Despite being thrown into the path of rich and titled men, Mary Bennet happily accepted an offer of marriage from a tradesman’s son. She had long ago set her cap for young Daniel Burke, who lived across the street from the Bennet London townhouse.

Randall Candel, the Darcys’ Northumberland neighbour, did not win the hand of the lovely Anna Darcy. That honour went to Evan Gardiner, the son of another businessman.

Four years after their elder sisters had so blissfully tied the knot, Miss Bennet and Miss Darcy wed their strapping young tradesmen during a double ceremony in Pemberley’s charming chapel. Those genteel ladies, both gentlemen’s daughters, saw many changes take place in society during their lifetime; and as they reached middle and old age, those transformations and reformations became more evident. Through diligence and merit, many hard-working tradesmen, like Daniel Burke and Evan Gardiner, became extremely affluent. That wealth enabled them to purchase large tracts of property; and the upper classes finally, and begrudgingly, welcomed businessmen into the landed gentry.

George Darcy and Lady Anne invited their extended families to Pemberley every summer, and the grand estate’s manor practically burst at the seams. There were Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth with their five sons and one daughter; the Flemings and the Bingleys each had two daughters and one son; and Richard and Jane brought their boisterous blonde brood of three boys and four girls. In addition, the Bennet family often spent a week or two at the Derbyshire estate, as did the Gardiner clan, Daniel and Mary Burke, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, the Earl of Matlock and his wife, and Viscount Wentletrap with his wife and son.

In the month before Bennet Darcy turned one-and-twenty, his cousin Darcy Fleming was eighteen years of age; and both Henry Fitzwilliam and Lewis Bingley were nineteen. George and Lady Anne Darcy had long ago shuffled off their mortal coils, but Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth continued the tradition of inviting friends and relatives to Pemberley during summer. It was uncommonly hot in Derbyshire that particular season, and the four attractive, virile young men spent a great deal of time swimming and kicking up a lark in Pemberley’s piddling pond. That pitiful little lake had been dredged regularly; nevertheless, the lagoon still managed to generate a healthy crop of lime-coloured slime and a particular stench during late summer.

Ella and Leanne, the lovely daughters of Georgiana and Ellis Fleming, had invited a couple dearest friends from seminary to spend August with them at Pemberley. One sultry summer afternoon the four young women took a leisurely stroll around the grounds; and when the beauty and fragrance of the august estate’s magnificent gardens had been enjoyed to everyone’s satisfaction, they decided to head toward the river and visit the pretty chapel on the manicured lawn near the tall but neatly trimmed seven-foot hedgerow. The two Flemings related the story of how their own parents had serendipitously met at that very spot and about the triple wedding that had subsequently been held in the little church. The four giggled and sighed, thinking it all quite comical yet romantic. As the ladies exited the chapel and opened their parasols against the brilliant summer sun, a bizarre image caught their astonished eyes; and they screamed.

Bennet Darcy paced back and forth in front of the elegant mahogany desk, as he alternately ran a hand agitatedly through green-tinged chestnut curls and twisted the signet ring on his pinkie finger. He had already thrown a coat over the wet cotton shirt that clung indecently to his well-developed torso, but Fitzwilliam Darcy’s eldest child’s appearance still bore little resemblance to his usual meticulous attire and grooming.