Authors Note

Hi everyone. So this new book is going to explore the possibility of Elizabeth and her sisters having a better dowry.

'What if Mr Bennet had saved better for his children'

It always bothered me that Mr Bennet saved nothing for his girls. Dowrys were important back then. Even if he had had the required son the girls should still have needed dowrys. Even Catherine Moreland, one of ten children of a clergyman, had three thousand pounds to her name. One could assume that he amassed a fortune of about ten or fifteen thousand to his name despite being unlikely to be earning more than a thousand pounds a year (this is an estimate, he is said to hold two livings and the best clergymen earned, i believe, around five or six hundred pounds a year, the smaller livings could be as little as two hundred per year as in the case of edward ferrars)

the crawford family earned £4000 per annum and mary crawford had £20 thousand dowry.

SO I have used these figures to make some calculations and decided Mr Bennet could have saved his daughters in the region of four thousand pound each.

That being said how would this have changed the story? I had first thought that maybe colonel fitzwilliam would have been more interested in Elizabeth, particularly if she was clever enough to increase her portion through investments (we all know how clever she is). But it then occurred to me there was another gentleman interested in her. His interest waned when he realised how little fortune the Bennet ladies had.

So this story explores the plot line of Mr Wickham pursuing Miss Elizabeth Bennet.

I have written this story one way, with an M rating, then moderated it to a T rating for those who do not like M stories. I will be posting both simultaneously so you can follow whichever you feel would interest you most. some of the chapters will be identical as I will only edit the ones inappropriate for a T rating.

This is a high angst story, much more so than my previous stories which kept the drama to a minimum. Elizabeth is stubborn and doesn't see Wickhams character flaws for a good chunk of the story. In Cannon it took Darcy's letter for her to realise the true extent of her ignorance and up until that point remains convinced of Wickham's good character despite evidence to the contrary. I am merely exaggerating that.

I will start to post the story in the next few days. It'll take longer to post than my previous stories did as I am not as finished as I have been in the past.

I hope you enjoy