OK, so I've decided to go with both endings. We get the Sweet Sadness first followed by the Miraculous Cure in part two of the epilouge. I would love to hear what you think of both.

Sweet Sadness

'It is done,' Mr Sanchez announced, making the tourniquet as tight as possible.

The doctor stayed at Pemberley ten days to ensure his patients wellbeing. At first they gave laudanum every time Mr Darcy came around for he could not bear the pain. After seven days of this hell, the shrivelled, blackened item finally fell from Darcy's body. The doctor insisted the other should remain as they might want more children. Elizabeth had argued, demonstrating her three strapping boys and ever increasing stomach.

Next came the quartering. Mr Sanchez insisted the area needed to be burnt to ensure the healing scar did not suffer from infection. Darcy put up with yet more pain as a hot poker seared his anatomy and caused more agony. Another week passed before he could sit for any length of time. Declared as well as could be expected, the doctor returned to London and wished the family to attend him in six months.

'You shall have to go alone,' Lizzy sat in the green parlour watching her recovering husband cautiously pace the room.

It had taken weeks for him to remove from their bedchamber. In that time, Pemberley's steward, Mr Huntington came to Darcy every day for instruction. The estate ran from the bedside with the aid of his wife.

Months passed before Darcy felt well enough to make to below stairs. Now he joined his wife and children for meals and felt able to spend some time in more pleasurable pursuits. Still he could not ride and did not have the vitality to spend time with his growing boys. Fitzwilliam Darcy had become but a shadow of his former self.

'I wish you could accompany me,' Darcy sighed and went to her side. Siting slowly, he placed a hand on her belly. It would not be long before Elizabeth entered her fourth confinement.

'Then we shall delay and go to London as a family,' she smiled.

'I have expressly forbidden you to travel until each child is weaned. As you did not achieve that between the boys, I shall have to insist the same for this child,' he stated in a hard tone.

'I have not left Pemberley since my marriage to you five years ago, dearest. I wish to return to Longbourn now my parents are too old to travel. Kitty is to marry this year, Jane is expecting her second child and Mary has a beau,' Elizabeth concluded. They felt it imprudent to talked of Lydia who had eloped, never to be heard from again.

'I have invited Mr and Mrs Bingley every year for Christmas,' Darcy countered, 'and they bring the rest of your family.'

'The boys are eager to see their cousin again,' Lizzy smiled. 'Let us think upon it. I will write to Mr Sanchez and delay our appointment, unless,' she looked at her husband again. He seemed so much better even if he had suffered greatly through his treatment.

'Unless,' he questioned.

'Are their symptoms you are withholding from me?' Lizzy asked in an even tone.

'You know I will never be the man you married,' he stated in a cold tone. To lose a testicle in such a fashion had diminished his worth in Darcy's estimation, even if his wife tried to prove otherwise every night they lay together.

'No, you are so much more than I hoped when I took you for a husband. I will admit in those first days I did not think well of you. Now I love you so very dearly and I will not lose you,' she concluded with such a look of determination it made him smile.

They made the appointment with Mr Sanchez several months later than the doctor wished. The new babe turned out to be yet another boy. William Darcy had a surprise for his parents. His birth shared by his twin sister, Anne, completing the complement of children Elizabeth wished to bear. This time Darcy insisted upon a wet nurse and his wife happily conceded.

'What is your diagnosis,' she'd taken a leaf from her husband's book and refused to allow him to take in the doctor's advice without her presence.

'You have escaped but not completely. I believe, if we had achieved the castration earlier in your illness we might have saved you completely. I cannot give you a time, Mr Darcy but I fear the sickness will attack your innards at some point in the future. I suggest you live everyday as if it is your last,' he stated in a calculating tone, 'for when the end comes it will be swift. Keep a stock of laudanum for that day and Mrs Darcy,' he sent her a quelling look, 'do not be stingy with its administration.'

They would have another seven years together, watching their children grow. In the year before his death, Darcy's breathing became harsher, his ability to walk around his home decreased and he fatigued easily. Day by day he slipped further into sickness until he took to his death bed. Elizabeth, remembering the words of Mr Sanchez did not spare the laudanum. Her husband died peacefully at home, a shadow of his former self.

'Boys,' Elizabeth came to her sons on their thirteenth birthday. She's warned each of the Darcy curse and the cure. Each year she drilled the importance of diligence into them. At first she had examined them for the slightest sign of their father's affliction. As they became able to do the check for themselves, she simply asked if they found any lumps. 'I wish for you to find a woman you can love and marry. Do not wait for you are all that is left of your father's line. It is up to you to ensure you beget your heirs and undergo the procedure before it proves too late.'

Alexander, her eldest married at three and twenty. He had six children over the next fifteen years. It appeared the Darcy curse did not affect him. Edward never married for he found the dreaded lump. Luckily Mr Sanchez, at the end of his professional life, agreed to administer his father's cure. He lived a long life and became a politician decrying health care for all. George and William also escaped, both marrying and producing children.

Upon her sixtieth birthday, Elizabeth Darcy surrounded by her five children, twenty two grandchildren and fifteen great grandchildren still lamented the loss of her beloved Fitzwilliam. Oh she'd been but a young woman when widowhood became her. She thought on taking another husband and eventually decided there was enough to do as Dowager of Pemberley. She passed away two years later of pneumonia and was laid to rest beside the love of her life.

Even with this sad end, I had to give Lizzy and Darcy at least a few happy years, although they would have been tainted with Spector of death constantly at the door. In all likelihood, at this time, with the methods available, Darcy would have died much sooner and probably not been able to father more than one or two children. Call it artistic licence. And for any of your wondering, yes I am a cancer survivor and thank God every day that I live in an enlightened world with good medical facilities. The alternative ending soon to follow.