Page 30 of Idle Gossip

Nearly a month passed and Christmas Eve arrived. Darcy continued to court Elizabeth, and each passing day saw them fall deeper in love.

Mrs. Bennet was exultant. Two daughters married to such wealthy men was quite the accomplishment. The other ladies of the neighborhood congratulated her, hiding their envy behind their polite words.

Darcy received a letter from Lady Matlock detailing Lady Catherine’s arrival in town and the subsequent argument. She had gone back to Kent after only two days, taking her parson with her.

Your uncle refuses to give in to her nonsense. We are eager to meet your Miss Elizabeth when she comes to town to purchase her wedding clothes.

“That is tantamount to an approval,” Darcy told her. “Lady Matlock has often clashed with Lady Catherine. If the latter does not like you, then the former will.”

“Are all your relations this contrary?” she asked.

“Most of them. You will like Richard very well.”

Darcy sent for his sister as well. Miss Darcy spent the festive season at Netherfield. She formed an instant rapport with Elizabeth’s younger sisters. Miss Darcy benefitted from their liveliness, and they benefitted from her example of proper behavior.

Mr. Collins sent a scathing letter to Mr. Bennet after his return to Kent, withdrawing his offer of an olive branch and insisting Mr. Bennet prepare his family to leave Longbourn as soon as he left the mortal coil. The letter was so insulting that Mr. Bennet spoke with Darcy about a common recovery. They worked together to legally end the entail, much to Mrs. Bennet’s delight. The issue of inheritance would be solved later, but Mr. Collins would no longer be the heir presumptive.

The happy couples married in January. Bingley and Jane went south for their wedding tour and Darcy took Elizabeth to Pemberley.

“Goodness!” she cried upon seeing the grounds for the first time. “To think I would have given up being mistress of all this! I shall have walking paths aplenty now.”

“At least I am assured you married me for myself and not for my walking paths,” Darcy quipped.

“You may rest easy on that count. I should not have married you had I no more than a trifling affection for you.”

Darcy and Elizabeth spent the winter in each other’s company. Miss Darcy returned to Matlock House in town until her brother and new sister returned to London in late February.

Elizabeth did not waste time. She invited Charlotte to town for the season as her particular friend, determined to introduce her to every eligible gentleman she met.

“You need not put me forward, Eliza,” Charlotte protested.

“How else am I to express my gratitude to you for my happy situation?” Elizabeth’s reply was sardonic, but Charlotte laughed.

To her surprise, Charlotte encountered the same gentleman she had met many years before. Mr. Simmons was widowed, now, with two young children. Charlotte took her own advice, this time, and ensured she displayed her sentiments properly. Mr. Simmons’s tendre was easily reignited, and he proposed to Miss Lucas before the end of the season. They went together to his small estate in Lincolnshire. Mr. Simmons’s new wife became mother to his daughters, and she eventually gave him two sons.

“Is it not strange how a bit of idle gossip can shape one’s future?” Elizabeth asked Darcy as they watched the happy couple leave their wedding breakfast.

“It is. Now, whose happiness will you secure next?”

“Are you calling me a matchmaker, Mr. Darcy?” Elizabeth asked in mock offense.

“I am. I have no doubt you will soon have all our sisters married.”

“Lydia and Georgiana are too young,” she chastened. “And Kitty is not yet eighteen. Mary, then?”

Elizabeth eventually saw all her sisters married, including Miss Darcy. As she embarked on her task, she and Darcy welcomed their first son into the world. Two years later came a daughter, followed by one more son.

Years passed, but some things did not change.

One summer evening, Elizabeth stood on the terrace at Pemberley, watching their children play on the lawn below. Their eldest son was attempting to convince his younger brother to climb a tree, while their daughter loudly informed them both that she could climb higher.

Elizabeth smiled. Her mother would have called the lot of them heathens.

A familiar awareness prickled at the back of her neck.

She turned.

Darcy stood several paces away, staring at her.