Elizabeth's Mistake: Darcy and Elizabeth What If? #1 (Volume 1)

Elizabeth’s Mistake: Darcy and Elizabeth What If? #1 Novella length (about half the length of a romance novel). What if Mr Wickham were already married when he arrived in Meryton? When Mr Darcy meets Mr Wickham in Meryton, he quickly finds himself growing jealous of Wickham’s attentions to Elizabeth, and he becomes suspicious of Wickham’s sudden wealth. When he discovers that Wickham’s fortune comes from a rich wife, he demands that Wickham tells Elizabeth the truth. But when Wickham refuses, and Mr Darcy tells her himself, Elizabeth does not believe him . . . Excerpt: ‘You have come here pretending to be free when you are nothing of the kind,’ said Mr Darcy. You have led the people of Meryton and Miss Elizabeth Bennet on —’ ‘Ah! So that is what all this is about,’ said Mr Wickham insolently. ‘You don’t care about the people of Meryton, you care about Elizabeth.’ ‘She is a gently born young woman and she is entitled to your respect,’ growled Darcy. His hands gripped the reins so hard that his knuckles turned white. Those same knuckles longed to knock Wickham from his horse. The two of them had often fought as boys. They had been taught how to wrestle and to box, and they had often tried their strength against each other. Darcy longed to do the same now. At the back of his mind he was aware he was obeying a primitive instinct to fight over a woman but he did not care. The sight of Wickham smirking there in front of him made his blood boil.