Ardently

So much in life depends on chance and sheer luck. How much do we often owe to being in the right place at the right time?In Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet plans to visit the Lake District with her uncle and aunt, yet ends up at Pemberley instead, just as, by coincidence, Mr Darcy also arrives home. They meet, understand one another better and all eventually ends well.But what if they did not have such luck? What if Elizabeth actually went to the Lake District and was nowhere near Pemberley, and she and Mr Darcy never met again until another four years had gone by?Now they are very different people, altered by marriage, time and situation, although, Mr Darcy's failed proposal in the Parsonage at Hunsford still haunts both of them in different ways.Elizabeth is a companion to her Aunt, Mrs Mountford, a widow of great standing in society who married exceptionally well and 'Miss Bennet' finds herself accepted in the very best of circles and able to marry whomever...