Mrs Younge or Wickham (uncertainty remained as she was unable to produce official proof of her marriage) proved every bit as violent a prisoner as she had been when a free woman. Her initial protestations of innocence had turned into furious vitriolic diatribes when confronted by the physical evidence and witness recollections that were put before her. The ladies of Pemberley were spared being exposed to her, but Mr Darcy and Mr Fitzwilliam returned pale faced and tight lipped from their one and only interview with her.

A magistrate from a neighbouring county had eventually been prevailed upon and it was arranged that she was to be removed from the neighbourhood speedily and permanently to await her trial for the murders of Alice Peterson and George Wickham. The scandal that such a trial would awaken was not anticipated with joy by any of the residents of Pemberley, but they all felt a little easier when they received notification that the accused was being taken to a more secure, and more distant, jail soon after her arrest.

However, Mrs Younge or Wickham was not destined to ever get her chance to plead before any magistrate. A rider came at speed to the doors of Pemberley on the very day that she was removed from their county. His message was short but to the point. The carriage transporting the accused to her new prison cell had never reached its destination, and had been found only after a lengthy search – dashed to smithereens after leaving the road on a steep hillside bend. There were no survivors to tell the tale of what had gone wrong, although reports from the last toll house that the carriage had stopped at indicated that the passenger/prisoner was causing all manner of disruption to the team transporting her. It was thus broadly supposed that she may have distracted the carriage driver long enough for him to make a fatal error.

Although Mr George Wickham, Mrs Anne Younge (as she was named at burial), and Miss Alice Peterson were all given Christian burials at the expense of the Pemberley estate, there was only true mourning for one of the deceased. But this mourning was heartfelt, and lengthy distress was felt by Alice's kin and friends. Her betrothed, Mr Ramsay, left the county for -shire. He never married, and is now regarded as one of the foremost preachers of the gospel in that county.

For the Darcy family, once the cloud of the murder trial was lifted from them, there was a chance to look to the future. Elizabeth attempted to softly introduce the idea that Georgiana may not wish to marry when she found her husband in a tractable mood, and she was astounded to find that he was by no means ignorant of her meaning. Whilst by no means resigned to his sister's choice, his considerations of her happiness and his esteem for the sensible advice of his wife were such that he did not offer open opposition to the idea that Georgiana did not have to marry unless she truly desired to.

He did insist upon a season in London for his sister though, but this trauma was softened for Georgiana by his permittance of her being accompanied to town by Kitty and Maria Lucas. Under the watchful eye of Lady Russell, a woman of good sense and propriety, the three girls were to enjoy a season which, although unconventional for two of the party, was to be looked back upon fondly by all three young women in future years.

The issue of Georgiana's future had been largely settled between Mr and Mrs Darcy by the time she returned to Pemberley after her season. With no indication being given that she felt any sadness at her lack of success in 'catching' herself a husband, her brother had been well primed to accept the notion that his sister would prefer to remain unwed. His occasional queries as to whether she would like to give the season another try were met by soft, wry smiles, and gentle shakes of the head, and he gradually accepted that he was not likely to ever escort his sister to the altar.

As Georgiana was now coming to an age where she could expect to be permitted to manage her own affairs (as Elizabeth continually reminded her husband), considerable thought was given to her living arrangements. For her to live any distance from Pemberley was unthinkable, and indeed Mr Darcy avowed that she was never to even think of setting up home anywhere else, being that it was her home as much as his. However, his wife was, as ever, more sensible to the nuances of the situation and was able, with the assistance of an eager Georgiana, to gradually win him around to the idea that the now vacant Dower House on the Pemberley estate would make an ideal home for Georgiana. She would have her choice of the household staff to go with her…and she would have the assistance of a companion, as was customary for a single woman of status.

No person of sense within the family circle had any doubt as to who that companion would be. Although the differences in their fortunes may have implied to outsiders that Kitty would live a subordinate role as the employee of her rich friend, those privileged few trusted friends who were admitted as visitors to the house were never in any doubt that the partnership between them was an equal one. Without fuss or fanfare the two women created a situation that allowed them to live without sensation or censure, and if the household staff ever paused to wonder why only one of the beds in the interconnecting bedchambers was slept in each night, they never felt the need to discuss such matters outside the walls of the Dower House.