Five Daughters Out At Once - Cover Redux & Sneak Peek

Hello, dear Janeites! Tomorrow is Release Day for my eighth Austenesque novel, Five Daughters Out at Once, and I cannot wait to share this tale of romance and redemption with the world! Though I am always inclined to consider my most recent novel my favorite, this one holds a greater claim on my pride in that I have felt my own growth as a writer – I have poured my heart and soul into the prose in this book, so naturally I have obsessed over it by redesigning the cover a dozen times over. I am happy to reveal the final result of my labors….

Coming to Kindle April 7th

This Pride & Prejudice variation centers around two tragic fires – one in Meryton, and one at Rosings. When Mr. Collins comes to Longbourn to claim his inheritance and put his orphaned cousins in the hedgerows, a sympathetic Lady Catherine invites the five Bennet sisters to reside with her at Netherfield. Mr. Darcy and his sister Georgiana, their cousin Richard Fitzwilliam join their aunt at her new residence, and local spinster Charlotte Lucas has a role to play in the story as well. The web of delicate relationships grows more tangled when Lady Catherine hosts a house party, leading to appearances from other Austen novels: Emma, Sense & Sensibility, Mansfield Park, and Northanger Abbey.

While the conflicted courtship of Elizabeth Bennet & Fitzwilliam Darcy is the central storyline, the minor characters all have a chance to shine, whether romantically or otherwise. With crossovers from so many other Austen works, it seemed only natural to adapt some of the romantic arcs, to accompany the heroes and rakes that appear in this tale – and what similarities I have found between the Bennet sisters and their friends, and the other leading ladies of Austen….

 

Jane Bennet’s sweet relationship with a sister so different in disposition, and her misfortunes when walking in the rain, are highlighted by an emotionally fraught process of healing from heartbreak….

 

Elizabeth Bennet is given sound advice from an older, wiser friend – and harsh honesty from the man who loves her – but nonetheless exposes herself to folly while bonding with a scoundrel over their shared dislike of a certain someone….

 

Mary Bennet knows what she wants, and though she may seem timid and unromantic, she feels strongly enough about what is truly important to her….

 

Kitty Bennet may not be the sparkliest sister, and is often lost amidst the drama and antics of the other women in her family – she doesn’t need to be swept off her feet to give her heart away….

 

Lydia Bennet is ready for an end to the tedium of her youth, and rushes in head first to every chance at friendship, romance and excitement, until she gets a little too carried away….

 

Charlotte Lucas exemplifies inner beauty, but beneath her sweet and steady exterior, her heart is reawakened by a bittersweet reminder of her past, which her friendship with the ladies at Netherfield forces her to face….

 

Georgiana Darcy has no romance of her own to occupy her, but her mind is certainly more agreeably engaged when the people nearest and dearest to her captivate her shy sense of humor and wonder – she wants only a little encouragement to take up her pen and indulge her imagination in every possible flight….

 

Lady Catherine’s matrimonial-minded schemes begin with the best of intentions, though her plans quickly go awry, and while she must have her share in the conversation, taking charge of the Bennet sisters might call for some smelling salts….

 

Lady Catherine is as much in command as Netherfield as she is of Rosings in canon, and though the chaotic affection of the Bennet sisters drives her to distraction, she is characteristically compelled to be meddlesome in service to others. Why the Bennets? Not only does she share their grief at losing loved ones in a fire, she cherishes the same loathing of Mr. Collins – things go horribly awry for the heir to Longbourn in today’s excerpt from Five Daughters Out at Once….

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 Fitzwilliam Darcy and his sister Georgiana walked on either side of Lady Catherine de Bourgh; the only sound was their steps on the gravel path, and the silence was far from sanguine. The fair summer weather might have held more promise for the siblings had they remained home at Pemberley, but duty had drawn them to their aunt’s door.

Unsure of how to approach the situation, Darcy stared abstractedly at his idyllic surroundings. The midday sun warmed his face and sparkled on the surface of the small pond that lay just past the back garden of the dower house. Beyond the rows of vibrant flowers and tidy shrubs, Rosings Park loomed in the distance; the edifice was still under some reconstruction, though the work seemed nearly finished.

In contrast to their ebullient environs, Lady Catherine de Bourgh was clad all in black, her movements listless and processional. Her face was covered with a black lace veil, and her very being shrouded in torpid sadness. The grief had aged her, deepening the lines on her face and graying her once raven hair; her every step seemed an exertion she was not equal to.

As Darcy looked around, he caught his sister’s eye. Georgiana stared expectantly at him before schooling her countenance into a serene smile. “It is a lovely day,” she observed blandly. “I do love travelling at this time of year – perhaps now that your year of mourning is up, Aunt, you might go to the seaside with us again, or Bath perhaps….”

This was precisely the wrong thing to say. The last time Lady Catherine had travelled with her niece and nephew – when they had visited Ramsgate the previous summer – calamity had struck Rosings Park in her absence. She had been but a ghost of her former self since then, and though her former self had not always been agreeable company, her relations were nonetheless concerned at her prolonged and profound grief.

Darcy cleared his throat loudly. “A change of scenery may be most beneficial, or perhaps some alterations may be made here at the dower house – surely the activity of it would be enjoyable for you….” He scowled, struggling to make any further suggestion for fear of causing his aunt further dismay.

Lady Catherine peered up at him through the thin, sheer lace of her mourning veil, her lips curling up just the slightest bit. “Dear boy, you needn’t fret over me so. I see little merit in going anywhere, or doing anything.” She sighed heavily and looked away again.

Again Georgiana looked over their aunt’s shoulder at Darcy, all trepidation and tender concern. She knew what they must accomplish; it was a matter of such delicacy as to seem daunting even to Darcy. The new master of Rosings, a distant relation of the late Sir Lewis de Bourgh, had allowed Lady Catherine to reside in the dower house during her year of mourning, but that gentleman, a young widower, was lately remarried – an event which must bring about some changes at Rosings. His mother-in-law was soon to take Lady Catherine’s place in the dower house, just as soon as the newlyweds returned from their honeymoon in the Lake District. Lady Catherine would need to leave the estate she had presided over for thirty years, and Darcy hoped to coax her into doing so while sparing her the mortification of actually being forced out of her home.

“You have always loved Pemberley,” Darcy observed, trying to keep his voice even. “And the old cottage north of the house is wanting some repairs – I am sure you have made suggestions over the years of how it might be done up anew.”

A wistful sigh escaped Lady Catherine’s lips. “Your mother loved that little cottage,” she murmured. “Oh, my poor sister! We spoke of how we might share it one day, when you and Anne were wed, once you started a family of your own and filled Pemberley with grandchildren for us to dote upon.”

Darcy offered his aunt a sad, indulgent smile. He would never have married his cousin, had she lived, nor had his mother ever seemed to really desire it, but there was little use in protesting now, when the fantasy brought Lady Catherine some little comfort. “The cottage needs repairing, but it is yours, Aunt.”

“Oh! No, dear Fitzwilliam.” She patted his hand. “I should only think of what might have been.”

“Then stay at Pemberley with us,” Georgiana said gently. “Pemberley and Matlock are so close to one another, and Rosings at such a great distance.”

Lady Catherine wrinkled her nose with distaste. “There can be no distance too great between the Countess of Matlock and I.”

Darcy was on the point of revisiting the notion of a seaside holiday when there came a cry from somewhere in the distance. Lady Catherine turned her head slowly, betraying scarcely any interest in the shouts, as they became discernible. Darcy, however, groaned internally – the ridiculous parson was moving that way with ungainly haste.

As he reached the edge of the garden, Mr. Collins stopped a moment before continuing his approach at a more dignified pace – this was done more out of exertion than decorum, for his ill-featured face was red with exertion. Recalling the inanity of his previous meetings with the clergyman, Darcy prepared himself for more of the same loquacious servility. Instead Mr. Collins paused a moment to collect himself, squaring his shoulders back and tipping up his chin at the sight of Lady Catherine’s companions – he fixed them all with a look that must have been intended to convey haughty reserve, but only rendered him slightly more repellant.

“Lady Catherine,” he said with his customary reverence for his former patroness. “Mr. Darcy, Miss Darcy,” he added with a sweeping bow and simpering smile. “Forgive my intrusion – I came to take my leave of you.”

Lady Catherine began to look pained, and only blinked at him; Georgiana forced a smile and asked, “Do you mean to travel, Mr. Collins? We have been attempting to persuade my aunt to do the very same.”

Darcy bit back the urge to suggest the toady little fellow take an extended trip to the very devil, and instead glanced back at his aunt. She had shrunk back, as she was wont to do in Mr. Collins’ presence the past year, though she had once favored the sycophantic simpleton; Darcy led Lady Catherine by the arm to a nearby bench and helped her seat herself comfortably there, her black bombazine skirts splayed dramatically about her.

Mr. Collins pursued them with a strange sort of agitation. “I have come to say farewell, in fact – I know I need not make a formal resignation, for it was the new mistress of Rosings’ idea that I depart in all haste – but I still thought it a right thing that I should thank your ladyship for bestowing the living of Hunsford upon me in the first place. My sister has written only this morning of such a shocking circumstance – had it been known to me at the time, I might never have taken orders at all – but then she would never have met my new brother….”

As the blunderbuss babbled on, Darcy attempted to recall the reason his aunt had soured on the subordinate that had once given her such self-important satisfaction. The fatuous fellow was demonstrating perhaps more than his customary degree of dimwitted pomposity, but his manners had not always given Lady Catherine such apparent annoyance – indeed, when first Mr. Collins came to Hunsford, his aunt had been prodigiously proud of her humble follower.

Darcy realized he must have tuned out the parson’s prattle for a moment; Georgiana laid a hand on her brother’s arm, her eyes wide with alarm, and Lady Catherine stood and glared at Mr. Collins. “It is a most ill-conceived plan, sir. You had much better stay here, at least until your sister returns.”

“I think not,” Mr. Collins insisted – this might have been the first time he had ever contradicted Lady Catherine, whose eyes flashed with surprise. “I have been deprived of my inheritance long enough – I shall not wait any longer to claim what is mine by right. I think it the hardest thing in the world that my cousins should conspire against me in such a way – such unseemly scheming is most unladylike – and in my own family! These artful chits have deceived and disrespected me,” he cried, his voice growing shrill. “They have deceived the mistress of Rosings Park, for my sister informs me they boldly lied to her face about their so-called efforts to contact me after the fire, two years ago.”

Darcy looked up at once; his aunt went rigid beside him, and he moved to support her. She did not falter, however; though she paled at the mention of fire, Lady Catherine drew herself up to her full height, fairly towering over Mr. Collins. “I am sure there must be some misunderstanding,” she hissed.

“Misunderstanding indeed,” Mr. Collins railed, gesturing wildly. “That is just what Mrs. Entwhistle writes that they have said. Theft, my lady – they have robbed me of two years’ income!”

“Do not interrupt me,” Lady Catherine snapped, sounding more like herself than she had done in over a year. “The misunderstanding I refer to is my own. Surely I could not have selected for my parson a man who would turn five poor orphans out into the hedgerows at a moment’s notice. I am sure I must have misheard your intentions toward them, sir.”

“What would you have me do?” Mr. Collins huffed at Lady Catherine, his expression wavering between his habitual obsequiousness, and the unearned conceit of his new status.

Though Darcy could not disagree with his aunt’s impulse to chastise the odious little man for such uncharitable notions, he could not like to see her so agitated. “Do not distress yourself, madam,” he said, trying by gentle measures to coax her back to her place on the bench.

Lady Catherine only shook her elbow to be free of Darcy’s grasp, and she stepped closer to Mr. Collins. “I would have you act the part of a gentleman, and endeavor to deserve the distinction to which you presume to aspire. You once sought my counsel and acknowledged my superior discernment, but I begin to see it was all false modesty, all superficial displays, to be abandoned the moment fortune turns on me and smiles upon you instead.”

So imperious was her tone that Mr. Collins began to sputter and back away from her, even as she came alive again before Darcy and Georgian’s astonished eyes. “Oh – well – yes – but of course – that is, we have ever been friends,” he stammered. “Of course I should value your counsel as I have ever done, though perhaps – what I mean is – well….”

Lady Catherine crossed her arms and glowered imperiously at him. “Well?”

“As a landed gentleman, such as I am now – fortunate indeed, as you say….” Still Mr. Collins backed away, cowering somewhat, his righteous indignation now completely dissolved in the face of Lady Catherine’s unexpected outburst. “My new brother, Mr. Entwhistle, surely, will agree with me on the matter….”

“Your new brother Mr. Entwhistle has made enough of a cake of himself already – you needn’t involve him in any other matters that are obviously beyond his competency. I will accompany you to Hertfordshire first thing on the morrow, Mr. Collins – for now I must bid you good afternoon; I am quite put out.”