The Pemberley Chronicles

Pemberley Chronicles

A Companion Volume to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice

a novel by

Rebecca Ann Collins

P

BOOK 1

The
Pemberley Chronicles
A Companion Volume to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice

D
EVISED AND
C
OMPILED
B
Y

Rebecca Ann Collins By the Same Author

The Women of Pemberley Netherfield Park Revisited
The Ladies of Longbourn Mr Darcy's Daughter My Cousin Caroline
Postscript from Pemberley Recollections of Rosings A Woman of Influence
The Legacy of Pemberley

Copyright (c) 2008 by Rebecca Ann Collins
Cover and internal design (c) 2008 by Sourcebooks, Inc. Cover photo (c) Bridgeman Art Library

Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks, Inc.

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--except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews--without permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks, Inc.

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

Published by Sourcebooks Landmark, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc. P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410
(630) 961-3900
FAX: (630) 961-2168
www.sourcebooks.com

Originally printed and bound in Australia by The Pink Panther. First published 1997. Reprinted 1998. Revised and reprinted May 1998. Reprinted 1999 and 2002. Revised and reprinted 2003. Reprinted 2004 and 2006 by SNAP Printing, Sydney, Australia.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Collins, Rebecca Ann.
The Pemberley Chronicles : A Companion Volume to Jane Austen's
Pride and Prejudice
/
Devised and Compiled by Rebecca Ann Collins
p. cm.
1. Bennet, Elizabeth (Fictitious character)--Fiction. 2. Darcy, Fitzwilliam (Fictitious
character)--Fiction. 3. England--Social life and customs--19th century--Fiction. I.
Austen, Jane, 1775-1817. Pride and Prejudice. II. Title.

PR9619.4.C65P46 2008 823'.92--dc22
2007049507
Printed and bound in the United States of America VP 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To the beloved Jane Austen

An Introduction . . .

A
LIFELONG FAN OF
J
ANE
Austen, Rebecca Ann Collins first read
Pride and Prejudice
at the age of twelve and fell in love with its characters. Since then, she has gathered a wealth of information about its author and her work, seeking to inform herself about the life and times of the "Pemberley families."

Two things set in train the current stage of her splendid obsession: the BBC's magnificent production--which brought Jane Austen's brilliant, witty story and characters so dramatically alive in a stunning visual context--and the appearance in bookshops of a rash of sequels. Some of these turned the lives of the characters into a soap opera in which Elizabeth and Darcy, for whom one had developed an abiding love and regard, appeared suddenly to behave like figures out of
Dynasty!
It was in this context that Miss Collins began work on the chronicles, placing her favourite characters in their original environment: nineteenth century England.

She at no time presumes to imitate the literary style of the original author, nor does she distort the essential core of main players, who are so well drawn in the novel, with tortuous twists of character or bizarre behaviour that seem gratuitous and hard to believe. Rebecca Collins is concerned to observe them in the context of an era of profound economic, political, and social change, perhaps the most dynamic period of English history, certainly the most interesting.

She observes them as they make their way through the changing landscape, with only an occasional push from the chronicler--a change of direction or emphasis rather than of character. All the main characters essentially remain recognisably Jane Austen's, except that they age, mature, mellow, and sometimes depart the scene.

Children are born and others--both old and young--die, as they did in all the families that Miss Austen herself knew, personally. Consequences flow from tragedy and triumph alike. It was ever thus. As the Pemberley families face the changes that confronted all the people of England, Ms Collins, not content to hang the bland "happily ever after" tag upon them, observes the impact upon their lives. How Elizabeth, to whom Pemberley represented elegance and stability as well as love, copes with personal tragedy is as important as the influence of the commercial entrepreneurship of Mr Gardiner on the landed gentry facing rural recession.

Coincidentally, the author's assumption of the pen name and identity of Rebecca Collins is a useful device, allowing her the freedom of an internal narrator, working from personal, anecdotal, and documentary sources within the Pemberley group, without appearing to take undue liberties with their privacy.

The story lines are clearly drawn and the characters observed with affection and humour, as one would expect from a member of their circle. All those interested in the story of
Pride and Prejudice,
its historical and social setting, will enjoy this companion volume.

If you watched spellbound as millions did as it unfolded on your television screen and, seeing the two couples drive away as the closing credits and that magic music rolled, you wondered where life would have taken them, then Emily Gardiner's prologue, which opens the chronicles, will start you on that journey.

It is for these readers, and not for the J.A. Specialists or the literary establishment, that Rebecca Ann Collins has compiled
The Pemberley Chronicles.
It is to them, as much as to the beloved Miss Austen herself, that the book is dedicated.

November 1997.
viii
P
ROLOGUE TO

The Pemberley Chronicles

T
HE WEDDINGS ARE OVER
. There are rose petals everywhere. Jane and Elizabeth Bennet have been married to Mr Bingley and Mr Darcy on a shining Autumn day, and everyone is smiling with the joy of sharing in their happiness. "They looked more beautiful than princesses," said the little maids, Caroline and Emily Gardiner, who with Kitty Bennet and Georgiana Darcy had assisted the brides.

"Could anyone have looked happier than Lizzie?" asked her aunt. "Not unless you looked across at Jane, who seemed as if she was all lit up like a candle," said Colonel Fitzwilliam. Both bridegrooms looked extremely well. Mr Bingley was the favourite, of course, being universally charming. But even those who had reservations about Mr Darcy, thinking him proud and reserved when he first came to Netherfield, could not deny how well he looked: tall and very handsome, his countenance suffused with delight as he and Elizabeth stepped out into the sunlight.

Sir William Lucas said over and over that we were losing the brightest jewels in the county and Mr Darcy was a real dark horse, because no one had guessed he was in love with Lizzie, whereas everyone knew, he said, from the very first evening they met, that Mr Bingley had lost his heart to Jane. Sir William even claimed credit for the match, having been the first to call on Mr Bingley and invite him and his party to Meryton. He was boasting of his success to Mr and Mrs Gardiner, who knew a good deal more of these matters, being particular friends of both Mr Darcy and Elizabeth, but they just smiled and let him chatter on.

Later, on the way home they would comment that, had he known it was at the reception at Lucas Lodge that Mr Darcy had first noticed Lizzie's beauty and found himself wanting to know her better, Sir William might have become quite impossibly conceited about his role in their marriage, too.

Jane and Charles Bingley are gone to London, where Charles wants to show off his beautiful wife, while Lizzie and Darcy have left for Oxford en route to the estates on the borders of Cheshire and Wales that are part of Darcy's family inheritance. Mrs Gardiner, who helped Lizzie and Jane pack for their journeys, says Lizzie is longing to see Wales, never having visited the area before. They are all to meet in London some six weeks hence to dine with the Gardiners.