Discovered By Mr. Darcy by Valerie Lennox
Elizabeth Bennet has lived in a haze since the events that befell her while she was accompanying her sister Lydia to Brighton with the regiment stationed there. One night, she awoke to Mr. Wickham having his way with her while she slept. Weeks later, she found herself with child.
Numb and horrified, Elizabeth can only bring herself to confide, months later, in her aunt Mrs. Gardiner, hoping that perhaps she and her aunt can go away together somewhere, and that her aunt can claim Elizabeth’s babe as her own.
But Mrs. Gardiner is already with child herself and cannot be of assistance. She arranges for Elizabeth to go to a cottage in Lambton, where she must bear the child in secret and then give it up, though the thought breaks Elizabeth’s heart.
And then the Bingley sisters get wind of it all. Caroline Bingley weaves a scheme in which her sister, Louisa Hurst—who is barren—will now take Elizabeth’s babe, and the three women will go away to Derbyshire until Elizabeth is delivered.
They are so close to Mr. Darcy, the man who once proposed marriage to Elizabeth, the man who claimed to ardently love and admire her.
But Elizabeth cannot bear the idea of Mr. Darcy knowing that she is gone with Mr. Wickham’s child, gone with the child of the man he most despises in this world.
No matter what, she must not be discovered by Mr. Darcy.
Dear reader, this may be the angstiest JAFF I have ever written. It owes its inspiration to a kind of gothic, fairy-tale-like atmosphere, with Elizabeth hidden away and tormented by the Bingley sisters. But I assure you, when Mr. Darcy discovers her, he moves heaven and earth for Elizabeth, wreaks havoc on anyone who has hurt her, and will stop at nothing to have her as his own.
