Papa laughed. “I shall only visit. Someone must keep your mother company now that she is bereft of children to worry over.”
The two smiled at each other.
“You are happy this time. I can see.” Elizabeth smiled.
“I am, this time.”
Elizabeth crumpled up and flicked a piece of blotting paper that sat on the desk from when she had been writing at his nose. “You did not stop me from entering the engagementlasttime.”
He flicked the ball of paper back. “I did the closest I could with such a daughter as you.”
“Mr. Darcy and I will be the happiest couple in the world. You see how I laugh.”
“I do. But I still worry.”
“You need not worry. You have raised me well.” Elizabeth embraced her father. “I hope Darcy and I raise our children as well as you raised me.”
“Betterthan I raised some of my children. But, Lizzy, children choose for themselves much of who they are. A parent can only help or harm so far.”
“You mean Lydia chose for herself, even if you were negligent in sending her to Brighton.”
“My word itself.” Papa took out a pair of glasses and a decanter from their desk. “A celebratory toast. Idoworry — any marriagemightprogress poorly.”
Elizabeth groaned. “A useless statement. It neither reassures, nor worries me.”
“When you are a parent, even when you expect the best…you will always worry for your child. Lizzy, I will always worry for you.”
“I… Papa, I shall miss your presence so much.”
Papa poured the cognac into the glasses. “You already travel from home on occasion. You and Darcy shall come south with frequency, and I shall make the expedition north oftener. We shall spend ample time together. Though,thisroom will no longer be our special place.”
Elizabeth nodded, teary eyed. “I am so entirely happy, but I could not be happy withoutyourhappiness.”
Papa handed her a glass and he raised his. “To my Elizabeth and her Mr. Darcy; to your future and to your happiness.”
Chapter-Thirty
Dear reader, you shall be unshocked and unsurprised to learn Elizabeth and Darcy married.
Though Bingley adored both Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam Darcy, he never grew to enjoy the combination of the two in one location. For that reason he and Jane saw less of them thanJanewould have preferred, for despite their endless arguments, Elizabeth and Darcy were inseparable and always laughing. They were very much a pair, with those around them, exceptherfather, unable to follow their darting minds, and even Mr. Bennet could not understand their indecent pyramid of private jokes.
Georgiana and Mr. Peake made an elated couple, and they had five children, besides Anne. The firm of Gardiner and Peake prospered. They were involved in many profitable ventures, early railroads, Bessemer’s steel mills, a steamer line, and many others. By the time both he and Darcy reached their seventies — all our favorite characters lived a long course of life, well beyond the three score and ten allotted to man — Mr. Peake was the wealthier man by a substantial margin.
Darcy had long since forgotten that he ever opposed the match between his sister and Mr. Peake.
Mr. Bennet visited Elizabeth and Darcy for almost six months out of the year. Longbourn would have gone to ruin had Darcy and Bingley not convinced him to hire a steward to take over the duties. He was rather at lost ends once all of his daughters were well married.
Mrs. Bennet always was an adoring grandmother, who delighted in providing the children with an excess of sweets and then returning them to their parents to energetically run about from the sugar. To the day Mrs. Bennet died she retained an iron grip over the community, leading the assembly committee, the committee for the relief of the African orphans, and the committee for the promotion of crinoline hoops in lady’s dresses.
Never again did any foolish Lady whose husband gained a knighthood on the account of a speech made to the king upon his visit to Meryton question who thetrueleader of Hertfordshire society was.
Mr. Bennet loosened the drawstrings round his money box, thus mixing a metaphor and allowing his wife to spend close to her delight. Now that his beloved Elizabeth was married to a man with a vast pile, and none of his other children needed support, he began to spend most of his income. A grand part went to the books, but Mr. Bennet had free and full access to the Pemberley library. That superb specimen of the family library was a work of generations; generations of vastly wealthy bibliophiles.
Even if had he dedicated his entire income to the pursuit, Mr. Bennet could not hope to compete. He instead contented himself with finding opportunities to acquire particular rare and odd editions which Darcy did not possess. He planned in his will for all such books to be given to Elizabeth, and thus placed into the Darcy library, continuing the grand work of generations, and also showing by what means the rich might become richer.
Besides many years of moderate self-denial had blunted Mr. Bennet’s desire to spend.
Not his wife! Not her for whose usual nagging met with more than usual success! During that part of the year when Mr. Bennet was present at Pemberley, he granted her a large budget and liberty to use this budget as she wished to entertain. Mrs. Bennet had never been happier in her life.
