Her sisters children

by poppyrain

summer of 1832: after scandal befalls the wickham girls, their mother removes the family to pemberley. what will happen when young people of so different upbringing are forced to spend the summer together?

1. Lydias fifth child

PART 1, Chapter 1

19 June 1817, Newcastle

Misses Wickham had been a notoriously late riser in her girlhood. She had loved to lay in bed, relishing in the smell of fresh buns Hill had put in the oven, having the sunlight tickle her nose and hearing her sisters and mothers fussing around downstairs. She had loved to be the last to breakfast so that Mama would save her some of the crispy bacon and had the maid bring her some new coffee.

Now that she had her own household, Misses Wickham did not have the luxury to lay in bed long after the sun had risen. The first year of her marriage had taught her that the servants did not get anything done, if she was not there to supervise them. The second year had taught her that the screams of two angry babies was enough to even wake her husband out of his drunken slumber. In the third year she had learned that she had to wake up early if she wanted to get all the workload done after they could not afford the cook anymore. In her fourth year of marriage Misses Wickham had learned that getting four children dressed and ready took all her time.

In her fifth year of marriage she did not even expect to lay in bed after seven anymore. The children were always up, the maids lazy and her husband often came home in the morning, demanding a hot breakfast and then going up to sleep till lunch, when he went out again to get to his fellow officers.

And even if all of them had left her alone, Misses Wickham could not have slept longer than a bare minimum as the new baby was an early riser and always kicking and moving by seven latest.

Now, at nine, the children had settled finally around the dining table. Little Amy was eating her porridge quietly, while Ben was loudly telling a story, barely touching the plate, one of the twins was rubbing his sleepy eyes, the other one was screaming, after his mother had put him down to eat. Now, nine month pregnant, she could not hold her babies for long anymore. Not even little Daniel, who was eben more fragile than his twin Curt. They both barely looked like the two years they were old.

If she had time again, she would take them to the Doctor again to ask him if there really was nothing she could do to make them grow a bit faster. If she only had some more time. The maids where doing laundry today, filling the house with damp heat. She would have to make do with some cold meat for lunch as the kitchen would be full of bedlinen and the children's diapers. And she still had to go to the milliner to get some new fabric to fix the blue dress she was going to wear to the officers ball - if the new baby decided to be punctual to give her enough time to recover.

Normally she would leave the boys with one of the maids, but as they were busy today, Misses Wickham had no other choice to put the twins into the baby carriage they had already outgrown and have Amy and Ben hold each other by the hand, when they went out to go to the milliner.

They lived in a nice enough part of town. Modest and moderately pretty houses that belonged to other families of officers, merchants and some professors and doctors from the university. It was not anything like the posh houses Misses Wickham had imagined as a young wife. But it was respectable enough to raise the children and she neither had the time nor the money to convince her husband to move somewhere else.

Ben almost knocked over some trinkets in the milliners shop, Curt fell out of the childrens carriage when he tried to grab a newspaper being sold on the street. Daniel was screaming half the way because he wanted to walk with his sister instead of being driven around.

Only her oldest, Amy, was a little angel as always, staying near to her mother and holding the new ribbons tightly to her chest, after they had been purchased. Sometimes Misses Wickham wondered what she had done to deserve such a sweet little girl. The good looks she could explain easily. Even if her husband had no other handsome quality on him, he certainly was a handsome men in his regimentals, even after five years of marriage and all his drinking he still looked like the handsome soldier she had fallen in love with. And even if there were no point to her own good looks anymore, Misses Wickham knew that she was a pretty woman. Maybe not as beautiful as her oldest sister or as elegant as her second oldest one, but certainly pretty. But her daughter was more than pretty. She was downright sweet and docile, always wanting to help her mother and being patient with her loud brothers.

At home the maids had finished with the washing and were putting the laundry up in the small back garden. The garden was ridiculously small compared to what Misses Wickham had been used to as a girl, but then she had not grown up in an industrial town like Newcastle but in a tiny village, surrounded by fields and summer flowers. She wanted to plant some tulips atleast, when she had time again.

After making a light lunch for the children and settling them down in their room, Misses Wickham begun working on her needlework. She was remaking one of her old dresses into some small dresses for Amy. The girl was growing faster than any needle could move.

After she had finished with the first little dress, she felt the first sharp pain in her abdomen. After three deliveries Misses Wickham knew exactly what was going on. She listened, the children seemed to be asleep. Atleast she would have time to get the new baby out now.

So even beside her mothers screaming and panting when she came out, the moment of her birth would be one of the only quiet moments in little Effie Wickhams young live.