Fallenbelle2 requested a sequel exploring Julia's feelings when she realized why her father had objected to her marriage to Darcy. As it's a short piece I decided to make it a second chapter to the original.

Epilogue

This takes place after The Death of Dr. Ogden.

"I've known your father for a very long time. Since we were both quite young."

"You said you'd just met."

"No, I knew him. I knew him before he knew your mother."

"What happened?"

"We both made choices. We er, took partners we thought were appropriate."

"Are you saying that my father never loved my mother?"

"No. No, no, not at all. I'm saying...your father and I shared something throughout our entire life. We knew that, even after we wed others, but we conducted ourselves properly."

"He never mentioned you."

"No, of course not. Our love was a secret…and…eternal. Not a day of my life went by when I did not think of him."

"…and he, you…?"

"I imagine so."

xxx

Now I know. Now I know why he was so persistent that I not marry Darcy. I was making the same choice that he had done. He knew that I would regret it just as, I imagine, he had done all those years. And after mother died and he was now free to love Caroline as he did before, she wasn't free, she was still married. What torture that must have been; the same torture I went through, knowing that William still loved me but I could do nothing, I was trapped in a marriage I had been warned not to enter into. Why didn't he tell me then? If he'd explained why he was so against the marriage; why he wouldn't walk me down the aisle to a man he knew was second best, to a man that ultimately, I didn't love enough—to a man that was not William. And I, what did I do? I thought he was just trying to control me, trying to tell me how to live; as usual—in my mind—not wanting me to be happy. And in the end I wasn't happy—and it wasn't because of him but myself—my insistence on marrying Darcy, even though by then I knew that William still loved me, had always loved me, and would probably always love me. Why did I go through with it knowing all that. Would it have made any difference if he had told me? That he had done what I was about to do. That he had lived his life knowing his greatest love was out of reach … forever, and I was about to make that same mistake.

xxxXxxx

As usual reviews always welcome.