Bluebells in the Mourning

Fitzwilliam Darcy, standing irritably at the edge of the Meryton assembly, declines to dance with Elizabeth Bennet. In a mood of revulsion, he rejects her without concern of being overheard. Country pretensions are always in need of squashing, and what better way to make clear he would not partner anyone outside his party? However, when he looks over at her, she does not appear humbled at all. She is secretly laughing at him! 

Elizabeth Bennet could scarcely credit the news when a letter sent to her father, from relations she did not know existed, informed them that untimely and unfortunate events would result in Mr. Bennet inheriting the dukedom of Everard. In the blink of an eye, the Bennets' lives are transformed - Elizabeth and her four sisters are wealthy, titled, and the talk of the ton.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the disastrous first meeting of Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet at the Meryton Assembly provided each with a ready-made set of prejudices to apply to the other. But when a horrific rural accident reveals Darcy to be a man of active, intelligent benevolence, and Elizabeth, in the absence of her appalling family, to be an extraordinary lady of courage and decision - then, surely, the course of true love will run smoothly. But alas, the lovers' meeting is not the end, but a new beginning. 

Elizabeth Bennet made her sister a promise on her deathbed: to love and care for her son, young Charles Bingley, like her very own child. And so she did, for four years, until the boy's guardian, Fitzwilliam Darcy showed up in Meryton, insisting on removing the boy from his aunt, his life, and everything he knew, to be raised at Pemberley. 

The Darcy family is the oldest in Derbyshire, and Pemberley has been their home for 12 generations. It has seen their loves, their losses, their triumphs, and heartbreaks. This sweeping saga of tragedy, devotion, and betrayal - spanning over 25 years and two generations - follows the Darcy family in all its shame and glory.

The simple truth is proven that sometimes a gentleman never knows his heart until a lady comes along to introduce it to him. When Mr. Darcy encounters Elizabeth Bennet injured after a fall, his concern for her welfare cracks the shell of his carefully guarded heart, and a charming man emerges. Elizabeth sees an appealing side of him she never believed possible from the stoic, proud master of Pemberley.

One distressing night in Ramsgate, Elizabeth Bennet impulsively offers Georgiana Darcy aid. Scandalous rumors soon surround the ladies and Fitzwilliam Darcy, forcing Elizabeth and Darcy, strangers to each other, to marry. Darcy despises everything about his marriage to the daughter of an insignificant country gentleman with vulgar relations. Georgiana, humiliated after a near-elopement with George Wickham and full of Darcy pride, hates her new sister. Their family look upon Elizabeth with suspicion and do little to hide their sentiments.

In the process of planning and performing the play, certain participants get more than a little carried away, especially Fitzwilliam Darcy where Elizabeth Bennet is concerned. There might even be a kiss…and a skirmish…leading to a duel. No one involved in the play had set out with the intention of creating a scandal. None preforming in the theatrical began with the aim of ending with blushing faces, or bruised bodies, or blemishes on their reputations. Blame it on The Mésalliance.

Elizabeth Bennet does not set out to manipulate people. It's merely the correct choice of words, accompanied by an engaging smile or a beseeching look that yields the most satisfactory results. The morning after the Netherfield ball, Lizzy dispenses with one unwelcome suitor to her hand so amicably and successfully that she sees no reason why she should not make use of her talent for tactful speeches and deal with other unwelcome suitors in the same deft manner.

“Mr Darcy, I am eager to hear your explanation for the fact that quite a few people believe we are engaged.” It starts with a bit of well-meant advice. Colonel Fitzwilliam suggests to his cousin Darcy that, before he proposes to Elizabeth Bennet in Kent, perhaps he ought to discuss his plans with their families first. What neither man could have predicted however was that Lord Matlock would write the news to his sister, or that Viscount Saye would overhear and tell his friends, or that his friends might slip a little and let their friends know as well.

When Fitzwilliam Darcy meets Miss Elizabeth Bennet, his heart is almost immediately engaged. Seeing the pretty lady before him, a lady of no consequence or fortune, he believes he should not form an attachment to her, unsuitable as such a woman is to be his wife. What he cannot see, however, is the truth. That the simple country girl harbors a secret. Before she meets Darcy, Elizabeth has spent two years hiding from the men who killed her beloved first husband.

Seventeen-year-old Elizabeth Bennet always hoped to marry for love. That is, until she surrenders to her mother’s demands and marries the handsome Duke of Leeds. Thrust into a society disinclined to accept the "country nobody" who entrapped one of their most sought-after bachelors, her marriage of convenience is nothing like she expected.

When Georgiana Darcy comes to Netherfield to visit her brother, she becomes friends with a neighbor, Elizabeth Bennet. After Miss Darcy has returned to London, she invites her new friend to stay with her at the Darcy home in town, unbeknownst to Mr. Darcy.

Reeling from the unexpected rejection of his proposal, Fitzwilliam Darcy prepares to quit Hunsford for London, but not before he defends himself against Elizabeth Bennet's accusations. He cannot forgive her harsh words; her assertion Mr. Wickham would have made a better son has cut him to the core. 

Elizabeth Bennet's happily-ever-after is shattered when calamity strikes on her wedding day. Unable to remember the man she promised to marry, Elizabeth soon comes to appreciate that Mr. Darcy is the best ally she could have when a series of disasters put her life in peril. If you can't get enough of Mr. Darcy and Miss Elizabeth, then you'll love this thrilling post-canon, sweet romance based on Jane Austen's timeless classic, Pride and Prejudice.