A Spring Sentiment: A Pride and Prejudice Novella Variation (Seasons of Serendipity Book 2)

A Spring

Sentiment

The Second Season of Serendipity

Elizabeth Ann

W E S T

© 2014, Elizabeth Ann West. All rights reserved.

To contact the publisher, please write to

41 Silas Deane Road

Ledyard, CT 06339or email

[email protected]

ISBN-13: 978-1501077630

ISBN-10: 1501077635

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.

Aesop

Acknowledgments

This series would not be possible without the love and kind support of the Jane Austen Fan Fiction community. I am a proud author member of BeyondAusten.com and Forum.Darcyandlizzy.com. The readers and other authors at both communities make writing in this genre such a joy.

I also want to say a huge thank you to both April Floyd and Betty Madden. These two women help me push my prose to very best it can be, and both are fantastic to work with. I feel so blessed to have both of them on my team.

The readers at TheCheapEbook.com are also wonderful friends of my writing and without them, my launches would fall flat on their faces! The “Piggies” are savvy readers with hearts of gold.

Finally, to my husband who supports me 110%, my super stepson who tells anyone and everyone his mother is an author, and to my five-year-old daughter who insists I do not
write
stories, I
type
them, thank you. Mommy couldn’t do this without you. Don’t worry Catie, Mommy will write enough stories to take you to see the princesses.

Always Smiling,

Elizabeth Ann West

ALSO BY ELIZABETH ANN WEST

AUSTEN INSPIRED

The Trouble With Horse
s

Darcy falls off a horse, Elizabeth saves him and the whole town is talking about it! A sweet historical romance novella.

A Winter Wrong

First book in the Seasons of Serendipity novella series. When Mr. Bennet dies of an epidemic, Elizabeth Bennet learns that the kindness of a stranger can be quite dashing! A sweet, historical romance novella.

OTHER TITLES

Cancelled

Original novel, a modern romance told mostly from the male point-of-view. A robotics engineer becomes engaged to his perfect match when a previous one-night stand shows up to return his shirt. Pregnant. And it’s his.

To Jocelyn, get better my dear friend.

Chapter One

Lydia Bennet moaned on the couch with her arm over her forehead for dramatic effect. Her sister, Kitty Bennet, continued to scribble at the desk by the window in their Aunt Phillips' home, ignoring her younger sister completely. Since losing their father the previous winter, the Bennet family had lost Longbourn and were most uncomfortably scattered across the homes of two relations.

Peeking out from under her forearm, Lydia saw that Kitty hadn't moved so she sighed again and sat up. A bag of chocolates with a pretty bow sat on the table in front of her, one of the many gifts her elder sister Elizabeth enjoyed from her wealthy fiance, Mr. Darcy. Gleefully, Lydia untied the bow and helped herself to the bag.

"Lizzie will be very cross with you."

"Oh, tosh. Mr. Darcy will surely buy her all the chocolates she wants. Besides, I was the first to get engaged, and now no one is excited at all about MY wedding."

Slapping her pen down with force, Kitty finally turned around. "That's because your fiance abandoned his post and ran up debts. He probably isn't coming back you know."

"Yes, he is!" Lydia popped a chocolate into her mouth in defiance.

"No, he's not. Face it, you're damaged goods."

The chocolate in Lydia's mouth tasted odd, and she quickly spat it out. "Ugh, these chocolates are ruined."

Kitty frowned and rose from her chair to walk over and quickly clean up the half-chewed chocolate from the floor with her handkerchief. Carefully tucking the edges around it, she also retied the bow on the chocolates as best she could.

"You know, you really should—"

The door opened and the happy couple, plus the oldest Bennet sister Jane, entered from the cold. Brushing light snow from her beloved's shoulder, Elizabeth was all smiles until she glanced into the parlor.

"Kitty! Those are my chocolates!" Elizabeth marched forward to take them, but Kitty simply handed them to her and returned to the desk. Lydia made a face at Kitty and flounced back onto the couch. Blowing out a breath to warm her hands, Kitty picked up her pen and continued to write, eviscerating her youngest sister in fiction. Kitty had found solace and relief in writing since the unexpected passing of their father.

Jane gently patted Lydia's legs to make the young girl sit up again as she had resumed lying on the couch out of cheek.

"No, Miss Bennet, 'tis unnecessary. I am afraid I must go." Mr. Darcy announced. Elizabeth pouted until Darcy gave her one of his grim smiles. "Mr. Bingley is set to arrive this evening and I would like to be at Netherfield to receive him."

"La, how droll that you are master of Netherfield more than Mr. Bingley when he holds the lease."

"Lydia!" Jane and Elizabeth admonished at once. Cries from Mrs. Bennet came from upstairs, and within seconds, the widow Bennet was thundering down the steps in full mourning attire.

"Oh, Mr. Darcy, how delighted we are with your company! Did I hear correctly? You have brought Mr. Bingley back for my dear Jane?"

Mr. Darcy cleared his throat and looked away. It always took him a moment or two to disguise his visceral reactions to Mrs. Bennet before he could respond.

"Mama, Mr. Darcy did not need to bring Mr. Bingley back as his plans were to always return to Hertfordshire. He had business to attend in London and merely could not travel with us," Elizabeth explained and rolled her eyes. Two weeks returned from her uncle's house in Cheapside and already her own mother tried her nerves. Taking pity on her dear Darcy, Elizabeth offered to show him out.

Outside, the light snow flurries continued to fall. A soft crunching sound echoed as they walked towards the stables so that Mr. Darcy could fetch his horse, Poseidon. Once the groom was out of sight, Mr. Darcy bent down and quickly kissed the tip of Elizabeth's nose. Instantly burning with a blush, Elizabeth turned away.

"Mr. Darcy!"

"William," he answered, in a soft voice.

Elizabeth took a breath and turned back around. "William," she repeated.

"I would, that is, I would like it if we could use our Christian names when we are in private, Elizabeth."

The way he said her name made her tingle all the way down to her toes, though it wasn't the first time she had heard it. Before she could respond, the groom was walking the horse towards them.

"Why did you. . ." she started and then stopped, realizing she could not voice her question within the range of the groom's hearing.

Mr. Darcy took the reins from the young man and mounted. He looked down at Elizabeth and gave her one his rare smiles. "You had a snowflake on your nose."

As the horse galloped away, Elizabeth wrapped her shawl tighter around her shoulders and watched until William disappeared into the gray horizon. She silently prayed that no harm would come to Mr. Darcy while riding home in the snow, and as she heard more shrill voices from inside break the chilly peace around her, she added a quick request for deliverance from her family if the Lord would be so benevolent.

Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley called the following day, and the two gentlemen agreed to a walk into Meryton with the two oldest Bennet sisters. Talk still had not died down about Mr. Wickham's apparent desertion from the militia, nor his abandoning Lydia, but Mr. Darcy had at least taken care of the outstanding debts. As the couples walked, they ran into another new couple of Meryton, Mr. and Mrs. Collins.

For a moment, the three couples said nothing until Charlotte Collins broke the ice. "What a lovely gown, Lizzie! Green is a most becoming color on you. I've been meaning to call since I heard you were in town."

Elizabeth smiled. "I would like that very much! So much has changed . . ."

"Indeed," Charlotte responded.

When another icy silence descended, the ladies curtsied, but the men did not bow. Before long, Charlotte and Mr. Collins were gone, and everyone could breathe more easily.

Just as they reached the end of town, which was a much shorter walk from Elizabeth’s Aunt Philips' home than her childhood home that was now owned by Mr. Collins, Mr. Darcy spoke in a low tone so that only Elizabeth could hear him. "I would prefer to be present when Mrs. Collins comes to call."

"Charlotte? Oh, she's been a dear friend for ages. I hardly think Mr. Collins will call as well."

"Be that as it may, I will attend you the next few days during the appropriate hours so that I may be party."

Elizabeth set her mouth and pursed her lips. Carefully weighing a number of responses, she devised a plan and very politely smiled at her William. "As you wish, Mr. Darcy. Now, I believe we have arrived?"

The two couples were at the office of her Uncle Phillips to discuss a very serious matter: the future living accommodations for Mrs. Bennet and the remaining Bennet daughters.

"Gentlemen, gentlemen, come in!" Andrew Phillips greeted the two suitors most enthusiastically. Being the only solicitor in town, he was a jack of all trades; from real estate holdings to wills, Mr. Phillips handled it all.

Elizabeth and Jane mostly listened as the three properties were discussed in great detail. The Smith House ruled out as a recent fire would require costly reparations, there were only two acceptable domiciles left in the area to lease. It was to be either the old Winslow Manor, located on the far side of the woods next to Longbourn, or Fenley Cottage, a smaller home with charming windows, closer to town. The clear favorite was the cottage with a cost savings of nearly two hundred pounds per annum.

"I'm not certain Mama will enjoy thinking of her home with the savings in mind," Jane sweetly advised.

Mr. Bingley leaned back in his chair while her uncle leaned forward to pat her hand.

"Fanny hates any mention of budgeting, but it is what must be done. She cannot continue to live in the lifestyle she was accustomed to before your esteemed father passed."

Jane frowned and looked at Elizabeth, who pretended to inspect an errant thread on her dress skirt. Neither sister was ignorant of her mother's ways, and the following day's viewing of both properties was going to be quite the trial. It was decided that the Bingley and Darcy carriages would be used to take the whole family for the outing.

Once they returned to the Phillips' home, the gentlemen had to plead their absence at the request they remain for dinner. Elizabeth was relieved as the table was already quite cramped with five Bennets squeezing in with two Phillipses.

"I will instruct Caroline to plan a dinner very soon. She is much fatigued from yesterday's travel, but yes, I suspect before the week is out we shall all dine together at Netherfield." Mr. Bingley offered, to the great delight of Mrs. Bennet.

While everyone remained distracted by the joyous raptures of her mother and the attention of Mr. Bingley, Elizabeth spoke to Mr. Darcy in a very low voice, much as he had employed earlier in Meryton.

"What is she doing here?"

Mr. Darcy did not look at Elizabeth, so none might know they were talking, and instead pretended to mind the other conversation going on between Mr. Bingley and the Bennets. "I had no say in the matter; apparently Bingley failed to dissuade her insistence on visiting Netherfield."

Elizabeth was livid as a green, slithery monster by the name of jealousy writhed within her heart. She was suddenly very keen that Mr. Darcy spend every afternoon with her, despite his high-handed ways, though that didn't mean she was going to abandon her plans to teach him a lesson when Charlotte came calling.

"I shall send a note to Charlotte to visit next Monday. Would that be convenient for you?"

Mr. Darcy merely nodded. He and Charles were finally able to extricate themselves from the house with Mrs. Bennet seeing them to the door. There was no call for Elizabeth to see Mr. Darcy out, though memories of yesterday's farewell brought an involuntary blush to her cheeks. Her face rosy with love, she locked eyes with Mr. Darcy as he donned his hat and quickly ducked out of the house.

Elizabeth hurried to the window to watch as he rode away. Once her vigilance was satisfied, she picked up her sewing basket and resumed stitching the initials E.D. and F.D. intertwined on a set of handkerchiefs she planned to give to Mr. Darcy in honor of their marriage. She didn't realize she was humming until Lydia made such a racket to demand that she stop.