A/N Hello, dear Readers! This story takes place around two decades after the events so famously penned by the fair hand of Jane Austen. It centers around the trials and triumphs of the only child of Mr and Mrs Darcy, Miss Isabella Darcy, as well as her cousins Mary and Arthur Earl, the orphaned offspring of Darcy's sister Georgiana.
I have tried to be as true to Austen's style of prose as I can manage, within my limited capabilities. Because the writing is quite detailed and dense, I have made the chapters fairly short, around 1000 - 1500 words each.
A quick word on spelling - at times I have used the old-fashioned spelling of certain words, for e.g "ancles", "snewed," and "sate" (rather than ankles, snowed and sat). I have been a little arbitrary with these, and may end up changing them back if it starts to feel like it's distracting from the narrative. Let me know your thoughts or preferences, if you have any.

I adore Jane Austen and mean no disrespect in daring to pick up where she left off.
I hope you enjoy it! If you do... please review! (Concrit is welcome but please try to keep it kind.)
Copyright 2015


I.

In which the heroine of the narrative is introduced to the Reader. The orphaned children of Georgiana Darcy are taken in by Mr and Mrs Darcy.
Fate, having united the three as children, divides them as adults.

...

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a married couple, happily united, must be in want of at least eight or nine children."

If ever there existed dissenters to the maxim, Mr and Mrs Darcy of Pemberley were not to be counted among them. But Truth, such as it is, does not always reckon with Fate, and it was not long before the young couple discovered that – subsequent to the difficult birth of their first child, a daughter – they were not to bring forth any more offspring into the world, without incurring the probable penalty of taking the mother directly out of it.

Mr Darcy was not so attached to his family's ancient name as to sacrifice his heart upon its altar: and so it was necessarily decided that one, single, dark-haired Miss must do as well as any number of such little Masters – and that was to be the end of it.

But in this regard Fate had not quite done with the Darcys.

Ere five years had passed, a succession of tragic events brought Mr Darcy's beloved sister Georgiana to an early grave – and within twelve months her broken-hearted husband Mr Earl followed her thither. Their two orphaned children, barely out of swaddling, were brought to Pemberley, where they were received with such care and love, that seldom was the fact of their once having had a different set of parents either remembered or lamented.

That they would have received every kindness had they been tiresome, quarrelsome children, was indubitable: but the Darcys were spared the trouble of proving their unconditional affection, for Arthur and Mary Earl were not difficult to love. Both resembled their mother in temper (which had been serene) and their father in looks (which had been fair). In these they were at variance to their adoptive sister, Isabella, a person of somewhat mercurial temper, chiefly manifest through the varying expressions of a pair of bold, dark eyes. However, that young lady being also the owner of a good measure of wit and a great deal of liveliness, nobody could long sustain a real grievance against her proclivity to waywardness, least of all her doting parents.

Little more than a year separated the respective ages of the three children, and they grew up as close and cordial as any siblings might, and much closer than many do.

Isabella, the instigator of a great diversity of action and adventure, found in Mary a willing adherent, and in Arthur a more supervisory participant, for within the boy's nature was a finely-wrought sense of safety and propriety – further augmented by an innate ability to advise without offending – so that he was able to regulate some of his cousin's wilder schemes and tailor them to suit both the gentler disposition of his sister, as well as his own more serious one.

Happy were these childhood years, passed beneath Pemberley's graceful roof.

Mr and Mrs Darcy led by example that wherever mutual respect and harmony dwelt within a household, there too must exist contentment and happiness. The high spirits and ready wit of the wife balanced perfectly with the honourable sincerity of the husband, who (as it very often transpires) proved to be the more indulgent parent: so that in the end it was Mrs Darcy who ruled in matters of discipline and justice, albeit with a dry humour in place of the usual iron fist.

Childhood is always fleeting when viewed from a parental perspective, and indeed it seemed to the Darcys their family had but yesterday been in its infancy, when suddenly and unanimously they emerged as full-grown persons of six-and-seven teen. – And no sooner was adulthood achieved then change was to follow swiftly thereafter.

This change appeared in the shape of two persons.

The first was a respectable man by the name of Barnet, a friend and near relation of old Mr Earl, who came to fetch the son back to his late father's estate, to teach him the running of it in preparation of his becoming it's inheritor two years hence.

The second person was Mr Darcy's here-to-fore estranged aunt, a lady of indomitable force of character, undiminished by her extremely advanced accumulation of years. – Lady Catherine, overtaken by a sudden fit of magnanimity, came to claim her great-niece for the purpose of undertaking her "finishing" – without which, she patently implied, the girl would scarce be presentable in any society elevated beyond that of basic savagery.

If motives of repentance and reconciliation were at first looked for to explain this unexpected turn of events, they were soon enough disproved by the unconcealed hostility of the elderly lady unto the present Mrs Darcy, who observed it with no surprise, some exasperation, and much amusement. "I do believe," she confided her husband on the subject, "that Lady Catherine wishes to frighten away every trace of my influence upon Mary, before it quite sets."

Whatever the impetus behind the offer, it was not such a one to be refused, being perhaps the first step to repairing the long-standing rift between the two great houses of Pemberley and Rosings. Moreover, the Darcys were forced to acknowledge that Lady de Bourgh could do much to secure their niece's future. The proximity of Kent to London, the comparative isolation of Pemberley from "society", and Lady Catherine's unmatched inventory of court connections – these all weighed much in Rosing's favour.

This kindness was utterly lost on Mary Earl, who was loath to leave the home that had afforded her so many years of tranquility and happiness, but she pleaded her case in vain: to the grand seat of her great-aunt and new benefactress she would go directly.

Isabella Darcy, observing the real distress of her cousin, was forced to conceal her own depression of spirits at the imminent loss of the playmates of her youth, with brave words and a brave face – and so far did her cheerful encouragement go to calm and reassure Mary, that at length the young lady was able to face her removal with some measure of composure and even excitement.

And so the three cousins parted, and many a tear was shed, and many a pang was felt.

For the first time in her life Isabella Darcy was forced to perceive what had thus far been always obscured to her: that she really was an "only" child.