Separated at Birth

Fate places both the Darcy and Bennet parents at the Bell Inn in Stilton on the 5th day of March 1790. Both ladies are pregnant, and both have gone into premature labour. Thomas Bennet and Robert Darcy meet while their wives are labouring. As the two become acquainted, bonding over their shared love of the written word among other things, Darcy shares that his wife has had multiple miscarriages and stillbirths and his belief that if it is another stillbirth his beloved Lady Anne will not survive. Bennet shares that his eldest daughter, Jane, is home being looked after by his mother and his worry as his wife was much larger than she had been when she carried his daughter coupled with her labours beginning early. Robert Darcy passes out from over imbibing brandy and to relax and relieve his tension, Mr. Bennet takes a walk outside. When Bennet returns, the midwife tells him that both ladies have given birth. His Fanny, who he is deeply in love with, has birthed twins, but the second one was stillborn. The other lady, he is told, birthed a healthy daughter. The Bennets depart two days later to take Elizabeth Rose home and to bury their second daughter, who they named Lydia. The second twin was of fair complexion and blond while Lizzy darker, and dark curly hair like her Grandmother Beth. Like her grandmother and namesake, Lizzy has a distinctive birthmark on her left hand. It is obvious from the story that the daughter the Darcys return to Pemberley with is in fact the Bennet's second twin. She is named Beth-Anne and as the 'miracle babe' who saved her mother from depression or worse, she is very much indulged and not often corrected. One of the questions the story answers is who separated the twins? Was it Thomas Bennet in an act of compassion, the midwife, or was it Robert Darcy to save his wife from the heartbreak of another stillborn child? Of course, at some point the twins will meet. The question is how is the truth uncovered and how will each of the sisters react, especially as they are identical twins. Many of the characters we know are present along with some not in canon.