Coming Soon
A Most Natural Consequence
Available March 2026
She’s protecting her family from disgrace. He’s shielding his from slander. Trapped in a compromising situation, can they find a path to love?
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Elizabeth Bennet is dreadfully impulsive. Traveling with her sisters to visit Ramsgate, the headstrong woman befriends a shy young lady despite also feeling awkward attraction to the girl’s stern older brother. But after she discovers her brash youngest sister has vanished in company with a rake, she turns to the handsome estate owner for help foiling the elopement.
Fitzwilliam Darcy’s curt exterior conceals a generous heart. Aware that his lack of forthrightness regarding a scoundrel’s nature has put others in danger, he agrees to assist the outspoken lady in distress. But when their scheme fails, he feels the only gentlemanly choice is to save the intriguing woman’s reputation by offering his hand in marriage.
Pretending it’s a love match to distract society from circling scandal, Elizabeth puts on a brave face while trying to uncover her husband’s true feelings. But though he’s slowly falling for his wife, Darcy fears old enemies will drag them down.
As tensions rise, will their bond break or grow into a happily ever after?
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This full-length Pride and Prejudice variation is medium angst, forced marriage, and open door
Excerpt
In this excerpt, Darcy is visiting his sister in Ramsgate and has met her new friends, Elizabeth Bennet and her two youngest sisters, who are with their mother at the seaside. He is glad to be there to keep Wickham away from Georgiana, but he is less impressed with the friends she has found...
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The mother was someone whose society could raise no emotion other than surprise at there being any men in the world who could like her well enough to marry her. She had neither genius, accomplishment, nor manner. Perhaps beauty had enticed a weak man into matrimony.
“My dear Miss Darcy, that is not a problem you will ever have,” Mrs Bennet went on. “Such a tall, pretty girl. When will you be presented at court?”
Georgiana flinched. “Never, I hope,” she murmured.
“My sister is just fifteen,” he answered, narrowing his eyes at his sister’s strange answer. “There is plenty of time. Another two years, I suspect.”
“I am sure your brother will lay out fifty guineas’ worth of elegance and fashion for your moment in the drawing room. You will make a splendid figure; everyone will want a look at you. You will find a husband that season, I have no doubt.”
These vulgar observations drove everyone into silence and turned his sister’s cheeks red. Was it Mrs Bennet’s coarse words or the idea of being on display that mortified Georgiana more?
“Did you hear Wickham has business that called him away?” Lydia finally asked his sister. “Miss Elnora told Kitty he will not be back until next week.” The girl’s lips pushed out in an unsightly pout. “Who will flirt with us now?”
Georgiana gave him an embarrassed, cautious glance before replying. “I did not know he was gone.”
Darcy heard disappointment in her voice. He gave her a sharp look, hoping that she had not been flirting with Wickham, but she would not meet his eye. He kept his patience before the others, and remembered Mrs Younge’s certainty nothing could go amiss.
“So distressing to lose a young man’s society,” Mrs Bennet said with a mournful shake of her head. “Wickham is a charming man. Kitty! There is that handsome man you danced with last week. Let us greet him.”
She led away Kitty, and then, in a gesture of amity, Georgiana was invited to accept an arm of the youngest Miss Bennet, and take a turn with her while they waited to enter the concert room. Georgiana was delighted to be asked, but only agreed after Darcy nodded his permission.
He had expected the eldest to go with them or with her mother, but she stayed by his side. He thought Georgiana had said her name was Elizabeth.
“I think the easy gaiety of Lydia’s manners is an attraction to your shy sister. Not to worry, however,” she added with an arch look. “Miss Darcy and I have had several rational conversations about music, new books, and our favourite walks around Ramsgate.”
“I will not oppose Miss Lydia’s politeness to my sister.” He let it hang in the air that he had other oppositions to her family’s behaviour and, to his surprise, this sister understood his unspoken criticism. Her sharp look and quirked lip told him she disapproved of his feelings.
She was more perceptive than the rest of her family. However, she did not like to be told of their flaws. He assessed her while she looked over the room, watching the crowd. Middling height, a pretty figure, striking eyes with an intelligent look. Around her mouth was an expression as though she was about to smile from some private amusement. She had an air and manner more elegant than her sisters and mother, and something told him she was cleverer too.
When he realised he was staring at a handsome woman, Darcy turned away. He did not care for how quickly his heart beat and began to wish his sister would return so he would not have to speak to this woman.
Thankfully, Lydia and Georgiana returned, having collected Mrs Bennet and Kitty, and it was now time to move into the concert room. He steered his sister farther from her friends. The waiting crowd shifted and clustered as many people slowly marshalled themselves to proceed inside, and they moved forward as Georgiana’s friends fell behind.
“Watering places make it too easy to make new acquaintances.”
He felt his sister shrug as he held her arm while they made their way. “Their father is a gentleman, with an estate of about two thousand, in Hertfordshire. The Bennets came for Miss Catherine’s health, and she is much improved. She does not have much to say on her own, but Miss Lydia is good-humoured, and with quite a natural self-consequence too.”
“That does not sound like the sort of girl you would attach yourself to.”
Georgiana huffed. “But I like her, Fitzwilliam! You cannot make me give up my friends.”
“I did not say you could not speak with them.” Why did Georgiana now think an observation was an attempt to control her? She had never been defiant before. To change the subject, although he could guess her reply, he asked why his shy sister liked Lydia.
She smiled and gave an answer that did not surprise him. “Once I greet her, I need to say nothing else all night, and she always is sure to include me.”
The crowd pressed and shuffled along, and thinned since they were now within the larger concert room.
“You may keep up the acquaintance, but your new friends are boisterous, thoughtless girls, and their mother is just like them.”
His sister’s face fell, but she did not disagree. “I do not think Miss Bennet is noisy. I like her best of all. She has a quick wit and is affable.”
“Well, Elizabeth Bennet may be tolerable, but the lot of them will never marry anyone of consequence in the world with shameful behaviour as theirs and a mother like that.”
He heard a gasp behind him, and when he turned to see what was the matter, he looked directly into the eldest Miss Bennet’s affronted face.
