Pemberley Ranch - Jack Caldwell [129]
Sally Younge was like a cat, always landing on her feet. Using her best talents—seduction and manipulation—she was able to corrupt an official of the women’s prison into allowing her escape. She fled into the expanses of the west and all trace of her was lost. A legend arose that she made her way to the mining towns of the Rocky Mountains, and under an assumed name captured the attentions of a newly rich mine owner. It was said that the couple moved to Denver where she became one of the matrons of society. It was a nice story, fit for penny novels, but no one knew if it was true.
In the tragic circumstances that Catherine Burroughs had helped create, the B&R was finally reunited with Pemberley, but not in the way she had imagined. Anne wanted nothing to do with the legacy left to her and signed away her rights to the vast ranch to Darcy as soon as she could. Texas held too many painful memories for the girl, and in the spring of 1872 at the train station in Fort Worth, her family and friends waved goodbye as Anne Burroughs began her journey to a new life with her Matlock relations in New York City, her elderly faithful servant Bartholomew right behind, carrying her satchel. He would care for the heiress for years until he grew too old to serve her, when they changed positions and Anne would see to his comfort for the rest of his life.
Anne’s was not the only departure from Rosings. Lily was welcomed back into the Bennet family, but there was no way she could remain with them. Everyone in town knew what had happened to her, so it was an intolerable situation. Tearfully, her parents sent her to live with the Gardiners in St. Louis, where no one would ever know her history. Letters from Missouri would report that she had been established as a salesgirl in the family store, a task for which she proved very well suited. In the years to come, she would catch the eye of a young bank clerk, and it was hoped by her family in Texas that Lily would find her happiness someday.
Mary Bennet would find her happiness in the aftermath of the assault. Three days after the attack on the Bennet farm, Tom Bennet found a nervous Henry Tilney in his study, stuttering his request for Mary’s hand in marriage. The request was not unexpected, and it was in Bennet’s character to use such a moment as an excuse to tease, but given all the horror they had experienced, his heart was not in it. Instead, he surprised the young preacher by embracing him, welcoming Henry into the family. As the courtship had been of some duration, a wedding date two weeks hence was settled on. Mrs. Bennet could not be happy with it, for there was no time for a new dress to be ordered or made, but she bowed to her daughter’s desire. Mary gave not a fig for finery—she only wanted to be Mrs. Henry Tilney and to be so as soon as practical.
Darcy would manage the B&R Ranch for the benefit of the victims of Whitehead and Cate Burroughs, using the profits to pay back the landowners and holders of claims against the now-defunct Rosings Bank. To run the place, renamed Rosings Ranch, Darcy appointed Richard Fitzwilliam as executive manager. José Estrada was promoted to take Fitz’s place as Pemberley foreman.
Fitz may have been in charge of the ranch, but no one was going to be living in the house. One night soon after the battle, someone—a disgruntled Rosings Bank customer, it was thought—set the abandoned mansion ablaze. It would be over an hour before the people from town would arrive, and there was nothing they could do once they got there, the firefighting equipment being inadequate, except watch the place burn to the ground.
This chain of events would have an interesting effect on the lives of Fitz and his beloved Charlotte. A few