For about a month, the newly engaged couple were perhaps the happiest people in the world. Everyday, they sat beside one another at meals, read together in the library after breakfast and sat together in the evenings. It was their afternoons that were the most enjoyable to them. The Colonel had decided to show Kate as much of the gardens and the park as he could. They spent hours walking together, talking all the while. One afternoon, while they were walking, Kate began to relate to him finding her mother that awful morning.
"It was horrible, Benjamin. I came into her room with her breakfast and there she was, face down on the floor, blood pooled around her. I suppose I dropped the tray because the next thing I knew, I was holding her in my arms. She had developed consumption and I remember hearing her cough violently in the night and how relieved I was when she finally stopped." Kate could not continue to walk and she began to sob from grief. The Colonel held her close and whispered reassuring things into her ear in an attempt to calm her and help her compose herself. He could not help but notice how comfortable he was holding Kate.
Kate removed herself from his person once her tears had stopped. She made some comment about how sorry she was about crying into his coat but the Colonel heard none of it. All he could see was how beautiful Kate was at that moment. He held his arms out to her and she went to hug him. They stayed like that for a long while. One of Benjamin's hands rested on her neck, playing with the hair that had come loose and the other on the small of her back. Kate had both arms around his neck, nuzzling her head against his chest. She tilted her head up and she felt him tense as he felt her breath on his neck.
"I am sor—" She was stopped as his lips met hers. The spark they felt when their hands touched was magnified exponentially by this new found intimacy between them. This was her first kiss and she was glad that unlike Lydia, she was going to only kiss her betrothed before she was married.
From that moment on, almost every moment that they were alone and were unlikely to be discovered, Kate and Benjamin spent the time kissing. They had been lucky and had only been caught once, by Georgiana who entered the library to find them in a corner. She merely giggled and asked their forgiveness. Kate spoke with her later and she swore her secrecy to her new friend and also confided the following:
"I must say, Kate, I have never seen the Colonel as happy as he has been since being in your presence."
However, their happiness was overshadowed by a necessary and unpleasant courtesy. The Colonel had written to his aunt, Lady Catherine, and enjoyed teasing Kate that he would receive a copy of the same letter she had written to Mr. Darcy when she learned of his engagement. But it was not until mid-April, a few weeks after it had been sent and still no response, Georgiana received an express from her cousin Anne warning them that Lady Catherine was on her way to Pemberly and from the sound of it, she was not pleased.
Lizzy spent the next day making sure that the staff had the house as clean and orderly as possible and that the room that Lady Catherine normally stayed in was impeccable. She had begun to show and seemed to get larger everyday and was tired quite frequently. Lady Catherine visiting just seemed to make her grow faster. She had developed a taste for rich desserts, items that she rarely ate previously. The cook seemed to take joy in creating new treats for her and she could often be found in the kitchen to enjoy the treats when they were fresh.
The day of Lady Catherine's arrival came and all nine of Pemberly's residents assembled themselves outside to wait for her. They saw her carriage coming out of the woods and they all felt her sharp eyes on them. It was hotter than usual for that time of year and Lizzy was visibly perspiring.
"I dare say, Mr. Darcy, I think I may enjoy Lady Catherine's visit. I have heard much of her affability and condescension from Mr. Collins," Mr. Bennet said jokingly. Lizzy turned and gave her father a reproving look but chuckled. This was going to be interesting.
The carriage came to a stop in front of them and as Lady Catherine got out and surveyed the people there to greet her, she said "I dare say, Fitzwilliam, have you invited all of your wife's family to visit you? I do not think that Pemberly has room for me by the look of it." She coldly eyed Elizabeth and her growing stomach. "When is your wife's baby to arrive, Fitzwilliam?"
"Elizabeth is due in July, Aunt." He crossed his arms, wanting terribly to take Lizzy inside, away from the abnormally high temperature. Lady Catherine walked into the house as if she was its owner and began ordering around the servants who were simply going about their duties.
"Colonel, I wish to speak with you directly. Your," she glared at Kate before continuing, "fiancé shall accompany you." Lady Catherine strode toward the library, the Colonel and Kate following her closely. They entered the room and sat, the couple facing the buzzard like woman. She cleared her throat as Mrs. Reynolds entered with tea. She waited until the housekeeper was gone before beginning. "Colonel, I would like to congratulate you on your promotion and your change of fortune since the death of my dear brother. However, I can not give my consent to your marriage to Darcy's sister-in-law. Our family is already connected to the Bennets more than I would ever wish to be. And furthermore—"
"Lady Catherine, please forgive me, but I did not write to you to ask for your blessing. The only persons whose blessings matter to Kate and me are her father's and my own. Before he died, I told my father that I wished to marry her and after describing her to him, I received his hearty consent and Kate's father readily gave his. I wrote to inform you of the event. Whether you approve or not is no concern of mine. I am going to marry her and there is nothing you can do or say that will change my mind," the Colonel stood and walked behind Kate, placing his hand on her shoulder. "I love her, Aunt. Nothing you can say will change that."
"Miss Bennet, I do not know how but you and your sisters have some how managed to secure the affections of almost every man in connection to my family." Lady Catherine rose from her seat, preparing her self to leave Pemberly. "I see, Colonel, that like your cousin, you have lost your sense of duty to the family. I shall no longer trespass on your time. As of right now, I am no longer the aunt of you or Darcy. I wish you healthy and happiness with your wife, although I find it highly unlikely."
And with that, Lady Catherine left the room and Pemberly, never to return. She even cut off ties to Georgiana and Ann had to sneak letters to her cousins for years.
Darcy and the Colonel, while saddened that their relationship with their aunt had ended in such an ugly manner, were glad that they were no longer graced with surprise visits or received repetitive invitations to Rosings Park around the holidays. With Lady Catherine gone for good, Kate and Colonel Fitzwilliam began to plan their wedding.
They had decided that the wedding would not be until June, two months time. The pastor of the church that was patronized by the residents of Pemberly had just retired and their wedding would be the first of the new minister. Mr. Darcy told the party that Mr. Geoffrey Foster, as he was called, as a quiet, sensible, intelligent but slightly awkward sort of man. He was from a wealthy family that had made their fortune in trade a few generations before and as he was the oldest son, he was expected to continue the family's business but had instead chosen to give up his inheritance in favor of joining the church. He had spent the past few years traveling around the continent, studying not just his own faith, but the faiths of others. He was a young man, about twenty-seven, Mr. Darcy guessed. Mr. Foster was unmarried and had been arranged to marry a young woman from Kent in a few years.
Mr. Foster came to Pemberly in early May, to meet with the Colonel and Kate to discuss their wishes for the ceremony. Mr. Foster arrived early, apologizing profusely and honestly to them for it. As he spoke the couple, he heard women speaking nearby. He looked up and saw two young women, one blonde and the other brunette. The brunette looked at him and stopped the stairs. She smiled shyly and continued her walk downward
Mary had changed a great deal since arriving at Pemberly. The influence of Lizzy, Jane and Georgiana had led her to be more sociable and friendly. She no longer wore her thick spectacles all the time, saving them for reading and playing on the piano forte, and her dresses went from somber grays, blacks and browns to deep blues, greens and purples. She allowed the maids to do her hair in the mornings. Mary had also taken to reading in the garden and she no longer had sickly pale skin. She looked and felt better than she ever had. In fact, no one could call her plain anymore.
"Mr. Foster, may I introduce Miss Georgiana Darcy and my sister, Miss Mary Bennet. Mary, Georgiana, this is Mr. Geoffrey Foster. He will be marrying us next month."
Kate and the Colonel led the way to the sitting room where they would conduct their meeting. Georgiana left the party and went to the music room to practice but Mary followed the party. While her sister and future brother-in-law began their discussion with the clergyman, Mary picked up her old copy of Fordyce's Sermons and went to the window seat and pretended to read. In actuality, she was watching Mr. Foster. He was very tall, taller than Darcy or Bingley and he had curly blonde hair that was on the long end of what was fashionable. He had sparkling blue eyes and a smattering of freckles across his nose.
Mary did not understand what Darcy had meant awkward, but as she thought this, Mr. Foster's tea dribbled out the side of his cup and down the front of his coat. As he reached for the cloth that came with the tray, he knocked over the sugar. Kate rang the bell for the servant to come and clean up the mess and asked her to borrow a coat for Mr. Foster. Mr. Foster sheepishly looked at his feet. He removed a pair of spectacles, a thin notebook and pencil from his pocket and began to make notations on his conversation with Miss Bennet and Major General Fitzwilliam. He felt eyes watching him and saw Miss Bennet's sister watching him over her book. He turned his head in an attempt to read the title of the volume in her hands.
"Fordyce's sermons? Why, Miss Bennet, would you read such dull, passionless work?" Mr. Foster asked Mary.
"Passionless, sir? I am a student of religion, not love. Why should religion have passion?" Mary closed her treasured book and moved towards Mr. Foster. "Passion is a temptation, something I would think that you, as a clergyman, would try to avoid."
"I do not mean passion in the realm of love, but passion for work and God. Fordyce had no passion in his work or in God. Should not a clergyman have passion for his profession and his God?" He took off his spectacles and placed them on the table near him.
"What evidence have you that Fordyce had no passion for God?" Mary was getting angry. "A man may have passion for something without shouting it for all to hear."
"True, madam, but a man that loves something does. And while it is not necessary that he have passion for his work, it is that he have love for it."
Mary opened her mouth to counter but she could not. Of course a man of God should love God and have passion for his work. That was an undeniable fact. But she had never considered that. She read Fordyce because she agreed with his sensibilities and values, not because she had learned from him. It was then that she realized that Fordyce was the only theologian that she had studied in depth. How could she think herself a scholar of religion when she was only familiar with one man's work?
Mary was silent for several moments until Kate woke her from her trance by asking, "Mary? Are you well?"
"Yes. Um…forgive me, please." Mary was uncomfortable with what she had planned to ask Mr. Foster. "Sir, whom would you recommend to me in favor of Fordyce?
Mr. Foster smiled. "I cannot recollect who would be suitable for a young lady such as yourself." He paused. "Perhaps if you were to come with your sister and Major General Fitzwilliam to the parsonage tomorrow, you may peruse my library and borrow any book of your liking while we further discuss the ceremony."
Mary colored, taken aback by such a brazen invitation. She had never been so expressly invited to a gentleman's home, with or without other's accompanying her.
"Thank you, sir. I shall."