Longbourn to London

Also by LINDA BEUTLER

THE RED CHRYSANTHEMUM
2013 Silver Medal, Independent Publishers Awards

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

LONGBOURN TO LONDON

Copyright © 2014 by Linda Beutler

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any format whatsoever. For information: P.O. Box 34, Oysterville WA 98641

ISBN: 978-1-936009-36-7

Cover design by Zorylee Diaz-Lupitou
Layout by Ellen Pickels

Introduction

Longbourn to London
was my first attempt at writing Jane Austen fan fiction (JAFF). If you read this perfected version carefully, you will recognize the exact moment Lizzy asks Darcy a question I would love to ask Jane Austen—should I ever have the chance—and thus was born
The Red Chrysanthemum
(Meryton Press, 2013). At the moment both stories were finished, I realized the second story might be more publishable than the first, so it was the one sent to Meryton Press, and thus was my debut.

Wise people that they are, the folks at Meryton Press suggested I join the Meryton Literary Society, and post anything I had lying around at A Happy Assembly, a forum for JAFF writers and readers. Imagine my surprise to find a whole world of people like me! Until that point, I had been reading printed novels, and I was unaware of this vibrant online universe with hundreds of new stories by great authors, many as yet unpublished. I began posting
Longbourn to London
there, after determining that it was sufficiently unique to be worthy of such an astute audience.

Why did I think
Longbourn to London
was “sufficiently unique”? After reading even more JAFF, I became aware that there are “what-ifs” in abundance—the
variations,
if you will—taken from the
Pride and Prejudice
original plot. There are ample sequels, too, which take Lizzy and Darcy all over the world, set them many trials, and usually require some sort of physical mayhem be visited upon one or the other of them, if not both. But when I was first thinking of even attempting to summon hubris enough to put pen to paper, I wanted to do something few others had tried.

With that motivation in mind, I turned to Jane Austen’s masterpiece, looking for gaps. There are some; the biggest and most often commented upon is the dearth of detail about Lizzy and Darcy’s official engagement. We know only that Mrs. Phillips made a vulgar pest of herself, letters to family were written, Caroline Bingley strove mightily to stay in everyone’s good graces, and Lizzy required Darcy to provide a thorough reckoning of how he came to love her. Jane gave us no first kiss, no flights of hysteria by Mrs. Bennet as she planned a double wedding, no pre-wedding night jitters for Jane, and none of Lizzy’s undoubtedly active curiosity about what would befall her as the wife of Fitzwilliam Darcy.

Since there would be no harrowing Hunsford, no catfight with Lady Catherine, and no wickedness from Wickham, it seemed at first that nothing would happen. But thanks to the beautiful screenplay by Andrew Davies for the 1995 BBC adaptation, and the portrayals of Lizzy and Darcy by Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth, my couple had faces and voices, expressions and mannerisms, making it only necessary for me to provide their thoughts. Somehow, a rudimentary plot laid itself before me.

Then a bigger picture developed as I wrote. In this story, both Lizzy and Darcy are quite stunned by their individual felicity being wholly based on making the other happy. Darcy has some rudimentary idealized notion of this, but the reality of Elizabeth Bennet has him overawed. For Lizzy, the astounding thing is Darcy’s playfulness. That he is amused by her from the very beginning is a given, but in canon Lizzy thinks he needs to learn to be teased. I believe the contrary is true. Darcy has watched her affectionate teasing of those she loves, and he longs to be teased by her; it is a sign of her fondness and acceptance. And he has the temerity to tease
her
! From the beginning of
Pride and Prejudice
, although we don’t know it fully until the end, he is a more accurate observer of her than she of him.

This story does dwell on the development of their physical relationship: how they approach the wedding night and all it symbolizes for their future. Darcy’s willingness to calm her worries with wry asides and silly observations is a revelation to Lizzy. She expects “marital relations” to be weighty and serious encounters. He clearly wants something much different and altogether more to her liking: he wants them to be equals in the marriage bed as well as in their day-to-day life as master and mistress of Pemberley.

— Linda Beutler, June 2014

Acknowledgments

It has been my great privilege to work again with editor Gail Warner, and I hope she will always be so willing to go to bat for my stories, without hesitating to turn said bat on me when necessary. She is simply the best and makes me better. I thank everyone at Meryton Press for their support, efficiency, and unfailing
joie de vive
.

And I thank my best friend, Jacqueline Martin Mitzel, who has spent more happy-hours listening to my daft ponderings than anyone should ever be subjected to.

That the unvarnished version of
Longbourn to London
was embraced by the sometimes difficult-to-please audience at A Happy Assembly was so heartening that I started frequenting the chat room. It is populated by a worldwide array of JAFF writers and readers who encouraged me to publish my first story second. It is to them, the Chat-Chits and our one Chat-Chap, that I dedicate this improved version of
Longbourn to London
. It is an honor to know you, write for you, meet you, and share your lives.

Prologue

“Love me!...Why?”
William Shakespeare
Much Ado about Nothing

It may be generally assumed, with few examples to the contrary, that a betrothed maiden faces the coming of her wedding night with some sense of disquiet, if not a complete and thoroughgoing fear. Even young ladies of some wit and good sense may become rather addled at the notion of engaging in the ultimate intimate act with a relative stranger of the opposite sex, no matter how beloved— an act with which they have little, if any, prior knowledge, and completely alien to all previous experience. It is an act able to reveal much about a gentleman’s character, which might otherwise remain unknown.

In the case of Miss Elizabeth Bennet, and even more so for her elder sister, Miss Jane Bennet, the details of their wedding plans did little to distract from the event that would follow much later that same day. The sisters, dear confidantes from infancy, were to be married in a double ceremony to men who were the best of friends. These men were completely unlike in temperament and physical attributes, although both were tall.

Jane Bennet, fair and blue-eyed, perpetually sweet-natured and believing the best in everyone, was to marry Charles Bingley, a neighbour recently arrived with the lease of an estate, Netherfield Park, which shared a corner boundary with Longbourn, the smaller Bennet estate. Jane and Bingley met at an assembly in the nearby market town of Meryton. It was to themselves and most observers love at first sight, or nearly so. For this well-matched couple, the road to betrothal was not as swiftly travelled as their feelings would have led one to expect, but they had been engaged a fortnight when this story begins.

For Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy, who first set eyes on each other at the same assembly, the path to betrothal was a good deal more fraught. A heedless remark made by a petulant Darcy, and unluckily overheard by the acute Elizabeth—known within her family circle to have hearing like a fox—led to a subsequent misreading of his character. Over time, Darcy’s caustic remark bred contempt. But as has been known to happen, it is not so very difficult for passionate hate to develop, in the right circumstances, into a deep and ardent love. So it was with Elizabeth’s fond regard for Darcy.

Darcy fought his attraction to Elizabeth from their first meeting, although she fascinated him with her luscious dark hair, ready smile, intelligence, and lively manners. She did not fear him or defer to him. Whenever provided the opportunity, she laughed at him. On their third meeting, she refused to dance with him. Generally, she disagreed with any point he made in conversation, if only for the excuse to argue. Elizabeth did not examine the cause of this provocation and, had she done so, would have been most dissatisfied to discover a spark of attraction to his handsome features and elegant physique. Nor would she have understood it.

For both, the dark warm eyes of the other were arresting. In Darcy’s case, by the time he acknowledged, towards the end of a party at Lucas Lodge, an appreciation for Elizabeth’s fine eyes, his heart was quite beyond redemption.

A first proposal from Darcy to Elizabeth the previous April was nothing short of a catastrophe. It had not occurred to the conceited and arrogant Darcy that Elizabeth might view him with disdain. Darcy was vain of his position and worth, and expected the gently bred, though poorly connected, Elizabeth to appreciate the condescension exhibited by allowing his passionate regard for her to overcome his scruples.