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Mr. Bennet felt entitled to a great deal of teasing when his two most sensible daughters and his affectionate wife returned from London.

He had been left with Mary, Kitty, and Lydia long enough that he declared, “Had you stayed away another day, you might have found Lydia hosting half the regiment while I remained tied up with ribbons in my book room, festooned with lace and bonnets to complete my misery.”

By suppertime he had settled into the contentment of his favorites’ return, and after a few glasses of wine he waxed poetic on how he would miss his two eldest daughters when they were married.

“I shall seek refuge when I can at Netherfield, to be sure, but do not think yourself safe at such a great distance as Derbyshire, Lizzy. Bingley tells me his friend possesses a library that is sure to entice me to frequent journeys north.”

Over the next week, Elizabeth and Jane spent a great deal of time with their father, and even participated more in their younger sisters’ frivolous antics, knowing that their time for enjoying auch simple pleasures at home was coming to a close.

At night in their room they spoke often of what changes the spring would bring for them, and though they lamented the great distance that would separate them, they both looked forward to their futures with increasing anticipation.

The day before Christmas Eve, Mr. Darcy and his sister, and the Earl and Countess all arrived at Netherfield. They invited the Bennets, the Gardiners, and Mr. and Mrs. Phillips to celebrate Christmas at Netherfield, where Caroline deferred to Jane as the future mistress of the house.

A few days later, Charlotte called on Elizabeth and Jane, who had the pleasure of making complete amends with their erstwhile friend.

Charlotte expressed her gratitude toward Elizabeth for promoting the marriage that would take place on the morrow, and after inviting them to attend her wedding, she expressed a wish that they both might visit her in Kent.

Elizabeth satisfied Charlotte’s curiosity by sharing her impressions of Miss de Bourgh, who would surely make a more agreeable patroness to Mr. Collins than her predecessor.

At the wedding, Elizabeth congratulated her cousin in all sincerity, and gratified him by praising the new mistress of Rosings, who was to be her relation, and after a fashion, his own distant familial connection.

Daily calls between Netherfield and Longbourn, as well as frequent, lively dinners continued as often as the weather would allow.

A happy fortnight passed as if it had been no more than a few days.

While Jane and Elizabeth were so content in their courtships that they were nearly insensible of everything else that was happening, Caroline’s newest scheme did not escape their notice.

Amidst their holiday party, she had invited a few Darcy and Bingley relations who were unable to attend her wedding.

Amongst them were two of Mr. Darcy’s favorite cousins, the sons of his father’s sisters.

Mr. Cameron was a cheerful country parson, and Mr. Wilson had distinguished himself as a barrister.

Conveniently, Mr. Bingley also possessed two handsome and eligible single cousins, wealthy tradesmen like himself.

One was a young widower with two daughters near the age of the Gardiner children, and Lydia revelled in how they admired her and followed her about about whenever she was near.

The other Bingley cousin might have been his twin - might even have been just a little handsomer - Georgiana certainly seemed to think so.

After a celebration of the Twelfth Night that was nearly too felicitous for the new earl’s mourning period, he took his bride back to London, accompanied by Mr. Darcy and Georgiana.

To everyone’s relief, Miss de Bourgh and Lady Rosamund had managed to remove the unpleasant contingent of angry ladies from Darcy House, and not long after, Miss de Bourgh wrote to Elizabeth to thank her for the jewel she discovered in Charlotte Collins.

For the next three months, Mr. Darcy divided his time between London and Rosings, where he remained at his cousins’ disposal, and Meryton, where he readily put himself under Elizabeth’s command.

As a great jape between them, Mr. Darcy teased Elizabeth with his quest to become Mr. Bennet’s favorite son-in-law, and Mr. Bingley gratified them all by proving a determined competitor for the distinction.

Mr. Bennet knew what they were up to in wooing him nearly as assiduously as they did his daughters, and took every advantage of the situation.

He secured promises from each that they would host his wife and youngest daughters whenever he fancied a spell of solitude, and when Mr. Darcy attempted to curry favor with talk of the library at Pemberley, Mr. Bingley inveigled his sister in the business of bringing Netherfield’s library up to snuff.

She did not miss the chance to hint that her friends certainly thought the room a most agreeable one already, but she happily obliged her brother.

For the next three months, Mr. Bennet won a most unusual number of chess games while his wife planned a wedding fit for royalty.

Mr. Darcy funded it all, claiming it his responsibility, as his mourning for his uncle caused the delay.

Mr. Bingley had the honor of providing distracting conversation to Mr. Bennet whenever the subject of flowers and fripperies gave him the vapors, though his daughters suspected that he rather enjoyed demanding use of his wife’s smelling salts.

The double ceremony took place at the Meryton church, and it seemed half the village was invited to the lavish wedding breakfast at Longbourn on the eighth of April.

The earl and countess came up from London, intending to make a holiday for themselves at Netherfield while the Bingleys took a wedding trip to Bath, after Jane parted tearfully with Elizabeth.

The earl and countess were accompanied by those same relations who held such a fascination for Georgiana and her cherished compatriots, the younger Bennet sisters; Mrs. Bennet nearly expired from the extent of her raptures.

Georgiana was welcomed to stay another month at Longbourn before she would accompany the Gardiners north.

After a brief visit at Pemberley, she would go to the earl and countess at Matlock while the Gardiners accompanied Mr. and Mrs. Darcy to the Lake District for their belated wedding trip.

Elizabeth’s first month at Pemberley was full of marvels.

The house and grounds were just as Mr. Darcy had described, and yet far exceeded the beauty she had imagined.

As spring blossomed around them, she and her husband occupied themselves in whatever fashion they chose, from exploring the parklands of his estate to reading in the library late at night in various stages of undress.

With Caroline thriving only twenty miles away at Matlock, Elizabeth easily settled into her new role as mistress of Pemberley.

Before the summer’s end, the Bingleys had enjoyed their fill of daily visits from Mrs. Bennet, and purchased Westlake, an estate half the distance between Pemberley and Matlock.

It was not long before the Bennets brought their merry chaos north for a visit.

Only Mr. And Mrs. Bennet departed at the end of the visit, for their daughters had been invited to reside at Pemberley and enjoy a leisurely sort of education alongside Georgiana.

Nine months to the day after the Netherfield ball, the Countess of Matlock delivered her husband a robust little heir, whom they christened William Charles Fitzwilliam.

Caroline’s triumph was complete when she insisted on coming out of confinement little more than a fortnight later, so that she and her husband could resume the annual tradition of hosting a Harvest Festival at Matlock.

Delightfully smug at all that she had accomplished, and all that she intended to do, she invited the Darcy and Bingley cousins who had become a part of their set.

On the first day of autumn, Mary and Kitty were engaged before the end of the most spectacular ball they had ever attended.

It was not long after this that the Pemberley household, as well as the earl and countess, travelled to London for the winter.

Georgiana was to have her come out, and though Lydia was only sixteen, she “could hardly be put back in,” as she unabashedly informed her relations.

Though Mr. Darcy had intended to wait another year to bring his sister out in society, Georgiana and Lydia both did splendidly under the guidance of Mrs. Bingley and Mrs. Darcy.

The two newly married sisters quickly become darlings of the ton , for those not charmed by one sister’s gentle wisdom and the other’s lively mirth were content to comply with what the fiesty Countess of Matlock demanded, and she would tolerate only the finest treatment for her two dearest friends.

In December, Anne de Bourgh saw both of her Fitzwilliam cousins wed, if not happily then at least contentedly, to the de Bourgh cousins she knew would come to Rosings for an heiress.

Once they had left Kent, Miss de Bourgh did the same, and invited Mr. and Mrs. Collins and their infant son Thomas to accompany her on a short visit to London for Christmas at Darcy House, while Lady Rosamund and her husband journeyed to Rosings to ensure the widows housed there did not misbehave.

To their daughters’ equal horror and relief, Lady Catherine and the dowager countess had become the best of friends.

Lady Catherine was, for the first time in her life, hindered by her own frailty, while the dowager countess was naturally indolent.

Both fond of talking and seldom in want of any rational reply, they spend their days in languid contentment, responding to the local gossip with unwanted advice, and issuing edicts upon the minutiae of village life in Hunsford, which Mrs. Collins worked assiduously to mitigate.

Charlotte promised Elizabeth that it was an enjoyable hobby, making herself most useful in the parish by preventing the widows at the manor from inserting themselves into local affairs and holding court for every petty village complaint.

She looked forward to returning to Hunsford and unraveling whatever mischief they wrought on the poor curate.

The dowagers were soon joined by a third widow.

Little more than a year after her expulsion from Netherfield, Mrs. Hurst was again obliged to quit her home for a new one.

Not long after the birth of their first and only daughter, her husband lost a wild sum at cards, and found himself unable to pay in full.

He was subsequently obliged to pay a far greater price when dueling the man to whom he owed the debt.

Neither wishing to disoblige her sister with poverty nor herself with Louisa Hurst’s company, Caroline contrived for her sister to be sent to Rosings, where Miss de Bourgh, who was unlikely to have any children of her own, welcomed the babe with open arms, and managed to reform the mother into agreeable company.

Over the winter, Lydia and Georgiana made so many new friends that Elizabeth could scarcely keep their names straight.

They managed to charm every young lady near their age whom they encountered with their enthusiasm for dancing and discussing novels.

They were further captivated by a joint endeavor of Mrs. Gardiner and the countess, who established a small society of a la mode young women who gathered to create and share drawings in the style of fashion plates, leading to an eventual publication of their designs in a quarterly collection that was equally funded by the Darcys, the Fitzwilliams, and the Gardiners.

During the several months the families spent in London, Georgiana and Lydia began to receive the attentions of the Bingley cousins who had charmed them since their first meeting a year earlier.

Mr. Darcy joined Mr. Bingley in informing the two suitors that theirs were to be lengthy courtships.

The two eager beaux agreed, and both pursued Lydia and Georgiana to Pemberley when the Darcys left London.

Elizabeth had felt the quickening, and wished to spend her pregnancy and confinement in the country. Jane was obliged to make the same decision not a month later, and the discourse between Pemberley and Westlake was full of hope and optimism for the future.

It was the following Christmas, when a second Fitzwilliam son followed the Bingley and Darcy daughters, that the Countess of Matlock was chided for growing too like Lady Catherine.

With no more unwed sisters left in the family, save for Louisa, who could go to the devil, Caroline had begun to think dynastically.

Her husband teased her with relentless glee for it, while the Bingleys gently suggested that it was probable that little Elizabeth Bingley and darling Madeline Darcy would be fond of their Fitzwilliam cousins, and nothing need be forced.

The Darcys joined in the japery about it, but were clearly to blame for the exceedingly satirical letter Miss de Bourgh sent her cousin the countess, detailing the myriad horrors of hearing her mother’s oft-repeated proclamations on the marriage that had been planned since she and Darcy were in their cradles.

Caroline was quickly persuaded to let the matter rest.

Even so, the Countess of Matlock had no cause to repine as the future unfolded beautifully around herself and the friends who had become her relations.

And for the next fifty years, she was satisfied to remind them - but only on special occasions - that she was, after all, the cause of so much joy and abundance.