Hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween! I *may* have overdid it a bit with trick or treating with my 8-year-old. But I’m working to get 1 chapter up tonight for you all. Thank you so much for reading!
XOXO Elizabeth Ann West
Chapter 12 - A Winter Wrong, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
The name on everyone’s tongue was Bennet as the Earl and Countess of Matlock welcomed the elite of London society to their annual Twelfth Night ball. Of course, the spectacular display of the three sisters’ beauty and their close friendships to the Darcy siblings at the theater were more than enough to attract notice. Though to help the gossip reach a pitched fever, the very morning after their theater visit the society sheets had published gross speculation. They named matches between the all too obvious initials of E.B., F. D., J. B., and C. B. Lady Matlock was only surprised her own son had managed to avoid designation but accepted it was more due to his confirmed bachelorhood than his ability to remain unnoticed in a crowd of people.
As the Gardiner carriage transported the girls to the elegant town home of one of the oldest families in the country, the three of them took a moment to hug each other and give one last round of compliments. When a footman opened their door, Jane took her precedence and exited first in a gown of the rosiest pink blush, followed by Elizabeth in a dramatic silver gown that made her feel as if she were the Goddess of the Moon. Finally, Mary descended in a jewel-toned amethyst silk selected especially by Lady Matlock. The only difference between the sisters was that while Elizabeth and Jane had adopted more fashionable, lower necklines, Mary had insisted on a design with a high neckline and long-sleeves on her gown.
Despite braving the crush, Elizabeth could just find Mr. Darcy as Colonel Fitzwilliam claimed her hand for the first set. The music blended into the background as she found herself zeroing in on the man no matter where the dance steps placed her.
“Are you enjoying yourself, Miss Elizabeth?”
“Perfectly, Colonel. I love to dance!”
“I couldn’t help but notice that your eyes seem to find my cousin with alarming frequency.” The two of them took their turn to promenade down the line, and Mr. Darcy slowly moved along the edge of the crowd to stay near them. Elizabeth laughed as she spied his movement, and most of all, she laughed at herself.
“What can I say, sir, but after many months I think Mr. Darcy and I finally understand one another, and it’s been a relief to add him to my circle of friends.”
The Colonel nodded and gave her his most dashing smile as he bowed to end the set and joined in the polite clapping for the musicians. “I hope you include me in this so called circle.”
“But of course!”
“Then please forgive me and realize this is no slight against you, but purely a prank against the stuffy Darcy.” And with that, the Colonel steered Miss Elizabeth to the far side of the ballroom to present her to his older brother, the viscount. As the elder Fitzwilliam brother, Robert, took his turn to spin and glide with Miss Elizabeth, she found the frustration growing on Mr. Darcy’s face rather humorous. However, when Robert Fitzwilliam then escorted her to his father for the third set, Elizabeth was less than amused. Exactly how many Fitzwilliam men was she expected to dance with tonight?
Chapter 12 (cont'd) - A Winter Wrong, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
Begging the Earl for a break for some refreshment, she thanked him for the set and felt truly honored Lady Matlock would go so far to help her and her sisters to be accepted into London’s finest. Jane and Mary were near the punch bowl, and Elizabeth explained to the Earl that she was content to see to her sisters so he may see to his guests.
“Jane, why the long face? Are you not enjoying yourself?” Elizabeth asked, spotting her sister’s dismay.
“She’s upset that Mr. Bingley stays with the other women he dances with and won’t stand up with her,” Mary said.
Elizabeth looked behind her and sure enough, Mr. Bingley was talking animatedly with a Miss Greenings and his hawkish sister was standing nearby. A tap on her shoulder and Miss Elizabeth turned around to be standing nearly nose to chest with the one man she had wished to dance with all evening. Looking up at Mr. Darcy, the two shared a smile and Elizabeth inhaled a deep aroma of sandalwood and spice. Another quickly came barging over, and Elizabeth recognized the voice as the Colonel.
“Miss Elizabeth, I’m here to claim a second set!” Richard attempted to carry his joke to a ridiculous line.
“Move along, Richard. Miss Elizabeth’s hand is claimed.” Darcy reached down to grasp the aforementioned part of Miss Elizabeth’s person and brought it up to bestow a kiss and rest it against his broad chest. Elizabeth gasped as her own heart beat furiously.
“Well met, Darcy, well met. I was only teasing, of course. Miss Mary, would you do me the honors? I promise I was not only coming over here to continue our little joke on my cousin but to make sure I dance with all of the prettiest ladies in the room.” The Colonel bowed, and Mary rolled her eyes but wasn’t truly affronted.
“Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman who feareth the Lord, she shall be praised,” Mary used Scripture to deflect the Colonel’s compliment.
“Right, I knew I could count on you to steady my wayward heart.” Richard turned back to wink at Elizabeth but never caught her eye as her focus was only on Darcy. Instead, he escorted Miss Mary to the dance floor, and they were quickly joined by his cousin and her sister.
A hush fell over the crowd as Darcy and Elizabeth appeared to be in their own little world, and with the newspaper piece everyone read two days ago with their breakfast, speculation was high about how soon a wedding could be expected. Lady Cornish approached Lady Matlock directly to begin needling her rival for information, but Lady Matlock remained vague.
“Oh you know young people these days, one day they’re violently in love, and then the next…” she held her hands up to motion nothing. A loud voice in the hall piqued Lady Matlock’s interest, and the owner of the voice made her smile freeze in place.
“I am Lady Catherine de Bourgh, now move out of my way or find yourself looking for new employment. I will speak to my brother this instant!”
The poor footman was confused about what to do, but Lady Catherine charged beyond him and into the ballroom. Lady Matlock tried to weave through the throng of people now clustering around the bombastic lady who rarely condescended to join London society.
Lady Catherine made it to the edge of the dance floor before Lady Matlock could reach her, so she turned around to find her husband. No one handled Catty like him, and she was going to need reinforcements.
“Unhand my nephew this moment you hoyden!” Lady Catherine reached out and grabbed Miss Elizabeth’s arm, causing the woman to turn around in response to the sudden and unexpected action. Suddenly face to face with a woman, not of her acquaintance, Elizabeth frowned when she recognized the greasy man standing next to her.
The dancing had been entirely disrupted, and the musicians stopped playing. All ears and eyes were focused on Lady Catherine, and Lady Matlock reached her husband who had just realized there was a disruption behind him.
“Go on, Collins.” Lady Catherine nudged her former parson very roughly so that he took a step forward towards Elizabeth.
“Cousin Elizabeth, while your ambitions are hardly surprising, even you must understand that you are reaching for heights beyond your own understanding. I have carefully considered my heart and your predicament, and I have come here to restore our engagement and offer you a place as the head of your childhood home,” Mr. Collins offered flatly, with a slight tremble to his stance as Lady Catherine leered over him.
“Mr. Collins, you are embarrassing the entire family,” Elizabeth hissed, feeling unsure of the surreal situation she now found herself in. This was one breach of etiquette she had never prepared to handle.
“On the contrary cousin, it is you who are embarrassing the family using your fine arts and allurements to flirt with men far above your consequence. But I am here to rescue you and help you restore your good name.”
“There is nothing wrong with my—” Elizabeth was raising her voice when suddenly Mr. Collins grabbed her by both arms and attempted to kiss her. At the last minute, Elizabeth managed to turn her face so that her disgusting cousin only managed to offend her cheek.
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 12(cont'd) - A Winter Wrong, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
Elizabeth stomped on his foot as hard as she could so that he released her, and her sister Mary abandoned the Colonel to grab her sister by the hand and lead her away. As Elizabeth turned to find Mr. Darcy, she caught the last glimpse of his fist making contact with Mr. Collins’ face, causing her cousin to slump to the floor. At the outbreak of violence on the dance floor, the crowd began shouting and crowing all at once as Richard worked with Darcy to dispose of Mr. Collins, and the Earl of Matlock and Viscount worked to move Lady Catherine out of the room.
Elizabeth turned and blindly followed Mary’s expert weaving all the way to the back of the room and out the door to a small garden. The cold air shocked Elizabeth, and she released Mary’s hand to double over and hyperventilate.
“I won’t—” she gasped for air, “they can’t make me—”
“Sssh, it’s okay, Lizzie. There’s no compromise for a cousin to kiss another on the cheek.”
The logic of Mary’s words helped Elizabeth regain her control, and she slowly rose to look at her younger sister. The experiences of the last few months had served to bring all three of the older Bennet sisters closer, and Elizabeth briefly wondered where Jane was.
“But the shame! Oh, how horrid for all of Lady Matlock’s work to be undone. She will be so cross; I doubt she’ll ever want to hear the name Bennet again,” Elizabeth lamented, once her mind was no longer worried about being forced to marry Mr. Collins.
“Now, Miss Elizabeth, I know you’ve experienced a trying evening, but let’s not succumb to the ridiculous.” Lady Matlock suddenly appeared in the garden with Richard and Mr. Darcy. “Miss Mary, my son would like to beg you to finish the set you started with him, he said something about finding you to be the most pleasant prayer book he’d ever come in contact with?”
Mary smiled as she truly enjoyed the easy manners of the Colonel and she took his arm, but not without one quick glance back to make sure Mr. Darcy was attending to her sister. Seeing him approach and gently place his hands on Elizabeth’s arms, Mary felt confident all would be well.
“Elizabeth, are you unharmed?”
With tears brimming in her eyes, Elizabeth looked up at Mr. Darcy and sighed at the sound of her name on his lips.
“I am sorry, Mr. Darcy, truly sorry that my relation has caused such a scene at your aunt’s elegant ball. This is all anyone will talk about tomorrow, and my sisters and I will never be able to show our faces in polite society again.”
“And what of my relations? It was my aunt that orchestrated the entire ordeal. She’s been bent for years that I would marry her daughter when neither Anne nor I have any intention of fulfilling her wishes. Perhaps it is I who should have sternly corrected her years ago.”
Elizabeth didn’t say anything in return for a moment until she blurted out “So you are not engaged to be married to your cousin?”
“Heavens no!”
“But that day at the book shop,”
Darcy walked away for a moment to collect his thoughts and flexed his right hand as the pain was beginning to throb.
“Your hand! Gracious, we must see it attended to.” Elizabeth reached forward to delicately raise it and inspect his bruised knuckles. But Mr. Darcy gently pulled it away.
“I am perfectly uninjured, madam,” he parroted back the words she had thrown at him just two months ago. “But you must know, there is no other woman my heart yearns for as it yearns for you. I love you, Elizabeth Bennet, and it would be the honor of my life to ask you to please be my wife. And the added incentive would be that our engagement would make any talk about Lady Catherine or Mr. Collins pale in comparison.”
Looking up at the man who was so brave to lay his heart out for her when she had just recently rebuffed his attempts for a courtship, Elizabeth couldn’t help but sigh as her own emotions had undergone such a dramatic change in the last few days. Mr. Darcy wasn’t proud; he was just accustomed to taking care of everyone under his charge. He wasn’t greedy but shared his wealth and friendship to all that were deserving.
“I am sorry, Mr. Darcy, but I cannot marry you simply to save the reputation of the Bennet sisters.” Before Mr. Darcy could answer and as his face immediately crumpled, she held a finger up to his lips. “I can only marry you because you have become the most esteemed and respected man in my life, and I too, would be honored to be your wife, sir.”
The smile on Darcy’s face threatened to stretch from ear to ear as he reached down and picked Elizabeth up and twirled her. “I swear; I swear my darling I will make you the happiest of women!”
Elizabeth giggled and grabbed onto his shoulders for comfort, as he slowly slid her back down to the ground, her arms were already laced around him. Without consciously meaning to, she pulled him down as he equally leaned over and the two shared a first chaste kiss that banished any chill from the winter night.
“Ahem.” The Earl and Countess of Matlock stood as glorious statues dedicated to the study of elegance in the doorway, and both Darcy and Elizabeth blushed. Taking her hand, Darcy kissed the top and began to escort her to his aunt and uncle.
“May I present my future wife, Miss Elizabeth Bennet?”
Lady Matlock shrugged off her husband’s arm and immediately embraced Elizabeth before leaning back to study her soon-to-be-niece’s face. “Anne Darcy would have been very proud of you, my dear. She hated her sister Catherine and would have been your champion if for no other reason that you stomped on that ugly parson’s foot!”
The four of them laughed, and the elder Fitzwilliams escorted the new couple back to the crowds to make an announcement. For the rest of the night, the Bennet girls didn’t sit out a single dance, and despite the evening’s festivities making Richard the Fool and Mary his Queen, the evening was a memory Elizabeth would cherish forever.
As she and Darcy danced the final set of the night, Elizabeth imagined she could see her father, just as he would at any assembly or ball, leaning against the wall sipping brandy. Every time she looked closer, of course, he wasn’t there, but in her heart, as she looked one last time at the dimpled face of her future husband, she knew he would have been pleased.
You’ve been reading A Winter Wrong
A Winter Wrong, Book 1 of the Seasons of Serendipity
a Pride and Prejudice novella variation series
Release Date: July 17, 2014
33,000 words, ~177 pages in print.
When Jane Bennet’s illness at Netherfield ends up not being just a trifling cold, but an epidemic that sweeps through Hertfordshire, the lives at Longbourn are turned upside down. Elizabeth Bennet finds herself lost without a cherished loved one and the interferences of one Fitzwilliam Darcy most aggravating. Combating the bombastic behavior of Mr. Collins, Elizabeth runs to London for the protection of her aunt and uncle. But acquaintances and introductions bring Mr. Darcy back into her life and Elizabeth discovers he might just mend her broken heart.
A sweetheart romantic novella, A Winter Wrong is the first in a series of seasonal episodes following the Bennet family after the loss of their patriarch. Winter explores the feelings of grief and loss we all have experienced, while still retaining a silver lining for that dark cloud.
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1 more chapter…. I love it when Mr. Collins gets punched! A bit of fisticuffs is always welcome.
XOXO 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.
Such a wonderful ending…..and the great gift you have to give such pleasure. Many thanks. You have brightened my day. Needless to say love the story
Such a wonderful ending…..and the great gift you have to give such pleasure. Many thanks. You have brightened my day. Needless to say love the story
Will be certain to recommend your books to my friends
A beautiful story!
Perfect ending. I’m going to love this series!