10/25/2017 In the summer of 2014, I learned a long-time friend and mentor had passed away months ago and I was one of the last to know because my family is military and moves. 2 friends each thought the other had told me. So when I found out, I was not only devastated to lose a woman who helped bring me to church, but I felt like I had somehow been cheated a part of my life once again by the fact that I have been a Navy dependent (child and spouse) my entire life. I was angry! I was bereft… And that channeled into what if the same thing happened to Elizabeth Bennet?
Out of my pain and loss came one of my favorite series to write. I am working on Book 6 as we speak.
XOXOXO Elizabeth Ann West
Chapter 7 - A January for Jane, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
“Where is Dr. Simpson? I did not call for you!” The raspy voice of Duchess Hamilton snapped as Jane entered the guest room with a maid carrying the tray of teas brewed especially for Graham’s mother. In another time, the room was Lydia’s chambers, but Jane would not allow herself to think about that. Not when another woman lay in the same bed, so desperately ill she could not comprehend the danger to herself.
Jane curtsied deeply to show her respect to her superior, then offered a bright smile she reserved for the crankiest of patients in her care, whether that had been one of her sisters or her mother when in a fit of nerves.
“I have sent a message for the doctor, Your Grace, and I suspect he shall arrive soon. In the meantime, I have taken the liberty of seeing to draughts of chamomile and cinnamon especially for your comfort.”
The Duchess made a face and pulled the coverlet higher upon her chest. “Bleh, I want none of your remedies, Miss . . . Miss—” The woman’s mouth moved silently as she struggled to recall Jane’s name.
“Miss Bennet, at your disposal.”
“I know your name!” The Duchess rolled over, her back to the open side of the bed like a petulant child. “I need my remedy, I need my remedy.”
Jane clucked her tongue as she waved her hand for the maid to follow her closer to the woman’s bedside. The silver on the tray clinked and Jane made a great deal of noise as she talked about and struggled to open a bottle of laudanum.
“Lacious me, this bottle is too stubborn. This cork . . . I cannot . . .” Finally wrestling the cork free, the struggle had attracted the interest of her patient, who just a moment before was pouting over the opiate she so desperately craved. Jane’s hand shook as she poured the brackish brown liquid onto the spoon, making certain to over pour.
“Oh, how dreadful, I’ve put too much in this cup. Millie, fetch me more—“ Jane held the cup in her hands but turned her attention behind to the maid.
“No! That is my regular dose, I am certain of it. When Doctor Simpson arrives, he shall tell you all, the proper manner in which to care for me.” The Duchess reached greedily for the delicate china cup. Grasping the beverage, she hastily drank the draught of chamomile and lemon tea while the sleeves of her gown, a borrowed one from Jane’s wardrobe, tumbled down her forearms. Dark, plum colored gouges crisscrossed her wrinkled skin with angry, red streaks as evidence of the Duchess’ recent discomfort in waiting for a dose.
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Chapter 7 (cont'd) - A January for Jane, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
A brief bitterness of bile retched in Jane’s throat as she felt guilty for deceiving the woman. The corked bottle in her hands held nothing more than a carmelized sugar syrup, spiked with cinnamon, to give the illusion of laudanum. But with the first fake dose administered, the Duchess did not notice. Her mind’s expectation of the opiate gave her an artificial euphoria and Jane prayed the willow bark extract she added would ease the pain of withdrawal. She had only heard tales of the hours to come from Mr. Jones, an apothecary in her home county of Hertfordshire when she was a young lady first showing an interest in the still room.
“That’s the faerie’s kiss there now, leave me to my rest, child.” The Duchess leaned back against the pillows and stared blankly up at the ceiling. After a few moments, her eyelids fluttered closed.
Jane bowed her head as the Duchess settled in and the maid closed the drapes to darken the room from the day’s sun. The lady now pampered and medicated for a long spell, Jane waited to be certain the Duchess fell asleep before following Millie out with the tray.
“Forgive my impertinence, but I thought we were not to drug her further?” Millie had heard from Mrs. Buchanan that Miss Bennet had ordered no laudanum was to be administered to the Duchess.
Jane closed the double doors and held her fingers to her lips, with a conspiratorial wink to the maid. “There be nothing but syrup in her tea and herbs to help her rest. She will call for more and more when she does not feel the effects she so desires, but it will only be sugar.”
“And his lordship rides this way?”
Jane frowned at Millie. Truly Jane had fostered a free rapport with the staff, but being questioned by the lowly maid allowed Jane’s pangs of guilt to return. She had told the staff she sent an express to Graham, but she had not. If she could help Aileena Hamilton, Eleventh Duchess of Hamilton, she had to at least begin her plan before Graham returned from Edinburgh. Once Her Grace felt well, then Jane would allow the woman to voice her own wishes for her further care.
As Jane dismissed the maid to see to Master Robin, she shuddered to think of herself locked up in some dreary castle while her husband lived a fancy life of mistresses, gambling, and politics in London. She had seen the Duke of Hamilton briefly last summer, mistakenly thinking the woman clinging to his arm to be his wife when Graham’s brother, the Viscount Haddington, rescued Jane from society’s displeasure directly after she spurned Mr. Bingley’s offer.
Perhaps the laudanum use began by the Duchess’ free will; perhaps the woman remained drugged for hysterics after the deaths of Lady Amelia and her husband and child. Either way, that woman lived far from her right mind to consent for treatment at this hour. Jane knew enough of the medical arts to assess even Mr. Jones would not have administered more. The Duchess of Hamilton would not die of a broken heart in Starvet House.
WHAT A DEAL!
A kiss at the Netherfield Ball . . .
Three Dates with Mr. Darcy is a bundle of: An exclusive story, Much to Conceal, a novella that imagines what if Elizabeth confessed to Jane in London that Mr. Darcy proposed in Kent?
A Winter Wrong, the first novella in the Seasons of Serendipity series that imagines what if Mr. Bennet died at the very beginning of Pride and Prejudice?
By Consequence of Marriage, the first novel in the Moralities of Marriage series that wonders what if Mr. Darcy never saved his sister Georgiana from Wickham’s clutches?
Elizabeth Ann West’s Pride and Prejudice variations have enthralled more than 100,000 readers in over 90 countries! A proud member of the Jane Austen Fan Fiction community since the mid-2000s, she hopes you will join her in being happily Darcy addicted!
Chapter 7(cont'd) - A January for Jane, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
Reaching the new accommodations for Robert, Jane lifted her ward from his crib. The boy, still fussy from the business of gaining his teeth, settled as Jane rocked him singing a lullaby she had heard from Mrs. Buchanan. She still could not quite manage the full Scottish brogue, but the lilt to her vowels and familiar tune comforted the poor lad. She wistfully wished she had moved a bottle of whisky to the boy’s room as Graham’s treatment of the malady worked beyond measure.
Squinting at the bright winter sun beginning it’s mid-afternoon sinking in the sky, Jane watched the shadows of various trees sway in the Scottish winds. She smiled down at the tartan plaids she now wore for skirts and remembered there were parts of the land and people she loved most dearly. And other parts, like the practice of imprisoning one’s wife in the country with the assistance of an opiate, she found more dangerous than the fake parlors of polite society.
With Robin once more asleep, Jane retreated to her own rooms and considered resting herself as the night with the Duchess should prove most exhausting. Unable to shed her guilt, she hastened to the small writing desk in the corner of her room and penned a note to Graham.
The Duchess of Hamilton has arrived in frightful condition but she is well under my care. If your business be settled in Edinburgh, I ask that you return to Starvet House at your safest speed. A week is longer than I have ever known it to be, and I distrust the next to be shorter.
Your Lass,
Jane Bennet
Ringing for a stable boy to press into service, Jane estimated a rider might reach the town before dark. But she decided to instruct the rider to take a rest at an inn and deliver the express at a more moderate time of tomorrow morning. This would allow her to help the Duchess through the first day of removing the demon’s licks from her body, and hopefully, the business in town would delay Graham a day or two more.
You’ve been reading A January for Jane
Hiding at Mr. Darcy’s Scottish estate with her orphaned, illegitimate nephew, Jane Bennet begins to fall for Graham Hamilton. Homeless from the fire destroying Blaylock House, Mr. Hamilton has stayed at Starvet House since the Darcys left for London, and is everything a gentleman ought to be. But as his own feelings begin to consume him, he has to break through Jane’s unwillingness to experience any happiness for herself. This bonus novella in the Seasons of Serendipity series explores the love story of Jane Bennet and her Scottish lord!
A sweet, short, romantic read for fans of Jane Austen Fan Fiction!
A January for Jane, Seasons of Serendipity Bride a Pride and Prejudice novella variation series
Release Date: August 22, 2016
94 pages in print.
+ 23 additional Pride & Prejudice variations are available at these fine retailers . . .
A Jane-of-all-trades, mistress to none! Elizabeth Ann West is the author of 8 novels and 11 novellas, 18 of which are story variations of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice.