It’s a fact, universally accepted,
that a gentleman and a lady,
when on the road to marriage and true
happiness, by their will or not, find themselves to be the center of attention
and news—both the good and the bad.

Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet are on the road to love and domestic tranquility. Yet of course, there must be something that bars the way of the happy couple, and that is Lady Catherine De Bourgh. Bitter at her nephew’s behavior to Anne, Lady Catherine is insistent on making Darcy remain loyal to the oath that he made. Wishing to make peace with her before he continues his nuptials, Darcy, along with the help of Mr. Bingley and Colonel Fitzwilliam, began to move forward with a plan to solve the dilemma.

However, even if they achieve peace with Lady Catherine, there is more of the Darcy family to encounter. In the state of Pennsylvania, Mr. Darcy’s American cousins are looking to reconnect with their English relatives. They invite Mr. Darcy and his new bride to Philadelphia, for a holiday. In hopes of gaining an ally to strengthen Elizabeth’s introduction into the family, they all journey to the United States, allowing Jane, Kitty, Mr. Bingley and Georgiana to journey with them. However, what first begins as a pleasant journey, leads to much emotional and political tension.

Follow the second part of ‘Pride, Prejudice, and New Adventures’, where we see that it’s not simply about obtaining a happily ever after, but finding what happens after it!

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Release Date: December 3, 2019
Genre: Historical | Regency

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Excerpt

Chapter One

Now and Forever

 

It’s a fact, universally accepted, that a gentleman and a lady, when on the road to marriage and true happiness, by their will or not, find themselves to be the center of attention and news—both the good and the bad.

When Mr. Darcy paid a visit to Longbourn in February, asking for a private audience with Mr. Bennet, all the women in the household were sitting in earnest, waiting for the interview to be concluded.

However, I did not worry over the outcome of the meeting, for I knew how it would be. I simply just wished for my father, Mr. Bennet, to for once conceal his sardonic wit and be grave and gentle enough in attitude when hearing Mr. Darcy ask for my hand in marriage.

When last I unfolded the story of the day that Mr. Darcy had announced our engagement, the details of every moment were inconsequential to list at the time. Yet, as I search through my memories, I realize that those were some of my fondest moments. For, in truth, my father had doubts towards my finding happiness with Mr. Darcy, and I had to learn to help him relinquish his hesitation to accept my fiancé as my emotional equal. As such, here is the true and complete account of my time, my seconds, and moments of waiting outside of my father’s study, for my fiancé to exit and tell me what my father had said.

However, the wait was not very long, and after Mr. Darcy had exited my father’s study, he gave me a knowing look.

“What does that expression mean?” I teased.

“Are you your father’s favorite child?” Darcy asked me.

“Possibly—I would reply in the affirmative, but I fear sounding too self-confident or smug.”

“Well, I believe it, and that explains everything.”

I cocked my head at him. “And what does it explain?”

“That I had to intimidate your father into giving me his consent for your hand in marriage.”

At that I chuckled. “Mr. Darcy, please don’t tell me you threatened my father with a pistol or blade of some kind, for I don’t think I could look at you the same afterwards.”

“Nothing so drastic, Lizzy, but I did give him my stare of doom.”

“Ah, Mr. Darcy’s infamous stare of doom and destruction. I would swear, if magic did exist in this world, when angry, you would have the ability to shoot fire from your eyes.”

“Oh, that would settle all my land disputes in Kent quicker.”

“Elizabeth!” my father called from his study. “Could you please come in here and close the door behind you?”

Mr. Darcy looked over my shoulder and saw my mother and three sisters Jane, Kitty and Mary looking at him from the sitting room—not to mention all the maids’ eyes who were watching him from the crack of the doorways.

“I’m going to wait outside while you prove to your father that I am the best of men to marry.”

“And what is so frightening about the sitting room, sir?”

“I’m outnumbered by four to one. A man can take a bullet, or a tragedy to befall him, yet one thing that a man cannot stand easily, is his future wife’s mother.”

“I heard that, Mr. Darcy!” my mother called from the sitting room, and it was quite comical to see Mr. Darcy, so great and strong a man, who had the sternest scowl that could be seen on any human, quake in his boots under the words of an older woman.

I grabbed Mr. Darcy’s hand affectionately, and then moved past him and entered my father’s study, where he remained sitting in his seat, looking as calm as always—yet I knew, despite his ease, that he was secretly unnerved.

I closed the door behind me, sat down before him, and awaited the confrontation of a man with his favorite child.

“I know that look, Father,” I said, “and you can tell me, what are you really thinking?”

He sighed. “Lizzy, I think you are out of your senses.”

* * *

“Am I?”

My father’s response then turned from one of complacency to one of grave anxiety, and I therefore felt sorry that I had put him through any sort of unease when I had always been the individual in the family who wished to be in harmony with him.

“Lizzy,” he continued. “What are you doing? To be accepting this man? Have not you always hated him?”

“You knew of my dislike of him before now?” I said, startled. “I thought that I had been discrete with my temporary feelings of resentment toward him. And I had agreed to dance with him at the ball at Aginfield, and we had dined at his home.”

“Yes, you did.” Our father nodded. “Yet I am not an unobservant book, but rather I only pretend to be aloof. It helps me see more in earnest. You of all people should know that it is my natural inclination to see more than people assume that I do.”

“The way that you saw it right for Lydia to go to Brighton?”

My father looked down at his hands and then turned and looked up at me.

“I have made mistakes, ’tis all too true, but those were ones made from carelessness, and that is not so with this case. When you came back to Steventon from Derbyshire, you were upset and spoke nothing of the name Darcy, and every now and again, there would be this look of resentment in your eye, one of anger—the same look of anger you had when Mr. Darcy slighted you at the assembly we had at the Red Lion when he refused to dance with you. Am I correct in assuming that?”

Then it was my turn to look down, feeling the embarrassment of being found out.

“Yes,” I whispered, “that is correct.”

“This means, that Mr. Darcy has hurt you in the past. This means that you hated him once, and you could always turn that way again.”

I touched his arm with affection. “I can assure you that my feelings for him are so steady, and so much are my affections tied to his very presence. What can I say to you to assure you of the constancy of my affections for him?”

“Or in other words, you are determined to have him. He is rich, to be sure, and you may have more fine clothes and fine carriages than Jane ever could’ve gotten. But will they make you happy?”

“Have you any other objection,” I replied, “than your belief of my making the wrong choice? Of my marrying with indifference and in consideration of only his station in life?”

“None at all. We all know him to be a proud, unpleasant sort of man; but this would be nothing if you really liked him.”

“Pride,” I replied. “That thing we see in so many others, and that I contained so often in myself. Yet Father, I have seen the good in him, and it far outweighs the bad. He has been wrong about things, erroneous to a fault, quite ill-behaved at times, but then who hasn’t? I certainly have myself.”

I paused a moment. “I do like him, exceedingly.” Tears filling my eyes. “I love him. Indeed, he has no improper pride. He is perfectly amiable, and if you knew the extent of his goodness, you would not berate his character so.”

“Lizzy, I have given him my consent. He is the kind of man, indeed, to whom I should never dare refuse anything, and in truth, he gave me this very very determined glare, as if he would try and melt me with his eyes if I decided to object.”

I stifled a chuckle.

“And I should give it to you now. But I worry for you. Elizabeth, you know that I know firsthand the grief that comes from marrying someone who you cannot esteem or respect, and are you certain that you esteem him, you admire him? For if you don’t, then I must suffer the tragedy of seeing you unable to respect the man you chose to spend the rest of your life with.”

“But I do,” I said, leaning forward. “And I always will, even when he makes mistakes, I will cling to him, and I already have so. Father, whether by heavens will or not, there is nothing that can take me from him.”

“Well then,” he said. “If this is the destiny you choose for yourself, then may fortune find you there. And I consent with all my heart.”

My father smiled. I rushed up to him and kissed him on the forehead, and as I left, he called out to me.

“If any young men come for Mary or Kitty, send them in, for I am quite at my leisure to say yes to them, even if they were made of pine cones and tree bark!”

* * *

I walked out of his study and looked at my sisters and our mother.

“Where did Mr. Darcy go?”

“Where do you think?” Kitty laughed.

“He’s walking by the rosebushes,” Jane said.

“And he clearly thinks that I am intimidating,” our mother said.

“You are intimidating, Mother.” I chuckled, and then I rushed out of the house to the rosebushes.

There, walking amongst the green and the red, I found Darcy pacing back and forth. At first, I just stood there, watching him, looking stoic, but secretly nervous, and I wondered at the man who chose to marry me. How had I been so fortunate? How had providence found me, for to think that I, Elizabeth Bennet of Hampshire could be plucked from the multitude and selected to be loved by a man of such greatness, containing much sincerity and generosity—and a willingness to look past what he thought was integrity and find truth within it. A man who would face the censure of the world, all for the desire of pursuing me.

Mr. Darcy’s greatness was not in his wealth, or his home, his imposing stature, or his regal appearance and graces. It was in his spark of life, his will to be the man he wanted to be rather than what the world restricted him—it was in his perseverance to be brave enough for many things, even the hardships of true love.

When he noticed me, he turned around and sighed out.

“Judging by that arched look on your face, I’d say that he has given you his consent as well.”

“Did you ever doubt that I would not fight for you?” I asked.

“Never—though the long interview you had with him made me most anxious.”

I rushed to him and he lifted me in his arms and twirled me around.

“So, we are free to fall in love now.”

Darcy smiled. “Now and forever. Isn’t it an amusing thing?”

“Very amusing.”

We kissed once more.

 

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