A/N: I love a good soulmate story. So when the opening paragraph of this popped into my head one day, I was truly eager to start writing. While I know the general direction and how Lydia and Wickham's storyline will play out, I only have the loosest idea at this point where the rest of this will go. Honestly, I'm quite eager to find out myself. Posting will be intermittent. I have a number of stories in the works, and enjoy the freedom of working on the ones that fit my mood and inspiration on any given day. Feel free to point out grammatical or spelling errors, I don't have a beta, and would appreciate having specific issues noted. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy! - Cognisance -
I do not own Pride and Prejudice (and am very thankful that Jane Austen wrote it!). But I do own the rights to this story, this is the only place I'll be posting it. If you see it somewhere else, please let me know.
Fate and Folly
By Cognisance
Prologue
"Just as Fate chooses who receives soulmarks, so too does Fate decide at what point they shall meet. It is folly to assume that one can subvert this fate by actively looking or not." - On Soulmarks by Manuel Kant [1]
"Lord, what fools these mortals be." -Puck from A Midsummer Night's Dream
Fitzwilliam Darcy had not yet started looking for his soulmate. Despite being on the cusp of 28, he was not truly worried. For while he would like to find her, mostly for his sister's sake, he disliked the idea of the soulmate bond. Not that he was against the bond itself, but the uncertainty behind it. The waiting for fate to surprise you with the one you would spend the rest of your life with. The lack of rationality. How could one study and deliberate and decide when driven by a fantastical 'destiny'. To be sure, he was not worried that she would be unsuitable or indeed that there would be much to study, deliberate, or decide. But it was the principle of the thing. He was Fitzwilliam Darcy and he was not ruled by feeling or emotions. Rationality and Reason. Sense. These were the tenets that his being strived for.
Elizabeth Bennet was content in the knowledge that she had a soulmate. She was sure that Fate would bring him into her life at the right time. And until then she was determined to enjoy every day she had at Longbourn, her father's beautiful estate in Hertfordshire. Between walking, reading, debating with her father, slipping in pianoforte practice when her sister Mary wasn't at the instrument, sharing confidences with her sister Jane and best friend Charlotte, and trying to ignore her youngest sisters and mother, life was full. And, for the most part, idyllic. Yes, God had life well in hand, and didn't need her to tell Him how things were supposed to go.
Charles Bingley was constantly looking for his soulmate. Not a day didn't go by where he didn't give a little sigh and look off into the distance dreaming of a beautiful blonde angel smiling back at him. She was always blonde, honey blonde, with the most perfect pale blue eyes, and 5 small freckles upon her nose-to show that she truly was human and not a trick of fate. Whenever his sisters caught him with such an expression on his face, they shared a speaking look of disgust. Soulmates had begun to go out of fashion, and it irritated his sister Caroline excessively that she was to have no say in who Charles wed. How would fate know that they needed a rich well-connected member of the ton? What if it matched him with a tradesman's daughter? It was too frequently done, matching stations when one had a soul mark. And heaven forbid he get matched with someone of a lower status! No. She had no trust for the things. (After all, if fate truly knew what it was about, she would even now be Mrs. Darcy and not Miss Bingley.) Mrs. Hurst, his eldest sister, was slightly more pragmatic, after all, she had already married into the gentry, so her standing could not be too affected. She was a gentleman's wife no matter who Charles' soulmate was.
Grim was the day when Lydia Bennet realized that soul marks always appeared before one's 12th birthday. Having passed that milestone 3 days previously, a tantrum of epic proportions ensued. To be the only one of her sisters unmarked was shrilly and repeatedly announced to be unfair and incomprehensible. For was she not the liveliest and was she not even now almost as tall and beautiful as Jane? Fate was declared to be spiteful and stupid and, with a ferocity that was not to be gainsaid, she proceeded to the writing desk in the sitting room where she inked an extravagant and Raphaelesqe heart on her wrist, spitting out that if fate did not see fit to give her a Soulmate, she would force it. To the surprise of everyone but Lydia, the heart never washed off.
In the coming years whenever Mr. Bennet saw a glimpse of it, he would sardonically smirk at the thought that his wife's favorite daughter was silly enough to think that she had won some type of battle of wills against Fate with this display. Elizabeth Bennet-his favorite daughter-had a different reaction, an uneasy sense that something had been wrongly twisted into the weaving of the tapestry of their lives and the picture had been irrevocably marred on that day.
Mrs. Bennet thought that it was wonderful that all five of her daughters had soulmates and was eager in pushing them all to meet as many men as possible, waiting for that moment when her daughters would meet their rich suitors (for of course they would be well placed gentlemen of good fortune) and never again would she have to worry about the hedgerows (or indeed anything else) after her husband passed.
_-F&F-_
Chapter 1
"It is considered obvious that whatever soulmark Providence has blessed a person with is of some personal significance. The meanings of such marks are not often, upon first stare, immediately evident." - On Soulmarks by Manuel Kant
Tuesday, October 8th, 1811
Longbourn
Elizabeth Bennet slipped into her sister's room, shutting the door quietly behind her. Jane was standing in front of her dressing table dabbing at her nose. "You didn't come down to breakfast." Jane glanced at Elizabeth through the mirror, but spoke not. Unusual.
"And you asked for a tray for supper. You have missed the newest gossip."
Jane leaned over to look into the mirror more closely and her foot bumped the leg of the chair behind her sliding it back an inch, "Do you think the lemon has done anything, Lizzie?" She caught her younger sister's gaze as she inquired. Elizabeth's reflection grew closer until she rested her chin on Jane's shoulder.
"I think you are being perfectly silly, Jane. Using some of our lemon juice just to try to banish a few tiny little freckles. They are perfectly adorable. And we have better uses for the juice." Elizabeth smiled, hoping for an answering grin. But Jane only lowered herself into the chair and picked up a brush from the table. As she lifted it to her hair, Elizabeth gently extricated it from her hand and began to do the office herself.
"I know it bothers you, Janey, I'm sorry that Mama has not quit remarking on them these two years."
"Honestly, Lizzy, if she would only quite blaming you for them! It does not feel quite fair that they are on my person, but you are scolded."
"Well," Elizabeth said philosophically, "In this Mama is not entirely in the wrong, for am I not the one that led you astray with my own hoydenish ways in taking my bonnet off while we played Pall Mall that summer?"
Jane shook her head morosely, "And in this she is even more unreasonable. Mama knows that I am equally as stubborn as you. If I had not wanted to take my bonnet off, you never could have teased me into it. It saddens me that she cannot be more just to you. After all, according to her, the most important thing is that we are marked and that our soulmates will come. Why then does she care about such a small matter?"
Elizabeth began the process of gathering her sister's hair into a tidy chignon, "I do believe, Jane, that someday a smattering of freckles will be the fashionable thing. And then Mama will be in alt at her foreknowledge. She will be preening at having made us keep our bonnets off on occasion so we could be leading lights!" She giggled at the thought and watched Jane's reflection turn momentarily lighter, a sly smile turning up one corner of her mouth.
"Did you hear the news, dear?" Elizabeth asked, turning the conversation to what she had initially intended to speak of upon entering the room.
"What news is that?"
Elizabeth let the question hang in the air as she deftly began pinning her sister's curls up. This answer required the proper suspense.
"Elizabeth Rose, what news?" Jane finally asked again in exasperation.
Elizabeth mimicked her mother's high-pitched delight perfectly when she said, "Netherfield Park is let at last!" She then added with a laugh, "And Mama is determined that it shall be a rich young man who is to be your soulmate. Isn't it thrilling?"
Jane dropped her head into her hands and Elizabeth yelped in surprise as she accidentally stabbed herself. Jane straightened quickly again at the noise and twisted around to look at her sister. The few curls that were left to pin up draped gracefully over Jane's shoulder to frame her soulmark. They looked quite artfully placed as opposed to unfinished. It was unfair, Elizabeth thought, that even in her disarray Jane was gorgeous.
"I am sorry for moving, Lizzy," Jane said upon seeing her sister rubbing at her wrist, "But I do think that you have received your fair compensation for teasing me so."
Elizabeth stuck her lip out in a pout, "I am injured while doing you service and you are complacent?"
Jane laughed at the look, "That is a very Lydia-like expression, Lizzy. Do you think she got it from you?"
Consternation, incredulity, and hilarity swept away Elizabeth's pout. "Jane, I do believe you are feeling feisty today. Shall it be swords at dawn or pistols then?" Elizabeth brandished the offending pin as a weapon, hoping for another laugh, but Jane shook her head and sighed as she turned back around.
Her countenance falling again, she said, "I think, Lizzy, that I am just tired of it all. What good has my serenity done? I am tired of feeling as if I must provide an absolute calm counterpoint to Mama and Lydia's vulgarity. It seems as if every time we are in company they rise to new heights of crassness, and I wish to stop this continual blushing of mortification!" Her voice rose at the end and Elizabeth stared in shock as her sister began to cry.
"What if the renter of Netherfield is my soulmate, Lizzy? What if he decides he does not want to be connected to such a family? At this point I could not even blame him-" Elizabeth stopped the rant with a gentle finger to her sister's lips. [2]
"Come, Jane," she said as she tugged her sister up and over to the window seat, "Surely this did not come out of nowhere, you must tell me what has happened." She gave Jane a gentle push to sit her down, then curled up in front of her and handed her a handkerchief.
Jane dabbed at her eyes, "Oh, Lizzy, I do not know if-"
"No, Jane, I insist. You must tell me."
Jane lowered her eyes, "I do not want to-"
"Speak evil of anyone. I know, Jane, but if Mama and Lydia have indeed embarrassed you this intensely, surely something must be very wrong." Elizabeth leaned forward, "You are not telling me to gossip, perhaps there is something we could do."
"Well," Jane drew the word out before nodding resolutely, "It began when we took the carriage in to Meryton yesterday. You recall, Mama wanted to go see if the new dresses she had ordered for Lydia and I to attend the assembly in were finished."
Elizabeth eyes lit with humor again, "Yes, I do remember. You were trying to hint that the dressmaker would be able to finish them sooner if she was not interrupted daily with questions about them."
Jane nodded, "Yes, well, we made it Mrs. Bell's shop where she again pulled out the dresses for Mama's inspection. Mama again insisted on a change to both Lydia's dress and mine. I have spoken to Mrs. Bell, and she is still following what I originally indicated I wanted, but Lydia's dress becomes more ridiculous by the day. Lydia finally recognized that fact and threw a fit declaring that she did not want the trimming she had previously argued and begged for-which was now already sewn on-and insulted Mrs. Bell dreadfully by implying that Mrs. Bell's taste was wanting. Two of Mrs. Bell's customer's fled the scene before being waited on, and one was Mrs. Long. So I am sure the whole town shall hear of it. We had barely made it out of the shop before Lydia saw one of the officer's we met at the dinner party at Goulding's. You remember Mr. Denny?"
Elizabeth nodded. Mr. Denny was a friendly sort and handsome even if he seemed a bit naïve and single-minded in his topics of conversation. Lydia had immediately gravitated towards him at the Gouldings, and Elizabeth had been pleased at how polite he had seemed in the face of Lydia's fluttering eyelashes and tossed curls.
"He was in the company of another we had not yet met, and, Lizzy, Lydia turned toward the carriage and removed her fichu in the middle of town!"
Elizabeth gasped in horror, a flush immediately rising even as she saw an answering color in her sister's cheeks.
"She handed it to me with a demand to put it in my reticule before rushing indecorously towards the officers with Mama following. She then proceeded to introduce herself to the new officer without waiting for Mr. Denny to do the office. Mr. Wickham, who has just joined the regiment as a Lieutenant, was gentlemanly enough to not respond in kind and Mr. Denny finished the introductions. Whereupon Mama proceeded to fawn over how handsome the new Lieutenant looked in his regimentals and Lydia then demanded his escort to the sweet shop. She did not even wait until he offered his arm but grabbed it and pressed herself up against him in a most unladylike fashion."
The red had not receded from Elizabeth's face, "Oh, Jane, how utterly horrifying. No wonder you were so out of sorts."
"I did not know what to do, Lizzy! I could not stay and watch Mama's approving smile and manner at such atrocious behavior. So, I pled a headache and told them that I would just meet them at home."
"You did not even need to make the headache up, did you, dearest?"
Jane laughed softly, "Not a bit, it had started before we even exited the dressmakers."
Elizabeth took Jane's hands in her own. "I am sorry you were put through that and astonished at how poor Mama and Lydia's actions were. Jane, we must tell Papa. Something must be done."
Jane shook her head.
"No. Truly. This has gotten out of hand. Papa must curb Lydia's behavior."
"Will he though, Lizzy?" Jane stared into Elizabeth's eyes, "Will he do anything?"
It was Elizabeth's turn to drop her gaze, "I am unsure. But if we do not try to rouse him, what are we to do?"
Jane shrugged, "And so you find me here. What are we to do indeed."
_-F&F-_
[1] On Soulmarks by Manuel Kant is widely considered to be the essential guide for basic knowledge of how soulmarks work. It is a rare person who cannot quote even a phrase or two from it, and in many schools and seminaries whole paragraphs are copied and memorized. Manuel Kant is also the author of the more esoteric The Critique Of Soulmates. While not as widely read, this work delves into the moral and spiritual meanings of soulmarks more than his first work, which is much more practical in origin.
[2] Jane's fear, while farfetched, was valid for there were instances where soul mates chose not to marry as Manuel Kant noted in his famous work On Soulmarks-
"While highly unusual, it is possible for those marked to decide against completing the bond. This decision is not made lightly for it is known that once a bond is rejected, neither of the marked will marry or have another chance at a match."
A/N: In my initial thoughts this was supposed to be a novelette. A nice fluffy short sickeningly sweet romance focused on Darcy and Elizabeth with Jane and Bingley in the periphery. Jane is turning out much stronger than I imagined. And Lydia who was supposed to stay markless is much worse.
