Epilogue Part II
In case you wondered at the fate of Mr. Wickham, Mr. Bingley, and his sister… well… they had an interesting adventure.
Correction. Mr. Wickham did not have an interesting adventure.
The third day into his journey across the Atlantic, as he leaned over the rail expelling everything he’d ever held in his stomach since birth, a rogue wave swept him overboard.
His early demise was noted in the log book and no one ever thought of him again.
However, Charles and Caroline did indeed travel to Scarborough after their separate disasters at Elizabeth’s presentation ball, but the gossip from London followed them, and life as they knew it, became unbearable.
They decided to remove themselves from England and set sail for Canada later that year, never to return.
Mr. and Mrs. Hurst breathed a collective sigh of relief as the ship left its mooring.
Within weeks of their arrival, Charles met a new angel in the Canadian town of York, (now known as Toronto), and married her post haste before she could change her mind.
He then invested money in a fur trading company that later became known as the Hudson Bay Company and raised two sons and three daughters with his lovely wife on the beautiful shores of the St. Lawrence River in a growing city called Montreal.
He was exceedingly grateful he had a flair for languages and spoke French fluently.
In 1813, when American forces attacked York, Charles and his wife were safely away, having already moved to Quebec.
Caroline stubbornly remained in Upper Canada as she was determined to marry one of the more prominent generals.
Unfortunately, during the attack, he was killed and she was carted off during the looting and rioting that followed.
One of the higher-ranked American officers briefly entertained the thought of marrying her for the money she claimed her brother would pay for her safe return, but given her caustic tongue and high-minded manners, he made the wise decision to remain poor and unshackled.
Instead, he let his men play a game of cards for her hand.
The intelligent soldiers ‘lost’ quite early, leaving Miss Bingley to the care of Sergeant Herbert Jackson, a mountain of a man who thought nothing of spanking his wayward wife if she misbehaved.
Four children later and quite rosy-bottomed, the former Miss Bingley finally learned to temper her words and attitude.
Surprisingly, once she folded that caustic tongue to the back of her mouth, her husband began to soften in attitude as well, and Mr. and Mrs. Jackson had a happy marriage, adding two more children to the household.
She never repined losing Mr. Darcy, although she was convinced that pert Eliza Bennet would have benefited from a husband such as dear Herbert.
THE END