The Not So Silent Life

The Not So Silent Life

Fitzwilliam Darcy’s rule-of-six turned out to be handier than anyone suspected, and at least some of the family kept it up with almost superstitious zeal.

Whilst proposals were made and accepted within six minutes to six anxious people, Elizabeth and Darcy decided to take his advice and took their time. Their wedding was set six weeks hence, to everyone’s satisfaction. After all, Bingley and Jane took six weeks to court properly, and fair was fair.

In an effort to keep Mrs Bennet from having six different apoplexies, Jane and Mr Bingley picked a fortnight earlier, thus giving them another month of courtship to acquire trousseaus and annoy Miss Bingley.

That left Mary and Mr Collins to wed a fortnight after the proposals, to everyone’s satisfaction. That, naturally, gave Lady Catherine time to attend the ceremony and try to browbeat her perspective new niece with six arguments the grand lady considered irrefutable.

These plans suited everyone except Mrs Bennet, until she was educated in the supreme benefits of having two wealthy sons joining the family—not to mention one of whom could always be counted on for sensible advice, even if he was inconveniently located in the wilds of the north.

Lydia and Kitty were also brought into the fold regarding the supreme benefits of being sisters of prominent families and single . Despite Lydia’s oft-repeated threat to be the first married, she finally came to her senses enough to properly enjoy her youth.

She was eventually caught by a man quicker than the rest, six years to the day after her elder sisters accepted their proposals, six months to the day after Kitty’s wedding.

By then, Darcy could happily (tediously, some might say) claim that six couples had been married due to his matchmaking efforts in Meryton, starting with the introduction of Miss Charlotte Lucas to Colonel Fitzwilliam at his wedding, and finishing with the famous Belinda-muttonhead incident.

The happy couples enjoyed many years of the joys and sorrows of life. Most of their children swapped houses whenever the mood struck them, such that none of the parents could accurately keep a census of current residents with any reliability.

In short, life gave them all that they could have hoped for after the silence of their initial acquaintance.

Only Darcy and Elizabeth carried the superstition to its natural conclusion with six children.

~~ Finis ~~