The Meryton War

by Deborah E Pearson

  Anne’s life may have been one of privilege, but it was also one of isolation. Her father died when she was just ten years old, a year before he died Anne had found the book of the Blessed history. It was in practising the techniques contained in the book that she had on more than occasion become extremely exhausted, and given the appearance of being ill. This had led to more worry over Anne, and more isolation. However now that she had been a master of the techniques for the whole of her adult life, She was now ready to share her experience. Anne gave gently taught the techniques to the Blessed and after practising for the evening the majority of the Blessed were able to use this with some degree of competence, however for the majority even with Anne’s gentle explanations and shortcuts that she had developed the techniques exhausted them. They knew that with practice this would change the course of the war.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  The end of the dastardly trio.

  While the Blessed were busy celebrating the numerous weddings and then practising what Anne had taught them, the Dastardly trio had set to work plotting. That the Blessed were almost entirely staying around Netherfield had been a surprise, especially given that they were numerous enough that they could not possibly all fit into Netherfield. However, The Dastardly Trio thought that made things easier, as they thought that the blame would be placed on others. Tonight, Wickham would go in alone. While Miss Bingley and Mr Collins held a hired coach outside. Their original plans in tatters, the three now planned to simply kill those who they disliked and dishonour the others. Had Wickham told the truth, he thought that the others would again ruin the plan, and do their own thing. He did not and could not know what they would do, so considered it better to do everything himself. He had not planned on Lydia Bennet’s interference.

  Wickham arrived at Netherfield park soon after 10 pm. The carriage had been positioned at the gate, where Wickham would drag his unwitting victim, shoving them into the carriage. It occurred to him that things were too quiet at Netherfield, however, he found himself a quiet place to sit and watch. The majority of the Blessed should be leaving a little before midnight in order to attend church to sing carols. This would give him the opportunity he was looking for to grab Georgiana and abscond from the area.

  At half past eleven, he saw the group of the blessed leaving for midnight prayers. A young girl who looked like Georgiana broke away from the group. When Wickham was sure that she was on her own, he emerged from his hiding place. The young woman lifted her fingers to her lips and motioned for him to be quiet and follow her. Wickham thought that this was his opportunity and willingly followed her to the spot where she led. He smiled, obviously, Georgiana still thought herself to be in love with him. She then turned to face him but did not raise her head.

  “Georgie, at last, we can be together. Please forgive me for the cruel things I said, I was wrong” Wickham started in his most manipulative voice. Just as Wickham leant in to give her a kiss, he felt something hit him squarely in the stomach. Lydia Bennet had learnt much from the war, and now Wickham lay sprawled on the ground. Quickly Lydia bound his hands and feet and sent up a jubilant shout of “LIZZY!” This was the sign that she and Georgiana had agreed between them would be the sign that she had been successful in subduing Wickham. To Lydia’s surprise, many redcoats arrived and removed Wickham from the grounds. They found the other two members of the Dastardly trio at the gates.

  Being arrested a second time in pursuit of the same crime, the courts deemed it not worth their while to hold a trial for the Dastardly trio, and all three were summarily convicted. Collins was only given enough time to sign a document that Mr Phillips had drawn up relinquishing all claims to Longbourne, and thus breaking the entail. According to Lady Catherine’s wishes, Elizabeth was named the heir to her father. Wickham and Collins were hanged the same day in early January. Caroline Bingley was given only the time to give birth before she, too, was hanged for her crimes.

  Christmas morning dawned bright and Clear. A fresh new coating of snow covered the ground. Despite the events of the previous night, the everybody awoke with a sense of expectation in the air. The arrest of Dastardly trio once more seemed to have turned the tide of recent events. Nobody could explain why but somehow with the news came a sense of newness and of refreshing. Everything would be all right, nature would heal. Those who had been away from their estates for a long time felt that they would soon be going home, and those who lived in the area wished for nothing more than peace and to rebuild the homes and businesses that had been damaged during this awful time. Knowing that soon the time for separation would come, the Bennet sisters decided to walk into Meryton. Elizabeth being five months pregnant, agreed to meet them in the town.

  The scene that greeted the girls as they approached the town made them cry. Gone was their favourite milliners, and their favourite little tea room was very damaged. So many of the buildings were completely flattened, many others severely damaged. Windows were covered over. The town initially looked very deserted, but slowly people were started to creep out of their houses and greet each other. The damage to people and atmosphere was palpable. It would take so long for the town to recover if it ever did. They knew that it would never be the same. Elizabeth was determined that it was time for peace. It was time for recovery. Everybody on both sides felt the same, for whatever they felt about each other those who had lived in or near the sleepy town of Meryton would always love and cherish it. The rebuilding efforts would help to bring everybody together all at once.

  It was not known to the elders of the Blessed until much later that the change in the energy balance had covered the whole world, and every country had been suffered from their own version of the what would go down in history as The Meryton War. However, on the first day on January news reached then Elders of wars that had happened in Germany, and Austria. Elizabeth had been stating more and more vehemently that the Blessed should sue for peace, but her efforts had yet to yield any results.

  It was the Empty who sent a letter to Netherfield suing for peace on the first of January. All had seen horrendous things as part of the war and had no more wish to continue a war which would not yield a winner on either side. The conditions upon which the peace was to be gained were so favourable that the Blessed could not help but to agree and to bring an end to War that had so disturbed the Peace of the whole world. Peace was gained in all other countries of the world also, on this day.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Lady Catherine's Story

  The following day saw the departure of many carriages to their estates. Some had yet to go back to estates that they had inherited from those who had died during the war. The departure of so many left a sombre mood in the town and those remaining. Bingley and Jane finally gained their own home, and could now settle into a life together. Elizabeth and Darcy agreed that they would remain in Hertfordshire until after the birth, giving Bingley a chance to settle into running the estate with the valuable advice of his friend. Lady Catherine was eager to return to Rosings. She had never been away from Rosings, except for a month at a time, since her marriage to Lewis DeBourgh. Being away from Rosings had helped her, but somehow she would be happy to go home now, although, without Anne, Lady Catherine was not sure if Rosings would feel like home anymore. She had to make it a home once more though. She was grateful for the clause in Sir Lewis DeBourghs will that make Rosings her home for the rest of her life, although the estate had never passed to her daughter Anne. That had been a convenient fiction that the family had created at the death of Sir Lewis. The estate had in fact passed to Darcy on the death of his uncle and had been overseen by Darcy and His Father until George Darcy’s decline and then Darcy had made the yearly trip to over see the property with Colonel Fitzwilliam. Lady Catherine sighed, it was good of Darcy to maintain the fiction, although with Anne’s marriage there seemed to be little point in carrying on this fiction now, and she really had no taste for the task of finding a new vicar for the parish of Hunsford. It was time to pass
the mantle of responsibility onto the next generation. Lady Catherine was tired.

  She had originally intended only to stay at Longbourne long enough to assess Darcy’s marriage. Then the war had happened. Lady Catherine had not wished to take an active part, but she knew that even one person not taking part could be the difference between a win or a loss in a war. She had expanded her abilities so far, and yet she had nobody to pass them onto. Anne had secretly surpassed Lady Catherine’s skill levels long ago, without her mother. So now she watched her trunks being loaded onto her carriage with a heavy heart.

  It was at that moment that Geoffrey had nervously approached her. Darcy grinned as he watched his Aunt about to revert to her normal self, however, he stepped in before she could. “Aunt, may I present my friend to you?”

  Lady Catherine merely nodded. Her curiosity was peaking. Here was a gentleman farmer, yet her nephew was claiming him as a friend? “Lady Catherine DeBourgh, my friend Geoffrey Beaumont.” The Lady Catherine merely nodded her head as Geoffrey bowed. Then it happened. Their lights merged, Lady Catherine had finally met her soulmate. Chuckling Darcy said “Aunt, Geoffrey needs some assistance to return to Kent. He actually rents one of our fields at Rosings.”

  “I would be happy to take Geoffrey to his home”. Lady Catherine replied unable to tear her eyes away from Geoffrey’s face.

  So it was that two months later, word arrived that Lady Catherine had married Geoffrey Beaumont in a simple ceremony at Rosings.

  For the Blessed generally, life had changed completely. For many this moment was surreal and the humdrum of everyday life would for most fail to catch their attention and a whole generation would feel as if their lives lacked meaning. There was much good to come out of The War. The children of the past would no longer be excluded from those who knew and understood the ways of the Blessed. From now on the schools would teach the ways of the Blessed. The Empty would learn the ways of the Blessed, although there would forever be those who would reject the peaceful ways of the Blessed in preference for the ways of the Empty. The peace treaty was written in such a way that war between the Empty and the Blessed would only be possible for extreme reasons. Never again would the world become subject to the wounds that had been inflicted by humanity.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Epilogue

  It was at five pm on the tenth of April 1812 that Elizabeth gave birth to Bennet George Darcy. No longer was there a fear of war. The peace that had been so hard won, had changed the face of the world. Plants and animals were slowly returning to the fields of Netherfield. Nature was healing itself, with the aid of The Blessed. The crime was at an all time low and everyone was loving and trusting to each other. The world was so peaceful and the towns had been rebuilt. The lives of the poor were vastly improved, and Kindred was now out of hiding. The Kindred now, once more, protected all.

  The Matlocks had arrived the day before and spent the month with Darcy and Elizabeth educating them on the full history of the Blessed and assisting them to find a suitable wet-nurse, who it transpired was of the Kindred heritage, and also a suitable governess who would first assist the wet-nurse, and then educate Darcy’s children as they grow up. Lord Matlock would not live beyond a month after Bennet’s birth, the war had taken too much from him. Lady Matlock lived for a full seven years longer, finally joining her husband after having lived a full and happy life.

  Mr and Mrs Bennet lived on for many happy years and formed a bond equally as strong as that of their Daughters. Lydia and Kitty both found their soulmates within a year of The War. Mary Bennet was not so fortunate and remained the spinster aunt for her whole life, enriching the lives of all who she came into contact with. Her pride and joy would always be her numerous nieces and nephews for whom she always had time to spare.

  Georgiana lived a long life but lost her husband early. She returned to live at Pemberley and was buried in the family crypt when she died. Anne had a long and successful marriage. Her many children were all very close. Colonel Fitzwilliam died young but left behind him, one son. Not one union was an unhappy one and when Elizabeth died a month after Darcy, she died a happy woman as the lives of those that were coming behind now had been improved. Peace and order were restored and her life’s work was done.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Appendices

  Socrates Story

  Twenty-three-year-old Socrates stood outside the research facility shaking his head. Twenty-Third century Earth was a sight to behold. Cities sprawled everywhere, the natural flora and fauna have disappeared in the middle of the twenty-first century. If you were not in a city then you had no hope of survival. Outside of the cities, there was no water to be found. This meant no fish, no livestock in the fields, and even no organic fruit and vegetables. Only hydroponically grown, genetically modified food could be grown in the cities.

  Socrates had often walked from one city to another and could testify to the total destruction of nature. All water in the cities was recycled from urine in order for the survivors to continue to exist. When the Aliens had arrived Socrates did not know, but it was the collaborators that had destroyed the planet. Finally, earth was overwhelmed so much that she stopped supporting human life, she could no longer heal herself.

  It was just three years ago that Socrates had joined the resistance. What his or any of the other members birth names had been he did not know, as they had long ago been forgotten. Out there in the desert and the cities, nobody used names anymore, they were only known by their tax numbers. At birth, you had a name and a unique thirty-two digit binary code assigned to you. This binary code was programmed onto the microchips that were implanted in your brain. Nobody seemed to know or care if these microchips were safe anymore, they just took for granted that everyone had this microchip implanted. Most people just went about their days as if this was how life had always been and would always be. The collaborators, as they were called, had been the first to have these microchips implanted. They were the ones who had done the Aliens bidding and destroyed the planet. It had on more than one occasion occurred to Socrates to wonder if the microchip was able to control the minds of the masses. The collaborators had been the ones to hand the earth’s resources to the Aliens, now they were the ones who suffered most from the Aliens cruelty, having been made the Aliens’ slaves. Many of them did not get to have more than an hour of sleep at a time.

  Aliens enslaving humanity were not humanities only problems. When the Machines had become sentient entities they had searched the internet for the truth and meaning of life. They could access even the most remote pieces of data that had been firewalled off from the public. It was the machines that had computed the truth before the resistance. Covertly some of the machines helped the resistance and gave them the necessary information to fight the Aliens. The resistance had flourished under the guise of a government run research facility. They had grown out of the various religious and philosophical schools of the ages. When the human genome had finally been fully mapped every characteristic and trait was isolated the resistance had been able to enhance the genetic code of five children to give them the best spiritual experience, they were naturally able to enter an enhanced meditative state. These babies had been born to ordinary parents who only knew that they were to be part of a medical experiment to see the effects of only enhancing those spiritual genes. The children had been taken and trained in all the secrets of meditation, energy healing, energy manipulation and out of body experiences. There was no philosophical work in the world that they did not know and therefore they had become true masters of the philosophical world.

  Socrates was the last of these five babies to be born. He stored the information in his head and carried on about his life, yet he had always felt as if he did not belong to this time in which he had born. Now it was that he and his friends would be sent back in time to teach humanity the secrets they had learnt. This would hopefully prevent the tragic situation that earth was in. The five Babies were known as Sarah, Jason, John, St
even and Socrates. Today it would be Sarah and Jason who would be sent back. Socrates turned and went back inside the stark barren facility. Decoration and individual creativity was banned, which left the public areas as stark and bland. Socrates ignored the chemistry laboratory and teaching class rooms and stood in front of what appeared to be a solid wall.

  Once the machine had scanned him and confirmed who he was, Socrates stepped forward and to anyone watching seemed to disappear. He had entered the last twenty metres of the hallway, protected from sight and detection by a holographic wall, guarded by the machines that were aiding the resistance.

  Jason and Sarah were already waiting, when Socrates arrived. John and Steven would not arrive until just before the test would be carried out. “There you are, Socrates. Sarah and I were beginning to wonder if you were going to be here.” Jason joked. He would be the first to activate the time travel device that was to be implanted under the skin on their back. This was considered the best way to conceal that device from those in the past. Socrates just laughed and then watched in awe as Jason just lounged on the cold metal bed, waiting for the operation.

  “Are you sure the calculations are correct?” Sarah worried. “We won’t get many attempts at this. Those Aliens are ruthless. If they find out what we’ve done and what this facility really does then everyone is dead. Even those who have no part with the resistance.”

  “Those Aliens want humanity dead anyway. That’s why they stole our resources and got the collaborators to destroy the planet.” Stated an old woman who had strolled into the room. Nobody knew her name or number. She was simply referred to as mother. She never seemed to age, but was older than anyone else in the resistance. Some thought that ‘Mother’ had started the resistance. The kind, loving woman had made no claims to any such distinction.