Chapter 2

Four weeks later

Early July 1853

Shannon View

Sanditon

Dearest Lizzy,

With me staying at Sanditon with Kitty, and you now back again at Pemberley, and with the house party and wedding all about us this last month, it has been impossible to speak privately, but words cannot express how grateful I was to have you in Sanditon these last four weeks. I felt thoroughly protected as you and Will stayed quite close to me in company. I do not know what you told my brother about me and Mr Parker, but whatever it was, I do not mind. I am grateful to have such a protective, yet considerate and discreet brother. I felt thoroughly defended.

Did you not see that Mr Parker seemed enormously vexed each time he saw me? I realise his memory of learning his betrothed had died must be painful, but I find his continued aversion to me perplexing and intimidating. Kitty was present at the same moment, as well as Mr Tom Parker, and two of the family's longtime servants, and he does not speak to any of them with such venom! First, Mr and Mrs Parker said he would prefer to avoid company, then, it seemed he perversely sought it out in an effort to be offended. Needless to say, I find myself infinitely less enchanted by the man's behaviour than when we danced together, though I cannot seem to push him from my mind.

I was equally relieved and torn when Mr Parker went back to London the week before the wedding. Lizzy, I know I said never mind, but I am not free of him. I think of him constantly, my mind fretting over whether he is suffering. I feel like the world's greatest fool, but I cannot stop feeling as if my heart is walking about outside my body. I barely even know the man. Lizzy! Remind me, would you, that I barely even know the man! And what I do know is exceedingly unpleasant! The last words he said to me were "I hear that next year your sister will allow your dowry to be released. I wish you good luck in trapping some fool into a life of misery next season."

Why does he find me so objectionable? I should like to think that I have shown no remarkable interest in marriage or courting since the incident with Wickham, it is not as if I am as desperate to be wed as I was at fifteen. Why does he label me, a woman with my own generous fortune, as a mercenary and a parasite! An ugly one at that! I am both relieved and disappointed that we do not mix in the same circles in town. Pray that I learn to forget him!

I so look forward to returning to Pemberley in a fortnight when Charlotte returns. So much has happened in the last months. I have loved spending this time with Kitty and Mama, but I have come to regard Pemberley as home, and I am never happier than when I am quietly there, teaching French verbs to Diane, and walking and riding the countryside. I do look forward to some months of quiet retirement at Pemberley before we must venture to London for the season. I think I should like to bury myself in Derbyshire forever. I feel my heart healing over just thinking of Pemberley. I must take extra care to begin looking for a husband who has a house very near there, or I shall be despondent indeed when I marry.

Lydia

Elizabeth sighed as she read the letter from her youngest sister. She had known the moment she received the missive that Lydia, whom she had just seen the week before, and would be residing with again in a fortnight, needed to pour her heart out, and had endeavoured to read the letter in private. She was still shocked that twenty-year-old Lydia, who had been so practical and even often cynical since the incident with Wickham, had fallen into such an ill-judged infatuation. The merriment and entertainments had been so numerous at Sanditon that it had been impossible to find a private moment to speak during Elizabeth's four-week visit, which centred around her stepmother's wedding to Mr Bertelli. Not only had Mr Tom Parker impressively pulled out all the stops for the newcomers who had come for the wedding and the summer, but there had been so many guests at Shannon View, that one could not walk, ride, read, or even chat in their own dressing room without tripping on other guests, family, friends, and servants.

Even Sanditon House was filled with guests, much to the resentment of the lady who lived there. Lady Denham soon comprehended from rumours of Elizabeth's reputation, that Lady Darcy and her relatives were never mean or stingy and were universally generous and kind to all their relatives and friends of all stations. It became clear quickly that Elizabeth would happily use her influence to bring notice to Sanditon, and would be far more effective at it.

Lady Denham did not like to be outdone in anything, and in a fit of pique, and to her niece and nephew's horror, had invited a number of her Brereton relatives to stay, and a few of her friends from town. She had yet to overcome her tendency to complain about her guests and the expense they incurred in company. Two of her old friends from town had grandchildren or nieces and nephews who needed to marry. The took houses for the summer in hopes of new society for their charges. Several friends and acquaintances of the Darcys, Matlocks, and Maverleys had taken houses on the terrace. Thus, no matter where one went in Sanditon, one was tripping over other residents or visitors.

Elizabeth had not told Will very much about Mr Parker. Only that he had spoken cruelly to Lydia, and that her sister was apprehensive of his company. That was all that was required for Will to watch the man like a falcon, and insert himself between the younger man and his sister whenever necessary.

The visit to Sanditon had been productive and enjoyable. The gentlemen's clubs were not yet ready to open for some months, but the visitors to the town saw many delights in preparation that would be brand new to them the following year. The gentlemen took refuge in the pubs for the time being. They speculated on business and played cards. The ladies visited the newly planted botanical and pollinator gardens, and looked forward to the splendour that would bloom the following year. The ladies also looked forward to the tea houses that would be opened at the locations in question. The fishermen and labourers' cottages were finished, and ground had broken on the hotel, which they estimated would take about a year to complete, if Elizabeth paid the workers and suppliers on time, and no catastrophes occurred. If they had not garnered enough interest in the town to sustain the hotel by then, it would be hopeless. Elizabeth had visited each family in the new village, and had gifted each household with two quilts from the Merriweather sisters.

Elizabeth learned that five miles inland from the town, there was a small property of about twenty acres that had previously been home to a genteel arborist which had become available for sale. There was a lovely yet modest manor house on the property, and an unneeded and abandoned dower house in need of repair and refurbishment. The gentleman scholar who inherited the estate and a generous fortune had no interest in a family or in agricultural farming. Instead, he had cultivated many orchards, and more than one hundred and fifty species of trees upon his lands. In his younger years, he often had other arborists to visit and study the dozens and dozens of native and exotic trees and shrubs, but as he aged, he had abandoned hosting his scholarly acquaintances.

Elizabeth had immediately purchased the property upon the man's death, and hired an arborist and four gardeners who would see to the maintenance of the trees and devise a guidebook for all the trees on the property. The guidebook could be purchased the following year at the tearoom that would be opened in the newly refurbished dower house. Visitors would use the guidebook to navigate the property and locate the specimens. Workers and a landscape architect would be hired to build follies and the like all about the property, and Elizabeth arranged for many statues and fountains as well.

Elizabeth instructed Mr Tom Parker to announce the coming attraction of the Crimscote Memorial Arboretum, which was named after the gentleman who had created it. The excitement expressed by Mr Tom Parker about the distinction of Sanditon boasting a museum of living trees was extreme, the panegyrics that were produced were passionate, and filled with grandeur. Everyone feared he might suffer an apoplexy if he did not take care.

Mr Sutton, a bachelor in his early forties, who had been Mr Crimscote's protégé in his youth, and had visited the place many times, was very happy to take over the house and oversee the arboretum and the care of the trees. Having no heirs, and only one relative who had no need of the house, and no interest in the trees or Mr Crimscote's possessions, his entire estate and all his possessions were sold together.

Elizabeth instructed Mr Sutton to create a library and small museum of Mr Crimscote's papers, books, and possessions for view at the teahouse. Lady Denham took exception to the name of the new attraction, not having liked the arborist during their long acquaintance living in the same area, but then Lady Denham did not own the property. Elizabeth did, and had already set up the place with an endowment.

*****

Work was also progressing on a combined theatre and opera hose. There was a regatta and there were all manner of concerts and bonfires on the beach at night. Elizabeth had put out the word in London that travelling performers were wanted, and so all summer there would be an ever-changing array of novelties for visitors to enjoy. Shortly after Kitty inherited the property and decided that she wished to invest in the town, Elizabeth advised her to purchase a respectable house with an accompanying guest house in the back garden from Mr Parker and renovate the property to be a proper physician's residence and surgery.

The doctor would see the patients in what had once been the guest house, but was now a modern facility with everything an excellent physician might need. The place was set up, then sold at below a profit, to the father of a young doctor three years out of medical school, who had worked with his uncle since he left the medical college and was very well versed in the medical practices Sir Christopher had approved of. He had come highly recommended by Randall Roberts.

Lady Denham was incensed at the idea that a doctor was coming, but Mr Parker could not stop it for love nor money, which is why Elizabeth had designed the plan the way she did. Whenever she wished to support a venture Lady Denham would not approve of, she purchased the property first. Then she announced what she planned to do with it, and because Mr Parker did not own the property any longer, he could not forbid the use or lease of it at his patron's command. Tom Parker received much-needed influxes of capital, and Elizabeth ensured that if he went bankrupt, at least some of Sanditon's tradesmen and businesses might survive. As much as he liked owning the properties for long-term income, Elizabeth warned him of keeping too many eggs in one basket.

Mr Bailey was the third son of a minor gentleman, who had been encouraged to follow his father's younger brother into the medical profession. His next older brother had been sent to study the law. Their father did not wish to send his sons into the military, but he also believed that not everyone ought to be vicars; he had found respectable, productive careers for his younger sons. After three years working by his uncle's side, and even teaching him many new methods that had not been taught when he had studied, his uncle had assured the father of Mr Charles Bailey's competence and unavoidable success. Thus, the young man's father purchased the property in Sanditon for his son, and then bid him go practise his career, and be henceforth independent.

Mr Farinacci had insisted that the cooking school portion of the hotel should be completed first so that he could begin training chefs and assistant chefs as well as other servants so the hotel would be ready to serve in style and efficiency by the time it opened. Elizabeth believed this to be a sound decision and approved it. Mr Farinacci took a small set of bachelor rooms at the far end of town for the nonce, near the hotel construction, and set himself and his current assistant to compiling a great number of receipts and cooking methods, to be published as a textbook before the hotel opened.

The resident ladies of Sanditon were wild about these three new bachelors. Mr Farinacci, having worked at Buckingham House, and being regarded as a renowned chef, artist, and teacher rather than a servant, had his pick of lower genteel ladies and spinsters offering to assist in copying out recipes and instructions. Even a few wealthy widows courted him, but he had ambition and no intention of becoming a rich woman's pet. His exotic accent and the combination of the romantic fairy tale wedding of the new Mrs Bertelli lent Mr Farinacci much romantic appeal. Mr Bailey found a number of genteel ladies eager to learn about nursing, or display their talents in a stillroom and a sick room. Mr Sutton quickly gained the acquaintance of many local women who were determined to learn everything about trees, and show their knowledge of botany.

And so, the residents and visitors of Sanditon in the summer of 1853 had much to admire and look forward to in the following summer. The wedding of Mr and Mrs Bertelli was the highlight of June. In addition to all of Fanny's friends and acquaintance from Meryton and Kent, Lord and Lady Matlock attended, the viscount and viscountess, Anne de Bourgh, and a few of Elizabeth's friends from town whom she had encouraged to visit the seaside for the summer were all invited to the wedding.

All the gentry residing in Sanditon were invited, for they would henceforth be Mrs Bertelli's society. And the acquaintances they had made since coming to Sanditon, who were visiting the town themselves, were all invited. Tom Parker approved tremendously, it was the perfect opportunity to display to all that Sanditon was the perfect place to hold one's nuptials, and the fact that Mr Farinacci, formal chef to The Queen, was overseeing the preparation of the wedding breakfast, only highlighted the desirability of being married at Sanditon. Especially once the hotel, with its grand dining rooms and ballroom, was finished.

Elizabeth considered Lydia's letter. The gentleman had indeed seemed as if he were perversely placing himself in Lydia's path. Elizabeth and Will spent several parties during the first week of their visit guarding Lydia and glaring at the man. Brandon had eventually pointed out to Fitzwilliam that something was amiss, and suddenly the air around Mr Sidney Parker felt quite intimidating. Then the man's sisters arrived the day before he left, and it was a sudden change to see him interacting warmly with people who cared deeply for him. But he left Sanditon shortly before the wedding, and Elizabeth had been grateful.

*****

The wedding had been enormous and grand, and Fanny Bertelli had been in her element. The menu had been incomparable, the flowers stunning, the groom dashing, the bride blushing. Kitty stood up with her mother, and Brandon with the groom. Mr Gardiner had given her away, and after a lavish wedding breakfast, the couple had left in their carriage for Lake Cottage, where they would remain until September, before returning to the dower house at Shannon View. Elizabeth and Darcy remained for one month complete at Shannon View with their children, then returned to Pemberley.

The summer at Pemberley was idyllic. Who could imagine such mundane activities such as managing the estate, inventorying the linens and silver, visiting the tenants, and helping bring in the harvest could bring so much contentment? Elizabeth and Will were incandescently happy at finally having the ability to embrace family life at home just as they had dreamed of when they married. Many things had prevented it. First Georgiana's illness, then travelling, Mary's season in London, and subsequent marriage. Then Kitty's disappearance, the matter in Ireland, Elizabeth's business, and the weddings had consistently interfered with their desire to settle most of the year in Derbyshire.

Elizabeth leased Windmere to a good family under the condition that her steward, housekeeper, and servants remained, and that she would be advised immediately about anything that threatened the profitability of the estate or the well-being of the tenants or servants. Richard and Mary also visited her tenants when they were in residence at Rosings.

The family staying at Longbourn continued to let the house only, and Charlotte stayed on at Pemberley. She confided in Elizabeth that she thought she might return to Meryton and take up residence with her brother when young William was closer to the age of six so that he might grow up on his estate and know his neighbours before leaving for school.

Lady Lucas was irate at this turn of events, and was telling everyone that she would no longer correspond with her daughter. She had spent years waiting to enjoy the consequence of her daughter taking up as mistress of Longbourn, and she was still waiting. The family and society in Meryton were amused. Charlotte relished the quiet in the absence of her mother's correspondence.

Elizabeth had the time to invest this year, and after conferring with some of her friends regarding their harvest traditions, Elizabeth coordinated an enormous harvest festival with as many new ideas and amusements as she could manage. The park at Pemberley was laid with tables groaning heavily with food and drink, and barrels of ale and cider were provided. The music, bonfire, merriment, and dancing lasted late into the night, and his lordship was the last to bed after he had danced with her ladyship till dawn, and laughingly waved the guests and tenants away in the grey morning light.

*****

The Brandons and the Bingleys chose not to participate in the upcoming London season, so it was only the occupants of Pemberley who went to London in November. Cousin Margaret, now recently turned 18, and quite lovely in face, form, and heart, accompanied them to prepare for her first season. Mrs Dashwood had been invited, but elected to accept an invitation from Granny Rose to visit while Pemberley was quiet, trusting Elizabeth to manage quite well with Margaret. Elinor had some months before given birth to a lovely boy, Alexander Edward Ferrars, and now that the young mother was well recovered, Mrs Dashwood thought it would be good for the little family to have some time alone together. Elizabeth had encouraged her aunt to visit and stay at Pemberley as often and for as long as she liked. The household enjoyed her company, and she got on very well with Granny Rose. She was given a permanent suite in the ground floor wing next to Granny's, and she henceforth began sharing her time between Pemberley and Delaford Parsonage.