Don’t worry, Mr. Darcy, here comes the cavalry! Elizabeth and Colonel Fitzwilliam, tally ho! 🙂 🙂Â
XOXOXO Elizabeth Ann West
Chapter 4 - A Virtue of Marriage, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
Hyde Park blossomed around Elizabeth Bennet as the early floral armies of spring marched forward, brashly breaking the earth around them. Attended by a maid employed by the Gardiner household named Anna, Elizabeth was dismayed that the warmer weather and start of the London Season brought more patrons to the park.
Standing before a gigantic shrub carved into the shape of an elephant, Elizabeth stopped walking and giggled.
“Miss?” Anna, who had been conspicuously walking behind her charge, lost the short distance between them when Miss Bennet abruptly stopped.
“Sorry, Anna. I was merely remembering the first time Mr. Darcy and I walked these gardens. He makes a most impressive elephant,” Elizabeth explained.
“Yes, miss.” Anna demurely nodded and continued walking after her employer’s niece. Twice-daily walks were an exercise the other maids eschewed, but Anna did not mind Miss Elizabeth’s jolly spirit and energies. It certainly was more pleasurable to exercise than it was to scrub chamber pots.
On their second circuit, Elizabeth spied a handsome fellow wearing the robin’s breast red coat of His Majesty’s Army. The tall, stocky fellow with reddish-brown sideburns nodded to her and touched the brim of his cap. It was the sign Elizabeth looked for every day. It meant the man, Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam, had news, and would be along shortly to call upon her at her relations’ home in Cheapside.
“Come, Anna, we must hurry home.” Elizabeth slightly lifted her skirts to walk briskly towards her uncle’s carriage, with poor Anna nearly needing to run to keep up. But the joy was positively too overwhelming for Elizabeth to keep under good regulation. Perhaps Richard had a letter from her Fitzwilliam? Perhaps he at last had leave and could go to Kent to free her fiancée from this scheme of theirs to play the family false?
Breathless, Anna managed a return to the carriage long after Elizabeth had entered and settled herself. Catching back her calm, the maid, who was a few years older than Miss Bennet, gazed sternly at the woman whose love life had caused such uproar in the household.
“Miss Bennet, you frightened me that you would have left me behind. I did not know ladies could dart so in public.”
Elizabeth left her vigil of the window to watch the Colonel’s progress to his own horse to smile broadly at the maid. Anna’s kindness and care had nearly transformed her into a personal maid of sorts, and Elizabeth would genuinely miss her constant companion when her new life with Mr. Darcy began. “No one knows me here; I can afford a bit of reckless abandon now and again.”
Absent-mindedly, Elizabeth flexed her left foot, the very ankle she broke last autumn diving out the way of Mr. Darcy’s horse, Alexander. “Besides, I still so desperately cherish my abilities to walk and ramble. Trust me, once you lose your ability to walk, even for a short time, you remind yourself not to take your health for granted again!”
The maid nodded sagely as the Gardiner carriage gave a lurch and stopped only to lurch again to turn onto the main road connecting Mayfair and Cheapside. The Colonel’s horse followed the carriage in a lazy, disinterested manner and Richard was careful to take a number of detours to disguise his destination. As he led his horse Sampson down a less-traveled alleyway to round the block, the stench of London’s daily life assaulted his senses. Careful to remain in the middle as much as possible, Richard hoped he was not mucking with the beast’s natural sense of direction with all of these obscured routes.
Two ladies with extravagant costumes, just a touch too fashionable for the hour, strolled the path of Hyde Park with a nanny and babe behind them. One wore a dark blue gown in an attempt to hide her body’s changes from recently giving birth. The other wore a garish gown made of a gold and orange Indian sari, with matching plumage in her hair.
“I was correct, I told you it was that upstart Elizabeth Bennet talking about Mr. Darcy! Louisa, we must call on Darcy House this very afternoon.” Caroline Bingley whispered hoarsely to her sister.
“Curious, I believe that was his cousin who left around the same time. Perhaps it is he who is interested in Eliza. We both know the Bennets love their red coats.” Louisa Hurst gave a laugh that most carefully sounded like a snark.
So angry to see her adversary, in London, with connections of some kind to Mr. Darcy, the feathers in Caroline’s head bobbled furiously from the shudder of her clenched jaw. Narrowing her eyes to see the last of the carriage rolling away towards the less fashionable side of town, incidentally the same direction of the Hurst town home though that home was not so far as to be labeled as Cheapside, Caroline stomped her slippered foot in exasperation. Too many times Darcy had slipped through her fingers and Caroline was determined to not let it happen again.
“I feel a headache coming on.” Louisa touched her forehead for effect.
“You always feel a headache coming on. I want to call on Miss Darcy, forgive me, Mrs. Wickham, as soon as we are able.”
Louisa frowned at her sister and with a swish of her skirts, began walking towards her own equipage. “Allow the poor woman to return to London, if you please. I have no interest in running to our brother in Bath.”
Caroline pulled a fan from her reticule and snapped it open to cover her expression of utter disgust should they pass a lady of importance on their departure. She had not been taken on Charles’ wedding trip with Jane, a manipulation she instigated, as an attempt to ensnare Darcy at Netherfield Park after Charles’ departure. Instead, she had missed the opportunity to ingratiate herself further with Darcy’s younger sister who was coincidentally in the same town enjoying her wedding trip. The world was patently unfair and Caroline refused to think for one moment if she only ceased trying to dictate her own fate, perhaps Providence might shine more favorably upon her.
Chapter 5 - A Virtue of Marriage, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
The Gardiner town home at Twenty-Seven Gracechurch Street in Cheapside was aflutter with activity. Elizabeth and her maid Anna entered the home to hear Mrs. Gardiner speaking excitedly from the sitting room. A deep baritone voice, unfamiliar to Elizabeth, and certainly not belonging to her uncle, could also be heard. Elizabeth looked to Anna as the maid assisted in removing her cloak and bonnet.
Elizabeth paused for a moment to check her appearance in the peering glass mounted in the hallway. If her aunt was to introduce her to a new acquaintance, she wished to look her best. Elizabeth Bennet had never been a vain creature. However, since her secret alliance with Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy of Derbyshire, the young woman of little consequence from Hertfordshire took greater care in how she was to be perceived by others.
“I am utterly conflicted, I love both paper patterns equally it seems. The olive and cream stripes are very calm and soothing, while this navy blue with a touch of gold might appeal more to Mr. Gardiner, I believe.” Madeleine Gardiner held up the two samples of wallpaper against the aging roses currently plastered in her sitting room.
“Observing this room receives a fair amount of sun, might I suggest the olive and cream paper might hold up better to nature’s assault from these gorgeous windows you possess?” the mysterious man suggested.
“Are we to redecorate the sitting room as well?” Elizabeth raised an eyebrow as she cheekily spoke out to announce her arrival. Her aunt made the necessary introductions, explaining to Elizabeth the man was no other than Mr. Thaddeus Warren, an up-and-coming interior decorator who came highly recommended from Mrs. Henrietta Carlton, the dressmaker.
Elizabeth took a look at both wallpaper samples and had to admit that she agreed with the decorator. The navy blue, a heavily masculine color scheme, would not serve as a decoration she would find herself enjoying in a room with it plastered on the walls.
“I suspect we have company soon to arrive, would it be acceptable if I use Uncle’s study?”
Madeleine Gardiner waved her hand at her niece and agreed, knowing without asking who the impending visitor was likely to be. The cousin of Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam, had enjoyed a number of dinners and evenings in her home. If Lizzie were not so in love with the dark man from Derbyshire, Mrs. Gardiner began to think the jovial natures of her niece and the Colonel would easily suit one another.
“Have Anna attend you, and the post is on your uncle’s desk. I believe I spied a letter for you.” Mrs. Gardiner smiled as Elizabeth bowed her head to the decorator out of courtesy, and then nearly leapt from the room.
The pile of correspondence on the desk included a number of letters addressed to her Uncle Edward, but at last, Lizzie found a strange missive from Kent. It was not from her Mr. Darcy, but instead from her dearest friend from Hertfordshire, Charlotte Lucas, now a married woman to her cousin Collins.
Dearest Lizzie,
Spring approaches in our lovely corner of the kingdom and I found myself wishing to invite you for a visit at your earliest convenience. My father and Maria were to come for the Easter holidays, but a change in their plans opens an opportunity for us to reunite sooner, if it pleases you.
You promised to come see me once settled and I am happy to report the parsonage so generously bestowed by Lady Catherine has at last become home. It would ever so delight my husband and your cousin, to have you visit and partake in the scenic grounds of the Lady Catherine’s estate. There are many paths for walking, and you would most certainly enjoy our regular inclusions at dinners with Lady Catherine herself. Please say you shall come. I eagerly await your reply.
Your Dearest Friend,
Charlotte Collins
Elizabeth’s hands trembled as she read, reread and then read once more, the missive. She bit her lower lip to keep from shouting out at the wonderful news of receiving an invitation to Kent, to the very estate where Fitzwilliam was kept prisoner. This whole business of arranged and unarranged marriages did not suit her at all, and though in her heart and mind she trusted Fitzwilliam to prevail, the stabs and pangs of jealousy never truly dissipated while he was away.
The sounds of the Colonel’s precipitous arrival startled Elizabeth back to the present matters at hand and she swiftly refolded Charlotte’s letter to tuck into her dress pocket. She smiled in preparation for the man to enter the study and glanced over to Anna, sitting calmly in the far corner of the room. Giving the maid a wink, the two shared a silent laugh as Richard entered the room.
“Miss Bennet, may I say how lovely you look today?” The dashing Colonel bowed low to the intended of his favorite cousin.
“Colonel, you are so flattering, but I do think we might dispense with pleasant formalities. You have news?” Elizabeth’s throat clenched as her heart hoped Richard held a letter from her Fitzwilliam.
“I’ve had a letter from Darcy.”
Jubilation bubbled over in Elizabeth heart and she finally felt she could breathe easily. “Has he written to me?”
The Colonel shook his head, and Elizabeth’s hopes crashed to the ground. “I see.” She took a seat in her favorite chair next to the bookcases in Uncle’s study. The Colonel looked around him and found the wooden chair beside Mr. Gardiner’s desk as a suitable place to rest.
“The situation in Kent has become desperate. I am to leave tomorrow as I have finally secured permission for leave from the Major General. I only wished to visit here so that I might keep you abreast of the latest developments. Darcy writes that our cousin, Anne, is . . .” The man trailed off as his emotions began to overwhelm him.
Elizabeth witnessed the difficulties her visitor experienced in saying the words she could easily guess. “Your presence is needed at once,” she said softly.
Richard nodded. “I shall leave for Kent in the morning on horseback.”
Elizabeth pursed her lips and worked out a plan in her head. Charlotte had invited her to visit at her earliest convenience. And here was an opportunity to not only travel with a maid, as she was sure her aunt and uncle would insist upon, but with a member of His Majesty’s Finest. Would Fitzwilliam be angry for her to leave London without his knowledge? But that thought flittered away as Elizabeth smiled at the opportunity to surprise Fitzwilliam as he had surprised her these last two months with his unannounced returns to the city.
“Colonel, would you consider assisting me in a surprise attack upon your cousin and travel to Kent not on horseback, but by carriage?”
A consummate prankster himself, Richard at first felt keen to aid Miss Bennet, but visions of his aunt’s wrath made him question the wisdom of such a plan. “While I would love nothing more than to please my cousin with aiding your travel, I hesitate that your presence might complicate our plans . . .”
Wrinkling her nose, Elizabeth shook her head and retrieved the letter from her pocket. “Oh, I would never presume to stay at Rosings uninvited. It is that I have just today received an invitation to visit my dear friend Charlotte and her husband, my cousin.”
“The very same cousin you refused to marry?” The Colonel asked, forgetting that was a confidence Darcy had shared. “Forgive me, I spoke out of turn.”
Steadying her emotions with a deep breath through her nose, Elizabeth managed to keep her composure that Richard should know of her past. “Fear not, I am not surprised Fitzwilliam made you aware of the particulars. You are trustee to my future safety. But yes, the very same man, though I do not think now that he is married he should behave untoward in my direction.”
Richard agreed with Elizabeth with a slow nod of his head, finally considering her proposed travel arrangements more carefully. After the gossip in the newspaper, bringing Elizabeth Bennet to Kent might prove to be the perfect distraction to keep Lady Catherine off his and Darcy’s true aims. And with Richard there, his aunt would never succeed in forcing a sudden marriage between Darcy and Anne. He looked again at his cousin’s intended and measured her mettle as she sat there, fire in her eyes, chin jutted out. This lady was a warrior; there was no doubt about it. And Richard would be a fool to dismiss her offer of aid, even if it did make her the sacrificial lamb in the plan.
“Miss Bennet, you are a crafty one, I shall warrant you that much. I hope my cousin knows what it is he has found in you.” The compliment was met with a tinkling laughter that made the Colonel join with his deeper bass. “I accept your plan and shall return this evening to discuss the particulars with your uncle.”
“I shall prepare him for your visit, sir.” Elizabeth rose from her chair to see the colonel out and smiled as he left at nearly the same time as Mr. Warren. Both Mrs. Gardiner and Elizabeth stood in the entryway for a moment and her aunt asked Lizzie for the news.
“I am to leave for Kent in the morning, Aunt Maddie, and rescue my knight!” Elizabeth laughed as she pecked her aunt on the cheek and hurried up the stairs. She had much to pack and little time to prepare.
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 6 - A Virtue of Marriage, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
Regular post amused Mr. Bennet of Hertfordshire. Since losing his favorite daughter to her stubborn will, the letters from his brother-in-law Gardiner rarely interested him beyond a glance. The latest letter, though, appeared to have significant heft to it as it sat, carefully folded upon his desk.
“Mr. Bennet! Mr. Bennet! Come quickly, a carriage has been spotted!”
Robert Bennet cast his eyes to his easily excitable wife standing in the doorway to his study. Francine Bennet had not ceased to speak about the impending arrival of their eldest daughter, now fashioned as Mrs. Charles Bingley, since breakfast. She now stood waving her familiar object of comfort, a lace handkerchief, beckoning her husband to leave his den of refuge.
“Mrs. Bennet, until the carriage has arrived and Mr. and Mrs. Bingley have been welcomed into our home, kindly allow me some peace.”
“You have no compassion, sir! ’Tis a momentous day for any mother to welcome home a married daughter. A momentous day indeed!”
Despite her chastisement, Mrs. Bennet did manage to leave her husband alone to await the carriage’s arrival. Mr. Bennet poured himself a drink and considered the unopened letter from London. If the letter should prove upsetting, the visit of his most obedient and serene daughter, Jane, may alleviate any ill effects. Should the letter not prove upsetting, well, that was an unlikelihood Robert would not deign to expect.
Slicing the seal of the letter, a number of papers were folded with only the top letter in his brother’s hand.
Brother Bennet,
Although your continued silence from the numerous updates I have sent regarding your daughter Elizabeth leads me to believe you are uninterested in her future, the father in me refuses to give up the hope that a reconciliation might still come to pass. My last letter explained my reservations concerning a suitor for Elizabeth’s hand, a Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy of Derbyshire.
I’ve had it confirmed through my sister Phillips that the man is indeed the same who nearly killed my niece with his reckless horseback riding. As the injuries to Elizabeth are not lasting, and she appears in fine health, I’m confident the accident has forged a rather strong bond between the two young people.
Mr. Darcy began to call upon my family a number of times each week, by direct result, I am told, of Elizabeth visiting his town home without invitation to return a book lent to her during her lengthy recuperation at Netherfield Park. I did my best to dissuade the man from his interests in Elizabeth because I feared with such wealth, the man was unlikely to be honorable with his intentions.
While I cannot in clear conscience say I was incorrect, as Mr. Darcy’s family has intervened to make him marry his sickly cousin in Kent, your daughter considers herself engaged to the man. And despite his difficulties in managing his family’s expectations, Mr. Darcy has settled an extensive trust upon your unmarried daughter with his cousin and myself as trustees.
Robert Bennet’s heart clenched in his chest. How could his brother Gardiner be such an imbecile to not recognize a rich man providing for his mistress? If Mr. Darcy had such designs of marriage towards his Lizzie, there had been ample time for the man to come honorably to Longbourn and discuss such matters with her father. The very fact that this rich man had waited until his daughter was unprotected, in London, proved to Mr. Bennet no such wedding should ever occur between his favorite daughter and Mr. Bingley’s closest friend.
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Lizzie has accepted the invitation of her friend, Mrs. Charlotte Collins, and recently left our home to go to Kent. I am apprehensive about her reception to the very estate where Mr. Darcy is expected to wed his cousin, but both my wife and niece dismissed my concerns. We both know Lizzie’s will is ironclad where her heart is concerned and I felt I had no choice but to assist her in her aims.
I pray these young people, including Mr. Darcy’s cousin, know their business as their intentions are to switch Mr. Darcy as groom to their cousin, a Miss Anne de Bourgh, with the man traveling to Kent with Elizabeth, a Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam. I admire their pluck for the Colonel’s parents, the Earl and Countess of Matlock, and Miss de Bourgh’s mother, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, are opposed.
Raised voices outside of his study alerted Mr. Bennet that it was likely the Bingleys had arrived. He frowned as he remembered the meddling nature of the woman when described by his buffoon of a cousin, William Collins, as his esteemed patroness. Even if such a scheme were truly intended by these rich men with Elizabeth in their clutches, there was no chance such a woman would allow her daughter to marry a colonel instead of one of the wealthiest landowners in all of England. When had his bright and charming daughter become such an idiot to not see these men wished to play her false?
Should Lizzie triumph; our families shall see ourselves aligned with no less than an Earl and his family, a development I believe my sister would most relish. This is why I beg of you to consider reconciliation with your daughter in the interest of family harmony. And should Lizzie fail, the consequences of such an effort will ruin her place in society and she shall need the love and support of her relatives to survive. She will have plenty of resources should she lose her Mr. Darcy, the gentleman did mitigate that risk, but you and I both know Elizabeth Bennet could never live the life of an outcast.
Your servant,
Edward Gardiner
Inhaling sharply through his nose, Robert Bennet did not even look at the enclosed papers detailing a whore’s settlement upon his daughter. He crumpled every shred of parchment from London and stood up from his desk to toss the offending missive into the flames. In the back of his mind, he had considered inviting Lizzie home once the Bingleys were settled back into the neighborhood and his wife’s anger dissipated. His own anger over her disobedience, a disobedience to his attempt to never lose her again as he nearly had when Mr. Darcy ran her over with that horse of his, had left his heart less than a month after she ran to London.
Tears welled in the eyes of the sixth heir of the Longbourn estate as he leaned against the mantle and observed the flames devouring the papers. With the futures of three more daughters to secure because of the blasted entail, his Lizzie’s folly was too much. He used the poker to adjust the embers of the letter so that no scrap remained unburned. As his brother-in-law’s request reduced to ashes, one truth remained. Elizabeth Bennet was little better than dead to her family.
You’ve been reading A Virtue of Marriage
Book 2 of The Moralities of Marriage, continuation of the saga from By Consequence of Marriage.Â
With Fitzwilliam Darcy hopelessly tangled in his family’s lies and deceit in Kent, reinforcements are on the way in the form of his cousin, Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam, and his secret fiancee, Elizabeth Bennet. Two generations of the Fitzwilliam family clash at Rosings and the matrimonial futures of both Darcy and Richard hang in the balance. When Lady Catherine goes on a rampage, and the Bennets become swayed by the vicious gossip swirling the Darcy family, both Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam learn you inherit each other’s family drama by virtue of marriage.
A full-length novel, A Virtue of Marriage continues the three-part Moralities of Marriage series.
A Virtue of Marriage, Book 2 of the Moralities of Marriage
a Pride and Prejudice novel variation series
Release Date: March 31, 2015
308 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.