Suddenly Mr Darcy

by Anne Louise

  With shopping done, Elizabeth and Georgiana joined Mr. Darcy on the trip back to Hertfordshire and a day later Colonel Fitzwilliam joined them. He rode his white stallion.

  The Gardiners returned to Longbourn loaded with food stuffs and presents and smoked ham and all manner of candies and imported wines and cheeses and nuts. It had been a tradition to visit over Christmas with the Bennets, and this year was very special.

  On a cold Christmas Eve, as planned, Darcy and Elizabeth met that day on the road to Netherfield, at the border of the two properties. “Miss Bennet, I had to speak to you privately before this evening. I believe our courtship has been successful. Do you agree?”

  “Yes, Mr. Darcy, it has gone well.”

  “Very well, then, I wish to declare that I have been in love with you ever since we met and my heart cannot wait another minute. My plan is to ask your father to bless an engagement between us, but I do not wish to make a fool of myself if you will not accept me.”

  Darcy next dropped to a bended knee as he held Elizabeth’s little hand.

  “Dearest Elizabeth, my love, and you are my love, please let me assure you of my fervent promise to love you and cherish you, and provide for and protect you for as long as I live. Will you accept my proposal and thus make me the happiest of men and be my wife?”

  “Yes, a thousand times yes, is my answer. So ask my father, and let us marry as soon as is appropriate.”

  Darcy was now standing with Elizabeth in his arms and he removed a package from his coat and handed it to her.

  “The ring is beautiful, and I love the setting with the ruby surrounded by diamonds.”

  Darcy next slipped it on her finger. “This was my mother’s ring. I have never seen anything as lovely until I saw you blush in the study that day we met, and later when we met at the shelter house at Pemberley.”

  This time it was Elizabeth who kissed Darcy and they held onto one another for several minutes when she stopped to dry her happy tears. “William, I will wear the ring until I get close to the house and then keep it hidden from view until my father gives his blessing.”

  That evening, the Bennets and the Gardiners, less the children, attended a candle light service at the church on a cold night and were joined by the Darcys, Mr. Bingley , Colonel Fitzwilliam, and Mr. Harrison. The colonel sat on the other side of Elizabeth and soon noticed a young woman who had waved at Elizabeth, and so he asked about the woman. “Colonel, she is my friend, Charlotte Lucas. Stand next to me after church and I will introduce her to you. She will be happy to see you on your white horse.”

  After the service and back at Longbourn, Darcy and Bingley finally were able to get Mr. Bennet’s attention and asked for a moment of his time. Since they wanted to speak in private, he lead them outside and they noticed it had just begun to snow.

  “Now what can I do for you two good friends, this holy night?”

  “Sir, I am looking for you to bless an engagement between Miss Bennet and myself.”

  “And sir, I have also come to ask you to bless an engagement between Miss Elizabeth and myself.”

  “I can see you both believe there is safety in numbers. Do I hear you correctly, that you two gentlemen love these sisters, and they in turn love you as well, and you all want to marry?”

  “Yes, sir, that is true,” responded the two friends at the time. Mr. Bennet next went inside and asked for Lizzy and Jane to step outside, and they soon walked out together.

  “Father, what a surprise. It is snowing. Thank you for calling us outside,” replied Jane.

  “Jane, the reason I have asked you outside is to ask you if it is your desire to marry Mr. Bingley, and for you, Lizzy, is it your desire to marry Mr. Darcy?”

  “Yes, father,” the sisters answered in one voice.

  “Then I approve of these engagements. I am pleased for all of you and do not know of any other men more worthy of my eldest daughters.”

  After that, the couples and Mr. Bennet returned to the house to a celebration that lasted at least three hours, and both Jane and Elizabeth proudly showed off their engagement rings.

  Before the Netherfield party departed, Darcy managed a kiss with Elizabeth and Jane and Bingley did the same, and the expressions on the sisters’ faces surely confirmed their great happiness.

  Edward Gardiner next visited with his brother, Bennet, as the older man poured him a glass of port.

  “I was astonished by what you wrote in your letter, but you were right about Mr. Darcy and his friend. The very minute I saw Lizzy after she arrived back in Meryton, I knew something big had happened. Lizzy was clearly in love with the man. You also wrote that Jane at least was thinking that Mr. Bingley was special when she first met him, but apparently she really missed him when he came with his friend to look at the Netherfield property.”

  “How many years have we done this, Thomas?”

  “It has been at least twenty years, that you have come down from town. Have you given thought to the grandchildren you will entertain perhaps as early as next Christmas?”

  “Yes, both Fanny and I have spoken of it many times. By the way, I am very proud of the way she has carried herself since first meeting the gentlemen. We get along quite well, now, and things will continue to improve for all of us at Longbourn.”

  After Mr. Gardiner emptied his glass, he retired for the evening, but Mr. Bennet poured himself another glass of port. Minutes later he heard the sound of feet approaching.

  “Fanny, please come inside, and sit with me. Well, what a day we have had, and the big day is just a few hours away. Can you believe how much we have been blessed? Mary will be married in a few days and Jane and Lizzy will marry a few weeks later.”

  “This is what I have prayed for, Thomas. Just to think, three daughters and three good men for husbands. It will certainly be different with them gone. How will we get along with no Mary around to bang on the pianoforte, and no Lizzy to go on her long walks and no Jane, with all her goodness?”

  Mr. Bennet next pulled his chair closer to that of his wife. “Fanny, we will get along with love. I do love you.”

  “And I love you as well. We will have each other, Mr. Bennet, but later will come the grandchildren and hopefully some sons.”

  “Fanny, now that this day has come, I do have some good news for you. Over the years I have put away some money and some of it I have invested in your brother’s business. Some years the farms did very well. I will not bore you with details, but not counting the money that I invested with my brother, I have saved fifteen-thousand pounds that you will inherit after I die. Now, I know you will wish to tell the others, but I ask you not to tell anyone.”

  Mr. Bennet next saw his wife and the tears running down her cheeks as he next reached in his drawer and unwrapped a package which he presented to her along with his handkerchief. She unwrapped it and looked back at her husband and smiled. Now Thomas, this is the same emerald ring that we had looked at the last time we were in town.

  “You are correct, my pretty wife. It is my Christmas present to you. You did say that the emerald is your favourite gemstone. I do hope you will enjoy it.”

  “It is very beautiful, can I wear it to bed?”

  “Yes, you can. Speaking of that, I will retire as well.”

  “Mrs. Bennet offered her hand and pulled him to her. Thomas, I need you next to me tonight to keep me warm. This is one cold and snowy night and I want the man I married next to me. After all, it is Christmas Eve.”

  The Beginning

  EPILOGUE

  After a short engagement, Mary and Mr. Harrison were married on the last Saturday of the year 1809, at the Bennet family church. Following the wedding, they returned to live in town.

  Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy and Jane and Mr. Bingley, were married in a double ceremony on the first Saturday in March, in the same church that the Bennets had attended since they were married. The weddings were a large affair and each family was well represented, with relatives and friends. Mr. Bingley’s
sisters came for the wedding and left after it to return to town, but they never visited his home. They would harbor a grudge against their brother for the rest of their lives.

  Darcy’s Aunt Catherine did not attend. She had a silly notion that her daughter, Anne, and Darcy, would one day marry, so when Darcy’s uncle told of the wedding, she refused to attend and neither did Anne.

  Mr. and Mrs. Darcy left for town later that day and the Bingleys stayed at Netherfield.

  The following year the Darcys spent their first Christmas as man and wife at Longbourn. It was at her childhood home in early January that Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy celebrated the birth of their first child, a boy, early in January of 1811. They named him after Mr. Bennet and he and his grandfather shared the same birthday. Three months later, they returned to Longbourn, where Darcy stood up for his cousin, Colonel Fitwilliam, for his wedding with Charlotte Lucas.

  Every Christmas for the next four years, the extended families joined at Longbourn and Netherfield.

  The families had grown much in the last five years. The extended Bennet family and the Gardiners reunited again for Christmas at Longbourn. Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy came with their two boys and their baby daughter and stayed at Netherfield with the Bingleys and their children, a boy and girl. Mary and her husband returned from town with their two sons, and they too stayed with Mr. Bingley, as did Miss Darcy, and her husband.

  Georgiana, had fallen hard in love with an attorney, who was the first son of an earl. They were married in June, after they met. The wedding was a grand affair and was held at Pemberley, and all the extended family attended. Georgiana would later have a son and the following year a daughter and two years later she delivered twins, a boy and a girl. She finally had the large family she had wished for.

  Kitty, who was pregnant, returned with her husband, and they stayed at Longbourn. She had met her future husband through her association with Miss Darcy, and the two women participated together in The Season. Lydia remained at Longbourn with her parents and had recently met a military officer, but the man was on the continent with many other soldiers.

  Elizabeth was the first of her sisters to have a child, but Mary was next and Jane after her. Mr. Thomas Bennet and Mrs. Bennet were never as happy as when they visited with their children and grandchildren. Mr. Bennet particularly enjoyed visiting Darcy House and Pemberley and perusing the great library and reading to his grandson, Thomas, who already showed a strong interest in reading and listening to stories.

  With four daughters already well married, Mrs. Bennet had become more serious, and along with Mr. Bennet, they saw their daughters grow in maturity much as their own relationship now grew closer. They enjoyed their spring visits at Pemberley where Mr. Bennet would read in the great library when he was not visiting with his Lizzy and the others.

  After Darcy and Elizabeth married, Mr. Bennet took Darcy’s advice and hired a steward who Darcy had recommended, and the man lived in the steward’s cottage on the largest tenant farm. He met regularly with Mr. Bennet and the tenants. The man managed everything and introduced new crop rotation methods and the farms prospered.

  The Darcy’s saw the Gardiners the most and Darcy and his sister developed a strong friendship with the family.

  After Colonel Fitzwilliam’s brother died, the colonel resigned his commission and took the title of Viscount Fitzwilliam. He and Charlotte had two homes, and also two sons, and like Bingley a few years later, they lived both in town and near Pemberley. All the friends remained very close.

  In the next years, Elizabeth had two more sons before a daughter and then another son.

  Late one night in Darcy’s study, Elizabeth asked her husband when he first recognized he might love her.

  “Elizabeth, I believe I was done in when you found me that night in the shelter. I had thought of you so much, and when I was in the water, I willed myself to live and return to be with you.”

  “As for me, I was done in that very day we met in your study and you were so kind and so handsome that I blushed after telling you to leave your own study. Later, in bed that night, I realized something. Suddenly Mr. Darcy had come into my life and I would never be the same.”

  “It was a Suddenly Elizabeth moment for me, my darling. Can I pour you a glass of port?”

  “No, William, but we could practice our kissing.”

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Thanks are extended to Word-2-Kindle.com for providing my cover and helping me with my formatting and to my husband for his understanding and for putting up with my many hours working on this story.

  DEDICATION

  This book is dedicated to my best friend, my husband. Thank you for coming into my life.