Last full chapter (there is a small epilogue to follow and that's it) - as I said this was always only going to be a short story. A couple of people have asked - yes this story will also appear on AHA, but I haven't got my writer certification there yet and didn't want to make folks here wait because of that. It's me on both sites so no stealing of stories, it's all good.


Chapter 8


~ Thursday the ninth of January, Miss Lucas and Mr Collins' wedding ~

Well, that is done, Charlotte is wed and will be the next mistress of Longbourn, and Mama is even more furious than at the end of last year. Lord, how much noise she can make, it is astonishing. I think I am rather loud too, but nowhere as much as Mama. No wonder we never hear Mary and her quiet voice when our mother is louder than a preacher at church.

Why is it that the one wedding I think would be wonderful is not even planned yet, when Charlotte and Jane have both caught men they are happy with. Mr Bingley and Jane are still as dull as ever, perfectly behaved as always but where is the passion? They are better than the Collinses of course, for Charlotte does not love her new husband at all, how could she, such an odious and long winded bore, and Mr Collins cannot have deep feelings when he proposed to Charlotte two days after Lizzy rejected him. Lizzy says Charlotte is content as she will have her own home and later her own children, but that only makes things worse. Nobody wants to tell me about making children, but we are on a farm, and I am not stupid; still, no matter what it all really is like for people, begetting babies with Mr Collins? Even a kiss would be horrifying. No, I will stop thinking right now.

Deep breath.

Happy thoughts instead, Kitty wrote about her drawing master, and all he is teaching her. Her letter was not always clear, but then I do not think what I write is always clear. Why is it some people can write without getting distracted by other thoughts? I always get many stray thoughts when I write, and many questions I must try and answer later. I must ask Lizzy if she is the same.

Mama is calling us down for tea, so I will stop now.

Mr Darcy has not come back yet, I see the worry in Lizzy's eyes. I think I will trim a new bonnet for her, it should please her. Jane has some green ribbons I can take, for the colour does not suit her. I will remember to ask this time, as Mary was not happy when I took her red ribbon without telling, even though it looked so good on Kitty's white dress. Luckily Lizzy had a purple ribbon she gave Mary instead, so Mary was not left to wait until I got my next allowance to buy a new ribbon; I guess I should still buy her one though.

LMB


~ Friday the tenth of January ~

He came back, I knew he was a good man. Lizzy was all shy when he came in, but then he suggested a walk, and before they were too far for me to hear, for Mary was with me and insisted we walked slower as her shoes are not as sturdy – I will remind Mama Mary needs new winter boots as her old ones are too small. As I was saying, I just heard him apologising so prettily for his aunt's rudeness. After that I could not hear, but they walked and talked for a very long time, so that has to be good. I do like Mr Darcy, he will be good brother.

He was smiling when they came back, he does have a nice smile, and my Lizzy was leaning on his arm – I know that is not because she was tired, Lizzy is never tired when walking. He went back to Netherfield with Mr Bingley, I really need to get used to calling him Charles as he will be our brother soon; anyway, Mr Darcy said he would stay until the wedding now, so it should give him plenty of time to propose. I will be a very good chaperone I think, giving them enough time and space to talk. And maybe he will kiss her when she accepts his proposal; that would be so romantic. I wonder how long it will take him to propose.

I wonder if Charles has kissed Jane. I think not as Jane is so proper all the time.

And Lizzy will be so much happier now, even if she is still upset for Charlotte, and Mama is still telling her she is an ungrateful, wilful child at least thrice every day.

Lord, will I need to start calling Miss Bingley by her first name? Cross Caro? Catty Caro? I shall not mention anything until she does, as I am not ready to have her as a sister. Can I just take Charles and Louisa and give Miss Bingley to another family?

LMB


~ Same day, Friday, just an hour later ~

Mary said something that made me think after Mama's last round of complaints and I rushed to my room to write it so I do not forget. She thinks Mama would have been much easier on Lizzy and her if the estate was not entailed or if Papa took better care of the estate and provided some dowries for us. I wonder if she is right; I know Papa is always mocking Mama and us, but I don't know exactly what he could do on the estate – could Longbourn bring in more money? And if it did, could Papa save some for us? Would it change Mama?

I would not want a husband who laughs at me and ignores my worries, so I can understand Mama does not like that. Mary and Lizzy look like Papa's mother, and have the same eyes as he does. Maybe Mary is right, if Papa was nicer to Mama, she may like my sisters more, even though they look like his side of the family. Poor Mama, I never thought of it that way. I will try and be nicer to her.

Lord, I remembered I now need to pay attention in church for two years. That is a lot of Sundays. I wonder if I will be invited to Pemberley for some Sundays, and the rest of the weeks too of course. Or Maybe to London.

LMB


~ Tuesday the twenty first of January, the best day of the year ~

He has proposed! My Lizzy will be Mrs Fitzwilliam Darcy, although I can totally understand why he asked us to call him William rather than Fitzwilliam, what a mouthful of a name. William says that they have a tradition in their family and the first boy born is given the name of the mother's family and his Mama was Lady Anne Fitzwilliam before she wed his Papa. That seems a little silly to me, as you could have very bad names; Bennet is not too bad, as we can call the baby Ben, but still, I hope when I marry there will not be any silly tradition in my husband's family.

It will mean I can't marry in William's family as we could not have two cousins named Ben, that would be too confusing. I will ask him if he has a friend a little younger who loves to dance, although it cannot be someone like Charles either, that would be just too odd, so wrong.

At least I understand Lizzy and William's thinking better than Jane's. They do not want to wait for months to get married, they want to be married as soon as the bans are read. Mama was horrified by this until Lizzy showed her that if they start the readings this Sunday, they could be married on the fourteenth of February, Saint Valentine's day, the most romantic day of the year. Mama may be excitable, but she is also quite romantic inside, so she was quite easily persuaded that she always wanted one of her daughters to marry on that day.

I know that when I am in love, I will not want to wait either. I do not see why anyone should wait to start your new life once they have decided what that future should be. I hope I find a man that understand this; and then we can travel the world together.

Mary and I will make some pretty silk flowers to decorate the church, Aunt Gardiner showed us how to make them last year, and they are ever so pretty. When we offered to make some, William said he will take us shopping tomorrow so we can get all the supplies we need. He also said we should get new dresses for the wedding, and new bonnets to match, as we already planned to use the fabrics from Christmas for dresses for Jane's wedding, and he would get our uncle to purchase some for Kitty too. I knew I would like having a rich brother. This is going to be so much fun. If I remember I will tell him about the hat our Aunt Phillips love when we are at the shop.

LMB


~ Wednesday the twenty second of January ~

I woke up as early as Lizzy this morning, and in spite of the cold, I went to Oakham Mount with her again. She really likes that walk, I wish it was not quite so steep at the end, while we are on the hillock part. She was so very happy all the way, laughing more than talking I think. I do love seeing her like that, it is much better than the last walk we took together.

Unsurprisingly William was already waiting for us when we reached the top; learning Lizzy's habits is not so hard, she loves being outdoors. We all sat at the top to watch the view and talk.

I could have laughed when William told us he came back faster because of his picksome aunt, as she went to see him all the way in Derbyshire after leaving Longbourn, She was in high dudgeon and gave him a bag of moonshine about Lizzy and all the family, but of course he never believed her. He was worried she had upset Lizzy, so as soon as he sent her back to her own place, he came back to Hertfordshire. He was always going to come back of course, but at first he wanted to wait for the start of February, when his cousin and sister can come too. We will meet them at the wedding now.

I'm looking forward to it, I am certain Miss Darcy and I will be friends, and I can help her when she is too shy, and she can help me with the latest fashions. She is only a few months older than me. Maybe I can teach her how to make silk flowers too. And I will show her my box forest, as that is the best place to share secrets while being warm. I do hope she will want to share secrets with me.

LMB


~ Friday the seventh of February ~

Georgiana arrived today, and she is such a dear. We have all already agreed to only use first names, as we will be sisters in just one week. She is tall like me, and so pretty, she is shy and doesn't seem able to cope with crowds, but we were just the three of us, with Lizzy, she was just adorable. I absolutely love her. Now I have one more sister, and she is such a good one too. She has never had sisters before now, poor girl, so we will need to teach her everything about being one of many, but she will love it, once she gets over the noise and bustle of course.

Tomorrow she will help us with the flowers, although we do not need many more. And then we will go try our new dresses, that is Mary and I, not Georgie, for she already has the nicest dresses ever. I do need to show her how to trim a bonnet however as hers are too plain, just like you buy them in the shops. I showed her all our bonnets, except the ones Kitty has taken to London, and she loved them. I think she will suit the same style as Jane, for when she tried my sister's pink bonnet it suited her very well.

Kitty won't come back before the eve of the wedding; she is coming with the Gardiners, but our uncle cannot leave his work for long so soon after Christmas. They will leave only two days after the wedding; it will be fine though as Kitty will come back properly at the end of March so we won't miss her too much.

I will miss Lizzy. She will be very far, and she will not come back to live at Longbourn. I am trying very hard not to be too jealous of Georgie, as she will have my sister. She has never had one, so I guess she deserves it, but still I will miss my Lizzy. I hope she will miss me too, so that she comes to visit more often.

I know I should be happy as I made the match myself, but I cannot hep wondering whether I should have tried to keep her closer to us. From the way Georgie talks about Pemberley, I don't think my new brother will want to sell it and move closer to us in Hertfordshire.

LMB, a little sad.


~ Thursday the thirteenth of February, our last evening ~

All the preparations are done, I think. The church looks very pretty with all our silk flowers in place, it is all perfect. Mr Thompson has asked if he can keep a few silk flowers for Sunday's mass as it makes his church ever so cheerful, so of course we said yes. Kitty, Georgie and I will take some of the other flowers to hide them in some of the boxes in the attics, so that they are more interesting, and also that way my forest does indeed have flowers like a garden.

With the need for trunks for all of Lizzy's things, we opened most of the boxes upstairs, but only two contained anything even close to being treasure. One box contained books, which sounds boring but is not; would you believe it, all of the books are novels, and some look really interesting. We moved them to the bookshelf that used to be Lizzy's in her room, as all her books were already packed away, and when we looked properly, they are all between twenty and forty years old, give or take, which means they must have belonged to Grandma Bennet! I would never have thought our own demure, gentle and very proper Grand Mama had so many gothic novels. We are going to have such a good time reading them.

One of the large trunks in the attics contained some dresses, and when we showed them to Mama and Papa, they told us that the light yellow one had been Mama's wedding dress. It is really lovely, if no longer fashionable, and Kitty has asked for permission to keep it in our wardrobe so she can draw it when she comes back home in spring. Another dress is even older, it is cream and mostly made of a very beautiful silk; that was Grandma's wedding dress. It is beaded and embroidered, and the work is so exquisite, it is the most beautiful garment I have ever seen. I wish we could reuse it for one of us, but Grandma was shorter than even Lizzy or Mary, and there is not enough fabric to modernise it. Jane suggested we keep it, and ask a proper seamstress to make two or three christening gowns with it, so that Grand Mama's great grand-children can wear a little piece or her beloved dress. Papa agreed, and if we are very careful with the little gowns, then all of our children could use them. I love that idea. I think i will definitely have children now, for I want to use the gowns too.

LMB


~ Friday the fourteenth of February, after Lizzy's wedding breakfast ~

Mrs Elizabeth Darcy is simply beautiful, with her adoring handsome husband. The ceremony was perfect in our little church. Mr Thompson was so happy that he never stopped beaming at the couple in front of him; he has always like Lizzy and Mary best, as they have helped him so much with the poor. Mama and Aunt Phillips cried a little, but it was happy crying, not sad; Aunt Phillips did look good with her new hat.

There were many people attending, for Lizzy is well loved around here, and Mr Darcy, sorry, William's family was here too. An Earl and a Countess, here in Meryton, with their Viscount of a son and his fiancee whom I liked well enough even if she is a little quiet, and of course the cousin who came with Georgie, a decorated colonel. It is a shame I no longer like soldiers, as he looked very smart in his full dress uniform, not lion-like at all.

Anyway, my brother and sister, for I finally have a brother, left for London only an hour ago, after Lizzy told me something wonderful in confidence.

They will come back here for Jane's wedding, obviously as William will be standing up with Charles and Lizzy with Jane, but after that they will go to Pemberley, and on the way they will pick Georgie up for she is now going to her uncle's estate somewhere far from here, I forgot where.

But that is not what Lizzy wanted to say just to me, no… I am to go to Pemberley with them, and spend three whole months with Lizzy and Georgie, I am so very happy.

Lizzy asked Papa and Mama if she could have me, and they agreed when she told them it was not fair that both Kitty and Mary will have gone to London, for Mary is going after Kitty comes back at the wedding, and I do not get any treat. Mama could not say no to that, so I am going to Derbyshire.

I am just so very happy, I do not believe I will sleep tonight, even with Kitty back in our room until the Gardiners take her back to town. I will still have my sister, it no longer matters her estate is so very far.

I am so excited, I am off for a walk upstairs. I will be travelling, and I will have three months with Lizzy.

LMB