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 6 - The Trouble With Horses, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
Elizabeth rose extra early to get a short walk in before spending most of the day jostled about in a carriage. She left without a bonnet despite the morning’s crisp chill and scurried to her favorite prospect, the one that began this entire mess. Coming to the crest of the hill, she was surprised to see Mr. Darcy holding the reins of his horse and looking out over the countryside with his back to her. The horse, whether by scent or sight, noticed Elizabeth and began to move his head in her direction, attracting Mr. Darcy’s attention.
“Miss Elizabeth!”
“Mr. Darcy” she replied cooly, with a curtsy. Turning and looking behind her, she contemplated simply returning down the hill without another word to him, the man now responsible for her banishment to London. If anyone should see them here the gossip would become ten times worse. Elizabeth remained to satisfy her own curiosity.
“Why did you purchase my magazine, sir?”
Mr. Darcy was shocked out of his admiring glance of Elizabeth, with her wild hair and bright cheeks from her morning exercise. The woman didn’t dally with niceties and it was a newness that still baffled him.
“How are you this morning?”
“Perfectly fine, now an answer if you please?”
Darcy walked a few steps closer to her, making his horse happier. He stopped close enough that the horse’s muzzle could once again reach Elizabeth and she politely held out her hand to greet the animal.
“I am, that is, I did not mean—” he struggled to come up with an answer and it was infuriating. Never was Fitzwilliam Darcy so tongue-tied as when he was in the presence of this woman. How could he tell her he was remorseful for how he treated her when he was ill and surprised to hear how she had loved the book he had read and planned to give it to his sister? The explanation didn’t make much sense to him and he was the one who knew it to be true.
“Was it out of gratitude?” she offered, after feeling unable to endure his stare.
He nodded. Simplified, it was the easiest explanation and he thought she might be happy until she scowled and turned away.
“Good day, Mr. Darcy,” she said as she began to walk back down the hill.
Thoroughly confused, Darcy stood there for another moment, wondering what he had said that was wrong? He indeed was grateful she had tended to him while he was sick. If she hadn’t run off, he would have asked how gratitude was a black mark on his character, but alas, he was too slow to enjoy a witty tête-à-tête.
His horse let out a loud whinny and Mr. Darcy absently patted the animal’s neck. Admitting he agreed with the beast’s sentiments, though why his steed was so acutely keen on Miss Elizabeth, he couldn’t say.
Darcy mounted and began riding in the opposite direction. The thrill of the gallop down the hill made him forget completely about asking Miss Elizabeth to a dance set. It wasn’t until he was halfway back to Netherfield and contemplating plans to avoid Miss Bingley that he groaned in exasperation at himself.
The long march home in time to catch the post stung Elizabeth’s heels as she purposely ground each step down as hard as she could. So he now knew what she had done for him and all he could feel was gratitude? Had nothing that she and he shared meant anything at all?
The feelings of tending to Mr. Darcy flooded her memories and she stopped for a moment to take one final appreciative view of her home county. The pain of unrequited admiration was a new sentiment for her, and she now understood why the poets wrote so dramatically about the heart. Bitterness at being so wrong in her affections and now suffering a trip for who knew how long to her relations in London was more despair than she thought possible to endure.
Wiping the small threat of tears from her eyes at the edge of her family’s property, she resolved there would not be another tear shed for Mr. Darcy. A firm countenance set, she reminded herself that in any other circumstance she would be overjoyed to visit her favorite aunt and uncle. And it was with this attitude that Elizabeth later boarded the carriage to her uncertain future happiness.
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Chapter 6 (cont'd) - The Trouble With Horses, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
~~~♥~~~♥~~~
Odors of an unbathed man and a screaming child made most of the trip to London an uncomfortable excursion for both Elizabeth and Mary. As the carriage neared the final post stop, Elizabeth leaned out the window to see if their uncle was waiting for them. To her dismay, there was no sign of him and a tightness of fear began to grip her heart. Steeling her gaze, she looked to Mary next to her and gave a slight nod in the negative, and watched her sister pale.
Disembarking from the coach, Elizabeth stepped closely to Mary as the two entered the inn. The main room was loud and rambunctious as the late afternoon sun was beginning its reign over the sky. Elizabeth’s eyes adjusted to the dimness and she spied a table near the main bar where she hoped the proprietor would be vigilant. Dragging Mary over to the table, she ignored the sneers and glances their way from various men already in their cups.
The table was mostly clean, except for a few dried food bits on the edges. Elizabeth sat facing the door with Mary sitting across from her. This was a mistake. A man approached their table and helped himself by sitting next to Mary.
“What’s a couple of nice ladies like youse doing traveling alone?” The man’s breath was most foul and Mary leaned away. She stood up and quickly moved to the other side of the table to sit next to Elizabeth.
“Don’t talk to him.” Elizabeth whispered under her breath, praying fervently her uncle would arrive. Mary shook her head in agreement.
“What, you’re too good to talk to the likes of me?” The man’s speech continued to slur as he became belligerent. “Oy, gents, look at these two lost birdies.” As his companions cheered when he turned around, Elizabeth could feel Mary edge even closer.
Emboldened by his mates, the man stood up from his chair and walked behind the women. Both cringed as he lifted an arm to place it on Mary’s shoulder and Elizabeth decided to act. With a swift movement, she jerked her elbow back and connected with the man’s most private area.
He howled in pain and reached up to grab Elizabeth by the hair. She screamed and the entire situation seemed lost when a man’s voice suddenly broke through the din.
“Unhand that woman or lose it! Your choice friend.” Mary looked up from where she sat next to Elizabeth and followed the cold steel pressed against the drunk man’s arm up to a handsome, chiseled face belonging to a man wearing His Majesty’s crimson red.
She gasped and protectively hugged her sister as the drunk man removed his grip and Elizabeth collapsed forward. The drunk slowly tried to rise as the sword remained fixed on him.
“Don’t want no trouble, no trouble at all.”
“I should run you through on principle alone, but you’re lucky I’ve killed more than enough for a lifetime.” The unfamiliar army colonel stared the man down as he backed away to rejoin the table of his friends. Satisfied, the hero sheathed his sword and bowed to the ladies. “Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam, at your service.”
Mary implored Elizabeth to speak for them as she was far less traveled than her sister and the entire ordeal was overwhelming to say the least. Instead, Elizabeth took a number of deep breaths in and out trying to gather herself.
Sensing their distress, the Colonel waved back at his own table and a young woman with perfectly pinned blonde hair and a lavender silk gown hastened to his side.
“You poor dears! Are you unharmed”
Finally Elizabeth looked up and was startled to see a set of chestnut eyes she recognized, but shook her head to erase her mind’s aggravating memory. The young lady smiled at her and Elizabeth tried to return the smile, though it was feeble.
“Oh where are my manners? I’m Georgiana Darcy and this is my cousin, Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam. We saw you in trouble and hoped you wouldn’t mind the intrusion.”
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) - The Trouble With Horses, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
“Certainly not!” Elizabeth burst out, with a laugh, finally returning to her old self now that she felt safe again. And the woman’s name was an irony she couldn’t escape. “I’m Elizabeth Bennet and this is my sister, Mary Bennet. We are from Hertfordshire to visit our relatives in London.”
The young girl squealed and stamped her foot, spinning around to share her glee with her cousin before remembering herself and composing her behavior. “Richard, can you believe our luck?”
Mary and Elizabeth exchanged looks and shrugged.
“May we join you?” Georgiana asked, still bubbly with excitement.
The Bennet sisters could hardly refuse and Elizabeth certainly didn’t wish to do so. Without missing a beat, she immediately asked if the woman was a relation of Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy.
“Indeed, he is my brother! We are on our way to see how he fares after his accident. It was your family, was it not, that saved him? Pray, how is he?”
Elizabeth’s mind immediately flashed back to the moment she spied Darcy’s handsome face, unconscious in the ravine below. Her momentary pause allowed Mary to speak up for the first time.
“It was my sister Elizabeth who discovered Mr. Darcy shortly after his accident. She even threw a snake to save him!”
His interest piqued, Colonel Fitzwilliam finally took a seat and motioned for a bottle of wine to be brought to the table. Now with three ladies under his protection, he was adamant to hear a good story out of the ordeal.
Elizabeth sat there dumbstruck as Mary continued to talk and talk with Georgiana Darcy, telling her all about how Elizabeth had charged his horse down the hill and taken care of her brother when he was feverish and that she had challenged that vile Caroline Bingley woman. It was clear for all the times that Mary sat quietly, almost unnoticed by all, she was taking plenty of observations around her!
“Mary, please!” Elizabeth finally interjected as she noticed the Colonel giving her more and more pointed stares.
Mary took a sip of wine from the glass so graciously poured by the Colonel. “Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another.”
The door to the inn suddenly opened and a man in fine clothing hustled inside to look around him. Elizabeth immediately recognized him and waved her petite hand in the air.
“Thank the Lord you girls are safet! My horse threw a shoe and I had to hire a hackney cab. Please accept my apologies.”
“We were perfectly entertained, Uncle Edward. May I introduce you to our new acquaintances, Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam and his cousin, Georgiana Darcy? Miss Darcy’s brother is an acquaintance of ours from home.”
Uncle Edward removed his card from his pocket and handed it to Colonel Fitzwilliam. The typeface was bold and clearly stated Edward Gardiner, Fine Goods Importer, Gracechurch Street, London. Edward Gardiner raised his eyebrow at the name Darcy, remembering that was the young gentleman mentioned in the express from his brother Bennet.
“Pray, how singular that you should meet in an inn on the outskirts of London,” he mused.
The colonel coughed and looked at Mr. Gardiner. “There was some untoward behavior by a few of the patrons towards your nieces and I felt obliged to step in.”
Paling at the revelation his nieces were in danger, Elizabeth stood up causing Colonel Fitzwilliam to rise as well. “Fear not, Uncle, it was mere words and Mary and I are fine. Thank you Colonel, Miss Darcy for the wonderful repast. We wish you a safe journey onward.”
The trio heading to London left to hurry home before dark and the two cousins similarly entered their own carriage to seek their destination. After a few minutes, Georgiana finally broke the quiet.
“It is too bad the Miss Bennets are to London, I should have dearly liked to enjoy their company again.”
His mind reeling, the colonel was quickly connecting the pieces of information in his possession from Darcy’s letters about Miss Elizabeth and witnessing the woman’s spirit first hand. He couldn’t help the mischievous grin from softening his battle-scarred face.
“I have a feeling we will find ourselves in the company of Miss Bennet and Miss Mary before we know it. Yes,” he said as he winked at his younger cousin, “before we know it.”
~~~♥~~~
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.