So I came up with this idea on the train whilst reading (for the 1000th time) Pride and Prejudice. This fic will be a series of letters announcing and congratulating the occurrence of a certain two desirable upcoming betrothals. I'm not sure how many I can get out of this idea but I have a few up my sleeve. If you have any suggestions, please let me know! I figured I'd start with Mrs Gardiner's reply to Elizabeth's last letter to her, which I'll include in this chapter too.
I own nothing. All that glory goes to Ms. Jane Austen.
"I would have thanked you before, my dear aunt, as I ought to have done, for your long, kind, satisfactory detail of particulars; but to say the truth, I was too cross to write. You supposed more than really existed. But now suppose as much as you choose; give a loose to your fancy, indulge your imagination every possible flight which the subject will afford, and unless you believe me actually married, you cannot greatly err. You must write again very soon, and praise him a great deal more than you did in your last. I thank you, again and again, for not going to the Lakes. How could I be so silly as to wish it! ... Mr. Darcy sends you all the love in the world, that he can spare from me. You are all to come to Pemberly at Christmas.
Your's, &c."
My Dear Niece,
Your uncle and I send our warmest congratulations, and are delighted in the knowledge that our speculations as to your feelings whilst visiting the peaks have been proved to be correct. I am most assuredly certain that you and he will be very greatly happy together. As for your request that I praise him more fully in this letter than my last, I will say only this; his choice of wife says all I ever could of his character, his love for you is enough to recommend him a very good sort of man, and I wish you both every possible happiness.
As for thanks, you owe us none. Had our trip not been shortened we may never have had the pleasure of seeing you so well matched, and so you see that is all the gratification we need.
I do not wish to detain you from your betrothed a moment longer than necessary, so I shall leave this correspondence brief and end only with the assurance that we most readily accept your invitation for Christmas; I am sure the grounds of Pemberly look exceptionally splendid covered in snow.
Ever Yours,
M. GARDINER
Next up: Darcy to Georgiana