Epilogue #2
As all indicators pointed to in her coming out season, Lady Tiffany Fitzwilliam and Lord Wesley De Melville, Viscount Westmore, fell irrevocably in love.
He chafed at the restriction of not declaring himself until the end of her first season, but being a gentleman of the utmost honour, he stayed true to his pledge to Lord Matlock.
The day after the season ended, he proposed and was accepted before he could fully make his request and promises.
They had a very happy marriage with five children, three sons and two daughters, and when that sad day came that Lord Jersey went to his eternal reward, they made a very fine Lord and Lady Jersey.
Luckily the dowager Countess Jersey, Lady Sarah De Melville, survived her husband by more than twenty years and lived to see great grandchildren.
In early 1820 Lord Reginald Fitzwilliam passed the running of Snowhaven to Andrew Fitzwilliam, Lord Hilldale.
He wanted his heir to experience running multiple estates before it became a necessity with his passing.
Lord Matlock still participated in the House of Lords, but rather than be tied to their estates, when the Earl was not needed in Town, he and Lady Elaine would sojourn at one of the estates of their children or nieces and nephews to spend time with the rapidly growing number of grandchildren, grandnieces, and grandnephews.
As much as Reginald Fitzwilliam, the Earl of Matlock, loved a good political debate, he loved spending time with his beloved wife even more.
The Earl survived a good number of years before he passed on to be with God in heaven. His Countess followed him some years later, after seeing a number of great grandchildren born.
Lord and Lady Hilldale had five children in total.
Other than David and Gillian, they had one more son they named Richard, and two more daughters, Matilda and Emmaline, who were called Matti and Emma, respectively.
They lived at Hilldale until Lord Matlock asked Andrew to take over Snowhaven and the other Fitzwilliam estates.
It was a very sad day for them and all of the family when Reggie Fitzwilliam passed.
When David and Grace, the new Lord and Lady Hilldale, were granted an heir, he was named Edwin Reginald, to be called Eddy, after the beloved patriarch of the Fitzwilliam family whose middle name had been Edwin.
Andrew and Marie made an excellent Lord and Lady Matlock, and the dowager Countess was never asked to live in the dower house at Matlock. Until she passed and went to join her beloved Reggie, when not at the home of one of her other family members, she lived in her suite at Snowhaven.
In addition to David marrying Grace, their other four children all made love matches as expected.
Given all of the examples in the family around them, it really could be no other way.
Gillian married the oldest son of a Duke, not for wealth and title, but for love.
The other three children of Marie and Andrew Fitzwilliam made brilliant matches, and their son Richard, who they called Rich, did not need a profession as he inherited an estate that was not part of the entailed Matlock estates in Shropshire, which produced six thousand five hundred pounds clear a year.
Mary and Hugh Rhys-Davies:
Lady Mary, Marchioness of Birchington delivered her first child, a boy Lord Haywood Thomas, named for his two grandfathers.
They were blessed with five more children after the heir and future duke.
After Haywood there were identical twin girls, Ladies Rachel and Amelia, who were followed by Lords Hugh and Matthew born two years apart, and lastly Lady Rosemarie.
As Mary’s fortune had never been touched and was left to grow with Gardiner and Associates, not to mention that Hugh was very wealthy as well, the three daughters received dowries of one hundred and seventy thousand pounds each while the younger sons both received the same amount as their sisters’ dowries.
In addition, Mary’s stake in Gardiner and Associates would be split among their children.
Lord Haywood would receive the substantial balance of his father’s fortune that was still growing, along with Birchington when his father became the next Duke of Bedford.
When he was six and twenty and she nine and ten, Haywood married one of the Darcy twins, Lady Amanda.
It was of course a love match, and at the wedding the Duchess remarked to Lady Longbourn about the irony that one day, hopefully far in the future, her goddaughter’s daughter would be the Duchess of Bedford.
Hugh and Mary Rhys-Davies were very close to their large extended family and spent a lot of time together with them.
Once the Duke passed away after they had been married for ten years, the couple ascended to the dukedom and always made Rose Rhys-Davies very welcome when she was not travelling, and like the Fitzwilliams never allowed her to move into the dower house.
Mary and Hugh loved each other with the most special kind of love that grew, rather than diminished, over time.
They were always surrounded by an ever increasing, loving family that eventually included grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Their life was never boring and their children and later grandchildren knew never to knock on a locked door, but strike the gong strategically placed in the hallway.
The Gardiners:
In 1830 Sir Edward Gardiner withdrew from active participation in the daily running of Gardiner and Associates.
With his advice and influence, his partners kept the business running and growing from strength to strength.
He retired to his beloved estate, Dovedale with his wife Lady Gardiner.
They travelled much in their sunset years as they had not been able while so tied to the businesses.
Other than his brother Bennet, his solicitor, and some trusted individuals, few knew the full extent of his wealth. When he retired, he had amassed well over fifteen million pounds in assets and was able to give his daughters dowries of four hundred thousand pounds each.
James Gardiner would inherit his father’s title, the estate, an exceedingly large fortune, and, like his brother and sisters, five and twenty percent of Gardiner’s fifty percent stake in Gardiner and Associates.
Peter Gardiner received a legacy of one million pounds and went into the business and followed in his father’s footsteps, eventually running Gardiner and Associates, taking the company to heights as yet unimagined when the technologies that had been discussed before Richard and Jane’s wedding started to make massive returns on investment.
Lily Gardiner married the eldest son of Ian Ashby’s brother, who was now the Earl of Ashbury, so she became the new Lady Amberleigh.
Their younger daughter, May, married a member of parliament and, like her cousin Lizzy, she was no shrinking violet.
She helped her husband become the leader of the Whigs in the commons. Her friendship with Grace never waned.
The two boys also did very well for themselves in both love and business.
James Gardiner became besotted with, and married the daughter of an Earl, and his brother Peter fell in love with, and married, the daughter of one of the investors in Gardiner and Associates, a Miss Rose Riverton.
The four Gardiner children produced nineteen grandchildren and eleven great grandchildren before the Gardiner patriarch passed away many years in the future.
Sir Edward and Lady Maddie Gardiner were beloved and revered by all the extended family.
They loved hosting family and friends at their estate, Dovedale, and loved being hosted by family just as much.
Until he was no longer physically able to, well into his eighth decade, Edward Gardiner loved to fish.
He could sometimes be found fishing in his favourite spot where he felt all of their destinies intertwined, just beyond the formal gardens at Pemberley.
Kitty Bennet:
Lady Catherine Bennet enjoyed her first season that she shared with Ladies Loretta and Tiffany.
About halfway through her first season, Kitty, whose dowry had climbed to over three hundred twenty thousand pounds, met Lord Mark Creighton, the Marquess of Chatsworth, oldest son to the Duke of Devonshire.
At first, she thought that he was the most arrogant, proud, and disagreeable man.
They argued almost every time that they were in company together.
Kitty could not understand why the difficult Lord Creighton kept approaching her.
She felt the same about him as Lizzy had about Darcy before she issued her setdown.
It was some years later that she sat with her sister and they looked at the parallels between the two in the early stages of their acquaintanceships.
After she had known him for a while, 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.
It was then that for the first time Mark Creighton allowed Lady Catherine to see the real man behind the public persona.
He explained that he was tired of all the fawning debutantes who salivated over his title, connections, and wealth and cared not a jot for him, so he used his behaviour as a defence mechanism.
He shared with her ladyship that he found her the most handsome woman that 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 that he was aware that she did not need to marry for wealth, as her family was far wealthier than his.