“My aunt and uncle might protest at their exclusion,” Darcy teased.
“The next child can bear the name of the Matlocks. At this point, we have had three children in just two and half years of marriage, and I am certain we will manage at least one or two more,” Elizabeth teased back. “Of course, if we continue as we have, I may have to begin sleeping in my own chambers at some point.”
Darcy scowled at her words, but they did cause him to think. “We will need to be more careful, perhaps,” he said, “Once you have recovered from the twins … you can speak to the midwife or our aunts to ask about ways to prevent pregnancy for a time. I could not bear not loving you as we have been. I need you too much to …”
“And I need you as well, William, nor would I want you to not be with me and to love me. The wait until I am recovered will be difficult, as it was after Alex. “Of course, there are other things we can do …” she trailed off, leaving her husband to imagine, and he leaned down to kiss you.
“You are a temptress, my darling wife,” Darcy said, then barked a laugh. “You gave birth to twins only hours ago, and we are already discussing the next. We are both ridiculous.”
“We are happy, my dear, and I am so glad we are wed. Time and time again, you have shown yourself to be a wonderful husband, father, and genuinely good man. I am so happy that I overcame my initial resentment towards you. Did you know that I despised you for the longest time after we met after you declared me ‘merely tolerable’?” she asked.
“I did not know it then but realised it during our time in Kent. I did not know you had overheard my dreadful words, and never did I feel so ashamed as I did then,” he replied.
“You have proven time and time again that I should not have allowed those words to colour my impression of you,” she told him. “As I said just a moment ago, you have proven to be a responsible and dedicated man, something I did not truly understand until I saw how diligent you always were.”
Feeling overcome by her words, he merely leaned down to kiss her forehead.
A short time later, Elizabeth and the twins were dozing, his arms around her and the children keeping them secure. At a knock,Georgiana entered the room carrying Alex and sat him on the bed to meet his new brother and sister.
“They are lovely, William,” she whispered. “I cannot believe Elizabeth gave birth to twins, and no one realised it until they came.”
“A few commented on her size, but I confess, I was surprised when the doctor made the same observation,” Darcy replied. Alex looked at the babies wrapped snugly in his mother’s arms and made a face. He crawled to his father and sat in his lap as best he could. “Papa?” he asked.
“Meet your brother and sister, William and Anne,” he told his son, moving one arm from around his wife to pull his son to the other side.
“Pay?” the little boy asked again in a barely understandable manner.
“Not right now, they are too small to play, but soon, my son,” he told him. “For now, perhaps I can tell you a story.” Alex nodded his agreement and snuggled into his father’s side. Georgiana sat at the end of the bed and listened and watched her brother interact with his eldest son and how his eyes constantly returned to his wife beside him.
After some time, Georgiana offered to call the nursemaid to take the babies and Alex. Darcy agreed, and soon, only he and his wife remained, a situation he was aware would not often happen for a while as the twins would surely demand to be fed constantly. He was delighted and wondered, as he often did, at his good luck in winning such a wife and then creating such beautiful children with her. He was truly blessed.
Epilogue
Following the examples of their elder sisters proved fortuitous for Kitty and Lydia Bennet. After completing her schooling, Lydia joined Kitty in visiting the Gardiners and participated in the Season with Georgiana Darcy. While neither Kitty nor Lydia were as sought after as Georgiana, they did have their share of suitors.
Kitty was the first of the remaining three sisters to fall. During the season after the twins were born, the girls continued with an art master, although only Kitty had a serious interest in art. While Lydia and Georgiana were working together, Kitty was more diligent in working with the instructor, the third son of a gentleman who chose to become an artist instead of joining the military or the clergy. While his parents were not happy with his choice of profession, they provided him with a reasonable income, which he supplemented by teaching and commissions for portraits. Slowly, as they worked together, the two fell in love, and when it was time for the family to depart in mid-July that year, the young man, Benjamin Waverly, spoke to Darcy to ask him to approve his suit.
Darcy was initially reluctant, but as Mr Waverly and Kitty were adamant about the match, he hesitantly agreed to a courtship. SinceKitty was to accompany the family to Pemberley for the summer, he permitted them to exchange letters. After just a month or two of this, and with Elizabeth’s encouragement, they invited Kitty’s suitor to Pemberley to paint Alex and the twins, allowing Elizabeth and Darcy to get to know the gentleman better. Eventually, after receiving the assurance this young man could care for Kitty sufficiently, Darcy approved the match and allowed the couple to become engaged.
The wedding was scheduled to take place at Longbourn in November. Many letters were exchanged between Pemberley and Longbourn to make the arrangements for the wedding and the breakfast. It was decided that Elizabeth would arrange for much of Kitty’s trousseau in Lambton, although Kitty and Lydia would travel to Longbourn after the Harvest Festival in October to finalise the wedding plans and to order the wedding dress in Meryton. A sketch of what Kitty desired, along with her measurements, had been sent from Lambton’s dressmaker to Meryton’s dressmaker so she might begin work on the gown. Mrs Gardiner sent the fabric from London as Kitty had selected something one day in the Spring when she was shopping with her aunt.
When it came time for the Darcys to travel south, they once again leased Briarwood Manor for their stay. Jane and her husband would stay with his family at Netherfield for the wedding, while Mary remained in Derbyshire as she could not travel in her condition. Several members of the groom’s family stayed at Briarwood with the Darcys, filling the house nearly to capacity.
Mr and Mrs Bennet were pleasant during the visit, although Mrs Bennet did complain when informed the Darcys would not stay at Longbourn. They were only in Meryton for the se’nnight before the wedding, departing immediately after, and only attended one dinner at Longbourn. Mrs Bennet was greatly disappointed by this and more so that Elizabeth did not bring the twins to visit.
“Mama, you do not even care to visit with Amelia; why would I bring my children to Longbourn only to have them sent to the nursery? They would be far too much for your nerves, and it is easier to leave them at home,” Elizabeth said when she began complaining about not being allowed to meet her grandchildren.
Mrs Bennet began to speak but quickly closed her mouth andturned to talk to someone else. Her husband had admonished her not to argue with her second daughter, and she was unsure how to reply without appearing to argue, so she let it go. It was true she did not want to see the children, as she did not particularly like them; she just wanted to tell her sister and neighbours that shehadseen them.
Kitty’s wedding was everything Mrs Bennet could have desired, although perhaps not to the taste of the bride or the groom. Mrs Bennet decided to make up for missing the weddings of her least favourite daughters by making Kitty’s a grand event, but the limited budget kept her from going too far overboard. Therefore, it was a mostly tasteful affair, and the guests were made to feel welcome and left well-fed.
When the celebration was over, the bride and groom departed on a wedding trip arranged by the groom’s parents. They would take up residence in a fortnight in a house paid for partly by Kitty’s portion of the funds Darcy invested for her and partly by a gift from the groom’s parents. The couple would live in this small house in London and had a comfortable life, although probably not as well as the Hastingses and certainly not as well as the Darcys. However, they had many family and friends and were content living on the income from their savings and whatever Mr Waverly earned through his teaching and painting. Kitty was often his assistant when he travelled, although their three children eventually made this more difficult, and the couple sold the London house to move to a seaside village.
At the wedding, Lydia became acquainted with a friend of the groom, Mr Henry Stirling, who owned a modest estate outside of Bath. The two quickly became friends in the few days leading up to the wedding, when they were frequently thrown together as attendants for the bride and groom. Although she had planned to stay at Longbourn after the wedding, she went instead to the Gardiners, where Mr Stirling courted her for six months before he eventually proposed. The couple married a little over nine months after Kitty’s wedding.
Mrs Bennet was happy to have another one of her daughters married to a landed gentleman, although Mr Stirling’s income was slightly less than half of what Mrs Bennet believed the Darcys’ to be. Nonetheless, the matron was exceedingly happy to have all five of her daughters married, although she remained resentful that Elizabethmarried the best out of all of her children. That status was improved further when Georgiana Darcy married the second son of a Duke in her third season. While not titled, he still had a substantial fortune, and the connection only raised the Darcys higher in society.
Shortly after the Darcys’seventh anniversary, the final payment is made between Longbourn and Pemberley, paying the loan in full. The Darcys presented the Bennet daughters each with a sum of money earned from the payments, which amounted to nearly two thousand pounds each with the accumulated interest. When Bennet discovered how the money was distributed, he was at first angry, but it did not take him long to realise that Darcy and Elizabeth had done for him what he should have done all his life. Had he made any effort to restrain his wife or taken an interest in the estate sooner, he could have ensured all of his daughters had dowries instead of expecting others to ensure his children and wife were provided for.
