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 9 - A January for Jane, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
The night proved to be the gravest trial Jane Bennet had ever faced in her three and twenty years. Hours after the first confrontation, they had to untie the Duchess so she might retch into the chamber pot, and when dawn broke, they called for a complete change of linens. Ridding her body of the laudanum’s hold caused the grand lady of Gododdin Castle to lose her faculties much like a babe in the cradle.
Six hours after the sun’s rising, Mrs. Buchanan and Jane held reason to hope.
“May I have a tray of toast and tea?”
The simple request for food brought a wash of relief causing Jane to cry out in joy.
“Yes, milady, we shall see to the tray right away!” Mrs. Buchanan rose and bustled out of the room now serenely awash in the midday’s brightness, the night’s dark hours long in the past.
“How do you feel?” Jane asked tentatively, looking for signs of recovery in the Duchess’ face. Her pupils were no longer large and unresponsive. The spark of personality appeared and no longer were the woman’s cheeks slack from the drug’s hold.
“Forgive me, I have forgotten myself. How are you feeling this morning, Your Grace?” Jane tried once more realizing that the woman may not remember much of the night before, nor maybe anything from when she was under the influence of the strong opiate. A woman of Aileena Hamilton’s rank would naturally ignore any untoward references to her person without additional thought from years of training to do exactly that. But still, despite Jane offering Graham’s mother her due, the Duchess refused to acknowledge Jane’s presence.
“Duchess, can you hear me?” Jane began to fret, perhaps there was permanent damage as the woman continued to ignore Jane’s questions. Deciding two could play this game, Jane began to tell the woman all that had occurred. Perhaps she was too proud to admit a loss of memory.
“If you do not remember—”
“I remember quite clearly that you are the woman who denied me my comforts when I needed them most. And I shall never forgive your cruelty for as long as I shall live.”
Jane sucked in her breath as a tray arrived with Mrs. Buchanan’s bubbly personality. The housekeeper tittered away how the Duchess’ maid was sent for and should arrive soon as she busied herself with opening the drapes wider. Duchess Hamilton shielded her eyes at the sharpness of the additional sunlight and Jane felt a lump in her throat begin to form.
Perhaps she had gone too far inflicting her wishes upon another, but the woman was well. She had arrived unwell and Jane had made her well. Surely Graham would see the kindness she had offered.
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Chapter 9 (cont'd) - A January for Jane, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
“I shall see to Robin and my own toilette, Mrs. Buchanan. Once Her Grace is comfortable, please make sure you see to your own needs. We had a very long night.” Jane glared at the Duchess to see if she even so much as acknowledged the sacrifice made on her behalf, but the woman sat up in the bed with nerves of cold steel. There was no flicker of remorse; no twitch of her mouth in shame.
Realizing her robe to be in a worse state than she thought, from a night of nursing a most unappreciative patient, Jane skipped seeing Robin to first pursue a change of clothes. Aches in her arms and legs caused Jane to pull her own bell cord and a new maid, Betsy, arrived to see to Jane’s needs.
Wishing to take a bath, but fearful she might fall asleep in the warm water, Jane accepted a warm basin of water to cleanse her body and afterwards donned a fresh shift. Just as she planned to rest and cast her robe to the pile of clothing to be laundered, Millie burst into Jane’s room.
“Forgive me, Miss Bennet,”
“Is Robin well?”
Millie shook her head. “He’s violent with fever. Alice says it be the teeth, but we are not sure what to do.”
Jane sighed and pulled a powder blue day frock in the English style from her dwindling supply of gowns in the wardrobe from before she came to Scotland. Taking charge of her young nephew had ruined many a gown with memories of Hertfordshire and London woven into the seams. After Millie helped her into the gown, Jane sat to allow Betsy to fix her hair.
“Something simple, I am just too tired to pin it myself.”
“Yes ma’am.”
Following Millie to the suite next door, Jane moved as in a fog. She knew the boy would be screaming, she could hear his cries through the heavy oak door in the hall. Suddenly, the weight of it all, helping the Duchess, the lack of sleep, and now a screaming baby made Jane dissemble into tears. She fluttered her hands trying to stop the watershed of emotion and stilled Millie before she opened the door.
“Oh, ma’am, ma’am!” Millie tried to comfort Jane in the hall as she furiously sniffed and willed her tears to stop.
“I am well. I am well. Go on, I shall be in directly.” Jane turned away from Millie and worked harder to collect herself before facing Robin’s needs.
Down the hall, a buzz of activity continued as trunks began to arrive for the Duchess. A thin, stiffly dressed woman in her mid-thirties paused in the hall to look Jane up and down. Narrowing her eyes at the woman who must be the Duchess’ personal maid, Jane did not take the woman’s silent challenge without response. Marching down the hall, Jane shocked the servant with her brashness.
“Are you Thatcher?” Jane recalled the name from the previous evening when the Duchess cried out for her servant in delirium.
“I am, Miss.” Thatcher bowed her head almost imperceptibly to honor her hostess.
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 9(cont'd) - A January for Jane, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
“Then I lay at your feet an opportunity to right the wrongs you have committed against your mistress.”
“I beg your pardon, madam. I have served the Duchess of Hamilton with faith and unwavering loyalty these many years.” The woman sneered, spying Jane growing more flustered in the hall.
“Have you served your mistress or your master? Before you step into that suite, know that not a drop of laudanum will be administered in this household. Should you defy this order and the Duchess Hamilton suddenly finds herself dosed with opiates, I will hold you personally responsible.”
“Your staff has already thoroughly searched my mistress’ trunks and personal effects.”
“And your person?”
The lady’s maid jerked her head at the threat, a sign to Jane she had not missed the mark.
“Hand it over now or I will personally escort you to my rooms for a search of your person. Or, I may call the footmen who are present in that room as we speak to conduct such an action in the hallway here.”
“You wouldn’t dare!”
“I do not respect servants who flout the rules of a household they enter. Now, hand over the means in which you have smuggled in the substance and I will allow you to go to your mistress and offer her what comforts you may.” Jane resolved to order this Thatcher watched like a hawk as she guiltily heard a crescendo of Robin’s cries from afar.
Thatcher reached into her bag and pulled out a book that when opened, conveniently showed where someone had cut into the pages a place for the dark vial. Jane not only took the book, but also seized the bag from the maid.
“That’s—”
“My concern until Lord Hamilton arrives.” Jane left Thatcher in the hall and walked to Robin’s room, using the last reserves of energy she possessed. Not sure if Thatcher walked into the suite to endure her mistress’ wrath, Jane cared not as she deposited the maid’s bag in the corner of the room and took the very fussy Robert from his nursemaids.
“Fetch me Scotch from Mr. Hamilton’s room.”
“Yes, ma’am” Millie dutifully left the suite as Jane bounced and walked, trying to console the ill Robert.
“Please, please, Robin. Hush your cries,” Jane pleaded with the baby who wailed and wailed. Unable to again keep her nerve, fresh tears began to fall. “There, see? Your cries have upset your Mama. And we cannot have that.”
The boy could not see the despair in his aunt’s face as his eyes remained squinted shut. He was beyond reason, and Jane trooped him back and forth in front of the window praying Millie would hurry.
On Jane’s sixth trek, Millie opened the door and slipped in, her hands empty.
“Well?” Jane asked directly, frustrated beyond reason such a simple instruction could not be followed.
“I tried, Miss Bennet. But his room is locked. I asked Mr. Harper and he said his lordship is returned.”
Jane hastily handed the crying Robin to Alice, who looked shocked to be recommissioned into service.
“Press him with cool cloths and keep him comfortable. I shall return.”
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.