Goodly Creatures: A Pride and Prejudice Deviation (92 page)

I will always love you.

The news of her mother’s death reached Bethany just two days after her letter arrived, and one day before her birthday. She wondered whether her mother knew it had been time and wanted to make certain her precious bundle reached her.

The letters, speaking of the magnitude of their love, were indeed a comfort. The lists they wrote to each other caused Bethany to blush. Once the mortification that they had experienced lascivious feelings for each other subsided, she laughed. The heartfelt note Elizabeth had written as she gave Blake’s
Songs of Innocence and Experience
to her Will unleashed tears. Every word of her mother’s first letter, sent after his time in Hertfordshire, was painful to read. The fear of exposure and grief at being forced to leave her daughter ignited contemplation of the irony of Bethany’s life. The parent she had always known—was not. The one she had helped her father pursue—was. Winning her mother had not been easy—there had been no Prospero with a magical staff for them. Unlike Miranda and Ferdinand, their marriage had been their own doing. It had been accomplished because those two goodly creatures had overcome almost insurmountable obstacles and together claimed the prize of much deserved joy.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Beth Massey lives in Chicago with her husband of forty plus years.

Her first love as child in Chattanooga, Tennessee was the theatre. She spent her youth preparing for a creative life on the stage. A voracious reader, she devoured plays and novels with an eye toward imagining how she would play certain characters. Beth joined the Chattanooga Little Theatre’s youth troupe at age eight. She was awarded a work study scholarship to Monticello College in Godfrey, Illinois in the theatre department. While there, she played numerous roles—from Shaw to Shakespeare. After transferring to Barnard College in New York City as a junior in 1967, she switched her major to literature. But, ‘the times they were a changing.’ She threw herself into the struggle against war, racism and the emerging women’s liberation movement that had broken out all over the United States. One of her first acts of expressing her convictions was to participate in the Columbia University student strike in the spring of 1968.

It was during this time, she met her husband Bill. Together the two—first as friends and then as partners—have devoted their lives to political activism. Beth spent her working hours as a payroll manager. In 2008, her job of seventeen years was outsourced. Given a compensation package that allowed her to stay home with an already retired Bill, she embraced the opportunity that working ‘9 to 5’ had made a challenge for most of the years of their marriage. Though Bill’s ability to be active has been curtailed by AMD, COPD and a debilitating essential tremor, his wit and knowledge are as sharp as ever. Ms Massey now spends her days in the company of her well-informed best friend and the two are free to engage in a great deal of conversation. Jane Austen would approve.

Beth may have left a life in the theatre behind, but the desire for a creative outlet and a need to sketch the human character is still fervent.
Goodly Creatures
is the first endeavor of her new found leisure time.