Chapter 13
His friend's predictions were prescient. Within a fortnight, the eldest two Bennet daughters were engaged to the men of their dreams. William, as he asked Elizabeth to call him, had put off naming a date for their wedding knowing full well that his friend was on the cusp of his own happiness. When Mr. Bennet announced the engagement of the eldest Bennet, Elizabeth shot an arch look at her fiance. He merely raised an eyebrow and smiled broadly at her.
Mrs. Bennet tried and tried to postpone the double wedding, citing the need to make grand preparations for what surely must be the grandest wedding Meryton had ever seen. The gentlemen, including Mr. Bennet would not agree. They agreed on a two month period to plan and execute a slightly more modest wedding than Mrs. Bennet would want. None of the affianced wanted to wait longer than necessary and Mr. Darcy needed to be back in Derbyshire before the spring planting.
The first of February was the decided date. It was too cold to ramble out of doors so one couple found themselves in the Master's bookroom, playing chess and debating Philosophy and the other couple found themselves in the parlor listening to Mrs. Bennet's neverending list of fripperies required for a wedding. Jane and Elizabeth talked their mother out of the more outlandish accoutrements. "Really mother, we do not need a pineapple on the sideboard for the wedding breakfast. People will think we are being bourgeois." Likewise, hot house flowers from London were decided against. The young ladies allowed their mother's instance on new dresses, with plenty of lace as a consolation; the lace could always be removed and repurposed for other dresses.
The day of the wedding dawned bright. Mr. Bingley was only slightly sad that his younger sister could not attend. He made her excuses, citing the difficulty of traveling in the winter, but internally he was quite glad that he did not have to risk her attendance. His aunt wrote that she behaved well, most of the time, but as he did not want to risk his sister's true colors showing through, he did not send notice of the event until the day of the ceremony. He did not mention a wedding date, but hinted that it would likely have taken place by the time they received this missive, in an attempt to prevent Carolyn from construing a way to attend. They would be married and away on their honeymoon long before his letter would be received.
Mr. Darcy had his sister travel to Meryton with his Aunt Matlock a few days before the wedding. Unsurprisingly, his fiancée and his sister took to each other as if they had known one another all their lives. Georgiana would be returning to the Matlock estate with her aunt to stay for the next month. She would join the newlywed couple at Pemberley before Easter. Mr. Darcy had written to his Aunt Catherine to announce his wedding and to tell her that he would not be attending her this Easter. He would instead be at Pemberley, with his new bride, and no visitors would be accepted until April at the earliest. This letter was also sent the day of the wedding and for very much the same reason.
The gentlemen arrived at the chapel in plenty of time. The arrival of the brides was all that was awaited. As imagined, getting six women ready for such an occasion, with only one maid, was a Herculean effort. Jane and Elizabeth helped each other with their hair; for likely the last time they realized. They assigned Mary to keep their mother out of their way and to see that lady ready to depart on time.
Their father handed the rest of the sisters and his wife into his carriage and sent it off to the chapel. He then handed his two eldest daughters into the large carriage that Mr. Darcy had sent around for their use. The short ride to the Longbourn chapel was silent. The sisters were too nervous to speak and Mr. Bennet was trying to keep his emotions under control. He was not a watering pot like his wife, but he felt so nearly the same on this day that he was to lose two of his daughters, one of whom would live hundreds of miles away.
The ceremony followed all the proscribed proforma and within an hour the new Mrs. Charles Bingley and Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy were handed their marriage lines by the rector and the entire ensemble headed for Longbourn for the wedding breakfast. The two couples shared a carriage for the short ride to Longbourn. The sisters chatted about the service and the gentlemen were silent, in dread of the next four hours and in anticipation of the hours following.
They did not know of the discussion their brides had had with their mother the previous evening. If they had, they probably would spend this short time trying to refute the silliest of that lady's pronouncements. Luckily for our brides, they also did not know about the discussion they had had with their Aunt Gardiner a few hours before their mother's diatribe. She gave the brides a much rosier picture of marital bliss and told them to rely on the gentleness and approbation of their husbands. Surely they were men of the world and would want to see their wives put at ease.
The wedding breakfast seemed to go on and on and on. Finally Fitzwilliam caught the eye of his bride and they mutually, without words, decided that they must go. He wanted to be in London before dark and she saw no reason to tarry. They made their good-byes over the next half hour and were finally on their way to Darcy House in his largest, most comfortable traveling coach. His valet had gone ahead with all their luggage and it was just the two of them in the coach, alone, for the first time in their lives, without a chaperone. It was a comfortable four hours to London and when they arrived Mr. Darcy proudly introduced his new wife to their staff. The housekeeper assigned a maid to act as Mrs. Darcy's abigail until she could choose one of her own.
An hour later when William knocked on the door to his wife's bedroom, he thought he was not the least bit nervous; until she opened the door. She stood there in some silk concoction that did very little to keep her warm, or to hide her curves. She seemed a bit nervous, as he had expected; she was a maiden after all. He did everything in his power to put her at ease and the rest of the evening was enjoyable for both.
As she stirred the next morning, he watched her. He decided that his new favorite pastime would be watching his wife awaken, hopefully every morning for the next forty or fifty years. "Fancy meeting you here," she said sleepily. They finally rang for baths and breakfast some hours later.
William did get to do his favorite pastime for the following forty five years. It was rare that they were not together. He went to London alone a few times when she was encente and could not travel. He did get to watch her awake the morning following the birth of each of their six children. He had never seen her more beautiful.
Occasionally he thought back to the day they met, at that rustic assembly. He remembered the insult he was just about to utter when he and Charles were interrupted by his sister. How could he have ever thought her only tolerable?
Fitzwilliam never got to thank Miss Bingley for her timely interruptions. She stayed with her Aunt until the elderly lady passed away and then Charles had set her up at a rented dower house in the middle of Lincolnshire. Her maid Sarah, and his footman Joseph, ended up getting married and took care of Miss Bingley until she passed away several years later.
He had never told his wife what he had been thinking before he discovered her intelligence, her wittiness and her beauty. For lack of an insult, his world had been turned from dull and trying to beautiful and wonderful. It was the beginning of a whole different world for him, one of love and happiness. He thought it would make a good parable, but he would leave the preaching to the parson.