Epilogue #3
When the newly engaged couple entered Darcy’s study, they were not overly surprised to see Thomas and Fanny Bennet sitting therein with Lizzy and William.
No one opposed the betrothal, but both the Bennet parents and the older Darcys agreed that there would not be a wedding until one year after Tom had completed Cambridge, giving him time to learn what was needed to run Longbourn before his wedding to Georgianna.
Although they would have preferred sooner, neither Tom nor Georgie argued for an earlier wedding, as they could see the sense in the decision.
After the almost two-year wait, Tom and Georgiana Bennet emerged from the Kympton Church the happiest of newlyweds.
As Reggie Fitzwilliam had done with Snowhaven, Thomas Bennet turned the running of Longbourn over to Tom after he had been married to his Georgie for three years, and she had presented him with Tommy and was increasing again.
Longbourn on its own had an income well in excess of twenty thousand a year that now all went to Tom and Georgie. Georgie and Tom went on to have six children and, like his parents, had two boys and four girls, the difference being they had the boys first, followed by four girls, and no twins.
It was agreed that it was a very fair swap. William had his Lizzy and Tom had Georgie.
James Bennet:
Like his brother Tom did at Longbourn, James spent the time after graduating from Cambridge learning how to run Bennet Fields.
With all of the land that Thomas Bennet had added, Bennet Fields was close to three times the size it was at purchase, and now brought in a clear twelve thousand pounds a year on its own.
There was a nice river that ran through Bennet Fields, and Bennet had built a grist mill and a textile factory that used the water to power the looms. With the income from these two operations, a further five thousand pounds was added to James Bennet’s income.
On his five and twentieth birthday, his papa signed Bennet Fields over to James. Like the other Bennet properties, it had an entail that did not allow the land to be broken up or sold to anyone not a Bennet by blood, and that either male or female could inherit.
James was a lot more serene, like his oldest sister Jane, and like her, he had a backbone of steel.
A month after he and Tom celebrated their six and twentieth birthday, Tom met Lady Ingrid Wilson, the oldest daughter of the Baron of Wessex.
They fell deeply in love and after a short courtship, followed by a shorter betrothal, James married his Lady Ingrid.
They went on to have four children, a daughter followed by three sons.
Kitty Bennet:
Kitty, although some months older than then Georgiana Darcy, came out together with her best friend and sister. Kitty knew her best friend in the world, her Georgie, loved Tom, and she was pretty sure the love was requited.
About halfway through her first season, Kitty, whose dowry had climbed to over eighty thousand pounds, met Lord Haywood Mark Rhys-Davies, the Marquess of Chatsworth, oldest son to the Duke of Derby.
At first, she thought he was the most arrogant, proud, and disagreeable man, and they argued almost every time they were in company together. Kitty could not understand why the disagreeable Lord Rhys-Davies, whose close friends and family called him by his second name Mark, kept approaching her.
After she had known him for about six weeks, he came to call on her at Bennet House. Although to most it would be considered rude, Kitty asked him why he would call on her given how much they argued and disagreed.
For the first time, Mark Rhys-Davies allowed Kitty to see the real him. He explained he was tired of all the fawning debutantes who were only interested in his title, connections, and wealth but cared not a jot for him, so he used his behaviour as a defence mechanism.
He shared with Kitty that he found her the most handsome woman he knew, and he was sure after their acquaintance to date, that if she came to like him, it would be for himself and not his title. He said he was aware she did not need to marry for wealth as her family was almost as wealthy as his.
He requested, and was granted, the chance to start again so Kitty could come to know the real person behind the mask. She agreed but warned him his second and last chance would be over if he ever treated her or her family and friends with disrespect again.
At the end of the season, he called on Kitty at Pemberley, requested, and was granted a formal courtship. The couple courted for about six months and then Lord Chatsworth requested and was granted Kitty’s hand in marriage.
After his interview with Bennet, he was shocked to find out that it was very possible that the Bennets had more wealth than his family, and he almost gasped aloud when the amount of Kitty’s dowry was shared with him.
Three months after Tom and Georgie married, Kitty became Lady Catherine Rhys-Davies, Marchioness of Chatsworth. Mark’s father passed two months after the birth of their son, Haywood Jonathan Rhys-Davies, was born.
The Duke had passed away after a long bout of illness due to cancer. He died happy knowing the dukedom was secure with the birth of his grandson. Kitty was now her Grace, Duchess of Derby. She went on to present her husband with four more children, twin boys and two daughters.
Though the family would sometimes tease her with deferential or irreverent ‘yes your Grace,’ ‘no your Grace,’ ‘if you please, your Grace,’ Kitty and Mark were never formal with the large, extended family and loved each other very deeply.
Mark kept his promise and was never rude or disrespectful to Kitty or anyone else for all their long years.
Our Villains:
Lady Catherine de Bourgh:
Lady Catherine de Bourgh slipped further and further into her mania.
Toward the end, she thought herself a god that could command man and nature to do her bidding to whatever her will was at the time the command was given.
Four years after her commitment she refused to be treated for a trifling cold.
That cold turned into pneumonia, and three days after contracting the disease Lady Catherine shuffled off the mortal coil.
Lord Matlock was notified, and when asked what to do with the body he sent funds for burial but would not allow her to be interred at any of the family sites.
And so, she was buried with others that had passed away while consigned to Bedlam.
She would have been seriously displeased had she known she was to be buried between two servants, and it could be said the thought amused the Earl as the years passed and he reflected on his family late at night and alone, wondering how many times she had rolled over in her grave between them.
Caroline Bingley:
To her detriment, Caroline Bingley did not soon enough learn that she was the author of her own downfall.
After a very long and uncomfortable sea voyage, she arrived in the Americas and eventually rented a flat in New York City.
She tried to put on her airs and impress people with the same pretensions that had miserably failed to work in England but found out the people in the colonies were even less tolerant of her behaviour.
She was soon in the familiar position of the pariah no one wanted to associate with.
She had a little more than ten thousand of her twenty-thousand-pound dowry left.
Even though a kind soul had warned her, she was taken by a huckster who sold her shares in a non-existent gold mine believing she always knew better.
She was left penniless and was forced to go into service.
It was only once she hit rock bottom she realised what her behaviour had gained her, or more truthfully lost her, and she finally accepted the fact she had caused her own fall from grace.
Not long after her epiphany, on an evening in the twilight of a muggy summer day, she stepped in front of a carriage traveling at speed and ended her own misery.
George Wickham:
The most surprising was George Wickham. In his first months at Marshalsea, he tried his charms on fellow inmates and discovered the hard way there was no appetite for his lies and manipulation.
He lost a tooth, suffered a broken arm, and had many cuts and bruises before he finally realised if he wanted to live, he had to change.
So in the clarity of rock-bottom, Wickham understood he had to make a real change, not the appearance of one as had been his way of portraying himself as a gentleman.
For the next three years, he was a model prisoner and read the law like he had said he would when he got Darcy to pay him three thousand pounds for the living.
He was changed not just in word but also in deed.
He wrote letters to each family that he could remember that he had trifled with or imposed himself on their daughters to beg their forgiveness and explain he finally saw the error in his past ways.
He helped other prisoners and did his work, and sometimes the work of those not able to without complaint.
Five years after his consignment to Marshalsea he wrote Darcy a sincere letter of apology. He enumerated his faults, and took full responsibility for all, blaming only himself. Not once in his letter did he beseech Darcy to intercede on his behalf.
Darcy suspected this was another Wickham scheme, but after contacting the prison’s governor was shocked, even amazed, at the report he had received. After a lengthy discussion with his wife and extended family, he decided to make Wickham an offer through the governor.