The two made their way into Longbourn’s small graveyard and Elizabeth placed the flowers she had picked on her mother’s grave. She said a few words and touched her fingers to her lips before placing them on the headstone, then left Robin to himself. She knew he liked to tell their mother about his goings on and had visited her grave weekly since she passed four years ago. She traced the year on her father’s headstone, 1817, and sat with her legs stretched in front of her, leaning back against the cold stone and settling in for a good chat.

“Well, Papa, Kitty is finally marrying tomorrow. I know we thought it would never happen, but Thurston is a good man. He must be, for he has waited for her long enough.” She laughed lightly. “You would be very proud of her, Papa. She has taken excellent care of Robbie. He is a good boy. I know he is only ten now and much will change soon, but I think he will be a fine man. Fitzwilliam says he has an excellent head for numbers and believes he will manage the estate admirably. He took him along when he was riding the estate with Bennet when we were last all at Pemberley. Who knew that would become a holiday tradition? Anyway, the boys are more like cousins than uncle and nephew, you saw that, but as they’ve gotten older it has only become more pronounced.

“They remind me of Fitzwilliam and his cousin Richard. I nearly fainted when I saw them racing around the lake.” She sighed. “He is so like you, Papa, but I see Mama in him, too. He has her liveliness and your mind. And of course her blue eyes. The bluest eyes in Hertfordshire.” She laughed lightly as she remembered her mother and her constant boasting about her children’s beauty. “He shall be very handsome, I’m sure of it. He has your nose and hair. It was blond when you last saw him, but it has gotten quite dark now and I believe it will be as dark as mine when he is grown.

“I will have another babe in the summer.” She rubbed her swollen belly absently. “Fitzwilliam desperately hopes this one will be a girl. He has never said it, but I believe he worries how he will provide for so many sons. Obviously, Bennet will inherit Pemberley, and Alex can take over Everbrook, the small estate to the north his grandfather bought. Fitzwilliam purchased a small estate in Staffordshire recently that is planned for Tommy, but that still leaves Jack and Peter without. I’ve told him that Peter is not yet two; there is time to save, and of course there is the Kympton living, but you know how he worries and plans.”