry entered the library and introduced the twins to their grandpapa, great uncles, aunt, and uncles, Bennet choked up when he heard that his granddaughter, who was sleeping peacefully in his arms, was named after her aunt Elizabeth.
Before the sun set on the day, news that the Duchess had delivered an heir and a daughter spread through the estate, Bedford, and the surrounding area like wildfire, resulting in much celebrating now that continuity of the Bedford line was assured.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
The carriage bearing the newlywed Darcys arrived at the Golden Cock Inn as dusk descended on the land. They were welcomed with much deference by the landlord, who was making a tidy sum by keeping a whole floor reserved. He showed the couple to their suite himself and then bowed and left them, noticing both Biggs and Johns taking up station in the hall.
Will lifted his bride in his arms and carried her into the suite, kicking the door shut behind them.“Finally alone,” Will growled.
“Ahem,” Carstens cleared his throat. Will had forgotten that his valet and his wife’s lady’s maid had travelled ahead with their trunks.“Miss Thénardier and I have baths ready for you if you would like to bathe and change,” he informed the couple, keeping his head bowed so he would hide his amusement.
“A bath would be very welcome, husband,” Elizabeth allowed, and he set her on her feet.“Mayhap, we can have some food ready for us when we are changed?”
“I agree, Lizzy,” Will conceded. Though eager to pick up where they left off in the carriage, washing and eating now would make for fewer interruptions later.
Within an hour, they met in the sitting room where their repast awaited them. He was wearing a banyan over his nightshirt and breeches while Elizabeth was wearing a robe of light green over what looked like a yellow nightgown. The two dismissed their personal servants for the night, requesting that they not be disturbed until they rang for them in the morning.
Both picked at their meals, but after less than fifteen minutes, and by mutual non-verbal agreement, they rose, and Will led his bride into his bed-chamber. As soon as he closed the door, they fell into one another’s arms. Their kisses proved they hungered, but it was not for the abandoned meal. Elizabeth pulled away, but before Will could misunderstand why, she opened the robe, and it fell off her shoulders to pool at her feet.
