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 10 - A January for Jane, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
Jane Bennet sharply rapped her knuckles upon the door of Graham Hamilton’s suite of rooms. How could the man have returned from Edinburgh and not come to see her first? Was that the behavior of a man madly in love? Jane pushed away the naysaying voice of reason nipping at her consciousness.
Graham’s personal valet responded to produce an echoed click only a heavy oak door can make. Spying Graham fully dressed behind him and sitting casually in a chair, Jane did not wait for platitudes before barging her way into his sitting room.
“I see you are returned. Has your business been completed?” Jane’s lack of sleep and aggravations bubbled to the surface as she faced the reality of her Mr. Hamilton returned from his trip. She knew it to be utterly unfair of her to blame him for the worries and stresses she endured, but the emotions refused her worn attempt at control.
Graham scowled and looked Jane up and down with an expression of extreme disgust. “Would you care to explain how an Express from my mother’s staff found me a full day before I met your lazy errand boy at The White Horse in Musselburgh?”
“Lazy errand boy! He is no such thing. I purposely instructed him to grant you further time before disturbing you.”
“I see.” Graham rose from the chair and wiped his mouth with his hand, sizing Jane up once more. “And I suppose you intend to tell me this instruction of yours had nothing to do with you playing doctor?”
The small hairs at the nape of Jane’s neck prickled in rage. Had her ears heard correctly that he was unhappy with her taking on his mother’s care? Still, she closed her eyes briefly and tried to remain calm. It would not be ladylike to allow her anger to run away from her.
She tried another tack, attempting to avoid spelling out that the woman lived far better under her care than that quack, Dr. Simpson.
“Have you spoken to your mother, the Duchess?”
Graham nodded, eliciting a small scoff of indignation from Jane.
“I see,” she mimicked his look of disdain, now more angry that Graham had seen to his mother before seeing her. In fact, he had not come to see her at all!
The stocky Scotsman took three decisive steps towards the diminutive stature of Jane Bennet. Seeing his face bright red with frustration, Jane now stood close enough to notice beads of perspiration pooling on his upper lip.
“How reckless are you truly, Miss Bennet? You would dare to deny a sick woman the care of Dr. Simpson–”
“Dr. Simpson is not welcome in this house,” Jane said firmly, interrupting Graham.
Graham’s hands waved wildly in the air as he growled and moved away from Jane. “On whose authority?”
“Mine. Do not mistake your role as a guest here, Lord Hamilton. You and your mother are free to return to your drafty castle at your earliest convenience.”
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Chapter 10 (cont'd) - A January for Jane, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
Jane shivered, slightly startled as the words tumbled from her mouth before she could give them a second thought. She had never lost her reason and logic so thoroughly in front of a man as she did with Graham Hamilton. The man was an absolute menace to her good sense, and while she did not mean her words, once they were spoken they could not be unspoken.
“You cannot mean that.” Graham Hamilton spoke not much above that of a whisper and Jane realized she had found the man’s vulnerability: herself.
Jane swallowed and took a deep breath.
“Men are so often bullies as it comes quite easily to them. And I shall never marry a bully.” She waited to see if he would argue, but he remained stone silent. “Your mother wasted away, mistreated by her caregivers, arriving upon my doorstep in a crazed manner, unkempt, and without the protection of a single soul.”
She waited for the truth of the situation to hit him. Still, she continued when he again refused to share his thoughts.
“I could not in good conscience continue to force a woman of no defect to live such a ghost of a life. She is lucid. She is rid of the demon’s tongue.” Jane finished her speech in a calmer voice, finding herself relieved by the truth as she saw it.
But Graham’s anger began to pique once more. “And you had no right to take such matters into your own hands! You could have killed her!”
Jane narrowed her eyes to the slightest slit to keep herself from crying. She did not wish to dissemble in front of Graham. Her fists clenched at her sides.
“I made the best decision for the situation just like any man would! If I had been Mr. Darcy, your mother would not have had a drop of laudanum in this house. If I had been Mr. Jones, the apothecary from my home county, she also would be treated thus. And if I had been my father –” Jane’s voice finally cracked. She began to tremble as memories of her father’s care and love flooded her mind. Remembering the dead as they truly were never came easy to the living. Mr. Bennett enjoyed a remarkable improvement in his mannerisms and parenting in death as many do in memoriam.
The visage of Jane crying broke down the last wall of anger Graham Hamilton held in his heart. His core instincts as a male of the species overrode his impassioned judgments as he rushed forward to embrace his Jane. As she cried and mumbled vague details of the ordeal, Graham merely held her tighter.
Jane finally pulled back to look up at the man she had missed so deeply during his short trip, she began to feel a glimmer of hope spotting his roguish Scottish smile.
“I shall grant you the victory my mother is well thanks to your interference.” Graham swallowed his pride in admitting that as ill-advised as Jane’s care had been, the means did justify the ends.
Jane sniffed. Not wishing to use her sleeve in an unladylike way, she looked between the valet and Graham and finally the valet understood the lady’s need. With stoic indifference, the servant produced a handkerchief. Jane thanked him and used the cloth as discreetly as she could.
Her bright blue eyes blinked with a new clarity to them. “May I have your Scotch?”
The question made both men in the room boom with laughter as Jane stood bewildered between them, wondering what she had said they would both find so amusing. She began to explain.
“For the babe. I left Robin to see you. He is in much discomfort from his teeth.”
Graham Hamilton wiped an errant tear due to his laughter and emotional fatigue from the corner of his eye and nodded at Jane’s request.
“Come, we shall see to him together.” He grabbed the bottle on his sideboard by the neck and took Jane’s arm to escort her down the hall.
The rancorous cries of a baby and two maids could be heard through the heavy doors as Graham opened them for his and Jane’s entrance. Millie held the babe in her arms sashaying left and right as Alice held a small brown bottle in her hands and appeared to be arguing.
“We mustn’t! We mustn’t!” Millie implored Alice who had cornered her on the far side of the room.
“But Miss Jane brought the bag herself. I watched her. She must have intended to help Master Robert.” Alice held up the bottle that Jane recognized immediately.
Struggling to find her voice she incessantly patted Graham’s arm and could barely make out a whisper.
“Stop. Make them stop.”
The booming voice of Lord Hamilton, Earl of Bolton, Baron Tweeddale paralyzed both maids as Robin’s wails continued.
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 10(cont'd) - A January for Jane, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
“We do not use that substance in this household.” Lord Hamilton said with finality, looking to Jane for her approval.
“But the lad, he be most unhappy.” Alice’s face fell into a look of pure concern for the wailing child, a wisp of her ash brown bangs having escaped from her cap and lay plastered against her flustered face.
“When did the two of you last rest?” Lord Hamilton took the babe from Millie, the familiar baritone voice calmed little Robin momentarily. Jane approached Graham to take the bottle from his free hand so he might hold Robin with two, and opened the Scotch.
“Pardon us, milord, but the night ‘twas long.” Millie curtsied and Jane offered her a smile of support. It had been a very long night for the entire household between the Duchess and Robert.
“Why don’t the two of you get some rest? I find myself needing some time with my boy, after spending a time away.”
The sparkle and charm of Graham Hamilton could make any woman swoon, Jane thought as the two maids sighed and obeyed without even looking to Jane for permission.
“And you my dear,” Graham snuck a kiss on Jane’s cheek as she leaned closely to administer the alcohol to Robert’s gums, “look nay a bit better.”
“I am well.”
“Aye, are ye now?” Graham’s Scottish lilt melted Jane’s reserves.
“It has been a long night.”
Graham nodded, plopping down into the rocking chair with Robert in his arms. The big, burly Scotsman cared not what others might think of his affections for the baby, and so the Earl of Bolton began his conversation to the exclusion of Jane.
“Your mama should rest, for come Monday, I will become your pa. And with the Lord’s grace, you will have a brother by Christmas. . .”
Jane’s heart soared in her chest, forgetting how angry she had been with Graham just a half hour before. In all of the chaos she had nearly forgotten that come Monday they would be wed, just four days from now. Four days left to carry the last name of Bennet.
Hearing Robin settle as Graham continued to talk about hunting, and fishing, and all of the manly pursuits he planned to share with young Robert, the son of his heart, Jane realized her exhaustion had indeed returned.
“I might have a rest, if you do not mind?”
Graham’s gloved fingers wiggled to bid her farewell underneath Robin’s feet, but he never looked up nor took his attention from the baby. Jane breathed deeply in relief and turned around. As her lithe figure moved to leave the room, Graham Hamilton finally did look up to admire the view.
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.