"Your sister truly found the bones of a giant lizard?" asked Darcy. "In Sussex?"
"Indeed. Or so she says in the letter. Here. Read it yourself." Elizabeth handed her husband the letter in question while balancing their youngest child, Madeline, on her hip.
Mantell Manor
17th September, 1822
Dear Lizzy,
I hope you and yours are well. Do give my love to Darcy, Benny, Edward, Thomas, and Maddy. I must decline your invitation to visit, but I do so for the best of reasons. I have the most wonderful news! Bertie and I were out walking the other day and I wished to go down into the quarry to see if we might find any fossils of shells or insects, as we had often found such things in the quarries in Derbyshire. Well, while we were there and looking around, I noticed some very odd-looking rocks that I thought might be fossilised teeth, but they were gigantic! For teeth, at least. Once I finish my sketches, I shall send copies onto you. Anyhow, Bertie sent the teeth onto someone he knows. That gentleman, who shall remain nameless, thought they were rhinoceros teeth! I thought it absurd, for they were very clearly the teeth of a carnivore.
Anyhow, then I requested permission to dig around and see what else I might find. Bertie and I spent the next several weeks combing the area, and we found several more fossilised bones. We are uncertain, but I believe them to be the bones of a giant lizard. They look just like those the bones of an iguana, but many times larger. The teeth too are the same. Now the Mantells, who own the land and the friends whom we are visiting, have ceased all activity in the quarry for its regular purposes and are now attempting to find any other bits of the animal's skeleton. For all we know, it might all have been blasted to bits, but perhaps there might be more. Or perhaps there are other fossils.
Anyhow, a reporter is coming today to talk to us about it, so you may see that in the papers. They are making it out to be the discovery of the century, but I hardly think it so important as that. Who knows, though. Mayhap there are bones of giant people in that quarry as well.
All of this is to say that we shall remain in Sussex for some time very likely. Michael grows more every day, and I am quite certain he wishes to see his cousins as soon as it can be managed. Martha is still a little doll. Miss Dorr positively dotes on her sister's namesake. I am so glad she became available as governess just when Michael was old enough to require one. She is delightful, and both children love her so. I so enjoy having a daughter, even if all Martha yet does is eat and sleep. I know I shall miss this time when she is little, but what fun it will be when she is old enough to go to balls and parties and out on expeditions with us! Already I swear that Martha has more gowns than any other child her age.
I must go so I might dress for dinner. Michael is restless and hungry and you know as well as I that it is not good to keep young children waiting for their food.
All my love,
Lydia Baxter
"Speaking of restless children," said Darcy, "where are Edward and Thomas?"
"They went to the nursery with their nanny. I believe accompanied by the Hadden boys, Jesse Tilney, and the Bingleys."
"That poor nanny."
"Kitty and Charles are with them as well."
"It is a good thing Charles married Kitty. He is far too amiable otherwise. I think he should have been so easy that his children and servants would have ruled him and so complying that nothing ever would have been accomplished if he had married less prudently."
"I do not think that is completely fair. He changed a great bit when he had all that trouble with the factories and his workers. I think he was much improved by the experience."
"Perhaps," Elizabeth said. "But I am glad he never succeeded where he first set his sights. Imagine if Charlotte had married him! How comical that might have been! And how sad to not have any of the nieces and nephews that resulted of those marriages."
Elizabeth shifted Maddy on her hip, which prompted a maid to offer to take the child back to the nursery. She accepted.
"She needs to learn to crawl is what it is. These cold stone floors make her wish to remain on my hip. We need to get carpets in more of our rooms," said Elizabeth.
Darcy agreed but did not wish to think of that now. Alone for the first time in some days, he pulled his wife down onto his lap and began to kiss her. Just when things began to grow heated, the sound of a door creaking made them leap apart.
"Aunt Darcy?" asked Lucas. "Did I leave my spinning top in here?"
Elizabeth quickly located the toy and handed it over to Lucas. He ran out of the room to go find his aunts, as they had both received similar tops for their birthdays a few months earlier. Despite his legs being misshapen, he still could run, even if he were not so fast or so strong as the other boys his age. This was largely due to the tireless efforts of Mr. Hadden, who had been engaged as the family's personal doctor. He helped to stretch Lucas's legs, applied various tonics, and fashioned braces to straighten Lucas's bones.
Lucas had not walked until two years after his aunts, but walk he did. Elizabeth believed that it was the influence of his aunts that had motivated him. After Mr. and Mrs. Bennet had both died — Mrs. Bennet from a trifling cold that turned into pneumonia when the twins were two and Mr. Bennet from an apoplexy six months later — the aunts and their nephew had been raised together, very like siblings. There was nothing like the spirit of competition to motivate a child. Since then, the three had been the best of friends, but also steadfast rivals. Lucas had two younger siblings as well, Henry and Elaine, but the relationship between James and his aunts was much closer than that between him and his younger siblings.
Lucas had not yet learned to ride, which was a source of great disappointment to him. It turned out his legs and his hips were both affected by the birth defect, so it made sitting properly in a traditional saddle difficult. James was designing a special saddle that would allow Lucas to not have to rest so much of his weight on his hips and would assist him in keeping his seat without so much effort, but it was an ongoing process. Their current design showed promise, but it would be several weeks until it was ready.
With the moment of intimacy broken between Darcy and Elizabeth, they decided to search out their guests. They could not find the other adults at first, instead finding all of the older children together with not a maid or parent in sight. James and Henry Tilney, Lucas, Jane, Alice, Fitzwilliam Morland — Georgiana's eldest son, three of the Haddens, young Charles Bingley, Vincent Hadley, their own son Bennet, were all crowded together and looking very frightened.
"And that's why Rose Cottage is haunted. She detests that she was kept captive there so many years and that she died in seeking to escape," said James Tilney. "Particularly on stormy nights similar to that on the one on which she died, you can still hear her scream as she falls to her death and the ripping of the curtains she had attempted to use as a rope to escape."
"James Tilney!" exclaimed Darcy. "Shall I go tell your father that you have been scaring the other children with ghost stories about Lady Catherine?"
"Too late," came a familiar voice from the other side of the room.
Henry Tilney entered, his wife at his side. Behind them stood Georgiana and her husband, Samuel Morland — Catherine Tilney's second eldest brother, and James and Charlotte. They were slightly windswept from the ride they had just returned from but had removed their outer garments. It was quite obvious that all the adults were attempting to suppress looks of mirth as Mr. Tilney lectured the children about the many reasons such tales were inappropriate to tell, particularly when children so young as Fitzwilliam Morland were present.
"I'm not too little!" cried young Fitzwilliam. He was just now six, which meant that Georgiana and the governess would very likely be up half the night with a nightmare-ridden child. Mr. Morland scooped up Fitzwilliam and marched him upstairs so that he might be given more appropriate entertainment alongside the younger Darcy boys. Each parent likewise took their children in hand and servants were called to oversee those whose parents were flung about the estate, partaking in various activities.
Polly, now Mrs. Witting, had taken over as housekeeper after the Reynoldses retired. She apologised most profusely to the Darcys that the children had somehow been allowed to hide away in such a manner, away from all supervision. Although the Darcys were a little cross, they were not unfair and simply told Mrs. Witting to not allow it to occur again. It was no doubt a trial on the staff to have such a large party in residence, particularly when so much of the additional help was inexperienced and hired from among those in Lampton and Kympton. Even Ruth and Peter, the orphans whose fate had caused such disharmony for a time early in the Darcys' marriage, were working as staff for the duration of the house party.
"We must ensure that the children do not tell such tales any longer," said Elizabeth to her husband later that evening. "Particularly once the Batemans, Matlocks, and Fitzwilliams arrive tomorrow. I cannot but think that would be quite distressing for Cousin Anne to hear. Even if her mother was such a woman, she was still her mother."
"I agree. I believe it would be most distressing for the Bateman children to hear such stories, and for that matter, the Matlocks as well. Their children have to live on the estate where the cottage is, after all."
"I am certain that Andy's children have already heard those stories," said Darcy. "The entirety of Matlock village thinks the cottage haunted."
"Is the dowager Lady Matlock to come as well? I do not think you ever told me."
"She shall. Andy and Richard were concerned for her health, but she insisted that such a short journey would do her no harm."
"I believe her to be right. I think it a shame that many feel the need to treat the elderly in such a manner as to prevent them from having enjoyment lest it tax them too much. I would wish, when we are old, that even if it does tax me to partake in enjoyments. What use is it to make old bones if you are miserable?"
"I do not believe anyone would dare tell you what you can and cannot do, even if you were elderly."
Thankfully, even though the story was repeated in whispers the next day, the Batemans were not offended. Their own children quite enjoyed the idea that their grandmother might be a ghost. Richard found the story amusing, for he had not previously heard it. Mary tried to stop her own children from repeating the tale, but it was destined to become a part of family lore.
"We should gather up all the information we can about Lady Catherine," Mary heard her eldest son, Timothy whisper to Bennet. "I bet we could find newspapers and letters and all sorts of things. Then we can write everything down and sell tickets to the haunted cottage."
"You shall not!" she exclaimed. The boys ran off, followed shortly by Oliver, her next eldest son, who always wished to be a part of the older boys' play.
"Did you happen to visit the Gardiners while you were in the area?" asked Elizabeth, for the Batemans and Fitzwilliams had been in town before their journey hither.
"I did. They do very well. They regret that they cannot travel to visit, but they send their regards and presents for all the children," said Richard.
He soon produced all of the presents, which added to the already joyous atmosphere created by the gathering. The most treasured present was a cricket bat and ball, which the children made good use of immediately.
"Can you remember how we once worried about him and if he ever would walk?" Charlotte asked her husband.
"Like it was yesterday. I was terrified, even if I would not dare say it aloud, lest it come true."
"Well, we certainly worried for nothing," said Charlotte, as she watched her son play with his various relations.
"Perhaps not for nothing, as I do think Mr. Hadden's efforts greatly assisted him. But I am glad he is able to go about and play as he should."
"And as he shouldn't," said Charlotte, before telling her husband of some of the various mischief Lucas and some of the other boys had got up to that day.
"Never tell him this, but I am glad he is well enough to be misbehaved on occasion. I will speak to him though, for he should not torment his aunts and cousins so."
"Oh, do not think it was just him," said Elizabeth, who had overheard their conversation. "Ben has been soundly warned as well. He and Lucas are quite the partners in their exploits."
They all shook their heads in amusement and vexation. Even though their children had high animal spirits, the siblings were proud that their respective heirs apparent were good boys who would become great men. Longbourn and Pemberley would have fine future masters, and no one had ever to worry about being thrown out into the hedgerows.