Epilogue – part 1

Georgiana and Kitty's coming out the following year was a success, to the delight of all their family. Georgiana had grown in the nearly two years since she met Elizabeth and Isabella, and she finally felt ready to face society and any potential suitors.

Miss Darcy had shared her awful experience in Ramsgate with her new sisters and cousin; she now trusted them as much as her guardians, after they had shared Miss Lydia's shame without minimising the girl's faults or trying to hide any details. She had been naïve to agree to an elopement with Mr Wickham, especially at such a young age, and could understand how a young woman could be persuaded into poor conduct by a charming rake. Kitty had tried many times to show her that Lydia's experience was very different to hers, but her gentle, tender heart could never feel anything but sorrow and pity for the youngest Bennet sister.

On her second season Kitty attracted the attention of the young heir to a modest estate close to the Hurst estate in Somerset. The elder Mr Miller was a widower whose health was uncertain; he wanted to meet the future mistress of the estate that had been in his family for eight generations before he passed on. After learning that his neighbours' son and daughter-in-law were planning to spend part of the season in London with relatives, he insisted his son attend some event in London to meet some eligible debutantes. Hence five-and-twenty-years old Mr Miller had joined Gerald and Louisa Hurst in bath before travelling to London for part of the season where they were to stay in the Hurst townhouse with Mr and Mrs Bingley.

Mr Miller met Miss Kitty Darcy at the welcome dinner Charles and Charlotte had organised for his sister; Louisa had confidentially told them Marianne would herself be a big sister a few months hence.

After a whirlwind courtship rivalling Elizabeth and Darcy's for speed, Kitty changed her name a final time and happily moved to Somerset to help her new husband take care of his father's estate. Over the years, she would bear him four children, two boys and two girls, though not in that order, who would often spend weeks with their aunts and cousins in Cheshire and Derbyshire.

Georgiana took another two years to follow her friend down the matrimonial path. Like Isabella many moons before, Georgie found the season and the society in London to be not just a challenge, but entirely unbearable. As soon as her adopted sister was married, she stopped attending balls and dances, enjoying outings to the theatre and concerts instead.

She met her future husband a year after Kitty's wedding at a concert held at the Argyll Rooms in London. Mr Fullerton, a gentleman with a pretty estate in Cornwall was as passionate for music as Miss Darcy, and they met regularly at musical evenings and concerts over the following months. After ten months of accidental looking meetings, Fullerton finally went to see Mr Darcy to admit his passionate love for the man's younger sister and beg for his blessing before addressing his lady. Recognising in him the shy and socially awkward character he himself exhibited before meeting his Elizabeth, Darcy did not torture Georgie's suitor before granting his permission and blessing. Well not too much anyway.

Two months later, Mr and Mrs Fullerton were pronounced husband and wife in front of a full church in Derbyshire. The bride had no loving mother to shed a tear on the happy occasion, but she had a brother who would never admit to the tears his wife saw that day.

Their two daughters looked exactly like their mother, and Fullerton would one day understand what his brother-in-law had felt on their wedding day much better than he would have liked.


The third of the younger girls, Miss Lydia Bennet, did not return to Longbourn after delivering her child. The seven months she spent with her aunt's cousins had significantly matured her. The spoiled girl had been forcibly exposed to the harshness of life for people born without fortune. The farm was comfortable and solvent, food was plentiful, but she witnessed the work required, the early mornings, the long arduous days with little help; she had her maid and footman of course, but within a month of moving north, she had asked them to help on the farm rather than wait on her. Lydia Bennet was fast growing up.

She had not been ready for the birth of her son, the hours of labouring, the pain. None of it changed her opinion; she was not ready to be a mother, and the boy would be far more useful and wanted where he was. Yet it changed her subtly.

Once recovered, Miss Lydia Bennet went to visit the Darcys at Pemberley. Mrs Phillips, Isabella, Lizzy and Kitty had each written a few letters during her isolation in the countryside, each more in fact than her mother, and far less self-centred; Mary had only sent a short note, wishing her luck for the confinement and birth, but as the sisters had never been close, the correspondence had not persisted beyond a short answer; Jane and Mr Bennet had not written, not even to reply to the missives she had initially sent.

In Pemberley, after many discussions with her sisters, Miss Darcy and a visiting Isabella, Lydia decided to make her own way in life. She had her allowance as well as fifteen hundred pounds to fall back on if she failed, and more importantly she had a good eye for fashion. During her frequent rambles in the small town close to the farm, she had met a very successful seamstress from York, who was visiting some family locally. The two of them had quickly bonded over their love of dresses and bonnets and before the lady returned to York, she had offered the young girl a place as dress designer in her boutique should Lydia ever seek employment.

Darcy and Elizabeth travelled to York with Lydia, to meet her new employer, and helped her settle in a small appartement in a safe part of town, with the maid that had lived with her for many months as her companion. The girl had grown to like Miss Lydia, and would remain in the Darcy's employ to ensure their sister was well looked after. They, together with Kitty and Mrs Phillips would remain in Lydia's life, never abandoning her as her parents had.

In only a few years, designs by Miss LB became popular first in the northern towns of England. Once her sister, Mrs Darcy, and her cousin, Mrs Fitzwilliam, were seen wearing her designs to exclusive events in London, her fame in town was soon assured, and before long the ladies were able to open a second exclusive boutique in Bond Street. As a full partner in the shops, Lydia was happily busy for the rest of her life, and comfortable enough to barely notice the inheritance she received when her mother passed. She remained informed of all the happenings in Meryton through Mrs Phillips, who she regarded gratefully as the instigator of her reform, and to whom she regularly sent accessories, coats and hats, only choosing her best designs in colours that would suit her now very fashionable aunt. She saw her sisters and cousin in town, although usually for tea and gossip at the back of her shop while the ladies were being measured up; sometimes she woult travel and visit them, but it was rare as her success left her with little leisure time.

At the age of eight and twenty she married a young solicitor she met through his sister, one of her most regular and faithful customers, but she never gave up the work she enjoyed so much. She never had any more children, but could not bemoan that fact, having never quite forgotten the experience of birthing a large stout baby boy.


Louisa and Gerald Hurst remained mostly in their beautiful Bath townhouse, with the occasional visit to Somerset, Hertfordshire or London to visit with family. After the passing of Mr Hurst senior, the younger couple shared their time mostly between their estate and their home in Bath, only leaving for a yearly visit with the Bingleys. The London townhouse, being mostly unused, was open and available not only to Charles' use, but also his Scarborough uncle and cousins.

Mr Hurst never felt the need to drink or eat to excess after the separation between Louisa and her sister. Little Marianne became a proud big sister to her two brothers, and being a sweet happy child, laughing and smiling easily, she became a firm favourite with her Bingley cousins as well as her siblings.


As she had feared, Miss Caroline Bingley was obliged to move from her much maligned but soon regretted Marshmont Street house to a more affordable situation in Scarborough. Mrs Smith, her companion did not wish to leave London with a lady who would not help her own social ambitions, so Caroline invited a former friend of hers, a spinster with a fiery temper, to join her so that her reputation was preserved.

The two ladies were entirely incompatible as to temper and habits and proceeded to make each other miserable for a very long three years. Bitter, disappointed and desperate, Caroline accepted an offer for a marriage of convenience with a business associate of her uncle James. Her husband needed her dowry and wanted an heir; the marriage was cold and indifferent, and after Caroline birthed a daughter and a healthy son, husband and wife lived mostly separate lives, each using separate rooms and apartments in their home.

Caroline lived a long life, unhappy, dissatisfied, but respectable. While she kept a regular, if not warm, correspondence with her siblings, she only saw them at family weddings and funerals after her own nuptials. Her children meanwhile were mostly raised by their father, who was happy in their company and gave them a good life and upbringing in exchange.


In Hertfordshire, the three Bingleys, for Mrs Agatha never moved back to her own house, lived in perfect harmony at Netherfield Park. Charles happy outlook and enthusiasm banished Charlotte's cynical former opinions, while her practical nature allowed her husband to realise his full potential as a landed gentleman. Aunt Agatha's cheerful nature smoothed over any disagreement or issue they might have had, completing their happy family.

Charlotte had thought she would never know love; now she had a husband she adored, her beloved family close by and a charming aunt she could always rely on. Her best friend Eliza was delighted for her.

Her life was complete, or so she thought. After four red haired cheeky little invaders entered her life however, she finally understood how much she could love, and how much happiness a person could feel. Her two elder girls, followed after a long gap by a brother and a younger sister were as clever as their mother with the happy demeanour of their father, and all adored their Hurst cousins, and all the almost-cousins they had through their parents' closest friends.

The friendship between the Bingleys, the Darcys and the Fitzwilliams never faded, and yearly meetings in London or at one or another of the estates ensured that despite their increasing families the friends would always make time for each other.


Jane Bennet never married.

Thomas Bennet had finally drank himself to an early grave only seven years after he had sent his once favourite daughter away from Longbourn. He had barely interacted with his wife and remaining daughter for the last five years of his life, having cultivated a healthy dislike of both and no longer finding anything amusing in his wife's antics or his daughter's disdain.

Mr and Mrs Collins and their three children moved to Longbourn; although it took many years of hard work to restore the estate to its full profitability after Thomas Bennet's decades of neglect. With a son, and in time six daughters, Mr Collins was able to finally break the entail on Longbourn, ensuring that Collinses would remain in Hertfordshire even if future generations were once more blessed with daughters only.

With their increased income and Mrs Collins careful management, all six of their girls were well educated and had decent dowries, proving that Mr Bennet's indolence and mean spirit were the cause of his wife and daughter's relative poverty. The increased prosperity of Longbourn, together with Mrs Collins gentle manners erased the initial worries of the neighbourhood at seeing the former parson in charge of the second largest estate near Meryton; the Collins family was accepted fully by their new community before their first year of residence was complete.

Jane and her mother had been forced to move to a small cottage on the outskirts of Meryton, with only a cook and a maid of all works to help them. The interests of six and a half thousand pounds could have served them better had Mrs Bennet not been unable to resist frivolous purchases; she could see her own sister always sporting the latest fashions, with exquisite little items often appearing at church or in town. It was unfair, and Fanny deserved to have the same luxuries as her sister, if only she could find where to procure them from; after all Fanny had always been the prettiest girl in the family!

While depending on each other, the two ladies slowly learned to loathe each other over the years. With her income reduced on her mother's death many long years later, Jane Bennet remained in the same small cottage and finished her life alone and unloved, her bitterness never having abated. She never had the courage or integrity to reach out to any of her sisters or aunts and uncles, so while hating being alone, she did nothing to help herself.


Miss Mary Gardiner happily remained in Gracechurch Street, helping her aunt and cousins, and dedicating three to four days each week to her works at Saint Michael's. At the age of thirty, by then a happily confirmed spinster, her world shifted once more. The newly appointed Dean and Rector of Southwark Cathedral, just on the other side of the Thames, visited the charitable works he had heard much about. The Very Reverend V Shaw was a childless forty-year-old widower dedicated to his congregation. He recognised his perfect helpmeet in Miss Gardiner and less than a month later, approached her uncle for his blessing.

Mary's new life at the side of a kind and generous leader of the church, with work aplenty to satisfy her active and fulfilling lifestyle was exactly suited to the young woman she had become. The couple enjoyed a long, happy and loving partnership, remaining in London their whole life. Their only son followed his father's footsteps in the church where he was loved by all who met him, having inherited his parents' faith, kindness and generosity.


Seeing his brother and cousin's happiness, Henry Fitzwilliam did look for a lady he could love for many months. In the end, not having found such a woman at seven and thirty, Sutton married the spinster daughter of a gentleman whose estate neighboured Haddon Hall. The Ton was appalled to learn of his choice of a nine and twenty years old unknown lady of modest fortune for his viscountess when so many beautiful young debutantes were ready to accept him, but Henry could never envisage marrying a girl not older than his baby cousin Georgie.

The new Lady Kathy, for everyone in the family agreed that in her case a shortened version of her name was most definitely required, did not mind the barbs and jealous insults of the Ton. She had ceased looking for love years earlier and wanted the comfort and security of her own home, not unlike the former Miss Lucas had wished for.

Lady Kathy respected and liked her husband, and she worked hard, with help from Lady Susan and Mrs Darcy, to learn all the duties of a viscountess and the mistress of her husband small estate only a few miles from Haddon Hall.

In time the future Earl and Countess developed a comfortable type of love, far from the passion of the Darcys or Fitzwilliams, but enough for both to enjoy many happy and comfortable years with their two children, twin little boys looking very much like their Papa.


As for Mr Wickham, who was only remembered occasionally by the Darcys, it appeared that the gossip Sir William and his daughter had started in Meryton ended up governing his life to the end. He never got any chance for revenge, if he ever found out where the rumours started, for as soon as he completed his two months confinement to the camp for debts to the town's merchants, his debts of honour with fellow soldiers were called in, extending his punishment for the duration of the regiment stay in Hertfordshire. When the militia removed to Brighton for the summer, he had managed to run up additional debts before his superiors were made aware. Colonel Forster was angered and informed Wickham that his resignation would not be accepted until all debts were cleared. Believing a different colonel would more easily be charmed, allowing him a chance to resign and leave the career he now saw no future in, Wickham requested a transfer to another unit in the autumn. Unfortunately, his new unit was schedule to depart for India before he could manage his escape. Colonel Forster made sure the man's reputation followed him in his new posting, and with a more limited society Wickham soon discovered that he could not escape his duties in India as easily as in England. After being beaten savagely and left near death by the brothers of a young local girl he had interfered with, Wickham was forced to abandon his former habits and limit his amorous encounters to professional ladies. His beating had not only taken months to heal but left him with a permanent limp, missing teeth and a broken nose; the handsome boyish features he had traded on for so long were no more. George Wickham never returned to England, being killed in a small insignificant battle his unit was involved in about twelve years after his arrival in India.