A Constant Love: A Pride & Prejudice Continuation, page 48
“I am,” she said, covering his hands with her free hand. “I am so very happy to be Mrs. Darcy.”
“I am more happy you are my Elizabeth,” he said, leaning to kiss her shoulder. “Now come to bed, my darling Elizabeth.”
+ End +
Author’s Notes
All of the noble titles used within this story were either extinct during the Regency, or are entirely made up, and any resemblance of any of the names within to actual people is entirely coincidental, with the exception of brief, fictitious encounters with members of the royal family. Specific to the royal family, in 1814 (the year in which this begins), Princess Caroline, the Prince Regent’s wife, moved to Italy, so I assumed only the Queen would be receiving.
The Prince Regent’s ball is fictitious in itself, although based on others held at Carlton House, and hopefully at least architecturally accurate, as the rotunda mentioned was built the year before and would still have been there. Amazingly, although it has been moved, it still stands today on Woolwich Common. The waltz described in this story is the Regency version of this dance, which underwent many changes before the Victorian era, where it became something much more like the dance we know today.
More specific to the main characters, I have chosen to make Colonel Fitzwilliam’s father the Earl of Brandon, rather than of Matlock; while making him the Earl of Matlock is popular, for having been mentioned in the 1996 miniseries, it is not part of the original novel’s canon. Similarly, Colonel Fitzwilliam himself is not given a first name in the original novel, and I have used Edward, rather than the more popular Richard.
The Duke of Bolton’s first son uses the courtesy title of a viscountcy that would previously have been earned by the family; while it might more commonly have been a marquisate or earldom, it is entirely dependent on what titles would have been earned by the family before the dukedom, and to avoid confusion, I did not want a third earl within the story. The two sons of earls in this story, because they are in families lacking a second title, would have the precedence of viscount, with their surnames used in place of the courtesy title. Again, this was done to avoid the confusion of introducing additional titles.
All of the main naval ships listed (excepting the Foudroyant), were real ships with careers that were not so exceptional, while some ships with lesser roles have entirely made-up names. A number of authors, Jane Austen included, have based career-making events for their naval captains off of Lord Cochrane’s capturing of a frigate in the sloop-of-war HMS Speedy. In seeking something a little different, I had Captain Stanton capture a 74-gun ship with a 50-gun ship. While not based on an actual naval action, particularly one of Napoleon’s Hundred Days, I believe under the circumstances, as written, it would have been realistic (or at least as realistic as the existence of a Mr. Darcy), although it would have had no impact on the outcome of the war, with Waterloo soon to come.
The reward of a baronetcy for the victorious captain would also have been realistic, and indeed, my closest model for Captain Stanton was Sir Philip Broke, the gentleman captain of HMS Shannon, who was made a baronet for his victory over the USS Chesapeake. Coincidentally, Broke attended the Portsmouth Naval Academy at the same time as Jane Austen’s brother, Charles. Meanwhile, Richard Stanton's Judgement Day comment is based in part on comments made to Edward Pellew (another frigate captain, of HMS Indefatigable fame) by his grandfather.
I have tried to stick carefully to the canon established in Pride and Prejudice, with the exception of some of the events listed in the final chapter (namely, Georgiana’s and Kitty’s fates), and of placing the events of this story a year after they should have occurred based on what is commonly thought to have been the timing of the original novel. The events of the Corn Bill Riots and Napoleon’s Hundred Days were as real and as intertwined in terms of their timing as they appear in the story. I did perhaps rush the naval build-up in order to pace the story properly, but then again, I can hardly see how preparations for returning the fleet to sea did not begin immediately, although the Admiralty may not have been public about them.
I have done research in numerous sources for this story, but wish to call out the following books as having been particularly helpful: Our Tempestuous Day: A History of Regency England, by Carolly Erickson; Georgette Heyer’s Regency World, by Jennifer Kloester; Fashion in the Time of Jane Austen, by Sarah Jane Downing; Jane Austen and the Navy, by Brian Southam; All Things Austen: A Concise Encyclopedia of Austen’s World, by Kirstin Olsen; Jane Austen in Context, ed. Janet Todd; and Jane Austen’s Country Life, by Deirdre Le Faye.
And of course, in addition to Austen, I am indebted to Patrick O’Brian, Frederick Marryat, C. S. Forester, and many others who have so vividly recreated the naval portion of the Georgian and Regency eras.
About the Author
Sophie Turner lives in the Washington D.C. area, where she works a wholly unrelated day job, reads a tremendous amount of historical fiction, and dreams about living in Britain. She blogs about her writing endeavours at sophie-turner-acl.blogspot.com.
Sophie Turner, A Constant Love: A Pride & Prejudice Continuation
