Chapter Eleven: Christmas

Georgiana was overjoyed to see Miss Elizabeth again, and was pleasantly surprised to find that Mr. Bennet was just as kind and lively as his daughter, as Fitzwilliam had described him to be. He took to Georgiana instantly, and was rather like the father that Georgiana had never truly known. After several offhand comments dropped by various Bennets, Georgiana would discover that this instant connexion was due in part to her sense and sensibility, which unfortunately three of his daughters seemed to lack.

She found great pleasure in showing Mr. Bennet the extensive library at Pemberley, where they discussed their favourite works of literature, and laughed when Georgiana brought up a book that Mr. Bennet had actually never read!

Miss Elizabeth was as blithe and lively as always, perhaps even more so. “It is because,” she smiled as the two young ladies walked together by the lake at Pemberley, “not only am I marrying your brother, whom I love dearly, you must know, but also because I am gaining you as a sister!” In addition, she expressed great joy and hopes for the marriage of Georgiana and James.

Georgiana met the Bennet family in its entirety. She could not say but that they were generally amiable and welcoming to Fitzwilliam and herself. Jane was rather like Bingley in female, although quiet and repressed, whereas her betrothed reminded Georgiana somewhat of an overexuberant dog. Jane herself was kind and lovely, and Georgiana adored her too. Mary Bennet was somewhat severe and pedantic, with many strictures and extracts to make from her books; Catherine, or “Kitty” as every one called her, was a little spoiled and silly; and Mrs. Bennet, Georgiana found rather ludicrously cosseted, always complaining of her nerves. But in all Georgiana could not have asked for a better family-in-law, especially the two eldest and their father!

She also met Mrs. Philips who was rather a gossip; Charlotte Collins, who was charming; avoided that lady’s husband; and renewed her acquaintance with the Gardiners, who were coming with their children to live at Pemberley.

On Christmas Eve, there were three couples married at Pemberley in Derbyshire: Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Helen Bennet; Charles George Bingley and Jane Cassandra Bennet; and James Robert Fitzwilliam and Georgiana Anne Darcy.

Mrs. Darcy, Mrs. Bingley, and Mrs. Fitzwilliam took a leisurely stroll by the lake again, each very conscious of their new role and title, and how different it seemed. They talked very little, except to ask of one another, timid questions about married life, which none of them knew the answers to. Then they returned for the Christmas ball.

Jane and Bingley seemed to be in their own small world, as they walked together, hand in hand. As the Fitzwilliams promenaded alongside the Darcys, Georgiana said to her new sister, “How charming your small cousins the Gardiners are! I am happy they will be staying here with us!”

Here Fitzwilliam made Elizabeth blush by quietly remarking that soon the Gardiners might not be the only small children running about. Elizabeth blushed and replied that he might be right.

“Indeed he is,” said James, making Georgiana blush too. She and Elizabeth laughed. Georgiana knew it would be so. She knew that the “happily ever after”, often mentioned at the end of faerie stories, would certainly come true for them all.