I genuinely LOVE scenes where Mr. Darcy is the worried father-to-be, and he and Elizabeth are romantically making decisions for their family… together.
XOXOXO Elizabeth Ann West
Chapter 9 - A Winter Wonder, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
“Mrs. Darcy? Time to open your eyes. Mrs. Darcy?” A husky male voice tickled Lizzie’s ear, and though her subconscious knew it to be her husband, she moaned and rolled over, giving him his answer.
“Lazy are we? Well, lazy wives do not keep blankets!” He ripped the covers away to his wife’s shrieks. Poor Hannah scurried out from the dressing room only to turn right back around and disappear once more, horrifically embarrassed to have interrupted her employers.
“There! See? You’ve frightened my maid! And I am ever so fond of her.” Elizabeth Darcy admonished her husband as she outstretched her arms to accept his looming figure as a blanket substitute. Nuzzling their noses, the Darcys shared a passionate kiss before his hands were once more roaming about her midsection. “Oh, Fitzwilliam, he’s not moving around right now. You’ll have to wait.”
“But it’s been weeks since you’ve felt the quickening. All of the books say I should be able to feel the babe from the outside by now.”
“And you shall. When the time is right I will make sure you can feel his strong little kicks. In the meantime, please do not wake him with your pokes and prods before I’ve even dressed and broken my fast.”
“Ah, there is no need, I have summoned a tray.” Darcy pushed up from his wife’s bed and steered a cart over to her bedside table. Proudly presenting her favorites of warm chocolate with toast and jam, he smiled as she delighted in the pampering.
“And what occasion is this that I am to be spoiled?” Elizabeth pointed her face up prettily at him, welcoming another kiss, chaste this time.
“You are my wife,” he paused to kiss her, “you carry my child,” he kissed her again, “and it’s Christmas.” He finished off with one last kiss on her forehead.
“Christmas Eve, dear husband.”
“Yes, but your present is ready today, so make haste and eat, dress, and together we shall discover it!”
Elizabeth cocked her head to one side, wondering what sort of mischief her husband was up to. With Fitzwilliam and his surprises, there was no telling what was in store for her today. As she bit into her toast, feeling odd to eat in front of him while he had already done so, she decided to take the few moments they were alone to address family business.
“I’ve received a letter from Lady Morpeth with excellent advice concerning our mother.”
“Oh, she is to be our mother now? Just yesterday, you most clearly claimed her singularly.”
“Yes, she is to be our mother for ever more, as she is our collective problem to solve,” Elizabeth wiped the last of the jam onto her second piece of toast, her mouth salivating Cook’s perfect balance of raspberry’s tartness with the refreshing zing of lemon.
“And the Duke’s sister has a solution?”
“An excellent one, as I said before. She said why not set my mother to redecorate the Dowager’s House and have her set up there with a small staff?”
Darcy rose from where he had been lying prone across Elizabeth’s bed as she ate. His wife did not know the state he had found her mother in the morning he threw out that Mr. Maxwell from her bed. “I don’t know that your mother would be happy with her own household. We saw how depressed she was the last time we set her up with her own establishment.”
“Yes, but that was different. This way she would be close, but not so close as to bother us.”
“And what about callers? I am afraid your mother had some callers in Hertfordshire that you would not approve.”
“What sort of callers?” Elizabeth slanted her eyes at her husband, curious about how he would describe his mother’s relationship with the sleazy bookstore owner, Mr. Maxwell. Anyone with an ounce of experience could see plainly when a widow was being taken advantage. The difference was that in Elizabeth’s opinion, her mother rather liked it.
Darcy coughed. “Gentleman callers.”
“And is my mother to spend her remaining years friendless?”
“No, that is-” Darcy seemed confused as the exact opposite opinion he thought came flying out his mouth, “there are processes one goes through before calling on a widow. Even you can agree that shop owner had no business . . .”
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Chapter 9 (cont'd) - A Winter Wonder, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
“Warming my father’s side of the bed?” Elizabeth offered as tactfully as she could. “No, I agree Mama choose ill, but I do not think placing her in the Dowager House will suddenly cause a line of all eligible bachelors in the countryside to knock on her door.”
“Er, well, I do agree with you there.” Darcy scratched his head, confused how he suddenly found himself agreeing with his wife’s plan to plant Mrs. Bennet in the Dowager House, an eight-bedroom two-story brick home that had not been used in nearly twenty years.
“Perfect, now we can discuss our plans for spring.” Elizabeth took a sip of her chocolate now cool enough for her tastes.
“Our plans for spring? But I’ve already met with Mr. Hampton and he will oversee the spring plantings. We are clear to go to London for the Season for Georgiana and Catherine’s debuts.”
“Yes, I was meaning to speak to you about that,” Elizabeth frowned, wondering how best to explain her observations. Finally, after chewing her words for a moment, she gave up any semblance of delicacy. “I find neither of them mature enough for husbands, and wish them to spend another year, here, at Pemberley. We can hold balls and soirees this summer, coax them into their roles as young women. It’s far more than place settings, despite what others might feel.”
“And when did you come to this conclusion, Mrs. Darcy?”
Elizabeth’s cheeks blushed as she hated to admit it had been some time since she worked up the nerve to speak ill of his sister to her husband. “A few weeks ago, I caught them sliding down the bannister.”
“And the babe? I thought you wanted to be in London for your time?”
Elizabeth shook her head. “After living here, I cannot imagine the heir of Pemberley being born anywhere else, can you?”
A lump formed in Darcy’s throat and it was some moments before he spoke. “I believe your plan to be a superb one and I shall write to the London house this week with our change in plans.”
“That was swift agreement, no argument that I call your sister immature?” Elizabeth attempted to relieve the strong emotions she felt overcoming them both.
Darcy took the empty cup of chocolate from his wife and placed it on the tray. Offering his hands to help her rise from her bed, he kissed her, tasting the last remnants of the luxury on her lips. The kiss deepened sending a tingle all the way to her toes when her husband abruptly broke away.
“Who do you think caught them the first time they slid down the bannister?”
In a repeat of her apartment reveal upon arrival, Elizabeth Darcy soon found herself walking with her eyes closed and nothing but her husband’s arm to guide her. Thankfully, this walk was not too far and her sense of direction, despite not having the benefit of sight, understood the orientation to be down the hall from her husband’s apartments.
Stopping once more before a set of double doors, Elizabeth reflected that she had never found need to inspect the corridor past Fitzwilliam’s apartments. She knew a set of stairs for the staff resided in the corner, but she was not prepared for what lay concealed inside. Her husband grinned, this time allowing her to view the unveiling as he turned the door knobs behind his back.
“I did not say so earlier, but I, too, wish nothing more than to stay at Pemberley next year. I took the liberty of planning this small sanctuary for no one but the three of us.” He tenderly looked down as Elizabeth involuntarily cradled her midsection. “I hope you do not object to my officiousness.”
Elizabeth Darcy scowled that he used the very term she had complained about him and his incessant rides to visit the tenant farms when she and the girls were about making their rounds. No more was said on the term, and the doors opened to reveal a sanctuary indeed.
The room offered a cackling fire and warm tones throughout from the rugs to the wallpaper. A touch masculine, the decor lightened in areas of white cloths over tables and the addition of a rocking chair, bassinet, and shelves of books. Elizabeth wandered the room, most intrigued by the titles housed within and felt a shiver of delight that the shelves contained fairy tales and comedies of Shakespeare. The room felt cozy, yet the far wall held another door.
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 9 (cont'd) - A Winter Wonder, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
“To my own apartments. I know that traditionally we retire to yours, but I thought with the babe, perhaps you would like to retire to my rooms more often? The nursery proper is just above stairs, and nurse can bring young Fitzwilliam to us here.”
Elizabeth wrinkled her nose, not wishing to spoil the moment. “Dear, I thought we decided to neither follow your naming tradition nor the spirit of such?”
“Then what name do you propose?”
“Hmm,” Elizabeth ruminated as she felt herself enveloped once more in her husband’s arms, “what of Alistair?”
“Alistair? Where the devil did that name come from?” He released her so she might turn around.
Elizabeth stammered, seeing a stormy expression cross her husband’s face. “I-I read it on one of the portraits in the gallery the night the Duke visited. Is he a scandalous relation?”
Darcy swallowed and looked sternly at his wife before realizing his emotions were frightening her. Taking great effort to school his gestures, he attempted to smile, but it registered more as a grimace. “He is my uncle on my father’s side. I do not know him well, only that once he brought great shame on the family and my grandfather sent him to look after the families’ holdings in India. I receive a yearly letter from him, but our agents in the territory keep him on a tight leash.”
“Pardon me, you own holdings in India?” Elizabeth asked, astonished.
Fitzwilliam flashed his handsome dimpled smile. “We hold interests in India.” He placed his hand once more on the burgeoning crest in his wife’s abdomen. Feeling pity for her husband, Elizabeth wished her little companion, as she had come to think of the babe, would kick most fiercely for his Papa, but she felt nothing. And consequently, her husband felt it as well.
“So perhaps Andrew?” She changed the subject, trying to cast off his melancholy before it took too great a clutch.
“Are we consigned to the letter ‘A’? And what of Amelia, Anne, or Alice?”
“You may choose the name if it’s a girl, and I shall choose the name if it’s a boy.” Elizabeth offered, nodding her head as if the agreement was set.
“Oho! When did I agree to such a lopsided division of responsibility?”
“Just a moment ago.” She giggled and sashayed her way out of the lovely personal nursery and family sitting room before her sentimental side could bring tears. Her husband was too kind and too thoughtful; it began to gnaw at Elizabeth’s conscious she may have indeed married a saint. Feeling his presence behind her, she took a quick detour to the left and opened the door to his apartments. Some gratitude was best expressed in actions, not words.
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.