Mr Darcy's Marriage Contract
Michelle D'Arcy
Born of a defiant love between a modest country gentleman and an heiress from a wealthy, but untitled line—a match their families opposed but could not prevent—Elizabeth Bennet is a child who is wanted and cherished. But tragedy takes her mother away when she is just an infant, leaving her father a heartbroken widower, struggling to fight despair and care for his daughter. His helplessness induces him to bring a new woman into their family, one who very soon takes control of their lives.
With three more sisters to share her father’s attention, and longing for maternal care, the spirited and obstinate Elizabeth grows up parrying the constant disapproval and resentment of her stepmother, which only increases when she takes possession of her inheritance. The only people she can trust are her distant relatives Mr and Mrs Gardiner.
As she turns twenty, the intelligent, well-read, and handsome young woman in possession of a significant fortune has the privilege of choosing her own establishment or even a suitor.
A man raised with honour and good principles, proud of his family’s legacy, Fitzwilliam Darcy becomes the master of Pemberley after the premature death of his father, the man he has always revered. He is shocked to learn that his excellent parent, overcome by grief and despair after his wife’s death, allowed himself to be manipulated by a malicious imposter into wasting most of the family’s fortune. The new master of Pemberley inherits more debts than money, along with responsibilities, duties, and a name he must protect under any circumstances. To aid him in this endeavour, there is only one man who has proved he can be trusted and confided in entirely: Mr Edward Gardiner, one of the family’s solicitors.
In Mr Gardiner’s house, Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy’s meeting will change their lives forever, through a contract to which they both agree: a marriage that, though forced by special circumstances, is not a matter of chance but one of choice.
Marriage seems to be the answer to the problems of both. But can a marriage between two strangers, entered into to the advantage of both but hindered by unspoken secrets and hidden doubts neither has the courage to reveal, surrounded by misunderstandings and obstacles, become one of true minds and souls?
A full-length novel of almost 120 k words, Mr Darcy’s Marriage Contract is a medium-angst, closed-door, romantic slow-burn Pride and Prejudice variation featuring favourite tropes like convenience/forced marriage and close proximity, from the author of “An Unpleasant Sort of Man” and “Undoubtedly by Design”.
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