The Ladies of Longbourn: The acclaimed Pride and Prejudice sequel series (The Pemberley Chronicles)

322 Pages·2008·1.75 MB·English

by  Rebecca Collins

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BOOK 4
A complex and charming young woman of the P
Victorian age, tested to the limits of her endurance
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“A masterpiece that reaches the heart.”
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—Beverley Wong, author of Pride & Prejudice Prudence d
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he bestselling Pemberley Chronicles series continues the saga of the s
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D arcys and Bingleys from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudiceand introduces h
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imaginative new characters.
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Anne-Marie Bradshaw is the granddaughter of Charles and Jane Bingley. Her father
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now owns Longbourn, the Bennet’s estate in Hertfordshire. A young widow after a
loveless marriage, Anne-Marie and her stepmother Anna, together with Charlotte
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Collins, widow of the unctuous Mr. Collins, are the Ladies of Longbourn. These smart,
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independent women challenge the conventional roles of women in the Victorian era,
while they search for ways to build their own lasting legacies in an ever-changing world. g
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The ladies find strength, companionship, and friendship together as they work to build
a children’s hospital, deal with a deadly outbreak of influenza, and help a gentle lady o
flee a violent and destructive marriage.
u
The
r Ladies of Longbourn
Jane Austen’s original characters—Darcy, Elizabeth, Bingley, and Jane provide a P
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framework of solid values and commentary to anchor a dramatic story full of wit
and compassion.
The acclaimed Pride and Prejudice sequel series
“Interesting stories, enduring
themes, gentle humour, and lively dialogue.”
The Pemberley Chronicles
—Book News
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The Pemberley Chronicles l
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Fiction $14.95 U.S./$15.99 CAN/£7.99 UK s a Rebecca Ann Collins

ISBN-13: 978-1-4022-1219-2
ISBN-10: 1-4022-1219-4
www.sourcebooks.com N
www.austenfans.com EA
BOOK 4
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The
Ladies of Longbourn
The acclaimed Pride and Prejudice
sequel series
The Pemberley Chronicles:
Book 4
DEVISEDANDCOMPILEDBY
Rebecca Ann Collins
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By the Same Author
The Pemberley Chronicles
The Women of Pemberley
Netherfield Park Revisited
Mr Darcy’s Daughter
My Cousin Caroline
Postscript from Pemberley
Recollections of Rosings
A Woman of Influence
The Legacy of Pemberley
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Copyright © 2008 by Rebecca Ann Collins
Cover and internal design © 2008 by Sourcebooks, Inc.
Cover photo © Fine Art Photographic Library
Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any elec-
tronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems—except
in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permis-
sion in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks, Inc.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously.
Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by
the author.
Published by Sourcebooks Landmark, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc.
P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410
[phone]
FAX: [phone]
www.sourcebooks.com
Originally printed and bound in Australia by SNAP Printing, Sydney, NSW, 2000.
Reprinted in 2002 and 2003.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Collins, Rebecca Ann.
The ladies of Longbourn : a companion volume to Jane Austen's Pride and prejudice /
devised and compiled by Rebecca Ann Collins.
p. cm.
1. England—Social life and customs—19th century—Fiction. 2. Domestic fiction. I.
Austen, Jane, 1775-1817. Pride and prejudice. II. Title.
PR9619.4.C65L33 2008
823'.92—dc22
2008022771
Printed and bound in the United States of America
DR 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Dedicated with love to my son,
without whose help and encouragement
none of this would have been possible.
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An Introduction . . .
TO THOSE WHO HAVE ALREADY read The Pemberley Chronicles and other
Pemberley stories, an introduction is hardly necessary.
The characters “borrowed” from Jane Austen and those that Rebecca Ann
Collins has created have all come some way since the days of Pride and Prejudice.
In such a period during which England has undergone a dynamic transforma-
tion in industrial, political, and social terms, it would have been incredible that
these men and women would have remained like petrified statues, untouched by
the turbulence that swirled around them.
Nor is it possible to accept that they continue to be engaged only in matters
of romance, gossip, and intrigue, while the forces that shaped Victorian England,
reflected in the work of the Brontës and Charles Dickens, passed them by. That
would be unrealistic and unfair to the intelligent and compassionate characters
that Jane Austen created and certainly not believable of the men and women
devised by Ms Collins.
In The Ladies of Longbourn, the myth of the conventional Victorian marriage
is explored, revealing that women, however well brought up, were not immune
from making serious errors of judgment that jeopardized their chances of happi-
ness. That women must and did always accept a bland, passive role in return for
material security is neither acceptable nor true.
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Rebecca Ann Collins
How young Anne-Marie Bingley confronts and overcomes the trauma of
such a situation, and its effect upon her family and friends, is seen against the
background of a society where the pressures are increasing upon individuals and
their families. It is a difficult and complex period, when old standards are being
questioned and individual integrity is tested. It is, nevertheless, an era when
certain basic values of decency and decorum may yet be applied to the conduct
of men and women, whose worth may not be judged by wealth or beauty alone.
Jane Austen may not have been altogether comfortable in the world that was
mid-Victorian England, but her characters would have had the stamina and wit
to deal with its challenges. Ms Collins certainly believes this to be true and, while
the original Austen characters provide the framework of accepted values in this
story, those of the next generation such as Jonathan Bingley and his daughter
Anne-Marie make their own choices and must live with them. The importance
that Jane Austen placed upon personal responsibility is endorsed and reflected
throughout as the characters are observed with both humor and affection.
Many of these characters will be familiar to readers of the earlier Pemberley
novels, but inevitably, there are new faces and names. For those who need an
aide-mémoire, a list of the main characters is provided in the Appendix.
Sydney 2000
viii
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Prologue
October 1862
WHEN JANE BINGLEY HEARD THE news, delivered by express post from
Harwood House, she was at first so numb with shock that she could not move
for several minutes from the chair in which she was seated.
Afterwards, she rose and went to find Mr Bingley and tell him that John
Bradshaw, the husband of their granddaughter Anne-Marie, was dead of a
sudden seizure, the result of a completely unforeseen heart condition, which had
caused him to collapse unconscious in the vestry after Evensong on Sunday.
It appeared from the letter, written hastily and despatched by Anne-Marie’s
friend Eliza Harwood, that only the verger, Mr Thatcher, had been with him at
the time and despite his best efforts to render what assistance he could, poor Mr
Bradshaw had passed away before the doctor could even be summoned. Mr
Bingley, when he had recovered from the shock, had ordered that the carriage
be brought round immediately and they had set off for Pemberley to take the
news to Darcy and Elizabeth.
On arriving at Pemberley, they were spared the need to break the bad news,
by virtue of the fact that a message sent by Anne-Marie’s father, Jonathan
Bingley, via the electric telegraph, had reached Pemberley barely half an hour
earlier. Elizabeth was at the entrance to greet her sister as she alighted. It was
clear from Elizabeth’s countenance that she knew already.