Becoming Catherine Bennet

<p>On June 20 1815 rumours of Wellington's victory in what history would come to call the Battle of Waterloo reach London. Among the townspeople celebrating first the rumour and then the confirmation of victory are Mr. and Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy (and their son Fitzy) and Mr. and Mrs. Charles Bingley who live a few blocks apart in Mayfair. The news became bleak for the families however when they soon received a dispatch that Captain George Wickham had been valiantly killed in battle. His pregnant widow Lydia and sister-in-law Kitty (or Catherine) will come to London to be with their families joined by their parents who come down from Longbourn. (The remaining sister Mary will remain in northern England near the Scottish border with her husband a vicar.)</p><p> </p><p>Thus begins <em>Becoming Catherine Bennet</em>. Soon though we will discover two great secrets. One concerning Darcy and his money is soon known throughout London and Derbyshire and wherever a member of London society resides. The other concerning our heroine Catherine will only be revealed to a handful those who need to know all or part of the truth. Elizabeth of course (though not as yet Jane). And the three who were freed by the death in 1813 of Lady Catherine de Bourgh: Charlotte Collins William Collins and Anne de Bourgh.</p>