Her Sisterly Love–Cover Reveal, Excerpt, & Giveaway!

Happy Thursday! Can you believe 2021 is almost over? I’ll be starting 2022 by releasing a novella, as you may have seen on social media. Her Sisterly Love releases on Monday, 24 January, and I am so excited about it. Today, I will show you the gorgeous cover and share an excerpt. On top of that, there is a giveaway. I have three copies of the e-book up for grabs; comment for a chance to win one!

First, a bit about the story. The plot is one of a handful of ideas I have that I have been sitting on for a while. I have always classified them as ‘not big enough to turn into a full-length novel’ but still ones I’d like to explore. I decided to see what I could do with this particular plot, and the novella, which is about 40 000 words long, is the result.

I can’t remember what inspired me to write Her Sisterly Love, but as the title suggests, it is about the love a sister (Elizabeth Bennet) has for her siblings. Mr and Mrs Bennet’s marriage is not a happy one, as canon shows us, and in this novella, they are not quite so quiet about their dissatisfaction. They argue—loudly and often—Mr Bennet ignores his daughters as a way to hide from a life he does not like, and Mrs Bennet prefers gossiping about her terrible husband to being a caring mother. Years before the story starts, Elizabeth proposed to Jane that they take over caring for their younger sisters, educating them and helping them to grow into respectable, worthy young women. Because of this, the Mary, Kitty, and Lydia we meet are rather different than the ones we know from Pride & Prejudice, though I think you will still see a reflection of their canon characters.

The story starts with the assembly in Meryton, and I will share the opening chapter with you below. First, let’s take a look at the cover.

Isn’t it gorgeous? Beetiful Book Covers produced it, and I think they did an amazing job. I love that it focuses on a single woman, since the story is centred around Elizabeth—and her finding her happy ever after with Darcy, of course!—and the colour of her gown makes me want to swoon (haha). I think it exudes elegance. You can let me know your opinion in the comments.

On to the excerpt!

Chapter 1

Fitzwilliam Darcy could not account for his presence at a country assembly. He despised them, and this one looked to be the worst of any he had experienced. The rooms were shabby and the people hardly less so, in both manner and dress. But Bingley had insisted they attend, and Darcy was his guest; he could not refuse.

Mrs Hurst and Miss Bingley will complain about it endlessly for the next two days! Darcy suppressed a pained groan.

He was bored, and his mood was so sour he could taste it. People began gossiping about him as soon as he entered the room, he hated to dance, and he was never comfortable when surrounded by strangers. When Bingley had told him about leasing an estate and asked him to visit, Darcy had been pleased, even eager. His sister, Georgiana, was well on her way to recovering from a near-disaster the previous June and had gone to stay with their aunt and uncle in Worcestershire. That left Darcy free to spend the next two months however he liked. Bingley had talked about inviting a large party to Netherfield. The first blow to Darcy’s spirits had come when, on the morning of their departure from town, Bingley confessed that the party would be only five: the two of them, Mr and Mrs Hurst, and Miss Bingley.

“I asked one or two others,” Bingley had said, “but they were obliged elsewhere.”

Darcy suspected they had had the good sense to avoid sharing a roof with Bingley’s sisters and Hurst. If only I had taken a blasted minute to think before agreeing to come!

Bingley had continued, “We shall have a jolly good time in any case. Everyone I met when I was lately there was very friendly.”

Very friendly, indeed, Darcy silently grumbled. I have yet to meet one person here I would wish to befriend.

He walked around the edge of the room, stopping now and again to watch the dancers. Whenever someone presumed to disturb his solitude, he moved to another spot. His shoes were new and the right one pinched his toes, yet he did not want to sit down. He had once, and an old woman had nattered in his ear for half an hour or more without seeming to understand that his silence meant he had no interest in talking to her.

Darcy had danced with Mrs Hurst, but he was avoiding asking Miss Bingley for as long as possible. Bingley intended to stand up with the beautiful blonde lady again—Miss Bennet. The set was about to begin when Bingley saw him, said something to his partner, and walked towards Darcy.

“Darcy, why are you skulking around in this stupid manner? You should dance.”

“No, Bingley. You know how much I dislike it unless I know the lady. Leave me be and go enjoy your partner.”

Bingley looked at Miss Bennet and sighed. “She is an angel, is she not? I have rarely seen such a beautiful face, and she is—”

“I am happy for you,” Darcy interjected. He did not want to hear a lengthy soliloquy on the lady’s character, especially since Bingley could know little about her.

“There are several ladies who are not engaged for this dance. Miss Elizabeth Bennet for one.”

Darcy followed Bingley’s eyes and looked at the young woman. He had noticed her before—while she danced with a youth whose face resembled a beet throughout the set or talked with her younger sister or Mrs Bennet. Although Darcy had been in the matron’s presence for only a few minutes, it had been long enough to discover that she lacked decorum and was intent on thrusting her daughters into the arms of any marriageable man. Darcy was determined to avoid the lot of them and had not consented to an introduction.

“Return to your partner, Bingley. I can take care of myself.”

Bingley shook his head and went away. Darcy’s eyes drifted back to Miss Elizabeth Bennet. A young man approached her and her younger sister, whose name was Mary, he believed. Miss Elizabeth clasped her sister’s hand and gave her what he imagined was a reassuring smile—it was difficult to judge with any accuracy at such a distance—and soon the man led Miss Mary away to join the lines of dancers.

Darcy moved closer to Miss Elizabeth, his gaze never leaving her. She watched Miss Mary dance, her expression almost maternal. After several minutes, Miss Elizabeth’s gaze moved about the room until she found her eldest sister. Darcy was now close enough to see one of her eyebrows arch and the corners of her mouth twitch upwards. Next, she sought another—her mother, who was talking with Lady Lucas. Miss Elizabeth’s expression turned into one of displeasure. She ran a hand across the back of her neck, then stepped towards the older ladies.

Darcy jerked his chin away. What am I doing staring at her? Good God, what if someone noticed? If I am not careful, I will have a dozen of these people calling themselves my new best friend. She, like the rest of this company, will never be anything to me.

***

Elizabeth was relieved, but not surprised, to find that Mr Bennet had already retired by the time the ladies returned from the assembly. Whenever he shared a so-called joke about being disappointed that one of them had not eloped directly from the party so that he could begin to rid himself of his ‘excessive’ number of daughters, Elizabeth’s stomach roiled. She was used to it, but Mary was not and the shock and pain on her countenance the first time she heard him make such a remark had left Elizabeth infuriated. Did he not care how his words affected them?

In addition, her mother was always full of either complaints or rejoicing after such events, depending on the presence of single gentlemen and how much attention her daughters, and she, had received. Her father would have anticipated Mrs Bennet being overly excited, and her effusions being grander than usual, thanks to Mr Bingley’s presence. Indeed, Mrs Bennet had talked ceaselessly about how taken Mr Bingley was with Jane during the carriage ride home. After just a few hours, she was dreaming of what it would be like to have a rich son-in-law. Elizabeth’s parents had already exchanged many harsh words about their new neighbour, to say nothing of their argument that morning; hearing Mrs Bennet’s report on the assembly would likely have resulted in yet another quarrel. But then everything that either one of them says or does is enough spark to set off a blaze, it seems.

Elizabeth roughly pushed away a surge of resentment. While she was tired of needing to comfort her sisters during such interludes, it was a role she had assigned to herself, and as much as she wished her life could be different, she never regretted anything she did for her sisters.

Elizabeth had been twelve years old when she convinced Jane, twenty months her senior, that they had to do something about their younger sisters.

“You and I are old enough, and sensible enough, to fend for ourselves,” Elizabeth had argued. “Mary, Kitty, and Lydia are not.”

It was apparent to her that their parents’ increasingly acrimonious relationship meant the couple’s daughters were being neglected. It showed in their behaviour, and Elizabeth had heard more than one person comment on Mary’s increasingly sour demeanour and the lack of decorum displayed by Kitty and Lydia, who had also begun to taunt each other and their older sisters, sometimes using words similar to those their parents employed during their rows. She worried about what would happen to them if something were not done and did not trust either of her parents to rectify the situation.

What had finally prompted Elizabeth’s actions had been a scene she witnessed just days earlier. Kitty and Lydia had been in the parlour with their mother, no doubt being fed more cake than was good for them. Elizabeth had been in the withdrawing room, playing the pianoforte. She was disturbed by her parents’ voices, which were growing ever louder. Rushing to the room, Elizabeth flung open the door to see Kitty sitting on a stool, her shoulders slumped and eyes wide; Lydia had likely fled when the argument started. Mr and Mrs Bennet were on either side of her, not ten feet apart. Elizabeth’s heart raced when she saw a candlestick in her mother’s hand, her arm pulled back as though ready to launch it at her husband. It would not be the first time one or both of them had displayed their anger in such a manner. Flying to her sister, Elizabeth protected Kitty with her own body and was rewarded by taking the blow on her back that would have struck Kitty on the head. Despite her exclamation of pain, her parents did not stop, and Elizabeth quickly guided Kitty out of the room.

Mr Bennet retreated to his library for more of each day, and Mrs Bennet, who had never had a strong understanding, gave in to her nerves. Her chief activities became complaining—about her husband, the misery of her marriage, and her disappointment that not one of her girls was a son—gossiping, and spoiling Lydia.

“Such a pretty, lively little thing you are, my pet,” Mrs Bennet said to Lydia again and again. “You remind me of myself as a girl. Oh, the gentlemen will go wild for you when you are just a few years older.”

If Mr Bennet overheard a remark such as this, he would invariably respond by saying, “Then she can be another man’s regret, just like her mother is mine.” He would grumble about his ill fortune in having five daughters and had once told Elizabeth that, had she or Jane been a boy, he would have been spared the bother of having three additional children. They were at the breakfast table, and all of her sisters had overheard.

To Jane, Elizabeth had said, “Kitty and Lydia will end up just like Mama, and no one is paying any attention to Mary. You can see how much it hurts her, can you not?”

“What do you propose we do, Lizzy? We are not so much older than they are.”

“I wish we had a governess,” Elizabeth confessed. “Papa would say we could not afford it, and Mama would agree. I do not believe she sees the need for us to receive so orderly an education, and Papa would use it as an excuse to decrease her pin money, which she would find unacceptable. We shall have to fill the role and help our sisters learn what they need to know, even as we are learning it ourselves. We must be the ones to guide them, show them what it means to be proper young ladies. We can help them understand that…that this acrimony is not how a family should be.”

Mr Bennet had claimed no interest in the matter when Elizabeth broached it with him, and, to her relief, Mrs Bennet had willingly, even eagerly, relinquished the task of instructing her daughters. It happened that they often did not see her all morning—unless the weather was poor and she required the company of one or more of them. Elizabeth supposed her mother was pleased to have the additional time to pursue her own pleasures; indeed, both of her parents were, in her estimation, selfish beings, and she vowed not to be like them and not to allow her sisters to be, either.

Elizabeth was pleased with the job she and Jane had done, although she knew it was not yet finished. Mary, Kitty, and Lydia were becoming rational, well-spoken young ladies who knew they were loved, and understood that there was greater value in peace and harmony than in the sort of relationship displayed by their parents.

What did it matter if Elizabeth had little time to indulge her own wishes—be they to take a long, solitary walk, experience the peace of being carefree, or read a particular book—as long as her sisters knew they were loved and were as happy as possible? What did it matter if she had to set aside her own pleasure at assemblies and parties in favour of watching over Jane and Mary and making sure her mother did not embarrass them too badly?

Elizabeth and Jane had long since re-arranged the bedchambers such that the two youngest could be each with an elder sister, while Mary had her own room. Kitty and Lydia were sitting on the bed in Jane and Kitty’s room in their nightgowns, eager to hear everything about the assembly. Although it was the largest of the bedchambers the sisters used, it was crowded with all of them in it; but that, in its own way, made it cosy. Jane, Mary, and Elizabeth quickly changed out of their evening attire, and as the girls snuggled together, the three eldest told the two youngest about the evening. Kitty and Lydia were delighted to hear that Mr Bingley was handsome and amiable and that he had danced with all three of them, and Jane twice.

Lydia asked, “Who did he bring with him?”

Mary replied, “His two sisters, the husband of one, and his friend, Mr Darcy.”

“What were his sisters like? Were they very elegant?” Kitty leant forward, her eyes alit with eagerness.

Jane’s smile was one of happy remembrance. “They were, and they were so kind. Miss Bingley is to keep house for Mr Bingley, and she will be a wonderful neighbour and hostess.”

Elizabeth had seen nothing to admire in either Miss Bingley or Mrs Hurst but held her tongue.

Lydia next enquired about the gentlemen.

Jane opened her mouth to reply, but then closed her lips and gently furrowed her brow. “I do not recall seeing much of Mr Hurst. He must have been in the card room for most of the night.”

When she regarded Elizabeth and Mary to see if they had anything further to say about the man, they shook their heads.

“And Mr Darcy?” Lydia spoke quickly, her eyes wide and meeting each sister’s in turn.

Elizabeth laughed merrily. “Mr Darcy would not talk to anyone beyond his own party, and he danced only with Mrs Hurst and Miss Bingley. He stalked around the room, his features puckered like he smelt something foul. I have never seen someone look more displeased to be in a place in my life. I agree that Mr Bingley was friendly and polite; Mr Darcy was not.”

Almost before Elizabeth was finished talking, Lydia’s next question was leaving her lips. “Is he rich?”

Mary nodded. “I heard he has ten thousand a year. Everyone was talking about it.”

Lydia smiled mischievously. “That is very rich, indeed. I would put up with his surliness to have a husband with ten thousand a year! If I were two or three years older, I would make him fall in love with me.”

Elizabeth bit her tongue to keep from snapping, And end up like Mama and Papa? Mama flirted her way to a husband who was a good catch. We live with the result of their carelessness in choosing a marriage partner. But Lydia was young and immature, and Kitty was little better. To Elizabeth, they exemplified why young ladies should be kept at home until they were seventeen or eighteen.

She met Jane’s eye and sent her a silent request to say something to correct their youngest sister. Her voice calm and gentle, Jane said, “Respectable men want more than a wife who knows how to flirt, Lydia. We should all remember that if we want to make good matches.”

Elizabeth nodded. “We must show ourselves as women worthy of being esteemed. We do that through our behaviour—our sense, intelligence, kindness to others. We may not end up with husbands who have ten thousand a year, but we will have husbands who treat us well and the comfort of happy lives.”

Lydia twisted her mouth into reluctant agreement and nodded. Jane embraced her.

To all of her sisters, Elizabeth said, “It may not be right to think this way, but to get away from Longbourn, our only hope is through marriage. I pray that each of you meets a man who can give you the love and care, and good home, I know you deserve.”

“You do, too, Lizzy,” Jane said.

Elizabeth smiled and wrapped an arm around Mary’s shoulders; they rested their heads against each other.

Jane said, “I believe you wanted to know about the assembly. Emma Goulding wore a new gown.”

The sisters spent the next half an hour discussing what their neighbours wore and who stood up with whom before saying their good nights. After they climbed into the bed they shared, Elizabeth told Lydia how proud she was of her, especially for working so hard on her French lessons, which Elizabeth knew she hated, before they drifted off to sleep.

That’s it for this time! I’ll be back in two weeks to share a little more. Remember to comment to be eligible to win one of three e-books of Her Sisterly Love!

Her Sisterly Love releases on Monday, 24 January. You can pre-order it now here.

© Lucy Marin 2021