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 my head, I see everything. But when it’s time to put it to paper…some scenes are more powerful if they happen “off stage,” Confession, I dislike writing dinner after dinner etc. and when I go back to the original, you find that Austen did the same. She summarized often the polite society parts and focused in on the impactful parts. So let me know after you read these two chapters if you understand why I was stuck in “skipping” the dinner part and if this works for you. If you truly want the dinner scene written out, I can do that, and then adjust the post-argument scene. But I dearly love a bit of dramatic irony and the reader being just as confused as poor Mary and Kitty. 🙂 Oh, and I’ve begun packing for my move to Virginia next month!
-Love and safety to you all-
Elizabeth Ann West
Chapter 9 - Happy Was The Day, A Pride and Prejudice Sequel Novel
An invitation to dine at Netherfield Park arrived early Monday morning to send the entire Bennet family into excitement. Unfortunately, it was also the only time Elizabeth and Jane saw their preferred gentlemen for they brought the invitation themselves.
“You are so kind, Mr. Bingley, to think of us. I hope we are not putting your dear sister out,” Mrs. Bennet opined, gently pointing out that Miss Bingley had not ridden in the carriage with the gentlemen.
“Of course not, I mean, my sister is at home as we speak making sure the preparations are in place. She dispatched us as her errand boys,” he said, offering Jane all of his lopsided smiles.
Mr. Darcy cleared his throat. “Are you well, Miss Elizabeth?” he asked, a question with very little suspicion behind it.
Elizabeth’s cheeks burned as she certainly heard more in his question than any of the others could fathom. And decided to make him blush in return.
“Oui!”
Mr. Darcy sputtered a cough, then laughed, and Mr. Bingley laughed along with his friend, followed by Jane and Mrs. Bennet, though they had no idea what was so funny. Elizabeth stood with her hands clasped behind her back, shifting her weight between the balls of each foot like a cat about to pounce upon its prey.
“I say, my clever one, to answer Mr. Darcy in French!” Mrs. Bennet said as a false compliment, then patted her eyes with her handkerchief from the laughter.
The gentlemen visited for half an hour and as Jane sat with her Mr. Bingley by the fireside, Elizabeth led Mr. Darcy over to an area where she had been working on a letter to her aunt. She had amended the query to beseech her Aunt Gardiner to allow her to visit London as quickly as possible.
“You are never one to be underestimated,” he began, in a normal tone of voice before dropping to a whisper, “my Elizabeth.”
The corners of her lips lifted and she offered him a half-smile. “I would thank you for your industrious instruction, sir, if I had not already shared in your wisdom,” she said, causing his eyes to widen. At that, she offered him a full smile and laughed, attracting the attention of Mr. Bingley and Jane from across the room. But when they saw Lizzy laughing and Mr. Darcy’s face red, they misunderstood the situation entirely to be one of censorious teasing, when it was far from such a mundane matter.
“And am I to receive the benefit of your wisdom, Madam?” he dared to ask, parting his lips every so slightly that she could spy the tip of his tongue. The tiny gesture took her breath away, and she inhaled deeply to steady herself, reminded of her goal.
“Yes, though I believe I recalled at some time or other Miss Bingley speaks French,” Elizabeth considered and Mr. Darcy coughed.
“Not well,” he added, and she ignored it, for it was too late to rewrite her letter to him.
“I am certain she does not read Latin,” she said, offering her letter to Mr. Darcy’s hand. He accepted and they changed the subject to their affections, and when they had begun, looping back to the real matter at hand, which was a letter to their respective aunts. Although Mr. Darcy had taunted her to give him pen and paper that he might write to Lady Catherine de Bourgh, there was not time before Mrs. Bennet interrupted their visit. Elizabeth managed to hastily seal and wax the letter to her aunt, that held the added request of allowing her to visit London as early as possible.
“I’m afraid gentlemen, you cannot visit long today, though we happily accept your invitation for dinner, Mr. Bingley. The girls have another visit with the modiste, as Jane has more to add to her trousseau,”
Mr. Darcy picked up on only Jane’s name mentioned and he looked at Elizabeth. She sighed and gave a small, barely perceptible nod. But he did not press further. Mrs. Bennet watched them all so that the gentlemen could only offer the politest of adieus. When Mr. Darcy bowed and placed his hand over his heart, directly where the letter from Elizabeth rested in his coat’s inside pocket, the sentiment was enough for her.
After the two suitors left, Mr. Bennet feigned as though he did not wish to accept the invitation. However Mrs. Bennet disabused him of such a notion before the carriage had been called for the shopping trip.
The issue of the trousseau was an argument Elizabeth did not wish to rehearse in front of the gentlemen, and she felt grateful her mother possessed some sense that she had ushered the men out quickly. As it was, before luncheon, Elizabeth was again riding in the carriage with her mother and Jane, her mother going on and on about Jane’s wedding.
“Mama, please,” Jane took pity on Elizabeth sitting and staring out the window. “I wish to have a double wedding with Lizzy and Mr. Darcy. So does Charles, as Mr. Darcy is his closest friend.”
Mrs. Bennet sniffled in disappointment as she always did when the subject of a double wedding arose. She was categorically against it. “But be reasonable, Jane, dear. Mr. Darcy and Lizzy are not so far along as you and Mr. Bingley. Surely you do not intend to hold your wedding in 1813!”
The girls laughed at their mother’s hysterics, as there was not going to be such a delay as three months, but it was true that Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth were a week behind in banns being read.
Just as before, Mrs. Sitchwort awaited Elizabeth’s custom first, which was meager. The hunter-green gown she had commissioned was ready, and fit perfectly. Unfortunately, she lacked the funds to order more, as her mother would not allow for any spending until her engagement to Mr. Darcy was announced properly. Instead, Elizabeth had come along for her other aim, which was to use her remaining money to send her letter to her aunt by Express.
After leaving the modiste, and carefully walking across the way to the inn, she finished her business and had just resolved to walk home when she spied a familiar rider dismount. Forgetting herself a bit, Lizzy rushed back across the street to meet Mr. Darcy, side-stepping the myriad of puddles filling the lane. Slightly out of breath, she met her beau before he found some contrived reason to walk into the modiste.
“Miss Elizabeth,” he greeted, bowing low.
“How lucky that we see each other again, Mr. Darcy, and then tonight, we dine,” Elizabeth commented, finding herself less inclined to converse with Mr. Darcy, but their environment would not allow for the activity she preferred. “I do not see Mr. Bingley?” she thought for sure, by now, the man had found a mount.
Unfortunately, as Mr. Bingley did not possess a horse that he wished to ride, Mr. Darcy had made his errands on his own. He did not keep Elizabeth’s company for long outside of the shop, though more than a few of her neighbors stopped to gawk at the continued familiarity between Mr. Darcy and Miss Eliza, yet there had been no reading of the banns the day before. It was a curious matter, indeed!
He bent over her hand and kissed the top of it just above where her glove met her wrist. The sensation thrilled them both, and they spent the better part of a few moments merely gazing into each other’s eyes. Another passerby approached, this time much closer than the previous ones who had tried to catch pieces of their conversation. For all Meryton knew this might be the very moment that Mr. Darcy asked Miss Elizabeth to marry him! Mr. Darcy seemed to come out of the stupor and began to speak about Mr. Bingley’s plight.
“The man spends the better part of the day sulking. And he flies into a rage at the slightest aggravation. I thought perhaps his behavior might be the remnants of suppressed anger against me,” Mr. Darcy began, but Elizabeth shook her head in disagreement, enticing him to join her as they began to walk up and down the clapboards as though any acquaintance might. “But he equally complains of headaches nearly every afternoon.”
“No, Mr. Bingley was all that was amiable before his accident. But I have seen this happen. My father once took a nasty spill and it took many weeks before his temperament found adjustment. Perhaps finding him another horse might help? I cannot imagine he is without jealousy that you still hold your autonomy,” Elizabeth hypothesized and to her surprise, her future husband agreed with her!
He pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes as he tried to think. “I have been such a fool—” he began, and Elizabeth finished for him.
“A fool in love,” she said and they both shared a laugh. He licked his lips and she licked hers, but there was not to be a kiss this afternoon.
Elizabeth began to explain to him about a farm to the west of the village, where most of the families procured their best bred horses. “It will not be a steed so fancy as you might be used too, but if Mr. Bingley is to find a ride worthy of his endeavors here in Hertfordshire, the Baxters are by far your best place to search.”
“And how far away is this farm?” he asked, trying to calculate exactly how long he would have to be separated from his dear Elizabeth.
“Oh, send them a message today and you should hear back soon. Mr. Lee at the White Swan can help you with the direction. If you leave tomorrow morning with the carriage, I expect you will be back before nightfall.” She scrunched up her nose at the noon sun.
“I thought you said the farm is not far?” he asked, trying to follow Elizabeth’s gaze, but all that was above them was clouds before they turned around to walk back towards the modiste.
“Perhaps eight miles. The length of time will be Mr. Baxter’s insistence that the ‘horse chooses the rider,’” Elizabeth mimicked Old Mr. Baxter’s long drawl to Mr. Darcy’s amusement.
“And you say the neighborhood trusts this man?” Mr. Darcy gently questioned Elizabeth’s wisdom. She explained to him how Mr. Larson Baxter was a bonafide war veteran and left America by fighting for the British.
“He worked in the stables for a wealthy man in Virginia but earned his freedom by caring for the cavalry’s finest. Did you not admire the horses Colonel Forster acquisitioned for his command?” she asked, reminding Mr. Darcy of the militia encamped the previous year, without mentioning the scoundrel, Lieutenant Wickham. “Baxter bred.”
Mr. Darcy nodded. “Yes, the horses of the militia were particularly well-bred, in my limited observations. You sound as though you have experience with horses?” he asked and to his surprise, Elizabeth winked at him.
“Rest assured that I can ride, I simply choose not to.” She shrugged. “The horse that chose me died some years ago and I saw no reason for the expense,” she said, her voice dropping lower as she didn’t wish to explain that it was actually her mother who felt the money might be better spent towards the girls’ fripperies instead of their thoroughbreds. As Elizabeth most often rode the horse reserved for Jane when she traveled with her father to visit the tenants, there was no impediment for Elizabeth. Besides, she preferred walking over the sores a saddle gave one’s posterior.
“I shall have to see about visiting Mr. Baxter and his horses. Would you like me to post the letter to your aunt?” he asked, changing the subject and Elizabeth giggled.
“I’m afraid you discovered the only reason I came with my mother and sister,” she said, reminding him that she had to cross the street from the inn to where they stood now, back in front of the modiste. He followed the point of her finger, then rose up to gently grasp her hand and bow over it to fare adieu.
“I wish you would have allowed me, I would have sent it Express,” he said, and Elizabeth scowled.
“What happened to not underestimating me?” she asked, as she waved him off, leaving him to wonder just how he had misspoke now. But he watched his Lizzy happily walk off, and then realized she would walk the whole way home. If he hurried with his business at the inn, he could still ride and catch her to escort her home at least part of the way.
Chapter 10 - Happy Was The Day, A Pride and Prejudice Sequel Novel
“For once in your life, keep your distance from me!” Jane shouted as she rushed for the refuge of their shared bedroom, with her younger sister following behind up the stairs. The sudden commotion disturbed the quiet night at Longbourn after the dinner at Netherfield Park.
“But Jane, I didn’t mean it. I never intended–” Elizabeth managed before Jane uncharacteristically closed the door between them, keeping Lizzy out in the hall, and Jane in their room.
Kitty and Mary appeared from their room, dressed in their nightgowns. Mr. Bennet had not allowed them to attend the dinner, explaining that just because both girls had been out in the past, did not necessarily mean every social invitation was for them.
It was just as well as their attendance would have further pushed the intimate family dinner to being more lopsided and gentlemen to ladies than the three to five ratio Miss Bingley had to arrange seating.
“What happened? What’s upset Jane?” Kitty asked, bewildered to see such a quarrel between her two eldest sisters.
“Nothing, go back to bed. Jane is upset, and I’m sure it shall pass,” Elizabeth attempted to turn the door handle, finding Jane had locked it! Elizabeth opened her hand and with a flat palm began to bang on the door. “It is too late for such childishness, this is my room too! You have to let me in!”
Behind them, the girls were startled to hear footsteps on the creaky stairs and they turned to see their father retiring for the night.
“Girls,” He greeted them, as they pushed themselves flat against the wall for him to pass to his room. But Kitty could not leave the situation alone.
“Papa, Jane has locked Lizzy out of their room,” she tattled.
Mr. Bennet continued his slow walk down the hall. “They’ll find a way to work it out. If not, I do believe there is an extra bed in your room.”
Mary sized up the situation, and gently led Elizabeth away from the door as her tears fell freely down her cheeks. She called after their father and wished him a good night, and he turned around to see more maturity in his two youngest daughters than what had occurred that evening from his older daughters. Once safely ensconced in the room holding three beds, Elizabeth openly sobbed as Kitty tried to placate her and Mary fetched a nightgown for her to wear as they were of a similar height.
“I’m sure whatever has happened, Jane will be sorted in the morning,” Kitty offered and Lizzie nodded.
“You did not miss a fun evening!” Lizzie managed, gulping for breath to settle her emotions. She wiped her eyes as they stung from her salty tears, and a small belch from the rich wine disturbed her speech. “Most of the night I played a game of keeping Mr. Darcy away from our parents. You know how they suddenly seem to disapprove of my match,” she said, and the younger girls nodded as the subject was one they had discussed amongst themselves. “Miss Bingley, that absolutely horrid woman, doted on Jane, which was all well and good, had she not taken every opportunity to insult me. Then just before we went in for the meal, Jane warned me to mind my tongue!”
Mary and Kitty exchanged a shared look of shock, and it was Mary who asked how Miss Bingley had insulted Elizabeth.
“She raised a glass to toast Jane and Mr. Bingley for their engagement and her eternal happiness that they would be remaining at Netherfield Park, and how she had just agreed with her brother to also stay in residence for a time to support Jane. And then Mr. Darcy cleared his throat, and Miss Bingley believed he wished to say a few words. The silence that fell was awkward and obscene, and I braved saying that Jane was not the only woman in the room engaged to be married.”
“No, Lizzy!” “You didn’t!” Marry and Kitty said at the same time.
“I did! If you had seen her smirky face, you would have said something as well, Mary! You know you would have! And then Miss Bingley said that my engagement with Mr. Darcy was of a peculiar sort, she had not wished to toast it before it was announced in church!”
The younger girls didn’t know how to contradict Elizabeth in her passioned pleas for understanding, but thus far, it seemed as though Elizabeth had been the transgressor.
Kitty encouraged Elizabeth to get back to the disagreement. “Jane would forgive a small rudeness,” Kitty tried to reason. “Did something else happen?”
“Mr. Bingley had not been himself most of the evening. He actually told Mama in the parlor before dinner that her queries into his household expenditures were meddlesome and unwelcome,” Elizabeth smiled as she recalled her mother’s face at the set down.
“That is not like Mr. Bingley at all!” Kitty agreed.
Elizabeth stood to pour herself a glass of water from the basin. Her throat had suddenly become parched dry. After she guzzled the water, she suddenly felt very guilty for the majority of her behavior. She understood more and more how Mr. Darcy felt so very altered in circumstances where they were neither at their best.
She lowered her voice and stared at the half full cup in her hands. “I saw Mr. Darcy this afternoon in the village, you saw him when he walked me home?” She accepted the nods from her sisters that they were following the wide jumps in time as Elizabeth tried to recount the important parts. “He told me today that Mr. Bingley has suffered bouts of aggression and melancholy, all since his accident. I supposed at first it was just the loss of his horse.”
She paused, and again the guilt of her actions made the contents of her stomach twinge with indigestion. “Being harsh with Mama was not the only strange thing. When Mr. Bingley stood, I noticed he grasped a chair for balance, as did Mr. Darcy.”
“Oh dear, Mr. Bingley is not well!” Kitty exclaimed and Elizabeth blanched.
“He is well, just not quite well,” she explained. “After the rudeness over the toast, eventually the subject naturally came up about when and where the wedding would occur. Mama pushed for two weeks from now, directly after the third bann is read. To my surprise, Miss Bingley suggested the end of November to coincide with the anniversary of last year’s ball.”
“A ball! Tell me that Mr. Bingley has consented to throwing another ball! Last year’s was so magical, and this time, Maria Lucas can attend!” Kitty suddenly grew distracted that her closest friend in age and temperament was now out due to her elder sister, Charlotte, marrying their cousin the year before.
“Yes, Kitty, there is to be a ball.”
Mary frowned and counted on her fingers. “Will it not be too dark?”
Elizabeth marveled at Mary’s swift calculations, then gazed out at the moon outside. She just as easily spied it was a little more than half-full and gaining since the previous week had been dark. A little more than a month and a half until the anniversary of the Netherfield Ball would assuredly land too close to a new moon. She left the glass on the nightstand.
“At first, Miss Bingley’s suggestion was dismissed out of hand by Papa, though he might have sought only to avoid the ball. The conversation swirled and I panicked that Papa would agree to Jane and Mr. Bingley marrying before the month is out!” she said, not elaborating that her fear of Jane marrying first would delay her nuptials until well after Christmas or later.
She could not be sure that her parents would force her to endure such a long engagement. Her paranoia rested on how Mrs. Bennet would likely feel secure in attaining Mr. Bingley’s fortune and a future of enjoying the highest comfort even after the family lost Longbourn when their father did die. Without fear of the hedgerows, little remained to entice Mrs. Bennet in promoting Elizabeth’s match. She still maintained that Mr. Darcy was an unpleasant sort of fellow and expressed dislike whenever the opportunity, but not his earshot, presented itself.
“And you and Jane dream of a double wedding,” Kitty said, with an aspirational lilt to her voice.
“A sound economy,” Mary added.
Elizabeth nodded, happy her younger sisters appeared to be on her side.
“So why is Jane angry? The wedding and the ball were moved . . . to . . .” Kitty tried to calculate, but grew frustrated. “Mary?”
Mary shrugged. “I would guess a month’s time?”
“Precisely that,” Elizabeth said with a big sigh. Another silence fell and she finally had to confess. She walked over to the bed Lydia once occupied and pulled back the coverlet and the sheets, then climbed into bed wriggling her toes against the coldness that met her bare feet. Gazing up at the cracked plaster above, she wondered how long it would be thus and if Mr. Darcy’s houses suffered from any neglect in repairs? Would the bedrooms be drafty from cracks in the ceilings and walls? Or would the house be like Netherfield Park where a servant restarted the fire before you even rose from bed in the morning?
Finally, Elizabeth explained why Jane was so very cross, perhaps even unable to forgive her.
“When I worried that Papa would agree for Jane to marry in two weeks, before it was all settled for a months’ time, I raised the issue of Mr. Bingley’s accident. If he married too close to it, someone could challenge their marriage.”
Both of the younger girls gasped in the relative darkness of the room as Mary had just snuffed the candle, adding an unintended dramatic effect to Lizzy’s confession.
“But such an accusation is serious!” Mary scolded. Elizabeth sat back upright in the bed, her form outlined by the small amount of moonlight coming in from the window.
“And that horrid Miss Bingley didn’t defend her brother! In fact, she looked away with a very guilty countenance. Father challenged Mr. Darcy, assuming my opinion to come from him. Then Mr. Bingley began to holler, and Mr. Darcy pointed out he was looking out for his interests, which then Jane, sweet Jane, spoke her piece . . .” Elizabeth trailed off, recounting the ghastly end of the dinner, closing her eyes tightly as though she suffered a nightmare.
“What . . . what did Jane say?” Kitty asked.
Elizabeth’s eyes flew open and her emotions for Mr. Darcy clouded her accounting. “She told Mr. Darcy that Mr. Bingley no longer needed him looking out for his interests, not now or ever.”
“Bravo, Jane!” Kitty said, and Elizabeth vented her disapproval with a small, guttural sound.
“She has suffered most acutely due to his interference,” Mary agreed.
Suddenly, Elizabeth realized her sisters were correct. Just as Jane had scolded her in the carriage, that Lizzy only suffered a few months of affection for Mr. Darcy, she had pined for Mr. Bingley for over a year, even enduring a lengthy period of time believing he no longer returned the regard. The similarity between Jane and Mr. Darcy became clear in Elizabeth’s mind, and her empathy for the man she had inadvertently pained since Easter transferred more sympathy to her sister.
“I avow, though on the surface it might appear I advocated for only my interests, it is a happy circumstance they aligned with Jane’s. I do not trust Caroline Bingley, she had a direct hand in separating Jane and Mr. Bingley before,” Elizabeth whispered, new tears struggling to form at her eyes as she had already cried too much. Her eyes stung acutely from their dryness being wetted again.
“But so did Mr. Darcy,” Kitty said.
“Yes, but Mr. Darcy saved Lydia, and came back and put things right between Jane and Mr. Bingley. Miss Bingley, I’m sure, has returned only to meddle,” Elizabeth accused.
“But when will she have a chance? What could she possibly do?” Kitty asked.
Elizabeth flopped back against the pillows, and then wrestled to her left side, trying to find a comfortable position in a bed so foreign to her body. “I cannot say, perhaps tomorrow. Mama and Jane are to spend the day at Netherfield and I am not to go.”
“Will you be sad not to see Mr. Darcy?” Mary asked.
“No, not at all,” Elizabeth said solemnly, then finally found the comic irony in the situation. Yes, it had been a pointed non-invitation for tomorrow from plans made in the carriage with her mother and Jane. But Elizabeth knew something they did not, that leaving her out of additional time with Miss Bingley was no punishment at all. “He won’t be there, he and Mr. Bingley are riding to Baxter’s Farm in the morning.”
With nothing more to impart, Elizabeth tried to think through how she would apologize to Jane and help her see reason. In the end, she couldn’t discern a way to show Miss Bingley’s ill-intent while Jane was so adamant on a reconciliation with the woman.
As Mary’s snores joined Kitty’s coughs, Elizabeth took a few deep breaths as her head began to pound with a most ferocious headache, the direct result of all of her crying. As every thought began to feel as though it pierced her skull, she resolved to apologize and then wait for Miss Bingley to reveal her true colors. Then she would be ready to help Jane as she always had when her sister thought too good of people at her own peril. Begging the pain to cease, she fell into a deep sleep without even the pleasant dreams of Mr. Darcy to comfort her.
Thank you for reading and for your comments below. 🙂 -EAW
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Chapter 1-4 Happy Was The Day
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
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
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
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
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
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.
I am ready to thump her parents and all the rest. Lizzy and Darcy should go to town and marry there. Let the rest try to take care of themselves since their help isn’t wanted or appreciated.
Dragonflyer13, I think the Bennet family is too busy looking at the present circumstances as opposed to seeing what the future might hold. Darcy and Elizabeth are correct that Caroline could use Charles’ head injury to say that he was coerced into the marriage, although he was in love with Jane before the accident. I do love the way that he told Mrs. Bennet about her meddlesome ways.
What will Caroline try to do to cause more trouble, and why is Jane being so obtuse?
Thank you DA for persevering and continuing to struggle as you write these chapters which we so graciously accept and read with eager anticipation.