The Intriguing Mr Darcy

When the Bennet sisters are invited to the Bingleys’ house party – on an estate that is rumoured to be haunted – Lizzy is worried Mr. Darcy will also be a guest. And he is. But to her surprise, suddenly he does not seem as stuffy and disagreeable as she first thought. Mysterious footsteps roam the hall at night – is it the ghost, or something more tangible? Lizzy and Darcy decide to investigate. Her close proximity to Darcy makes her question her first, unfortunate impression of him. Suddenly, he intrigues her – and Lizzy desires to learn more about him. Will she have time before the house party ends? Will they discover what – or who – is behind the mysterious footsteps in the middle of the night? And what will Lizzy do when she discovers that she has fallen in love with Mr. Darcy? This is a sweet Pride and Prejudice variation novella of approximately 32,000 words.

A very different Darcy… Fitz Darcy is a second son, and his elder brother has inherited Pemberley and all the responsibilities that entails. So, Fitz has turned elsewhere to support himself financially. He owns an infamous gambling hell in London, partnering with his best friend George Wickham. He’s also infamous for other reasons, namely that is he widely considered the worst rake in all of England. Fitz has rules, though. Widows and other men’s wives are all fair game, but he doesn’t debauch innocent virgins. But then, at a trip to his aunt Lady Catherine’s country house, he first sets eyes on Miss Elizabeth Bennet, whose sharp tongue so readily handles his harridan of an aunt he can’t help but be intrigued by her. No, not intrigued, obsessed. Scruples be damned, he has to have her. He’ll stop at nothing to make it happen. The longer he pursues her, the more he begins to change in ways he can’t quite understand. What is it about this Bennet girl, and can his desire for her reform this wretched rake? Oh, this is not even remotely clean, dear reader. Also, quite obviously, both Darcy and Wickham are wildly out of character. I hope you enjoy this trip into an alternate imagining of the characters and situations we all know and love.

The events occur three years after the original events of Pride & Prejudice, but before the Netherfield ball. Darcy receives a visit in his isolated manor in Cornwall. It is Charles Bingley, and he has come to ask for a favor... There is nothing Elizabeth Bennet likes more than a laugh - except for a mystery. From the moment she first encounters Mr. Darcy, she senses he is hiding something. But the more she tries to find out about who he is, the more evasive he becomes. However, Elizabeth soon turns her attention to someone else. As Mrs. Bennet points out, Mr. Darcy is a nobody, and Elizabeth needs to marry someone who can provide for her and her sisters. Meanwhile, Mr. Darcy doesn't want anyone to know about the scandal that haunts him from the past. He certainly doesn't need someone like Miss Bennet, who asks him questions and tries to slip him up. Fortunately, he is more than equal to the task of putting her off. What he doesn't expect is that before he knows it, he finds himself longing to tell her the truth. Are Elizabeth and Darcy meant to come together in this variation, or is Elizabeth destined for somebody else?Note: Mysterious Mr. Darcy is not a mystery. It is a 'what-if' in which Mr. Darcy has to deal with the consequences of his past, a past that will change the shape of his future.

Wealthy philanthropist Fitzwilliam Darcy, a handsome and brooding bachelor who yearns for love but doubts any woman could handle his obsessive tendencies, meets Dr. Elizabeth Bennet in the emergency room after Darcy's best friend, Charles Bingley, gets into an accident. She assumes they are a couple. As Darcy and Elizabeth unravel their misconceptions about each other, they have to decide just how far they're willing to go to accept each other's quirky ways.

Have you heard? Mr. Darcy is back ... After a long and mysterious absence, Mr. Darcy has returned to Pemberley from the Far East. He is but a shell of the man who disappeared into the night after the death of his beloved Elizabeth three years ago. The cloud of grief and self-pity that hovers over him cannot even be dispelled by his own young daughter Eliza, the last heir to his and Elizabeth's union, whom he left in the care of his sister that terrible night. The rumors in town go unanswered as the pale and withdrawn Darcy hides away, resisting all attempts to reintegrate him into society. His sister, however, is not so easily swayed and is determined to find him a wife (and Eliza a mother) of good repute ... and she has just the woman in mind. Set about four years after the events of Pride and Prejudice, Anja Bligh's Mr. Darcy's Second Chance is a warm, fascinating account of a love found for one of the most beloved characters of Victorian romance.

Darcy is more deeply in love with his wife than ever As the golden summer draws to a close and the Darcys look ahead to the end of their first year of marriage, Mr. Darcy could never have imagined his love could grow even deeper with the passage of time... Lizzy is full of surprises... Elizabeth is unpredictable and lively, pulling Darcy out of his stern and serious demeanor with her teasing and temptation. Looking ahead and planning for celebrations and life events large and small, Lizzy can still catch Darcy unawares when he least expects it... But surprising events force the Darcys to weather absence and illness, and to discover whether they can find a way to build a bond of everlasting love and desire...

After Miss Elizabeth Bennet’s father is swindled in an investment opportunity, the family finds themselves in dire straits, and the eldest Bennet sisters must seek positions as governesses. Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy needs a replacement for the disastrous Miss Younge, who brought his younger sister to near ruin at the hands of the late Mr. Wickham, so he hires Elizabeth. Wickham was killed in a flurry of violence. He threatened Miss Darcy with a knife; Mr. Darcy rushed to defend his sister; the end result was not entirely purposeful. Now, however, both Mr. Darcy and his sister are altered, and Elizabeth knows nothing of what befell them both. So, she arrives to an imposing and grim estate, a secretive and brooding employer, and a haughty and troubled charge. I’m afraid this is another of my out-of-character Mr. Darcy variations. I know not entirely what happened, but a bit of Mr. Rochester seemed to creep into him by degrees as I wrote, and I fear he is a bit darker than our own Fitzwilliam, though hopefully circumstances explain his behavior. I also failed at keeping it clean. Again. I seem to always fail at that, don’t I? Heavens.

In this Pride and Prejudice variation, Mr. Darcy is stung by Elizabeth Bennet's rejection of his marriage proposal. He decides the only way to move past his sense of melancholy is to marry a woman chosen with reason and logical intent, not love.