Page 21 of Her Favourite Daughter

“Robert, it is time for me to go rest. Will you escort me to our bedchamber? If you have nothing else to do, I would like you to keep me company on the bed, even if it is too uncomfortable for joining.”

“You know I can never deny you anything, and holding you in my arms while you rest is one of my great pleasures, no matter what we are or are not doing.”

“That, Robert Darcy, is why I love you so well.”

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

The celebration at Longbourn was to be a large one. It was mostly because of Lizzy’s birthday on the third day of February, the date Fanny and Bennet had selected as the date they would celebrate her birth.

It would be as well planned as all of her children’s celebrations of the day of their birth, but Fanny harboured a secret, one she could not allow any of her children to know. Her favourite daughter, her favourite child, was Lizzy. As strong a bond as she had with each of the children she birthed, there was a special connection with Lizzy, and had been since the day Fanny had rescued her from the woods in Lincolnshire.

Lizzy had begun to walk—well, she never really walked because as soon as she was able to stand, she ran—at what the Bennets believed was ten months of age. Words began a few short weeks later, and once she began to be mobile and speak, the only times she was truly quiet and still was when she was at Fanny’s breast, being read a story, or when she was asleep. Fanny weened Lizzy at just above a year old. She was sad to miss those close times with her second daughter.

As she got older, it seemed that once Lizzy saw or heard something once, she never forgot it.

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

There were other reasons to celebrate in the family besides birthdays. In the almost five years since Lizzy had become a Bennet, much had happened.

Fanny’s suspicion, even though she had dared not hope that she was with child in September 1791, had been confirmed when she had missed that and the next two months’ courses. She had truly begun to believe she would be blessed again when she had felt the quickening in early November.

All had gone well, and on the twentieth day of April 1792, Mary Penelope was born. It had been an easy delivery for Fanny, who cared not what the sex of the child was because as long as she bore a healthy babe, Fanny was determined to accept that He had blessed them with another child, regardless of its sex. When she offered thanks to God, Fanny was convinced that everything had changed for the better with Lizzy’s discovery.

As she grew older, Mary had more and more of Grandmama Beth’s colouring. When the neighbours saw the second and third Bennet daughters together, it bolstered the idea that Lizzy had been born of Fanny’s body, seeing that the two girls had similar hair and eye colour. Mary was longer as a babe than Lizzy had been, and by the time she turned two, she was as tall as Lizzy was at the age of three.

The blessing of more children was not over for the Bennets because Fanny fell in the family way again. In December 1793, she missed the second consecutive monthly indisposition, and then there was a quickening in early February 1794. Catherine Lydia was born on the penultimate day of August 1794.

When she was born, like her eldest sister, Catherine was almost completely bald for some months. It was not long before Kitty—as she was called thanks to her affinity for cats—began to grow hair which was the same light brown as her father and brother James had. Her eyes were the deep blue that both her mother and eldest sister sported. At birth, she was even longer than Mary was, so there was an expectation she would be a tall girl one day.

Since the time that Lizzy was gifted to them, Fanny had never had another miscarriage; she was certain that the two things were somehow connected.

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

Not long after Kitty’s birth, as is often the case when there are reasons to celebrate, some sadness intruded. Jane and Elias Gardiner went to their final rewards within three months, one after the other. Jane Gardiner contracted a bad case of influenza, which became pneumonia and took her. Due to losing his will to live, thanks to a broken heart, Elias joined her in heaven.

With his father-in-law’s passing, Phillips became the new solicitor in Meryton. It had always been the plan that he would become the owner of the practice, although Phillips thought it would be many more years before that occurred. The Gardiner children and their spouses mourned for six months after Elias Gardiner’s passing.

As the family expanded with more children, and the three who had arrived at Longbourn after the horrendous accident which took their husbands aged, Beth and Penelope cast off more and more of their grief. The two widows remained in deep mourning for a full year and only then changed into the muted colours of half mourning. They decided to remain in those colours, as neither thought she would marry again.

When it became known that Netherfield Park belonged to Penelope, every man within twenty miles of Meryton who fancied himself the master of the estate vied for her attention. One or two attempted the dishonourable route of compromise. Thankfully they never succeeded. However, the attempts drove Penelope to make a few things known. Chief among them was that she was putting her estate into a trust managed by Frank Phillips and Edward Gardiner for her eldest niece, Jane. If Jane was unmarried at five and twenty, or married by choice before that, the estate would be hers. If anyone entrapped her into marriage, the estate would become the property of her father or, if he was not alive, her brother. She also made it known that she would not marry again unless she chose to, and no compromise would induce her to do so.

The changes Penelope made regarding the disposition of her estate, coupled with her refusal to be forced into marriage, restored her peace and drove the fortune hunters away. She was pleased they did not know that the annual profit had been saved for her since her late father’s time, and she had a rather healthy fortune.

Another blessing for the expanded family occurred in July 1795, when Edward Gardiner married the woman he loved, Madeline Lambert, formerly of Lambton in Derbyshire.

She was called Maddie by all and had come to live in London with her aunt and uncle when she was sixteen shortly after her parents were called home to God. When Gardiner began to court her in early 1795, she was eighteen already. He proposed, and she accepted him without delay. They lived in a house in Gracechurch Street that Gardiner had purchased because of its proximity to the warehouses of his thriving business.

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

Lizzy was extremely excited about her birthday the next day. Aunt Hattie and Uncle Frank would be at Longbourn to celebrate, as would Aunt Maddie and Uncle Edward. Jane’s best friend, Charlotte Lucas, would also be with them. Of course, everyone who lived at Longbourn would help her celebrate the day of her birth.

As far as Lizzy knew, she was as much a Bennet as any of her sisters or her brother. She loved her family more than she could explain with words.

Lizzy thought that at turning five she was very old. She knew that at eight Janey was older than her, but the difference in age between them did not change the fact they were the best of friends. It tickled her that she and James were the same age for a few months each year. For those months, he could not tease her about being younger. James would turn six in May. At least, she would always be older than Mary and Kitty.

One thing Lizzy relished were the lessons with the governess, Mrs Taylor. She had begun when she was four, a little before James had, who began at the age of five. She loved learning, and now that she was getting better with her letters, Lizzy took great pleasure in reading. For some reason, when she read something once, she could remember it as if it was in front of her.

One of Lizzy’s other favourite things to do was to ramble with Mamma. Mamma always invited all of her children to walk with her, but it was Lizzy who always accepted, where the others did only occasionally. Like her Mamma, she loved walking in the wooded areas around the estate.