Alias Thomas Bennet (43 page)

It did not take long for Darcy’s ministrations to appropriately provide her with a satisfaction that he had theretofore been unable to complete. As she reached her peak, he stifled her cries with a passionate kiss. Even after Elizabeth was exhausted from her own overwhelming physical experience, she was still generous enough to the love of her life to inexpertly bring him to completion with her caresses, and he was just barely aware enough to provide her with a handkerchief to aid in the service. She found the expression on his face as he took his pleasure to be enthralling. He collapsed on top of her.

At length, he pulled back to look at her, and they both smiled in smug satisfaction.

“You must understand, my love, I had to take control of the situation before you mounted me and the consummation of our marriage was within the hearing of my coachmen,” he said hoarsely between kisses.

“I was very likely to do exactly that.”

She sighed in response to a trail of kisses he dropped along her neck.

“But trust me, we will enjoy our first time much more in the privacy and comfort of our chambers,” he said while nuzzling the spot between her breasts. “I intend to make love to you in the sitting room and dressing rooms as well. In fact, I look forward to having you in every bedchamber in Darcy House and Pemberley. Does that please you, my love?”

She looked at him with incredulity. “Miss Bingley said there are over one hundred bedchambers at Pemberley!”

“Please, do not mention Miss Bingley on our wedding day. Thinking of her was how I managed myself while we were courting.”

“Fitzwilliam, why would you think of Miss Bingley while we were courting?”

“To cool my ardour, my love, before your father caught me about to compromise you,” he said with a laugh, showing his handsome countenance to its best advantage.

***

“It was a lovely wedding. You impressed everyone, even the high and mighty Lady Catherine and the superior Miss Bingley,” Thomas Bennet said to his wife as they settled at the end of the day. They were propped up in bed, and he had one arm wrapped around her protectively while she rested her head on his shoulder.

“Thomas, please do not mock our guests when their compliments were so kind.”

“I suppose I should not. But it was truly a lovely day,” he commented while he traced gentle lines up and down her arm.

“It was.”

“And the mother of the bride was as handsome as the brides.” He gave her a quick peck on the cheek.

“I appreciate your admiration, but were your daughters not extremely beautiful? It was worth all the work and all the shopping.”

“They were as beautiful as I have ever seen them, the decorations and flowers were second to none in the county, and the wedding breakfast demonstrated your usual fine taste. You do not need my praises, though. You know you are the most accomplished and gracious of hostesses.”

“With people from the first circles of society on hand for the festivities, I was unsure of myself, so I do thank you for your compliments.”

“Do you regret it? That you have suffered a life away from the first circles because of my insistence that I be unknown?” he asked.

“I do not. I would never give up what we have for that kind of life. I am reminded of something you once told me long ago: think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure. I am resolved not to regret what could have been and to rejoice in what we have now.”

“It is a good philosophy, though sometimes hard to follow,” he replied, and they shared a look of silent understanding such as takes place between a husband and wife.

“Fan, the girls’ connections may now be Shelton’s, but I am absolutely, irrevocably Thomas Bennet, your husband. I am content to be with you here in our quiet little town and proud of all you have become. You have made two beautiful babies with me, and we have shared three others as if they belonged to us both. Our country life may not be desirable to others, but our felicity will be envied by all who see it.”

“That makes me very happy.”

“Good night, my love,” he said, dropping a brief kiss on her lips before he pulled his arm away and began to turn towards his side of the bed to retire. She reached out and pulled his head back towards her for a more passionate kiss.

Any married couple knows the promise of such a kiss.

“It is that way, is it?” Thomas Bennet turned to acquiesce to his wife’s amorous advances. And with that, he expressed himself with his body as sensibly and as warmly as a man violently in love can be supposed to do.

Epilogue:
A third wedding.

June 1815
Longbourn, Hertfordshire

As she entered the dressing room, Mrs. Bennet could not help but realize that her assistance would be redundant, so she stayed aside and watched the scene with twinkling eyes.

Four sisters were bustling about as the maid helped Mary Bennet into a white organza dress overlaid with the sheerest silver batiste and an embroidered pattern of azure flowers sprinkled all over. The armbands of the sleeves were trimmed with tiny, embroidered flowers in a slightly darker shade; the sleeves themselves were draped with whisper-thin puffs of the finest lace. The square bodice and shoulder straps were similarly finished, and the high waistline was trimmed with a narrow band of delicate, flat, silver lace. The skirt culminated with a pair of garlanded flounces that featured satin rosettes in various shades of blue and silver along their tops.

The skilled hand of her lady’s maid had applied tongs and imagination to her light brown hair so that perfect curls framed her flushed face and softened her features. A fall of white lace trailed behind a diadem of white roses. She was wearing small, pearl eardrops and a short necklace of pearls. Mary’s long, white kid gloves, gold bracelets with cameo trim, and simple, white satin slippers complemented her bridal ensemble.

As usual, Kitty Bennet was the most involved in the fussing and preening of her elder sister, giving specific instructions to the maid in order for Mary to shine on this special day. Mary was a bit annoyed at all the attention but agreed that Kitty’s help was invaluable as she herself had little interest in selecting her apparel and would not have known that such a gown would look so becoming on her.

Fanny Bennet noticed that her second eldest daughter was looking flushed and almost moved to assist her, but before she could carry out the thought, Elizabeth removed herself from the activities to sit down. She was in a delicate condition, and her husband had not wanted her to travel.

“Nonsense, Fitzwilliam,” Elizabeth had said to her handsome husband at Pemberley the week before. “Mary, Jane and I were very close before we married, and there is nothing that would stop me from attending her wedding.”

The Darcys could lay claim to the other anticipated match—that of Kitty, recently engaged to the curate from Kympton. Lydia Bennet, now out in society, was to join the Darcys in London after Christmas for her first Season along with Georgiana Darcy. Rather than joining her youngest daughter for her Season and leaving Mr. Bennet at home, Fanny would stay at Longbourn with him and young Thomas.

The three toddlers were playing close by, supervised by the nurse. The eldest, Thomas Miles Bennet, was an exuberant, impulsively spirited child. He ran across the nursery to grab one of his favourite toys, a wooden ship, from the little, blond boy who was yet to take his first steps. The baby smiled and chose another toy. “Thomas, give that back to Charles!” the clever and impertinent Frances Olivia Darcy said in an authoritative manner, arms akimbo and dark curls bouncing as she spoke.

Mrs. Bennet looked to her eldest. It had been Jane’s and Bingley’s suggestion that had stimulated the ideas that had not yet come to fruition, and the Darcys had readily agreed. The decision had been made to wait until the two youngest girls and Georgiana had all been betrothed or wed to make public the heritage of the youngest two Miss Bennets, similar to the experience of Lady Jane and Lady Elizabeth.

Thus, the marriage settlements for Jane and Elizabeth had been adjusted to secretly share the unentailed Shelton fortune, other than that from Lady Shelton’s marriage settlements, with Kitty and Lydia. Thomas and Fanny agreed to the scheme because, by then, any disapprobation by the
ton
would have little effect on the families; it would allow all the Bennet girls to have similar fortunes and for Kitty and Lydia to lay claim to their titles.

Thomas and Fanny decided to remain at Longbourn, where they could weather any awe, interest and eventual teasing of their neighbours once they found out his real identity and had to call Fanny, Lady Shelton. The Bingleys were to take their place at Shelton Manor. Both Thomas and Fanny were relieved that, even though they might have to wait several years, there would come a point where they would be able to live quietly in their home county, with perhaps a bit more notoriety than before, and to be able to freely travel to Derbyshire to see their grandchildren.

When little Thomas was born, the plans had been adjusted once again. All involved agreed that, until he became of age, the Bingleys would live at Shelton Manor and manage the estate on behalf of young Thomas, Viscount Westley, the heir of the Earl of Shelton. They would also purchase a property of their own that they could pass on to little Charles.

The groom, Mr. Henry Lucas, was surprisingly calm. After a formal courtship of nearly three years, Mary’s wedding to the young law clerk was long anticipated. He and Mary were also privy to the secret plans. The wedding settlements drawn up by Mr. Philips contained a generous sum, and upon her parents’ deaths, the expected Gloucestershire properties and Longbourn would become Mary’s since she would always be known as the only child of the real Thomas Bennet.

One young lady was conspicuously absent from the wedding. A few questioned this, but a worthy excuse was made; it was too far a distance to travel for a woman in service.

Maria Lucas had left Meryton shortly after her decision to betray her amour, once she realized the villainy of George Wickham. It seemed incredible that a family in Ireland was desperate for a nanny and Maria was summoned there post-haste. She had no chance to say farewell, and it was surprising that such a young and poorly educated woman could have achieved such a position. The not-so-discreet speculation that she was in a family way and had no choice but to move a great distance away was not incorrect, but there was no way to verify it. Though it was fine entertainment for a while, the gossip about her absence from the neighbourhood had been long since abandoned.

The Bennets would not be part of such discussions, but Thomas and Fanny were satisfied that Maria had been taught a hard but appropriate lesson for her part in Wickham’s crimes. Just like Bennet, Maria had good reason to worry about Wickham’s evil tendencies towards revenge, and she was relieved to know that he had been transported and indentured in America for the rest of his life. She was safe from any repercussions related to her aid in his downfall.

Another woman had made a different choice regarding her role in the kidnapping scheme, and her brave actions did not go unrewarded. Mrs. Bertha Younge’s life improved without Wickham. A generous “contribution” for her help in capturing Wickham allowed her to purchase a boarding house of better repute than the one she had worked in before. She was forever grateful to Darcy for giving her another chance.

Wickham himself was not so fortunate. Darcy’s prediction was correct, and Wickham’s assertions that Bennet was Lord Shelton were ignored. His duplicity was well known at Bow Street, so no one gave credence to his words. In addition, the men who were incarcerated alongside Wickham were well acquainted with his reputation and took no stock in Wickham’s sad story; rather, he was assaulted for crimes against these very criminals.

His life did not extend to the day of Mary Bennet’s wedding. George Wickham continued his immoral lifestyle in America and was sent to prison where he died of mysterious circumstances rumoured to concern the past cuckolding of one of the ruffians in gaol with him.

The happiness of Thomas Bennet, his wife, and his daughters could have been distinctly different had he not taken a ship and made a pact to abandon his life as the Earl of Shelton. That decision affected his family more than he could know—they all could claim a superior quality of life than if he had been a different sort of man.

Finis

Author’s Note

Thomas Bennet (Lord Shelton) was never meant to be the hero of this story. It was supposed to be about Darcy and Elizabeth, just like most
Pride and Prejudice
fan fiction. The plot twist was intended to show how their lives would have been changed if Mr. Bennet did not have all the faults portrayed in Jane Austen’s
Pride and Prejudice
.

But sometime during the writing of this story, Lord Shelton became the hero, and I fell in love with him, as well as his strong and loving wife, Fanny. I hope you did too.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Dedication

Prologue

Chapter 1: We meet our protagonists in the Bennet family.

Chapter 2: Fresh blood at the Meryton assembly, and Darcy is an ass.