Something More Substantial

In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet meets Fitzwilliam Darcy in Meryton, where Mr. Darcy's concern for his sister and general reticence leads him to insult her. But what if Mr. Darcy did not meet her there, instead making her acquaintance in other circumstances more favorable to their understanding?

When she visits Rosings Park and her friend, Charlotte Collins, Elizabeth does so with no notion that Fitzwilliam Darcy even exists, for Netherfield Park remained empty the previous autumn. As is his custom, Mr. Darcy comes to Rosings in his cousin's company, and there he meets a young lady unlike any he has ever met.

Rosings itself is not a place where he can conduct any sort of campaign to win the fair maiden's heart, for his aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, is watchful and determined Darcy will marry her daughter. Despite this interference, Darcy eventually leaves Kent, secure in the knowledge that Miss Elizabeth is a woman he would like to come to know better. The question he is unable to answer is when he can meet her again, for their positions in society are oceans apart, and there is little opportunity for chance meetings.

But fate has other plans, for not only do they meet again, but they also encounter each other in a place that allows their love to blossom. Only the small matters of his family expectations and her condition in life stand in his way. Yet Darcy is determined to pursue Miss Elizabeth, certain in the knowledge she will make him the happiest of men.