Author’s Note: Sisters squabble, and this video has a great update on what’s coming NEXT WEEK!!
– Elizabeth Ann West
NEW! Hear this chapter read by me from Youtube!
Chapter 3 - For the Love of a Bennet a Pride and Prejudice Variation
Elizabeth Bennet paused in the last of her packing, stuck on selecting between the two gowns laid upon her bed. One, a fresh lavender with hints of gray, would be very light and airy for the journey to Brighton. But she already packed a similar frock in her trunk. The other, a pale pink, was the color Lydia most often wore. Lydia liked to dictate to her sisters they wear other hues so as not to compete with her. Elizabeth could hear Lydia’s voice in her head from when she might pull out the pink gown to wear for some future dinner or stroll.
“La, I do not know why you bother, pink goes so much better with my complexion,” Lydia would say.
Elizabeth sighed and wished she had been blessed with dark eyes like her youngest sister. Instead, she and Jane were blessed with lighter eyes like their father, which was all very good for Jane as she also was blessed with lighter hair. Few colors didn’t look fetching on Jane or Lydia, but Elizabeth was stuck with choosing between pale blues, greens, and purples. Pinks and yellows made her look sallow.
“Lizzy! Aren’t you finished already?” Lydia burst into the room, with Kitty chasing her.
“Give it back! I said you couldn’t take it!” Kitty yelled, and the two girls ran around Elizabeth until she felt quite dizzy. Spying a hairbrush in Lydia’s hand, Elizabeth stuck out her foot and tripped her youngest sister to fall upon the bed, directly across the two gowns she had been choosing between.
Kitty pounced upon Lydia, who now moved her hands up and down, forward and back, struggling to keep the brush out of Kitty’s reach.
“It’s mine! You can’t take it!”
“You won’t need it!” Lydia huffed, as Elizabeth stepped into the fray and wrenched the brush out of Lydia’s hands.
“You are mistaken. Kitty will need her travel brush and combs. Where are yours?” Elizabeth asked Lydia who remained in a huff on the bed, while Kitty reached for the brush from Elizabeth. She gladly handed it over.
“She does NOT need it! She won’t be going anywhere!” Lydia cried, and Elizabeth watched Kitty grow frustrated at the same nastiness Lydia threw in Kitty’s face every other day since her invitation to Brighton as the guest of Mrs. Harriet Forster, the wife of the militia colonel.
Elizabeth placed an arm around the visibly upset Kitty and ushered her towards the writing desk. Carefully, she pulled out a letter she had received that day from her Aunt Gardiner in response to her letter over a week ago. It was addressed to Kitty and Mary.
Kitty’s eyes lit up as she looked at Elizabeth before opening the letter. Elizabeth nodded and began to explain.
“Since I am going to Brighton, there is a need for a Bennet girl to take a trip with our Aunt and Uncle Gardiner,” Elizabeth said as Lydia sulked. Realizing the fun would not be about her, Lydia stood up from the bed and snatched the pink gown that had been laying across the quilt. “It will be too short for you!” Elizabeth called out as Lydia left the room.
“I’ll have Betsy lower the hem!” Lydia said, and Elizabeth sighed. She had planned to give the pink frock to Lydia as it was only gently worn and she had decided on two lavender gowns being more than suitable so long as she did not wear them on consecutive days.
“She is terrible,” Kitty said and Elizabeth laughed.
“The absolute worst! And I have to travel days in a carriage with her!” Elizabeth laughed at her horrible fate and urged Kitty to open the letter.
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 3 - For the Love of a Bennet, a Pride and Prejudice Variation
Dearest Kitty and Mary,
I hope you will not take offense to this offer as we should have loved to invite all of you girls on our trip to the Lake District this summer. Sadly, we could not offer such invitations. We blame our focus on Jane and Elizabeth as the two eldest Bennet daughters to their precedence of age, not pleasantness of company. Therefore, we hope you will accept that we now invite both of you to accompany us as we plan to travel as far as Keswick. On the way, we plan to stop at the famous Tintern Abbey, in Monmouthshire, to behold the ruins of what was once such an impressive edifice to our Lord. I have sent a copy of Wordsworth’s Poems in Two Volumes so that you might acquaint yourself with the descriptive language of the area. Lizzy can lend you her travel guide for the area which was a Christmas gift from us.
We hope such a change in plans this summer is amenable and we shall visit Longbourn within the fortnight to collect you both. Your father and mother have already agreed and you will visit the shops in Meryton with your mother to add any items for your wardrobes. We expect to return in late August, perhaps early September, as your uncle cannot afford to be gone from his businesses longer than that. I am happy that the opportunity for Brighton arrived for two of your sisters, and our trip to the Lakes is open to you both. This summer, the Bennet sisters shall stretch nearly the length of the country in their travels, and I cannot claim the season should be anything else for you all each year.
Do plan on bringing your adventurous spirits and best walking boots as we shall hike and explore many heights. Perhaps Lizzy was the most acclimated for a trip such as this, but your uncle and I hold little doubt that the next two Bennet daughters won’t rise to the occasion.
With All of My Love,
Madeline Gardiner
“Your travel book? But you have treasured that book since you received it!” Kitty said, jubilantly and Elizabeth shrugged. She fetched a well-read gray-cloth-bound book from her bedside table where she had placed it after removing it from her trunk.
“Only because I thought I should travel north this summer, but it is yours,” she said as she pressed the book to Kitty’s chest, who happily accepted the tome.
“But what about Jane!”
Wistfully, Elizabeth looked at the bed she shared with their eldest sister. Between the two trips, only Jane would be left out.
“Someone must stay behind with Mama and Papa,” Elizabeth explained, taking care to not confess that Jane did not wish to travel any further this year after her disappointment with Mr. Bingley.
Kitty nodded at such a declaration. “True. And the four of us have been left behind many times. Well, often the three of us, you do travel most often with Jane,” Kitty said, as she described the Longbourn household for the last couple of years. Only Jane and Lizzy had been allowed to go off on an adventure together, never Kitty and Mary. And Lydia had almost skipped a trip with a sister altogether until Elizabeth insisted on going to Brighton as well. Kitty sighed and Elizabeth added another sprig of rosemary to her lavender gown before packing it away with the many others already in her trunk.
“Lizzy?” Kitty began, gathering her sister’s attention away from the last of her preparations for Brighton. Longbourn was to host one last dinner for the Philipses, Forsters, and senior militia officers. Then Lydia and Elizabeth would leave early in the morning with the Forsters when the militia decamped.
“Oh please do not fuss about not going to Brighton! The Lake District is equally diverting,” Elizabeth began to scold Kitty, but her sister shook her head.
“No, I am not ungrateful. Mary and I shall love traveling to the Lakes.” Kitty approached her sister until they were standing so close, that Elizabeth might have leaned forward and pecked Kitty on the nose. She also realized her younger sister would soon catch her in height in less than a year’s time it would seem.
Slightly uncomfortable in her closeness, Elizabeth took a step back. When she did, Kitty leaned forward and began to whisper.
“Keep an eye on Lydia. Watch her closely. I try and she never listens to me.”
Before Elizabeth could ask for clarity on such a cryptic statement, Kitty flounced from the room calling for Mary to share the good news. Their mother yelled for all of the girls from below, and Elizabeth blew out a breath as she was now late in finishing her packing. Tucking the gown, grabbing some books, and scavenging for her travel writing case under her bed, where the dust made her sneeze, she finished her trunk just as the footman arrived to take it to the carriage.
Taking one last gaze in the mirror before going down for dinner, she spied a grayish mark on her cheek from retrieving her writing case. She used the cold water in the basin to wipe it off and almost left with her white apron still tied over her gown. Laughing at her silliness, Elizabeth untied the back and lifted the neck ring over her head. She placed the apron in the pile of laundry for the maid and swished her pale blue gown for good measure against any dust from her packing.
Tonight would be her last in Meryton for months, and she did not wish to leave her hometown looking anything less than her best.
“Lizzy, are you coming? Aunt, Uncle, and the Forsters have just arrived!” Jane said as she had been sent to fetch her sister for the night’s society.
Elizabeth gave Jane a hug that knocked the breath out of her sister and squeezed as tightly as she could.
“I shall miss you,” she said, as Jane repeated the same.
“You cannot be nervous, it was you who insisted that you go to Brighton,” Jane said, as Lizzy grasped her hand for them to walk downstairs as a pair.
“Never nervous, just anxious all the same.”
You’ve been reading For the Love of a Bennet.
Now available everywhere ebooks are sold!
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.
+ 23 additional Pride & Prejudice variations are available at these fine retailers . . .
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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.