I finished that some time ago and forgot to add it here as well.
Enjoy!
Trough the Years
It was in the year of the Lord 1814 that the young master William Bennet was born to his (mostly) resigned parents, Fanny and Thomas Bennet.
Mr. Thomas Bennet, Esq, was the master of Longbourn, a fine estate of about two thousand a year. To his wife's endless distress the estate was entailed away from the female line and after five and twenty years of marriage they did not have a son.
By an act of providence, everything changed that year. Mrs. Bennet has given birth to a fine boy, the apple of her and her daughters' eyes.
Mr. Bennet must have been just as content himself, although he did not espouse too much interest in the infant. But then, the gossips argued, he never cared about any of his children, other than Elizabeth. And anyway, what was a man to do with an infant? Cooing over him was his mother's domain, surely. His father would step in later, at a more appropriate age.
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The year of 1816 came and it was fiercely cold. The crops never bore fruit and many people fell ill and even died of all manner of ailments. Mr. Bennet, age 51, was among those who did not live to see another spring.
As it can be imagined, Mrs. Bennet was distraught. She never cared for dark colors and young master William did not favour them either. He cried for a full quarter of an hour when he saw his mama in her widow's weeds complete with warm fur bonnet and a heavy veil.
Not three weeks after this most unexpected and tragic event, the Longbourn parish was again hit with the death of one of its prominent members - this time it was the vicar. In a sudden stroke of inspiration, Mrs. Bennet decided that she would be best served by bestowing the living of Longbourn onto Mr. Collins.
Lydia thought it a very good joke, but in the end it did not matter to her as she spend most of her time with the Bingleys. Kitty did not care at all about him or Charlotte and, in any case, she spend her time with the Darcys. Her only thought was to see the mourning at an end so she could wed the reverend who held the living at Kympton.
Mary thought it a very proper and a truly christian thing to do since, with the arrival of young William, Mr. Collins lost Longbourn. In her opinion, her mother both exercised benevolence towards the less fortunate and proved her wisdom in acquiring the lifelong companionship of the Collinses, since all her daughters were out of the house. Her husband, Mr. Bickle, thoroughly approved of the scheme, seeing that they were the closest to Longbourn and expected to see to Mrs. Bennet's comfort.
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The living at Rosings was much, much more valuable than what they would get at Longbourn and Mr. Collins liked his table laden, so Charlotte did not, not for one moment, even think that her husband was likely to accept Mrs. Bennet's offer of a living. Not to mention that the estate should have been theirs! Mr. Collins could not possibly want to be close to the woman who dashed all his hopes at worldly prosperity. Charlotte, who had accepted him solely from the pure and disinterested desire of an establishment, felt cheated by Mrs. Bennet. It was like the old lady was taking revenge on her for snatching Mr. Collins away from her daughters!
Thus she was very much taken by surprise when Mr. Collins decided to accept the patronage of the most gracious Mrs. Bennet. To be able to live in close proximity to his ancestral estate, even if he was not its master, would answer all Mr. Collins' wishes for happiness; to help raise and mould the future master of Longbourn, was his most cherished duty.
Mrs. Collins did not agree with her husband's sentiments at all and made her opinion known time and time again. She even tried to enlist Lady Catherine's help, but the grand dame of Rosings Park sided with Mr. Collins. It was proper, she said, for them to make the Longbourn parsonage their home. The newly widowed Mrs. Bennet and her very young son needed a man to see to their welfare and who better than their own cousin, the Reverend Collins.
It took almost six full months until Lady Catherine found the perfect replacement for Mr. Collins, for her requirements were very rigorous: the man should be already married, he or his wife should not have any sisters or cousins or friends of marriageable age, and if any unattached young woman should ever visit them, she would have to be poor, plain, and humble.
It was not clear why or how it happened, but the Mistress of Rosings held Mr. Collins responsible for the marriage between her nephew Fitzwilliam Darcy and the former Miss Elizabeth Bennet.
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The month of April 1817 saw Charlotte Collins becoming the Mistress of the Longbourn parsonage and Mr. Collins the reverend of that parish. Their income was less than half they had enjoyed before, their new abode was a small cottage in which there was no escaping the company of her husband, and Charlotte was not looking forward to her life back in Hertfordshire. More so because she imagined how Mrs. Bennet was going to gloat about her good fortune in producing the all important son and heir.
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In the end all of her worries were for naught. Without her daughters or her husband or keep her company, Mrs. Bennet all but adopted Charlotte as her own. The Collinses took all of their meals at the manor house and most of the time made use of the guest chambers as well. Mrs. Bennet always offered them the carriage to take them to their cottage, but if the hour grew late she would insist they spend the night.
All in all, Charlotte had no cause to repine. Mrs. Bennet was by far superior company compared to Lady Catherine and very amenable to any suggestion Charlotte made for the improvement of the parish or the household. The meals were as plentiful as she remembered them to be and her husband was too busy taking care of estate matters and pestering the steward to pay too much attention to her.
They did not have children, but maybe it was for the best. What future would those children have, after all? As it was, young master William called Mrs. Bennet mama, Charlotte auntie Lottie, and Mr. Collins father Collins. He was a sweet, dear boy who loved everybody and was loved by everybody in return.
When he was deemed old enough to commence a more formal instruction, a governess was employed for him. If the woman thought it peculiar that the Reverend was spending at least two hours every day with her and the boy during lessons, she did not say a thing. Mr. Collins was a bumbling fool, she thought, but he seemed genuine in his care for the boy and never once looked at her as some of her former employers did.
Mrs. Thompson was indeed very happy with her job: she took her meals with the family, her charge was as well behaved as any five years old boy can be, and Mrs. Bennet and the Collinses were polite and considerate towards her.
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It was in the winter 1822 - 1823 that tragedy touched Longbourn again. Mrs. Collins caught a cold, which went to her lungs and never recovered. She was nursed at Longbourn and died there too and was mourned by all. Everybody said she was lucky to have died in Mrs. Bennet's home, for she was afforded all the care and affection of a true daughter of the family.
But the greatest surprise of all for the denizens of Meryton came some six months later, when the Longbourn church called the bans for Mr. Collins and Mrs. Bennet. It was impossible not to speculate on what had happened (and probably continued to happen) to bring about such a marriage.
Mrs. Bennet's family and neighbours were almost equally divided between those who did not care at all, those who wondered at Mrs. Bennet's wish to wed again and with a man so much younger than herself he could've been her son, and those who thought Mr. Collins had nefarious plans to somehow take away young Bennet's inheritance.
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For a while even Mr. Darcy was firmly in the third camp and would not be moved to give his agreement to the match until he read the marriage contract. Even so, he remained suspicious of Mr. Collins' motives. His wife had joked that maybe they should be suspicious of her mother's motives, after all she was gaining a young, handsome husband.
They had a bit of a quarrel that night, one because it was not clear for how long Elizabeth Darcy considered Rev Collins handsome and two because she refused to acknowledge that women of any age could be taken in by unscrupulous fortune hunters and it was the duty of the men of the respective family to approve of a marriage - or not, as the case may be.
In the end Mr. Darcy was reconciled to the match by the real bond of affection Mr. Collins and young Bennet had and by the steward's, the housekeeper's, and the attorney's assurances that not one cent of Longbourn's wealth ever went to the Collinses in an unlawful manner and that the reverend was truly dedicated to Mrs. Bennet and her son.
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Without the benefit of an indolent and sarcastic father, William Bennet grew up to be a cheerful young man, hardworking and responsible, if a touch lazy on occasion. After her marriage, his mother explained to him that it was now good and proper that he would call Mr. Collins simply Father. Since Mr. Collins had been his father in practice for as long as he could remember, the boy thought nothing of it and proceeded to do just so. By the time he was fifteen he was calling him Papa.
In 1835 young Mr. Bennet became of age and the entail on Longbourn was finally broken. His parents lived on with him for almost another twenty years. Spending time with his sisters Mrs. Darcy and Mrs. Bingley introduced him to a wider society and helped him polish his manners, just as going away to University sharpened his intellect and gave him a better appreciation of his own strengths and weaknesses.
He well knew his parents were silly, to the point of being ridiculous, but they were his parents and they have always showed him nothing but love and support for all of his life and so he loved them in return. If he did shrug his shoulders on occasion, it was not until they were out of sight.