A/N: I said I'd post the epilogue in the afternoon, did I not? Where I live, it is now just afternoon, so I will drop this. If you're east of my location, it's still morning. Forgive me. ;-)
This was not posted on Rough Trade, as the minimum chapter length is 1K words and this is rather shorter, but it serves as an epilogue more or less in the style of the final chapter of Pride and Prejudice.
Truly. Find your copy of the book (or look up the text online) and go to that very last chapter. It's quite brief. Perhaps not as brief as this chapter, but still . . . Shakespeare did say "Brevity is the soul of wit," and Jane Austen is acclaimed as being quite witty.
Chapter Eight
Happy for all her maternal feelings was the day on which Mrs. Bennet got rid of her eldest daughters. With what overweening pride she afterward visited Mrs. Bingley at Netherfield Park and spoke of Mrs. Darcy—though still a bit put out that she was Elizabeth instead of Mary—may be guessed. She nearly crowed when her family became joined to the peerage when her son-in-law's sister, Georgiana Darcy, was wed to Lord Edward Hay, the younger brother of the Eighth Marquess of Tweeddale.
I wish I could say, for the sake of her husband, that the accomplishments in the matrimonial line—to say nothing about the fact that Mary's portion was increased by her sons-in-law and no one would have to fret about the hedgerows when Fanny had finally driven Mr. Bennet to his reward—produced so happy an effect as to make her a sensible, amiable, and well-informed woman. It did not. She occupied herself with gossiping about and visiting with her friends and neighbors and fussing with the grandchildren at Netherfield Park. (Bingley had indeed decided to answer every wish of his sisters and purchase the estate.) But as she never again mentioned Soulmarks to either her husband or remaining single daughter, she did not do more than occasionally put someone to quite a mild blush.
Mr. Bennet endeavored to increase their holdings, and invited his estranged cousin—his heir, sad to say—to visit. Said heir was a vicar who had managed to find his way to a comfortable parish in Northamptonshire. A place called Mansfield, Mr. Bennet had heard. This heir, a Mr. Collins, was an intelligent man with a predilection for studying architecture, and he had much to say about improving the carriage house at Longbourn and was invited to offer ideas about improvements at Lucas Lodge.
He and Charlotte Lucas were wed two years after the Bennet daughters had married. John Bennet sighed when the birth of the Collinses' firstborn son sufficed to break the entail. Mr. Bennet would sometimes look to the south, rub at his wrist, and wonder a little.
As it came about, Mrs. Bennet had lived a life of anxiety for naught; she predeceased her husband. Mary chose to divide her time amongst her family: a third of her life at Longbourn, a third at Netherfield, and a third at Pemberley in Derbyshire with the Darcys.
At Netherfield, Charles and Jane had two children: identical twin girls. They were the delight of their parents' hearts and brought sunshine wherever they went.
Elizabeth and Darcy presided over Pemberley with wisdom and humor for several decades, setting the example among all who knew them for discreet tenderness, boundless devotion, and blissful marital union.
The Darcy children—there were five of them—were all blessed with Soulmarks by Merlin. Their parents told them of their own story, each in private, mother to daughters and father to sons.
"We didn't acknowledge our Soulmarks for quite some time," Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth would say quietly, touching their right forearms. "But we grew to admire one another ardently even so. We wish the same for you."
It may be said that their wishes, all of them, came true.
They did indeed live happily ever after.
The End
End Note: Thank you again to everyone who has read this story. I have enjoyed interacting with you over the past couple of weeks. I have a one-shot about Mary that I wrote years and years ago, if you are interested. It's The Last Miss Bennet and it's here on my profile. It does not belong to the Soulmark AU, but it is, I think, an interesting story even so. :)
And if you are here long after this story was posted, I hope you have been entertained! Consider leaving a calling card as you continue on your way. ~ LJ Summers
