Epilogue

What was intended as a birthday ball for Georgiana in August, turned into a wedding ball; for having received Mr Bennet's permission to marry his daughter, Darcy considered that, having been prevented from marrying her for more than a twelvemonth by an unfortunate and unending series of intrigues, that they had waited quite long enough; and should marry as soon as may be. Elizabeth was equally eager; as indeed, were Julia and Captain Radford. Thus was the double wedding set for the week following the ball. Georgiana was not in the least bit concerned that the ball was no longer in her honour, for she was to gain the two most delightful sisters imaginable. Nor was she in the least bit eager to contemplate marriage herself, now that Elizabeth would be living at Pemberley.

The brief season of courtship was filled with dinners, visits, and much gaiety. Miss Bingley and the Hursts, who found very little to celebrate in Derbyshire, returned to London, where they very soon found their own cause for celebration. Miss Bingley, who been much in the company of Captain Russell, while staying at Macclesfield, had apparently formed an attachment to that gentleman, and had deigned to accept his offer of marriage.

Captain Russell did not even trouble himself to ask for Mr Bingley's permission to marry his sister. He was evidently offended at being so rudely excluded from Ashbourne – not to mention Pemberley, and Hartington also – which, conjoined with Miss Bingley's wounded pride at being passed over by the masters of the latter two estates, and her own less-than-enthusiastic reception in Derbyshire, ensured that both the country, and its undeserving denizens, would henceforth be denied their esteemed society. In the event, the undeserving denizens of Derbyshire bore the deprivation with stoic good grace.

Captain Russell had evidently decided, after his failure to gain Miss Darcy's thirty thousand pounds, that Miss Bingley's twenty thousand might very well be the best he could hope for; while the lady, having failed to secure Mr Darcy after so many years of conscientious scheming, and then cheated of her rightful station, as wife to her wealthy cousin, decided that time was no longer on her side, and that Captain Russell's offer might be the best – or, perhaps, the only one – she was ever likely to receive.

At the Pemberley wedding ball, apart from the joyful announcements of the betrothal of Elizabeth to Mr Darcy and Julia to Captain Radford, Victoria Barclay and Colonel Fitzwilliam were also delighted to announce their own engagement. The first two happy couples were married in the picturesque and ancient church of Kympton, a few days after the ball, while the wedding of Victoria Barclay and Colonel Fitzwilliam was held in London the following month.

After their wedding, the two happy couples left together on a joint wedding tour to the south of England, which would take them through Suffolk, Hertfordshire, and then all the way to the western-most tip of Cornwell. They planned to be in London for the wedding ball and celebrations of Victoria Barclay and Colonel Fitzwilliam. Georgiana was so sad at the prospect of being left behind by her two brothers, and her two new sisters, that her fond wish to be included in the wedding tour was granted; and to save any awkwardness when they arrived at Freston, Mr Darcy agreed that she might be told the truth regarding Julia's parents.

They spent several delightful days in Suffolk, where they stayed at a hotel in Ipswich, not far from Freston. Lydia, they learned, was being courted by a young man who farmed nearby, and seemed untroubled by the knowledge that she had a child. At Elizabeth's request, Lydia brought her betrothed, Gerald Haversham, to Freston to meet them. Elizabeth found him amiable, but also serious and level-headed; and surprisingly well-informed for a farmer. He was from a respectable local family, descended from yeomen, and was very obviously in love with her sister, who returned his affections.

Mr Haversham spoke frankly with Mr Darcy of his hopes of starting a new life somewhere far away; for his older brother was to inherit the family farm, and Lydia's situation, which was well-known thereabouts, was a cause of some embarrassment. But if, after marrying, they sailed for America, it would be assumed that the child was his. Mr Darcy's opinion of Mr Haversham was favourable, and he determined to settle a generous amount upon the young couple, that they might establish themselves in their new life.

Lydia was eager to visit her mother and Kitty, and to show off her little girl – and her handsome husband – before they departed England. Elizabeth promised to speak with her father on the subject when they visited Longbourn in a few days' time. If they arrived married, since the neighbourhood was entirely ignorant of all that had transpired since Lydia's elopement from Brighton, it would be apparent to no one, that little Susan's father was anyone but Mr Haversham. Lydia was delighted and hopeful for the future. She confided in Elizabeth that she was most eager to leave England, for Mr Haversham, who was a strong and burly man, was incensed at the way his beloved had been misused – first by George Wickham and then by the second scoundrel, who was the father of her child. He swore that if he ever met with either man, he would not be answerable for his actions.

Luckily, he never did meet with either gentleman. In the case of George Wickham, nothing further was ever heard of him; and it may be safely assumed that he made good on his threat to demand a large sum of money from Lady Catherine de Bough – to purchase his silence regarding her daughter's disgrace – and that Lady Catherine evidently succeeded in obtaining it – in a far more economical manner.

As to the other gentleman, Elizabeth was stunned – although, upon consideration, not entirely surprised – when her sister revealed his identity (of which Mr Darcy had all along been ignorant) as none other than Captain Russell! Elizabeth obtained the Hurst's address from her husband and immediately wrote to Caroline, for she felt obliged, on account of her relationship to Jane, to warn her. Whether Miss Bingley simply chose to ignore the information, or to believe the Captain's certain denials, she knew not; but their wedding proceeded as planned, and Elizabeth knew not to which of them the greatest sympathy was deserved.

Julia and Elizabeth had little difficulty in persuading Darcy that allowing Julia's mother to visit Hartington presented very little threat to the secret he had vowed to keep. Mrs Harrison was delighted with Captain Radford, and could hardly believe her daughter's good fortune; and he was equally well-disposed towards her.

Over the course of the wedding tour, Captain Radford and Darcy became the very best of friends, and when the three ladies sometimes wished to tour the shops, or to engage upon subjects of fashion and suchlike, in which a gentleman finds little interest, they were content to enjoy each other's company. Having married together – and each one certain that his wife was the most charming and beautiful, etc, etc – a good-natured rivalry arose between them. And although the honours as to which of them would be the first to produce a son, was as yet unknown, Darcy was obliged to acknowledge that Captain Radford had taken the honours when it came to mothers-in-law!

After Lydia's departure to America, Mrs Harrison was overjoyed to be invited to live at Hartington, where there was no need to hide her relationship to Julia, whose father was assumed to be a long-deceased Mr Harrison, from somewhere in the south of England.

Not very long after becoming the mistress of Pemberley, Elizabeth invited her Aunt and Uncle Gardiner to visit; and through her aunt's good offices, a reunion was effected between Julia's mother and her sister Anne, who lived in Lambton with her three children. Though Anne may have suspected the identity of Julia's father, she neither asked, nor was she told. Understanding her sister's desire to conceal her true identity – of Catherine Norton, the teacher who had long ago disappeared from these parts – she agreed that they should simply pretend to be good friends. Thus did she become a frequent visitor to Hartington, along with her children, of whom Julia grew most fond.

Though Mrs Bennet was pleased to speak at length of her two eldest daughters, and of their fine estates in the north of England – to Lady Lucas, or her sister Phillips, or Mrs Long, or, indeed, to anyone who cared to listen – and to a great many who did not – in private, she regretted that they were settled so very far away; for her sensitive nerves and delicate health disinclined her from attempting so vast a journey.

And if this was not so very greatly regretted by her daughters – or their husbands – then they were always happy to welcome their father, who became a frequent visitor to Derbyshire, and who appeared to bear the long separations from Mrs Bennet with commendable equanimity. Having failed, himself, to sire a son, he was delighted with his grandsons. Bingley, in fact, was the first to produce an heir – but then he had a head start on his good friend Darcy, and his cousin, Radford; though they were not so very far behind.

~~~ The End ~~~

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