Epilogue #2
When her time was up and she gave birth to a little girl, the baby was immediately put up for adoption with a respectable and well-to-do family and Julia dismissed from the house.
Sick of her life of servitude, Julia joined a high-end brothel and started getting paid for what she did best in life: cavort with dishonourable men.
She never again contacted her family in England and they likewise never enquired what had become of her. Julia’s name was never mentioned in Derbyshire and her memory soon faded from all good society.
***
Mr George Wickham fared better, having a loving companion to keep him safe from trouble and mischief with him, during his voyage to the new world.
The captain of the Laconia, a certain Frederick Wentworth, married the two of them and when they disembarked in Boston they hired themselves out as butler and housekeeper to Baron Saintlier, whom they had befriended on board the Laconia.
The Baron was immigrating with his young family to America and appreciated having proper English staff.
They served him and his family faithfully for twenty years until they retired from service to open their own business: Omni Parker House Hotel, which became the home away from home to American presidents and heads of state.
Their children Nicholas and Thomas Wickham continued their business until the day they died, rich and with a large family each.
***
As for Miss Bingley, when she left her brother’s house and protection she removed herself to Dorant’s Hotel in London to wait for the release of her dowry.
Her plan was to buy a house in the fashionable neighbourhood of Mayfair and then organise her life accordingly: she would marry an Earl or a viscount and be a force to be reckoned with in the Bon Ton.
The first people to whom she would give the cut direct were Lady Anne, Mr Darcy and whoever Mr Darcy married. They would never be included in her social gatherings or welcomed into any of her houses, of which she would have many.
A few weeks later, Bingley did indeed release her dowry, but by then she had already met Lord Byron and his coterie of friends.
They were a deplorable bunch with peculiar and questionable behaviour, expensive tastes but not enough money to sustain them.
So they attached themselves to whoever could bankroll their exploits, like parasites.
She bought the best house she could afford at Berkeley Square which cost her half her dowry.
Then, influenced by Lord Byron and now her own friends, spent a fortune furnishing the house with the latest, most fashionable furniture, carpets, curtains, works of art and the added expense of acquiring servants, of which she had a veritable legion.
The parties she promoted became infamous in London, not for their social standing but for the debauchery that invariably followed those revels.
Within five years Caroline had spent all her fortune, had not found a rich husband to pay for her loose life style and to make matters worse, she had been infected with the French disease.
All her so-called friends forsook her like rats deserting a sinking ship, so at last she found herself not only alone but also destitute.
She sold everything that was not bolted to the ground to buy medicine, potions that made no difference to her decline. Her house, once a dazzling array of colours and luxury became as empty and silent as a graveyard.
One by one, all her servants left to find employment in more respectable and more prosperous households. The last servant to abandon her post was Caroline’s maid who, after years of abuse, ran away leaving her mistress with no help and no mercy.
The end came swiftly with Caroline taking a lethal dose of laudanum.
However her last thought was of her amiable brother and sister in law who had reached out to her a few months earlier, entreating her to turn her life around, abandon her dishonourable friends and seek reconciliation with those who cared about her.
She had asked the butler to throw them out of the house and under no circumstances admit them again.
At the very last, she regretted it… in fact she regretted most of her adult life and the decisions that had led her here.
She died alone at the age of nine and twenty and was only found six weeks later when the neighbours complained that there was a foul smell emanating from the house.
By then the rats had consumed most of her flesh, leaving behind only the parts they did not like.
***
Mr Collins never made his final destination, Australia.
He had managed to secure one of the positions of clergyman on board ship and therefore enjoyed a little more freedom than the other convicts; despite the fact that the entire crew and passengers avoided the unpleasant man as much as they could.
Nonetheless, as stupid as he was, he made the terrible and fatal mistake of attempting to rape a young African lady; the companion of an elderly passenger who was travelling to visit her daughter in Johannesburg.
One night while the young lady was taking some fresh air on the deck, Mr Collins approached her from behind and put a knife to her throat, informing her that if she made no noise, she would be able to escape with her life intact.
But regardless what she did, her virtue would be gone by the time he finished with her.
Happily for her, the young woman was trained in martial arts by her six warrior brothers in Mozambique.
As fast as lightening she twisted the fat and unfit man’s arm breaking it in two places: first she broke his wrist when she repeatedly smacked it against the railing, forcing him to drop his knife, and then the deltoid bone when she pulled it behind his back and twisted it mercilessly.
Once he lay on the ground crying pathetically, she pushed him overboard.
Nobody missed him and his absence was only noticed when they disembarked in New South Wales four months later at Port Jackson.
Mr Bennet was never informed of his cousin’s death and when his widow died in 1839, the estate returned to the crown.
***
Lady Anne lived a long and happy life. She got to see all her grandchildren, of which she had seven; three from Darcy and Elizabeth and four from Georgiana and Lord Walton the Earl of Warrington. She watched them all reach independence and adulthood.
James Bennet the heir of Pemberley married Lady Abigail Maitland, the daughter of Lord and Lady Holton, the Earl and Duchess of Dundee.
The beautiful and softly-spoken Jane Marie who resembled her aunt in looks, character and name, married David Buchanan; the new master of the Buchanan estate, effectively putting an end to a feud that had lasted more than two decades.
And the youngest, Anne Elizabeth, married her cousin three times removed, Rodrigo Montez Fitzwilliam, the youngest son of General Fitzwilliam and Ana Maria, and raised their family in Spain.
Darcy and Elizabeth took Lady Anne to visit Anne Elizabeth and Rodrigo in Cádiz, where, beneath the cool shade of a bougainvillea, and with her newest great-granddaughter in her arms, Lady Anne peacefully surrendered her soul, content to have seen all those she loved happily settled.
She was most beloved and much missed by all!
The End