Epilogue
Following the examples of their elder sisters proved fortuitous for Kitty and Lydia Bennet.
After completing her schooling, Lydia joined Kitty in visiting the Gardiners and participated in the Season with Georgiana Darcy.
While neither Kitty nor Lydia were as sought after as Georgiana, they did have their share of suitors.
Kitty was the first of the remaining three sisters to fall.
During the season after the twins were born, the girls continued with an art master, although only Kitty had a serious interest in art.
While Lydia and Georgiana were working together, Kitty was more diligent in working with the instructor, the third son of a gentleman who chose to become an artist instead of joining the military or the clergy.
While his parents were not happy with his choice of profession, they provided him with a reasonable income, which he supplemented by teaching and commissions for portraits.
Slowly, as they worked together, the two fell in love, and when it was time for the family to depart in mid-July that year, the young man, Benjamin Waverly, spoke to Darcy to ask him to approve his suit.
Darcy was initially reluctant, but as Mr Waverly and Kitty were adamant about the match, he hesitantly agreed to a courtship.
Since Kitty was to accompany the family to Pemberley for the summer, he permitted them to exchange letters.
After just a month or two of this, and with Elizabeth’s encouragement, they invited Kitty’s suitor to Pemberley to paint Alex and the twins, allowing Elizabeth and Darcy to get to know the gentleman better.
Eventually, after receiving the assurance this young man could care for Kitty sufficiently, Darcy approved the match and allowed the couple to become engaged.
The wedding was scheduled to take place at Longbourn in November.
Many letters were exchanged between Pemberley and Longbourn to make the arrangements for the wedding and the breakfast. It was decided that Elizabeth would arrange for much of Kitty’s trousseau in Lambton, although Kitty and Lydia would travel to Longbourn after the Harvest Festival in October to finalise the wedding plans and to order the wedding dress in Meryton.
A sketch of what Kitty desired, along with her measurements, had been sent from Lambton’s dressmaker to Meryton’s dressmaker so she might begin work on the gown.
Mrs Gardiner sent the fabric from London as Kitty had selected something one day in the Spring when she was shopping with her aunt.
When it came time for the Darcys to travel south, they once again leased Briarwood Manor for their stay.
Jane and her husband would stay with his family at Netherfield for the wedding, while Mary remained in Derbyshire as she could not travel in her condition.
Several members of the groom’s family stayed at Briarwood with the Darcys, filling the house nearly to capacity.
Mr and Mrs Bennet were pleasant during the visit, although Mrs Bennet did complain when informed the Darcys would not stay at Longbourn.
They were only in Meryton for the se’nnight before the wedding, departing immediately after, and only attended one dinner at Longbourn.
Mrs Bennet was greatly disappointed by this and more so that Elizabeth did not bring the twins to visit.
“Mama, you do not even care to visit with Amelia; why would I bring my children to Longbourn only to have them sent to the nursery? They would be far too much for your nerves, and it is easier to leave them at home,” Elizabeth said when she began complaining about not being allowed to meet her grandchildren.
Mrs Bennet began to speak but quickly closed her mouth and turned to talk to someone else.
Her husband had admonished her not to argue with her second daughter, and she was unsure how to reply without appearing to argue, so she let it go.
It was true she did not want to see the children, as she did not particularly like them; she just wanted to tell her sister and neighbours that she had seen them.
Kitty’s wedding was everything Mrs Bennet could have desired, although perhaps not to the taste of the bride or the groom.
Mrs Bennet decided to make up for missing the weddings of her least favourite daughters by making Kitty’s a grand event, but the limited budget kept her from going too far overboard.
Therefore, it was a mostly tasteful affair, and the guests were made to feel welcome and left well-fed.
When the celebration was over, the bride and groom departed on a wedding trip arranged by the groom’s parents.
They would take up residence in a fortnight in a house paid for partly by Kitty’s portion of the funds Darcy invested for her and partly by a gift from the groom’s parents.
The couple would live in this small house in London and had a comfortable life, although probably not as well as the Hastingses and certainly not as well as the Darcys.
However, they had many family and friends and were content living on the income from their savings and whatever Mr Waverly earned through his teaching and painting.
Kitty was often his assistant when he travelled, although their three children eventually made this more difficult, and the couple sold the London house to move to a seaside village.
At the wedding, Lydia became acquainted with a friend of the groom, Mr Henry Stirling, who owned a modest estate outside of Bath.
The two quickly became friends in the few days leading up to the wedding, when they were frequently thrown together as attendants for the bride and groom.
Although she had planned to stay at Longbourn after the wedding, she went instead to the Gardiners, where Mr Stirling courted her for six months before he eventually proposed.
The couple married a little over nine months after Kitty’s wedding.
Mrs Bennet was happy to have another one of her daughters married to a landed gentleman, although Mr Stirling’s income was slightly less than half of what Mrs Bennet believed the Darcys’ to be.
Nonetheless, the matron was exceedingly happy to have all five of her daughters married, although she remained resentful that Elizabeth married the best out of all of her children.
That status was improved further when Georgiana Darcy married the second son of a Duke in her third season.
While not titled, he still had a substantial fortune, and the connection only raised the Darcys higher in society.
Shortly after the Darcys’ seventh anniversary, the final payment is made between Longbourn and Pemberley, paying the loan in full.
The Darcys presented the Bennet daughters each with a sum of money earned from the payments, which amounted to nearly two thousand pounds each with the accumulated interest. When Bennet discovered how the money was distributed, he was at first angry, but it did not take him long to realise that Darcy and Elizabeth had done for him what he should have done all his life.
Had he made any effort to restrain his wife or taken an interest in the estate sooner, he could have ensured all of his daughters had dowries instead of expecting others to ensure his children and wife were provided for.
As his children left home and married, Mr Bennet had managed to put aside additional funds in addition to the payments he had made to Darcy.
Mr Bennet found that in the seven years he was required to work to improve the estate, it had been more interesting than merely staying in his bookroom and reading, and with no children at home, the house was quieter and more peaceful.
He no longer had to hide to get the quiet he wanted, and he found his wife a decent companion.
The money he set aside more than doubled Mrs Bennet’s jointure and would enable her to live well should he predecease her.
The Bennets were never invited to Pemberley and only invited to London by Jane.
Mary rarely travelled that far, being very busy with her duties to the parish, and Kitty’s home was not large enough for guests.
Even the visits to London were rare as Mr Hastings did not care for his mother-in-law as she always managed to slight him, believing him to be little better than a tradesman.
In reality, Mr Hastings’ income was higher than even Lydia’s husband’s, but Mrs Bennet never understood that as a barrister, Mr Hastings was a gentleman and far above the position of solicitor.
Mrs Bennet was invited to Lydia’s home for the birth of Lydia’s first child.
and, during that visit, argued with Lydia’s mother-in-law to the point that she was banished from the home thereafter.
All of the sisters did occasionally get together at Pemberley.
The Darcys invited them all each summer, but usually, only one or two managed to make the trip, although every three or four years, they all managed to be there together.
No one ever addressed that their parents were not invited, and the Bennets were not missed.
Mrs Bennet had grown more resentful as her comments became more biting towards all of her daughters over the years.
Three years after the loan was paid, ten years after the Darcys’ marriage that changed everything for her family, Mrs Bennet passed away in her sleep.
Her daughters mourned her, not for what she was, but for the mother they wished she could have been.
Mr Bennet lived another five years without her, spending most of his time at Longbourn and enjoying the solitude.
His death, however, brought to the fore his lack of an heir for Longbourn.
William Collins had been declared dead a decade before Bennet’s death.
He had been bitten by a bug in Africa, and his wound festered.
Eventually, the man died from an infection, which the locals believed was due to the evil spirits the man had around him.
Since no one else bitten by this particular insect had ever died, the villagers believed this was a reasonable explanation for his death.
It took a year or two for the news to travel to England, leaving Charlotte a widow in truth.
Charlotte remained unmarried and enjoyed the privilege of running her own home for a decade after Collins was sent away.
She often visited Elizabeth at Pemberley and aided Mary in her charitable endeavours within the parish.
Darcy ensured she never wanted for anything, but when she was forty, she travelled with the Darcys to London for a season.
While there, she met an older Viscount with several nearly grown children, and the two became good friends.
He proposed at the end of the season, but Charlotte did not immediately accept.
After carefully considering the proposal for several days, she decided companionship was more desirable than independence and agreed to the gentleman’s proposal.
She never had her own children, but she became ‘grandmother’ to that gentleman’s grandchildren and greatly enjoyed that title.
Since no male heir was to be found, the Bennet daughters were permitted to decide for themselves what to do with the estate.
It was offered to each daughter in turn, and after Jane and Elizabeth turned it down, Mary and her husband chose to accept it.
The two moved to Hertfordshire with their four children, three boys and a girl, and continued modernising the estate, making it even more profitable.
The sisters also agreed to give the family Mrs Bennet’s widow’s portion, which they used to update and upgrade the house.
Several years after their marriage, the Darcys finally heard what happened to the Bingleys. During the season, Darcy encountered Mr Hurst in his club one afternoon, and he informed Darcy what happened to his former friend.
Miss Bingley’s banishment from London had been permanent as no one wanted her to live with her following her spiteful behaviour towards Mrs Darcy.
Bingley went north with her, and while there, his intended wrote him a letter to break their engagement.
She blamed this on the embarrassment attached to his name, but she married soon after this.
While Bingley had wanted this outcome, he had been rather upset when she married so quickly after and decided not to return to London.
However, during this time, it became apparent that no man in England would take Caroline as a bride without a substantial dowry, so the brother and sister decided to venture to America with what remained of their fortunes.
The Hursts received only one letter announcing they arrived somewhere in Virginia.
The Darcys were exceedingly happy. In the decade after their marriage, they added five children to their household: Alex, the eldest, had been followed by the twins, Anne and Wills, and then two more came in the following years—Henry James, named after Lord Matlock, and Helen Eleanor, who they called Ellie, named for her Great-Aunt Helen.
Pemberley thrived under their care, and the hallways rang with the sounds of the children who were reared with an emphasis on acting responsibly and avoiding allowing resentment to fester.