Lara S. Ormiston

When Elizabeth Bennet first knew Mr. Darcy, she despised him and was sure he felt the same. Angered by his pride and reserve, influenced by the lies of the charming Mr. Wickham, she never troubled herself to believe he was anything other than the worst of men—until, one day, he unexpectedly proposed. Mr. Darcy’s passionate avowal of love causes Elizabeth to reevaluate everything she thought she knew about him. What she knows is that he is rich, handsome, clever, and very much in love with her. She, on the other hand, is poor, and can expect a future of increasing poverty if she does not marry. The incentives for her to accept him are strong, but she is honest enough to tell him that she does not return his affections. He says he can accept that—but will either of them ever be truly happy in a relationship of unequal affection? Diverging from Jane Austen’s classic novel Pride and Prejudice at the proposal in the Hunsford parsonage, this story explores the kind of man Darcy is, even before his “proper humbling,” and how such a man, so full of pride, so much in love, might have behaved had Elizabeth chosen to accept his original proposal.

A Pride and Prejudice Retelling

Unequal Affections

Nina May

“But I don’t wish to control or subject you,” he protested, rather forcibly. “Do you think I would wish for a woman who was easily subjugated—or that I would ever voluntarily do anything to damage that spirit in you that so attracts me? Upon my word, Elizabeth, if I disliked my wife I would still attempt to treat her kindly, and I tell you again that I love you!”

For the first time she had ever known him to do so, he rolled his eyes. Elizabeth burst out laughing, and he soon followed with his quiet chuckle.

“Mr. Bennet! Mr. Bennet! Lizzy has got a rich husband! Such a rich husband! Dear Mr. Darcy! Mr. Bennet, your daughters are saved! You may die as soon as you please now!”

“I disagreed at times, it’s true, but I approved of your quickness and spirit wholeheartedly. If I had disapproved of you, I would have avoided speaking to you at all if I could help it.”

He had kissed her only twice before, very briefly. This time, having begun, he did not seem inclined to stop. He kissed her repeatedly: warm, gentle kisses that grew slowly more passionate.

If hes not coming to her, she might aa well do it.

Elizabeth leaned her warm cheek against the cool glass and laid her hand against it too, watching her fingertips flatten. It was time . . . everything in her hummed it, even as her heart skittered around uncertainly . . . it was time for her to go to him.

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