Showing results by narrator "Stevie Zimmerman" in All Categories

'Tis the Season is a collection of stories inspired by the beloved characters of Jane Austen in Pride and Prejudice.

Mr. Darcy is not in want of a wife. Determined to avoid a loveless marriage, he devises a clever plan to protect his heart from fortune-hunters and relentless matchmakers. Elizabeth Bennet heartily agrees to join him in feigning a courtship, believing it will allow her to escape her mother’s matchmaking schemes. As their deception spirals into a whirlwind of unexpected complications, both Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy begin to discover a deep connection neither of them anticipated.

Saved from an unwanted marriage, Darcy finds himself in Hertfordshire with his sister and former fiancée. In repayment for a debt of honor, Mr. Darcy assists Bingley in finding a wife who truly loves him by testing his potential brides. Although helpful in some ways, it ends up causing substantial confusion, especially for Elizabeth, who is upset by his peculiar behavior.

WHEN ELIZABETH BENNET IS INSULTED by Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy at the Meryton assembly, she is determined to despise him forever. How could she do otherwise, given what an arrogant, rude man he is? She intends to forget about what happened, but she finds it is not so easy when faced with incessant scorn from her neighbours in the weeks following.

The arrival of two eligible gentlemen at Netherfield Park sends ripples of excitement through nearby Meryton. But Mr Bingley and Mr Darcy are not the only additions to the neighbourhood raising eyebrows. An unremarkable cottage in the woods between Netherfield and Meryton also has new tenants. One of them — a lively little girl with an adventurous spirit, a love of the outdoors, and a past shrouded in mystery — draws the notice of more than one local.

Fitzwilliam Darcy is immune to smallpox, but finds himself all too susceptible to the charms of Elizabeth Bennet. First drawn to her as merely a friend, his feelings deepen as he witnesses her care for her family and neighbors as they face death, sorrow, and the ravages of the disease.

After Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy departs Hertfordshire unexpectedly just before Mr Bingley’s ball at Netherfield Park, there is no further impediment to prevent Jane Bennet’s romance with her handsome neighbour. Unfortunately, Mr Darcy returns to Netherfield on the Bingleys’ wedding day, just in time to launch disaster into the proceedings. Elizabeth Bennet’s attempt to put the wedding-wrecker in his place only worsens matters when her private conversation with Mr Darcy becomes a misunderstood marriage proposal. Mr Darcy is willing to put everything right—for a shocking price.

Fitzwilliam Darcy has had enough—enough of the ton and their speculations, enough of matchmaking mamas and their eager daughters, and enough of his family’s expectations that he will eventually marry his cousin Anne. Craving solitude and peace after discovering his sister with George Wickham in Ramsgate, he accepts an invitation to visit Netherfield Park from his friend Charles Bingley and travels to Hertfordshire, where he hopes Georgiana will recover from her disappointment in relative privacy.

When old friends from his university days visit Longbourn, Mr. Bennet is forced to confront the consequences of years spent in idle amusement and neglect of his family. Determined to do better by his wife and daughters, he takes a more active role in their upbringing, their education, and their futures. By the time Mr. Bingley leases Netherfield five years later, the Bennet family is very different. The daughters are accomplished, poised, and sensible—and the household is one that garners admiration rather than ridicule.

Leaving England after his disastrous proposal was refused at Hunsford, Darcy spent two lonely years in Scotland and Ireland before returning home to face Elizabeth Bennet, certain that he could regard her as an indifferent acquaintance. Events that transpired in his absence have left Elizabeth a changed woman. The victim of a marriage by deception to Count Stefano, she has suffered greatly at his hands. Will Mr. Darcy rescue the woman he vowed to forget?

Years after his arrival in the original tale, a widowed Mr. Bingley finally takes up residence at Netherfield. His close friend, Mr. Darcy, has spent these intervening years in a relentless quest for the ideal wife, gracing every ball and partaking in every dance of the Season. Yet, each potential match he encounters lacks a certain something. His friends have grown skeptical of his insistence that he intends to enter matrimony.

The moment he saw her at the assembly in Meryton, he knew he loved her. When Fitzwilliam Darcy meets Elizabeth bennet in the fateful autumn of 1811, their mutual infatuation is immediate and undeniable. Within months, they are married and spend a blissful winter at Pemberley, falling more deeply in love with each other than either might have imagined possible. But spring in London proves more challenging to them. Accident and artifice join to devastating effect for the young couple, destroying their felicity and creating an outcome neither might have imagined.

AFTER THEIR UNEXPECTED MEETING AT PEMBERLEY, Elizabeth Bennet believes that she and Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy have been afforded a second chance at love. Even with the news of Lydia Bennet's elopement with George Wickham could surely only delay their happily ever after. After his visit to Longbourn in the autumn, Mr. Darcy must go to London but promises to return within a fortnight. Elizabeth does not doubt an engagement will result then once he returns.

Elizabeth Bennet anticipated nothing more than a pleasant day among friends and relations when the pleasure trip to the ruins of Bodden Chapel commenced. But what began as mere diversion turns frightening when the walls of the ancient church tumble down around them, endangering lives, demolishing pride and propriety, and bringing a hero into focus.

Love is not the simple thing that novels and poetry speak of. It is by turns subtle and overwhelming. It may slip silently into your heart, or strike like a bolt of lightning.

When losing everything leads to finding what matters most. When catastrophe strikes the Darcy family, Fitzwilliam Darcy finds himself stripped of both his ancestral home and guardianship of his young sister. The magnificent Pemberley estate—his birthright and legacy—has been wrenched from his control through deceit and legal manipulation, leaving the once-proud master destitute and angry. Seeking refuge in Hertfordshire as a guest of his loyal friend Charles Bingley, Darcy's path crosses with the brilliant and resourceful Elizabeth Bennet.

Elizabeth Bennet is living a lie. She’s known since she was fifteen that she isn't truly a Bennet, but who is she? Are the people and places that appear in her dreams just a sign of her active imagination, or are they memories of her true family? Could the stories she'd told Jane when they were children not be stories at all?

UNTIL THE DAY of the Netherfield Ball, Elizabeth Bennet’s greatest concerns are wondering who might partner with her for a dance and the likely ruin of her shoe roses after she stands up with Mr. Collins. A death in the neighbourhood changes everything, including her belief in the benevolence of the father she has always adored. Suddenly, she alone holds the means of salvation for her family’s future. Alas, what is required of her is marriage to a man old enough to be her grandfather.

Fitzwilliam Darcy is desperate. Finally confronted with a woman who ignites all his hopes, he agonizes over the cruel trick of fate which placed her in a situation beneath his notice. The morning after the Netherfield ball, he resolves to put as much distance between himself and her as possible.

A slightly more immature Elizabeth Bennet meets Fitzwilliam Darcy London two years earlier than in canon. As a second son, Darcy has chosen the life of a barrister so there are fewer obstacles in their way, and they quickly fall in love. Using the fortune left to him upon his father's death, he invested with Gardiner to make his own fortune, making it easier for the two to wed, along with a legacy set aside for second sons by Darcy's grandfather, the late Earl of Matlock