I don't own Pride and Prejudice!
For those of you reading my Game of Thrones stories, I have not given up on them, this is just something that came to me, and I just had to see where it goes.
This first chapter alludes to a sexual assault, not of any of the main characters. I tried to keep it as vague as possible, but do want everyone warned.
Chapter 1
Thirteen year old Elizabeth Bennet stared out the window of the coach, thinking back on how she had gotten to this point. She knew her mother would be upset with her for chasing off Jane's Beau, but to have her removed from Longbourn was more than she had ever dreamed possible.
The "gentleman", and she used the term as loosely as possible, was the owner of Netherfield, the property neighboring her home, Longbourn. The man had just turned two and fourty, and had taken an instant interest in her fifteen year old sister, Jane, when her mother had launched her into society.
Mr. Gastrell was fortunate enough to have an income of six thousand pounds per annum, and therefore the ideal husband for Mrs. Bennet's oldest and most beautiful daughter. For this reason, she launched her daughter into society at what Elizabeth considered to be far too young, and then crowed over her neighbors when Mr. Gastrell took and instant interest in Jane. According to her mother it would be just a matter of weeks before the gentleman proposed, and she would see the first of her five daughters settled.
Jane herself seemed inclined to the idea, and had welcomed the man's attention. And why wouldn't she, he displayed himself to be a kind and gentle man when his neighbors were looking. He was attentive to her sister's every need and desire when out in public, and respectful of her shy nature in private. He never tried to take liberties, and guarded Jane's reputation as closely as of it was his own daughter's. In the beginning, even Elizabeth had thought he was everything good and kind, and that he would be the ideal husband for her sister, even if she did think he was too old for her.
That all changed the night she, her mother, and her sister were all stranded at Netherfield by a sudden storm. They had been invited by the gentleman and his mother, who was acting as his hostess, and while it looked likely to rain, her mother refused to give up the opportunity to go. Normally, Elizabeth wouldn't have even been invited, let alone allowed to attend, but Mr Gastrell knew how much Jane adored her younger sister, and insisted she be brought along as a means of making Jane happy, his mother seconding the idea. Her mother would have much rather left her at home, but did not want to upset her hosts, so along she went.
The roads became impassable due to the rain, and Mr. Gastrell had ordered rooms to be prepared for them. They had all retired for the night shortly after, but try as she might, she could not fall asleep. Deciding to try and find the library to retrieve a book to read, she slowly made her way through the halls, but stopped short outside her host's study.
Warning...beginningof assault scene...feel free to skip till end warning...
She could hear someone crying from inside, and peaked through the door that was partially open. Inside she could see Mr Gastrell standing behind a maid barely older than Elizabeth herself, and the poor girl was crying while bent partially over his desk, while he stood behind her groping her chest, her skirt hitched up to her waist for some reason.
End of assault...I tried to keep it brief...
"Stop it! She doesn't like that!" She burst into the room, and Mr. Gastrell looked at her in shock.
The man stared at her in shock, but recovered quickly, "You dare to tell me how to treat my servants?!" The man was in a rage, but little Lizzy stood her ground, refusing to back away or show any fear. As if to prove his point, the man backhanded the poor girl and sent her crashing to the floor. "And what are you going to do to stop me?"
"I'll tell my Papa what I saw!" She stood with her hands on her hips, refusing to back down. "I'm sure he will know what you were doing to that poor girl if I describe it to him." She tried to make it sound like she knew what it was she saw, but she didn't think it was all that convincing. "I'll tell our neighbors what I saw too, and they'll believe me because they've known me longer." His smirk scared her a bit, and she decided that maybe her lack of knowledge would work more in her favor here. "Besides, how would a girl my age know how to describe what I saw, if I had never seen it?"
The smirk had slid right off his face, for he knew that what she said was true. Rather than try to dispute it, he woke her mother and sister, and had them all removed from Netherfield, placing the blame on her, stating he had caught her in his study trying to steal from him. He swore he would never connect himself with her family, as he threw them out of the house into the waiting carriage he had at least called for them.
This was how she found herself seated in her father's study as her mother raged at her, blaming all the family's misfortunes on her. When her mother told her father that she was to be removed from Longbourn, and her father hadn't fought her on it. Instead he had sent an express to her uncle in London, and instead she was loaded into a carriage and sent from her home.
The carriage slowing down brought her from her thoughts, and she was surprised to see it turn away from the road that would take her to London. "Gonna 'ave ta take a detour Litt'l Miss, carriage accident up ahead." The drive spoke, and Elizabeth wondered when he father had hired him as she had never seen him before.
Settling back, she took a sip of the tea the cook had packed for her, feeling her eyes get heavy.
Elizabeth was shaken awake what seemed like hours later, "The Mistress says we was to leave you here litt'l miss." The driver said as he pulled her out of the carriage. She had never seen him before, but that was not surprising as her father had released their previous driver for his driving while having imbibed too much alcohol. This was likely the new one he had hired to replace him.
"But my Papa said I was supposed to go to my uncle's house." She spoke as the man climbed back into the seat.
"I don' know what ta tell ya Litt'l Miss. The Mistress said Master received an express from town. Turns out your uncle didn' want no thief either, so she tol' us to leave you here." With that, he climbed back up into the seat of the carriage and was gone.
She tried to be brave, but seeing darkness settle in around her she was unable to stop the tears
Sir Lewis de Bourgh was eager to return home, hopeful that his darling Anne would be recovered from her latest illness. His little girl had contracted scarlet fever as a child, and had never fully recovered. His wife had been beside herself with grief, thinking they would lose their only child.
Being the last of the de Bourgh line, he had hoped to have a large family, and had been ecstatic to find out the woman who had agreed to marry him had hoped for the same. His beloved Catherine, or Cathy as he called her, had been a strong woman who knew her mind, and knew that more than anything she wanted to be a mother. This was the reason it broke his heart more and more each time the delivered a stillborn babe. What was worse was watching how it broke her bit by bit.
Then a miracle happened, and he heard a babe's cry come from the birthing room. It was the most beautiful sound he had ever heard, and seeing his wife proudly present his precious daughter to him was nothing short of wonderful.
He had never seen his wife half as happy as when she was with their daughter. Oh how the woman doted on her. There was little doubt in him that had Anne succumbed to the fever when she was four, that his Cathy would have followed her shortly after. After his little girl recovered as much as she ever would, his wife hovered around her, calling the doctor for every sniffle. Even now at nineteen, Anne was of such a frail constitution, that they had come close to losing her a few times.
Looking out the window of the carriage, he banged on the roof with his walking stick when something caught his eye. He wasted no time alighting from the carriage, and made his way over to the splash of color he had seen illuminated in the moonlight. There, curled up at the base of a large tree, almost completely hidden from the road, was a small girl. Her dark curls were plastered to her forehead, soaked by the light drizzle that had been hanging around for the last few hours. He pink dress and matching bonnet were soaked through, and when he placed his hand on her forehead he found she was burning up.
Removing his outer coat he wrapped it around the child, and quickly made his way back to the carriage. He told his driver to drive as fast as was safe, thankful he was so close to home, and that Cathy had insisted they have a doctor live on the premise to care for Anne.
"Lewis, what on earth?" His wife asked as he rushed into the manor, her eyes instantly drawn to the child in his arms. "Mr Wilkes, bring the doctor at once, Mrs. Wilkes, have the room next to Anne's prepared for the child." The butler and housekeeper rushed to follow the orders. "Anne, stay back, we can't have you catching whatever it is she has." His daughter backed away the moment the command was issued, and he followed his wife up the stairs.
"She is obviously of genteel birth." How his wife seemed so sure of that he would never know, "However, I do not recognize her, so she is now one of our neighbors' children."
"Lewis, go change out of those wet clothes at once, you will do no one any good if you catch your death." It was all for the better that he comply, as the doctor entered the room at that minute, and quickly began assessing the patient.
"To think, her mother just banished her from her home after everything the child had been through." Lady Catherine de Bourgh had been so relieved when young Elizabeth drifted off to sleep after relating the story of how she came to be alone on the side of the road. That any woman could be so heartless as to cast off her child, rather than comfort them was beyond her.
She had been sitting by her little Beth's, for she had already decided she would be keeping the child, bedside, when they child had begun being plagued by a nightmare. It had taken some coaxing to get the details out of her once she had woken her, and she had been barely able to contain her horror at story of what the girl had seen, and how the girl's so called parents had reacted. She had comforted the child, though she was more of a young lady, until she had drifted off to sleep, before charging a maid to watch over her, so she could go fill her husband and daughter in on what she had found out.
"Well my dear, it would appear you are finally getting that little sister you always wanted." Her husband smiled at her daughter, which her daughter returned excitedly.
"Well, she certainly wouldn't have been sent back there." Catherine sniffed, but inside she was giddy with excitement that her husband contented to her plan without her even having to ask.
