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Dec. 26th, 2018 05:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anghraineRelated to this, one of my favourite schmaltzy things to imagine is what that first Christmas must have been like for the Gardiners.
Mr and Mrs Gardiner are one thing. And the boys are probably too little for Pemberley Christmases to feel particularly unusual in their later lives. But the oldest of the girls is eight or nine (depending on her birthday) that Christmas. She'd remember the time Before Pemberley. Longbourn probably would have been the glamorous place to visit, and they don't always go with their parents. But they're at Longbourn having a perfectly nice time with cousin Jane(canon!!) when ... something happens, and their aunt Bennet is moaning and groaning, and even cousin Jane might not have very much time for them.
And then they go home, but there's still this enormous tension, and their parents are upset and their father gone all the time. And then this stranger shows up and things get a bit better, and cousin Lydia comes home, and there's this other young man visiting now and then. Then there's a wedding and everything!
The strangers go away and life goes back to something like normal, though they're a little excited about Jane and Lizzy getting married, too. But the real exciting thing is when they go to see Lizzy and her husband, and the journey takes forever, and then that eight-year-old girl is staring at Pemberley. She's probably never seen anything comparable in her life, much less as a guest and a family member. The great staircase and long gallery and the park are Significant for various reasons, but also ... they'd probably be amazing for an eight-year-old from Gracechurch Street.
It must have been quite the Christmas.
Mr and Mrs Gardiner are one thing. And the boys are probably too little for Pemberley Christmases to feel particularly unusual in their later lives. But the oldest of the girls is eight or nine (depending on her birthday) that Christmas. She'd remember the time Before Pemberley. Longbourn probably would have been the glamorous place to visit, and they don't always go with their parents. But they're at Longbourn having a perfectly nice time with cousin Jane(canon!!) when ... something happens, and their aunt Bennet is moaning and groaning, and even cousin Jane might not have very much time for them.
And then they go home, but there's still this enormous tension, and their parents are upset and their father gone all the time. And then this stranger shows up and things get a bit better, and cousin Lydia comes home, and there's this other young man visiting now and then. Then there's a wedding and everything!
The strangers go away and life goes back to something like normal, though they're a little excited about Jane and Lizzy getting married, too. But the real exciting thing is when they go to see Lizzy and her husband, and the journey takes forever, and then that eight-year-old girl is staring at Pemberley. She's probably never seen anything comparable in her life, much less as a guest and a family member. The great staircase and long gallery and the park are Significant for various reasons, but also ... they'd probably be amazing for an eight-year-old from Gracechurch Street.
It must have been quite the Christmas.