10/25/2017 In the summer of 2014, I learned a long-time friend and mentor had passed away months ago and I was one of the last to know because my family is military and moves. 2 friends each thought the other had told me. So when I found out, I was not only devastated to lose a woman who helped bring me to church, but I felt like I had somehow been cheated a part of my life once again by the fact that I have been a Navy dependent (child and spouse) my entire life. I was angry! I was bereft… And that channeled into what if the same thing happened to Elizabeth Bennet?
Out of my pain and loss came one of my favorite series to write. I am working on Book 6 as we speak.
XOXOXO Elizabeth Ann West
Chapter 5 - The Trouble With Horses, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
No, try this one. The wine ribbon will make the cream really stand out.”
“But it’s a white ball! Caroline Bingley will be impossible to endure under the circumstances already, I’m not giving her more reasons to lift that pointy nose of hers.” Elizabeth shook the cream colored gown in frustration and rejected it to lay on her bed. She again picked up her white gown from three seasons ago, and frowned that it was just two inches too short.
Jane pursed her lips and twisted them to the side. With three days to go until the ball, she was at a loss to solve the problem. Why hadn’t her mother bought both of them new white gowns last year instead of just her? Remembering her vow to help her sister, Jane made a brave decision.
“Wear mine.”
Elizabeth turned around and gasped. “I can’t, Jane. Not yours. You must be luminant.”
Jane laughed. “Nonsense and poppycock.” She wagged her head at her younger sister, and held up her own gown over Elizabeth’s frame in front of the glass. “I’ll be luminant in pale blue. Besides, Charles mentioned how much he liked that gown when I wore it to tea a few weeks ago so Momma will let it go. I’ll embellish it with your pearls.”
The mention of sharing the necklace her father gave her on her eighteenth birthday mollified Elizabeth a great deal. Jane would look positively ethereal in blue as her pale skin and fair features were washed out in white.
“I believe we have an accord.” Elizabeth grinned, but it was short lived.
A door slammed below and all they could hear was wailing. Jane looked at Elizabeth, who looked back, and both girls tossed the garments to the side and rushed out the bedroom door and down the stairs.
They appeared breathless behind their father who was standing in the doorway to the parlor. Kitty was flopped on the sofa, sobbing, while Lydia was screaming at their mother in the middle of the room.
“And then Lady Lucas said her daughters would not be permitted to socialize with women that men find convenient!” Lydia finally noticed Elizabeth standing behind their father and turned her rage on her. “You! This is all YOUR fault!”
Mr. Bennet calmly stepped a little to the right and intercepted his youngest daughter lunging in the general direction of his two eldest.
“Lydia Marie, so help me I will turn you over my knee. Cease this caterwauling this instant! Same goes for you Kitty!
Catherine Bennet lifted her head from the sofa and looked at her father with red-rimmed eyes and a wet nose. Disgracefully wiping her face with her sleeve, she moved to sit up on the sofa as Lydia plopped down next to her still white hot with anger.
“Girls! Girls! What is this? I shall go talk to that puffed up woman this instant!”
“No, you shall not. You too shall sit down, Mrs. Bennet.” Mr. Bennet looked back at his oldest daughters. “Ladies?”
Elizabeth and Jane shrugged at one another and entered the room to find their own seats.
“Now, we are just missing–” he took a few step backwards and called up the stairs. “Mary! Your presences is requested!” Then Mr. Bennet disappeared to the dining room to retrieve a chair for himself. Returning to the parlor at nearly the same time as Mary, he placed the chair near the window and found his seat. With no seats left, Mary simply stood next to her mother seated on the sofa.
“Let’s begin with Catherine. What happened today? You must not start crying again or I will ask Lydia, understood?” Mr. Bennet appeared to be serious, but Elizabeth was mortified at the mock trial her father was making out of all of them, and only she could see it.
Kitty related how she and Lydia walked into town and stopped at the Lucas Farm to collect Maria and shop for trinkets and baubles for the ball. When they arrived, the housekeeper refused to let them in and fetched Lady Lucas. Despite hearing Maria come to the door just behind her mother, Lady Lucas told both Kitty and Lydia that Maria was not at home.
“And that’s when Lydia said “we can see her you old bat” and Lady Lucas became very angry and shouted a bunch of things at us about Lizzie accepting gifts from Mr. Darcy and everyone knows she and he meet in secret, and that’s when the door was slammed in our faces.” Relating the last bit, Kitty again was overcome with emotion and began to cry.
“See, it’s all her fault, Papa!” Lydia moved to stand up from the sofa, but Mr. Bennet held his hand out.
“Is all of this true, Elizabeth?”
Elizabeth’s stomach felt like it had fallen to somewhere by her knees. She gulped and answered her father. “I can explain.”
Mr. Bennet scowled and stood up to face the window. Elizabeth held her breath as she had never seen her father so angry, and waited to be asked to speak again.
“Mary, Jane, what do you know about this? Have you helped Elizabeth in her secret assignations with Mr. Darcy?”
“No, Papa! I’ve never, that is–“
“Bite your tongue, Elizabeth Rose. I will hear your pleas in a moment.” Her father’s eyes were like stone as he stared his favorite daughter down into silence. “Mary?”
Mary Bennet looked around the room, trying to seek assistance from any of her family members. Finding no one would speak up for her, Mary took a deep breath.
“No, I would not and have not assisted Lizzie in meeting Mr. Darcy. But I did hear Mrs. Cummings and Mrs. White gossip about Lizzie in church. They said some very dreadful things.”
“I see.”
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Chapter 5 (cont'd) - The Trouble With Horses, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
“Please, Papa.” Elizabeth whimpered, looking down at the floor. Her father ignored her.
“And Jane?”
“Mr. Bennet, we’re all ruined! You see what your girl has done to us?” Mrs. Bennet shrieked, her face red with the effort she had made thus far to keep quiet. “Are you happy now, missy? When your father’s gone and the entail takes over, we’ll all be thrown out! We’ll have nowhere to live!”
“That is enough! Lydia, Kitty, please take your mother upstairs and help her calm her nerves.”
“But!”
“Lydia, I will not repeat myself.”
Slowly the two youngest daughters helped their mother up the stairs as she continued to cry and whine about the family’s ruination. Once they were behind her parents’ bedroom door, the cries became a soft muffling and Mr. Bennet could hear the sound of Elizabeth crying. Sighing, the man seemed to deflate under the stress of the afternoon and returned to his chair.
“Papa?”
Mr. Bennet rubbed his eyes with his thumb and center finger on one hand, attempting to relieve the pressure in his head. “Yes, Jane. Go ahead.”
“Lizzie is in love with Mr. Darcy. But he doesn’t know it and she’s never had a romantic liaison with him, sir.”
Mr. Bennet laughed and muttered to himself. Jane looked over at Elizabeth who was no longer crying and instead glaring at her older sister with shock over her disloyalty. Feeling pity, Jane offered her a warm smile because in her heart, she just knew everything would work out for the best.
“I said that I hate him, Jane. I HATE HIM!” She clenched her fists in frustration, beyond crazy with the whirlwind of speculation and lies that were being slung at her.
“Jane, Mary, please excuse us.” Mr. Bennet rose and helped Elizabeth up. “I think it’s time I speak with your sister in private.” The two remaining daughters nodded obediently and Elizabeth had no choice but to be steered to her father’s study. Depositing her in the chair across from his desk, Mr. Bennet kept his back to her and turned around with two glasses of port, albeit one of them with very little drink in it.
“Drink this.”
Her hands shaking, Elizabeth swallowed the shot and coughed at the burn. Wiping her mouth, she accepted a handkerchief from her father and worked to restore her sensibilities.
Leaning back in his chair, the wood creaked and Mr. Bennet responded by leaning forward and taking another swallow of his own drink. “Now, let’s see if we can’t solve this problem together, shall we my dear?”
“Please, Papa, I didn’t intend to–“
“Ssssh, ssssh, that’s all worthless worry my daughter. Your mother’s gossiping and the lack of manners of your youngest sisters had their own hands in getting us all into this mess, and I failed to stop you from your curiosity.” Mr. Bennet’s face remained grim and once again Elizabeth struggled to find the words to respond her father’s sudden dose of hubris.
As if reading her mind, he suddenly cleared his throat. “Don’t be surprised, I know my own failings and live them well.”
She shook her head in disbelief and found her hands still shaking, so she clasped them and rested them on her lap.
“I believe its past time for me to request an audience with this young man. Did he truly purchase you a book from Hopkins?”
“A fashion magazine.”
“What? A fashion?” Mr. Bennet couldn’t stop howling with laughter. He had kept a keen eye on his daughter for the last few weeks and noticed she was not at all indifferent to Mr. Darcy since the day she saved him. The fact that she had chosen one of those silly style guides from the London clinched it for him. Catching his breath, Mr. Bennet managed to regain a serious tone. “I will ride out today and tell him he must marry you.”
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 5 (cont'd) - The Trouble With Horses, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
“No, you can’t! Please Papa, he doesn’t like me. It would be a marriage of the cruelest kind.” Fresh tears began to develop on the edge of Elizabeth’s eyes, and she defiantly refused to blink and allow them to fall.
The wretched state of his daughter before him made his heart break. He turned around to purposely take longer to find parchment and ink so she could regain control. Returning to the desk, he began scribbling furiously.
After a few moments, Elizabeth began to become agitated at his silence. “Surely you’re not writing Mr. Darcy a letter?”
“Mr. Darcy? Heavens, no. I’m sending an express to your Uncle for him to expect you and Mary to arrive tomorrow. You should go upstairs and pack your trunks.”
“London?”
Mr. Bennet continued to write and waited until he finished his thought. “Yes, Elizabeth. Despite what we’d like for the situation to be, you presence here is eliciting gossip of the worst kind.”
“But the ball!” Elizabeth remembered Mr. Darcy approaching her after church and never getting to say what he meant to speak. She was convinced now that he was going to ask for her hand for a dance. Maybe even the first one like Mr. Bingley asked of Jane.
“I’m sorry, but my cousin is to arrive in two day’s time and even your mother does not know. If your Mr. Darcy doesn’t realize his idiotic behavior during the ball and ask for your hand in marriage, then I’m afraid the entire situation might travel beyond our small hamlet full of neighbors with nothing better to do than to discuss one another’s dirty linens.”
Elizabeth shook her head. She was being banished to London, and with Mary? It couldn’t be true!
“But why not Jane? Why must Mary come with me?” With so many of her plans crumbling in her mind, Elizabeth grew frantic in her calculations. Mary hated any socializing and she would be stuck listening to her sermonize all afternoon in Aunt Gardiner’s sitting room.
“Don’t be selfish, Lizzie. Jane must stay here and you know why. I cannot send you by yourself without confirming that I am sending you away for wanton behavior. If a sister accompanies you, it is merely a visit. Would you prefer Kitty or Lydia?”
She frowned and lowered her shoulders. “No thank you, Papa.” She took a breath and realized he made complete sense. His plan was the only chance at saving the family’s reputation. “I’m truly sorry.” She stood up and walked around the desk to hug her father with the small fear in the back of her mind that she might not see him again for a long while.
“I’m sorry, too, my dear. I’m sorry, too.” He pressed a kiss to her hand as he shooed her away to the door. He didn’t know the intricacies of packing that women must do, but he knew it always seemed to take them an inordinate amount of time and he was set on placing both of his daughters on the post first thing in the morning. He had just finished his letter with a clear note to his brother to allow both Lizzie and Mary extra money for a dress or two.
You’ve been reading The Trouble With Horses
When a riderless horse interrupts Elizabeth Bennet’s daily walk, she is inspired to begin the search herself. Finding a gentleman in the ravine of a creek bed, she scares off snakes and raises the alarm to end up with the man situated at Longbourn for his recovery. Enamored with his dark curls and handsome face, her life appears to be following the fairy tale story line of a novel, that is until the proud, disdainful Fitzwilliam Darcy of Pemberley wakes up.
A sweetheart romantic novella, The Trouble With Horses is meant to be a light read for those irreparably addicted to all things Austen. The writing style does not attempt to mimic the incomparable Jane, and the author hopes you enjoy the fun, humorous story as you would an afternoon tea.
Release Date: July 17, 2014
162 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.