The loss in this book is still something I feel years after writing it. 🙁
XOXOXO
Elizabeth Ann West
Chapter 13 - A Summer Shame, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
The collective mood in number twenty-seven Gracechurch Street could best be described as triumphant. Mrs. Gardiner was safely delivered of a healthy baby girl, named Constance Elizabeth Gardiner, a moniker chosen for her stubbornness shown already at such a young age. After her initial cries, young Constance was surprisingly quiet, but much more awake and alert than Mrs. Gardiner’s older children were at birth.
One thing was for certain and that was young Constance already captured a favorite aunt in Miss Mary Bennet. Poor Kitty and Georgiana despaired that when they held the babe, she cried and fussed no end, but once placed in Mary’s arms, the young infant cooed and slept.
After placing a slumbering Constance back into her bassinet one afternoon, much to the nurse’s relief, Mary Bennet changed her dress for the third time that day with plans to finally return downstairs. Babies were a messy business as far as Mary was concerned and she was thankful she had never discarded her older frocks.
The Matlock carriage arrived to deliver Kitty from the shopping excursion she had taken with Georgiana and Lady Matlock. The lack of invitation to Mrs. Bennet had stirred the poor woman to fits and she refused to leave her room after Kitty left. Mary descended the stairs as Kline opened the door to not only the young ladies, but to the Countess of Matlock herself.
Mary sucked in her breath as the social calls of such a grand woman still rankled her deep teachings of the world from her younger years. Peers visiting tradesmen, it simply wasn’t done! Smiling, she gave the older woman the warmest greeting as she was beginning to love Lady Matlock as the mother figure she wished she had.
Chapter 13(cont'd) - A Summer Shame, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
“My lady, I’m afraid Mrs. Gardiner is not available for visitors,” the stiff Kline announced the normal response to the many visitors the house had received from Mr. Gardiner’s vendors and workers since the babe had been born.
“Certainly not! I should hope my presence makes not the slightest difference!” Margaret Fitzwilliam shrugged her coat off to reveal a gorgeous gown in ruby red, trimmed with delicate gray lace.
Mary looked down at her plainer brown gown and felt slightly embarrassed she had not thought to don a more elegant selection. Since her tentative understanding with the Colonel, Mary found herself wishing most to impress his mother.
“May I show you to the parlor, Lady Matlock?” Mary remembered her manners and showed the way as the two younger girls, full of giggles over some secret, already left the entryway.
Mary felt grownup as she rang for refreshments and tried her best to emulate her aunt’s easy manners. Her eagle eyes glared at Kitty and Georgiana, sitting in abject silliness on the sofa.
“What has you two in such a passion, hmm?” Lady Matlock openly chided the girls.
Their faces slackened, and Georgiana handed over the scrap of newspaper from Kitty’s reticule that the two had giggled over since Kitty snuck it to her in the carriage.
The cut out read that a Mr. B and Miss B of Yorkshire were unfortunate victims of Lady C’s punch bowl contents when the legs of said Lady C’s table collapsed from the weight of Lord E’s drunken tumble from the dance floor.
Biting her lip to keep a stern look after reading the clip aloud, the silence was broken when Mary began to laugh before anyone else.
“Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Romans twelve nineteen,” Mary quoted, losing herself to the hilarity of divine power.
“Yes, it would appear so,” Lady Matlock laughed lightly as she crumpled the clipping and placed it on the tray. “You ladies may laugh all you like now, but come spring, it will be your turn to brave the ballrooms and parlors, and neither of your initials better appear in those columns.”
Georgiana gulped as Kitty looked on with indifference. As Lady Matlock began to describe the tutors and lessons she intended to begin shortly, she suddenly turned to Mary. “And it would be a good refresher for you, dear, as many expectations come of a woman in your situation.”
“Situation? What situation is that?” Kitty helped herself to a meringue and bit into the sweet confection.
“Never you mind about your sister’s situation. Let’s worry about your own. Have you completed that little novel of yours?”
Kitty’s eyes widened as she was unaware the grand lady had followed her project. Proud, Catherine Bennet sat slightly higher in her place on the sofa, expecting the older woman’s praise for the accomplishment. “Yes, ma’am, just last week Georgiana and I bound the final version with my uncle’s help.”
“Good, now you can set aside those childish habits and be free to concentrate on all that a proper lady of London must know.”
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 13(cont'd) - A Summer Shame, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
Kitty’s eyes narrowed and Georgiana worried for her friend. Quickly, Georgiana began a new subject by asking where Richard had gone off to, seeing as she expected him to be with her aunt in London.
“Oh, Richard had to run an errand for General someone or other, and will be back at the London office in some weeks’ time.” Lady Matlock waved her hand at the errand’s unimportance as a servant entered the room, delivering an express directly to Mary on a silver tray.
Seeing the return address, and noticing how thin the missive was, Mary politely excused herself as Georgiana began peppering her aunt with more and more questions about the plans to return to Pemberley.
Ducking out of the room and crossing the hall to her uncle’s study, she knocked on the door and was granted admittance.
“Mary! I thought we had company? I was just finishing here to greet them.”
“It’s only the girls and Lady Matlock. I’ve received a message.” Mary handed over the letter to her uncle who viewed it with a grim face. Good news rarely took only one sheet. He handed the letter back to Mary.
“My dear, I would spare you what pain is inside, but the address is clearly to you. Perhaps there is a reason.”
Mary nodded, wishing she could overrule her uncle’s good sense in the matter, but carefully sat on the edge of a chair to open the letter.
Lydia Bennet is gone. Robert William Bennet survives.
Your servant,
Fitzwilliam Darcy, Esq.
You’ve been reading A Summer Shame
A Summer Shame Book 3 of the Seasons of Serendipity
a Pride and Prejudice novella variation series
Release Date: November 23, 2014
33,000 words, ~162 pages in print.
The third novella in the Seasons of Serendipity sees the Bennet sisters divided by countries, not counties. Still struggling to find family stability after the death of Mr. Bennet, Elizabeth joined with her new husband, Fitzwilliam Darcy, converts her honeymoon in Scotland into a mission of hiding Lydia’s scandal. Jane Bennet, under the wing of Lady Matlock, learns that taking on the mantle of family champion comes with tight corset strings attached. Saving face in soirees with the Ton, Jane must fend off the talons of society’s climber and discovers she has a much deeper decision to make about her own future.
A Summer Shame is the third book in a series planned to chronicle 4 years of the Darcy-Bennet-Fitzwilliam families. Death, marriage, changing fortunes, and politics test Jane Austen’s wonderful characters in an alternate universe where the girls have not the protection of their father.
“I could not put this novel down! This book has a refreshing storyline that is interesting, amusing, surprising, and vivid.” – Amazon.com 5-star review on A Summer Shame
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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.
I’m not sure how many times I’ve read these stories, but the end of this one still gets me.
Very sad ending, but I could see the story was headed in that direction. Poor Lydia was far too young to understand and accept her predicament, I have a feeling Jane will be most attached to this orphaned little boy, bless him.