Epilogue
Darcy and Elizabeth lived together happily for over seventy years. They had their fair share of joys and sorrows, just like any other couple does. They fought a lot too, both being of a very passionate nature and not a little stubborn but just as they promised, every night they went to the bed that they shared despite the ton’s fashion of separate bedrooms, in harmony, not letting the sun go down with anger still dwelling in their hearts.
St. Raphael’s House of Healing continued to operate even after the war ended. Later it was catering to all invalids, especially those suffering of trauma. The schooling of nurses continued too, and it became a much sought after nursing school. Elizabeth continued to work at St. Raphael’s whenever she was in London. Although she stopped teaching the nurses, she continued to talk with the injured, trying to bring them solace.
Darcy and Elizabeth had two sons and two daughters, each as different from the other as they could be, but they were all loved and cherished by their doting parents.
Arthur Alexander, their eldest and the heir of Pemberley, was the exact replica of his father and had been a quiet and serious child from his infancy. Their second born, Peter Thomas also inherited his father’s looks but he had his mother’s sunny disposition and mischievous nature. Anna Maria had her Aunt Jane’s looks and she too inherited her father’s solemnness. The baby of the family was Clara Elise, the little girl who was the exact replica of her mother both in looks and disposition and as such, she was the one the most spoiled by her father. She was born eighteen years after her parents married.
Anna Maria married Raoul Almeida, Elizabeth’s godson, who attended Cambridge sponsored by his godmother. He inherited the property near Porto that was his father Ramon’s. Ramon received his estate for his bravery in the Peninsular war after reaching the rank of Colonel in the Portuguese army. He died in a battle in Brazil, about twelve years after Elizabeth left the Peninsula. The news of his death deeply saddened Elizabeth as she had always considered him like a brother of hers. Agostinho and Carlos returned to the old fishermen’s village and Senhorita Bella’s story, whom they all remembered and admired greatly, became another of the village’s cherished love stories. Agostinho who had married Miss Rose Harrington and Carlos who remained a bachelor for all of his life, took good care of Esterlita and Raoul until the boy was old enough to go to school, when Elizabeth had insisted on taking care of her godson’s education. During the time that they spent together caring for wounded soldiers, Carlos came to admire Senhorita Bella very much for her courage, kindness and determination to help others. Over the years he had searched for a lady who would resemble her but he had not been successful in finding one whom he would also fall in love with. He made Raoul his heir.
After her social suicide in the ton by angering Mr. Darcy of Pemberley, Caroline Bingley realized that she will never regain her footing in the society she always dreamed of being a prominent member of, especially that she only gained it in the first place due to her brother’s friendship with Mr. Darcy. After Bingley’s ultimatum that she will have to spend within her allowance and that if she was not married or at least engaged by the end of the Season he will settle her dowry on her and she will have to quit his house, she tried to attend functions in the circle of lesser gentlemen and wealthy tradesmen, hoping to find an acceptable husband there. However, she could not help her snobbery and sharp tongue, and she behaved scathingly towards all in that circle, an attitude which soon caused her to be ignored or derided by most of them.
It came as no great surprise to Bingley that the Season drew to an end without Caroline being any closer of being married than she had been eight years before, when she made her debut in Society. As good as his word, he did settle her dowry on her and asked her to leave his house. With no other choice, Caroline moved to Scarborough to live with an old aunt. As the years passed, her bitterness grew even more which in turn made her become even more sour and unpleasant to all around her. Five years later, realizing that she had no other prospects if she did not want to remain a spinster for all of her life, she finally married a middle-aged mill owner and had six daughters. She kept telling to all who would listen what a celebrated beauty she had been in town. Unfortunately for her not many listened and even those who did, laughed at her behind her back.
Mary who always had a penchant for religion, found a kindred spirit in Rev. Clarkson, the parson of Kympton, a very pious young man who took his profession very seriously. After spending her first summer at Pemberley with the Darcys, Mary and Mr. Clarkson became engaged and soon after the Harvest Festival they got married. Mary immersed herself in charity work and, supported by the Darcys, she founded an orphanage and a school in Kympton. She and Clarkson had two sons and a daughter who grew up with their cousins, the Darcy children.
Elizabeth and Jane were both elated that Stokes was less than thirty miles from Pemberley. Fitzwilliam resigned his commission the day before his wedding and settled his new family on the quaint little estate. He started breeding horses, the passion of his life, and soon he doubled the income of the estate, bringing it to over eight thousand a year. They had three sons and one daughter who, being the spitting image of her mother, was the apple of her father’s eyes and had him wrapped around her little finger in no time.
The Darcys and the Murphys continued to be very close friends after the latter returned to England for good in 1813, as Mrs. Murphy was increasing. She had a handsome son, Robert Murphy who followed in his father’s footsteps and became one of the most brilliant surgeons in England. Five and twenty years later Arthur Darcy married Miss Annelyse Elizabeth Murphy, the Murphys’ second child, a beautiful and vivacious young lady who proved to be just as kind and unconventional like her mother-in-law had been.
After finishing school, Kitty and Lydia chose to spend most of their time with either the Darcys or the Fitzwilliams, only rarely going back to Longbourn, to their mother’s liberally expressed displeasure. Mr. Bennet chose to spend his time in a similar manner which further aggravated the mistress of Longbourn who had never been invited to either of her daughters’ homes and more often than not, she was all alone at Longbourn with no one but the servants to inflict her nerves upon.
Darcy maintained his friendship with Bingley even after his set down of Caroline. Thus, it was during the Season of 1814 that Bingley and Kitty Bennet spent a lot of time in each other’s company and by the end of the Season they got engaged, to none of their friends’ surprise. Although he did not admit it to anyone, Bingley was still regretting not trying to gain Jane Bennet’s affections when he had the chance to do so. Kitty was the sister who in her looks was most closely resembling Mrs. Jane Fitzwilliam and Bingley was instantly attracted to her. Despite Bingley’s regrets over Jane, he and Kitty had a long and happy marriage, blessed with a son and three daughters.
Mrs. Bennet crowed to everyone in Meryton that in the end, one of her daughters did manage to ‘catch’ Mr. Bingley, and she was already seeing herself safely installed at Netherfield. She was incensed when Kitty too refused to marry from Longbourn and when she learned that the Bingley’s had no intention to take on Netherfield for good. Instead, Bingley fulfilled his father’s dreams by purchasing an estate, Thistledale which brought in a yearly income of five thousand pounds a year and was located about twenty miles from Pemberley and about the same distance from Stokes. Thus, most of the Bennet sisters lived within an easy ride from each other and their children grew up together.
Lydia and Georgiana, of about the same age, took their time in getting married and together they enjoyed all the amusements that the ton had to offer to eligible young ladies for a few Seasons. They married when they were two and twenty. Georgiana married Lord Daniel Cavendish, the eldest son of the Duke of Devonshire. Lydia married Mr. Caldwell, the second son of the Earl of Hampton. Lydia’s marriage was exactly what she had hoped for that early summer day in 1811 when she realized that she wished for a marriage just like her sister Lizzy had, and that for her to obtain that she needed to grow up to be a proper lady, not the empty-headed fluff that her mother was grooming her to become.
When Mr. Bennet died at the ripe age of eight and eighty, Mrs. Bennet, more than twelve years his junior demanded that she be allowed to move to Pemberley. Elizabeth refused her flatly. She tried the same at Stokes, then at Thistledale and finally at Applewood, Caldwell and Lydia’s home, with the same dismal result. She never even considered the parsonage of Kympton as she considered her due, as the widow of a gentleman to live on an estate, not at a mere parsonage.
Her sons-in-law purchased a cottage for her on the outskirts of Meryton after Collins and his wife, the former Miss Johnson, the daughter of Hunsford’s milliner, with their six children took possession of Longbourn. She had a cook and two maids who amply saw to all her comforts but she still complained of the mistreatment at her daughters’ hands to all of Meryton’s society. Unfortunately for her not many had much sympathy for her. Everybody in Meryton knew that her situation was of her own making, many even wondering at the generosity of her sons-in-law for providing her with more comfort than she deserved. She was still not welcome to any of her daughters’ homes, nor was she visited by any of them or their children. She died five years after Mr. Bennet relinquished Longbourn to Collins. To her last day she blamed Elizabeth for destroying her life by not marrying Mr. Collins, as it would have been her duty.
After Darcy married Elizabeth, Lady Catherine enlisted all her friends to find other suitors for her daughter. They were not successful and Anne de Bourgh never married. Lady Catherine continued to overspend and despite her brother’s strongly worded advice, she refused to implement any improvements on her estate. The end result was that they had to sell Rosings, as neither Lord Matlock nor Darcy were willing to bail it out, no matter how forcefully Lady Catherine demanded that they do so. Unfortunately for Lady Catherine and Anne, Rosings was in such a bad shape that they could not obtain a good price for it. They moved to their townhouse in London and lived off the interest of the money they got for Rosings, which was about eighteen hundred pounds a year, less than Longbourn’s revenue, which rankled Lady Catherine very much. Sadly, London’s air did not agree with Anne and she died only three years after they moved there. Lady Catherine lived another ten years after that, bitter to the very end that she did not get her wish of ruling over Pemberley and abusing Darcy and his wife to whomever would listen. In the end, none of her nephews visited her and neither did Lord and Lady Matlock. Just like Mrs. Bennet, she considered herself ill used by everybody, most of all her own family and especially Darcy who failed to bow to her will as she fully expected him to do. She blamed Elizabeth for the rest of her life, sure that if she would not have ensnared her nephew, she would have succeeded in browbeating Darcy to marry Anne.
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Darcy and Elizabeth were sitting on a bench under their favourite oak tree, holding each other’s hands. They were now both old and withered, him nearing one hundred and she over ninety, but in each other’s eyes they were still the same handsome man and the lovely lady who fell in love in La Bisbal, over seventy years ago. It was long since Darcy has handed over the management of Pemberley to his eldest son, and even many of their great grandchildren were now married, filling Pemberley with joy and laughter whenever the whole family was gathered within its walls.
“I cannot tell you how grateful I am for the beautiful and full life you gifted me with my dearest, loveliest Elizabeth” Darcy said quietly, lifting her hand to his lips.
“I feel the same for you” she smiled at him, her eyes not having lost their mischievous sparkle even if her face held now many laugh lines, especially around her eyes and her mouth. “I never dreamed when I left Longbourn, almost five and seventy years ago that I shall be blessed with such a wonderful life. At that time I did not think it likely that I will ever marry, and many times in the years that I spent on the Peninsula I despaired of ever returning to England.”
“Were you scared my love?”
“I was petrified” she laughed softly. “But then you came, my knight in shining armour, you swept me off my feet and you changed my life.”
“I seem to recall that you were not much impressed with me when we first met” he chuckled. “You threatened to thrash me if I did not vacate the hospital tent.”
“Well, you did barge in rather arrogantly, barking out orders” she giggled softly, caressing his cheek affectionately. “You almost fooled me into believing that you were an insufferable, overbearing bully.”
“A good thing then that I had Murphy to vouch for me” he laughed too, “and I was given the chance to win the heart of my Senhorita Bella.”
“You did win it for all eternity my love” she whispered softly.
“The greatest treasure a man can possess” he replied smiling at her and gently caressing her cheek. “To think that my arrogance might have turned you away from me…”
“There was little chance of that Mr. Darcy” she chuckled with mischief in her eyes. “I knew from the first moment I saw you that you were a keeper.”