Cads & Capers: A Pride and Prejudice Variation Duology

*Cads & Capers is a Pride and Prejudice Variation Duology comprised of two previously published Austen-inspired novellas. *

FITZWILLIAM DARCY, FEELING OVERWHELMING DESPAIR at the finality of Elizabeth Bennet's rejection at Hunsford,decides he must accept the fate that duty has dictated to him--a fate which includes proposing to his cousin Miss Anne de Bourgh. His cousins Colonel Fitzwilliam and Viscount Saye are aghast at Darcy's decision and do their best to thwart him, with cajolery, threats, and bribery all failing to move him. Saye is certain that there is no hope left for him, until the colonel suggests a daring plan: one last chance to reunite Darcy and Elizabeth, and one last opportunity for love.

ELIZABETH BENNET, ELATED BY HER SISTER’S ENGAGEMENT to Mr Bingley, is undeniably perplexed when Colonel Fitzwilliam, Lord Saye, and Mr Darcy all appear in Hertfordshire for the wedding festivities. Even more baffling are the actions of the men, alternately vexing, charming, and in some ways, endearing.

BUT NOTHING IS AS IT SEEMS in this battle of wits, where the stakes are true love, in Hertfordshire. Everyone has their wagers placed, waiting to see whose plan for happily ever after will prevail.

A year after his hopes of securing Elizabeth Bennet’s heart are dashed, Fitzwilliam Darcy brings his sister Georgiana to London for her first Season. Believing he could never make Elizabeth love him—for so she emphatically told his aunt—he is mortified to come upon her while visiting an art exhibition with his sister. He makes a hasty escape before he can be seen. Or so he thinks.

Having survived a disastrous confrontation with Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Elizabeth Bennet is devastated, yet not surprised, when Mr Darcy never returns to Hertfordshire, for she had just come to understand her love for him. Determined to put him out of her mind, she accedes to her mother’s instruction to go to London and find a husband.

The highlight of the London Season is an art exhibition, where everybody who is anybody is determined to be seen, Elizabeth and her aunt included. Alas, it is also the location of a couch upon which much gossip is shared, confidences are overheard, and misunderstandings and mischief are created in abundance, as Darcy and Elizabeth soon discover first hand. Will they be able to untangle the web of misapprehension they are tangled in before one of them accepts someone new?

Categories:

• Charles Bingley does not marry Jane


• Altered results of Lady Catherine's confrontation (she lied to D about E's response)


• Longer or more difficult routes to resolution


• Matchmaker Georgiana


• Colonel Fitzwilliam interferes


• Other humourous tales


• Story set in London

Non-Canonical Relationships:

• Jane Bennet / ORIGINAL Character


• Mary Bennet / ORIGINAL Character


• Catherine Bennet / ORIGINAL Character


• Georgiana Darcy / ORIGINAL Character


• Colonel Fitzwilliam / ORIGINAL Character


• Charles Bingley / ORIGINAL Character