Pemberley's Christmas Governess

A Pride and Prejudice Holiday Vagary

Two hearts. One kiss.

Following his wife’s death in childbirth, Fitzwilliam Darcy hopes to ease his way back into society by hosting a house party during Christmastide. He is thrilled when his cousin Colonel Fitzwilliam sends a message saying not only will the colonel attend, but he is bringing a young woman with him of whom he hopes both Darcy and the colonel’s mother, Lady Matlock, will approve. Unfortunately, for Darcy, upon first sight, he falls for the woman: He suspects beneath Miss Elizabeth Bennet’s conservative veneer lies a soul which will match his in every way; yet, she is soon to be the colonel’s wife.

Elizabeth Bennet lost her position as a governess when Lady Newland accused Elizabeth of leading her son on. It is Christmastide, and she has no place to go and little money to hold her over until after Twelfth Night; therefore, when Lieutenant Newland’s commanding officer offers her a place at his cousin’s household for the holy days, she accepts in hopes someone at the house party can provide her a lead on a new position. Having endured personal challenges which could easily have embittered a lesser woman, Elizabeth proves herself brave, intelligent, educated in the fine arts of society, and deeply honorable. Unfortunately, she is also vulnerable to the Master of Pemberley, who kindness renews her spirits and whose young daughter steals her heart. The problem is she must leave Pemberley after the holidays, and she does not know if a “memory” of Fitzwilliam Darcy will be enough to sustain her.

Enjoyable parallels with the original Pride and Prejudice

The narrator was a good reader but lacked performance quality. Would be enjoyable to have the characters change in voice and inflection.

Very Good Variation and VV not so bad

I liked the idea for this P&P variation and for the most part it was very well done. There were a couple moments of silliness or exasperating responses from Elizabeth, but they were brief. The Virtual Voice narration was better than most although a human reader would have elevated the rating. On the whole, this was an enjoyable P&P variation.

Sweet and short

Very sweet story. Elizabeth was quite downtrodden. But Mr. Darcy was the knight in shining armor.

Very enjoyable

Elizabeth is a governess at a home where Col Fitzwilliiam is visiting. She is dismissed by the lady of the house when the son of the house makes a pass at her. Col Fitzwilliam takes her to Pemberly with him. Darcy mistakenly thinks the Col. and Elizabeth are engaged to marry. This makes Darcy very sad because he instantly felt attracted to her. Darcy treats her as a guest, not a servant, much to the dismay of Caroline Bingely, who is visiting Pemberly with her brother, The mistaken belief of an engagement causes a lot of angst, but of course it all gets straightened out. Virtual voice is better than usual and I almost forgot that it was not being performed by an actual person.

Sweet

The story starts is five years after Mr. Bennet’s death.
There is . . .
Love at first sight for Darcy -
Misunderstanding about Elizabeth and Richard’s relationship. -
Just enough confusion to make it interesting and a happy ending for a few tears.
Enjoy
FYI- The AI reader is not advanced enough to pronounce all the words correctly but that’s the only annoyance and it’s a small one.