Patti Cook

In Fate and Consequences, Georgiana Darcy does leave with George Wickham to elope. Darcy finds her in time to prevent the wedding, but not in time to stop the news of her ruin from spreading. Now a humbled man, he must try to find his and his sister's place in society. A twist of Fate introduces him at his darkest hour to the woman he otherwise might have resisted loving, and who helps him to restore his sister, and his wounded soul. This is a what-if story of love and reconciliation. This story contains scenes of a mature nature.

“Mr Darcy, I am eager to hear your explanation for the fact that quite a few people believe we are engaged.” It starts with a bit of well-meant advice. Colonel Fitzwilliam suggests to his cousin Darcy that, before he proposes to Elizabeth Bennet in Kent, perhaps he ought to discuss his plans with their families first. What neither man could have predicted however was that Lord Matlock would write the news to his sister, or that Viscount Saye would overhear and tell his friends, or that his friends might slip a little and let their friends know as well.

Viscount Saye, eldest cousin of Fitzwilliam Darcy of Pemberley, is startled one wintry day by the news that his beloved, Lillian Goddard, is to become engaged to another. Unwilling to lose her, he quickly plans a party at his ancestral estate to woo her away from her suitor. Twenty ladies and gentlemen respond to his invitation, eager for a fortnight of revelry in Saye’s inimitable style.

For every fan who has wished Jane Austen herself might have enjoyed the romance and happy ending she so carefully crafted for all her heroines: The Persuasion of Miss Jane Austen, by Shannon Winslow. What if the tale Jane Austen told in her last, most poignant novel was inspired by momentous events in her own life? Did she in fact intend Persuasion to stand forever in homage to her one true love?

Charlotte Collins, nee Lucas, is the respectable wife of Hunsford’s vicar, and sees to her duties by rote: keeping house, caring for their adorable daughter, visiting parishioners, and patiently tolerating the lectures of her awkward husband and his condescending patroness, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Intelligent, pragmatic, and anxious to escape the shame of spinsterhood, Charlotte chose this life, an inevitable one so socially acceptable that its quietness threatens to overwhelm her. Then she makes the acquaintance of Mr. Travis, a local farmer and tenant of Lady Catherine.