I would never want to get in trouble with Mr. Darcy….but the girls had misstepped. And I just realized there has been a rather egregious typographical error in this book for FOUR YEARS. ::head desk:: It’s fixed here, and on my list to fix and republish.
XOXOXO
Elizabeth Ann West
Chapter 6 - An Autumn Accord, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
Caroline Bingley strolled around the breakfast table for the fifth time, lightly trailing her fingertips over the edges of the empty chairs. A footman stood in the corner of the breakfast parlor at Netherfield Park and had the unfortunate need to clear his throat. The sharp interjection to Caroline’s calculating frustration elicited a harsh chastisement from his mistress.
“Is there something you wish to say? James, Robert . . . Stevens . . . whatever your name may be?”
“Thomas, madam. And no, I merely had a crumb, or other such small morsel caught in my throat. I beg your pardon, Miss.” The footman’s hands shook as he held them at his sides. To regain control, he eased them behind his back and clasped them together so as not to show fear.
Before Caroline dismissed another member of Netherfield staff, her jovial brother, Charles Bingley slid open the wooden door connecting the breakfast parlor to the hall. Charles Bingley made a slight gasp at the sight of his older sister standing near the table this early in the morning. Like every other morning, Bingley expected to break his fast alone. Caroline famously preferred maintaining town hours, regardless of her actual locale.
“I told you I do not expect the Darcys until later this afternoon, nigh upon dinner.”
Caroline pretended shock her brother would insinuate she was merely in the dining room to anticipate the arrival of a man she had once designed to catch as her husband. “I merely thought it a pleasant idea to have my maid wake me early, especially so that I might dine with my brother and my intended.”
Charles frowned. “Does Lord Bergamote rise so early? I’ve not seen the man take breakfast since we retired to the country in the middle of July.” Charles loaded his plate with a healthy portion of hams and jellies, popping a number of Cook’s warm rolls on top. “Are you planning to eat, Caroline, or continue to stare out the window pretending no interest in the arrival of the Darcy carriage?”
“You’ve become so ornery, brother. I thought you found the country most agreeable. You said as much when we changed our plans to follow the Hursts to their much nicer estate in Somerset. Instead, we practically banished ourselves to a county no one cares about, and I hasten to think none of our friends even know exists.”
Her brother tore viciously into a roll with no sense of polite manners or decorum. Swallowing the chunk of bread, he chewed with his mouth half open, slanting his eyes as he followed his sister’s progress to her normal seat on his left. Charles took a sip of coffee served by the footman. “It was your behavior, Caroline, that had us uninvited to the Hearst estate. Do you not recall how you held it against Louisa after the birth of young Sarah? Did a day pass that you did not mention her failure to produce an heir?”
“And you wanted to come back here because you thought she would be here. Living with her poor widow mother, Mrs. Bennet. Admit it.”
“Tis not true.”
“Oh please, you stay up half the night drinking your way into oblivion and rise with the sun to ride your horse on every lane and road from here to Meryton and back. Jane Bennet is not coming home to her mother’s bosom. She enjoys the protection of the Countess and Earl of Matlock! Charles was about to continue his argument with his sister when the tall, devilishly dark Lord Bergamote strode into the room. He gallantly strolled to Caroline’s side and offered her a good morning whilst kissing her hand. Charles stabbed at the ham on his plate, insistent he would eat his fill before the French lord’s behavior stymied his appetite.
“Bonjour, Charles. I thought to rise early today so that I might join you on your morning ride.”
“As you arrived in my carriage, sir, from London to Netherfield, I was unaware you also had a horse in my stables.”
Caroline offered a flirtatious giggle to Lord Bergamote as he shrugged and began to fill his breakfast plate with pastries. “Stop your silliness. You and I both know there are a number of horses in the Netherfield stables that would suit his Lordship.”
Lord Bergamote held up his hand gently and nodded to Caroline. “If your brother does not wish for me to ride with him, I can hardly complain of your company all morning as a waste of time.”
Chapter 6(cont'd) - An Autumn Accord, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
Charles stared at his plate and realized he was no longer hungry. Flustered and aggravated at both Jane Bennet being mysteriously away from Meryton and his sister’s engagement to this Frenchman, Charles Bingley threw his napkin on his plate and stood from the table. “I shall give instructions to the stable master to ready a horse for you. I intend to leave in twenty minutes’ time and hope I can count on you for punctuality?”
The Frenchman carefully sliced his ham with dainty, formal manners and used his fork to raise a bite to his lips. “Your timing suits me perfectly, sir.” Lord Bergamote enjoyed his first bite with a slow and sensuous chewing motion that left Caroline mesmerized across the table.
Bingley scowled and whirled around, making a hand motion to instruct the footman to observe his sister and her beloved as he stormed from the breakfast parlor. A few hours to endure pompous Frenchy and he would finally have reinforcements in his home. He knew he could count on Darcy to be a much better companion and sensible fellow than Alphonse Bergamote, Lordship of who-knew-where in France.
As Bingley barked orders to a hall boy who scurried away as soon as his master finished yelling, he charged up the stairs to have his valet assist him with his proper riding attire. As he thought more and more about this Bergamote character, he made a decision to ask Darcy about the status and respectability of fallen French aristocrats. He was beginning to understand why the public wanted to behead everyone in the town square!
In the impeccable hall of Darcy House, a small table with a silver charger sat with the day’s post stacked neatly upon the tray. The letters were truly the previous day’s mailings, but Fitzwilliam Darcy’s habits were to not accept any notes or invitations aside from expresses after three in the afternoon. This allowed him to avoid many a last-minute dinner or ballroom reminders from people who insinuated a closer relationship than their actual acquaintance supported. But on this morning, Darcy was eager to set his affairs in order as there was much to do before he could whisk his Elizabeth away.
A faint whisper of a young girl’s voice made the great master pause at the top of the stairs looking down to the hall below from the balustrade. Slowly, two heads, one of a fair color and the other as brunette as his own, appeared beneath him looking earnestly about for others.
“You go, I looked yesterday,” Georgiana Darcy whispered.
The other girl nodded her head and craned her neck trying to see if there were any servants about.
Moving from the top landing of the stairs for a better view, Darcy stood perplexed as the dark-haired young lady snuck into the main hall, furtively glancing about. When she reached the table, she hurriedly cycled through the letters, careful to stack them in the same order in which they had rested before she touched them. Catherine Bennet turned to stare at her companion at the side of the stairs and frowned, shaking her head. Suddenly, the situation became clear to the master of the house.
Darcy quickly began to descend the stairs, and called out to both girls. “I believe an audience in my study is warranted. Don’t you agree Catherine and Georgiana?” Fitzwilliam made sure to turn his head to indicate he saw his younger sister hiding in the shadows. Young Kitty hung her head, an involuntary admission of guilt. Darcy marched the two girls past the library to the next room that had ever been the master’s study.
Fetching chairs for his two sisters, he placed them both squarely facing his desk. He retrieved a key from his waistcoat and unlocked the bottom right drawer of his desk to pull out three letters. The two girls glumly sitting in the chairs before him gave themselves both away by quickly looking at each other before returning their attentions back towards Darcy.
“I can explain, sir. This whole situation is my fault and my fault alone. Georgiana had nothing to do with it.” Kitty hastily tried to protect her friend from her brother’s wrath. She reasoned she was the older of the two and it was her story they had tried to publish.
Darcy raised an eyebrow at the willingness of Catherine Bennet to fall on the sword and protect his sister. But he had no illusions such a scheme to forge his name would have come to Miss Bennet’s mind on her own. No, this situation had entirely too much Darcy mischievousness about it.
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 6(cont'd) - An Autumn Accord, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
Darcy first recited a letter he received last summer from Kitty, herself. Reading a few lines of the utter chastisement for scolding his sister via letter, Darcy paused after a moment to witness Catherine’s reaction. The poor girl’s cheeks burned brighter than a tomato.
“I shall not continue to read the heavy accusations you lay at my feet, assuming we might come to an agreement that you wrote this letter of admonishment with the best intentions . . .” Kitty stared at him, her eyes wide, brimming with tears. She furiously nodded. “And that I am a brother to both of you with the best intentions?” Darcy observed the two younger girls glance to one another once more, but he did not give either a chance to speak before continuing. “Now I would like for one of you to explain to me what possessed you to sign my name in a letter of business to a publisher?”
The two protectively hunched their shoulders slightly as the master of Pemberley tone inadvertently spilled from Fitzwilliam’s question. For a few seconds, neither girl offered an explanation. Kitty darted her eyes towards her sister-in-law, who appeared set on merely waiting her brother out. But the discomfort was too much for Catherine Bennet to bear.
“We worked so hard on my story, finishing the novel this summer. I hoped to ask you or my Uncle Gardiner to assist me with the publication . . .”
“An admirable plan, go on to how you deviated from this.”
“You ran away to Scotland and her uncle is still too sick for us to put that on his shoulders. So I told Kitty she should send a letter herself. Only the mean publisher threw her manuscript away and wrote back he would not enter into a discussion of publication with a mere woman!” Georgiana did not raise her voice and reported the facts of their collective perspective with an air of disinterest.
Inhaling sharply through his nose, Fitzwilliam Darcy forced himself to stay calm in the face of such a preposterous accusation. He picked up the second and third letters, one the forgery and the other imploring him to allow the publisher to print Kitty’s story in time for spring. With no intention of the kind, as he had completely forgotten Catherine wrote stories as a hobby, his mind now raced with the possibilities.
“Are you going to tell my sister?” Catherine Bennet had begun to cry softly during Darcy’s silence.
“Of course he will, and she will decide our punishment and it will be double the reading and thrice the French.” Darcy raised an eyebrow to his sister, utterly stunned such a tongue wagged in the young woman he still thought of in his mind to be a young girl. He again inspected the penmanship of the forgery. If he had not known the signature was not by his own hand, he would have thought it genuine. This sparked an idea.
“I believe you ladies shall have one hour in which to pack your trunks, you are to accompany me and my wife to Hertfordshire –
“Fitzwilliam, we agreed that we were old enough to remain home on our own with the staff for the few weeks you will be gone!”
“I’m afraid it will be quite some time before I’m convinced either of you are mature enough to play lady of the house.” Both girls leaned forward as if to rise from their chairs, but Darcy held his hands up to halt them, “I have not yet issued your punishment.”
“There is to be more?” Kitty Bennet asked earnestly as her mother and father had never much concerned themselves with actual punishment for her or Lydia.
“While in Hertfordshire, you shall double your reading and triple the conversations you hold in French, and once we are at Pemberley the two of you shall serve as secretary. I find Mrs. Darcy and I shall have a number of letters we will need penned and the two of you will be happy to assist us in that regard.”
Georgiana opened her mouth to protest, but Kitty grabbed her arm to keep her silent. “Forgive my impertinence, but what of my novel?”
Darcy collected the three letters to refold them and lock them back in his drawer. He hoped to avoid discussing the fate of the manuscript, but a direct question deserved a direct query in return. “Have you considered the consequences of publishing even under a pseudonym? A lady does not hold an occupation.”
“I have no wish to marry, please, sir . . .” Kitty swallowed as her emotions threatened to choke her, “Brother.” She paused as the title felt heavy in use for the first time in her life, “I only wish to share my stories.”
A brief memory of the last moments of Lydia Bennet’s life tugged on Darcy’s heartstrings. Such youth, such promise, ended by unfortunate circumstances. He could not agree for Catherine to give up her potential happiness without any knowledge of how wonderful a marriage could be. Still, this was not his decision to make. “That I shall discuss with your sister, and also your mother. My stance is that every young lady should enjoy at least one season where she is the belle of the ball. Afterwards, if another path is your true calling, I shall not stand in your way.”
The girls left to study, sulking about the sudden loss of their freedom and to make good on Fitzwilliam’s order to pack their trunks. Darcy removed the thin slip of paper he also kept in his waistcoat that itemized the tasks yet to finish for the day’s journey. Smiling that the list was in the penmanship of Mrs. Darcy, his Mrs. Darcy, Fitzwilliam completely forgot to send an express to Bingley and apprise him of the additions to their party.
You’ve been reading An Autumn Accord
The fourth season of the Seasons of Serendipity and conclusion of the first year sees Elizabeth and Darcy reconcile the consequences of their honeymoon trip in Scotland with their family’s future. Kitty Bennet and Georgiana Darcy have bonded over their training for debut in society, plus found a bit of mischief to create. When Darcy decides to help his wife mourn the one-year anniversary of her father’s passing with a trip to Hertfordshire, he finds a whole new set of problems await them both regarding the widow Bennet.
An Autumn Accord Book 4 of the Seasons of Serendipity
a Pride and Prejudice novella variation series
Release Date: February 26, 2015
~190 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.
Darcy handled Georgina and Kitty with panache. Does Caroline expect to lord her Frenchman over the Darcys? Bingley needs to move on!