Page 69 of Her Favourite Daughter

4 September 1807

Hornby Castle

North Riding

Yorkshire

Mamma,

I beg your pardon that I have not written to you sooner than this, but with Caroline’s wedding, and helping Bethie (I no longer call her Eliza, even in private) to learn her duties, the time seems to get away from me. I described how massive this estate and castle are previously, so I will not bore you with the same here.

Sir William and Lady Collins will arrive in mid-September for Sir William to take over the parish from Mr Pierce. From that day on, there will be two Sir Williams in the neighbourhood. (I know after Papa’s initial reaction that he finds it amusing now.)

Mamma, I know that Lady Fanny told you I was being unofficially courted. I want you to know how grateful I am that you allowed things to take their natural course.

The man is Richard Fitzwilliam (by far the best man I know), and I am very much in love. Yes, he is the second son of the Earl of Matlock and master of a significant estate and other holdings. None of that influenced my desire to know him better. I am sure you will be pleased by the connections the Lucases will gain, but that too had no bearing on my decision.

I remember how you told me that I should not allow sentimentality to influence me when I receive a proposal. You said that as long as the man was not vicious, could give me a home, and could afford a wife that I should not refuse him. You always told me that Jane’s and Bethie’s talk of love and respect was not important. I will never forget how you told me how felicity in marriage is a matter of chance and knowing more about the man who would be my husband before the wedding would not help me.

As much as I hate to disagree with you, I followed none of your advice. During this time, we have been in one another’s company from Hertfordshire, to London, and then our travel to the north. Richard and I have come to know one another very well. We understand one another and have found that we fit like a hand in a glove.

A sennight before we left the castle for Odendale (Lord Matlock’s estate near Scarborough), Richard requested a courtship. As I am of age, I granted his request with pleasure.

This very morning, he knelt before me and asked for my hand in marriage. Because we love and respect one another, there was no answer I could give him but ‘yes’. Richard and I have written to Papa to ask for his blessing, and I hope I will receive yours as well.

As long as both you and Papa are sanguine with my marrying Richard, we intend to marry on the 12th day of February 1808.

My marriage to Richard will soon make Jane and the rest of the Bennet sisters and brother siblings-in-law to me. This is due to the fact that on Monday, the day we departed Odendale to return to Hornby Castle, Jane accepted a proposal from Richard’s brother, Andrew, Viscount Hilldale. As Bethie counts the Bennet offspring as her siblings; she says that will make her my sister-in-law as well.

Jane and Andrew will marry on the 19th of March. That will give Richard and me more than enough time for a wedding trip before we join everyone in Hertfordshire for Jane’s wedding. Given that Jane will be a viscountess, there will be more to do before the wedding—hence, the longer engagement period than Richard’s and mine. Due to all of the above stated, Lord and Lady Meryton and the Phillipses will escort me home on the final Monday of this month.

We should arrive in the Meryton area by the first Friday in October, at the very latest. Please have Mr Pierce begin to have the banns called. Sir William will call the last one, if I am not in error. Richard has written to Mr Collins at the Hunsford parsonage to do the same.

The Bennets have made Netherfield Park available to us to have the wedding breakfast in the ballroom if you chuse to use it. Lady Fanny said the same about Longbourn’s ballroom. She knows how you fight to fit large crowds into the Lodge, so in my opinion, it would be ideal to use either of the offered ballrooms. (Longbourn’s is closer to both the church and Lucas Lodge.)

The Fitzwilliams and Darcys will be housed at Netherfield Park as Longbourn will be preparing for Jane’s wedding.

You see, Mamma, your worry that I will end up a spinster left on the shelf was for nought.

Enough teasing you, Mamma. Your first-born daughter is as happy as you have ever seen her. I am already counting the days until I become Richard’s wife.

With all my daughterly love,

Charlotte

Lady Lucas found that she could not fault her daughter for conducting her courtship away from Meryton. She was willing to admit that had she helped, she may well have caused the union not to happen.

She took her daughter’s epistle to Sir William so he could read it. He handed her the one he had received from Charlotte, delivered with his wife’s missive.

“I will, of course, send a missive with my blessings. Even if I did not know he was an excellent man, I would not have denied one from that family anything he asked,” Sir William told his wife when they had both completed reading. “Our Charlotte has done very well for herself. We owe Lady Bethany a thank you for inviting our Charlotte to accompany her.”

~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~

Anne Fitzwilliam was handed an epistle from her papa, and she felt the excitement build as soon as she saw it was from Harry.

He was permitted to write to her, but her missives to him and his to her were read by Papa first to make sure propriety was observed. She held the page with the broken seal to her heart for a moment before beginning to read.

28 September 1807