“You know, if this horse breeding and farming career ever fails you, the theatre would be a logical choice. You could be the next Edmund Kean.”

Darcy grinned and drew her in for a satisfying kiss. Unfortunately, they were shortly interrupted by a knock at the door. It was the maid with an express letter addressed to Mr. Darcy, along with the rest of the day's post. Darcy opened the letter and began to read while Lizzy flipped through the stack, happily discovering a letter from her father and another from Charlotte Collins.

“Well, my love, it appears as if your wish will be granted tomorrow after all.”

“What wish is that?”

“That I am seen by a physician. This note is from my uncle George. He and an associate are arriving tomorrow and request lodging at Darcy House.” Darcy laughed. “As if he need ask.”

“How long has it been since you last saw him?”

“Well, let me think. He visited shortly after father died. He was unable to arrive for the funeral, the message announcing father's passing probably not arriving until long after. He is ostensibly stationed in Bombay, but travels throughout the country to remote villages where doctors are not located, so reaching him can be a challenge. It was some three months before he visited. Then he surprised Georgie and me a little over two years ago. He tarried most of the summer at Pemberley. Georgiana adores him, as is only appropriate I suppose since she is named after him. I receive a letter now and again, but he is often beyond any postal center and is very busy. You will like him, beloved. He has always reminded me very much of Richard, although the two are obviously not related, and he has the most astounding stories to tell. He is focused and driven, typical Darcy traits taken to extremes in his case.”

“He never married?”

“No. Too focused on his work. No children, as far as we know of. I suppose one can never be sure. He let slip once that he has an Indian mistress, but I did not ask for any further details. It will be delightful to see him. I must tell Georgie. Help me up, love.”

Lizzy had been surprised to learn of the extensiveness to the Darcy family. With Darcy and Georgiana orphaned and alone, she had naturally assumed they were the last of the Darcys. She was in error.

The Darcy family was ancient, tracing an extensive heritage back over five hundred years. A multitude of secondary bloodlines from siblings were long since lost, but one could easily presume there were unknown distant Darcy relatives scattered about. The name was not particularly common, but Darcy had told his wife of two occasions where he met someone with his surname. Whether they were an actual relative was impossible to ascertain, but the likelihood was plausible. The main Darcy ancestry was unbroken and included a plethora of noblemen and women on down through the centuries.

The more recent familial history was easier to delineate and also proved the reality of numerous Darcys.

Darcy's grandfather, James Darcy Sr., was the eldest of three sons. His younger brothers each married and settled down to raise their families, begetting a number of Darcy cousins now strewn throughout England, some of whom Darcy had never met. James Sr. and his wife, Darcy's grandmother, produced six children. The eldest, Darcy's aunt Mary, married an Austrian baron and currently lived outside of Linz, Austria, with her brood. Apparently, she and her husband had traveled to England a couple of times when Darcy was younger, and he had journeyed to Austria twice to become acquainted with his Austrian cousins, yet the relationships were distant.

James Jr., the heir to Pemberley, arrived three years later, followed by a sister, Estella; the twins, Alexander and George; and last Phillip.

Estella married a wealthy landowner, Xavier Montrose, and resided near Exeter in Devon with their children and grandchildren. Darcy's father had been quite close to his younger sister, and over the years, she and her family were frequent visitors to Pemberley and vice versa. Their two children, one male and one female, were both married with small children of their own. Despite the distance from Devon, both Darcy's aunt and uncle and his two cousins had attended his wedding, allowing Lizzy to meet them.

The twins were born when James was eight. From the time they could toddle the three had been inseparable—so Darcy told Lizzy—the age difference inconsequential. Estella was a bit of a rowdy girl and had fit right in, whereas Mary was delicate and dainty, finding the four intolerable. Alexander died at the age of twelve from injuries sustained after falling from his horse. The three youngest siblings had been devastated, especially George. The twins were identical and shared the unusual bond seen with twins, leaving George permanently bereft. James always told his son that George changed from that time forward: more serious, his wit caustic, and obsessed with medicine and healing things. He vowed to become a physician at an early age, a choice not pleasing to his father.

James Sr. had balked at the idea of a son of his being a mere doctor, the profession not necessarily considered respectable. Yet George persisted with the inherited Darcy stubbornness brought to the fore. When it became obvious that there was no altering his intention, James Sr. relented, providing George received his education at the Royal College of Physicians in London. George had done so, following his licensure as a physician by also enrolling at the Royal College of Surgeons as well as the Society of Apothecaries. His thirst for understanding medicine in all its aspects seemed inexhaustible. After his apprenticeship he refused to settle down and hang a shingle. Instead, he joined the British East India Company in 1790 and had resided and practiced in India ever since.

The last of the Darcy siblings, Phillip, arrived when James was sixteen and long after his parents expected further children. Due to the great difference in their ages, the Darcy siblings had not been particularly intimate with their youngest brother when he was a child. After Cambridge, James Jr. returned to Pemberley permanently; George was already away to college, and he and Phillip gradually developed a fondness, although the age gap prevented true companionship. At eighteen, Phillip was apprenticed to a banking associate of his father's, the world of high finance being his chosen field of interest, eventually settling in Manchester. James Sr. had been disappointed, wishing his youngest son would also remain at Pemberley and apply his skills to assist in managing the estate. Phillip and his family visited from time to time throughout Darcy's childhood, but only once after his father died. Darcy was not particularly friendly with his uncle, and although invited, they had not come for the wedding, so Lizzy had yet to meet them.

Therefore, Darcy and Georgiana had grown up relatively unassociated on a frequent basis with any of their Darcy relatives. Conversely, the Fitzwilliams all lived within an easy distance to Pemberley and Derbyshire, rendering their relationship effortless to cultivate. James Jr. had fallen madly in love with the lovely Lady Anne Fitzwilliam, daughter to the now deceased Earl of Matlock, when she a mere fifteen and he twenty. The affection had been instantly mutual, and three days past her nineteenth birthday, they were wed. Lady Anne's older sister, Catherine—in fact the eldest of the four Fitzwilliam offspring—was already wed to Sir Lewis de Bourgh and living in Kent. Her dearly loved sister Muriel, only one year her senior, would wed a Derbyshire landowner three years later, only five months after their brother Malcolm married Madeline, settling in Matlock.

Darcy's grandmother passed away long before he was born, some one year after his parent's marriage. James Sr. then chose to follow his dream, a dream Lizzy could easily envision her husband someday fulfilling. He completely relinquished the management of Pemberley into the hands of his vastly competent son and devoted all his efforts to the breeding of Pemberley's horses. James Jr. was Master of Pemberley in all but name, while James Sr. exponentially increased the breeding program and training of their thoroughbreds. Within five years of this arrangement, the wealth of Pemberley had doubled.

Anne embraced her role as Mistress of Pemberley while attempting to produce an heir. After two miscarriages, Anne finally carried and delivered a daughter, Alexandria. The pregnancy and birth were uncomplicated, Anne was robust, and the baby was fat and healthy. Tragically, when the vigorous toddler was just over a year, and Anne was again with child, she suddenly became ill and within a week had died. The doctors diagnosed it as scarlet fever. The family was grief stricken. Luckily, Anne's second successful pregnancy progressed as smoothly as the first and on November 10 of 1787, Fitzwilliam Alexander James Darcy was born, weighing well over nine pounds and screaming loudly.

Almost from the time Darcy could walk, he spent hours in the stables with his grandfather. Anne fretted, fearful of losing another child in the dangerous environment, but the old man was domineering and had not abdicated all authority. James Jr. agreed, his own fears of a similar fate befalling his son offset by the desire for him to be comfortable with horses and an outdoorsman. By the time Darcy was ten, he knew how to shoe a horse, could ride as well as most of the grooms, could muck a stall faster than any of the stable boys, had broken his first pony, and had intently absorbed everything his grandfather could teach him. When he was eleven his grandfather died, plunging Darcy into an abyss of grief. If he had spent the majority his free time in the stable yard before, he now practically dwelt there. His parents barely saw him except for meals, and even his studies suffered. It was the long awaited birth of a sibling which brought him back into the manor and the broader world outside of the barns.