Epilogue
Shortly afterwards Bingley returned to Nethefield, triumphantly carrying a sparkling ring to propose to his angel. He was quite surprised when his good friend Darcy demanded his congratulations for his own engagement to Bingley's angel's sister. He happily gave his congratulations and upon acceptance of his own suit by Jane declared with true sincerity that his own sister's fondest wish would come true, Bingley and Darcy would be brothers.
Charlotte Lucas and Elizabeth Bennet were destined to become cousins as well, not through Mr. Collins though. After repeatedly claiming she was not a romantic, Charlotte surprised herself and quickly fell in love with Col. Fitzwilliam, who returned her sentiments with equal ardor, the type of ardor he had never felt for Elizabeth, though he had thought such was possible before coming to Hertfordshire.
Mr. Bennet did not waver in his decision to send Lydia away to school and not allow the others to be out in society any longer. His resolve could perhaps be attributed to his firmest son-in-law. Darcy not only offered to pay for Lydia's schooling, he pointed out how much quieter the household would be with her gone. Upon realizing this, Kitty and Mary where also sent off to school by their father. Mrs. Bennet, deprived of any feminine society at Longbourn visited Jane at Netherfield daily until the happy couple fled to the North to purchase an estate. Then she took to spending most of her days at her sister's house gossiping, speculating about her daughters' lives and sipping tea. For Mr. Bennet, peace reigned at Longbourn at long last, and when he wished for some amusement he merely encouraged his wife to host a gathering or joined her at other evening gatherings.
Author's note: I had originally anticipated this story being longer. Darcy started out as arrogant enough to think he could interfere in anyone he knew's life and was in complete and total denial regarding how much he wanted to marry Elizabeth himself, causing him to act in strange ways. i had planned on developing an attachment between Charlotte and Col. Fitzwilliam, but before I could do that my mind started to wonder to other possible plot ideas for completely different stories. I also anticipated Bingley coming back concered that some gentleman, Collins or that Wickham character intended to take advantage of Miss Elizabeth according to his sister who was naturally confused since she claimed Darcy intended to have a brief affair with Elizabeth, something his honorable friend would never do, and therefore she must have ment that Darcy, good friend that he was, intended to help Elizabeth since she was the sister of his angel who he, Bingley, loved. A few chapters back I accepted defeat for this story, that my mind would not return to it so I decided to view my outline ideas and figure out how to wrap it up quickly because, oh horrors, I had lost interest and it would not do to leave any readers hanging until I regained interest in this plot. So someday I may go back and add to the middle, allowing more time for Elizabeth to get to know Darcy and him to learn a better way of thinking/acting while Lydia and Mrs. Bennet attempt to throw Lydia at him at neighborhood events, like Lydia thrying to get Darcy to dance with her and Mr. Bennet finding it funny so he doesn't stop her. And lets be honest the rest of us might find Lydia throwing herself at Darcy a little funny to, cause seriously can you just imagine his response, determined to impress Elizabeth and show he can be better and yet horrified by Lydia. So apologies for concluding this story so abrubptly without much of a middle. Maybe in a few weeks one of the other ideas bouncing around my head distracting me will morph into enough of an outline and plot to become a story.
