Welcome
to Lydia’s Bennet’s story.
If
you’ve read Pride & Prejudice, you know Lydia is the youngest of the five
Bennet sisters. Like her siblings she has little chance of making a good
marriage. Still, Lydia is not your typical heroine. She doesn’t cry over her
hopeless future. She sets about to change it, without concern to propriety or
decorum. Lydia falls to the charms of
Wickham when she’s sixteen, certain a marriage to the handsome fellow is the
beginning of her fabulous life. Wickham’s many failings reveal themselves in
short order and Lydia realizes she’ll have to secure a better future for them
both.
At
each stop, I’ll share a new bit of detail from Pride & Prejudice that
touches upon Lydia’s story.
In
Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice: When
Wickham first arrived in Meryton, he and Elizabeth Bennet were instantly
attracted to one another. However, Elizabeth’s aunt cautioned her to “not
involve herself or to endeavor to involve him in an affection which the want of
a fortune would make so very imprudent.”
Thus
when Wickham turned his attentions to another young lady, Elizabeth defended
his need to find a young lady with a decent dowry.
It
was not until Darcy revealed his version of Wickham’s past to Eliza in a letter
that she came to have doubts about the charming fellow.
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Elizabeth Bennet told her story in Pride and Prejudice. Now Lydia Bennet
tells her side of her whirlwind marriage to Lieutenant Wickham. The youngest of
five daughters with a pittance of a dowry and no hope for a good marriage,
Lydia feared her life was doomed from the start. She learns how to set herself
apart from her sisters and gain the attention of young men. She hones charm and
flirtation to an art. Willing to take risks, she manages to acquire a
substantial dowry and marries her beloved Wickham. Yet, her life remains on the
brink until she gains the patronage of a wealthy Duke trapped in a loveless
marriage.
“Lydia was Lydia still; untamed,
unabashed, wild, noisy and fearless.”
—quote by Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
A
unique
EXCERPT
The loud clearing of a throat brought their attention to the
frowning butler at the door.
Lydia smiled at the man. “I know you will miss me, Mr. Tims,
but Wickham and I are getting married.”
The man blinked twice. “At this hour, miss?”
She laughed and nodded. “We are going to Gretna Green. I
have left Harriet a note, so don’t say a word. I want her to be surprised by my
letter.”
The butler seemed to recover from his shock. “Have you a
carriage to take you?”
She grimaced. “No. We are going to do that now.”
“Allow me to handle the matter.”
“Thank you, Tims. You are a good man.”
Wickham feared the butler planned to alert Colonel Forster.
“That is not necessary…”
The butler smiled. “Oh, but it is, sir. I would dearly love
to send the young miss off…” After a brief pause, he added, “In style.”
When the butler left the room, Lydia turned to Wickham. “I
now regret all the trouble I’ve caused the poor fellow. That was most obliging
of him, do you not think?”
Wickham pulled her close so she would not see the rolling of
his eyes. He could only hope the butler was indeed getting a carriage so Lydia
would leave before the Forsters could bring her to her senses.
Five minutes later, a post chaise with four strong horses
waited at the door.
“Is this the best you could do, Tims?” Lydia asked as she
climbed in the large carriage with a forward and backward seat.
“At such a late hour, with no advance warning, we are lucky
I found any carriage at all.” He then looked at Wickham. “I wish you the best
of luck, sir.”
“The same to you.” Wickham could only imagine the hell the
man would catch when they finally realized the butler had assisted Wickham in
carrying away the supply funds.
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More About the Author
Liza O’Connor’s
favorite books are Pride & Prejudice and Douglas Adams’ four book trilogy,
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Go figure…
Raised in the
southern mid-section of U.S., Liza escaped to the East Coast once out of
college. She’s worked as a journalist, a radio DJ, a security guard, a stock
broker, a strategist, and a business solutions consultant to name a few of her
many occupations. Again…go figure.
She learned to
fly planes, jump out of planes, hang-glide, kayak and scuba dive, to name of
few of her ‘let’s kill Liza’ moments. However, her favorite activity is to hike
with her dog Jess among the shaved mountains of NJ.
Here are additional Historical Novels by Liza O’Connor
A Humorous Sleuth Series: The
Adventures of Xavier & Vic
The brilliant English Sleuth, Xavier
Thorn, takes on a cheeky apprentice who turns out to be a young woman. Vic
prefers to dress as a young man so she can live a more interesting life in the
Late Victorian era. Overtime, Xavier makes her his partner in all ways.
The Troublesome
Apprentice — The greatest sleuth in Victorian
England hires a young man who turns out to be a young woman.
The Missing
Partner — Opps! The greatest sleuth in
Victorian England goes missing, leaving Vic to rescue him, a suffragette, and
about 100 servants. Not to mention an eviscerating cat. Yes, let’s not mention
the cat.
A Right to Love — A
Romantic spin off from the Adventures of Xavier & Vic. The gypsy pirate
Jacko falls in love with a compromised lady of high society.
The
Mesmerist — The
Mesmerist can control people from afar and make them murder for her. Worse yet,
Xavier Thorn has fallen under her spell.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT
Investigate
these sites:
Look what showed up early! Is it already Tuesday in UK?
ReplyDeleteYup, it already was. :P
DeleteAnother great post. I like hearing about Lydia.
ReplyDelete