Ash Heyden

Before his death, Elizabeth Stowe’s father sent her to live with the Bennets. She has lived most of her life at Longbourn and is startled to learn she is heiress to an estate in Scotland. Mr. Bennet adores his adopted niece, and he could not bring himself to tell Elizabeth the details of her long distant past ... but now he must. Fitzwilliam Darcy did not expect to fall in love with a beautiful orphan, but from the moment he met her, he was entranced by Elizabeth’s fine eyes and sharp wit, which relentlessly demand his attention.

"You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you." When Fitzwilliam Darcy spoke these words to Elizabeth Bennet as part of his marriage proposal, they expressed his concealed feelings completely, but their meaning was at odds with the rest of his prideful and arrogant offer of marriage. It was therefore rather easy for Elizabeth to reject his offer in much the same manner. But what if Darcy, never one at ease when trying to speak of inner sentiments, had realized beforehand how his intended proposal would sound to the young woman he hoped to make his bride?