THEIR FUTURES
Jane Bingley bore to Charles Bingley eight children, all but the last, Elizabeth called “Betsey,” were boys. Jane was six months gone with child when she and Bingley arrived at Pemberley on July 22, 1813. Within moments of their arrival, the Bingleys urged Darcy to assist in finding them an estate in Derbyshire. That night, Elizabeth found a sixpence on her dressing table as she prepared for bed. When the Bingleys were settled in an estate some fifteen miles from Pemberley, Darcy and Elizabeth confessed to each other a sadness to have never sampled the comfort of the bed in the room Darcy had inhabited when he stayed at Netherfield from late September through November of 1811, and again before their wedding a year later.
Mr. Thomas Bennet outlived his nervous, frivolous, and later, constantly hysterical, wife by more than ten years. Mr. William Collins did not live so long a life, obesity cutting short his expectancy of inheriting Longbourn. Charlotte bore him only one child. That son, Thomas Collins, was due to inherit Longbourn, and since none of the Bennet daughters were still at home when Mr. Collins and then Mrs. Bennet had died, it was Charlotte who nursed Mr. Thomas Bennet through his final month, aided by Thomas Collins’s young wife—with Elizabeth and Jane arriving for the last week. But the elderly gentleman had enjoyed good health until his final weeks, and mental acuity to the last breath.
Mr. Thomas Collins had been urged from a young age to go into the clergy as had his father. He was a sensible young man, more like his mother in temper, but surprisingly better favoured than either of his parents—for which everyone excepting one elevated personage was exceedingly grateful—and the boy loathed Lady Catherine de Bourgh, striking up an aversion to her almost from infancy. He was heartily glad to leave Hunsford and reside, as the heir of Longbourn, with his mother after his education was complete. Thomas Collins fell violently in love with the young Betsey Bingley when she came to visit her grandfather. Betsey and Thomas were the parents of five sons, which was the source of great amusement to Betsey’s mother and her Aunt Darcy; her doting grandfather lived to see the first two sons born: twins. “Exclamation points!” cried the old man, when he was told the news.
Georgiana determined to act as her brother had done; she would only marry for love. Thus, she married much later in life, at age thirty-three, to a man eleven years her junior, one Benedict Gardiner. Yes, those Gardiners.
Elizabeth Darcy bore to Fitzwilliam Darcy seven children, a boy first—Charles Bennet Darcy. Mrs. Bennet attended none of the births, some other daughter always having a more prevailing need, though Mr. Bennet visited both Pemberley and Darcy House at will and often unexpectedly.
Darcy and Elizabeth agreed at the time of her second confinement that they would be ever vigilant of each other to avoid exhibiting favouritism amongst their children, but in truth, their eldest was slightly foremost in their hearts. They never did conceive a child on July 21, but not for lack of trying. A few years into their marriage, Elizabeth and Darcy forgot to celebrate their actual wedding anniversary, and July 21, 1812 became the de facto day from which they counted the beginning of their happiness together.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Epilogue
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