Hello, friends! Today, I have a deleted scene to share with you from A Very Fine Place by Julia Winter!
A Very Fine Place
by Julia Winter
Expected eBook Publication Date: October 17, 2015
Pages: 387, Kindle Edition
Category: P&P variation, Regency romance.
Publisher: Glass Hat Press © 2025
Editor: Megan Reddaway
About The Book
“Once may be chance. Twice may be ill luck. But thrice? Thrice, lad, is malice.”
1811. Calcutta. Fitzwilliam Darcy of His Majesty’s War and Colonial Office is stewing in the humid heat, when word comes that his father is dead. He must return to England immediately to take up his inheritance.
Pemberley.
The great house in Derbyshire that has never been his home. Instead, it’s home to the stepmother and half-siblings, Hugh and Georgiana, whom he barely knows.
Pemberley is his now, but an atmosphere of resentment and anger threads through every room. He isn’t welcome. His stepmother is cool towards him, Hugh hates ‘the usurper’… and when a series of incidents threaten Darcy’s life, the only people he can trust are John Reid, his right-hand man throughout his career; Charles Bingley, his aide in India; George Wickham, his cousin and Pemberley’s steward; and Elizabeth Bennet, his stepmother’s penniless niece.
Who is trying to kill him? Will the visit of the Bingley family frighten off the enemy, or just provide more opportunities to get rid of the new master of Pemberley? Most of all, can Darcy and Elizabeth come to an understanding that will, finally, make Pemberley feel like home?
(NB British spelling, punctuation and grammar throughout).
Cover: Detail from a portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence of Mrs Charles Fraser, 1817 (Philadelphia Museum of Art).
A Deleted Scene
It’s a sad truth that not everything makes it into the final version. Sometimes a poor author has to be ruthless in cutting out scenes that, while they were fun to write, don’t advance the plot or show the characters’ development.
In this scene, set just before Darcy, the Bingleys, Jane and Lizzy go to Buxton to attend a concert and an assembly, Lydia and Elizabeth have a little difference of opinion. It was cut because Lydia’s eventual fate took a different turn than I originally planned, so I offer it up here because I rather like this Lydia and it was a shame to have to cut her out.
“I do not in the least understand why you care about some woman warbling in Italian,” Lydia said from the comfort of Elizabeth’s bed, where she was sprawled amongst the pillows while Elizabeth packed for Buxton.
Kitty and Georgiana were with the art master, and since Lydia had no talent in that direction she had decided to utilise what talents she did have. Skilled with her needle and having an eye for colour, she was fond of going through her sisters’ wardrobes and bullying them into refreshing their clothing.
Now she offered languid approbation for one of Elizabeth’s evening dresses, and added “I do wish I could go to the assembly, though! I think it very unfair that Georgiana is allowed to attend. She is not out either.”
“She will not be permitted to dance, but will sit with Aunt Darcy.” Elizabeth smiled at her youngest sister. “I know it is hard to wait, Lyddy. But we will do the best we can for you when it is your time. Then, when we attend an assembly, you may dance every set.”
“George said he would dance my first dances with me. I hope he will not forget.” Lydia bounced up from the bed as the maid brought the emerald green ball gown from the wardrobe. “Oh, Lizzy! Is that the silk Mr Darcy gave you? The… what was the word… the sarry he brought from India?”
“Sari. Yes.”
“It is very striking, and a perfect shade for you. I saw the ones he gave Georgiana, of course, but those are so milk-and-water compared to this. Not in the least out of the way. They will not draw the eye.”
“He was careful to choose colours for her that suited her age.”
“They would not suit me.” Lydia touched the silk carefully, running a fingertip over the metallic gold braid. “This would.”
“Perhaps you will inherit it one day, and can make it over.” Elizabeth glanced at the maid and, with a smile, sent her to assist Jane. They would leave for Buxton immediately after the noon meal.
She folded the green silk carefully, Lydia unaccustomedly eager to proffer assistance, and between them they laid the gown into the small trunk Elizabeth was taking with her, as reverent as a pair of Vestals handling a relic.
Lydia patted the silk and sighed. “So lovely. What colour is Jane’s?”
“Blue and silver.”
“Oh, perfect.” Lydia gave her a complicit little smile. “You will both quite outshine Miss Bingley.”
Although Lydia had not seen the woman since the day of the Bingleys’ arrival, she had evidently no great veneration for the Darcys’ guest. Not that Elizabeth blamed her. That Miss Bingley considered herself above the Bennets was obvious, purely on the grounds of having a large dowry and being educated at a ladies’ seminary. Elizabeth had never told her youngest sisters of overhearing the woman at dinner the night of the Bingleys’ arrival, putting down the girls as ‘lowly estate children’ or something of the kind, but she had heard it and it had rankled. Dreadful woman! Elizabeth had been glad there was little opportunity for the paths of the schoolroom and the Bingleys to cross. She had little faith in Lydia’s ability to restrain herself if subjected to such barbs.
It seemed her clever little sister had weighed up Miss Bingley on that first encounter, for she now smiled up at Elizabeth from where she knelt before the trunk. “You are much prettier than she is, Lizzy. In that dress, you will shine.” She closed the lid and locked it, handing Elizabeth the key. “Of course, I am prettier than you, and livelier. In that dress, I would be magnificent.”
“You are incorrigible.”
“If I knew what it meant, I would likely agree.” Lydia sat back on her heels and regarded her, head tilted to one side. “Lizzy, have you seen George today?”
Elizabeth looked away, searching for her reticule to stow the key away safely. “Ah… no. Not for two days now. He has been busy, I expect. He is looking for an estate for Mr Bingley to lease.”
“He looks very sad, and said he was no longer going to Buxton with you. Is it because of old Mr Wickham, do you think? What a pity! In your place, I would be cross. Who will you dance the first set with, if not George?”
“I do not know.” She had already tucked several linen handkerchiefs into the trunk, but Elizabeth felt compelled to turn her back on Lydia to search out more in a drawer, intending to stuff them into her reticule along with the trunk key. “I shall have to hope some other gentleman will step into the breach.”
“In your place, I would show more feeling.” Lydia flung an arm towards the window and the view of the parkland stretching up to the distant hills. “After all, what other opportunity is there for you here, if not George? We are abandoned here in this remote place, and it is not as though we are overrun with likely prospects for husbands! Do you see a line of beaus riding up to claim us?” She snorted, and sighed again. “Jane might get this Mr Bingley, I suppose. What do you think?”
“That it is for Jane to decide her happiness. Although,”—and here Elizabeth gave her most testing little sister a smile—“I do not think his sisters even close to being the equal of mine. In Jane’s place, I would hope he marries off one as quickly as may be, and encourages the other to return to her husband’s estate.”
“Lord, yes! I would not like to live with such Friday-faced creatures. I hope they have the lives they deserve.” Lydia frowned. “And speaking of sad faces, I have never seen George so despondent. He usually cheers me, you know, when I am cross about living in such an out-of-the-way place, or not being allowed to dance at assemblies. Today, he barely looked up from his ledgers and had almost nothing to say to me.”
Silence.
“Lizzy. What did you do, Lizzy?”
“Nothing. I did nothing. Why do you suppose it is anything to do with me?”
“Because George thinks everything is to do with you, you ninny. You must know that.” Lydia scrambled to her feet. Good lord, but she was too sharp to bear. “You have been quiet too, now I think on it. What have you done, Lizzy?”
“I have nothing to say. Please do not press me on this. It is no one’s business but my own.”
“It is my business if you have hurt George. Do you not love him, Lizzy?”
Silence.
“How can you not?” Lydia’s tone was hard now. Condemning. Angry. “I would have him in an instant, and not because there are so few opportunities for us. George is marvellous, and you are blind if you cannot see it! You must make it right with him. You must!”
“I will not discuss this with you.”
“I will tell Mamma. She will never believe you have turned off any suitor, much less George! She will take to her bed for a week if you upset her like this.”
“Mamma has nothing to say to the matter, any more than do you.”
“How selfish and unfeeling you are.” Lydia sneered. She did it rather well. “George will not regret you long. How could he, knowing you have no heart?”
The door slammed behind her with such force, it rocked on its hinges.
About the Author
Once Julia was a communications specialist working with several UK government departments. These days she's thankfully free of all that, and writing full time. She lives in the depths of the Nottinghamshire countryside with her husband and Mavis, a Yorkie-Bichon cross with a bark several times bigger than she is.
Contact Julia
Email: juliawinterfiction@gmail.com
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Thank you, Julia, for stopping by today, and congratulations on the release of A Very Fine Place!
Oh my, Lydia is always a great source of entertainment! Haha! Hmmm...Elizabeth must know something about George that Lydia doesn't! 😉 Please, leave a comment with your thoughts!
