Becoming Catherine Bennet by Joseph P. Garland

On June 20, 1815, rumours of Wellington's victory in what history would come to call the Battle of Waterloo reach London. Among the townspeople celebrating first the rumour and then the confirmation of victory are Mr. and Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy (and their son, Fitzy) and Mr. and Mrs. Charles Bingley, who live a few blocks apart in Mayfair. The news became bleak for the families, however, when they soon received a dispatch that Captain George Wickham had been valiantly killed in battle. His pregnant widow, Lydia, and sister-in-law, Kitty (or Catherine), will come to London to be with their families, joined by their parents who come down from Longbourn. (The remaining sister, Mary, will remain in northern England near the Scottish border with her husband, a vicar.) Thus begins Becoming Catherine Bennet. Soon, though, we will discover two great secrets. One, concerning Darcy and his money, is soon known throughout London and Derbyshire and wherever a member of London society resides. The other, concerning our heroine, Catherine, will only be revealed to a handful, those who need to know all or part of the truth. Elizabeth, of course (though not as yet Jane). And the three who were freed by the death in 1813 of Lady Catherine de Bourgh: Charlotte Collins, William Collins, and Anne de Bourgh.

Adult • Literary Fiction