Good morning friends, Janeites and Darcy friends!
200 is such an important age, isn't it?
And Pride and Prejudice is all over the place, more popular each day. Wow!
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| Happy bicentenary to us all! |
Happy publishing anniversary, Jane!
Happy b-day Mr D., Lizzy, Jane, Bingley, Lydia, Charlotte,Wickham, Collins...
the whole bunch we love so much!
I gave a lecture last Friday at the Jane Austen Society of Brazil Meeting talking about how much Pride and Prejudice still influences the world. It was a lecture on 'The power of fanfiction' but you know me... I talk! I'll post this lecture here later this week.
I've been celebrating the bicentenary for some time now, and will probably still celebrate until next January, but today is BLOG HOP DAY!
As promissed, my entry will be a fanfiction. Surprise, surprise!
It's a vignette for my next story - a teaser one might say. It's a thrilling, mind-challenging story centered on Elizabeth, Darcy and Charlotte.
This teaser I'm posting today is a 'prequel', this is what motivates the whole story.
Only fluff, not really a MA, short, E&D.
Hope you like it, and leave me a word, please.
Behind the mirror
fanfiction inspired by Pride&Prejudice (unbeata'ed)
Blurb: Boy meets girl, boy's feet find his mouth, girl hates him, boy ends up conquering girl
Blurb: Boy meets girl, boy's feet find his mouth, girl hates him, boy ends up conquering girl
rated MA (+18)
Cause there you stood and I would
Oh I wonder could I say how
I felt and not be misunderstood
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. I'm pleased to inform that we are on schedule and our landing procedures will start in a few minutes. Weather at our destination is agreeable 32°C, 89°F. Please enjoy the rest of your flight. Thank you."
Maybe not 'since he had met her', but it was not long after he had first
glimpsed the beautiful brunette with long dark hair flying at the mercy of the
morning sea breeze as she sat alone sipping coffee at the cute coffee shop he
accidentally stopped by on his way to the office.
Between his professional responsibilities and sports training, there
wasn’t much time left for him to explore what San Francisco had to offer his
organic taste for healthy food. He kept to what his secretary ordered for him,
rarely making any variation on the menu.
Even though he was an heir of one of the top twenty biggest fortunes on
the US, Darcy was not idly waiting his family's money fall in his lap. He was a
proactive and ambitious twenty eight years old advertiser who worked hard to be
known as a shark in his line of business and not merely as a goldfish in a
crystal tank.
His wealthy family didn't approve of his professional ideals, but there
was nothing any of them could say to deter him from his already sketched life
plan. Therefore, he accepted to be transferred from Chicago to San Francisco
when his company - Derby adverts - needed him to appease a very difficult
client who owned a major chain of health clubs on the West coast. He faced
bravely the idea of leaving his comfortable home, family and small circle of
friends to take the task on behalf of his professional career, even if enduring
such a major revolution was not his cup of tea.
Earl Matlock was a renowned advertiser and knew that Darcy who was a
triathlon enthusiast with several medals to show off would be the perfect man
to handle this account. Matlock suspected Darcy to be merely keeping pace in
his office until he decided to fly solo, so the boss would better use the
millionaire kid’s brilliant mind while he could in spite of the young man's
taciturn disposition.
It was clear to everyone who knew Darcy that he struggled to have a
professional congeniality which he did not possess outside the meeting rooms.
He took advantage of his height and athletic built to impress clients and
associates making sure his ideas were heard. His history in triathlon
competitions was quite impressive as well, no one doubted the amount of
dedication and physical effort required to succeed in this sport. That gave the
clear picture of William Darcy’s character: a committed and strong minded guy.
Darcy saw in San Francisco's job as creative leader an opportunity to
climb towards the presidency so his shrewd business side jumped into it.
His ‘Fairy Godmother Project’ was brilliant in its simplicity: they
would choose a simple plain woman and transform her body through extensive
exercising to make her proof and role model of the health club's excellence. It
was simple, elegant, medium budget required as well as transparent as she would
train at the actual branches so to inspire both the users and the general
public.
Bourg, the difficult client, approved of the project on the spot
although he suggested some small insubstantial modifications which he called ‘improvements’.
Darcy needed more than a month to make the foreign crew work to his
standards but he finally had a juicy plan that was now in the legal department
for formatting. Therefore, he finally had time to spare having meals outside
his office.
Every day he drove past this charming coffee house on the shore when
heading to the office but only three months after he moved to San Francisco he
was able to stop by.
He parked, got into the coffee house and the fragrant aroma of hot rich
coffee freshly brewed caressed his nostrils easing the discomfort his sore
muscles gave him. When in dire straits as this new work schedule, the only luxury
he conceded himself was to keep his training even though no competitions loomed
close. Coffee was a small sin for a committed informal athlete, but he could
not give it up.
Darcy ordered and took a seat at the patio outdoors choosing a quiet
corner under a classy big crank parasol. He approved of the laid back upscale
atmosphere of the place that allowed its’ customers to enjoy the spring sun
listening to the musical waves of the Pacific.
A young waiter arrived a few minutes later and asked him if the mocha vanilla tall macchiato was his and
Darcy haughtily answered that 'no one on his right mind would order such a
concoction as it was an offense to good coffee’. The waiter frowned and
stammered insisting that it was table six's order. Darcy raised his voice ever
so slightly to make sure the waiter knew he was not a dumbass to order such nonsense.
At that he heard a throaty suave voice call out the waiter by his name
and both men averted their eyes to a delicate hand with manicured bright blood
red nails and the most bewitching profile Darcy had ever seen half turned to
them. The voice entered his ears like an arrow that shot to his chest and
reflexed south in his body.
Immediately the waiter smiled and chuckled saying to 'Lizzy' that it
could only be hers, it was table nine, not six after all. He handed her the
expensive coffee and they chatted amicably for a few minutes before the waiter
left her alone. She kept at the last table on the patio, seated with her back
to the other tables, feet raised on the railing and staring at the sea.
Darcy blushed all colors realizing the beautiful woman had overheard
him. Not sure of what to do he stayed rooted to the spot very awkwardly observing
her from the corner of his eyes, gulped his strong espresso when it was brought
to him and left as quickly as he could. Never mind his tongue and throat
scorched.
It took him three days to return to the coffee house. He convinced
himself it was only to make sure she was not as beautiful as he thought. He was
wrong.
It took him a week to gather strength to apologize by means of prepaying
for her next day's weird coffee. Taking care of arriving as early as possible
to be at the coffee house before her, he saw her enter and order in a lovely smile
and her surprise when the barista
told her it was already paid. She approached him and in a clipped tone thanked
his gentle offer. He said it was an 'I'm
sorry gift' to which she nodded as if in a barely civil regency courtesy and
answered that he could have apologized immediately that same morning by
drinking a tall mocha vanilla macchiato himself. She then pursed her lips with
one brow raised at him and left.
It took him three more days of prepaid coffee to establish some light conversation
and earn a wan smile from her. He thought it illuminated her face but not nearly
as much as the beguiling green eyes this amazing tanned brunette sported. She
asked him to stop paying her coffee, though. She liked the place and wouldn't
want to stop going there every morning. He gathered all his courage to say he
would if she accepted a date. The smile faded, she said she was not up to any
dating and left.
It took him two more weeks to conquer her smile again and he was
delighted to hear a spontaneous laugh when he burned his lips on his scorching espresso.
It took him one more month to extract a 'yes' out of Lizzy.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Rio de Janeiro! It's four thirty
three pm local time, a typical Spring sunny afternoon, no threats of rain, 31°C,
88°F. Please, for your safety, remain seated with you seat belts locked until
the aircraft has completely stopped. Thank you for choosing this air flight
company. On the behalf of the crew I say that we are most pleased to have you
in Brazil and we hope your Carioca days
will be enjoyably filled with our finest Brazilian zest! This is your captain
Austen speaking."
Lizzy Bennett never doubted that through thick and thin her mother would
have her back. After seven months exhaled in the US to cure a bad case of
broken heart, Lizzy was now sprawled on her mother's king size bed and the two
Bennett women chatted and giggled amicably easing how much one had missed the
other.
Even though Elaine Bennett had the tendency to overreact first and then to
overanalyze everything when her professional persona kicked in, she didn't do
neither when her daughter got a phone call from this San Francisco friend she
kept talking about since she arrived for a two week's visit a few days before. She
had decided not to remind Lizzy of how much she disapproved of her decision of
putting a halt on her professional career, or any other silly decision her only
daughter had taken.
Lizzy had been a wild girl since very early. She always liked to run
free and climb trees whenever her loving parents - the British diplomat Harold
Bennett and the Brazilian Psychiatrist Elaine Garcia - took her to weekends in
the country. As a child, more than once she escaped her parents’ eyes and got
lost at the beach.
By the time Lizzy was old enough to take care of her own she decided to
backpack around the world searching new adventures anywhere she could find
them. Visiting relatives in London she decided to visit Bath, Gretna Green and
from there to Glen Coe in the Highlands of Scotland. She explored Rottnest
Island in Australia, the Rice Terraces in Philippines, Bonito in the heart of
Brazil. There were no borders to her free spirit.
She was impetuous, good humored, fast tongued. Elizabeth never really
like her name, she said it was a grown up boring woman’s name and ‘Lizzy’
sounded much more like her.
She was also a beautiful brunette with long curly hair that she took
from her late father and sparkling green eyes she took from her mother. With
her lovely body, men were easy preys to her need to experience the best in life
and rarely did she accept a steady relationship. After a major heart break
Lizzy thought the best remedy was to flee… but she wasn’t counting on fate.
It is a
truth universally acknowledged, as well as feared, that fate has its twisted ways to dispose of our lives.
Flying her mother's car on the way to the International airport through
Aterro do Famengo's highway Lizzy felt oddly at home. Rio was not as intimate
to her since she decided to take two months off her practice as interior
designer to put some distance between her and the lover she had ditched. So
much have changed since then...
Seven months had gone by and she still had at least three more planned
of her San Francisco adventure.
Only that morning she strolled her beloved Ipanema's streets with her
mother, pleasantly window shopping and raveling on how much Rio fired up her
system. She had underestimated its value in her general good mood as much as
she had underestimated Darcy’s friendship.
She and Darcy had become close friends since he had offered her the
crazy proposition of being a model for his health club campaign. Even if he obeyed
her when she forbade him of coming on to her again, he ended up honeying his
way to her heart. He was a very charming man, Lizzy could not deny it.
Darcy was handsome and polite, very appealing. He respected her limits
and still managed to enrapture her. Lizzy caught herself missing his laughs
when relaxed with her as well as his shy and taciturn behavior when in public.
She missed his stoic persona.
She missed his inspired and acid comments when watching a movie. Lizzy
marveled at the pleasure an ironic comment followed by a war of popcorn in the
movie theater could bestow.
She missed his smile.
She even dreamt of those lips.
On her lips.
All over her body, actually.
"Here sir, your passport and papers. Welcome to Rio de Janeiro."
Lizzy was not what Darcy had first envisioned for this campaign. She was
too beautiful; she had a pleasant figure that made him respond in every carnal way
possible to a grown up man.
She was also adamant that no relationship besides friendship would be
welcomed and if having her working for him was his only option with her, Darcy
would have that. Gladly.
But just four days after she left to spend two weeks with her mother he
could not deal with her absence and took a flight to Rio on an impulse.
Before Lizzy, William Darcy would never give in to his impulses but she
was bewitching. Spending time with her was addictive, she made him laugh and
want to make her laugh in return.
When he called her to let her know he was in Rio, even before the
plane's doors were opened, he was happy to hear both surprise and delight in
her voice. His chest and loins’ response matched.
As he took purposeful long strides from the customs desk towards the
arrivals gate he only anticipated those fine green eyes shining and smiling at
him.
Elizabeth Bennett was in William Darcy's arms in no time.
--- the end ---
This story is a vignette for Image and Likeness. Check it out.
song: Sitti Navarro's endearing rendition of EBTG's 'I didn't know I was looking for love'.
So? Good enough for a nice celebration?
Let me know how you like it?
Visit the other blogs on the hop!
Disclaimer: images found on Google, fic is mine.
--- the end ---
This story is a vignette for Image and Likeness. Check it out.
song: Sitti Navarro's endearing rendition of EBTG's 'I didn't know I was looking for love'.
So? Good enough for a nice celebration?
Let me know how you like it?
Visit the other blogs on the hop!
Disclaimer: images found on Google, fic is mine.
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