Jane & Lizzy and Elinor & Marianne - Trading Places to Heal Broken Hearts....

Hello, dear readers!

Today I am announcing my seventeenth Austen variation, and like half of the novels that came before it, The Sister’s Holiday is a mashup! Inspired by one of my favorite winter films, “The Holiday,” this tale presents the Bennet sisters as cousins to the Dashwoods, and the two eldest of each decide to exchange places after three of the four ladies spend Christmas trying to mend their broken hearts.

After a series of shocking discoveries, the Dashwood sisters lose their enthusiasm for visiting London; Jane and Elizabeth, unexpectedly finding themselves well-dowered, accompany Mrs. Jennings to town instead, while their cousins soothe their heartache amongst the affectionate chaos of Longbourn. Though the two pairs of sisters spend most of the book apart, today’s first glimpse at the novel is an excerpt of their Christmas preparations together, as they commiserate over their romantic woes….

 Excerpt:

As Mrs. Bennet continued her effusions, Elizabeth smiled at Marianne and Elinor. “Jane and I decided upon a little plan with Papa, to get our mothers and younger sisters out of the house for a little while, so that we may speak privately together. I cannot promise we shall have an abundance of privacy in the coming weeks, so we must make the most of it.”

Jane smiled tightly at their cousins and whispered, “We have already been to the village and back. Lizzy and I took the cart and loaded it up with greenery; we have hidden it in the stables, and wish to surprise Mamma by decorating the house festively while she is in the village. It is a tradition Papa started many years ago.”

Marianne gave a wistful sigh. “We used to do the same thing to surprise our Papa.” She nodded her approbation at the plan.

“Unless you would prefer to see the village and visit the shops?” Jane looked doubtfully at Elinor.

“No, I know we all have much to say to one another,” Elinor murmured. She flinched at a shrill laugh from Mrs. Bennet as she compared the heights of young Julia Gardiner and Margaret Dashwood, who were about the same age. The two girls assessed one another curiously as Mrs. Bennet promised them such fine fripperies to be gotten in the village. 

Mr. Bennet was ready to shoo all the ladies from the house, though as his wife and Mrs. Gardiner led the younger girls out, he detained his sister. “Brandy, Maggie?”

Marianne and Elinor watched their uncle lead their mother away with a comforting arm around her shoulders before they followed Jane and Elizabeth out to the stables to retrieve the Christmas greenery. “Poor Mamma,” Marianne sighed. “I know she worries for us, as much as for her own sorrows.”

“I daresay she refrains from shouting her lamentations about the house at every hour,” Jane said with a sigh. Her eyes went wide and she raised her fingers to her lips. “Oh! That was so horrid; I do not know why I said such a thing.”

“I do,” Elizabeth said drily. “Aunt Maggie may suffer in silence, but Mamma has not passed a single hour without loudly repining the departure of Mr. Bingley, since we heard of it. It has been four weeks of her increasingly dire prognostications that we shall end in the hedgerows. It is hardly fair to Jane.” 

Elizabeth roughly grabbed a hefty armful of greenery and began carrying it into the house, as her companions did the same. It was not lost on her that the efforts of decorating were to be for the very woman she was complaining about, but she was determined that the activity would cheer them. They laid everything down in the foyer, and Jane retrieved a box of red and gold ribbons for them to hang the holly and fir boughs throughout the house. 

Marianne pressed Jane’s hand in hers. “You poor thing, Jane! You look truly wretched. But Mamma is not as discreet as you imagine, and Margaret has no sense of decency at all in mentioning Edward constantly - she even told Mrs. Jennings of him - well, she told him of a Mr. F.”

Elinor looked away, fidgeting with a garland. “He made a favorable impression on all of us; it is her right to speak well of him if she chooses.”

Marianne rolled her eyes and looked to Elizabeth for support. “It is unpardonable! I am sorry if your mother is much the same, Jane.”

Elizabeth arched an eyebrow at her younger cousin. “I expect you would be decrying the entire male species, if you had not been invited to London for a reunion with your Mr. Willoughby.”

“Probably,” Marianne admitted, smiling in spite of herself. “As it happens, I could punch Edward on the nose, and your Mr. Bingley, too, Jane.”

Though Jane and Elinor required a little coaxing before either would admit that they were in need of consolation, the four young ladies passed the next hour speaking of their recent heartaches. And though Marianne now looked forward to a happy reunion with her beau, she recounted every moment of despair she had felt since she had parted with him.

Elizabeth had little to contribute beyond her affection, and her keen eye for decorating the house with holly. She had never been crossed in love, and had borne the news of Mr. Wickham’s sudden pursuit of Miss King with such nonchalance that Marianne declared her perfectly heartless.

Elizabeth was resolved that they should vent their spleen and then make way for happier tidings, and she bore their teasing cheerfully. It was a relief, though she would not own to it, that she had discovered herself completely indifferent to Mr. Wickham’s mercenary defection.

When their task was done, Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Dashwood came and congratulated the girls on their excellent decorations. It was evident that Mrs. Dashwood had been weeping, and even Mr. Bennet looked unusually somber. Tears glistened in his eyes as he sipped at his brandy and admired the holiday greenery. “Very good; my dear Fanny will be pleased.”

He held up a little sprig of mistletoe and gave his sister a quick peck on the cheek before doing the same to his daughters and nieces. “Well now, no more long faces here! We must all put aside the sorrows of the last year, for we have a party to attend at Lucas Lodge this evening. And if you young ladies are quite finished whispering secrets about your erstwhile lovers, you may find the evening’s festivities a pleasant remedy for romantic yearning. You are to meet my cousin Collins, who will in three days’ time make Miss Lucas the stalwart and resigned bride every lady hopes to be.”

When Mrs. Bennet and her companions returned from the village, she gave every proper exultation over the festive greenery before whipping them all into a frenzy of preparations for the party at Lucas Lodge. The Dashwood ladies returned with Mrs. Jennings to Purvis Lodge so that they might dress, and the Bennets commenced their own rowdy routine of animated toilette.

“Shall I survive the evening, do you think?” Elizabeth grinned devilishly in the mirror at Jane as she pinned some silver silk flowers into her hair. “Mamma will grow crosser with me every time Charlotte is congratulated for marrying our idiotic cousin.”

“I am sure you will be disappointed if she does not,” Jane teased her. “But since you have had no heartbreak of your own, I shall not pity you a jot.”

Elizabeth smiled sadly. “Aunt Gardiner has promised to intercede if Mamma complains too much about Mr. Bingley’s departure. It has been nearly four weeks!”

Jane fidgeted with her gown as she stared at her reflection. “He will be forgotten, in time. Ere long I am sure I shall be as indifferent as you are to poor Mr. Wickham.”

“He is not to be poor much longer,” Elizabeth drawled. She went to stand beside her sister, taking in the sight of herself. They looked very fine, though there was nobody to impress but their oldest friends and a few officers who could never be serious prospects.

“I wonder if there is something wrong with me,” Elizabeth sighed. “Marianne is three years younger than me, and Elinor is nearly a year younger than I am. They have both fallen in love, and you had your heart captured for the first time when you were sixteen. I am twenty, and I have never properly fancied anybody.”

“You prefer to argue with every gentleman you meet,” Jane said with a playful grin. “Perhaps next time you meet a handsome man of fortune, you will not quarrel with him at every turn, and besmirch his name about the village.”

“If only I should meet a man who deserved better!” Elizabeth laughed and shook her head. “It is a shame that the only handsome and intelligent gentleman I ever encountered was such a boorish cad.”

“Mr. Bingley is intelligent, too!”

Elizabeth cocked her head to one side and frowned at Jane. “If he had any sense at all, my dearest, he would not have left Hertfordshire without you. Another time, Jane, you ought to consider adopting a little of my spikiness, until your natural sweetness has been earned.”

“Perhaps I shall, if you will attempt a little of my kindness,” Jane said, twisting her lips in a bittersweet smile. “But who knows if there will ever be a next time.”

“We might both take Papa’s advice, and upon encountering Mr. Collins thank our lucky stars there are no gentlemen to plague us.”

But there was no gentleman to plague Charlotte Lucas that evening, either. She was greatly dismayed as she informed Elizabeth that her betrothed had failed to arrive as expected at Lucas Lodge that afternoon. 

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