“Mother,” Anne Fitzwilliam warned. “Need I remind you that Lady Elizabeth is now a cherished member of our family, and that we rejoice with Darcy in his choice of bride?”
Lady Catherine’s mouth twisted with discontent, but she gathered her dignity and gave Elizabeth what could, at best, be described as a smiling grimace.
“Much better,” Anne said, giving Elizabeth a wide smile. “Is it not refreshing to know my mother is delighted to welcome such a vivacious lady, who managed to capture Darcy’s heart while visiting Mrs. Collins in Kent?”
“Kent! This… this nobody trapped my nephew while she was in Kent!”
“Lady Catherine!” Darcy said, his voice slicing through the tension like a well-honed blade. “Apologise this instant, or I shall never acknowledge you in my presence again.”
“You would not!”
“Do not test me.”
It was clear the older woman warred with her pride and the need to stay on her nephew’s good side, because she knew, as did Elizabeth, that his good opinion, once lost, was lost forever.
“I apologise, Miss Bennet.”
“Lady Catherine!”
“Fine! I apologise,LadyElizabeth.”
“Now, was that so hard, Mother?” Richard drawled out, smirking because he knew his calling the great lady ‘mother’ was yet another burr beneath her saddle of discontent.
“Richard,” Anne chastised softly. “Let us not add to herdiscomfort. Yes, she is wrong, but for too many years she held tight to a dream and it has been hard for her to let go.”
Richard lifted his wife’s hand to his lips and gave it a lingering kiss.
“For you, my love, I will do anything — within reason,” he teased when his wife’s eyes lit up.
Elizabeth, having tired of the bickering, lightly touched her new husband’s hand, and when he looked down at her, she merely tilted her head sideways and lifted a brow. No words were required to tell him that she was ready to leave the wedding breakfast, and begin their life — alone. Even then, it was more than an hour before they successfully exited the house and entered their carriage, cantering through Mayfair on their way to a three-month wedding trip through the Lake District and parts of Scotland.
Jane and her husband soon followed suit, but their carriage wound its way south towards Margate, where they would hide away in a little cottage on the coast with a few servants on hand to take care of their basic needs.
After waving goodbye toboth her daughters, Lady Rumley turned to her husband and sighed deeply.
“How blessed we are, Mr. Bennet.”
“I am Mr. Bennet now, eh?”
“You said you would answer to any name that belonged to you, and today as we saw our two most deserving daughters wed admirable men, I wished to take us back to our own beginning, when you and I were naught but sixteen and two and twenty.”
“I have never forgotten our wedding, my love. Nor thewedding night,” he teased, waggling his eyebrows.
“Oh, you! Such a rogue.”
“Aye, but I am your rogue.”
“Indeed, you are.”
They turned and looked about the room, their guests still mingling, eating and drinking, enjoying the time spent with friends and family. Mary sat quietly, listening to Lydia chatter with Kitty, both of whom she had not seen in over ten months. They noted that she had an air of contentment about her and when she looked up, noticing their attention, she smiled.
“I did not think I could be any happier, but to see Mary so pleased, and comfortable in the midst of strangers…” Lady Rumley breathed in deep and emitted a contented sigh. “God has been good to us.”
“Indeed. I also have made note of Lydia and Kitty. They are quite subdued, which surprises me as I expected Lydia to remain bitter about being sent to a school.”
“I spoke with her after she arrived in the company of Mr. Fitzwilliam. The whole affair with Miss Watting finally shook some sense into her head. She readily admitted that at one time, she may have behaved in the same stupid manner. Having to be the responsible one of the two of them, showed her just how foolish her friend has acted.”
“A good lesson to learn.”
