Man! The drama is on a screaming 10 in this group of chapters…. I love that I am working on Book 5 in this series!
XOXOXO Elizabeth Ann West
Chapter 13 - The Trappings of Marriage, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
Starlight began its battle against the rising dawn as the stragglers of the latest Carmichael ball spilled onto London’s streets. Men and women well into their cups and beyond exhaustion elbowed and shuffled their way as the line of carriages rounded the block. With most of London’s elite at their country homes for the summer, the number of host families dwindled to those with the richest coffers but the greatest stench of trade. George and Georgiana Wickham distinguished themselves as those who arrived at every fête before anyone could accuse them of fashionable lateness, and stayed until the last possible moment politeness turned into a trespass.
“You said a week ago we would have the judges and men of importance on our side!” An irritable Georgiana Wickham took her husband to task as he struggled to locate the Darcy carriage that was not his own and looked so much like the other black equipages along the lane.
Wickham reached up for the door of one and a gruff voice behind him complained. George tipped his hat and backed away.
“I beg your pardon, my mistake, my mistake.” Wickham grasped his wife’s elbow and shuffled her further down the lane as he urged her to be quiet.
“No! I’m so very tired of all of this, George. I want to go to Pemberley!” Georgiana complained. She had not received a letter from her brother, but expected his response any day.
“I’ve spoken and shown the ledger to many but no one budges! I can’t understand it.” Wickham again motioned to a driver, who shook his head, and the couple continued walking.
Georgiana halted their progress by stopping short. “Do we need more proof? Another investor?” She truly did not fully understand George’s business, but she thought that she had heard somewhere that more investors was always a better thing.
George groaned.
“I can’t tell who has invested and who has not because many of the names are in code. I’ve told you this: I must be careful about who I approach.”
Georgiana put her hands upon her hips and ignored the sudden realization of how wide her girth had become.
“What about my brother?”
Wickham scoffed, and continued walking to the next carriage to see if it was the one that they brought, but it was not. He called over his shoulder, “He will never invest.”
Georgiana began walking again to catch up to her husband. Breathless, she spoke louder than she intended. “But it’s silver!”
The next carriage was indeed not theirs and Wickham began to curse under his breath at both his wife’s simpleness and the disappearance of their carriage.
“Perhaps Fitzwilliam can help them see reason?” Georgiana offered, making George very cross. She stood on the sidewalk as he marched away from her. The carriage before her filled with its rightful owner and began to roll away. George’s long legs in addition to his aggravation with his wife carried him two carriages down, when the Darcy carriage took the open spot on the lane and pulled up in front of Georgiana. As she accepted the hand of a footman, she called down the street just as a loud crack echoed in the air.
“George?”
She slanted her eyes in the hazy gray of the morning as George seemed to falter and take a step back, then suddenly he crumpled to the ground. Georgianna pushed against the footman to let her go and began to run down the sidewalk, screaming as loud as she possibly could.
“George!”
Chapter 14 - The Trappings of Marriage, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
CLANG!
Elizabeth Darcy startled at the sound of the hammer, not knowing the smith would hit the anvil in actuality. Fitzwilliam perfunctorily leaned forward to kiss her on the lips, but the kiss was so quick and they were pushed forward so abruptly for another couple could take their place that Elizabeth could hardly think to press the memory of her marriage ceremony into her mind. She walked forward where Fitzwilliam led her to the waiting Darcy carriage; the trio of vehicles began to roll away before Elizabeth could truly process what had just occurred.
“Do we not sign a book? We are married, yes?” she asked, bewildered, as Darcy waved out the window to a few villagers happy to cry congratulations when a fancy carriage passed, though the direction of the vehicle confused some as most turned around and headed back towards England once the deed was done. The Darcy carriage drove in the opposite direction, towards Dumfries.
“The laws are different here. So long as we proclaim it before two witnesses, we are married where the Kirk is concerned.”
Elizabeth accepted the happy attentions of her husband, as their joy could not be contained though the ceremony was brief and strange to Elizabeth’s sensibilities. After a dozen kisses and hands free to explore anywhere they wished, Elizabeth pulled back and startled Fitzwilliam with her sudden reaction.
“You must be mistaken. You mean to say we could have married last evening just by declaring it thus in front of two witnesses?”
Darcy gulped, and sat up straighter as layers of Elizabeth naïveté began to fall away.
“By the law, yes, but tradition speaks that you perform this in front of the blacksmith.”
Elizabeth’s voice took on a pitch half an octave higher than her normal speech. “What tradition? I had no inkling of any such traditions before this day. You denied me a husband yesterday, sir!”
Darcy reached his arm out around Elizabeth but she shrugged it off, and so he grasped the top of the cushion. “Our home is but a two-hour drive, in Dumfries. I thought you should like to spend your first night as Mrs. Darcy in our own bed.”
Elizabeth still pretended to feel miffed, but his thoughtfulness and concern for all details of their life together placed considerable cracks in her resolve.
“And what if you should have died last night in your sleep? What if I had died last night in my sleep?” Elizabeth selected the most ridiculous argument to continue her outrage, but even she could not keep a straight face at such an incredulous claim.
Mr. Darcy pulled his arm back and now pretended to be insulted. “I see, you are worried I might have expired before making you a wealthy woman. I did wonder if you are only in this marriage for the riches.”
Elizabeth scoffed and lurched across the carriage to sit on the bench opposite her new husband. She folded her arms across her chest. Darcy, not willing for his brand new wife to show such independence, leaned forward and with his long arms scooped her small frame up to lift her and deposit her upon his lap. She squirmed and laughed as he tickled and placed small kisses along the nape of her neck.
“Mr. Darcy!”
He did not listen and continued to attack her person with greater ferocity.
“Fitzwilliam!”
Still the man continued to bestow great affection to his wife.
“People might see!” she managed.
He leaned his head back and laughed loudly, his baritone voice vibrating against Elizabeth’s side.
“Well, let them see! At least now we can claim to be respectable, my wife.”
The happy couple caught their breath but Elizabeth did not leave her newfound seat, and instead found the position quite to her liking. She leaned forward before she twisted in his arms and lifted his hat to place it on the bench beside them, tousling his hair as he continued to laugh. Finally, she leaned forward and kissed her husband with all the love and relief she felt surging through her body. This time, it was Fitzwilliam who groaned.
“Mmm, yes, I find great value in this new status, for it makes you mine,” he said.
“And it makes you mine, Mr. Darcy.”
As the carriages picked up a little bit of speed on the open road, Mr. Darcy lowered the shades of the carriage to begin acquainting his wife with all the privileges respectability afforded.
NEW RELEASE
For the Love of a Bennet
What if Elizabeth Bennet traveled with Lydia to Brighton?
A reimagining of Jane Austen’s most beloved tale, Pride & Prejudice, join author Elizabeth Ann West as she writes the romantic adventure story she always wanted! When Lizzy and Lydia arrive in Brighton, it’s very clear that the younger Bennet sister came with very serious plans towards Mr. Wickham. Thankfully, an old ally is also in town, with problems of his own to solve. After Mr. Darcy, himself, is summoned to Brighton to hopefully solve two dilemmas with one wealthy member of the gentry, the whole militia is thrown into an uproar by Wickham’s most dastardly deed, yet. Together, Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy have to save Lydia from her own undoing, or it will mean more than just mere reputations are ruined.
For the Love of a Bennet is a novel length story, currently being posted chapter by chapter on Elizabeth’s author site. This story was originally conceptualized in 2019 as a part of the All Go to Brighton challenge.
Chapter 15 - The Trappings of Marriage, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
The noon sun hung high in the air to bake the city of London with summer’s heat. Georgiana Wickham stumbled into Darcy House, thoroughly disheveled, her gown still covered in blood. George’s blood.
Mrs. Potter was at the door when the young woman arrived, with her hair so mangled it became knotted on one side. There were no sign of the pretty braids she went out in the night before. Her eyes drooped with exhaustion and reminded the housekeeper of the young woman once recovered in a less horrid state after her elopement with Mr. Wickham.
“Merciful heavens!” Mrs. Potter exclaimed as Georgiana crumpled into the housekeeper’s arms, all strength leaving the young woman’s body.
The once-young mistress of the house wracked with sobs as Mrs. Potter half-carried, half-dragged both of them to the stairs, where they might sit down less Mrs. Potter fail under the weight of her young charge.
“They killed him. They killed him,” Georgiana kept crying out the same phrase.
“Who? Who is dead?” Mrs. Potter had a good idea who might be the victim, but she was still not sure. Young Jack had been missing from the house since the previous evening, but so was Mr. Wickham.
Georgiana looked up at Mrs. Potter, her face tear-streaked. Any tears at all were a remarkable feat, given how many tears she had cried at the Carmichaels’ when the Bow Street Runners came for more answers than she could give them.
“My husband! He was shot and now he is dead!” Georgiana’s arms cradled the babe growing inside of her womb, wailing as loudly as she could, and even Mrs. Potter joined in the keening for a moment.
More of the staff came rushing to the sound of the females mourning, reminding Mrs. Potter the death of George Wickham was not such a tragedy that she must lose her wits. She managed to regain control, though such an ability eluded Mrs. Wickham.
The housekeeper wiped her eyes and began barking out orders. She ordered a maid to help her take Mrs. Wickham to bed, and sent Stephen to the Hurst townhome as fast as he could run.
“And who am I to ask for there?” the head footman asked drolly, feeling annoyed to be sent on an errand that a kitchen boy or Jack should be sent on.
The housekeeper and maid helped Mrs. Wickham to stand back up on her feet as she continued to sob. They managed a few of the stairs before Mrs. Potter called over her shoulder.
“Miss Bingley, of course! And tell the butler to send expresses to the Master, Colonel Fitzwilliam, and even the Earl of Matlock. Mrs. Wickham must not be alone at this time.” Turning back to Georgiana, she used a much more coaxing tone to urge the expectant mother to travel the stairs carefully; she did not wish for the young woman to collapse again. “Easy does it, we are almost there.”
Despite the slow progress, the trio reached Mrs. Wickham’s normal room, and Mrs. Potter helped the maid undress Mrs. Wickham and tucked her into bed. After administering a small dose of laudanum to help her rest, the maid looked expectantly at the housekeeper; the bloodied gown was still in her hands.
“What shall I do with it? I fear I cannot make it come clean.”
Mrs. Potter looked at Georgiana as she fluttered her eyes closed, her golden curls like an angel’s spread beautifully on the pillow around her.
She looked sharply at the maid and gave her decision.
“Burn it. Burn it before she wakes.”
You’ve been reading The Trappings of Marriage
Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet are off to Gretna Green!
In Book 4 of the Moralities of Marriage series our dear couple have survived accidents, forced marriages, and meddling relatives. After a short stay at Pemberley where the future Mrs. Darcy comes to terms with the kind of wife Fitzwilliam Darcy will need on his arm, they take off for the border to marry over the anvil. When Mr. Darcy plans an idyllic wedding trip to his family estate just outside of Dumfries, the newly married Mr. and Mrs. Darcy discover the trappings of marriage have yet to relinquish their hold.
The Trappings of Marriage delivers the highs of the Darcys’ love and devotion in spite of the lows of scandal and destruction they left behind in England. Join author Elizabeth Ann West and the thousands of readers who read this book as it was posted chapter by chapter for a unique visit into the world of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.
The Trappings of Marriage, Book 4 of the Moralities of Marriage
a Pride and Prejudice novel variation series
Release Date: August 26, 2017
394 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.
George Wickham is dead!!! Let the dancing in the streets commence!!!!!
Love a good dead Wickham! 🙂
Caught up to this wonderful story in two days! What a rush!! DA you may have outdone yourself with these last chapters. Grateful George is dead (doing a little dance) and grateful that Elizabeth and Darcy are married so that George’s death cannot impact it. Will our dear couple respond to the express? Eagerly anticipating your next posting…
🙂 Thank you so much for reading and commenting, it means the world!