Epilogue
The master and mistress of Pemberley were seated on the veranda overlooking the gardens and a grassy area near the treeline where several children were playing with their two Great Danes who had been acquired from the same breeder as the late, great Aggie.
After twelve years of marriage, Elizabeth and Will were more in love now than they had ever been.
Elizabeth had warm memories of old King George III from the times that she had exhibited for the monarchs in her younger days. It was sad, but there were few who denied the necessity of the step declaring the King unfit to govern.
Not everything had been smooth sailing. There had been the deep sadness of George Darcy’s passing when he had fallen from a horse as he was jumping a fence during the hunt some three years earlier.
The doctor had opined that death had been instantaneous; George Darcy’s neck had been snapped on contact with the ground. Pegasus, his horse, had two broken legs, and the screaming animal had been shot to put him out of his misery.
As could be expected, Lady Anne had been devastated at losing her soul mate and had only recently gone into half-mourning. As Elizabeth was with child for the third time, Will had foregone the hunt and stayed with his very pregnant wife.
A week after the death of their father and father-in-law respectively, Will and Elizabeth moved to Pemberley, though they were sorry to leave Rivington as they had been extremely happy at the estate.
It was decided that when Ben married, he would be gifted Rivington, as Will had been when he married his beloved Elizabeth.
Anne Darcy had wanted to move to the dower house, and Elizabeth and Will wanted her to remain in the mistress’ suite, so a compromise was enacted. The grieving widow would move into the suite that her son and daughter-in-law had until then used, which was then designated as the Dower Suite.
The hardest thing for Will was sitting behind his father’s desk in the master’s study.
As much as he missed his father, he knew that he had to carry on as the last thing that George Darcy would have wanted was for Pemberley and all who depended on the estate to suffer because of his death.
Luckily, the steward was exceptionally good at his job, and he had assisted the new master as needed until Will had felt comfortable with all his tasks.
His father had trained him and trained him well, but it was hard to take the reins fully for the first few months in his grief.
There had been the stillborn child between the first and third child born to Elizabeth and Will.
The cord had somehow become wrapped around the babe’s neck that had resulted in her death.
The result of the birth had sent Elizabeth spiralling into a depression that her husband and family had been concerned she would not survive.
Bringing Ben—Bennet George, their firstborn—who had been born the tenth of November 1810.
Having the almost two-year-old try to play with his Mama had somehow reached her when all else had failed.
Thankfully, Ben had pierced the veneer of her depression, and Elizabeth had started to recover.
Once she was well again, she shared that she had blamed herself for her daughter’s death but finally accepted that it was not so.
Their second son, George, was born two years after Elizabeth’s recovery, and the long-awaited daughter, Priscilla Beth, named for her late great-grandmothers, was born two months after the tragic death of her grandfather George.
Two other deaths had saddened them all. The first was Anne Ashby.
After several years, Anne had conceived, and everything had looked good until the midwife had attempted to deliver the babe, a girl, who was breech.
The babe did not live more than a few minutes, and her mother joined her daughter with God soon after, as neither the doctor nor the midwife could stem the haemorrhaging.
A devastated Ian did not want Rosings without his late wife as he still had Sherwood Park in Surrey, so he relinquished it to Richard and Loretta’s second son Andy.
Her death had hit her Mother, Elaine, and family extremely hard as she had been so long their daughter and sister that she was mourned as much as any sibling and child might be.
The second death was Lady Rose Rhys-Davies, a year after the loss of Will’s father. She had contracted flu, and the fever kept increasing until it took her after a battle of three days. Jane and Perry, and Marie and Andrew, not to mention the rest of the family, had felt her loss very keenly.
Two years after the twins, Jane had given birth to a daughter, Tammy Rose, followed almost three years later by Lydia Jane.
Less than two years later, the last of Jane and Perry’s children, Maxwell, to be called Max, was born.
Due to complications with the delivery of the afterbirth, Jane was unable to deliver another child.
They were sad that there would be no more but were grateful for the five healthy children they had, even more so that all five had been born before Lady Rose was lost.
Three years after Tiffany was born, Andrew and Marie welcomed Richard William to their family, and two years after him, Penelope Rose became the fourth child and second daughter to be gifted to the Earl and Countess of Matlock.
Loretta and Richard rivalled Elizabeth and Will in felicity in their marriage.
Less than a year after their wedding, Brookfield’s heir was born.
Grant Cyril Fitzwilliam was the first of six children—so far.
Two daughters, Sarah, barely a year after her brother, and Lucinda, called Lucy, born less than two years later, came next.
They were followed by Andrew, called Andy, Jackson, called Jack and Cassandra Anne, called Cassy Anne, spaced out about a year and a half between each.
As much as they mourned Anne, they were not unhappy that their second son Andy would not have to shift for himself. Thankfully, Jack had the gift of the gab, so they envisaged him reading the law one day.
The biggest surprise to most of the family was the betrothal of Georgiana Darcy and William Bennet in April of 1814 when Georgiana had turned twenty.
She had two London seasons and had never found anyone vaguely interesting to her.
The truth of their romance was unknown to most of the family but was not a rash decision.
Evidently, the two had started having tender feelings for one another some years before.
Two and a half years after their wedding, Jane Anne Bennet joined the world. She was named for William’s late mother and his father’s sister, and her maternal grandmother. Less than two years later, little Tommy George Bennet arrived. Georgiana was currently increasing with her third child.
Even though William’s legacy had grown exponentially over the years and with the addition of Georgiana’s dowry, they could have easily purchased an estate; they never chose to leave the parsonage at Pemberley, which was the largest of the three rectories in the parishes for which William held the livings.
Of all of Elizabeth’s Bennet siblings, only Tom remained unmarried.
James had married one of the Goulding daughters in a surprise to all who had thought that he and Georgiana would one day form tender feelings, but if any had bothered to ask either of the principals, they would have been informed that the two saw each other as no more than brother and sister.
Some years ago, Kitty had requested that she be called Catherine.
She married a man from Bedfordshire who, after their marriage, inherited his family’s large estate.
They so far had been blessed with a son and two daughters.
John Manning had married the daughter of the head of the firm that he worked for and was a much sought-after barrister in London. They had one daughter, named after his mother, and his wife was increasing again.
Much to Bennet’s pleasure, as Kitty was in Staffordshire, he and Tammy spent a minimum of four months a year in the north where Bennet was able to visit the various libraries on his relatives’ estates, though he would always make sure that he had the most time in Pemberley’s library.
He felt the loss of one of his best friends when George Darcy’s accident robbed the family of his presence.
Bennet and Tammy had many grandchildren and cherished every single one of them. The Darcy children had never questioned why they were so lucky as to have three grandmamas; they just accepted it as fact and enjoyed being spoiled during a visit from any or all of them together.
A year earlier, Alexander Darcy, who no longer wanted to be called Alex, had married Lady Candace Woolridge, the daughter of the Earl of Oakmont.
Will had changed his mind about Rivington with Elizabeth’s hearty agreement, and it had been presented to Alexander and Candace as a wedding gift.
The two were extremely pleased as they had planned to use his legacy to purchase a smaller estate.
Will was certain, and his mother agreed wholeheartedly, that his late father would have agreed with his decision.
When Ben reached that point, there was always Castledale in Yorkshire until he took over Pemberley.
The estate was a little smaller than Rivington and cleared between five and six thousand pounds per annum, and like Snowhaven, only the outer wall of the castle remained with the interior having being redecorated by Elizabeth and Lady Anne in the year before the horrific accident.
Now at the ripe old age of thirty, Elizabeth was increasing for the fifth time and praying that this would be a live birth.
Unlike her second time increasing, this babe was very active and had been since the quickening.
“When do the Hursts and the contingent from Hertfordshire arrive, my love?” Elizabeth asked as she rested her hands on her swollen belly.
“On the morrow, my heart,” Will replied, “and the Gardiners and their children. I understand that Lily’s betrothed will be part of the party.”
After her daughter Mary, Louisa Hurst had only delivered one more babe, another daughter who they had named Caroline in honour of a sister she once had loved and with the hope that she would be nothing like her late aunt.
As expected, Graham Phillips had married Cara Long a little after her eighteenth birthday, and they so far had one child.
Franny was married to her father’s clerk, who would take over the practice one day.
Bingley and Mandy had three boys, Oscar, Charlie, and John.
Mandy was with child and praying that she would have a daughter this time.
Martha Bingley accompanied the Hertfordshire party riding with the Long and Phillips parents; her mother had gone to her final reward some six years previously. As much as Martha missed her mother, she was grateful for the time that she had been granted with her.
“Will,” Elizabeth called his attention to herself, “if I had not been discarded, would we have met?”
“My belief is that we were always fated for each other, Lizzy, so I would like to think so. I could not imagine my life without you in it,” Will replied.
“We will never know; we may have met and argued and disliked one another. As evil as the plan to discard me was, I have to believe that it was fated so that we could be one as we are now,” Elizabeth said as she considered the breadth of her life thus far.
“Regardless of how we arrived at this point, I believe that our love is one for the ages that cannot be extinguished by anyone or anything, even death,” Will stated as he took his wife’s hands.
“Yes, Will, I believe that you are correct. Regardless of how I got here, I am right where I need to be,” Elizabeth said as she lifted her husband’s hand as kissed them.
~~~The End~~~