A/N: This plot it thickening up faster than a gumbo! 🙂 (on my mind as I’m cooking some this week for my Aunt Connie coming to visit). Hope you enjoy this chapter of the sisters finding a way forward. I freaking LOVE Mary’s pluck. Let me know in comments those following the story or who have read this far what you’d like to see happen. IF I can fit it around my outlined plans, I will do my best.Â
– Elizabeth
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 25 - Happy Was The Day, A Pride and Prejudice Sequel Novel
 Chapter 25
Arriving at the Gardiner house and expecting a warm welcome turned out to be a fool’s errand. The Bingley carriage could not park in front because another blocked the path: the Bennet carriage.
Sensing trouble, Jane wished Mr. Bingley and Miss Bingley well and did not need to invite them inside as they both expressed a desire to retire to their lodgings. Miss Bingley planned to stay with the Hursts, while Mr. Bingley would secure a room at his club. Both Bingley siblings promised to visit the next day, but Jane did not believe that Miss Bingley would fulfill her vow.
Footmen carried trunks to the Bennet carriage as others carried Mrs. Bennet’s and Jane’s luggage inside. Jane had to hurry up the steps after farewelling Mr. Bingley as politely as a public street could warrant to catch up to her mother. Mrs. Bennet, angry to spy her family’s carriage parked in the street, barely allowed the butler to open the door before storming into the foyer of the Gardiner townhome. Her father was not the most pleased to see Mrs. Bennet.
“Why are you here? Where’s Jane? Where’s Kitty?” he demanded, upon spying his wife, then scowled when he saw Jane suddenly appear behind his wife.
“How I have missed you, Mr. Bennet,” Mrs. Bennet ignored her husband’s bombastic response to greet him properly. “Kitty is with my sister Phillips, and Jane, Jane dear?” Mrs. Bennet whirled around in confusion as Jane tried to step into her mother’s eye-line. Instead, she managed to move in the same direction as her mother’s turn, producing a comical game of hiding. The folly was enough to break Mr. Bennet’s stern exterior and he laughed until finally Jane held still and her mother could spy her.
“I’m afraid you have traveled in vain, we were all to return home,” he said, as Mrs. Bennet began to wail.
“Leave? Leave! I shall not, I just arrived! And Jane needs gowns and trimmings, and new boots, and—”
“Ah . . . the truth tumbles out,” Mr. Bennet said, smirking at the rest of the household taking an interest in the new voices and everyone entering the front parlor.
Mrs. Gardiner swooped in to properly greet and welcome her niece and sister by marriage, followed by Mr. Gardiner. Mary Bennet stood in the corner, unsure of how her plans of escaping London might be altered by the new turn of events that saw her mother and eldest sister arrive.
“Jane, why don’t you go up to your usual room. Lizzy is there, as Mary is returning with your father,” Mrs. Gardiner said, asserting control over her household. Mary exhaled a sigh of relief as Jane nodded, happy to get away from her mother after the awkward ride to London.
Above stairs, in the room they had slept in since their first visits to their aunt and uncle, Jane found Elizabeth sitting on the bed holding a message in her hands.
“I think you forgot your book,” Elizabeth said, without looking up believing the person standing in the doorway to be Mary.
“I shall take it down to Mary in a moment,” Jane said, her voice startling her younger sister.
“Jane!” she exclaimed, casting the single page missive to the bed and promptly greeting her sister with a tight embrace. Her questions were muffled in the tight embrace, but still, she said them. “How did you get here? Why are you here? How long will you stay?” she managed in rapid succession.
Jane chuckled. “I shall explain all, but let me take Mary her novel. I believe her and Father are leaving soon.”
Elizabeth watched as Jane gracefully descended the stairs, managed to quietly give Mary her book and return back again as her mother’s and father’s voices could be heard in high spirits.
“Mama?” Elizabeth asked, as Jane re-entered the room and closed the door.
Jane nodded.
Elizabeth sat back down on her normal bed and waited for Jane to talk first. However, as her sister gazed around the unfinished room, Elizabeth felt a need to explain their surroundings.
“Aunt is redecorating. I looked at papers with her last week.”
“I see,” Jane said.
“Do not keep me in suspense, you’ve pulled off the surprise! Tell me how you are here!” her sister urged, throwing her hands up in exasperation.
Jane gave her sister a normal half-smile.
“First, I owe you an apology,” she began, shocking Elizabeth to stillness. Jane took a deep breath. “I cannot ask you to forgive my poor behavior on the basis of excuses, you were instrumental in bringing Mr. Bingley to me again and I rewarded your sisterly support with suspicion and jealousy.”
Elizabeth slowly nodded, still confused as to the prompting of this apology.
“Aunt wrote to me—”
“Oh.”
Jane read her sister’s downtrodden expression, such a departure from the joy a moment ago, and reassured her. “But her words only hastened my action, they did not inform it.”
Elizabeth raised an eyebrow at her sister. Then she cleared her throat. “What made you decide to apologize to me?”
Jane gulped and closed her eyes. “About three hours after you had left, after breakfast that morning, I went up to our room and your items were all gone. Everything. And I wept. I realized that too soon we will be separated and we’ve hardly ever separated . . .”
“But we separated last spring. That did not bring you melancholy,” Elizabeth pointed out.
Jane placed her hands on her hips and uncharacteristically scolded her sister. “But we knew we’d reunite! Don’t you realize how much marriage will change life for the both of us?”
Elizabeth laughed and accosted her sister for more affection. “More than you know! I tried to tell you! But all’s well now, you’re here and we can start afresh—”
A wail from below stairs stopped both sisters as they listened for more, and when additional sounds of distress followed, they both rushed to the door to hear the loud wailing of Mrs. Bennet in great volume.
“Oh no,” Elizabeth uttered, holding her hand to her forehead as a vein in her temple began to throb.
“Lizzy?” Jane whispered, suddenly worried her sister was unwell, but Elizabeth waved her hand off and stood up straight. As they both stood up on top of the stairs, Jane gestured for them to go downstairs to attend to the mother but Elizabeth shook her head.
“She knows,” she whispered.
“Knows what?” Jane asked, frustrated that there was more she had to tell Elizabeth, warn her about Caroline’s treachery.
The doors to the parlor flew open. “Where is that girl, Lizzy? Lizzy!” Mrs. Bennet yelled for her daughter and came to the stairs, tears falling down her face. “You clever, clever girl!”
“Lizzy?” Jane asked urgently as Elizabeth slowly began walking down the stairs to her mother’s outstretched arms.
Jane followed down the stairs while Elizabeth accepted the embrace from their mother. The daughter who had always been made to know she was second-best stood stiffly as her mother jostled her around in excitement.
“We are saved, Jane! Me, your sisters Kitty and Mary. We are saved!” Mrs. Bennet exclaimed.
Elizabeth pulled back from her mother. “Not until I am married, Mama.”
“What? Well of course you will marry Mr. Darcy! Did he not purchase a special license?”
Elizabeth glanced behind her to Jane, whose face had gone white as a ghost. “He has, but . . . but we have made the decision to marry from Hertfordshire,” she said, definitively.
Mrs. Bennet began to fret, shouting her arguments against such a wait to her husband and Mrs. Gardiner, then even to her brother, Mr. Gardiner. As Mrs. Bennet began to worry about every possible mortal accident befalling Mr. Darcy before he could be married to her daughter, Elizabeth watched Jane most closely and witnessed her breathe a sigh of relief.
A messenger arrived and the chaos in the front half of the Gardiner townhome abated for a moment. The butler handed the missive to Mr. Gardiner, who then handed it to his wife. Mrs. Gardiner smiled and handed the small note to her niece, Elizabeth.
“The Matlock carriage has arrived for you, my dear.”
“Matlock? Carriage? What’s this?” Mrs. Bennet barged between her sister by marriage and her daughter to snatch the small message for herself.
“Mama, please,” Elizabeth said, closing her eyes, quickly calculating. The invitation upstairs that arrived early in the morning invited her and her sister to tea at Matlock House. She wrote back accepting the invitation, but then Mary announced she would leave with Papa.
“Jane,” Elizabeth started, turning on her heel to beg her eldest sister to go with her. “Would you accompany me to tea at Mr. Darcy’s aunt’s home? Mary was to go, and I would dearly love to introduce you.”
“Absolutely not! You will not go without your mother!” Mrs. Bennet announced, then looked at Jane, and felt poorly. “Jane will go with us, of course.”
“Mama, I cannot arrive with an additional person and throw off Lady Matlock’s plans. Jane should go with me to make the connection, which will be helpful for her future as Mrs. Bingley,” Elizabeth added, pointing out that their mother had nothing to gain in making the acquaintance and absolutely everything to lose for them with her behavior. That last part she did not explain fully. But Mrs. Gardiner, a witness of the dinner the night before, understood Elizabeth’s aims immediately.
“Come, surely you would like a rest after traveling all that way from Hertfordshire,” Mrs. Gardiner placated her fussy sister-in-law.
“Mr. Bennet! What do you have to say about all of this?” his wife charged, hoping for an ally in him.
“My dear, I have learned the hardest way imaginable not to interfere with Lizzy’s plans. My recommendation to you, should you choose to stay in this infernal Town, is to follow my advice,” Mr. Bennet explained as he looked out the window to see the carriage from Matlock House blocking the very drive his carriage needed to navigate to leave.
Elizabeth once might have felt pride in being set apart by her father, but his cold tone and intent on leaving London as soon as he could manage informed her otherwise.
“Jane, will you come with me?” Elizabeth asked again, nicely, as her sister had not properly answered.
Jane looked to Mary to make sure the middle Bennet daughter was agreeable to transferring her invitation. When Mary nodded, Jane smiled.
“I would love to attend with you, do we have time to change?” she asked.
Elizabeth grinned and they had the butler ask the driver to wait as the two girls raced back up the stairs to dress properly. Quickly, Elizabeth explained how she had been invited earlier and agreed before knowing that Papa and Mary were to leave.
To Elizabeth’s surprise, Mary joined them upstairs to give her farewells.
“And I promise to make sure Father begins making arrangements for your wedding, Lizzy.”
Jane raised her eyebrows and Mary turned to address her eldest sister. “It has been decided that a double wedding in Hertfordshire is best for everyone and Lord and Lady Matlock have promised to attend.”
“Lizzy, who are Lord and Lady Matlock?” Jane asked as she chose to wear the gown she was wearing since her others were too wrinkled from travel. She did, however, select a different bonnet.
“They are Mr. Darcy’s aunt and uncle, on his mother’s side. I am not too sure they support my union with Mr. Darcy at all, but I hope to get other information from Lady Matlock,” she explained, as Mary undid her buttons and Elizabeth changed the gown over her chemise to one of the new frocks that arrived from the modiste.
Thankfully, growing up with a single maid to share meant that Elizabeth and Mary were quite adept at helping each other dress. As they fussed with Elizabeth’s gown and trimmings, Jane deftly searched Elizabeth’s trunk for shoes to match the frock.
“Lizzy!” Jane exclaimed, as she suddenly realized how many trunks of clothing her sister now owned.
Her sister grinned.
“An affliction of becoming Mrs. Darcy. Don’t worry, I’ll be sure Aunt takes you shopping as well!” she said, with a laugh.
To Elizabeth’s surprise, just as they decided not to keep the Matlock driver waiting any longer, Mary stopped Jane.
“Mary, we must hurry,” Elizabeth urged, but her younger sister shook her head. Instead, Mary blocked Jane’s path and addressed her directly.
“Lizzy is going to be rich beyond measure, possibly in her own right, upon marrying Mr. Darcy. But I met his family last night and she needs all of our support. I advised her,” Mary said, glancing over her shoulder at Elizabeth to emphasize her advice still stood, “to leave London immediately. I have a bad feeling about staying in London.”
“Mary, I can’t leave! Not yet,” Elizabeth started to argue and explain her reasoning, but Jane, ever the peacekeeper, held up her hand to let Lizzy know she didn’t need to hear her reasons.
“I promise there will not be any further quarrel between myself and our sister,” Jane promised Mary.
“Not even for Mr. Bingley or Mr. Darcy,” Mary warned, sternly gazing at both of her older sisters. “The gentlemen can fight their own battles.”
Despite Mary’s ominous warning, and navigating the gauntlet of guardians downstairs, Elizabeth and Jane boarded the Matlock carriage, not more than a quarter-hour after the vehicle arrived. As the driver entered traffic of wagons, carriages, and peddlers offering their wares, Elizabeth involuntarily grasped her elder sister’s hand.
In unison, both sisters uttered the same words:
“There’s so much I have to tell you.”
Thank you for reading and for your comments below. 🙂 -EAW
Continue Reading...
Chapter 1-4 Happy Was The Day
August 5, 2020
2 Comments
I should like to tell you when this book will come out, etc. but I can’t tell you what I don’t know. I do know
Chapters 5-8 Happy Was The Day
August 7, 2020
4 Comments
Over 2,000 readers have devoured Chapters 1-4 between my site and fanfiction.net. I am astounded and humbled by the interest even though it’s been a
Chapters 9-10 Happy Was The Day
August 13, 2020
3 Comments
What a week! These two chapters were an absolute brat in the writing process. I wrote them weeks ago, but I became stuck because in
Chapters 11-12 Happy Was The Day
October 26, 2020
7 Comments
I am MOVED! And somewhat unpacked… the harder part was waiting for the novelty of returning home after 13 years away to wear off so
Chapters 13-15 Happy Was The Day
November 17, 2020
2 Comments
I apologize for the week+ in between the chapters, but remember when I said somewhat unpacked? I am much more unpacked now. And one reader
Chapter 16 Happy Was The Day
November 20, 2020
1 Comment
There was a post I shared this week on Facebook called “Wash the dishes twice.” The premise is anytime there’s something difficult mentally to process,
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.