Mr. Bennet's letter is finally arriving at Pemberley.
Chapter 23: Pemberley Post
Derbyshire, Pemberley, Sunday noon.
"Lizzie, Lizzie, there's post from Longbourn..."
Mrs. Gardiner was quite out of breath and Elizabeth couldn't help but smile at her behavior. Luckily for them Lydia was not there to witness such an unwomanly behavior or all scolding in the future would have been for naught.
"Why haven't you opened it?"
"It's for you and Mr. Darcy," said Mrs. Gardiner. "See..."
Elizabeth took the letter and looked at the address.
For Miss Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy...
"Indeed, but it is papa's handwriting... I'll open it..."
She turned it to crush the seal when she saw a sentence written on the backside.
"How strange, he wrote something on the outside..."
She went to the window and squeezed her eyes to decipher what her father --it was his handwriting also on the outside-- has written as a last recourse. She read it first silently than she voiced it for her aunt.
Your sisters are all three safe in Rosings. I'll go and get them. I'll be safe. I've an escort. Love...
They couldn't help but cheer and gambol at these good news. A heavy weight had just been lifted from their shoulders and they were aware that such an outcome was very unexpected.
Lizzie looked at her aunt.
"Why are Jane and Mary at Rosing? They should be with Kittie and mama en route for Pemberley! What could have happened?"
She finally broke the seal and opened the letter.
She read the first sentences and closed it again.
"I believe we should summon Fitzwilliam, Georgiana and uncle Gardiner. They will want to know what it says."
A quarter of an hour later they were all sitting around Lizzie in the Morning Parlor.
Dear Lizzie, dear Mr. Darcy...
Please read this letter to the rest of our family. I'm sure they are very impatient to get news of their nieces and children and sister.
Let's begin with some important national news. London has not fallen into the hands of the French. Yet! The Invader is, for the time being completing his invasion of Southern England and perhaps, but we have no news, Cornwall. Hertfortshire is, at the time I write this letter, free of any troops. Be they friendly or not...
Please convey my greetings to your uncle and aunt and reassure them that their children are aboard a carriage en route to the north with their aunt and their cousin Kittie. If everything goes well, they should arrive next Sunday or at least on the Morn of Monday. It could be that, with the events, the roads are less easy to travel, so don't be too frightened when they are not under Mr. Darcy's kind hospitality this very Sunday.
As already hinted you'll be relieved to learn that the Bennet invasion of Pemberley will count a second and a third wave. A second with your mother and Kittie and a third with myself and the rest of your sisters. I'd have liked pretending that's it's a wise move on my part to give poor Mr. Darcy a respite and the possibility to accustom himself to a wave of shrieking Bennets well decided to squash all trace of silence ten miles around, but, to my shame, it is not the case.
Once more, dear Lizzie, you'll get the proof that your old man is very able to take the wrongest decisions at the worst of moments. It's a gift, it seems, and these last weeks I used it much more than usually.
Let me give you the whole of the story.
After your departure to the North, I got restless and your words became more and more acute in my memories. Lydia was sure to do something stupid and I couldn't let it just rest. So I decided to send my two most serious daughters to go and get her sister out of Brighton. They were, I must precise duly chaperoned by Mrs. Tweed and old Raphy who accepted, one last time, to drive the coach.
Be sure to imagine the shouting contest your mother and Kittie organized the moment they knew I was sending Jane and Mary to Brighton. They made my life a living Hell but, for once, I refused to surrender. And so Jane and Mary and escort went out to get their stray sister. With God's help it is even possible that, some day, your mother and Kittie will be able to forgive me.
I must confess that it was my pleasure to give to my two most amenable daughters, once in their life a gift they would never had asked for even if they, probably, longed to see the sea as much as those of my daughters who are always so prompt and loud to let me know their desires.
I was also hoping that Jane who never really got over Mr. Bingley would find in this journey enough novelty to begin to come out of her depression. My confidence in them was such that I was sure that they would not let the thrill of the sea or the waves of some red coats waver their determination to bring Lydia back home.
So it happened that I have sent out into danger two more of my beloved daughters. I hope that they were not too quick in their journey and that they stayed more than a day in my brother's London House. If they were too serious it could be that they had already quited Hunsford when the news of the invasion got there. I pray that, for once, Jane was able to induce a little bout of shopping in her sister. I know she was longing for a new book of sermons written by one of those despicable and annoying old farts she loves to read, perhaps she took the time to visit her favorite book shops...
I hope that they are still in Hunsford and perhaps that Lydia, being, for once, clever and not silly had taken the proximity of Hunsford and Charlotte as a hint to went there in hope of a safe haven. My real fear is that she decided to go to Town where she always loves to be. With the invasion London is sure to be, at one time or another, a primary target and battle field. I pray none of my daughter will be there when the fighting begins.
But I do hope that she has remembered that all the people she knows in Town are at this time either in Derbyshire or at Longbourn and that she would find an empty house. But you know Lydia, she could have decided that she was by herself quite enough to fill such a little Town House.
I can exclude nothing and that's why, on my way to Kent I'll pass through Cheapside to look with my brother's staff if one of my daughters has not decided, while awaiting the fall of the City, to live the life of a Londoner.
That should close the chapter of family news.
Let's come around to Mr. Darcy's request --it was a request, wasn't it?-- and his wish to marry you. If you too are wishing to marry him, be reassured that you'll be given my blessing. But please do not accept only out of necessity or to secure everything this old fool of a father has these last twenty five years omitted to do. War sometimes forces decisions which could be, later, regretted. I know that you could not be happy with a man you would not look up to and who would not earn your true esteem. So, please don't be too hasty in taking a decision. Out of laziness and satisfaction about an easily solved problem I'll do nothing to split you up. So don't lie to yourself and be perfectly honest about you feelings.
Once more I have the possibility to escape my responsibilities and to let somebody else take a difficult decision for me. This time it's your turn, dear brother Gardiner, to be at the front. Please, since you are on site and since you have the support of your wife, look into this demand and make sure that my Lizzie does not marry Mr. Darcy out of duty and against her best interest.
If you should discover that those two love each other and are well matched, please, go on, make them marry! Do not lose more time than necessary. These times are difficult and in those time being at the side of a loved one is often more important to survival than a good hiding place. Do have the courage of new love and marry! Without me and your sisters if necessary. I know Jane will be disappointed not to be at your side for the wedding but since what you really wanted was to be wedded together I do hope you will both get over that light disappointment. So, do not, I write it again, do not wait for me. I'm not the best of fathers but I won't do as if nothing had happened. I'll join you as soon as I have a real idea of what has happened to all of my daughters. I won't abandon them in a country where enemy soldiers are marauding in the landscape.
I hope my absence won't be to great a disappointment, go on with your life, dear, you have my blessing to become Mrs. Darcy if your uncle and aunt agree.
As for you, Mr. Darcy, congratulations if you get her, this time, to say yes. You're getting quite a Lady there! Nowhere in the whole Empire will you find a better harmony between wit, beauty and humor. Make her happy and do breed a few boys. Girls are wonderful but after a certain number it tears at the fabric of their father's patience.
Go with my love
Edward Bennet
Fitzwilliam could not help but laugh.
"I didn't have a lot of opportunities to speak with your father but if his conversation is half as droll as his letters, I'm sure I'm going to enjoy it..."
Lizzie thanked him with a smile and showed the letter to the company.
"There's a last part to this letter," said Lizzie. "On the outside. I suppose he got other news while handing the letter to the courier and didn't want to delay him any more. Here's what is written:
'Your sisters are all three safe in Rosings. I'll go and get them. I'll be safe. I've an escort. Love...'. It solves the question of the whereabouts of Jane, Mary and Lydia but it opens new questions..."
Fitzwilliam looked at her.
"Where did he find an escort? In these difficult times finding armed men for escort duties must not have been easy."
Edward Gardiner made a face and could not help but show his worry.
"He didn't spoke of an escort in the letter itself. Could it be that something happened while he was preparing to leave?"
Fitzwilliam shrugged.
"No way to know for sure before he is here to explain it to us. But it is clear that he got news from Rosings! How else could he have known that young Lydia was there too?"
Aunt Gardiner looked at her husband.
"But Rosings is in French occupied Country, is it not?"
Edward Gardiner could only nod.
"Clearly and one must wonder how news from Rosings were able to travel to Longbourn without being intercepted or stopped..."
Lizzie looked at the others.
"Perhaps because the news were escorted?"
All looked back at her.
"What do you mean, dear?" asked Mrs. Gardiner.
"I mean, it seems that papa got the news of Lydia's whereabouts at the same moment as he got the opportunity to be escorted back to Rosings. I have this ugly feeling that one of my sisters got herself more help from the invaders that we ever wished to get. And it was the help of somebody able to provide armed men for escort duties..."
Aunt Gardiner looked at her wide eyed and open mouthed.
"You don't believe that..."
"Who else, aunt? Do you really believe it could be Mary or Jane? It must have been Lydia." She shook her head. "God only knows what happened in Brighton..."
There was an uneasy silence finally broken by aunt Gardiner.
"Hopefully we will get more information when sister Bennet arrives with the children. Perhaps she will be so kind as to give us more news..."
Lizzie had problems to stay straight.
My God, mama is coming: She could be here today... She...
She went towards Fitzwilliam, took his hand and pull him toward the door.
"What happened?"
"Nothing yet," answered Elizabeth. "But it will soon happen and I won't let it happen..."
"You're speaking riddles, Elizabeth," said Fitzwilliam. "I must confess, I do not understand."
She stopped and looked him into the eyes.
"Mama is coming and you don't want to know mama in the mood she's in just now! Having been prevented from going to Brighton and having a future son in law with half of Derbyshire and ten thousand a year all in the same week will probably have driven her over the brinks of hysterics..."
She went on and pulled him anew.
"Where are you going?"
"Cutting her hysterics in half!"
Fitzwilliam could only look at her dumbfounded. What could she mean?
Lizzie lifted her eyes to the sky. Sometimes men were really dimwitted.
"We go back to the Church and we are getting married. With a little bit of luck it will deflate the whole story enough to ensure us a few days quietness."
"Mr. Darcy?"
Reverend Wollropp was an old friend of the Darcy family. Son of a former cook, Mr. Darcy, the grandfather, had financed his studies to become a member of the clergy and had brought him back to Lambton as soon as the Parrish has needed a new priest.
Reverend Wollropp had baptized Fitzwilliam and Georgiana and he had been more than pleased when Fitzwilliam Darcy and Edward Gardiner had come at his Parsonage to speak with him about the incoming marriage.
He had been a little uneasy since the delay was so short but Fitzwilliam having the proper documents, he was more than proud to be the priest who would wed the last Master of Pemberley.
He was probably resting since he was wearing only a vest and slippers.
"What can I do for you?"
"You must marry us," said Elizabeth. "Now, immediately, without any further delay..."
Reverend Wollropp looked at them dumbstruck.
"We have already published the banns, Miss Bennet, it is, as you know, planned for next Sunday. It's only a week from now, not real..."
He stopped in mid sentence and looked at Fitzwilliam Darcy frowning with all the skill of an old family priest.
"Fitzwilliam! From all the young lads I ever saw becoming men if there was one I would have thought patient enough to be able to wait a mere week, it would have been you! How could you!"
Fitzwilliam was so taken by surprise that he could only stammer a few 'buts' and 'I didn't' unable to ease his priest's indignation.
Finally Reverend Wollropp took Elizabeth aside.
"Don't fret, dear, there's no hurry, really. Your fiancé is perhaps impatient," there he shot a dark look at Fitzwilliam, "but he is as much a gentleman as I can judge men. In those dark times, God gives us often difficult trials and it seems that your beauty and liveliness was more than young Fitzwilliam could master. He is only a man and I, for my part, can very well fathom why he could have taken some liberties in advance of your schedule..."
He tapped her on the hand and gave her the most fatherly smile she had aver seen.
"Don't worry, dear, in the eyes of God you're already married and next Sunday's ceremony will only be the presentation to men of a new couple and nothing else."
He blessed her and pulled her to the door with reassuring nods.
"Go in peace dears, Sunday is soon enough..."
When Fitzwilliam finally passed the door, the reverend couldn't help and shook his head...
The journey back to Pemberley was a difficult affair. Fitzwilliam sulking and refusing to acknowledge her, was pushing Elizabeth at the brink of the giggles.
Luckily she was able to resist all the way home...