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The day Frederick Wentworth married Anne Elliott, rain did not dare fall, no matter how unseasonable the weather had been in the preceding fortnight. Neither did a single person dare raise a late objection, however strongly they may have opposed the match in earlier days.
In both cases, Mrs. Sophia Croft rejoiced for her brother. It was only right that he should have unfettered joy, after years of melancholy had tainted the usual naval trials and triumphs. She felt no less happy for Anne Elliott, but she could be forgiven if her brother’s well-being meant more than that of even his happy bride.
Lady Russell, too, rejoiced in the good weather and the lack of opposition to her beloved Anne’s happiness. One could be forgiven for looking at Lady Russell closely for a trace of reluctant or begrudging grace, given her history with the couple. Indeed, she’d felt, if only for a moment, the need to once again persuade Anne that it was all done in unseemly haste, and her father would object, and she might not be welcomed back into his home for some time, many of the same objections she had used ten years ago. It was only a moment, though, for she saw not only the joy on Anne’s face, but that of Captain Wentworth, and together they persuaded her, with noticeable love and satisfaction.
None of that is to say that there were no objections to the match. Far away there was a brooding and unhappy Mr. William Elliott, and that is all we shall say of him here. In the church that morning there was an unhappy but certainly not brooding Sir Walter Elliott. Brooding would be unbecoming, perhaps lending a grey cast to his face and certainly wrinkling his brow, so he stuck to calm disdain. Anne’s sisters were nominally happy for her, though one could hardly pick that out from Mary Musgrove’s laments over her ill-use in losing Anne’s companionship, or from Elizabeth Elliott’s attempts to match her father’s look, as her predominant feeling was unacknowledged jealousy.
Both Sophia Croft and Lady Russell saw these varying Elliott countenances, and each privately resolved that their own beloved Frederick and Anne should not notice.
Unknowingly, they had formed a silent alliance, to promote and praise the happy couple. The ceremony came to a happy conclusion and the party moved to Kellynch Hall for the wedding breakfast.
It was, perhaps, unusual that the groom’s sister should host the breakfast, and more unusual still that the bride was not married from her home parish. None could raise the slightest concern over these details, since Kellynch parish was more than happy to welcome home their own Anne, and Sir Walter was able to retain his dignity given that few knew the family had actually retrenched. The Crofts were the most generous hosts, and Sir Walter was not too disturbed by the naval invasion in his ancestral home. It was also due to Lady Russell’s influence that no feathers were visibly ruffled.
Frederick became aware of Lady Russell’s handiwork early in the day and made a point in finding her.
“Lady Russell.”
“Captain Wentworth.”
Neither of them could help sizing up the other, weighing mood and countenance, determining if this would be a cold meeting or not. Lady Russell spoke first.
“You have made our Anne so very happy, Captain.”
It was that one sentence that healed years of discord, and Frederick was able to smile and converse happily with Lady Russell from that moment. He thanked her for her role in making the day a success, and she demurred as was proper.
She knew herself to be no adventurer, but it was impossible not to ask the next question.
“Captain Wentworth, while I have your attention, I must ask you two things. One, do you think…I know this is a lot to ask, and I am not sure of my success, but can we find our way to becoming friends, for Anne’s sake? And the second….”
He stopped her there with a shake of his head.
“Lady Russell, we have no quarrel between us. You and I will be perfect friends. Your position back then was not to my immediate benefit, and I did harbor resentment. But there was justice in caution. I can say that now with the benefit of hindsight, and because in the end, love did win out.”
He smiled as he spoke and Lady Russell laughed. “You are too kind, and I think you know it. However, I am willing to take you at your word. Friends, then.” She offered her hand, and he took it.
It was a truce, but one with promise.
Sophia Croft saw the exchange from a corner in the room, and squeezed her husband’s arm, a gesture he knew to interpret as her satisfaction in something he had not seen and didn’t really understand.
She made her way over to Frederick as Lady Russell walked away.
“Is everything well?”
“Indeed. I think we may be friends yet, Lady Russell and I.”
“Oh?” Sophia knew Frederick’s prior feelings about the lady, her role in separating him from Anne. While over time he came to view the situation differently, in the early years he had been especially bitter toward her.
“She seems genuinely happy for us. Or for Anne, which is what I suppose matters most.”
Watching Lady Russell cross over to her favorite, smiles on both faces and no hesitation on Anne’s part, Sophia could see what he meant.
-
It was, perhaps, expected that Sophia Croft would welcome home the honeymooning couple first, and if Lady Russell felt any sort of sleight, it was immediately assuaged by the card inviting her to supper on the first night of their return.
Lady Russell had done her duty in visiting her neighbors as regularly as politeness required, but it had been hard seeing anyone other than Sir Walter or his late wife, or even his daughters, in those halls. She also had yet to really connect with Mrs. Croft. First, there had been the general awkwardness (the obvious for Lady Russell, though only the reader knows why Sophia Croft might feel any strangeness around her good neighbor). Later each had been in Bath, and their paths crossed due to general mutual acquaintance and not because they had any special relationship of their own. Since the wedding, duties pulled each hither and yon.
But now the newlyweds were come, and Lady Russell made ready with alacrity. Kellynch was as dear to her as her own home, and she felt no anxiety in attending now. She was thrilled at the prospect of Anne’s return; it was not yet clear where she and Captain Wentworth might settle, and Lady Russell’s heart ached at the thought of Anne far away. Perhaps this was an opportunity to make the case that they should settle close.
What a surprise lay in store for so many that evening!
-
“Mrs. Croft and I have decided that we will settle closer to the coastline after all. In fact, we intend, that is, to head back to sea.”
An uproar of sort followed as Frederick lobbed questions at his brother-in-law, and Anne reached for Sophia’s hand, already sad to be separated from her new sister so soon. Lady Russell, ever the stoic, took it all in, feeling out of place and yet very interested in the proceedings.
Admiral Croft held up a hand, and it was clear how easily he could command any room, even if this one was far from the chaos of officers and crew in true uproar. Lady Russell felt her spine stiffen, not from indignation, but a kind of attentiveness.
“We will not stay away long. We simply want to see a few more reaches of the world before we truly settle. This time on land has been instructive! We have seen what we wish to aspire to more clearly, and we know what we would miss dearly if we didn’t take this chance. But I have a proposal that will help illuminate part of our motive.
At this he looked at Frederick and began to describe a plan to buy Kellynch outright. Not himself, the admiral said, but the good captain, whose fortune had risen so far and who had more immediate need of a solid home.
The astonishment on Anne’s face was great, and Frederick could hardly contain the new questions he now had (was anyone even sure, for example, that Sir Walter would sell?).
And it was here that Lady Russell could at last contribute to the conversation.
“I think,” she said, feeling her own power to command a room return to her, “that Sir Walter would be glad to sell, if between us Anne and I might be allowed to persuade him.”
That word had weight, and Frederick’s countenance darkened ever so slightly. None saw it save Lady Russell, who knew she still had amends to make, however friendly the feelings between her and the good captain might have become.
Anne broke the silence that had threatened to settle around the table. “It will be a challenge. This is his ancestral home, yes, but that alone would not prevent him selling. It is the prestige that comes with being landed gentry.”
A more honest Anne there never had been. This was, however, her true family, and not a soul in that room could contradict her.
Lady Russell said softly, “Your father is a good man, Anne. Yet you are correct.”
Sophia Croft, not previously aware her husband would make this proposal so soon, said, “We could simply ask that the contract be transferred from the Crofts to the Wentworths.”
“Yes, but the intent here is to create a home, not borrow one. That’s something we see value in, after our time here, whether your sister and I ever make that commitment or not. You’re young, Frederick, you and Anne. You can have a ready-made port for the storms, good and bad, to come.”
Frederick looked at Anne. For all the angst of separation and years of misunderstanding, they had retained the ability to speak without words between them, and it was a marvel to those who knew the whole story. Here they agreed, Sir Walter would be worked on, and if possible, Frederick would buy Kellynch Hall for his bride.
For his family.
-
The long and arduous conversations with Sir Walter are not recorded here, for it is enough to know Lady Russell and Anne Wentworth won the day, and Sir Walter always believed it had been his own idea to sell Kellynch and settle elsewhere. He was quite fixed in Bath, and it provided Elizabeth with a wider social circle and both of them with the influence they lacked in the country.
That was how Lady Russell had put it to him, anyway.
The Crofts did sail, but not for long, as the Wentworths welcomed a child into the world before their first year of marriage was out. Let it be said here that Sophia Croft could spoil a niece with the best of them!
As for Lady Russell and Captain Wentworth, the final strain in their friendship dissolved during the shared anxiety of Anne’s lying-in, and the long day of labor that preceded the welcoming of Miss Margaret Anne Wentworth. They were united from that day forward in promoting Anne’s health and Margaret’s, and Captain Wentworth knew to whom he owed the felicity of having a settled home for wife and child. Lady Russell was as frequent a visitor to the new owners at Kellynch as she had been to the old, and vastly more valued that she ever had been.
But let us also record a friendship that none could have foreseen. Lady Russell – Louisa, to certain friends – and Sophia Croft.
Letters flew between them, first to convey progress in the matter of Kellynch Hall, and then to report happy news, from which came the hesitant sharing of anxieties and truths. They had much in common. Neither had children of their own but had found themselves in the role of mother without knowing how to do it.
It was with satisfaction and joy that Anne saw all of this, fruit from a love that had not died, and had in fact grown in the wilderness.
----
FIN