I FOUND A WAY!! The book is DONE. And it releases directly at 5 PM EST January 18, 2019 to the direct preorders through Gumroad. It’s $2 cheaper than the wide vendors (because they take a huge cut on each sale that I subtracted from the price because Gumroad doesn’t do that). And I will honor the $2.99 price on Gumroad through the weekend.
January 25, 2019, the book will release on Kindle, Nook, iBooks, Google, and Kobo. I am waiting for those preorders to go live, but the Kindle one is up. The book retail is $4.99 for ebook, $12.99 for paperback.
This is the first book I am publishing as a free woman. And I’m already writing the next one. And moving in 19 days to San Antonio, TX. Someone better hold my bonnet, I got stuff to do! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Thank you, everyone, for reading and encouraging and writing comments. ALL CHAPTERS WILL POST between now and January 25, you do NOT HAVE TO BUY A BOOK to read my story. Certainly, my children and I appreciate each sale, as this is now my livelihood, but whether you can pay $4.99 or read free, I am gald you are here.
XOXOXO Elizabeth Ann West
Hours until the direct release . . . .
January 25, 2019 retail release preorders (buttons added as they go live)
Chapter 8 - A Spring Society, a Pride and Prejudice Novella Variation
Dressed and waiting in the morning parlor, Mr. and Mrs. Darcy grew more irritated with each passing moment. Tired of standing, Elizabeth took a seat on the settee and began to fan herself. Her husband stood stoically on the pale green Persian near the middle of the room, the late morning sun spilling over his shoulder from the high windows.
“This is ridiculous. Why do we not go outside so we can cease this standstill?” Elizabeth said as her husband continued to stare at the closed double white doors.
“Guests in this house are greeted on the steps when they have sent proper notification of their arrival. Those who come unannounced are not.”
“But dearest, this is your family!”
Fitzwilliam’s head turned mimicking the sharpness of a highly-trained army officer. “All the more reason to honor tradition. She knows better.”
Elizabeth bowed her head to keep herself from laughing. The many traditions of Pemberley had been a stumbling block for her when she first arrived, but she held numerous plans for the ball to address, not to spend her day on the uncomfortable brink of proper etiquette.
“Wait, where are you going?” Fitzwilliam called as Elizabeth pushed herself up again and waddled to the doors. A motion of her hands confused the poor footman who fumbled as he started, stopped, then began to open the doors for his mistress, only to cease once more at his master’s glare of disbelief.
“Open them, or I can turn a door handle myself,” she said. As the doors opened, she looked over her shoulder. “We have better things to do today, husband. I am fetching your aunt from her carriage.”
Chapter 8 (cont'd) - A Spring Society, a Pride and Prejudice Novella Variation
Fitzwilliam blustered his objections as he followed Elizabeth into the grand hall. Irritation had bested all of the parties as they nearly ran into Mr. Darcy’s aunt and cousin, looking slightly weary from travel.
Lady Catherine de Bourgh peered down her nose at the woman she had never intended to take her sister’s place. “My, you’ve grown rather fat, Miss Bennet.”
Darcy scowled, utterly shocked his aunt came with the poorest manners in speech as well as arrival. “My wife’s name is Mrs. Darcy. And she is lovely and expecting my heir. If you do not wish to be tossed out faster than you managed to enter, you will mind your tongue.”
His wife reached out a calming hand to his forearm. “Husband, it’s quite alright. Your aunt’s eyesight must be failing her. That is a known suffering for those in old age.” Elizabeth clicked her tongue in sympathy as Darcy’s cousin Anne stifled a laugh behind her mother. Elizabeth greeted her personally with a warm smile.
“Never mind all that, we’ve wasted enough time as it is. Where is my brother, the earl?”
“Still asleep, likely. We had no notice of your arrival, and we hosted an entertaining night of follies last evening,” her nephew answered drolly, beginning to walk away with his wife on his arm.
“Where are you going? Fitzwilliam! Come back here this instant! I demand an audience!”
Fitzwilliam quickened his pace as Elizabeth looked at him bewildered. “My wife reminded me that we have better things to do today. Speak to the servants, they will help you, our apologies!”
With the devilish grin of a schoolboy, Mr. Darcy led his wife down a back hall, through a door, and into a small room off the back of the library that Elizabeth had never been in.
“Fitzwilliam! We were just so rude!”
Mr. Darcy leaned forward and silenced his wife with a kiss. Then he deepened the kiss, and his hands gently caressed the smooth skin of her jaw. Ending his affections with his wife gasping for breath, he pressed his forehead to hers.
“She wishes to see my uncle. Not me. Not you. Did you truly wish to spend the better part of two hours being insulted and aggravated? I did not.”
“No,” Elizabeth said, thoughtfully. “But Anne . . . it is beastly of us to abandon her.”
Mr. Darcy shrugged and kissed his wife again. “You, lady, are madness. You scold me for weeks and weeks about too many people, too many demands. Then you order a ball and wish to welcome my estranged aunt . . .”
“I shall dance with you. That is the only care I have at the moment. I’ve given up trying to please the others,” Elizabeth took a step back and began to take in the features of the room. Perhaps closet was a better description, as an odd array of long forgotten items lay jumbled around them. “Where are we?”
“This is the old office of my tutor, Mr. Crane. My father never trusted me to be educated up in the nursery out of sight, so beginning at age seven, I took my lessons in the library.” Darcy joined his wife in her inspection and squinted his eyes. “I suppose we need to clean and ready this room as well.”
Elizabeth laughed.
“I have amused you?”
She nodded. “He is not even born, and yet you plan his lessons? One step at a time, one step at a time.”
Fitzwilliam reached down to gently brush his wife’s midsection then reached for her hand to bestow another kiss.
“I shall peek and check the coast is clear. Then we shall sneak down to the kitchens, order ourselves a picnic, call for a wagon and abscond on an afternoon adventure. Do we have an accord?” Fitzwilliam whispered huskily to his wife’s further contentment.
“It appears I am not the only one exhausted by our spring society,” she bemused.
“Remember, it was not I who called for this ball,” he said jovially as he turned away swiftly and opened the door a crack. As most of the temporary and long-term guests of the house were otherwise occupied, Mr. Darcy followed through on his private mischief with his wife. With all that the two had endured, it was easy to forget they were only a few weeks from the first anniversary of their nuptials.
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 8 (cont'd) - A Spring Society, a Pride and Prejudice Novella Variation
An hour later, the spring breezes on the south side of the property cooled the back of Elizabeth Darcy’s neck. But they were not strong enough for a kite. As she reclined and allowed the sun’s warmth to beam down on her face, she imagined the scolding her mother would give if present. Even married, nothing stopped Mrs. Bennet from fussing at her daughters to safeguard their complexions.
In the distance, Elizabeth heard the happy barks of her husband’s favorite hunter. Her cheeks began to feel pained from the heat, so she adjusted her bonnet. When she blinked her eyes to refocus, as even with her eyes closed the sun’s powerful light had marred her vision, she laughed at the hilarious tableau just a few yards away. Fitzwilliam tossed a stick for his canine companion with enough gusto that his boot slipped in the mud. He made a dashing turn to gain his balance and looked back at the picnic to spy his wife giggling.
“Are you practicing without me, Husband?” Elizabeth shouted as she ungraciously rolled over to push to her knees and stand up. Fitzwilliam jaunted over to his wife to assist, scolding her for not calling a footman. But Elizabeth only gave him a look of annoyance as it was not her way to incessantly beckon a servant for her every need.
The poor dog returned with the stick, but his Master was occupied. Wagging his tail, the animal tried to nudge the stick against Mr. Darcy’s leg, but he was too busy tending to his wife. So Elizabeth took pity and wrested the toy from the dog’s mouth and gave it a throw that barely made it half the distance of her husband’s attempts.
“I fear a coming storm. Must we have this ball?” Darcy asked, admiring his wife’s aim.
Elizabeth gazed at the horizon and sniffed. “I see no clouds,” she remarked, then realized her husband spoke metaphorically.
“I shall listen as you tell me your troubles.” Elizabeth patted Fitzwilliam’s arm as she led him away from their small coterie of servants. With an expert flick of her wrist, she signaled that the food and refreshments be packed away.
The couple began a circuit around the pond. Fitzwilliam asked his wife if she’d prefer his mildly distressing news, his severely distressing news, or his distressing prediction first?
Elizabeth repeated the options. “Mildly distressing, severely distressing, or a distressing prediction?” She took a moment to consider as her husband nodded.
They rounded a small break in the weeds along the bank and spied a small family of newly hatched ducklings. Darcy’s hunter immediately began barking, but the fowl swam safely out of the animal’s reach as he responded to a command to heel.
“Oh, thank you, Fitzwilliam, I couldn’t bear to think that Marcellus might kill the hatchlings,” Elizabeth said as Darcy rewarded the dog for obedience with a pat. They didn’t have to share any further words about such a situation feeling like a threatening omen and Elizabeth made her decision.
“Let’s begin with your prediction about your aunt as I suppose it matches mine. Then we shall work up to the severely distressing.”
The couple neared the halfway point of the pond’s perimeter, gaily watching the mother duck instruct her young in the finer arts of swimming in a line as they agreed that Lady Catherine de Bourgh was there to make a match between Anne and Robert Fitzwilliam.
“Do you think they hold any regard for each other?” Elizabeth asked as her husband shrugged.
“I’m not aware of them seeing each other in years…It is impossible to say.”
Elizabeth nodded. “But your cousin does not strike me as the type of man to accept interference in his life.”
“No,” Darcy said as he pursed his lips, “but at least the wedding will help others.”
Elizabeth looked to her husband expectantly for an explanation.
“Richard has written. He is to deploy.”
Elizabeth gasped as her husband’s grip tightened in support on her arm. “I’m well, I’m well,” she reassured him. “So Mary?”
Again, he nodded while his mouth twisted into chagrin. “Eloping, I’m afraid. But I’ve instructed the staff at Starvet to take good care of the Hamiltons and Fitzwilliams.”
Elizabeth smirked. “Poor Kitty will be the only Bennet girl left.” Elizabeth stopped in her trek causing her husband to fumble in his steps.
“Poor Kitty, indeed!” Elizabeth repeated as she gasped.
Regaining his balance, her husband shook his head, not following his wife’s logic.
“I fear she holds a tendre for Robert.”
“We can’t marry all of your sisters to my cousins,” Fitzwilliam said dryly.
“But think of the convenience!”
“Pray, you sound remarkably like Mother Bennet,” Fitzwilliam teased his wife as she gasped in horror. Unfortunately, bringing up Elizabeth’s mother reminded him of the severely distressing news he had to impart. Taking a deep breath, as they finished their circuit around the pond and only had to board the awaiting carriage for their journey back to the main house, Fitzwilliam finally worked up the courage to tell his wife what he saw that morning.
“Perhaps he merely called upon her with attire very similar . . .” Elizabeth attempted an explanation, but her voice trailed off as her husband merely stared at her. Pressing her fingers to her temple, Elizabeth closed her eyes. “So what do we do?”
Mr. Darcy cleared his throat as Marcellus excitedly circled around them. Up higher on the hill, he could spy the line of undergardeners leaving the rose gardens, a sure sign the day’s activities were steadily shifting. All around them, men and women who cared for Pemberley saw to their assignments with the dignity the estate commanded. Feeling a lump in his throat form as he remembered the values instilled in him by his own father and mother, guilt for the day’s folly began to cloud Mr. Darcy’s judgment. He ardently loved and cherished his wife, but the two members of their families that caused the most liability were now aligned in a way that could only bring ruin and scandal.
“I can send him away,” Fitzwilliam declared.
“Or they could marry?” his wife asked.
Startled by such a solution he had never considered, Fitzwilliam Darcy looked down at his much shorter, but smarter wife.
“An alliance?”
Elizabeth shrugged her shoulders as she began to walk towards the carriage, forcing her husband to hasten after her. Even so far gone with child, she could still walk at a swift clip when she so chose, at least for short distances.
“Come, our time is spent. We must duel in the drawing room and debate in the dining room, and perhaps, if we are lucky, some or all of them might become so irate that they pack themselves up and leave!” Elizabeth looked back and flashed her husband a devilish grin.
“You provide false hope, Madam. None shall leave now that there is to be a ball.”
“Then we must keep the peace. And then load their carriages the following morning!” Elizabeth laughed as she had the last word and returned to the carriage out of breath, but feeling full of energy.
Once they were safely tucked inside and being driven back to the front of the house instead of the side by the kitchens where they had escaped, the husband and wife with so much burden on their shoulders found solace in each other through kisses and other affections.
You’ve been reading A Spring Society.
Book 6 of The Seasons of Serendipity, continues to tell the fate of the Bennet family after the death of their patriarch, Mr. Bennet, in Book 1, A Winter Wrong.
After a winter of wonders, from a Darcy babe making his growth known to the arrival of Darcy’s uncle, Alistair Darcy, the Bennet, Darcy, and Fitzwilliams families became further entwined with the engagement of Mary Bennet to Colonel Fitzwilliam. Spring 1813 continues to delight the Darcys as they come up on their first year anniversary and welcome a new addition to the family.
The Seasons of Serendipity are novella length episodes to be read and enjoyed like our favorite hour-long BBC dramas. The series has 5 novellas in the main storyline, and a bonus novella that follows Jane Bennet’s adventures in Scotland with the handsome, reluctant Lord Graham Hamilton in A January for Jane.
A Spring Society Book 6 of the Seasons of Serendipity.
a Pride and Prejudice novella variation series
Release Date:
January 18, 2019 (direct preorder),
January 25, 2018 other vendors
202 pages in print
+ 23 additional Pride & Prejudice variations are available at these fine retailers . . .
Keep reading more by clicking below!
Thank you for your comments. They help me write more.
XOXOXO Elizabeth Ann West
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.
I can sense a lightness in your writing that wasn’t there months ago. (Even though the topic isn’t light) I’m hoping that means that you are doing much better. My prayers for your little family.