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“Well then, welcome to the family, sons.” Bennet extended his hand. “There is no need to call me ‘father’ or some-such, Bennet will be perfectly adequate.”

Bennet led his future sons-in-law into the drawing room, summoned his two eldest daughters, and announced their engagements. He then stood aside as the cacophony of well wishes were showered on the newly engaged couples.

The formally shy Anna was as voluble as any other in the room when expressing her congratulations to her brother and cousin, especially with the realisation that with the official announcement she would be gaining five sisters. She also understood that once William and Andy married their Bennet sisters, she would have Anne as a sister as well as Andy and Richard for brothers. Their family of two was about to expand greatly.

A little later and once the furore over the betrothals had calmed and many of the guests had departed, the couples went to look at a calendar in Bennet’s study.

Rather than compete for who would marry first, a double wedding was decided upon and it would be held on Friday the fourteenth day of February, on St Valentine’s day[8]. With the large crowd expected, Bingley offered Netherfield Park as the location for the wedding breakfast because Longbourn had no ballroom.

Bingley would give up the lease when the one year lease ended. Mr Gardiner, who he had learnt was his landlord, had told him he was not interested in offering an extension of the lease as he, his wife, and children would occupy the estate.

~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~

As time is wont to do, it marched on.

Anne and Fitzwilliam departed the area of Meryton on the Monday after Mary and William Bennets’ wedding. They were joined by the Fitzwilliam parents. Lady Elaine had been corresponding with her niece’s housekeeper so that the arrangements for the wedding at Rosings Park would be well advanced before she arrived to take charge.

Also on Monday, the Collins parents, the Osbornes, and Clem and Bethany Bennet departed to return to their estates near Faversham. As it was already uncomfortable for Bethany to travel, none of them would be able to attend the double wedding in mid-February.

By the time they left the area, the relationship between the branches of the Bennet family was so good that, unless one knew there had been a rift of several generations, they would never have suspected it.

In the blink of an eye, the rest of the family and invited friends began to arrive in Kent for the wedding. The Bennets, Darcys, and Hilldale reached Rosings Park on the Tuesday before the wedding. Darcy was to stand up for his cousin as they had always been as close, if not closer, than Hilldale and Fitzwilliam.

As soon as they washed and changed, William and Mary made the short walk to the parsonage next to the Hunsford church. The two parsons discussed the upcoming wedding while Mary listened and watched her husband lovingly.

Keating had no qualms with his patroness wanting Bennet and not himself to conduct the marriage service. He shared that he had just proposed to the woman he loved, Miss Kathy Ainsworth. Had he not gained the living, he would not have been able to propose for some years. He was doubly grateful to his friend.

Lady Elaine and Matlock were very pleased the morning their niece resigned the name de Bourgh and became their daughter-in-law.

Never once did the new Anne Fitzwilliam miss her mother’s presence. Not the night before the wedding when Mamma—the appellation for Aunt Elaine—gave her the talk. Neither when she dressed for her wedding, and especially not when she walked up the aisle towards Richard on Father’s arm. Papa would always be the late Sir Lewis de Bourgh.

After the rather lavish wedding breakfast, Anne and Richard Fitzwilliam departed for the area of Brighton where they would honeymoon at Seaview House, Darcy’s house on a bluff near the city.

On Saturday, Mary and William Bennet, escorting Kitty, Lydia, and Mrs Taylor and four of Biggs’s men as outriders, began the journey back to their parsonage in the Longbourn Village. The youngest two Bennets would be hosted with their sister and brother-in-law until their parents and two older sisters returned from London.

As much as Bennet always decried spending time in London, he did his duty and escorted his wife and two eldest daughters to London. Biggs and Johns remained with them.

Since he had a competent steward, Bennet could leave the estate without all his good work being undone now that all his tenant farms were filled again. Bennet had employed Mr Kenneth Jennings after interviewing him and the man from Pemberley. His new son-in-law had agreed, and it was not because Jennings came from the area he grew up in. Both men had strengths, both had been good men, but in the end, Jennings was a better fit. Kildare did not repine not getting the post as Darcy had offered him the position at his largest satellite estate, Rivington in Surrey, when the incumbent decided to take a position at a much larger estate.

In London there was much shopping, after first perusing the bolts of fabric at Gardiner and Associates’ warehouse in Cheapside. Both Jane and Elizabeth accepted that they would acquire far more than Mary had, based on the stations their soon-to-be husbands inhabited.

While they were in Town, Jane toured Hilldale House in Portman Square with Mamma and Mother to advise her. The staff and servants were very pleased to meet their future mistress and impressed that she chose to change hardly anything in the furniture and décor of the house. Similarly, Elizabeth was later shown Darcy House by Darcy and Anna with her mother escorting her. Like Jane, Elizabeth was very pleased with those employed at the house and other than in the mistress’s suite, she asked for no changes.

On Monday, the day before leaving London, during a family dinner at Matlock House, Gardiner shared that his tenant at Netherfield Park needed to travel to Scarborough, while the Hursts were to travel to Winsdale, also in Yorkshire. Bingley had asked if he could give up the lease early. Of course, Gardiner had agreed. He related to the family that nothing would change with regard to the wedding breakfast, only that he and his family would make the move to their estate sooner than they had expected.

~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~

On the final Tuesday in January, the group who had been in London arrived back at Longbourn and Netherfield Park. Lady Elaine would be the hostess at the latter until the Gardiners arrived on the Monday before the wedding.

With Mrs Crawford chaperoning, there was almost no opportunity for the two engaged couples to steal kisses, although occasionally they did manage—just occasionally.

Rather than run wild organising a spectacle like she would have in the past, Fanny made sure to take her daughters’ desires into account while planning the wedding.

Both brides had increased nerves from the day the Gardiners arrived as it meant there were only a few days until the wedding. The two engaged couples had agreed they did not need a pre-wedding ball. Fanny and Lady Elaine had tried to change their minds but gave up on the idea when they saw that none of the four would agree to have one.

Like it had been for Mary, the night before the wedding, Fanny gave her two eldest daughters the talk. Thankfully Aunt Maddie followed her and made the brides’ apprehension flow away.

Fitzwilliam gave his cousin, William Darcy, some advice because he was aware that William had never experienced lying with a woman. Thanks to the books the latter had read on the subject, he felt well prepared before Richard’s mortifying speech. That night neither groom got foxed; they both wanted to be wide awake and unimpaired when the women they loved walked towards them in St Hugh’s Church on the morrow.