Anne has made the most of this chance to escape her mother’s notice, and has taken to walking in the grounds, where she is often joined by Colonel Fitzwilliam. Her cough seems to trouble her far less than formerly, and she says it is the exercise which is doing her good.
When the others are occupied, it is with Jane and Bingley, Georgiana and Mr and Mrs Gardiner, that Elizabeth and I are able to spend most of our time.
Saturday 20th December
Elizabeth and I rode out with Jane and Bingley this morning to see a property some ten miles from Pemberley. It is a fine house, with good views. We looked around, and Jane and Bingley were much taken with it.
‘If we find nothing better, I think we will buy it,’ said Bingley.
‘I do believe you are learning caution,’ I said to Bingley. ‘A year ago you would have taken it straight away.’
‘Impossible for me to do so now,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘If I have learnt anything from you, Darcy, it is that I must not take a house without first enquiring about the chimneys!’
‘I reprimanded Bingley for not asking any sensible questions when he took Netherfield,’ I explained, when Elizabeth looked mystified.
‘It is a good thing he did not ask too much,’ said Elizabeth,‘or else we might never have met.’
We rode back to the house, where we found Mrs Bennet deep in conversation with Mrs Reynolds, ascertaining how much the curtains had cost, and what were the exact dimensions of the ballroom.
Anne was in the drawing-room with Mrs Gardiner, and their laughter reached us as we entered the room. Anne is looking much better than formerly. There is an animation about her that was wholly missing when she was confined with Lady Catherine, and, I own, when she thought she would have to marry me.
‘Did you like the house?’ asked Mrs Gardiner.
‘Yes, very much,’ said Jane. ‘It is a little smaller than Netherfield, but it is still a good-size house.’
‘Smaller than Netherfield?’ asked Mrs Bennet, coming into the room. ‘That will never do.’
‘But it is an easy distance from Pemberley,’ said Jane.
‘To be sure, that is in its favour. Then I might visit you both at once. I can stay with Lizzy first and then, dear Jane, I can stay with you. It is a long journey into Derbyshire to visit one daughter, but an easy distance to visit two. I dare say I shall be here all the time.’
‘I thought the park was rather small,’ said Bingley, with a glance at Jane.
‘And the attics were poor,’ she said.
‘Oh, if the attics are poor I should not contemplate it,’ said Mrs Bennet. ‘You had much better stay at Netherfield.’
Monday 22nd December
It was a wet day today. After dinner, Lady Catherine retired early. Kitty and Lydia were engaged in trimming bonnets, and Mrs Bennet was telling Kitty that when she was married she must make sure she had a house as fine as Pemberley. Mr Gardiner and Mr Bennet were playing chess, whilst Mrs Gardiner was looking through a book of engravings.
‘Would anyone care for a game of billiards?’ asked Colonel Fitzwilliam.
‘Darcy will play with you, and I will watch,’ said Elizabeth. ‘Anne, will you join us?’
Anne agreed, and the four of us went to the billiard room. We had hardly entered it, however, when Elizabeth excused herself on account of a headache, and asked me to help her back to the drawing-room.
As the door of the billiard room closed behind us, her headache seemed to disappear.
‘I think Fitzwilliam and Anne will do better without us,’ she said.
I looked at her in surprise.
‘He needs only a little encouragement to realize that he is in love with her.’
‘Fitzwilliam and Anne?’
‘I think they would suit well. Her eyes follow him whenever he is in the room, and she can scarcely talk about another subject without somehow mentioning him. For his part, he has always been fond of her, and it would be a suitable match as well as a love match. He needs to marry an heiress, and Anne is to inherit Rosings and a considerable fortune besides.’
I was even more surprised.
‘How do you know he needs to marry an heiress?’
‘He told me so.’
‘When did he do that?’
‘At Rosings, when we were all there together last Easter. I suspect it was to put me on my guard, and warn me that I must not expect an offer from him.’
‘What arrogant men we are! Both of us thinking you wanted an offer from us!’
‘Perhaps I did want one from the Colonel,’ she teased me.
‘My love, I warn you that I am a jealous husband. I will ban my cousin from Pemberley unless you tell me this minute that you did not want an offer from him,’ I returned.
‘Very well, I did not. But Anne, I think, does.’
‘It might not be a bad thing,’ I said. ‘In fact, the more I think of it, the more I am pleased with it.’
‘Lady Catherine, too, will be pleased.’
‘So you are encouraging it to please Lady Catherine?’ I asked her innocently.
‘Mr Darcy, you are becoming as impertinent as your wife!’ she teased me.
‘But I am not so sure Lady Catherine will approve,’ I said thoughtfully.
‘She cannot complain about his birth.’
‘Perhaps not, but he is a younger son, and impoverished,’ I reminded her.
‘But Anne’s fortune is big enough for two.’
‘My cousin has no house.’
‘He will live at Rosings,’ she said.
‘Sending Lady Catherine to the dower house.’
‘Whereas, if you had married Anne, she would have been the mistress of Pemberley, and Lady Catherine would have continued to be the mistress of Rosings.’
We both of us imagined how Lady Catherine would react when she learnt that she would have to move to the dower house.
‘Do you think Anne will find the courage to stand up to her mother?’ I asked.
‘It will be interesting to see.’
Thursday 25th December
Little did I think, when I celebrated Christmas with Georgiana in London last year, that the next time I celebrated it I would be married. Pemberley is looking very festive. Greenery is twined round the banisters, whilst holly, thick with red berries, adorns the pictures and mistletoe hangs from the chandeliers.
We awoke to a smell of baking, and after breakfast we attended church. The weather was so fine that Elizabeth, Jane, Bingley and I decided to walk to the church whilst the rest of our guests were conveyed there by carriage.
‘This reminds me of the walks we took when Jane and I were newly engaged,’ said Bingley, as we crunched the frost beneath our feet,‘although then it was not so cold.’
‘You and Jane were in the happy position of being acknowledged lovers. You could spend your time talking to each other and ignoring everyone else, whilst Elizabeth and I could not even sit together.’
‘But you managed to become lost in the country lanes whenever we were out of doors,’ said Bingley with a smile.
‘The lanes were very useful,’ said Elizabeth.
‘And our mother helped you a great deal, by insisting you occupied that man,’ said Jane.
‘I have never been so mortified in my life,’ said Elizabeth, but she was laughing as she said it.
We came to the church and went in. Our guests were already assembled, and no sooner did we enter than the service began. It was lively and interesting, full of the good cheer of the occasion. Lady Catherine complained about the hymns, the sermon, the candles and the prayer books, but I am persuaded that everyone else was uplifted by the service.
We had a splendid dinner, and afterwards we played at charades. Caroline chose Colonel Fitzwilliam as her partner, but Elizabeth thwarted her efforts to claim his attention later in the evening by inviting him to open the dancing with Anne. They made a lively couple, and disproved Lady Catherine’s dire warnings that Anne would suffer a coughing fit
.
Kitty danced with Mr Hurst, and even Mary was persuaded to take to the floor, though she protested that dancing was not a rational activity and declared that she would much rather read a book.
When all our guests had retired, we went upstairs.
‘Tired?’ I asked.
For answer, she lifted her hand above her head, and I saw she was holding a sprig of mistletoe.
Monday 29th December
Our party broke up this morning. Lady Catherine and Anne were the first to leave, accompanied by Colonel Fitzwilliam. Elizabeth had hoped to hear of an engagement, but although Fitzwilliam and Anne have spent a great deal of time in each other’s company, nothing has been said.
The Bennets went next. Last to leave were Jane and Bingley.
‘You must come and visit us at Netherfield,’ said Jane.
‘And bring Georgiana,’ said Bingley.
We have promised to go and see them before too long.
At last we had the house to ourselves.
‘It is very pleasant to have guests,’ I said, as the last carriage departed. ‘But it is even better to see them go.’
We returned to the drawing-room. Georgiana and Elizabeth were soon reliving the visit, discussing the people we had seen. Georgiana ventured a humorous remark about Lady Catherine and then looked at me to see if I had been offended. On seeing my face, her own relaxed. She has lost much of her shyness, and is on the way to becoming an open and confident young woman. For this, as for so many things, I have to thank Elizabeth.
Wednesday 4th March
Mr and Mrs Collins arrived this morning, and are to stay for a week. They thought it best to leave Kent as Lady Catherine is in a rage. She has just learnt that Anne is to marry Colonel Fitzwilliam.
‘Her ladyship was not unhappy with the idea at first, although she graciously confided in me that she would rather have had a man of fortune as a son-in-law. But the estimable Colonel has an old and revered name, and she magnanimously thought it fitting that he should ally himself with her own, most esteemed, branch of the family. She was condescending enough to give her consent, and to say that Anne would make the most elegant bride of the year. I was able to please her ladyship by saying that Miss de Bourgh would grace any church in which she should choose to wed.’
‘But her ladyship changed her mind when Anne made it clear she intended to live at Rosings, and that she intended her mother to move to the dower house,’ put in Charlotte.
‘Lady Catherine most amiably declared it to be impossible. She honoured me with the most obliging confidence, saying that she would not move out of her home to suit the convenience of a thoughtless chit, and she went on to graciously inform me that Anne was a headstrong girl who had no proper gratitude.’
‘Anne pointed out that, if she were a man, her mother would have had to leave the house on her marriage, to which her ladyship replied that Anne was not a man, and that therefore she would remain. I expected Anne to give way,’ said Charlotte, ‘but she did nothing of the kind. Love has made her strong.’
‘The atmosphere has unfortunately not been of the most harmonious. Of all things, I dislike an air of dissension. It offends a man of my calling in a way I can scarcely describe. I tried to offer an olive branch, saying that the dower house was a very fine building, with elegant apartments and sumptuous gardens, but Lady Catherine turned on me such a look of disapprobation that my courage faltered, and I was compelled to add: “But not as fine as Rosings.” I think that pleased her ladyship.’
‘But not her daughter,’ I said.
Mr Collins’s face fell.
‘No. I fear it is impossible to remain on good terms with both of them, and so we felt it better to come away.’
‘And there was another reason for our visit. I wanted you to see Elinor,’ said Charlotte.
The nurse brought Elinor forward. I have never seen any attraction in babies, but Elizabeth was delighted with the little girl, and took her from the nurse. As she cradled the infant in her arms, she looked at me in a way that made my heart stand still, and suddenly babies became the most interesting thing in the world to me.
I thought last year was the happiest of my life, but I think this one is going to be even better.
About the Author
Amanda Grange is a bestselling author of historical fiction in the U.K. She specializes in creative interpretations of classic novels and historic events, including Jane Austen’s novels and the Titanic shipwreck. Her novels include Lord Deverill’s Secret, Mr. Knightley’s Diary and Titanic Affair. She lives in England.
Copyright © 2009 by Sharon Lathan
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lathan, Sharon.
Mr. and Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy: Two shall become one: Pride and prejudice continues / Sharon Lathan.
p. cm.
1. Darcy, Fitzwilliam (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Bennet, Elizabeth (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 3. England—Social life and customs—19th century—Fiction. 4. Domestic fiction. I. Austen, Jane, 1775-1817. Pride and prejudice. II. Title.
PS3612.A869T86 2009
813'.6—dc22
2008037085
Printed and bound in the United States of America
VP 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
OVER THANKSGIVING WEEKEND OF 2005, I entered a movie theater with my best girlfriend and teenage daughter to watch Pride & Prejudice starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen. My only expectation was to enjoy a sappy chick flick with two of my dearest women friends. I had never read the classic novel by Jane Austen, nor had I seen any of the previous adaptations.
To my stunned amazement, I walked out of that theater sporting a heart swelling with romantic sentiment and warm fuzzy feelings running amok, and I was soon to embark on a pathway that would change my life. Within two months, I had joined the ranks of fan fiction writers from all over the world who have adored this timeless tale of true love. I have since read the novel and seen a few of the previous adaptations, but my heart remains enamored with the recent movie and the incredible actors and actresses who brought these delightful characters to life.
My personal quest was to delve realistically into the Regency/Late Georgian Era of England in the early 1800s while exploring the future of the Darcys. It began as a lark, but in true Mr. Darcy fashion, I was well into the middle of it before I recognized what I had begun. Quite before I turned around, I had my own website and was reaching the one-year anniversary of their wedding with fifty-plus chapters under my belt. Yes, it is an obsession!
What I have strived to recount is a marriage in its purest embodiment: a union based on commitment, equality, passion, friendship, honesty, and love. I wanted to answer the timeless questions regarding happily-ever-after and how two individual people meld into one soul. Along the way there are humor, drama, friends, family, and life events to experience with the lovers.
The Darcy Saga, in its entirety, is about how two people who are bonded and committed to each other move through life. Tha
t is the plot, the theme, and the essence of the story. They are not the same people once they have each other.
This first novel deals with the initial days into weeks, ending with five months of wedded bliss as the family prepares for the Season in London. I do not rush, as I want the reader to share in the joy of new love as it blooms and alters and strengthens William and Elizabeth. Subsequent novels will travel further along the timeline of life.
Welcome to Pemberley, and thank you for taking this journey with me.
Sincerely,
Sharon Lathan
Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy: Master of Pemberley in Derbyshire; 29 years of age, born November 10, 1787; parents James and Lady Anne Darcy, both deceased; married Elizabeth Bennet on November 28, 1816
Elizabeth Darcy: Mistress of Pemberley; 21 years of age, born May 28, 1795; second Bennet daughter Miss Georgiana Darcy: 17 years of age; sister of Mr. Darcy with guardianship shared by her brother and cousin, Col. Fitzwilliam; companion is Mrs. Annesley
Col. Richard Fitzwilliam: 31 years of age; cousin and dear friend to Mr. Darcy; second son of Lord and Lady Matlock; stationed with a regiment in London
Lord Matlock, the Earl of Matlock: Darcy’s Uncle Malcolm, brother to Lady Anne Darcy; ancestral estate is Rivallain in Matlock, Derbyshire
Lady Matlock, the Countess of Matlock: Darcy’s Aunt Madeline; wife to Lord Matlock, mother of Jonathan, Annabella, and Richard
Mr. Jonathan Fitzwilliam: Heir to the Matlock earldom, eldest Fitzwilliam son; wife is Priscilla
Mr. Charles Bingley: 25 years of age; longtime friend of Mr. Darcy; resides at Netherfield Hall in Hertfordshire; married Jane Bennet on November 28, 1816
Jane Bingley: elder sister of Elizabeth and oldest Bennet daughter; wife of Mr. Bingley
Miss Caroline Bingley: sister of Charles Bingley
Mr. and Mrs. Bennet: Elizabeth’s parents; reside at Longbourn in Hertfordshire with two middle daughters, Mary and Kitty
Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice Sequel Bundle: 3 Reader Favorites Page 100