A/N: For those of you who enjoy Christmas at any time of the year, there will be two more chapters coming. They will be posted on Saturday, the Easter weekend. Please read and review. Also I want to thank Colleen S. for being so complimentary about this story. I love all reviews, but when a reader expresses such high praise, I must say that it makes this first-time-fiction-writer's heart sing!
Chapter 45: Christmas Eve with the Bennets
The trio went into the drawing room. It was indeed filled to the brim with the Bennets' extended family members and the younger set was singing carols with Mary at the instrument. Mr. Bennet made the introductions to Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner and Elizabeth introduced her young cousins. When Emily Gardiner was introduced, Mr. Darcy made an exaggerated bow over her hand and said, "Miss Gardiner, it is my great honour to meet you."
Mr. Bennet laughed with glee at that and everyone looked at him, puzzled. Mr. Bennet said to the group, "If Emily had been born ten years earlier, Lizzy might have had a rival!"
Before Lizzy could retort, Mr. Darcy said, "Mr. Bennet, you underestimated Miss Elizabeth. As far as I am concerned, she has no rival." Still, everyone's puzzled look remained.
Mr. Gardiner chimed in, "Do not tell me that Lord Fitzwilliam would have included Emily into the house party which was the talk of the town!"
Just then Mrs. Bennet entered followed by a footman carrying a tray.
"Mr. Darcy, You have not had a chance to sit down yet! I think you may want to share in our evening activities instead of sitting in the dining room all by yourself. You know Lizzy would not be able to join you there without a chaperone. Please come this way and sit by the fire." She then turned to her family and said, "Let Mr. Darcy have his dinner before you all gang up on teasing him. He has stopped here before going to his own home and so he must be famished and tired." Turning to Elizabeth, she continued, "Lizzy, come and keep Mr. Darcy company while he has dinner. Oh, I have asked Hill to take care of your horses and carriage. Your men are in the kitchen, warm and having a meal."
Mr. Darcy thanked Mrs. Bennet for her thoughtfulness and hospitality and sat down at a small table with Elizabeth. Everybody wished Darcy a good appetite. They then started asking questions about the house party when Mrs. Gardiner graciously suggested that they sang the Bennet family's traditional Christmas hymns that they had learned from Mr. Bennet's mother and grandmother, and also the hymns from the Wesley brothers. Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy spoke softly together about his journey, the house party, and the Bennet Christmas traditions. Burning in the fireplace was the Yule log the family brought from their farms in Middlesex. A Christmas tree, a tradition started by their German great-grandmother was sitting at one corner of the room weighed down by wax dolls, silk and paper ribbons and strings of almonds and berries. Mr. Darcy decided there and then that he would start such a tradition in his own homes from now on. He had not felt so much warmth and joy at Christmas for a very long time, or ever. By comparison, his childhood Christmas was somewhat staid or too dignified among the grownups. He and his cousins and sometimes Wickham were rowdy and rough while running around the rooms of the house. Anne de Bourgh as a girl was never allowed to join them. Besides all concordance would disappear after at most one day when Sir Lewis and Lady Catherine would without fail begin their rather public bickering.
After finishing his dinner with some plum pudding and mulled wine which Elizabeth explained was another German tradition, Mr. Darcy felt entirely happy and content. His heart was full of his love, and he was surrounded by soon-to-be members of his family who accepted him into their midst without any expectations or pretensions. He reluctantly admitted to himself that he was in truth a little sleepy, but he did not want to leave. The children had already gone back to their home next door. Elizabeth saw how tired Mr. Darcy was and suggested that he stayed next door with her Uncle and Aunt Phillips for the night. Since his carriage was still in the mews, it was easily arranged to have his valise brought in before his people made their way back to Darcy House. The snow had stopped by then. He joined the rest of the Bennets' extended family in carols and hymns, many of which he did not know. Elizabeth volunteered to play the pianoforte accompaniment so that Mr. Darcy could look at the music and learn to sing the songs. He was usually quite self-conscious about singing in front of people even though he sang very well in a rich baritone. Sitting by his betrothed who looked over at him from time to time while singing and playing, he felt very much at ease and sang quite without constraint.
During a delightful supper, Mr. Darcy finally had a chance to talk to the Gardiners. Mrs. Gardiner hailed from Lambton, a small hamlet just five miles from Pemberley, and had met Mr. Darcy's parents. Much was spoken of their meetings and mutual acquaintances in the environs of Lambton. Mr. Darcy knew of the Southerns because of Mr. Southern's prominent position in James Watt's steam engines firm. He did not realize that Mrs. Gardiner, nee Southern, helped her father for almost ten years with his work, and was now helping her husband manage his many enterprising endeavours. Mrs. Gardiner humbly insisted on her role as just providing some contacts from her father's circles to Mr. Gardiner when the needs arose, which, Mr. Gardiner injected, were quite frequent and critical at the beginning. Her husband went on to say that without his wife's and his father-in-law's many connections, he would not have been able to implement the interchangeable parts methodology so readily. In fact, he said that one letter from her to the right connection had on numerous occasions saved him months or even years of trying to develop the methodology and training the engineers himself. It struck Mr. Darcy then that connections in marriages were still vitally important, but the nature of the connections had changed with the times. He was very glad that he was marrying into connections that were transforming England and the world before his eyes.
Soon after supper, the party disbanded as all except the Gardiners kept country hours. Mr. Darcy went next doors to the Phillips townhouse with his valet. He stayed up for about half an hour with Mr. Phillips and Jonathan, known as Jonny within the family, the Phillips' only son who just started university at Oxford. Mr. Darcy found out that Mr. Phillips had been involved with GB Enterprise from almost the beginning, and the critical role he played in ensuring good communications between Mr. Gardiner and connections in England through the years.
That evening, once he was in the room assigned to him on the third floor, he looked out of the window and saw the glistening snow on the streets, mostly undisturbed by the bustling foot and carriage traffic that would inevitably start early on Christmas morning and felt the peace and joy that he seldom experienced as his love's voice singing "Come, thou long expected Jesus" flowed through his mind. This was a hymn written by Charles Wesley which he had never heard before.
In the house next door, Elizabeth and Jane were sharing confidence before bedtime as they often did. They had always shared a room while in town visiting their uncle and aunt and so they decided to continue with the tradition, especially since neither of them would remain a Bennet for long. They had marveled at the many modern facilities in the house such as their own water-closet which both considered the most welcomed feature in their beautiful town home.
"It would be difficult to go back to using chamber pots behind a screen after this," sighed Elizabeth.
"You must insist on having water-closets installed in your new homes when you become Mrs. Darcy," remarked Jane.
"Mrs. Darcy, how well it sounds!" said Elizabeth imitating her mother.
"It does sound quite well. Do you not think? Oh, Lizzy, I will surely miss you! I did not quite feel that your getting married and leaving home was imminent until Mr. Darcy appeared at our door so suddenly. He must truly love you to come through such a storm to spend Christmas Eve with you," said Jane wistfully.
"Oh, Jane. I confessed that I was very pleased to see Fitzwilliam sooner than I had thought. I never realized that a part of me has already cleaved to him until tonight. I had missed him during his absence, but my heart almost leapt out when I saw him all covered in snow in the hall this evening. If he installs water-closets in all of his homes, I shall be completely happy to be his wife!"
"Lizzy, I know you better than being fooled by your jesting. I have seen you staring out the window with a far-away look in your eyes often enough in the past few weeks. Tonight, you barely tore yourself away from Mr. Darcy for any time at all whereas before he came, you were flitting around playing with all the cousins, even Jonny! And Mr. Darcy, he never looked at anybody else but you the whole evening. I hope that when Mr. Bingley comes back, I will feel the joy and love you both show so clearly to the world!"
"Jane, it is indeed quite puzzling – this thing called love. Not long ago, when I first detected in myself a preference for Fitzwilliam, I had decided that there was nothing that could compare to the love I felt for my family: you, my father and mother, and my other sisters. Now though, it seems that my heart has expanded a hundred times, and Fitzwilliam has a large part of it. I wonder what will happen when we have children. Do you realize that if we have a son, his name will be Bennet Fitzwilliam George Darcy? I already feel a connection to this little person who does not, and may never exist if I am like mamma. Well, no matter, I am certain that the feeling I have now is quite universal to people who are to be married for love. You and Mr. Bingley will not be excluded from this intense feeling," said Elizabeth a little shyly when she thought about bearing the Darcy children.
Jane did not answer as she had already fallen asleep. Elizabeth smiled to herself, thinking that Jane's tranquil personality allowed her to fall asleep quickly practically every night regardless of the topic of conversation at bedtime. She pulled the quilts up to her chin, said a prayer on the Eve of the Saviour's birth, and fell asleep thinking about her love next door.
Chapter notes:
Charles Wesley was a prolific hymn writer. He wrote over a thousand hymns. His best-known Christmas hymn today is probably "Hark! The herald angels sing". The song mentioned here 'Come, thou long-expected Jesus" became popular in the 1850s. Among Methodists, his hymns were very popular from the start during Lizzy's great-grandfather's time.