Towards the end of April Darcy returned to Pemberley, and on the same day, Mrs. Reynolds informed him of Mr. Thompson's death. Although he immediately went to Sandstone, by then Elizabeth had already left the estate and the manor was closed, and there were very few servants. He asked whom he assumed was the housekeeper if she knew where the Thompson siblings had moved…

"Good morning, I wanted to offer my condolences on behalf of the Darcy family to Miss Thompson. Could you please tell me her address so I can send you a letter?"

"Mr. Darcy, I don't have the address, but Miss Thompson and her little brother are living with their uncle. Surely Miss Taylor or Mr. Shaw can give you more information about them. At the moment Mr. Shaw is inspecting some tenants' houses, but if you like, you can leave him a note and I'll give it to him."

It is not necessary. Thank you very much for the information…"

As far as he remembered their uncle, Mr. Gardiner, was, unfortunately, a simple merchant who lived in London. Surely because of the social differences that existed between him and Miss Thompson, he was not going to see her again, at least for several years, since it was going to be very difficult for their paths to cross. He sincerely hoped Elizabeth was all right after all that had happened to her in less than a year.

He knew from his own experience how difficult it had been to lose his parents, and in Elizabeth's case, it was even worse because the Thompsons had been loving parents who had obviously adored her.

The following day, he received a letter from Lady Matlock with unexpected news from Georgiana…

24th April

London

Dear Nephew,

I hope you are in good health and all is well at Pemberley.

The reason for this letter is to let you know that three days ago I received a letter from Georgiana's seminary with bad news. There is an outbreak of influenza in the seminary and, as a precautionary measure, the Director asked that the families of the ladies who were not infected take them home.

Fortunately, Georgiana doesn't seem to be sick, and for that reason, she has been living with us in London for the last two days. As a precaution, she has been isolated in her room, but she is in good health.

The Director of the seminar estimates that at least for two or three months, the seminar will be closed.

If you agree, when I get back to Matlock – probably in June – I will take Georgiana to Pemberley.

Kind regards,

Lady Matlock

Luckily Georgiana did not get infected and stayed with the Matlocks in London until early June when she went to Pemberley for a few weeks to visit her brother.

With all the momentous events that happened in so few days, due to a series of misunderstandings and miscommunication for which no one was directly responsible or guilty, Georgiana lost contact with Elizabeth and Mary.

Elizabeth and Mary wrote her a short letter with the sad news of Mr. Thompson's death and their Uncle Gardiner's address as well as Longbourn's address, but unfortunately in the midst of the hustle and bustle associated with the move, the servants lost the letter.

As they received no response for several months, they assumed that Georgiana now had wealthy friends from the nobility, and thus had no interest in continuing the friendship with the two of them. On the other hand, Georgiana heard of Mr. Thompson's death two months later, and in the meantime, she had sent a letter to her friends, from whom she never received a response and she figured that neither Lizzy nor Mary wanted to continue their friendship with her.

Perhaps Georgiana could have tried harder to find out the address of her friends, but the truth was that as a result of the low self-esteem she had due to the disdain with which some of the 'Ladies' of the seminary treated her for being simply the daughter of a gentleman, and also believed that her brother did not love her either, she was convinced that Elizabeth and Mary no longer wanted to be her friend.