Mr Darcy's Waterloo

Novella length. All the novellas in the Darcy and Elizabeth What If? series are separate, standalone stories. They can be read in any order.
What if Mr Darcy's first proposal had taken place in 1815? And what if Mr Darcy and Elizabeth had met again in Brussels, where they were caught up in the Battle of Waterloo?

Excerpt:
‘I have to go,’ he said.
‘Where?’ she asked. And then she realised. ‘You are going to fight,’ she said. ‘No! You cannot!’
‘I must,’ he said. ‘The city must hold and every able bodied man is needed.’
‘But not you!’ she said, her voice catching in her throat.
‘Yes, my love, even me,’ he said gently.
He extricated himself from her grasp and turned away but at the last moment he turned back.
‘Here,’ he said.
He took the signet ring from his little finger. He lifted her right hand, palm upwards, and placed the signet ring in it, then he closed her fingers around it.
‘Something to remember me by, in case . . .’
‘I could never forget you,’ she said in a low throbbing voice. ‘Not if the stars burned cold and the seas ran dry. And there is no “in case”. You must come back to me.’
‘I will,’ he said.
He placed his hands on her shoulders and kissed her on the forehead.
‘God bless you and keep you safe, Lizzy,’ he said.
Then he turned on his heel and followed his cousin out of the ballroom.


Romance