This is the book that was never planned in this series… but when I sat down to write what I wanted Book 3 of the series to be, Elizabeth Bennet had other plans . . .
XOXOXO Elizabeth Ann West
Chapter 46 - The Whisky Wedding, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
WHEN MRS. DARCY entered the parlor to find her mother sitting with Jane and Lydia, her smile faded at the clear disapproval on her mother’s face.
“What are you wearing? Does not Mr. Darcy give you an allowance for new gowns? That is one of your oldest frocks.” Mrs. Bennet expressed her displeasure with no concern for hurting her daughter’s feelings. Self-conscious, Elizabeth looked down at the plum frock, one of her favorites, and scowled.
“Mr. Darcy’s aunt is coming today and we are to go to the dressmakers. I chose to wear a gown that fits well.” Elizabeth glided to the arm chair by the fire, a piece of furniture that was a favorite of the aforementioned visitor expected to arrive at any moment.
“I was just telling Mama how we intend to explain Lydia’s trip away from Brighton.” Jane began a steering of the conversation to the most important topic of the family’s unified story as to what occurred over the last three weeks.
“I do not agree. Why should my Lydia not be married as well? Why have we not found Mr. Wickham? I’m certain the man could be worked upon.” Mrs. Bennet glared at Elizabeth who could not believe she was hearing correctly.
“Lydia deserves to be married?” Elizabeth barely managed to keep her ire in check. Lydia beamed from the sofa next to her mother as it was clear she had put forth her agenda before Elizabeth arrived.
“She loves Mr. Wickham. And you ran away as well, Lizzie. Do not put on airs that you should be above your sister.” Mrs. Bennet continued to complain that more should be done to locate Mr. Wickham and to arrange a marriage for Lydia. Elizabeth had no words to even address her mother’s most illogical and outlandish plan and so there was little to do but to let her mother exhaust herself.
Mr. Cross, the butler of Darcy house, entered the parlor to announce the arrival of Lady Matlock. Dressed impeccably from her fine shoes to her perfectly coiffed hair, Lady Matlock stood with the quiet power a title conveyed, much the same as she had the first day Jane Bennet met her. Her steely gaze fell upon Mrs. Bennet and Elizabeth hastened to make the introductions.
“I just explained to my daughter that this entire scheme denying my Lydia her Mr. Wickham would not suffice. Once we find Mr. Wickham, the two of them can marry as well. In fact, if we hurry, they can join Lizzie and Mr. Darcy in a double wedding!” Mrs. Bennet’s head jerked to look at all of her daughters with the choreography of a flittering bird.
Lady Matlock’s patience wore off after an initial state of shock, much like Elizabeth and Jane’s. She glanced at the two older daughters for a silent conferring of their sentiments. Recognizing two women unable to respectfully contradict their mother, Regina Fitzwilliam put herself forward as the volunteer to squash Mrs. Bennet’s delusions.
“Mrs. Bennet, your opinion on the matter is impossible. When Lieutenant Wickham is found he will be hung for his crime of desertion. Unless you intend to make your daughter a widow at the age of sixteen, she will not be getting married to that scoundrel.”
Lydia began to throw a fit but Elizabeth leaned forward in her chair and pointed a finger at her younger sister.
“Do not!” Elizabeth warned, using her finger to remind Lydia of the last time she tried to throw a fit in front of Jane and Elizabeth. It was not pleasant, and Elizabeth had never found reason to strike any of her sisters before, but she would make another exception if Lydia needed it once more. Lydia sniffed and began to smooth her gown as her mother took up the cry over Mr. Wickham’s fate.
“But there must be circumstances? An exception made? Mr. Darcy could apply for mercy, could he not?”
“Mama, why would you wish for Lydia to marry a man who sold her to a brothel? Are you so blinded that you do not think of our welfare after the wedding? We cannot marry at any cost.” Jane asked her question in good faith. Her mother pulled out her handkerchief and began to further play the victim as she felt it was very unfair the entire room had turned against her.
Mrs. Darcy rose to put a stop to the theatrics and for a time, her mother ceased in her complaints. “I have an appointment that I must keep, but I am certain we will talk more about this issue at a later date.” Elizabeth looked to Lady Matlock for assistance in her escape, but there was to be none.
“I’m afraid that you and Miss Lydia have appointments to keep. And you Miss Bennet.” Lady Matlock flicked her eyes to the eldest Bennet sister who gently shook her head.
“I am not a part of the deception, I should like to remain here and comfort my mother,” Jane explained.
“Comfort me? What? I am not going to stay behind! These are my daughters. Wherever it is you are taking them milady, I shall go!” Mrs. Bennet stood from the sofa suddenly, much recovered from her earlier upset, and Lady Matlock flinched. But the grand lady recovered quickly from being taken aback.
“I’m afraid that’s impossible again, as when I sent my card out I told my friends to expect a party of four. You would make a party of five.” Lady Matlock coolly tried to outwit Mrs. Bennet but she had underestimated her adversary.
“But she does not wish to go. You’ll stay here, Jane, won’t you? I shall escort Lydia and Lizzie and you can keep Miss Darcy company when she comes downstairs.” Mrs. Bennet negotiated a way for her to not miss the social events a Countess had planned for her daughters.
“My niece employs Mrs. Annesley to keep her company,” Lady Matlock again countered Mrs. Bennet’s aims.
Jane sighed. “I apologize, my lady, but I am truly not up to going with you today on the errands you have planned. I will refresh one of my existing gowns for the ball.” Jane held her own and Lady Matlock accepted that she was outflanked when Elizabeth shook her head no at her ladyship, in solidarity with Jane.
The Bennets were a true nuisance, in Regina Fitzwilliam’s opinion, and if they continued much longer in this discussion they would be late, which was more unacceptable than a change in the party.
“Very well, you shall be fitted tomorrow when I take Georgiana. Now, it is of the utmost importance that we are clear as crystal there is to be no mention of Mr. Wickham today. You have only one daughter who ran away to get married, and it is a love match.” Lady Matlock stared directly at Mrs. Bennet as she made her speech.
“But so many know that Lydia left–”
“Mama! Those who know, including Colonel Forster, have decided they were mistaken. It is for everyone’s benefit that I am the scandalous daughter and no other. Please, do this and protect my sisters so they might marry great men.” Elizabeth Darcy watched as her mother’s face took on a calculating look as finally the grand scheme played upon the greatest hopes of Mrs. Bennet.
“But what if Lydia is with child? She must marry Mr. Wickham.” Mrs. Bennet asked as Lydia beamed once more with pride standing next to her mother.
“If Lydia is carrying Mr. Wickham’s child we will take the child in and raise it with a tenant family at Pemberley. No one must know that Lydia was ever with Mr. Wickham.”
“But what if it should be found out?” Mrs. Bennet was not using her normal shrill voice as she asked her questions, but adopted a more reserved tone as she truly tried to understand the plans and decisions made for her family well before her arrival in London.
“If it is learned that my sister was ruined by a man who deserted his post, I shall live a quiet life at Pemberley with my husband and any of my other sisters who need shelter. But I shall never see you, father, or Lydia ever again.” Elizabeth allowed that to sink in for her mother, before she escalated to the next point. “And once father dies, you will be dependent upon Mr. Collins’ generosity because it will not be a farthing of my husband’s money that saves such foolishness.” Elizabeth Darcy quietly laid out the consequences to her mother and Mrs. Bennet accepted the terms with little more than a nod. Elizabeth worried such information would make her mother cry out in agony, but to her and Jane’s surprise, Mrs. Bennet remained calm. Elizabeth raised an eyebrow to her older sister who just shrugged from her position on the sofa.
“So we have an accord? There is to be no mention of Mr. Wickham? I especially mean you, young lady.” Lady Matlock glared hard at Lydia, who was no longer smiling like a puffed up peacock next to her mother, but like a despondent young woman of sixteen years of age with no hope of marrying the man she wanted.
“Yes, your ladyship,” Lydia bowed her head and looked up at her sister Elizabeth who nodded. It hadn’t taken much to bring Lydia back in line before the interference of their mother. Either Lydia participated in her own salvation and was rewarded with a new wardrobe, or she did not participate and spent her life in poverty. It had been harsh, but Elizabeth still hoped there would be a glimmer of maturity in her sister if she just had the proper guidance.
Less than ten minutes later, the Matlock carriage was recalled to the front of Darcy House. Mrs. Bennet continued her motherly fussing over both Lydia and Lizzie with a renewed excitement since they were now on their way.
On the corner of the street, a man in clothes that looked like he had spent more time cleaning a chimney then cleaning them, watched the ladies board the carriage carefully with a low cap covering his face. When the carriage wheels rolled away he kept walking, disappearing into the crowds of mid-day London with no one giving him a second look other than to avoid his path.
Chapter 47 - The Whisky Wedding, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
A DOOR SLAM startled Jane Bennet as she sat reading in the parlor of Darcy House. Mr. Darcy had left long ago and she only knew Georgiana and Mrs. Annesley to be upstairs conducting music lessons. Curious, Jane wondered who had returned home and cautiously left her safe haven in her sister’s house to tiptoe toward the back where Mr. Darcy’s study was located. Tentatively, she knocked on the door and felt relieved her instinct was correct when it was not Mr. Darcy who answered, but Richard.
Seeing Jane, Richard scowled further but left the door open and walked away, allowing the lady to make her own decision as to enter the room or not.
“Darcy is still with the solicitor if you needed him.” Richard poured himself a drink and did not offer Jane one. His agitation provoked the lady’s sympathies.
“You are angry. If you need an ear, I am willing to listen.” Jane used her natural skills of peacekeeper she had called upon many a time with her sisters at Longbourn. Everything from fights over bonnets to devastation from lack of invitation were solved with a sit down with Jane.
“He slipped through our fingers! We were there, that day I found you after my interview with Mrs. Younge. I bet that woman knew even then where he was.” Richard slammed the empty glass to the sideboard and poured again. “And if I do not find him, they will send me away sooner.”
Jane suddenly became very worried and moved closer to the colonel. She reached out to touch him, but thought twice about it and pulled her hand back. His back was still to her and he did not see her hesitation.
Finding her voice, Jean finally asked the question that hurt far more than she expected.
“Send you away? I thought you only returned to your parents’ home in order to make room here. I did not think your father and mother would send you away if you fail to find Mr. Wickham.”
Richard turned around and shook his head. “Not my parents, the Army. I made a deal with the devil in order to search for your sister, but do not feel guilty, Miss Bennet. I would give a hefty ransom to get my hands on that scoundrel, regardless of the sister he ran off with.” Richard watched as Jane struggled to accept that he would soon find a new assignment.
“When do they, I mean, where?” Jane gulped and tried again. “Where will they send you?” She managed a sensible question and Richard’s expression softened.
“Badajoz.”
Jane repeated the word and frowned. She did so hate that the memorization of places never came to her naturally. Why, if she took a walk without Elizabeth or their sister Kitty, Jane would get lost not a mile away from her home.
“Is that an island?” Jane asked. Richard laughed at the refreshing naïveté of his companion. He considered his second glass of Scotch, and took a sip before he explained.
“It’s a fort in Spain. We took it two months ago and I have been offered the command.”
“Of the entire fort?” Jane asked, clearly impressed. Richard nodded.
Finding the news not to her liking, Jane took a seat in a chair by Mr. Darcy’s bookshelf. “How long will you have to live abroad?”
Richard shrugged and this time he held up a glass to offer a drink for Miss Bennet, but she declined.
“Months at least, potentially years. Depends on how long we stay at war and if they see fit to send me any relief.” Richard didn’t explain the post felt undesirable for most because the fort was so far removed from the front. Everyone wished to be with Wellington. No one wanted to be left behind and live in a foreign country.
“All alone?” Jane said, feeling acutely that she did not like the idea of Richard leaving at all.
“It is a soldier’s life. We go where we are ordered, and we pack lightly.”
Jane nodded and the conversation between then became stilted. Richard was about to ask how the morning fared when Jane had another question.
“Will it be dangerous? Will you be in harm’s way?” Her brows knit together into a single line of worry.
Richard had often taken similar questions from Georgiana, but fielding the same questions from Miss Bennet did not come so easily to him. He wanted to say something to her, offer her his regards as he had come to respect and feel affection for her. But he could not. Jane would find other men, men with more money and more freedom now that Darcy was married to her sister. If he could just walk away, she would attend the balls and dinners in London and never think of him again.
“I am going to take a command to maintain our position. It is unlikely I will see any action but merely run drill to keep the lads sharp.” Richard closed his eyes as he recalled reports declaring the Spanish forces inept on the battlefield. He worried too many of his men would be comprised of locals and not well-trained English soldiers.
“Would another commander take his family if he had one? His wife?” Jane asked and then looked away, finding the artwork on Darcy’s wall captivating.
Richard felt himself in danger of declaring for Miss Bennet. He could not miss her clear interest in him anymore than he could ignore his own attraction. Bravely, he sought to scare her away.
“Would you follow a husband to Spain? To some far away place where you do not speak the language nor know a soul? Endure a week or more at sea, taking nothing but a single trunk of belongings?”
Instead of running away as she had the last time Richard pushed into her personal life, Jane Bennet held her ground.
“If I loved him, I would. A wife forsakes all others, that is the vow she takes.”
Richard choked on the last of his drink and Jane grinned. He had been bested by a Bennet.
Their conversation came to an end when Darcy himself entered the room.
“Richard . . . and Jane?” Before he left, Mr. Darcy and his sister by marriage had agreed in private to call one another by their Christian names. Jane is what Darcy called her in conversations with Elizabeth, and if she was to join them at Pemberley, it made little sense to stand upon ceremony.
“Miss Bennet and I were just discussing Mr. Wickham.”
“No we were not, we were discussing your reassignment to Spain.” Jane mercilessly tossed Mr. Darcy’s cousin to the wind. By the shocked expression on her brother-in-law’s face, it appeared Richard had not shared his intrigue with anyone else.
“You are being reassigned? But you said they were keeping you in London for two years.”
Richard shrugged. “The army is not obliged to keep any promises.”
Darcy turned away from Richard to address Jane. “Is my wife still out with my aunt?”
Jane nodded. “Yes, and with my mother and sister. But I would expect they would not jeopardize supper.” Both Darcy and Richard frowned.
“My mother may not remember that Darcy here does not like to keep town hours. Even when he is in town.”
“It’s ruinous for one’s digestion to eat so late. And it spares me many a social engagement.” Darcy defended.
Jane suddenly felt rather out of place, outnumbered by the men, and excused herself to see to Miss Darcy. When she rose to leave he study, she gave Richard a doleful look of regret, but she did not say more before leaving the two cousins alone.
Darcy closed his study door and leaned against the wooden portal.
“Richard,” he warned.
“I did not propose to her.”
“But you—”
“It’s different for you, Darcy. You do not look at the woman you desire above all others and worry if you can keep a roof over her head!”
“I can lend you—”
“Enough! And I could sell my commission. It is not for me and Miss Bennet to seek a future. And if you will excuse me, I had better leave and question Mrs. Younge again. You may not need to find Wickham, but I do.”
Fitzwilliam held his tongue as his cousin also thanked him for the drink. Left alone in his study, Darcy unrolled the papers he brought from his lawyer. He hoped Elizabeth would be pleased with the terms of the contract and planned to tell her all about them that evening.
NEW RELEASE
For the Love of a Bennet
What if Elizabeth Bennet traveled with Lydia to Brighton?
A reimagining of Jane Austen’s most beloved tale, Pride & Prejudice, join author Elizabeth Ann West as she writes the romantic adventure story she always wanted! When Lizzy and Lydia arrive in Brighton, it’s very clear that the younger Bennet sister came with very serious plans towards Mr. Wickham. Thankfully, an old ally is also in town, with problems of his own to solve. After Mr. Darcy, himself, is summoned to Brighton to hopefully solve two dilemmas with one wealthy member of the gentry, the whole militia is thrown into an uproar by Wickham’s most dastardly deed, yet. Together, Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy have to save Lydia from her own undoing, or it will mean more than just mere reputations are ruined.
For the Love of a Bennet is a novel length story, currently being posted chapter by chapter on Elizabeth’s author site. This story was originally conceptualized in 2019 as a part of the All Go to Brighton challenge.
Chapter 48 - The Whisky Wedding, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
“AND THEN MISS Bingley had the audacity to say she received a letter from Sarah Long. It was well known in Hertfordshire that Lydia had run away with a soldier!” Elizabeth dramatically recounted the trip to the dressmaker where conveniently Lady Givens was also there with Caroline Bingley and Louisa Hurst. Elizabeth now understood Lady Matlock’s insistence upon a clear united front before taking her new niece into an ambush. But the first battle was won. The tale of only one Bennet sister, the one named Elizabeth, running away had its start to ripple through the Ton with the added buzz of the groom being the much sought after Fitzwilliam Darcy of Pemberley.
Jane frowned in sympathy with her sister. “Miss Bingley attempted to hide that Aunt Gardiner and I called upon her in January. I do wonder if the Long sisters actually keep a correspondence with her and speak ill of our family? Or if she added that falsehood to bolster her claim.” Jane sounded more and more like the sister Elizabeth remembered from Longbourn, seeing the good in others. Thankfully, the changes in Jane still allowed her to see Miss Bingley for the mean-spirited woman she behaved.
Elizabeth shrugged her shoulders and reached for another roll. Mr. Darcy watched the exchange between the sisters with great interest, noting that when his wife was angry, she ate as healthy as a horse.
“And what did Mother say? I cannot believe she allowed Miss Bingley to win the day?” The small family dinner comprised of Richard Fitzwilliam, Georgiana, Jane and the Darcys.
Elizabeth broke off small pieces of her roll and dipped one into the delectable cream sauce that had accompanied the fish.
“Oh she did not. Lady Matlock explained, almost sounding like she took pity on Miss Bingley, that with one daughter running off to elope with a man, meaning me” she looked at Darcy and smiled at her husband, “it was perfectly understandable that gossip from some backwater country would get the details confused.”
Jane gasped as the two men laughed at a classic set down delivered by Lady Matlock. Elizabeth enjoyed her triumph at the dinner table, but when she had been in the dressmaker’s parlor with her mother, Lydia, and the other ladies, there was no such jubilation on her part. Instead, the more the lie was told that it was Elizabeth who scandalously planned to run off with Mr. Darcy, in order to rescue Lydia from her stupidity, the more Elizabeth began to feel both ashamed of what she had done to her aunt, and frustrated the truth was much more benign when it came to her and Mr. Darcy. She wondered if it bothered her husband that all of London society would soon think of him in an unflattering manner as to steal a man’s daughter and rush her over the border. But society was always harsher on the lady than the gentleman when it came to matters of breaching society’s protocols. Caught in her thoughts, Elizabeth noticed Georgiana Darcy across from her, staring sullenly at the peas on her plate.
“Are you unhappy we did not take you today, Georgiana? I thought that you would enjoy being spared such a public display.” Georgiana had actually been spared because Lady Matlock wished not to connect her niece to the wayward Bennet daughters in public.
Georgiana shrugged and shook her head, choosing to remain quiet. This behavior did not receive approval from her brother and he took it as a slight against his wife.
“Georgiana, your sister asked you a question. Do you not believe she deserves the honor of a response?” Mr. Darcy reminded Elizabeth of how much of a father figure he was to the young girl and was well within his rights to insist on proper table manners of the young woman.
Georgiana sighed and looked at her brother with the most doleful expression. “I am just sad. Why did Lydia have to be returned to her Aunt’s house? Jane stays here, why could not Lydia?”
A chorus of coughs came from multiple directions at the table as no one quite wished to explain why Lydia had to be removed. What the men at the table took to be a sign of Georgiana’s innocence, Elizabeth noticed something different. There was an underlying agenda to her question and so when neither of the men took up the mantle to respond, Elizabeth felt within her right as mistress of the house to do so. A quick look to her husband, they silently conferred and he gave her a small nod to signal she might address the issue.
“On the surface, it is important that Lydia be removed from me, because I am the scandalous sister and it is what is to be expected. But Lydia committed a very grievous mistake and there is still the possibility of further consequences. It is important for both her reputation and yours that the two of you be separated.” Elizabeth took a sip of her wine as Georgiana’s face crumpled into near tears.
“But she is no different than me,” Georgiana began but Mr. Darcy interrupted her.
“She is exceedingly different in situation and manner than you, Dearest. You told me of Mr. Wickham’s treachery before he could,” Darcy gulped as he struggled for a word and finally settled upon one, “before he injured you. You said he did not impose upon you in anyway.” Mr. Darcy finished tearing into his fish with much more strength than the flaky white meat required. A loud screech made Elizabeth wince as his knife slipped on the china.
“Because if he had, we would have killed him,” Richard said attracting a look of censure from Jane.
“I was not honest. With Lydia, I was, and she made me not despise myself quite so much anymore,” Georgiana said quietly and the entire dining room came to a standstill.
The ticking clock on the mantel marked the time as both Jane and Elizabeth felt well out of their comfort to intercede on such a private family matter, and anger held the tongues of both men at the table. When Georgiana’s tears began to fall, her sniffles broke the silence and it was Mr. Darcy who sent his sister to her room for the remainder of the meal. Openly sobbing, Georgiana accepted the assistance out of her chair from a footman and ran up the stairs as the other four allowed their courses to be changed, but none of them felt as if they had much appetite.
“Did you know?” Darcy directed the question at his cousin at the other end of the table but Richard shook his head.
“I was at war, or do you not recall? You said you suspected.”
Darcy scowled and called out an order at the footman to refill his wineglass. Elizabeth flinched in her chair to hear her husband’s angry tone and Jane looked quietly down at her dinner.
“If she is not intact, she is ruined. Utterly ruined!” Darcy said angrily, feeling the fresh sting of the scandal that happened over a year ago as if it were yesterday.
“Say she fell off a horse,” Elizabeth offered, helping herself to more of her own wine as the next course of beef was not to her liking.
“Pardon me? Are you suggesting an explanation for when her future husband comes to me and demands a divorce?” Mr. Darcy spat out raising his ire and his wife’s as well.
“If a lie is good enough for my sister, why not yours? The man has had them both and neither can marry him. If he is found, he is to be hanged. As you convinced me there was no other solution than to take on my sister’s shame, I hardly see an alternative solution for her.”
“Do you comprehend nothing? Your sister is not known–”
“Careful, Darcy,” his cousin interrupted him further angering Darcy.
“No! A man should be able to speak his mind in his own home if nowhere else! I have endured constant strain and censure from my own family, nay, even from my staff, from the day I found you battered and bloodied at the Grey Sheep. I have done everything in my power to save your family from ruination as my own house was treated with little more respect than a boarder’s!”
“I object to that!” Richard shouted.
“I wasn’t speaking to you!” Mr. Darcy shouted back.
“No, sir, you were speaking to me. And if I am such a burden along with my family, then perhaps I should return to them in Cheapside. This evening.” Elizabeth Darcy felt her heart break into a thousand shards as the rejection she suspected was always there would one day find its way to the surface. She waved for the footman to help her with her chair, but Mr. Darcy was not finished.
“You will not be going anywhere, Mrs. Darcy.”
“So I am to be a prisoner? A brutish husband that locks his wife away. I suppose I should be so lucky as to have a witness with my sister here and be thankful she’s going with us to Pemberley.” Elizabeth stood with her hands on her hips, blinded by the tears that filled her eyes.
Darcy stood and mangled his face with his hands trying to rub some clarity into his brain. Taking a number of deep breaths, he finally looked at his wife with new eyes and saw a trembling, frightened creature.
With a calm voice, Fitzwilliam stepped toward his wife but stopped when she shrank back. Carefully, he extended a hand. “Madam, I beg your forgiveness. I have spoken words that cannot be unheard. If everyone is finished with dinner, perhaps we ought to retire to the parlor where we may sit more comfortably and discuss how this changes our plans.”
Elizabeth took a deep breath and wiped her eyes with the back of her hands before drying the moisture on her skirts. She accepted her husband’s hand and whispered her own apology. Thing were not well, but they did not have to slide further into despair, either.
As Mr. and Mrs. Darcy led the way to the parlor, Richard offered an arm to Jane but took his time to follow his cousin’s lead.
“When you spoke earlier about taking a wife to my post, were you truthful about your willingness to leave behind all that you know?” Richard asked quietly of Jane as they slowly walked toward the dining room door.
“Yes,” was all Jane managed.
Richard paused their progression and turned to face Jane Bennet, holding the lady’s hands in his own. “I have not much to offer and I will take no answer this moment, but if you love me, know that I have dearly come to love you since the moment I met you at your uncle’s home. If you are truly willing–” Jane opened her mouth to answer but Richard held up a finger to make her wait. “No, what I ask of you is more than anything a husband should have to ask of his wife. When I say it is arduous and dangerous, I am not speaking lightly. We may not survive to come back to England, you might never see your sisters or family again.” Richard lectured and Jane slowly nodded her head to understand his grave warning.
“I only ask that you consider an old soldier who would love very much f the privilege and honor of being your husband.”
“Richard?” Darcy’s booming voice echoed across the entryway as to inquire if they would be joining the Darcys for a drink. Richard winked at Jane and looped his arm back in hers.
“Pour two brandies, Cousin.”
You’ve been reading The Whisky Wedding
When Elizabeth Bennet of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice learns of her sister’s elopement before leaving for the Peaks District, she and her aunt are off to Scotland to chase the wayward couple. Inn after inn, there is no sign of Lydia or Mr. Wickham, but Elizabeth won’t give up. A foolhardy decision to continue to search on her own lands Elizabeth right into the arms of a familiar face . . . Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy.
Join author Elizabeth Ann West in a tale of carriage accidents, amnesia, and a forced marriage, but happy endings for all. Well, maybe not Mr. Wickham!
The Whisky Wedding
a Pride and Prejudice novel variation
Release Date: December 28, 2016
514 pages in print.
+ 23 additional Pride & Prejudice variations are available at these fine retailers . . .
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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.