Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth

by Greer Boyd

  CHAPTER 16

  In anticipation of the first wedding, the family, extended family, and soon-to-be family, departed Darcy House to Rosings Park immediately after the presentations by the King. As the day of Richard and Charlotte’s wedding drew near, the excitement at Rosings Park reached a level never seen there before.

  Charlotte was resplendent in her cream-coloured silk wedding gown trimmed with pale lavender velvet ribbon. The gown was form fitting and designed to highlight her best attributes, with a modest décolletage and long gauze-like sleeves. She wore a beautiful ruby and diamond necklace and matching earrings, chosen to highlight the elegant ruby and diamond engagement ring that Richard had commissioned especially for her. David stood up with his brother and Elizabeth stood up with Charlotte, as an increasingly exuberant Sir William Lucas walked her down the aisle. Pastor Whitehill and his wife were as happy with the new Earl and Countess Rosings as everyone else at Rosings Park.

  Mrs. Hillary, the housekeeper, and the cook, Mrs. Overby, had outdone themselves with the wedding breakfast. But as soon as was socially acceptable, Richard and Charlotte quietly slipped away to Park House in London to enjoy part of their honeymoon, before traveling to Matlock for the wedding of David and Mary to take place two weeks later. Almost all of the houseguests remained at Rosings Park for the week before they traveled to Matlock Estate.

  Mary’s dress had been completed and delivered to Matlock Estate a couple of weeks before the wedding. When the family finally arrived, Mary and Elizabeth took their first opportunity to view the dress. Elizabeth insisted that Mary try it on, and both sisters cried as Mary looked at her reflection in the mirror.

  “Oh Lizzy. Gabby and her sisters have made me look so beautiful,” exclaimed Mary swiping at her teary eyes with the back of her hand.

  “My dear Mary,” Elizabeth laughed as tears gathered in her own eyes. She passed a linen pocket square to her sister, “You have always been beautiful. You just would not believe anyone when they told you.”

  As the sisters hugged one another, Jane came into the room followed quickly by Georgiana and all of the D’Arcy ladies. Charlotte and Richard were not expected to arrive for another three days.

  Reaching for Gabby’s hand, Mary was overcome with emotion, “You have made me look so beautiful. I never would have believed it.”

  Gabby took Mary’s cheeks into her hands and counted her attributes, “With such a perfect canvas, it was easy. You were beautiful to begin with. Why ever would you believe anyone if they told you differently? You only had to look into the mirror to see for yourself.”

  Surrounded by nodding heads, she chided the bride-to-be: “You are not so tall as Jane, but not so petite as Elizabeth.” Placing her hands on Mary’s sides near to the edge of her breasts, she continued, “Your curves are more ample than Jane’s, but not so abundant as Elizabeth’s.” Now gently pinching Mary’s cheeks, she said, “Your eyes are dark and sultry, promising a most passionate nature. Your hair shines like rich dark chocolate . . . luscious.” Then she took both of Mary’s hands into her own. “But most importantly of all, your David knows you are beautiful as well.”

  Mary turned a bright red, hugged Gabby and kissed her cheek, and muttered simply, “Thank you.”

  Turning to the new jewelry box on the dressing table, she gushed, “Let me show you what David has given me.” As she removed a string of perfectly matched pearls, Gabby and her sisters immediately saw the splendid pale blue diamond pendant hanging from the necklace. “Oh Mary, it is a perfect match for your engagement ring: pearls and a pale blue diamond.”

  As the day of the wedding drew even closer, Mary came to Elizabeth’s bedchamber to ask what she could expect on the wedding night. Elizabeth stretched her hand upward and pulled the bell cord. When her companion entered, she asked, “Katie, will you inquire if Jane will join us in my bedchamber, please?”

  While they waited for Jane to arrive, Mary told Elizabeth that Mr. Denny had offered her and David his estate Oakhill for their use during the first week of their honeymoon. But after Denny and Maryann were married, they would be going directly to Oakhill to honeymoon at their own estate, so she and David were then to move to Avonlea. Since Avonlea was so close to Pemberley, and Caenvista, they would be able to visit with family as often as they wanted.

  Hearing a soft knock at the door, Elizabeth quietly chanted, “Come in Jane.” When Jane came through the door and saw Mary sitting with Elizabeth, she knew immediately that this was the “discussion” that both she and her sister had been preparing for.

  “Mary,” explained Elizabeth, “I am going to tell you what to expect as Aunt Lilly told me, and then Jane is going to tell you a different truth.”

  Puzzled, Mary looked at both of her sisters, but did not say anything.

  First, Elizabeth told Mary of a wedding night for a marriage in which the couple liked but did not love each other, but joined simply to consummate the marriage and to procreate. Then she described a wedding night wherein, although the couple did not love each, they found pleasure with one another.

  When she had finished speaking, Mary could not keep the stunned and almost disappointed look from her face at what Elizabeth had disclosed. “But Lizzy,” she insisted, “I love David, and I know that he loves me too,”

  “Yes Mary, I know,” countered Elizabeth, as she gave Mary’s hands a gentle squeeze. “That is why Jane is here.”

  Jane looked Mary fully in the face, and, although both sisters blushed furiously, she told her of the joyful and wondrous pleasure that both husband and wife could have with one another. She told her of the waves of pleasure that would wash over her and the ultimate joy that would engulf them both when they were able to take their pleasure together. Elizabeth listened as attentively as Mary while Jane spoke.

  When Jane finished talking, Mary looked at Elizabeth with a questioning sadness. With painful candor, Elizabeth simply stated, “Mary, I could not speak of something of which I have no knowledge.”

  At that point, Mary reached over and gently took her sister into her arms, “Oh Lizzy, I am so sorry.”

  “Hush now,” implored Elizabeth. Then she giggled like she had when she was a little girl, “Now you know why I am so looking forward to the ninth of April.”

  When all questions had been asked and answered, both Elizabeth and Jane gave Mary a container of ointment. When the sisters saw that they had both given her the same thing, they again burst into giggles, but quickly sobered to give her instructions for its use after her bath the morning after the wedding night.

  “Now Mary,” Elizabeth stated solemnly, “I set aside your dowry of £20,000 shortly after I gave the dowry to Jane that I had set aside for her. David has done the same thing that Charles did. Instead of taking the money, he has asked me to invest it solely for you. It is money that you will have beyond the settlement that he has provided and will be yours alone.”

  Then, taking the hands of both of her sisters, she took a deep breath and her eyes seemed to sparkle as she looked intently back and forth between the two. Breaking into a broad smile and releasing their hands, she sat back in her chair and announced, “I have a further surprise.” Only delaying a moment, she continued, “With the assistance of Mr. Grove, a fortune of £1,000,000 has been set up for each of you that will also remain outside the bounds of marriage. It will be invested and the return added to the total.”

  Stunned to the point of almost looking stricken, both Jane and Mary looked at one another and then back at Elizabeth. “WHAT? My God Lizzy, how is that possible? How is any of that possible?” Jane asked as the blood drained from her face. Mary, equally stricken and subject to wider swings of emotion, almost swooned.

  “As I have said before, God has truly blessed me, and I wish to share my good fortune with my sisters,” Elizabeth insisted, as she reached up with her linen square to wipe the tears from their cheeks.

  “Mr. Grove has structured the fortune in such a manner that it belongs to you and you alone and
will handle the investing of it for you. You may do with it what you will. It is to provide peace of mind for you. As you and I are all too aware, life can be uncertain. Both Charles and David know of this gift, and both men know that this fortune is set aside for your futures. Neither of them is in need of your fortune. You, Jane, and you, Mary, are most fortunate in your selection of husbands.”

  Leaning her head forward in almost a conspiratorial manner, she concluded, “I have also set up a fund for Mama in the amount of £100,000, but it will be invested and administered for her throughout her lifetime by Mr. Grove. We three know how she is with money, and if she were to find out about the fortune, it would quickly be gone.”

  The three sisters looked between themselves shaking their heads in agreement. Then Jane and Mary both kissed Elizabeth on the cheek as they simply said, “Thank you,” but then added in unison, as if it had been rehearsed, “Who would ever have believed?”

  The day of David and Mary’s wedding dawned bright and beautiful, and the promising weather continued throughout the rest of the day . . . which was a good thing. Since there were so many people attending the wedding, they could not all fit inside the small Matlock Family Chapel. Wherever they sat or stood, however, they all saw the deep look of love on David’s face as Mary walked down the narrow aisle to him, her hand on the arm of her Uncle Gardiner.

  The pale blue diamond she wore glistened in the light streaming in from the chapel windows. As Mary looked back at him, she literally glowed with love and happiness. Both Jane and Elizabeth, who stood up with Mary, had tears of happiness gracing their eyes and trailing down their cheeks.

  Richard and Darcy stood up with David and were overjoyed to see the deep expression of love in his eyes as he took Mary’s hand from Uncle Gardiner’s. At the end of the ceremony when David took Mary into his arms and kissed her as his wife, it was with utter tenderness. As the pastor introduced Lord and Lady Fitzwilliam, The Viscount and Viscountess Matlock, everyone cheered and applauded loudly.

  Aunt Eleanor had prepared a most sumptuous wedding breakfast, but just as his brother and Charlotte had done, David and Mary quietly made their departure for Oakhill Estate at the earliest socially acceptable opportunity. The Duke and Duchess Avon were traveling from Matlock Estate directly to Pemberley to be with their granddaughter. They would be away from Avonlea until Darcy and his extended family returned to London for the last weeks of the Little Season and had offered their estate to the brothers and their wives. After the wedding of Mr. Denny and Maryann, David and Mary would share Avonlea with Richard and Charlotte for almost a month.

  Three days before the triple wedding at Caenvista, David and Mary left Oakhill and traveled to Pemberley at the same time that Richard and Charlotte left Avonlea. Although it had only been a little more than a week, the two couples were greeted as though they had been away for months.

  As soon as she could, Mary sought out Elizabeth in her bedchamber for private conversation and found that Charlotte had done the same. She and her new sister looked at one another and then to Elizabeth. Instinctively, Mary knew that they had come to ask the same question.

  Mary took Elizabeth’s hand as she grinned from ear to ear, “Lizzy I did not start my menses as normal two days ago. I cannot possibly be with child so soon, can I?”

  “Mary, my dear sister,” Elizabeth smiled teasingly at her, “in some cases, it only takes one time.”

  Seeing the startled look on Mary’s face, she turned to their new sister. “Charlotte, good friend, I cannot tell you for sure what you want to know. No one can be sure until the quickening of the child. But I suspect that you and Mary will be having babies within a couple of weeks of each other. I will tell you of the signs and changes of which I am aware, and I would suggest that you speak with Jane also so that she can tell you of any other things of which she is aware.

  “If you both are truly blessed, speak with Aunt Eleanor as soon as both of you, and David and Richard feel comfortable. She will be the happiest of mothers, and given the look shining on your faces, she may begin to suspect anyway. Still, I would suggest that you consider planning your confinements so that you will be close to one another, since it will be unlikely that you will be able to travel for two months before and at least a month or two after the child is born. If you are together, you can bring comfort to one another.”

  Hearing a soft knock on her door, Elizabeth giggled slightly as she responded, “Come in Jane.”

  As Jane entered, she asked almost petulantly, “Lizzy how is it that you always know when I knock?” Then she saw both Charlotte and Mary in the room, and with a look of great concern asked, “What has happened?”

  “Possibly something wonderful,” said Charlotte.

  Jane’s hand flew to cover her mouth and then she asked, “Could it possibly be?”

  “Jane,” sputtered Elizabeth, as she tenderly grasped her older sister’s hand, “I have told them that it is truly far too, too soon to be certain, but to look for certain signs. Perhaps you could add to that.”

  “Well, if the glow on both of your faces is any indication,” offered Jane as she removed her hands from her face and brushed them lightly down the front of her dress, “then it is a certainty.”

  The four ladies had talked for a quarter hour when someone else knocked on Elizabeth’s bedchamber door. “Come in,” said Elizabeth, and Georgiana entered the room.

  “Oh, I am sorry I did not mean to intrude,” she began, but then noting the expressions the four ladies shared, she asked pointedly, “What is going on?” Then, “Is one of you with child?”

  Mary looked to Elizabeth and then back to Georgiana with apt amazement, “Georgiana, your perception can be absolutely startling at times.”

  Georgian almost shrieked as she clapped her hands and asked, “Well, tell me which one?”

  As both Mary and Charlotte pointed to the other, Georgiana looked stunned. Elizabeth laughed, “I told them both that sometimes it only takes one time.” Then she noticed advancing colour on Georgiana’s face, and added somewhat concerned, “Perhaps you have some questions of your own?”

  Georgiana shook her head up and down. “Lizzy sometimes your perception can be absolutely startling as well.” Looking down to her feet and then back to Elizabeth, she continued matter-of-factly, “I have so very many questions. If Mother were alive, I would have gone to her, but since she is not, I came to you.”

  Jane looked at Georgiana and softly suggested, “Please do not feel uncomfortable. Both Mary and I sought Elizabeth to ask our questions about the wedding night. We will leave you so that you and she can talk.”

  “Elizabeth,” Mary offered as she gently placed her hand on the young woman’s arm, “perhaps you and Jane could speak with Georgiana as you both spoke with me.”

  “Of course, if that’s what Georgiana wishes,” Elizabeth replied looking searchingly into the young woman’s face.

  “Please, all of you stay,” Georgiana implored. “You will all be my sisters soon, and Charlotte you are already my cousin.”

  Then, the ladies, each in turn answered her questions, told their stories, and shared their excitement. Opening the small drawer in her dressing table, Elizabeth removed a small container of ointment and explained its use.

  Just as Georgiana had gone to speak with Elizabeth, Piers had sought out Darcy in his study though neither knew about the other’s conversation. Seeing the look of apprehension on his cousin’s face, Darcy immediately knew its source.

  “Darcy,” began Piers, as a look of chagrin covered his normally happy countenance, “I hardly know how to begin.”

  Not wanting to see his cousin uncomfortable, Darcy promptly offered, “Cousin, does this have something to do with the wedding night?”

  Startled, Piers simply acknowledged the prescience of the man before him. “I should have known that you would perceive the nature of my unease.” Sitting down in one of the wingback chairs arranged before the fireplace, he pulled at his waistcoat nervously as
he continued, “Darcy, my father died while I was still quite young, so he never had an opportunity to discuss such intimacies with me. I am not without any knowledge, but I will admit to you that it is sparse.”

  Taking pity on his cousin and remembering in vivid detail his concerns on the eve of his wedding night, Darcy answered candidly, “Piers, I had this conversation with my cousin Richard before my wedding night. You see, my knowledge was sparse as well.” Seeing the look of relief on Piers’ face, he continued, “I will tell you what he told me as the only suitable answer. Do not rush, proceed slowly, and most of all make sure that Georgiana has her pleasure before you ever begin to take your own.”

  When Piers looked at him with no small amount of gratitude, Darcy realized that he was speaking to Piers about being with his little sister in the most intimate of ways. But, he continued on, “If you do not proceed slowly, it may be a more painful experience for her and that will certainly affect your future intimacy.”

  Darcy let a broad smile grace his face as he continued, “And as Richard told me, ‘THAT is the only bit of advice that I have, Cousin.’”