I bawled. Even knowing what would happen, the pain I write still gets me each time.
XOXOXO Elizabeth Ann West
Chapter 13 - A Winter Wonder, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
The carriage carrying the three members of the Darcy family rolled to a gradual stop behind another equipage Darcy did not readily recognize. Upon exiting the carriage, Fitzwilliam began questioning his staff for the meaning of the lone carriage from the family’s return from church being left to block the drive of the main house.
“Why has this carriage been left here? Is there a mechanical default? Or do I not employ enough staff in the stables?”
The driver of Mr. Darcy’s personal carriage, Mr. Farnham shrugged at his master and gently shook his head. “It is not one of yours, Mr. Darcy. I’m sure the lads in the stables be tending their duties, sir.”
“Who the devil pays a call on Christmas?” Darcy’s agitation grew with the uncertainty of the ownership of the carriage. His wife slid her arm through his and offered their driver thanks for their safe return. Then she lowered her voice so that mostly only her husband could hear her.
“Perhaps, Fitzwilliam, we ought to continue our progress inside and learn as a mystery guest together.” Elizabeth Darcy bit her lip to hide a smirk as her husband blinked a few times at her very sensible recommendation.
“Yes, yes, forgive me, Farnham.” Darcy waived his arm over his head with his back turned to the carriage.
Georgiana Darcy did not wait for her brother’s escort up the stairs, not with a mystery carriage in the drive. Elizabeth still relied on her husband’s aid as the possibility of iciness and therefore a fall, was too great.
The nips of their extremities still chilled from the visit to the graves, Georgiana, her brother, and his wife made it to the entryway as a familiar booming laugh echoed from the East sitting room where a door was left ajar.
Georgiana shed her manners of a proper lady of the house and broke into a brisk skipping to reach the door and yank it open wider.
“Richard!!!” Georgiana sidestepped around the large party of relations and made a direct line for her guardian in addition to her brother. Seizing the military man about his midsection in a fierce hug, the Brigadier released the arm the very fine lady to his right and faltered backwards a step.
“Easy now, that is not how a lady debuting in London is to greet of relation and company!”
This received many chuckles from the elder relations in the room, but Georgiana’s mouth fell into an instant pout.
“But have you not heard? I am not to go. Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth feel I need another year to mature.”
The brigadier’s attention traveled past his young cousin to spy the very couple just maligned by her tongue. Although the Darcys stood most formally on entering their own sitting room, their facial expressions were warm as they were both delighted to see Richard and Elizabeth’s uncle, Edward Gardiner, home at Pemberley on Christmas. Elizabeth also noticed quicker than her husband did, her sister, Mary, stood suspiciously close to the brigadier.
“There be room at the inn, eh Darcy?” Richard asked with a mischievous smile on his face.
Darcy looked to his wife who gave him a tiny nod and released his arm to step out and speak to Mrs. Reynolds. Darcy took long confident strides across the room directly to his cousin and stretched out his hand. Clasping the military man’s in his own, the two cousins shared a hearty welcome. “My home is yours. But however did you get away from Newcastle?” Darcy glanced sidelong to his uncle who shrugged.
“I was summoned, twice, and then kidnapped by that man over there!”
Darcy followed his cousin’s accusatory finger to Edward Gardiner, enjoying a semi-private reunion with his wife in the far corner of the sitting room. Another man standing behind the Gardiners, almost in a shadow, raised the hair on the back of Darcy’s neck.
“Who did you bring with you, Richard?” Darcy asked in a low voice though clenched teeth.
Richard looked at the man in the corner and laughed as he waved his hand forward. “It’s Uncle Darcy, you dolt! He caught a frig to Portsmouth and is back from India.”
Reflexes of a jaguar, Alistair Darcy glided from the far corner of the room, past the widow Bennet fussing over her daughter Kitty. The silver-haired, trim man passing so near to her person as to disturb her black crepe hems silenced her hushed fretting and captured her gaze as he continued by. “My post must have been lost to the war. It is so wonderful to be home, and on Christmas. Why, who is this enchanting creature? Surely not, not the baby?”
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Chapter 13 (cont'd) - A Winter Wonder, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
Georgiana giggled with a puzzled look on her face, unsure of how to greet the strange man identified as her father’s younger brother.
“And if you are here, Uncle, forgive me for being so crass, but who is tending the property?”
Alistair stopped winking at his little niece and apologized for not attending his nephew. “It truly is a shame I have anticipated the arrival of my letter. But surely, even your agents would have contacted you by now.” Alistair inhaled through his nose and closed his eyes, preparing himself to deliver the most dreadful news. “There is nothing to tend, I’m afraid. Fire. Burned it all.”
“A fire? How dreadful! Were you injured, sir? How did you manage to escape?” Mrs. Bennet cried from the couch, having listened ever so closely to the stranger’s every word.
Alistair Darcy turned away from his nephew to address the kind woman aiding his tale of woe as Mrs. Darcy slipped back into the room. Gallantly, Alistair took a seat next to his nephew’s mother-in-law and began to weave a daring tale of danger, luck, and heroism.
“—And after I helped the young boy escape, by the time I turned back to save the deeds and documents, the whole house became ravaged by a twenty-foot tall inferno, burning all of the estate and lands clear to the river! With only the clothes on my back I walked to Cochin for help, but the agents were gone. Victims, I’m sure of the attack.”
“And you survived all the way home?” Mrs. Bennet’s eyes became misty with practiced expertise. She reached for her handkerchief and released Kitty’s hands beside her. “It’s a Christmas miracle!”
Lord and Lady Matlock asked questions of the skirmishes and fighting, attracting the attentions of Richard and Mary who soon found themselves drifting to the small party listening with rapt attention to the elder Darcy’s tales. Kitty stood up from the settee to offer her seat to Mary, who wordlessly declined, wishing to remain close to her Richard. Instead of returning to her seat, Kitty slowly ambled away from the storytelling party, past her aunt and uncle and found a seat by the door. Glumly, she collapsed into the chair and rested her chin on the armrest, watching everyone in the room and her sister and her husband from their backs.
Elizabeth noticed her husband stood stoically tall, straight, too straight. And he did not hasten to greet his uncle who had been out of England for so long the way one would expect.
“He must have done something very wrong for you to dislike the name so strongly.” She whispered, giving Georgiana a fixed smile as she motioned to join the larger group away from the Darcys. Her brother merely closed his eyes while Elizabeth shooed her.
“I have my reasons.”
The large group surrounding Alistair paused as one tale brought a hearty laugh that dwindled done to everyone catching their breath. Richard clasped Mary’s hand and whispered something in her ear to the catcalls of his brother.
“Highly improper, to whisper in a young woman’s ear! You shall be forced to marry!” Robert Fitzwilliam called out, swinging his drinking arm holding a healthy glass of scotch liberally enough to spill a few sip.
Mary’s face burned bright red as Richard left his beloved’s ear long enough to verbally defend his brother’s barbs. “If it’s all right with you, I thought perhaps I might ask the lady first before announcing our plans to all and sundry!”
A fevered murmur trilled through the older women in the room, with Mr. Gardiner calling out from his chair by his wife. “Do it properly, son, or not at all!”
Adjusting his sword to not impede his progress, Brigadier Richard Bartholomew Fitzwilliam, the second son of the Right Honorable Sixth Earl of Matlock, bent down to one knee. As Richard took Mary’s hand in his own, Elizabeth grabbed her husband’s hand and squeezed in anticipation.
“Miss Mary Bennet, my heart, my strength, and my honor rest in your hands, madame. I should be ever so grateful if you would allow me to become the husband of the most loyal, most courageous Bennet girl of all.”
Elizabeth bit her lip simultaneously with her sister, feeling a swirl of movement in her stomach. As Mary gave Richard a timid “Yes,” Elizabeth placed her husband’s hand on her midsection and pressed hard. A violent jerk of motion instantaneously pushed back!
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 Winter Wonder, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
“He kicked!” Darcy hollered, startling the room from their cheers and claps for the happy couple. But Fitzwilliam Darcy did not care about those looking on, he kneeled down himself and pressed both hands once more against his wife, rewarded again with full evidence that his child grew healthy and strong within.
Elizabeth and Darcy remained preoccupied with their own joyous occasion as Lady Matlock rose to fuss over Richard and Mary, she happily announced they would hold the wedding at St. Andrew’s and it would be the start of the Season. Mrs. Bennet heartily agreed and began enumerating the wedding breakfast items and shopping to be done, both women deciding a March wedding to be best.
“Is this how you knew we’d all go to London, after all?” Georgiana teased her cousin, slipping into the younger tone of her voice from years of practice at manipulating both of her guardians.
Kitty’s eyes stung from the salt of the previous night’s wails and the new tears threatening to fall. Silently, she pushed herself off the chair and slipped out the door of the sitting room as Elizabeth and Darcy broke their little tete-a-tete and wanted to wish congratulations to the happy couple.
“Surely you cannot still plan to stay in Derbyshire in the New Year. Not with Richard and Mary getting married.” The Earl of Matlock challenged Darcy’s previous plans as the younger man kept a wary eye on Alistair chatting with Robert by the drinks cart.
“My plans have not changed, and if I know your son, I suspect he hold’s a special license and plans to marry his bride on the morrow.”
“That I do, Darcy, but I did not plan to spoil the surprise.”
“Tomorrow!” Lady Matlock and Mrs. Bennet exclaimed in an agonized unison.
“My schedule is not my own; it was a miracle I could leave my regiments this long.”
“But that’s too soon, and where will Mary go after the wedding? To live in a tent in Newcastle?” Mrs. Bennet scoffed at the very idea a daughter of hers, even if it was only Mary, be packed up and shipped off in less than a fortnight. No, no, since her discussions that morning with the Countess of Matlock, the uniting of their families in a double bond was Fanny Bennet’s top ticket to high London society. After all, her most ungrateful daughter, Elizabeth, did nothing to introduce her to the most fashionable circles, keeping much of her engagement to Mr. Darcy to herself.
“As my wife, she would travel with me to Newcastle, where I assure you, Mother Bennet, I do not live in a tent.” Richard appeared slightly miffed that Mrs. Bennet would so misunderstand his rank.
“That’s enough fun, Richard.”
“Fun? Who’s having fun, Darcy? I’ve endured enough separation from my intended, I believe, and I am certain she feels the same as I do.” Richard puffed out his chest as all eyes fell to Mary for her answer.
The room suddenly shrank a great deal and Mary looked around the room for Kitty, but her sister was not there. Kitty not being present suddenly caused a panic in Mary’s chest as she most keenly felt the loss of Lydia and even Jane, who remained in a self-imposed exile in Scotland. Her strong love for her lionhearted Richard pulsed frantically in her heart, but her mind could not reconcile the speed of changes in tumultuous past days. Feeling the blood drain from her face, she shivered. Her mouth dried of all saliva and she wished for a witty rejoinder like Lizzie, or a mean retort like Kitty, but her words failed her.
“Mary?” Richard saved her from drowning in her anxiety by merely saying her name. As she stared into his blue eyes and found calm, she also regained her courage.
“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heavens. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is,” tumbled out of her mouth.
Richard frowned, his mind racing through the knowledge he had refreshed those many nights alone in his quarters. Missing Mary felt relieved somehow when he pulled out his own Bible and spent hours by candlelight hearing her voice in his mind read the passages. “Ecclesiastes and Ephesians, clever, but what do you mean?”
“My sister is trying to tell you that you have placed too much strain upon her, sir. Only a military man would one minute romantically secure a lady’s hand and in the next minute, order her to the altar.” Elizabeth Darcy crossed her arms in front of her chest, perturbed at not only Richard, but also her mother and aunt.
“Thank you, Lizzie,” Mary said quietly, still wondering when Kitty had disappeared from the room.
“Ordered? I did not order my wife, excuse me, my future wife to any altar!” Richard pretended to take great offense, sensing the something terrible had indeed gone very wrong in the tone of the room.
“Lizzie?” Aunt Gardiner interrupted the heated discussion of the timing of when Richard and Mary would wed by gently touching her niece’s arm. “Your uncle has traveled a great distance and I wish to let him rest and take him to see the children.”
Embarrassed that she had not thought of the comfort of her guests, Elizabeth Darcy reddened and hastily agreed with her aunt and uncle about them retiring until dinner.
“I will check on Kitty when we go up.” Madeleine Gardiner announced as she and her husband left the room.
More arguing about the wedding immediately broke out and Elizabeth looked to her husband for assistance, but his gaze was still fixed on the older man across the room.
“Fitzwilliam.” She gently tried to alert her husband as Georgiana, Lord Matlock, and her mother all tried to persuade Richard to their collective aims of going to London come spring.
“Fitzwilliam?” She tugged on her coat sleeve, finally gathering his attention.
“Your needs, madame?” he asked, his voice cross and stern. One look at his glowing, beautiful Elizabeth and his anger subsided. “Gentlemen!” Darcy’s voice called out in his Master of Pemberley voice. “I believe we ought leave and meet in my study to discuss a great deal of family business.” Darcy’s eyes still locked on his newly arrived uncle at the end of his suggestion that was no suggestion at all.
Elizabeth hurried to Mary’s side to again congratulate her and simultaneously abandon her husband’s side so that he might lead the menfolk out of the sitting room. As soon as she sat down with Mary, a heavy bout of exhaustion swept over her body. The emotional upheavals of the day had collected their debts and Lizzie’s stamina paid the bill. Curiously, Lady Matlock served herself a drink and poured a second one before ignoring Mrs. Bennet’s pleas to continue discussing the upcoming nuptials.
Impressively, the Countess knocked back half a glass of scotch as witnessed by the wide eyes of Elizabeth and Mary, before thrusting out the second glass to her soon to be daughter by marriage.
“Here. I am told you can handle the stronger spirits.”
Mary gulped and accepted the pungent amber liquid from her intended’s mother, sipping with ease.
Shocked, Elizabeth released her arm around Mary and as her hand came up to cover her open mouth, the expression turned into a yawn. Sleepily, she asked a question of Lady Matlock. “Who is Alistair Darcy that my husband does not care for him?”
“Ugh, that bounder? I am rather stunned he had the backbone to return since his own father banished him from the grounds.”
“Banished him?” Mary gasped.
“He diddled every maid, milk lass, and the steward’s wife. Got more than one with child, but that last one? When Old Mr. Wickham brought his grievances to Darcy’s grandfather . . . That was the end of little Alistair’s adventures.”
“So he is Wickham’s father.” Elizabeth Darcy made the connection, feeling sick to her stomach of the tangled mess three families had managed, including her own.
Lady Matlock nodded, then took a closer look at Elizabeth. The poor woman looked bedraggled around the eyes and much, much worse for the wear.
“Come, your husband would order you to bed this instant if he could see you.”
“But I wish to be here when Fitzwilliam returns. He shall need my support.” Elizabeth protested as Lady Matlock snapped her fingers for a footman from the far side to hasten over and help his mistress. “No, truly James, I can manage.”
“Help her all the way to her chambers, and send word to her maid.” Lady Matlock instructed, ushering Elizabeth out of the room.
Not an idiot, Elizabeth Darcy knew that such motherly attentions were partly genuine and partly so that the she could work on Mary alone to further her aims of securing a large spectacle to restore the Fitzwilliam family in society. Confident her husband and his cousin would not bend to such whims, Elizabeth allowed herself to be sent for a rest as her own opinion did agree that the babe and excitement had drained her energies. When she and James reached the second landing, Elizabeth felt a new sensation in her stomach and paused to place her hands around her hips. It was so very odd, but it felt like the baby had the hiccoughs!
Involuntarily, Elizabeth giggled, making a mental note to tell Fitzwilliam later.
“Mistress?” James asked earnestly after his master’s wife, concerned she was too fatigued to continue to walk, and looking to call for more assistance.
“No, no, that won’t be necessary. I am quite—“
“KITTY!” Madeline Gardiner’s voice screamed out from above stairs, shaking both James and Elizabeth.
Without a thought, Elizabeth lifted her skirts and dashed up the remaining flight of stairs, huffing and puffing when she reached the top, but not pausing to catch her breath as she bouldered down the hall to reach her aunt standing just in her sister’s doorway. Pushing her aunt forward to grant her access, a heap of gown lay crumpled on the floor, the person in it wailing in tears. Gashes on her hands matched the bloody patches on her scalp where she had been too careless with the scissors. The burly maid Alice busied behind Kitty, picking up long strands of shorn off brunette curls.
Rocking back and forth with her arm around her knees, Kitty sobbed on the floor in a ghastly echo of Lydia in some of the last days of her life. Elizabeth scurried to her sister and clasped her arms around her.
“Go get Fitzwilliam, and have someone fetch the doctor!” She broke her aunt out of her stupor and began to hush Kitty’s cries. “Ssh, ssh, you did not do yourself any great harm. It will be fine.”
“Please,” she blubbered, her lips spitting mucus as Kitty struggled to calm herself. “Please don’t make me go to London.”
“To London?” Elizabeth leaned back to consider her sister’s agony written all over her face. “Of course not, Kitty-Loo,” Elizabeth used a long forgotten pet name for her sister that was largely cast off when Lydia was born. “The last thing you need to worry about is London. You may stay here forever, remember that.”
Elizabeth’s husband and a large crowd of people gathered by the door, and Elizabeth motioned for Alice the maid to help her sister into bed. Fitzwilliam ordered everyone back as he came in and attempted to console his wife, confused as to what had transpired.
“She is mostly unharmed, but I want the doctor to see her. She has a number of nasty cuts.” Elizabeth held up her hands with the proof of Kitty’s injuries stained on her skin.
“Dr. Larkin is summoned.”
“Can you stay and keep my mother away while I change? I shall return to sit with Kitty when the doctor sees her.”
“Surely, Mary or Georgiana . . .” Darcy began to say his wife did not need to stay with her younger sister but the look on her face made him cease.
“I only need to clean my hands and fetch a fresh dress.” Elizabeth checked on her sister and was relieved to see Alice already tending to her wounds. Storming out of her sister’s suite, the relations outside the door parted and her mother began to fret.
“Catherine has had a small accident, but is well. Mary, would you and Georgiana see that the plans for dinner are not delayed?” The two girls obediently nodded and left the hall to fulfill the favor to the mistress of the house without argument.
“Elizabeth, what happened? We heard that dreadful cry from your aunt!”
Elizabeth looked relieved to see that her aunt and uncle Gardiner were not in the hall. “Please Aunt Margaret, see to my mother? When she sees Kitty, she will be . . . upset.” Elizabeth finished. “I must clean my person. Excuse me.”
Margaret Fitzwilliam grabbed the hand of Mrs. Darcy and spied the blood smeared on her palm. Gasping in fear, Elizabeth shook her head. “She did not. But I can assure you, no matter what your plans are, save your breath. My family will not be traveling to London.”
Allowing the words to be a farewell, Elizabeth walked away from Lady Matlock as her mother began to wail again, having spied the blood as well.
Thankfully Hannah stood alert and ready for her mistress’ arrival. Elizabeth sighed and closed her eyes as she immersed her hands in the warm water of her wash basin, standing in only her chemise while Hannah carried away the soiled gown and fetched another.
“A working dress, if you please. Nothing with ornamentation!” Elizabeth needed a simple frock to sit in while tending her sister. There was no need for intricate beading or lace for such an occupation.
“Aye, ma’am.” Hannah called out, already walking with the cornflower blue dress that was still loose enough in the let out sides to accommodate Elizabeth’s changing body. Dressing her mistress and restoring the pins to her hair, Hannah couldn’t help but smile with pride. Despite the simple fashion clinging possessively around her curves, a strong woman stood up from the vanity, giving instructions to her maid that she would not return to dress for dinner.
“But it’s Christmas, ma’am. Won’t yer family be expecting both you and Mr. Darcy to preside over the table and all that?” Hannah asked absently, not meaning any disrespect. She and Elizabeth grew up playing in the same fields of Hertfordshire until their paths in life forced them to drastically different spheres.
“As far as I am concerned, my family shall not lose another member. Christmas or no Christmas.” And with a firm press of her lips, Elizabeth Darcy, mistress of Pemberley, Starvet House, and Darcy House in London, left her apartments on a mission to restore order in her household.
You’ve been reading A Winter Wonder
Confronting her first trials at Pemberley, Elizabeth takes on the tenant Christmas party, sidestepping her mother’s meddling, and finding a way to support the needs of all of her family members. But finding time alone with her husband, Mr. Darcy, in a house full of people is a challenge, even at an estate as large as Pemberley! As old secrets bear fruit, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth stand united and find support in each other. With a babe on the way, and surprise visitors, there may just be more than one winter wonder to behold.
The fifth season in the Seasons of Serendipity, a historical family saga that imagines how the story of Pride and Prejudice might have changed had Mr. Bennet died of illness before Mr. Collins arrived.
A Winter Wonder, Seasons of Serendipity a Pride and Prejudice novella variation series
Release Date: July 3, 2015
232 pages in print.
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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.