Elizabeth Newark - The Darcys Give a Ball

Sitting next to Charlotte, Elizabeth Darcy too watched her children dance round the ballroom, then found her view was blocked. Her husband stood before her.

“My dear,” said Mr. Darcy, extending his hand. “Will you waltz with me?”

Elizabeth held up her arms. They took to the floor, joining the throng, which fell back a little as they were recognized. The shimmering light from the candelabra was reflected on Elizabeth’s elegant cheekbones and the Darcy diamonds at her throat. Gravely and beautifully, Mr. and Mrs. Darcy waltzed round the floor.

“Dearest, loveliest Elizabeth,” said Fitzwilliam Darcy to his wife of twenty-five years, and he drew her a little closer.

And Charlotte Collins, widow, watched with pleasure. Some things work out well, she thought. One must accept the consequences. She sighed, and closed her eyes. She was very tired. There was a great deal on her mind, but for the moment she could rest.

Elizabeth Newark is a Londoner by birth, but a Californian by choice. She was educated at The Tiffin Girls School, Kingston-on-Thames (Tiffen). On leaving England in 1954 to work for the British government—and after living in Sarawak, Tanzania, and in Kenya—she immigrated to America in 1964. Her two children, Penelope and Hugh, were born in Nairobi, and it was there that she began to write fiction. She now has seven brilliant American grandchildren.

Under the pen name Betty Dinneen, she wrote and published seven children’s books: adventure stories of children and wild animals, all set in East Africa. Under the name Elizabeth Newark, she has written essays on Jane Austen and Charles Dickens (for the fun of it) and, more recently, poems. She has also written two sequels, The Darcys Give a Ball, a sequel to Pride and Prejudice, and Jane Eyre’s Daughter, a sequel to Jane Eyre . More recently she has written the world’s only mouse version of Pride and Prejudice, titled Eligibility, Or, An Account of the Romance Between Miss Elizabeth Mouse and Mr. Fitzwilliam Souris.