A Pride & Prejudice Variation

It’s Christmastime at Pemberley, and Lizzy is nervous to be hosting her first event. Her family is coming, and so is Lady de Bourgh. An unexpected and unwelcome guest also arrives. How can Wickham have the courage to show his face at Pemberley? Even worse, what is he doing to make poor Lydia so miserable? Lizzy and Fitzwilliam must unravel the details and deal with machinations that threaten their first Christmas together while helping to find Lydia a second chance to move past her marriage mistake and be happy.

St. Valentine’s Day approaches, along with a Netherfield ball. The Bennet sisters are astir at the attentions of a secret admirer leaving gifts at Longbourn. With ambiguous notes, they find it impossible to decipher the object of affection. Lizzy remains convinced Jane is the recipient, and she is positive the admirer is Mr. Bingley. When she hears rumors that Darcy is set to stymie the further development of Mr. Bingley’s affections, she is compelled to interfere with interesting results she did not foresee.

Lizzy and Jane are on a ship bound for America to stay with Mr. Collins’s younger brother when they meet Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy. Mr. Darcy’s disapproval of the burgeoning affection between Jane and Charles is painfully obvious, and Lizzy does her best to thwart his attempts to stop the developing relationship. She is puzzled by how invigorating it can be to trade barbs with Darcy, and he seems to enjoy it as well, but he is the last man she could ever soften toward due to his haughty manner and prideful ways.

While in Kent, Fitzwilliam finds the object of his affection in attendance at Hunsford. Interaction deepens his interest, and he’s prepared to throw aside caution and common sense to claim Elizabeth Bennet as his bride. On the cusp of proposing, they end up arguing, instead, when she learns about his meddling to keep Bingley safe from Jane. While fleeing him, Lizzy is injured, and he carries her to Rosings Park. It is the beginning of a new understanding between them.

When Aunt Gardiner treats Lizzy and Jane to a seaside holiday at Ramsgate, Lizzy becomes fast friends with the neighbor, Miss Georgiana Darcy. She clashes immediately with Fitzwilliam Darcy when he comes to visit, but that doesn’t stop her from trying to prevent Georgiana from eloping with Wickham when she learns of the secret romance. Forced to marry, he leaves her without a backward glance as soon as they walk out of the church. Thrown together again in Meryton, will they compromise, or will they allow pride and prejudices to keep them apart?

On the night of the Netherfield ball, Mr. Darcy seems like he will propose until a misunderstanding has him leaving the area and taking the Bingleys with him. That leaves Lizzy and Jane heartbroken, but since Lizzy’s burgeoning romance was a secret, she can’t show her pain. When news reaches them that the Bingleys are returning to Netherfield for Christmastide, Lizzy wonders if Darcy will return as well. If he does, can she forgive his abandonment, or is all hope of happiness with the man truly lost?

When Fitzwilliam finds Lizzy waiting in his carriage with a pistol aimed at him, they quickly discover they both have a mutual problem. Their sisters’ indiscretions are being used by someone to extort their families, so they decide to work together to learn who is blackmailing them. At first, they argue and have nothing in common, but he starts to see more to Lizzy than her fine eyes. Fitzwilliam is falling in love with her, but she resists his efforts because he objects to Jane’s seemingly shallow affections for Bingley.

A moment of madness causes Lizzy and Fitzwilliam to be compromised. They reluctantly wed, but he believes she conspired with her mother to force the union. Under those circumstances, they will never make a marriage work, so she agrees to his plan to pursue an annulment in three years. Lizzy is humiliated but determined to live her life as though Mr. Darcy isn’t part of it...and he isn’t.