My Beginning With Mr. Darcy - Book One Read online

  My Beginning with Mr. Darcy

  Book One

  Lauren King

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. This book is the copyrighted property of the author and may not be reproduced, copied, or distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form.

  Copyright © 2014 by Lauren King

  All rights reserved.

  Dear Readers,

  This is a variation of Pride and Prejudice written with creative imaginings of scenarios that the main characters could experience. This book is straightforward in its language usage and in relaying its story; it has no intentions of duplicating anyone else’s style of writing. I have taken a couple of liberties with a few things that may not have been prevalent in the Regency Era. I hope I do not offend anyone.

  Enjoy!

  Lauren King

  My Beginning with Mr. Darcy

  Book One

  Table of Contents

  ****************************

  Chapter 1 - Longbourn – October, 1810

  Chapter 2 - Thursday, October 23rd – Darcy House

  Chapter 3 - Sunday, November 2nd – Darcy House

  Chapter 4 - Saturday, November 15th – Darcy House

  Chapter 5 - Monday, November 17th – Gardiner Residence

  Chapter 6 - Sunday, November 23rd

  Chapter 7 - Saturday, December 6th

  Chapter 8 - Tuesday, December 16th

  Chapter 9 - Saturday, December 20th

  Chapter 10 - Tuesday, December 23rd

  Chapter 11 - Wednesday, December 24th

  Chapter 12 - Friday, December 26th

  Chapter 13 - Wednesday, December 31st

  Chapter 14 - Friday, January 2nd, 1811

  Chapter 15 - Monday, January 5th

  Chapter 16 - Saturday, January 10th

  Chapter 17 - Wednesday, January 14th

  My Beginning with Mr. Darcy

  Book One

  CHAPTER 1

  ***************

  LONGBOURN – OCTOBER, 1810

  “Jane will you write to me at Uncle’s and tell me all about this Friday’s assembly?”

  “Of course, Lizzy; I will tell you all the details. I wish you could come and then go to Uncle’s afterwards.”

  “It sounds like Uncle really needs me to help him with his business accounts. I do not want to make it difficult for him and have him feel guilty about asking for my help. At least, this is only an assembly and not a formal ball.”

  “You are right; Uncle rarely asks anything of us. I will miss having you with me to enjoy the assembly.”

  “Well, you will just have to give me all the details of it in your letter.” Elizabeth says cheerily.

  “I will; I hear that our neighbor is a bachelor. He has two sisters with him, along with one brother-in-law and a gentleman friend. One sister is married and one is not. They all will attend the assembly. I will include all the details for you, Lizzy.”

  “I hope our neighbor is young, handsome, and falls madly in love with you, Jane. Be sure to give me those details too.” Both sisters giggle like they usually do.

  LONDON – OCTOBER, 1810

  London has many distractions; Elizabeth could not be bored here. The thing she misses the most is the quiet morning walks in the green fields of Longbourn which she knows very well. London is nice, but there is not much greenery around. There are some very nice parks, though.

  Elizabeth likes staying with her Uncle Edward and Aunt Madeline Gardiner who are very kind, generous, and good to her. They get along very well with each other; there are always sensible and logical conversations instead of the chaos that fills Longbourn when her Mother is around.

  Mr. Gardiner has asked Elizabeth to help him organize and update all the accounting books for his Import and Export businesses that have fallen behind because his accountant has fallen ill for the last four weeks. Mrs. Gardiner has tried to help, but with three small children needing her attention, she cannot put any more time into it.

  ONE WEEK LATER

  For Elizabeth’s entire first week, working on Mr. Gardiner’s accounting books was slow; she had to adapt to her Uncle’s accountant’s ways – Mr. Clarke.

  By the middle of the second week, Elizabeth is able to audit the books much faster, and she notices a trend; therefore, she goes back to the last few months to compare the money collected. She is alarmed!

  There is money missing. She checks her numbers thrice; the invoices and the bank receipts all point to the same end result. There are 20 pounds missing each week for each of the first two weeks of August; that is already 40 pounds! She has to tell her Uncle. Oh goodness! Mr. Clarke has been embezzling money from her Uncle? Elizabeth fears that she has made some sort of accounting mistake. This is not a small sum of money, and she does not want to accuse anyone of such a bad deed.

  She wants to ascertain if this embezzlement is also occurring on the Exports side, thus she does some initial evaluations and comparisons. Oh God! There is embezzlement with the Exports also! Oh Lord! That is about 80 pounds for two weeks of August. Elizabeth quickly goes to her Uncle to explain everything; she presents all her evidence to him. Elizabeth requests that Mrs. Gardiner come to look at the books to make sure that there is not an innocent explainable mistake somewhere that Elizabeth has accidentally missed.

  After Mrs. Gardiner examines the evidence, she also agrees a lot of money is missing. Elizabeth decides to finish up as much of the accounts as fast as possible to assess how much money has been embezzled by Mr. Clarke. All three of them are angry and disgusted with Mr. Clarke. They thought he was trustworthy since he has worked for Mr. Gardiner for four years, now.

  “But that is exactly how he was able to embezzle your money, Uncle. He got you to trust him from the beginning, and then he started to steal from you after he knew all the ways of your accounting. I’m sorry for you, Uncle.” Elizabeth is angry and disappointed when she imparts her opinion on the subject.

  “You did me a great service, Lizzy. I cannot thank you enough. I only hope that I will be able to get it back from him. Now, as soon as we are certain of the amount that he has embezzled, I will approach him.” Mr. Gardiner states anxiously. He doubts he will get any money back.

  “Should you not make sure if he is still truly ill, Uncle? What if his sickness is a ruse? Do you know where he lives and if he is still there?”

  “Oh Lord! You are correct, Lizzy. I will have someone discreetly check on him and also covertly keep an eye on his whereabouts. If he is not truly sick, then I feel that he will skip out with my money.” Mr. Gardiner yells out unexpectedly and loudly while he pounds on the desk once. “Bloody hell!” This sudden, loud exclamation and thud startle Elizabeth and Mrs. Gardiner.

  “I am sorry for being so angry, Madeline. I am outraged. I trusted him, treated him well, and this is what he does to me. I even let him borrow some money when he said he had some trouble with his family. Goodness, I was too gullible!” Mr. Gardiner states with regret and anger.

  “Edward dear, do not be too hard on yourself for not recognizing awful people like him. I also thought he was very dependable and trustworthy. If you think about it, then he would have to be like that, outwardly, in order to steal this much money. If it was not for his sickness and being away from his work, then Lizzy would not have had the chance to look over the accounts and figure out his embezzlement. Let us all stay calm and
find out more about his whereabouts.” Mrs. Gardiner suggests calmly. She is very angry too, but she has to keep her wits about her to think clearly.

  “I think he was truly sick because he sounded and looked awful for a couple days before he left here that last day. I do not think that he would risk not coming to work and having someone else check the books, if he could help it. I think he really is sick. Furthermore, his wife came and spoke to me last week about his illness; that is why I had to rush you here, Lizzy. Nonetheless, I will look into his condition and find out as much as I can. How much more do you have to do, Lizzy? I am not rushing you; we just need to figure out the numbers as accurately as possible. I do not want there to be any mistakes so that he can try to refute us on it. I am extremely furious with him. He fooled me, skillfully.” Mr. Gardiner shakes his head in disbelief.

  “I still have two weeks’ worth for both the Imports and Exports for August; I will continue right now and work as fast as I can. Uncle, you should be very surreptitious about your investigation of him because if he finds you investigating him, then he may hide your money in a manner where we will not be able to recover it. We need him to be unaware about our knowledge and be relaxed about the money that he stole so that he does not hide it more carefully.” Elizabeth proposes cleverly.

  “You are absolutely correct, again. Just do your best, Lizzy.” Mr. Gardiner turns to Mrs. Gardiner and says, “Madeline, will you stay here with Lizzy until I come back? I am going to hire a private investigator immediately and have him watch Mr. Clarke just in case he gets better and decides to leave his job for good and take our money permanently.”

  “Most certainly, Edward, but please be extra careful and do be as furtive as possible. We will wait for you here. However, if you are not back before it becomes too dark, then I think Lizzy and I should head for home with our driver.”

  “That is good thinking, dear. Yes, you both should be on your way home before it gets dark. Remember to have someone in my offices escort both of you to our carriage. Do not wait for me. I will head home directly.”

  Mr. Gardiner leaves and Mrs. Gardiner helps organize everything for Elizabeth to process and evaluate. Elizabeth is alarmed to see the amount of the embezzlement increase.

  That night at supper, Elizabeth suggests that she looks over all the books for as long as Mr. Clarke has been employed. She will finish the last two weeks and then go backwards. The three of them discuss what Mr. Gardiner has done in regards to Mr. Clarke.

  “I have hired a very discreet private investigator to keep track of all of Mr. Clarke’s whereabouts. Tomorrow, I will have some news about how sick Mr. Clarke truly is, and we will continue to keep track of him. Thus far, how much money did you find missing, Lizzy?”

  “Oh, Uncle; he has stolen minimally 80 pounds already, but I have not finished all of August, yet. If we estimate and use August’s numbers, then he has stolen about 160 pounds every month. However, since we do not know when he actually started embezzling, we will not know the amount until I audit every month that he has worked for you. Lord, I hate him! Taking someone else’s hard-earned money is just despicable! I will work all day tomorrow and be as fast and as accurate as possible. If Aunt helps me organize again, then it will go faster.”

  “That is good, Lizzy. Your Aunt will be able to help you as much as you need. Dear, will that be a problem with any of your duties?”

  “Edward, even if there are some household duties, they are not as important as me helping Lizzy with this. This is our first priority.”

  Elizabeth and Mrs. Gardiner are both busy at Mr. Gardiner’s office all of Friday from the break of dawn until dusk. The private investigator has found out that Mr. Clarke is sick with some lung and breathing issues. He is not recovering as fast as he could, but he is not getting worse, either.

  “Well, at least we know that he is not about to leave town with our money,” says Mr. Gardiner.

  “I’m sorry to say this about a very sick man, but are physicians not very expensive if they are constantly treating a very sick patient, Uncle? We need to approach him soon before he uses all your money.”

  “You are right, Lizzy. I will approach him on Monday and tell him to return the money he stole from me or else I will report this to the authorities immediately. With all the evidence we have against him, he is sure to be found guilty. He will go to debtor’s prison, and if he is very sick, then he will die in prison.” Mr. Gardiner says sternly.

  “Uncle, you may want to entice him to give up the money because if he feels that he will be going to prison anyways and possibly die in prison, then he may not give up the money. At that point, you will get nothing back. It is better, at least, to get something back than nothing at all. Maybe you can appeal to his good side and say that you forgive his transgressions because he was having problems with his family or something of that nature. That way he could feel more at ease to return your money. Maybe, you can tell him that you will not report him to the authorities if he gives your money back.” Elizabeth’s ideas flow out easily; she just wants to help her Uncle and Aunt as much as she can with this awful problem.

  “Or maybe you can entice him by saying that you will not ruin his reputation with this information so that it will not affect his wife and children’s reputation in the future. Or you can say that you will not go after his wife and children for the payments of his embezzlement.” Mrs. Gardiner interjects her ideas.

  “Yes, you both are right. They are all good ideas with which to approach him. I will assess what he tells me, and then decide what to say. I hope he admits that he has stolen from me and make this problem easier to resolve.” Mr. Gardiner only wants his money back; he does not want to have the authorities throw a sick man into prison to die.

  SATURDAY MORNING – GARDINER RESIDENCE

  “Lizzy, your Uncle has already left for his office. He says that you should take today off and do all the things we need to do to get your attire in order for the Allston’s Ball and the theater. Then, we can go for a stroll in Hyde Park. Afterwards, we can rest before Mr. Wright’s dinner party this evening. If you take the day off, then we will not have to rush.”

  “I can go and do some work for Uncle for a few hours before we go see about my gowns today; I do not mind, Aunt.” Elizabeth volunteers sincerely.

  “That is quite all right, Lizzy. Let us stay with your Uncle’s suggestion. You have been working very hard; you need to rest today. I hope you know that we immensely appreciate your willingness to help us with all your hard work.”

  “You are quite welcome, Aunt. I am glad that I can help.”

  Mrs. Gardiner smiles cheerfully upon hearing Elizabeth’s comment. “So are we set to go then?”

  “Yes, let us go. I will be happy to see Hyde Park again.” Elizabeth smiles gleefully.

  At one of the famous dress shops on Bond Street – Mrs. Templeton’s – Elizabeth and her Aunt have fun deciding on their dresses. When both ladies finally finish their shopping and gown fittings, they enjoy their tea and pastries at a renowned pastry shop. Afterwards they head out to Hyde Park for a leisurely stroll before going home. As they walk around the park, they openly talk about many different subjects that interest them. Elizabeth and Mrs. Gardiner have always been close; they enjoy each other’s company anytime they are together. They stop at a bench area near where the swans are swimming.

  “Lizzy, I see one of my friend’s mother and her grandchildren over there; I will greet her and come back. Will you be okay here for a few minutes by yourself? I will not be too long. Mrs. Wilson is older, and I do not want her to have to walk too far over here.”

  “I will be fine, Aunt. You go visit with your friend; I will remain right here.”

  Elizabeth sits at the bench and watches the people around the park. There are kids chasing each other and some are feeding the ducks and swans, peacefully. Elizabeth sees a young lady and an older lady walking and talking cheerily with each other. The young girl looks no older than six and ten. She is well d
ressed, and anyone can decipher the high quality of her clothing. She is very cute and blond. They approach the small pond where the swans swim; the young girl feeds the swans with some bread. At this point, they are about ten feet away from Elizabeth.

  Suddenly, four little boys come charging past Elizabeth. They run very fast while joking around without looking; they bump into the older lady. The older lady grabs onto the young girl while shrieking. The older lady’s grasp is not enough to prevent her stumbling into the pond; she falls on one knee and screams out in pain. Her dress is mostly wet from the waist down. The young girl also stumbles into the pond and falls. However, she does not hit her body on the ground because Elizabeth arrives just in time to grab onto her right arm. Elizabeth was up and ran towards them as soon as she saw the boys bump the older lady. Both Elizabeth’s and the young girl’s dress is mostly wet from the knees down.

  “Oh my goodness, are you alright, Miss?” Elizabeth asks urgently while pulling the young girl out of the pond. Afterwards, she rushes back in to help the older lady. With great concern, she says, “Ma’am, let me help you. Can you stand?”

  “Thank you, Miss. My left knee hurts a bit because I fell on it.”

  “Let me help you stand, then, but do not stand too abruptly. Lean on me, and I will help you out of the water.” Elizabeth instructs straightforwardly.

  “Thank you, Miss. Thank you very much for your kindness.”

  “Mrs. Annesley, let me help you too,” says the young girl while she approaches Elizabeth and the older lady.

  “Miss, I think it will be easier if she just leans on me so that I can balance her to help her walk; otherwise, she may slip and fall, and then all of us may fall into the pond.” Elizabeth explains frankly and logically.