Page 94 of Collins Takes Charge

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William Bennet looked out over his packed church as the two grooms paced next to him willing their brides to arrive. His friend, Fitzwilliam, was standing up for both men. He remembered the day, a little more than a month ago he had stood in the same place next to Bishop Lankershim as he willed Mary to arrive.

Each day they were together proved to William that it had been God above who had ordained that he and Mary should find one another. Every day that passed he thought he could not love her more, but he did.

The curate he had employed, Oliver Unger, closed one of the vestibule doors and nodded to his employer. Seeing that, William gave the signal for the congregation to stand. He smiled down to Mary seated between her mother and Aunt Phillips. The younger girls were all busy. Jane had Kitty and Lilly Gardiner—recently thirteen—and Elizabeth had Lydia and Anna as their bridesmaids. That way none of the younger girls felt left out.

Darcy almost forgot to breathe when he saw his Elizabeth enter on Bennet’s arm. He was aware Jane was on her father’s other arm but he only saw his beloved. Her ivory-coloured satin wedding gown suited her so well and offset her raven-coloured tresses beautifully. She was wearing the emerald rivière[9] and matching earrings he had gifted her. She was magnificent and her incredibly fine eyes were shining.

Hilldale only saw his Jane. Her satin gown was a powder blue and made her eyes glow. She was wearing the sapphire rivière and earrings he had presented her as a betrothal gift. There was a matching tiara as well but she would not wear it before six in the evening as dictated by protocol.

Bennet stopped at the head of the aisle and lifted their veils and kissed the forehead of each of his two daughters in turn. After he replaced the veils, he handed Jane to Hilldale and Lizzy to Darcy. He would not have been able to part with his precious girls to men less worthy. With a lump in his throat, he joined Fanny in the Bennet pew. Gardiner leaned forward and rested his hand on Bennet’s shoulder for support, understanding it was not easy to give three of his daughters away in such a short time.

William Bennet gave the signal for the congregants to be seated. He looked at his sisters by marriage and their grooms and opened his Book of Common Prayer and began the liturgy of the wedding ceremony.

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Fanny and Bennet hung back when all the other friends and family returned into the house after the newly married Darcys and Fitzwilliams had departed.

“God has been very good to us. Three daughters so well married, I can scarce believe it,” Fanny enthused.

“Yes, He has been good to us. That, and William Bennet taking charge was one of His best blessings,” Bennet stated.

Epilogue

Longbourn, summer of 1825

William and Mary Bennet and their four children, a son and three daughters, stood in the drive before the renovated and enlarged manor house to welcome the first of their relatives to arrive at their estate.

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They had become the master and mistress of Longbourn more than nine years past when Bennet and Fanny handed the estate to them and retired to the repaired and enlarged dower house with the one daughter who remained unmarried. Lydia had been so put off by men in general and officers in particular that she had abandoned her desire to marry first among her sisters. Rather, she had vowed never to marry. Instead of attempting to convince her otherwise, her parents had been happy they would still have one daughter at home with them.

Since taking over the estate, William’s role as the master had become official, although he had worked closely with Bennet and Jennings over the years and had been involved in all decisions affecting the estate’s future.

He had used money from his legacy—which had only grown in the more than thirteen years since he and Mary married—to buy any available land adjacent to Longbourn. In the years since he became master, the estate had added half as much land as it had had before as well as five additional tenant farms. From the time Bennet had changed his ways, not a single tenant had left Longbourn. In fact, there was a list of those who would snap up a farm if one became available.

At the same time as these changes were made, William and Mary had decided to renovate the house. It was practically torn down and completely rebuilt with plumbing to bring hot and cold water to where it was needed. In addition, there were flushing chamber pots installed. When all was said and done, the new structure was about double the size of what the previous one had been. There were more than enough suites and chambers for family and guests. Aside from much larger public rooms, a large and separate library and study, a ballroom was added. The construction had taken a little more than a year. During that time, Mary, William, and their children resided in the manor house at the former Purvis Lodge. William had purchased the neighbouring estate when it had become available for sale and annexed the land to Longbourn. Even though he could have pushed for a much lower price seeing that Mr Purvis was desperate to sell thanks to the huge debts of honour he had to discharge, William had paid the amount at which the estate had been valued.

With changes which had been made since Jennings had come to Longbourn, the income was above seven thousand five hundred pounds per annum before William Bennet had added the land. Now it was above eleven thousand per annum. The amount they were able to save each year only added to the very large legacy William had. He and Mary had agreed that they would settle five and twenty thousand pounds on each of their daughters. Their son, Thomas Clem Collins Bennet, would have Longbourn and a legacy of fifteen thousand pounds.

When Tommy was born almost a year to the day after his parents married, both grandfathers had been honoured that he was named for them. William’s brother Clem Bennet, as would be expected, claimed that his nephew was named in his honour.

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The first coaches to arrive were those conveying the Darcys, the Derbyshire Fitzwilliams, and Smythes. Elizabeth and Darcy had six children, four sons and two daughters. Jane and Andrew Fitzwilliam had three offspring, two sons and a daughter, While Anna and Harry Smythe boasted two sons so far.

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Elizabeth had become enceinte within a month of the double wedding. Evidently, she and Darcy hardly ever left the master suite at Seaview House for the six weeks they had been there. On the return from their wedding trip, Elizabeth had made Jane blush furiously when she had shared that she would need to visit the place again to see the sights.

The first child had been a daughter. The next four were sons. Bennet, called Ben, was the firstborn son; he was followed by a set of identical twin boys and then, the youngest Darcy son. Almost three years after him, Elizabeth had delivered her second daughter, the baby of the family.

Darcy could not contain his joy that even though his second daughter had golden-blonde tresses like her Aunt Anna, she had her mother’s eyes, would have her mother’s stature, and was showing signs of the same character as her Mamma. The oldest Darcy looked and acted very much like her mother. Grandmama Fanny always took delight in pointing out that Bethanne looked just like her mother had at the same age. Grandpapa Thomas agreed that his eldest granddaughter was a faithful facsimile of her mother.

The love between Elizabeth and William Darcy had only grown over the years. Yes, there were occasional disagreements between two such strong-willed people, but they both loved the making up. There was speculation that the two would adopt positions contrary to their own opinions to spur an argument, so that they could make up afterward.

Jane and Andrew’s first son was born two years after the wedding, almost three years later their daughter arrived; and another two years later the second son was born.