The Women of Pemberley by Rebecca Ann Collins

Author:Rebecca Ann Collins
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Published: 2013-07-26T04:00:00+00:00

Isabella Fitzwilliam would never forget the Autumn of 1834, the month of October in particular. It had been a mild Autumn, and the families had gathered at Pemberley for a weekend of celebration—there had been the Harvest festival, which had proved a huge success. The well-being of the people of the district depended largely upon the prosperity of the Pemberley estate. In 1834, there was no doubt that this was a thriving, contented community.

Then, there had been the grand ball at Pemberley. Three young women—Cassandra Darcy, Emma Bingley, and Rebecca Collins—had turned seventeen that year, and Mr Darcy had given a ball in their honour. While Isabella had been too young to dance, she and several other little girls had been able to sit in the gallery above the ballroom and watch the dancers. She could still see the couples in her mind’s eye. Emma, who was universally regarded as the most beautiful of them all, had danced mostly with her brother Jonathan, even though she had many potential partners, while Becky Collins and the handsome Mr Anthony Tate seemed to know all the newest European dances. But it was Cassy Darcy and Richard Gardiner who received the most compliments on the night. Isabella would always remember how they had looked, as if they were alone in the world and not another soul mattered.

Isabella recalled her mother’s remark to her father as they drove home. “Fitzy, I cannot believe that Richard and Cassy are not as yet engaged; they clearly love each other very much.”

Her father had smiled and replied, “Caroline, my dear, have you forgotten that I had to eat my heart out for half a year before I plucked up sufficient courage to approach your father?”

The story of her parents’ romance was legendary among the members of the family, but even they acknowledged that Richard and Cassandra were a special couple. No one had been surprised when, on the following day, they were all together again at Pemberley to celebrate their engagement.

On a perfect Autumn day, when the skies were a startling blue and sunlight poured down, they had enjoyed a picnic beside the stream in one of the prettiest spots in the park at Pemberley. The entire family and several of their friends had joined to wish Richard and Cassy happiness, which, considering their present bliss, seemed almost superfluous. It had seemed to Isabella, as no doubt it would have seemed to many others present, that nothing could go wrong on such a day.

And yet, some few hours later, her own brother, Edward—who had been just fourteen years old—and their cousin, William Darcy, had both been killed in a terrible riding accident, and the joy that had filled their hearts on that bright day had turned to dust.

Isabella recalled the harrowing evening that had followed—the tears, the rage, and the bitter recriminations. Her mother, who saw the death of her son as the result of stupidity, had taken years to recover her brightness of spirit, while her Aunt Lizzie had seemed remote and lonely after the death of her beloved William.

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