Friends! Long time no post. I have been editing, re-writing and otherwise generally prepping this story to publish. So, you know the drill. I am going to have to take most of it down, since it will be on Amazon KDP. The story is fundamentally the same as what I have shared here but also quite different – some things have been cut, others expanded and hopefully all spelling and grammar errors caught and eliminated. I hope you'll check it out. It's published under my pen name, Elizabeth Squire. The title is After the End. Regardless, I wanted everyone to have this epilogue.

Thanks for taking the journey with me and all the ideas and encouragement you offered along the way!

Epilogue

Elizabeth stood on a stool in her dressing room as Abigail pulled and pinned her dress in various places. Her mind was elsewhere – all of Pemberley's thirteen guest rooms would soon be occupied. Some of their guests had already arrived - the Bingleys, her father and brother, the Gardiner family, and Viscount Lisle. Tomorrow Kitty and Mary and their husbands were expected as well as Mr. and Mrs. Collins. The final guests would arrive in two days' time. This group consisted of Lady Margaret and Mr. Smith, Lady Eleanor Langley, Baron and Baroness Radley, along with their son and daughter-in-law and Mr. and Mrs. Wickham. Though she had spent a great deal of time preparing not only for these guests but also their anniversary ball next week Elizabeth was still constantly considering the details to make sure nothing was missed. When they began to plan she did not have the same distractions which now divided her attention.

Elizabeth put her book down on her bedside table when she heard the door gently close. Stephen turned and offered her a sheepish smile.

"I am sorry."

"You are late," she admonished.

"I know. Hades threw a shoe."

"Oh no," Elizabeth moved from the bed and went to Stephen who remained by the door. He still wore his coat and boots the latter of which were coated with dirt and grass. Clearly, he had chosen not to awaken his valet and instead came directly to their room. "You were not hurt?"

"No, the only injury I suffered was missing dinner with you," he said, reaching for her. He stopped with his hands inches from her face. "I have not washed."

"I do not care," Elizabeth told him, placing his hands on her cheeks and putting her own on his waist. "I have not seen you in three days. I find myself very unconcerned about anything other than showing you how much I missed you."

Stephen's concern for cleanliness did not last through her first kiss.

Some time later Elizabeth lay with her head on Stephen's shoulder as he recounted his latest visit to Maplehurst.

"I should have gone with you," she said.

"The trip was unexpected, and we did not want to disappoint our friends," he answered while he stroked her hair with one hand and played with her fingers, which rested on his chest, with the other.

They had determined that they could take the thirty-mile journey to Maplehurst once a season to maintain the estate properly, leaving its day to day running to the very capable steward and staff. This most recent trip had occurred in between their planned visits and was required to address a problem with the harvest equipment. As they were expecting guests for a dinner party the evening after they received word about the issue, they decided Elizabeth would remain at Pemberley.

"Yes, yes, we did what we had to do, but I have not heard nearly enough about how desolate you were without me. It is the longest we have been apart."

"I am always utterly desolate without you," he told her, punctuating his statement with a kiss which communicated his sentiments with equal effectiveness. "However, need I remind you we spent several months apart soon after we wed."

Elizabeth propped her elbows up on his chest, bringing them almost nose to nose.

"That is true, but our wedding was not our beginning," she said, knowing he understood. It was something they had discussed at length. Sharing how each felt on that day and how her feelings grew and how they both came to see and accept the gift of their friendship becoming something more.

"In fact," she continued, "our real anniversary is fast approaching."

"And our real anniversary is when?"

"September twentieth," she declared with certainty. "I seem to remember an important conversation we had that evening after the Gardiners dined with us."

"Oh yes that conversation," he said, rubbing his chin as if deep in thought. "However, we had had many conversations before then. I thought you picked that day because it is an anniversary of a very important first between us."

Elizabeth blushed but did not pretend to misunderstand him.

"While that is certainly something worth celebrating," she began before her husband threw his arms around her and rolled them until she lay on the bed beneath him.

"I am glad you think so," he said grinning.

"However," she continued, feigning annoyance though not able to bring herself to protest either his sentiments or actions. "That was the day you told me you loved me."

"I feel like I had been telling you I loved for a while before then, but I suppose it counts. It was definitely the first day you told me you loved me."

"Then for a myriad of reasons it is our anniversary."

"Agreed. We should celebrate," Stephen said.

"Yes! Our marriage never did quite get the celebration it deserves. The Radley's ball was lovely but might not have been everything it could have been because of that scoundrel – what's his name."

"And your insane notion that I loved Lady Eleanor,"

"It was not insane. It was in fact very rational."

"As always, we must agree to disagree on this. I will forever deem insane any thought, feeling or idea that does not wholeheartedly acknowledge the depth and blatancy of my deep and abiding love for you," he said with the charming mix of earnestness and playfulness Elizabeth so loved about him.

And so, the idea not only for the ball but also of hosting friends and family for the fortnight surrounding the event was born. It took a week to settle their ideas and send out the invitations and a month of planning after that. Now it would all begin the next night with a large dinner party.

In the days leading up to and following the ball there were to be picnics, outings to the peaks, card parties and plenty of games and activities for the children. Elizabeth was thrilled about all of it. However, all the plans were made before last week. Last week something was confirmed that she had long suspected, and she was still considering how it would affect not only these plans but much beyond them as well.

"It will take me but an hour to let this dress out," Abigail said, recalling her to the moment. "However, we should try your ball gown on now. It will require more time due to its embroidery and layered materials."

Abigail helped her take off the newly pinned dress. Elizabeth laid it aside while Abigail pulled the ballgown from its box on a nearby shelf. It was the same one she had worn nearly a year ago, and she was excited to wear it again. This ball would play out more like she had imagined the other would before she read that letter and misread everything else. Once they had cleared up all of their misunderstandings Stephen had taken to leaving letters to his LL all over the house. Mostly they were teasing and playful, but sometimes he used them to express his deeper feelings, apologise for something he felt he had done wrong or to list the things he loved most about his Lovely Lizzy.

"This will take some doing," Abigail declared after she had circled Elizabeth a few times. The gown fit her quite differently than it had the last time she wore it.

"If it cannot be done, I understand." Though she very much wanted to wear this dress for sentimental reasons, she recognised it might not be possible given the circumstances. Abigail tutted in response and came to stand in front of her, pushing and pulling at the bodice, which was decidedly tight.

"Last time you had to take it in as I had lost so much weight, but now I am asking for you to find a way to have it fit me when I am with child. Perhaps, another gown would work better."

Abigail gasped and Elizabeth, who had been gazing at her waist and the way the gown bunched there, looked up. Her maid was looking over her shoulder and, in the mirror, Elizabeth saw what had caused her reaction. Stephen stood in the doorway; mouth agape, blue eyes wide with surprise.

"You are with child?" he whispered, awe and wonder layering his words.

Elizabeth turned to face him.

"Yes." He stepped up to her. The stool allowing them to be nearly eye to eye. "I was not certain until last week. I felt the quickening. I felt our baby."

Neither noticed as Abigail slipped from the room.

Elizabeth was smiling and crying. She had known last week when she felt the fluttering in her belly what it meant. Her suspicions had been raised the month previous when she missed her courses, but she was afraid to hope. Though knowing it was foolish, she was afraid to speak, afraid it would somehow endanger the nascent expectation, the thrilling possibility. Then one morning as she rode in her carriage, returning from a trip to Lambton she felt it. It was a miracle she had hardly dared hope for, and her mind quickly went to how to tell Stephen. She had a plan, which she thought was perfect, but this accidental moment felt more perfect than anything she could plan.

Stephen stood before her, eyes shining with joy and wonder. He put one hand on her check, kissed her deeply and then ducked his head to regard her stomach, placing his other hand there.

"Our baby," he said reverently. "Our baby."

"Our baby," she agreed, placing her hand over his, over their child.

"I love you, Elizabeth. So very much."

"I know. I love you just the same."

Abigail was able to alter the gown so that Elizabeth could wear it and as Stephen twirled his wife around the Pemberley ball room no one present, who had not already been told, guessed that in just four months the couple would welcome their first child, Amelia Jane Fitzwilliam.

Thank you, dear reader, for taking this journey with me. I am so thankful you have given me a chance to try and amuse, entertain and perhaps intrigue you.

This book is one I was reluctant to write. A Pride and Prejudice story without Mr. Darcy? Come on. But Colonel Fitzwilliam, excuse me Sir Stephen, kept pestering me. Elizabeth too. So, I began to write and the story of Darcy and Elizabeth was always present even as I tried to navigate what deep grief and reluctant hope might look like in the face of tragedy.

In the end, or after the end, I really enjoyed bringing familiar and new characters to life on these pages and again, am so grateful you got to know them.

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