Pride's Remedy

by Erin Butler

  Elizabeth pushed Jane toward the hand, and the driver slowly helped her from the carriage. He did the same with Elizabeth.

  She brushed out her skirts and turned when she heard horse hooves galloping their way. It was too soon for anyone at Netherfield to be alerted to their misfortune, but sure enough, it was Mr. Darcy upon the horse.

  He slid off and tied the reins around a roadside tree.

  “Mr. Darcy,” Elizabeth cried. “What are you doing? I told you not to ride just yet.”

  Darcy, out of breath, said, “I came across the servant who said there was a problem with the carriage.”

  “That does not signify why you were on your horse in the first place. Let me examine your leg.”

  Jane, with enough sense to act uncomfortable, walked away from the pair, though she watched them closely.

  “There is no need, Miss Bennet. I came almost as soon as I lost sight of the carriage.” He looked around and lowered his voice. “I lost myself as soon as you were away. I know I behaved poorly and have said things I should not, but Miss Bennet, these days at Netherfield have proved to me that love is everything. It is a remedy for pride, prejudice, indeed any imprudent behavior. I have held you in high estimation ever since our encounter at the assembly rooms, but since getting to know you better, I have admired you more. Each passing day I found something to credit you with. Please, I must hear how you feel.”

  Shock jolted Elizabeth out of her earnest listening. She had no idea she had that much effect on Mr. Darcy. There was just one thing to be debated before she spilled her heart out to him. “You say, Sir, that love remedies everything. Does it remedy… and please, I do not jest, answer in earnest… does love remedy some of the untoward behavior of my relations?”

  Without blinking, Mr. Darcy said, “Yes, Elizabeth. I should never have expressed my worries. I only did because you—”

  “I am happy to be open with you, Mr. Darcy. For what else can love do, but open our minds, our hearts, our mouths. If I did not wish you to know my thoughts, I would not have said them. And right now, I wish you to know this. I do love you. The thought of leaving Netherfield and without knowing when I should see you again, pained me.”

  Mr. Darcy closed his eyes and sighed. “Will you marry me, Elizabeth?”

  “Of course, I will.”

  After smiling at each other for quite some time, they heard Mr. Bingley’s horse gallop toward them. Elizabeth moved closer to Jane as the gentlemen talked of the carriage. Elizabeth laughed when she heard Bingley’s surprise at Darcy not knowing what was wrong with the carriage. Truthfully, he had not even looked at it.

  Jane smiled at her sister. “I believe you have something to tell me, Lizzy.”

  Elizabeth smiled openly.

  Unable to resist teasing her sister as she always did to her, Jane said, “You have not been so truthful with me, have you? Perhaps this was your scheme after all in wishing to leave Netherfield. You knew Mr. Darcy would go crazy without you, therefore, you decided to hurry his declaration.”

  Elizabeth’s mouth dropped. “I did no such thing.”

  The two Bennet sisters laughed together until Mr. Bingley made his way over to ask if Jane was hurt. On the side of the Meryton road, the two sisters looked at their futures. For one couple, it was already sorted, but Elizabeth was sure that Jane and Mr. Bingley were not too far behind them.

  Mr. Darcy squeezed Elizabeth’s hand, and what passed between them was a promise of an amiable future filled with lively discussions and passionate piano playing.

  The End

  Author Notes

  Thank you so much for reading Pride’s Remedy. If you haven’t already guessed, I’m a huge Jane Austen fan. This book was borne out of my love for her novels. I like imagining the “What if?” scenarios, putting our hero and heroine in difficult situations to see how they would find themselves back together again. If you enjoyed the book, please leave a review on Amazon. If you want to be alerted about more news from me, please join my mailing list. You can also be the first to know when I put out a new book! http://eepurl.com/bylfx9

  I also have another Jane Austen variation out titled, Fates Entwined.

  In this What if Pride & Prejudice variation, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth have not seen each other since she refused his proposal in Kent.

  With Mr. Bennet dead, the Bennet daughters have had to make do on their own. Elizabeth is employed by Mr. and Mrs. Waters in London as their governess, while Jane and Mrs. Bennet live with the Gardiner's. Becoming used to her new world, Elizabeth is happy to forget all about her previous station until Mr. Darcy is thrust upon her again. As it turns out, Mrs. Waters is none other than Mr. Darcy's sister.

  Mr. Darcy is shocked to see that Elizabeth Bennet has been reduced to her present state. His visit to London is filled with awkwardness until Georgiana is taken ill. Once he sees Miss Bennet rise to the occasion, he surely cannot forget the woman she once was.

  Fate has secured Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet together, they need only find a different path there.

  This Pride and Prejudice retelling is a sweet romance and can be read by all ages.

  Another Jane Austen related title I have available is Jane Austen is my BFF.

  Sixteen-year-old Liza Johnson takes fangirl to a whole new level of crazy when she decides to take dating advice from her literary hero: Jane Austen.

  With the help of her best friends, Liza sheds her ancient-speak and complete Austen wardrobe for something a bit more modern in an attempt at finding her very own Mr. Darcy.

  Enter Will, the new kid and Liza's Darcy incarnate. Add her BFF's ex to mix and the sexy Brit who kisses with an accent, and Liza is in trouble.

  So, what's a girl to do? Without her mom to go to relationship advice, Liza turns to the only person she can truly trust with matters of the heart via her mother's copy of THE COMPLETED WORKS OF JANE AUSTEN.

  It's too bad Austen's heroines have never played Spin the Bottle or Seven Minutes in Heaven. Liza's determined to find her true Austen-esque happy ending, but if she can't trust herself instead of books, she just might end up in her own tragic love story.

  PLEASE READ ON FOR AN EXCERPT!

  Janie burst through my bedroom door and stared me down, hands landing on her hips. “You’re delusional if you think you’re wearing that.”

  I looked down at the outfit I wore to school. “Looks fine to me.”

  “Ugh, Liza! Why can’t I have a normal best friend?”

  “Normal? You have pink in your hair!”

  “Whatever.”

  Janie walked in and I got up to shut the door. I was pretty sure Dad sat downstairs watching the Jays, his triple A baseball team, but still. He didn’t need to overhear our girl conversations.

  Janie toted a backpack along with her, which slightly frightened me. “Is that your word of the day or something?”

  “What?”

  “Whatever. You’ve said it to me like five hundred times today.”

  She rolled her eyes. “What-ever.” We busted up laughing. “Come on.” She tugged on my arm. “It’s makeover time.”

  “Oh no. I was afraid of that.”

  Janie meandered toward the bed. “What are you reading?”

  I reached out for the magazine, but Janie snatched it from me. “About Cole Foster.”

  “Cole Foster?” She frowned at the glossy pages.

  “If they ever remake Pride and Prejudice, he’d be the perfect Mr. Darcy.”

  “Cole Foster? Isn’t he from that stupid soap on channel five?”

  I yanked the magazine from her hands. “Yes. He’s gorgeous. Very agreeable if you ask me.”

  “Whatever.” She plopped down on my flowery quilt, and winked at me. “And who would play Lizzie?”

  “Duh, that’s easy. Me.”

  Janie shoved my shoulder. “You are delusional. If you are going to get Cole Foster, or Mr. Darcy, or any boy to even look at you, you need a makeover. A clothes makeover.” She stood up and went straigh
t to my closet. “Where’s that purple top I got you for your birthday?”

  “What purple top?” I mumbled.

  Janie spun around with her hands on her hips. “You know, the one that doesn’t have anything JA on it.” She circled her finger around her chest as if I was a child that needed a demonstration.

  “The only purple top I have is the Jane Austen is my Homegirl t-shirt.”

  “BS.” Janie turned around and fanned through my clothes. “I gave you that shirt for nights exactly like this. Now where is it?” The hangers raked against the bar as she searched my closet.

  I pointed to the very end. “All the way to the right.”

  “Thank you,” Janie said. Her smile grew as she pushed aside all my precious t-shirts. “This is going to look so good on you.”

  “I don’t see why I can’t wear this.” I looked down. WWJD What Would Jane Do? “It’s new.” And it was awesome.

  “I know. But come on Liza. Let’s dress up. I want us to look good for Will.”

  “Why?”

  “Because he’s somebody new!” She spun around, the purple top in her hands flailed out. “He doesn’t know us like everyone else. He doesn’t have us tagged yet. We’re not weird Janie or Jane Austen-obsessed-Eliza yet. We’re just us.” Janie threw herself down on the bed, arms spread wide open. “We can be whoever we want to be.”

  “I am who I want to be Janie.”

  She sat up and faced me. “Listen…” Janie always said listen when she wanted to talk serious. “You want someone to like you for who you are, but they can’t get past your shirts or your crazy nineteenth century speeches. Sometimes I think you do it on purpose.”

  “Um, ouch.”

  “Cole Foster would walk right by you. Mr. Darcy would walk right by you.”

  “Not if he’s my Mr. Darcy. In the book---”

  “This isn’t a book, Liza. This is real life. In real life, Darcy wouldn’t look at you.” She propped herself up on her elbows. “That is, even if there are Darcy’s out there at all.”

  “There are.”

  “Sure. Then why am I still single?” She took the magazine from my hands again and stared at Cole in a bathing suit on some white sandy beach.

  “It’s early yet.”

  “Early? Really? What about Lydia? And Marianne? And Catherine?”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Lydia? Please.”

  “Okay. That was a bad example, but the other two weren’t.”

  “Agreed.”

  “Then go put on a pair of jeans and this purple top.” She grabbed the shirt off the bed and tossed it at me, then she lay back down on the bed with her feet crossed behind her and read the article about Cole. Inside, Janie kept her romantic conforming side all locked up with the key hidden in her ripped jeans.

  ***

  Janie

  Holy freakin’ cow.

  I couldn’t help it. When Liza came out of the bathroom, I almost flippin’ gasped. I hadn’t seen her in a regular shirt since like, middle school. “Holy crap.”

  “That bad, huh?”

  I stood up and smacked her hands away that kept pulling at the hem. “Leave it alone. Just let it hang.” I pulled her in front of the dresser mirror and forced her to look at herself. “You look hott. Two T’s worthy hot.”

  “You’re crazy.” Liza reached to pull the shirt away from her boobs, but the material retreated, stretching over them again.

  “Hey, if you got it, flaunt it.”

  “I don’t have it. This shirt just makes me look like I do.” Her cheeks flushed red and her eyes focused on a picture stuck in the wood frame of the mirror. Her and Allison at the zoo. The year our mom’s let us skip out on school for the day.

  Liza’s room always made me a little uncomfortable. She hadn’t changed it since we were eight years old except to add more pictures of her mother. And that damn book was always lying around like a shrine. Can you say depressing? No wonder she was stuck in the eighteenth century.

  I grabbed her hand. “Come on. Let’s go show your dad.”

  “Why? Can’t I throw a sweater over it and take it off when we get there?” She held the fabric away from her chest again and watched it as it fell in the exact same place. Her lips turned down.

  “No. Don’t be stupid, Liza. One, it’s not even that tight. Two, it’s not like you’re going to be shunned from society for showing some boobage.” I tugged on her hand. “Race you downstairs.”

  I took off and Liza was hot on my heels, pushing, laughing, shrieking like we were little girls again. We sounded like a herd of hyenas coming down the stairs. Kind of like that new, awesome track I downloaded from iTunes last night. Tortured, but perfect.

  “You girls okay?” Mr. Johnson yelled from the living room.

  Breathless, I took Liza’s hand and dragged her in front of the TV. “Take a look at your daughter, Mr. J. I think she cleans up rather nice.”

  Liza’s face reddened all over and she looked everywhere but at her father. He switched the TV off and stood. This weird look was in his eyes that made me want to give them a minute. I slinked off to the side and heard him say, “You look beautiful, Honey.”

  He must have hugged her then because her response came out all garbled. “Fanks, Da.”

  After a few moments, I clapped my hands. “All right, let’s get this party started. We have a Cole Foster to catch.”

  ***

  Somehow, I always got tangled up in Janie’s bright ideas. My dad dropped us off at the entrance to the school and we stood there for a minute. Me in my purple top, which was a little too tight for my taste, and a pair of jeans. Janie in a white tank with lace on the top, a wide belt around her midriff, and a pair of skinny jeans. The only remnants of our old lives were Janie’s pink streaks, which she tried to hide by putting her hair up with a huge side bow, and my socks. My Pemberley socks. I hid them from the warden so I made sure my jeans covered the design. It didn’t matter. I knew they were there.

  Janie listed off strict instructions. They were all variations of the same thing. No Jane Austen.

  “I get it,” I said. “Don’t talk about anything I enjoy talking about.”

  “There’s the spirit,” she grinned. “Listen, just pretend that you’re Lizzie in search of a Mr. Darcy, minus the accent and ancient speak, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “So what are we going to do?” Janie asked, really grilling me this time.

  “Talk to honorable young gentleman. With large fortunes. And large estates.”

  “AKA, we’re going to talk to some hotties,” Janie said.

  Janie moved first, pushing through the double doors and scoped out the hallway that led to the gym. The music bounced off the walls and the floor vibrated right through my sneakers.

  Senior couples swayed to the music and snuck in makeout sessions when Mr. Bing wasn’t looking. He came out of the gym in his usual agitated state, mumbled, and fumbled with his words until Tina and Dave stopped playing tongue wrestling. For a principal, he always seemed afraid of kids. Mrs. Lucas was the disciplinarian in this school and Janie took a lot of crap because of it. Unfortunately.

  Unfortunately for us, we caught Mr. Bing’s wandering eyes, and don’t ask me how he did it, but instead of stuttering and spitting, he yelled out, “Hello, Miss Janie, Miss Eliza. Don’t you two look nice?”

  “Ohmigod, you can’t be serious,” Janie whispered. A whole bunch of perfectly coiffed heads snapped right to us like there were bullseyes painted on our faces. As if I didn’t feel ridiculous all ready, a million pairs of eyes were now on me. A nervous tickle shivered up my spine and I tried to look away from everyone. Before I lowered my head to stare at the ground though, my eyes landed on Ryan Wick.

  Ryan. The Ryan Janie and I promised never to talk about unnecessarily. The Ryan that when I see him, I think of spice cake and the almost. I willed my eyes to drop to the floor faster, but they were stuck. Unmoving. Pasted there. Staring at the smile on Ryan’s face. And it wasn’t a mo
cking smile, or a they-look-pathetic smile, or an oh-my-god-what-a-bunch-of-dorks smile. It looked genuine. It looked appreciative. It looked like Ryan Wick was checking us out. As if all that wasn’t crazy enough, I’m pretty sure he winked at us.

  No. Not us. Me.

  Ryan Wick checked me out.

  “Holy crap.” I pulled at my shirt for the thousandth time and then felt it hug my body again when I let it go.

  “I know, right? Just keep walking.”

  The music grew louder the closer we got to the gym doors, so I raised my voice. “Wow. Did you see that?”

  “Who didn’t see that, Liza? Half the senior class was out there. Ohmigod. He said we looked nice!”

  Is it the shirt? Is that why Ryan checked me out? I pulled down on it. Again. “Yeah…yeah…I know. I can’t believe he embarrassed us like that.”

  “Embarrassed? It was worse than embarrassed. It was critical. Like a social meltdown, critical.”

  “Calm down, Janie.” I steered her to the outskirts of the gym. “There were only a few seniors out there and they were too busy making out to notice.” Not really! Ryan was out there. Flippin’ Ryan Wick noticed me. Again. In this crazy stupid outfit.

  “You’re wrong.” No kidding. “They were all looking at us. Trust me.” An image of Ryan danced through my mind, smiling, eyes drifting over me, one eye closing quickly like we had some sort of secret. Well, we do. Kinda. But… “What’s up with you?” Janie snapped. “Have you truly lost it this time? You’re smiling like a moron. Were you not just present for that humiliation out there?”

  “What? No. I like this song. That’s all.” I bobbed my head to the beat for good measure.

  Janie rolled her eyes and pushed me in the direction of the bleachers. “Let’s walk around so I can look for Will. You need to see him. I just thank my Guardian Angel that he wasn’t out in the hallway to witness that.”