The Zephyr: A Pride and Prejudice Variation (Pride and Prejudice Variations)

by Grace Gibson

my father had ‘gout’ whenever he did not want to suffer his neighbour’s hospitality—I

I had thought he meant to speak to me and braced myself for a tangle, but alas, he stepped past me, and with his hands clasped behind his back, he stared out the window. If there was ever a posture which could shout ponderous and long-suffering disapproval, Mr Darcy could strike it with remarkable potency.

“I had been wondering when you had learnt to whip.” He spoke in a low grumble to match his frown. “Had you? I wonder that you have thought of me at all, Mr Darcy.”

Typically, I sat in the hinterlands of the dinner table at Lucas Lodge, but without Jane, I was now given the place at the table usually reserved for Miss Bennet of Longbourn, and I took advantage of my placement over the course of the next hour by throwing polite enquiries at Mr Darcy’s stoic profile.

“Oh very well, Mr Darcy! I declare you are perfectly correct in your assessment. I am the veriest novice, am I not?” He returned to me a smallish, slanted smile and spoke with a tinge of triumph. “I am relieved to hear you have arrived at the truth of things.” “Oh I have, sir,” I said, affecting the downcast tone of remorse. “I am a mere infant holding the reins. I am a pretender, a neophyte, a rank beginner⁠—” “A mulish, exasperating woman?” he asked with a lift of his brow. “My word! How well we are acquainted! You must congratulate yourself for having nailed my character so neatly to the nearest tree.”

“I apologise if I have offended you.” “Well, clearly I have offended you, sir,” I replied philosophically. “Might we call a draw and be done?”

“I feel positively pursued!” “Do you?” “Pray explain why I cannot go anywhere in this county and not encounter you, Mr Darcy?”

“Men of privilege,” I then continued, now no longer smiling, “like you and your friend Mr Bingley are free to toy with a woman’s heart and shred her reputation with little, if any, consequence to their own.”

“If you must have a confession, I have taken Mary’s place as principal doomsayer. Next, I shall be moved to read Fordyce aloud after dinner.” “Excellent. How I have missed his toothsome advice. Meanwhile, here is a letter from your beau in London.”

“Do you truly not know? We have been in love for a very long time, Elizabeth,” he said. “What did you suppose we were about these many months, hmm?”

“Am I truly an inconvenience, dearest?” “You know you are,” I replied with a contented sigh, “for I shall warrant you were greatly annoyed to have fallen in love with me, and in all fairness, I must be allowed to reciprocate.”

“I see them, Cousin,” I replied, after carefully adjusting my attitude. “Rosings Park is indeed a palace with many windows.”

“Will I like him?” “While I suspect you may, I am certain he will like you. In fact, I am braced against the inevitability you will flirt with him in order to torment me.” “I can hardly do so if you expect it of me.”

I helped Charlotte to lie back against her pillows, and as I pulled up the coverlet, she said, “I forget how overbearing you are. Do you remember when we played with our dolls?”

she played dolls together with charlotte who is several years older?

“Well, I must say,” he said grandly, “you look well tonight, Lizzy. Done well for yourself, eh? I did not believe you could land such a whale myself, but here you are. Proved us all wrong.”