Mary had come out just after her eighteenth birthday in April 1810. By the end of that season, she and Richard were courting one another, and they married in April 1811, a few days after her nineteenth birthday.
Mary had been overwhelmed by the gift from her sister, the expanded Longbourn which in size and earnings was only slightly less than their estate of Rosings Park. It would be turned over to Robby when he gained his majority.
Anne de Bourgh had signed Rosings Park over to Richard six months after he had taken up residence at that estate. She had lived there happily without any responsibility for running the estate. Once Mary and Richard married, she and Mary had become the best of friends, and until Anne’s passing—more than ten years after her mother left the mortal world—in 1822, she had been aunt to the Fitzwilliam and other children in the expanded family.
Lady Catherine had not survived long at the asylum to which she had been relegated. In the winter of 1809, she caught a trifling cold, and regardless of her protestations, that one of her rank did not get ill, she had been very sick. It eventually became pneumonia and that malady had been what ended her delusional life.
Mary and Richard’s first child, Lydia Anne, was born in June 1813. In April 1815, James was born. He was followed in August 1818, by Robert, Robby to his friends and family, by Bethany in March 1821, Priscilla in November 1823, and the babe of the family, George in September 1827.
Both Ellie and Lydia Anne, having large dowries and impeccable connections, had been relentlessly pursued since they had come out after they turned eighteen. Being close in age and best of friends, they had their coming out together. Inthe two seasons since then, they had refused every offer for a courtship. They had made a pact they would only accept one when they found a man they would be able to esteem, respect, and love, and who would return the same in full measure. Besides their own parents, there were too many examples of felicitous and loving unions among their aunts, uncles, and grandparents to ever settle for anything less. Even at twenty, neither worried. They had more than enough of a fortune if they never found a man to marry.
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After Mary, next to marry was Kate in February 1813. Kate had met Viscount Westmore, Lord Wes De Melville, at her coming out ball. He was already eight and twenty, ten years her senior, but that had not stopped their romance from blossoming. By November 1812, he had proposed and she, very much in love, had accepted him.
Given her husband would one day be the Earl of Jersey and have more than enough estates, Kate, like Jane, had refused Elizabeth’s gifting her an estate.
As it was Wes’s father who had senthimto hell, Elizabeth felt it was kismet that one of her sisters should marry him. So far the Earl and Countess of Jersey—Lord Cyril had passed away in 1824—had two sons and three daughters and Kate suspected she was with child again.
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As only a few months separated them in age, Anna and Lydia had come out together during the little season in 1813. During the season of 1814, Lydia met Lord Mark Crieghton, Marquess Kingsford and son of the Duke of Devonshire.
Due to her love of the castle, Lydia accepted Castlemere from Lizzy, but left her sister and brother and their familyliving there until Papa Robert passed away and they moved to Pemberley.
The estate would go to her third son who did not have an estate of his own.
At around the same time, Anna met the young Earl of Granville, Lord Harry Smythe. The two couples met and were granted courtships within days of each other. They proposed to their respective ladies in January 1815. Both were accepted. Anna and Lydia were married in a double wedding in March 1815, a few days after Anna turned twenty.
Lydia and her Mark were blessed with a daughter born in late 1816, and a son born the same year—three months before—his grandfather went to his eternal reward. The late Duke of Devonshire passed away in 1819, making Lydia a Duchess. Since then, Lydia had birthed two more sons and two more daughters.
Thankfully for Robert Darcy, Granville, Anna’s husband’s estate, was just across the Derbyshire-Yorkshire border in the latter county. As such, it was barely more than four hours in a coach for him and his Anne to visit Anna and her family.
To date Anna had four children, three girls and the youngest, a boy and heir. She suspected she was with child again.
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Elizabeth looked across the aisle to where Charlotte, Lawrence, and the rest of their extended family were seated. Besides their daughter marrying Will, Charlotte and Lawrence had four more children, two girls and two boys. They were the owners of the Portnoy estate as Ernest Portnoy passed away in 1821.
Sir William had gone to his eternal reward three years previously. Elizabeth could not but smile when she thought howpleased he would have been to see his granddaughter become a duchess. Lady Lucas was seated next to Charlotte.
Of her uncles and aunts, only the Gardiners were still with them. Uncle Frank had passed away seven years ago and Aunt Hattie had followed him six months later.
Eddy Gardiner, married for six years now, ran his father’s business with his younger brother Peter, also married. Lilly had married the owner of a large estate in Oxfordshire in 1819 and May, the youngest of the four Gardiner children, had waited until she was three and twenty to marry in 1827. From their four children, Madeline and Edward Gardiner had thirteen grandchildren—so far.
They had retired to a medium sized estate less than two miles from Madeline’s beloved Lambton.
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What of George Wickham you ask? He settled in New York and finally decided to get himself educated. After university, he read the law. He was one of the most sought after lawyers in New York and amassed quite a fortune.
He married and ended up having four children, a son and three daughters.
Wickham maintained a correspondence with his father, and when the latter informed him of his retirement in 1817, George sent an invitation to live with his family in New York. Contained within was not only the fare for a first class ticket, but a bank draft to Mr. Darcy repaying him in full for all debt markers that man held in his name. Having missed his son for so many years and once again being proud of the man he had become, Lucas Wickham accepted his son’s invitation.
The ex-steward had lived with his son until his passing about a year past.
Other than a letter of thanks she posted him, Wickham never had any contact with Her Grace. He did follow the news about her and had been pleased, not envious, when he had read about William Darcy marrying her.
