Where oh where is Mr. Darcy?
XOXO Elizabeth Ann West
Chapter 11- If Mr. Darcy Dared
By noon, the rest of the Bennet household had risen and joined the day. Elizabeth’s awkwardness increased with each passing moment that Mr. Darcy did not arrive.
To her surprise, her mother had run interference with Mr. Collins allowing Elizabeth to sit in the corner of the parlor with a book. However, the tome was little more than a prop. She had managed no further than the first chapter, even ignoring the usual squabbles between Kitty and Lydia and hearing poor Mary desperately trying to engage Mr. Collins into a conversation about sermons.
When a knock on the door interrupted everyone’s activities, the family froze as Mrs. Hill opened the door. Elizabeth held her breath and listened closely to discern the voice of the visitor, but the pitch was much too high for the rich and velvet baritone of Mr. Darcy. The happy tenor of Mr. Bingley had arrived with his sister, Caroline. No Mr. Darcy.
“Miss Bennet, may I say you are looking very fine today? I hope we have not called too early? Caroline was worried it was too early after the ball.” Poor Mr. Bingley’s tongue had run away with him in the anxious energy of addressing an entire room.
“Honestly, Charles, I had barely woken before you implored me to ready for a visit,” Miss Bingley countered as she brushed aside her brother arrested in place before his intended and entered the parlor properly. All of the occupants stood to greet the new visitors and Mrs. Bennet enthusiastically encouraged Mr. Bingley to visit as often as he desired.
“Especially now that we are to be family, Mr. Bingley, and of course you, too, Miss Bingley. You must come to feel that Longbourn is a home to you, too.” Mrs. Bennet smiled at the joy of such a statement, missing Elizabeth’s jaw dropping in shock.
As if her head were upon a swivel, Elizabeth turned to catch Jane’s eye, but her sister was far too occupied by Mr. Bingley in the far corner of the room. Instead, Miss Bingley glided over to the empty chair beside her adversary for Mr. Darcy’s attentions.
Chapter 11 - If Mr. Darcy Dared (cont'd)
“I am surprised to see you in such high spirits, Miss Eliza. Why, I should have been too humiliated to leave my room after the night you had. But here you are, putting on a brave face for us all.” Miss Bingley smiled at Elizabeth as though she just paid the highest compliment as Elizabeth slanted her eyes at the woman who most reminded her of an illustration of a marmota monax in one of her father’s books on botany. That the creature was known to dig in gardens and ruin one’s best flowers only made the likeness more fitting.
“Oh, I believe I can suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” Elizabeth countered, bleakly. Her flat tone at least attracted the notice of her sister Kitty who began to take a keen interest in the conversation.
“Fortunate? My word, Miss Eliza, I would hardly be able to call myself fortunate after such a spectacle.”
“But Lizzy is fortunate. Jane is to marry Mr. Bingley, and Lizzy is to marry Mr. Darcy! And we shall all be introduced to gentlemen in Town,” Kitty enthused.
Miss Bingley looked around the room and tutted. “And yet, I do not spy Mr. Darcy here. I see my brother . . . “ Miss Bingley trailed off, allowing the unfinished comparison to linger in everyone’s thoughts.
“Lizzy!” Jane interjected, as she had not fully listened to the disagreement and only felt the sudden mood change in the room. “Mr. Bingley has just asked me to take a stroll in the garden,”
But Elizabeth had risen from her chair, book in hand, and walked past her favorite sister, nearly crashing into her mother in the hall.
Chapter 11 - If Mr. Darcy Dared (cont'd)
“Oh, good, you’ve come to help me in the kitchen. We must order refreshments for our guests.” Mrs. Bennet, despite feeling more of a kinship to her eldest daughter than her second eldest, was not so cruel as to abandon any of her offspring while a presumed suitor was missing in action.
“Have you received a note from Mr. Darcy?” Mrs. Bennet asked as soon as they were out of the earshot of the parlor. Elizabeth barely shook her head, causing her mother to scowl and jerk open the door to her father’s study without so much as a knock.
“Mr. Bennet, surely you have received a note from Mr. Darcy,” Mrs. Bennet announced.
Mr. Bennet did not look up from the letter he was scribbling. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, my dear, but I have not.”
Mrs. Bennet grew flustered as she looked between her daughter and then back at her husband, almost as if she wordlessly suspected them to be in conspiracy with one another to the exclusion of her. Then she turned back to Mr. Bennet and attempted one last query of her husband.
“What has Mr. Bingley to say about this? Surely he knows where his friend is!” Mrs. Bennet insisted upon an answer and yet her husband made her wait.
Mr. Bennet made a grand show finishing the last line with a flourish, sanding the letter, and then melting the wax over his candle flame.
“Mr. Bingley did not share any intelligence concerning his friend before he absconded to the gardens with your daughter. I’m afraid I am as much in the dark as you are as to the mysterious whereabouts of Mr. Darcy.” Mr. Bennet smirked, angering his wife further.
Mrs. Bennet ran her hands over her apron and turned to take Lizzy to task over whatever she had done to anger Mr. Darcy that he did not call this morning. But when she turned around in the hall, her daughter was gone. She squawked at the disappearance and then scolded Mr. Bennet for distracting her so to allow Lizzy to get away.
“I apologize if you feel that I have unfairly burdened you when you have burst into my sanctuary. Now I do believe we have guests, do we not?” Mr. Bennet asked, spotting a dash of navy blue scurrying across his lawn in his peripheral vision. He dared not turn his head to look properly and alert his wife. Even he agreed that his Elizabeth deserved an escape as the walls were very thin between the study and the parlor. He only wished he trusted her more not to do anything rash.
You’ve been reading . . . If Mr. Darcy Dared, a work in progress by Elizabeth Ann West.
Available for Preorder now!
If Mr. Darcy Dared
a Pride and Prejudice variation novel
Direct Preorder Release Date: March 23, 2018
Wide preorder: March 30, 2018
As Charles Bingley and Fitzwilliam Darcy prepare for the Netherfield Ball, a gentlemen’s challenge develops between them to secure their future happiness . . . with the two eldest Bennet sisters! But when things do not go as expected for Mr. Darcy, Hertfordshire society is in an uproar over the pursuit of one of their favorite daughters by such a wealthy gentleman.
Despite being claimed by Mr. Darcy as his future bride, Elizabeth Bennet has no plans to wed the proud and disdainful Mr. Darcy, no matter what her father says! At her sister’s urging, she agrees to give him a chance, if only for Jane’s sake. But there are others with an interest in breaking a match between Fitzwilliam Darcy and some country miss. . .
The stakes are high and romance strong as two of Jane Austen’s most beloved characters dare to declare their feelings, dare to defy family, and dare to trust each other!
If Mr. Darcy Dared is a steamy romance for fans of Elizabeth Ann West’s other works, especially those readers who love their drama cranked to a ten!
Available March 30th on these fine vendors (more added as links become available)
+ 23 additional Pride & Prejudice variations are available at these fine retailers . . .
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.
Where is Mr Darcy? Did he hie off to London to get his mother’s ring? I don’t believe that he is planning to abandon Elizabeth!
Let us hope that Darcy arrives and Wickham does not show up to Caroline’s delight and Mary marries Collins
Where is Darcy?