With a Joyful Heart: A Pride & Prejudice Holiday Variation

By Celia Norman

Christmas has finally come to Longbourn, but Jane is now married to Mr. Bingley, and Elizabeth Bennet has never felt more alone.

 

Elizabeth has also gained a reputation for turning away the proposals of worthy gentleman, a fact which worried her mother to no end. Rumors are bound to spread, and Mrs. Bennet will not be satisfied unless Elizabeth is engaged by the New Year.

 

A Christmas Ball at Netherfield Park seems like the perfect opportunity for spirits to be lifted, and all of Hertfordshire is invited. If Mrs. Bennet has her way, Elizabeth will be engaged to the nearest available bachelor, whether she approves of him or not.

 

Elizabeth must come to terms with her duty to her family, and the state of her own heart. Is the very deepest love truly out of her reach, or is it closer than she even thought possible?

 

With a Joyful Heart is a sweet, clean Pride and Prejudice Holiday variation that is suitable for all lovers of Jane Austen's classic love story.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blue Flowers Press
• Release date: Dec 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393932215

Book preview

With a Joyful Heart

With a Joyful Heart

A Pride & Prejudice Holiday Variation

Celia Norman

Copyright © 2020 by Celia Norman

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 written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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Contents

With a Joyful Heart

With a Joyful Heart

Aheadache loomed behind Elizabeth Bennet’s eyes. Christmastide was almost upon them and she did not feel prepared in the slightest to bear the stress of having so much family about. In the parlor, Mary steadfastly picked her way through yet another drawn out psalm that she had set to a clashing melody which only aggravated her all the more.

Lydia, now smugly Mrs. Wickham, was not helping matters in the slightest. She was heavily pregnant, which only confirmed Elizabeth suspicions that had they not been married in Gretna Green under her uncle’s watchful eye, Lydia would have been utterly ruined by her dalliance with the officer.

Much to Mrs. Bennet’s loud dismay, Mr. Wickham, himself, had not come to Longbourn for Christmastide, but he had seemed willing enough to send Lydia to them by carriage. Elizabeth had done her best to ignore her younger sister for much of her stay, especially as she did little else but boast about her new husband, and complain about the discomfort of her pregnancy. Some aspects of her sister’s behavior would never change, and, as ever, she took great joy in aggravating Mary, especially when she was at the pianoforte. 

Can you not play something more cheerful, Mary? she whined as she snatched at Mary’s painstakingly copied sheet music to interrupt her sister’s playing. Mary, thankfully, seemed unperturbed by Lydia’s attempts to distract her, and slapped at her hand without dropping out of time with the music.

Lydia pouted angrily and placed her hands on the small of her back as she stood in the middle of the parlor.

Lydia come and sit with me, cried Kitty. I am having ever so much trouble with this wreath. You have always been so patient with their construction and I would be grateful of your help… Kitty was attempting, unsuccessfully, to construct a holly wreath for the front door to welcome Christmas Day guests to Longbourn, and it was a messy affair.

Shining holly leaves were strewn over the floor and Kitty moaned as another berry fell off the branch she was trying to tie to the wreath. It rolled across the carpet and came to a stop against Elizabeth’s foot.

Lydia wrinkled her nose as Mary began to play again. The last time you asked me to help you make a holly wreath; my arms were so covered in scratches that the officers at Colonel Forster’s Christmas Ball laughed at me over our baked apples. Lydia pouted at the memory. It was a most embarrassing scene and I will not repeat it! She wrapped her arms around her swollen stomach. And I cannot be expected to sit upon the floor in this condition! Dr. Bartlett would never allow such nonsense! And my dear George would be beside himself to learn that I had done such a thing!

Elizabeth rolled her eyes and concentrated on the pinecones in her lap. She was quite certain that Mr. George Wickham would not care in the slightest what she did; pregnant or not.

Kitty sighed dejectedly, but bent over the wreath again, determined to make it serviceable. The carpet in front of her was laden with boughs of holly, hemlock and hellbore, and Jane had been gifted some mistletoe from Mrs. Hurst, which Elizabeth had planned to hang over the doorway.

Mrs. Bennet was especially enthusiastic about the mistletoe, which she believed would be the envy of all their friends—especially Lady Lucas, who always decorated Lucas Lodge with the most extravagant items. Mistletoe had been too expensive this year, and Mrs. Hurst’s gift had been a generous one, though Elizabeth was certain that the cost of it would scarcely be noticed amid all of the other festivities at Netherfield Park.

With Jane married and gone to Netherfield Park with Mr. Bingley, Kitty had volunteered to help Elizabeth with the decorating, but things were not going