Mistaken Premise : A Pride and Prejudice Variation

Mistaken Premise A Pride and Prejudice Variation Cherith Boardman Mistaken Premise Copyright © 2023 by Cherith Boardman. All Rights Reserved. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review. Cover designed by DjaqL’lage [email protected] This book is a work of fiction, inspired by the works of Jane Austen, predominately Pride and Prejudice. Except as otherwise noted, any similarity of non-Austenian characters, names, places, or incidents are products of the author’s imagination. Except as otherwise noted, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. I would like to dedicate this book to my children I thank each of you for your support and for your willingness to brainstorm with me and to review chapters for me. Is it any wonder that you are each my favourite child? Several passages of this book are quoted or paraphrased from the works of Jane Austen including: Sense and Sensibility, published 1811 Pride and Prejudice, published 1813 Mansfield Park, published 1814 Emma, published 1815 Northanger Abbey, published posthumously 1818 Persuasion, published posthumously 1818 Lady Susan, first published as part of A Memoir of Jane Austen, by James Edward Austen-Leigh, 1871 Letters, from Letters of Jane Austen – Brabourne Edition, edited by her great nephew, Edward Knatchbull-Hugessen, 1884 Some short passages are quoted or paraphrased from the following film productions: Pride and Prejudice, Screenplay by Andrew Davies. Dir Simon Langton. BBC and A&E, 1995. DVD. Pride and Prejudice, Dir Joe Wright. Universal Pictures, 2005. DVD I have used historical and British spellings in addition to attempting to use words and phrases which predate Jane Austen’s death in 1817. I have also striven for accuracy in my portrayal of historical places and events. I apologise in advance for any mistakes and/or inaccuracies: I have always lived in twentieth turning into twenty-first century America, not eighteenth turning into nineteenth century England. All Bible references are from the King James Version. I would like to thank Djaqie for designing my beautiful cover. My thanks to my proof-readers, my dh and Leah. My gratitude to Liz Kenyon Hart for her contribution to the JAFF Ukrainian Refugee fundraiser. I hope you enjoy seeing the character named in your mother’s honour interact with our dear boy and our dear girl. I have many thanks for my beta readers: Jeannette: Thank you for your focus on readability and conciseness. You always earn your big bucks! Gayle: Thank you for your sharp eyes and focus on accuracy and consistency. Liz & Michelle: Thank you for your words of encouragement, suggestions for story improvements, and for catching typos. Any errors are entirely my own. I am most appreciative of my family: My husband: for his help in developing the story and for his wonderful proof-reading skills. My daughters: for their encouragement to keep going during the process and their willingness to allow me to bounce ideas off them. My younger daughters have read scenes where I needed a younger perspective for accuracy, and they are great for encouraging me to write my story, my way. My sons: for letting me pick their brains for a male’s perspective, and my youngest son, especially, is great at giving me scene ideas when I am stuck. Table of Contents PROLOGUE CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FIVE CHAPTER SIX CHAPTER SEVEN CHAPTER EIGHT CHAPTER NINE CHAPTER TEN CHAPTER ELEVEN CHAPTER TWELVE CHAPTER THIRTEEN CHAPTER FOURTEEN CHAPTER FIFTEEN CHAPTER SIXTEEN CHAPTER SEVENTEEN CHAPTER EIGHTEEN CHAPTER NINETEEN CHAPTER TWENTY CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE CHAPTER THIRTY CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE CHAPTER FORTY Epilogue Cast of Characters PROLOGUE Monday, September 30, 1811 near Meryton, Hertfordshire Lizzy breezed along the path climbing Oakham mount. The myriad birdsongs filled her walk with music as these early morning companions chorused back their antiphons to her whistled cadences of greeting. Overcome with joy, she took off at a run, spinning in triumph upon reaching the summit. She had cause for much rejoicing this morning. She had led an idyllic life, albeit most would say her first years were tragic. She was an orphan, with no blood brothers or sisters. Her father – by all accounts, a good man – and her mother – always described as a generous lady – perished in the fire which gutted the home of her infancy. As a bairn of less than three that fateful night, she had no memory thereof. At times, nightmares of the heat and roar of an inferno, and of a woman, beautiful despite the terror shadowing her countenance, passing her to another, plagued her – but Lizzy never knew if it was memory or vivid imagination born of the reiterations of the tale of the conflagration. She recently learned her mother had been pregnant at the time of the fire; while Lizzy mourned her sibling who never got the chance to live, she doubted she could be any closer to a blood sibling than to her sisters, the daughters of her guardian. Whilst she mourned the loss of her father, no one – no matter how good – could do a better job than Uncle Malcom and Papá Bennet. Whereas she might wish to be the sole focus of a mother’s attentions, she relished Mamá Maria’s liberally bestowed affections. And none of Lizzy’s suppositions of growing up in the houses of her ancestors could be more homelike than Longbourn. Her second guardian, her Uncle Malcom, had wanted her to experience a childhood with a family, rather than living in an ancient, draughty castle with two old men. Uncle Malcom, while her father’s brother, was old enough to have been