If you enjoyed this modern variation of Pride and Prejudice, check out:
Headstrong,
by Melanie Rachel
A few months after teaming up with Major Richard Fitzwilliam to thwart a terrorist attack in Europe, USMC Staff Sergeant Elizabeth Bennet is back in the States as a civilian. Her training in cyber-security makes finding work easy, and she’s learning to fit into her new life. But there is lingering fallout both from the attack and her life before it that she's not yet prepared to face. Complicating matters is the major’s handsome cousin.
Co-owner of Darcy Acquisitions, CEO of FORGE, and guardian to his younger sister, Will Darcy is stretched to his limits. When Richard sets up an interview at FORGE for his friend Elizabeth Bennet, Will insults her instead of hiring her. In making amends, Will falls for the witty, troubled Marine with long legs and fine eyes.
Falling in love is easy, but do these two very different people have what it takes to make love last?
Excerpt from Headstrong:
He was late.
She’d arrived early at De Roos and grabbed a booth tucked behind the wooden front door. She tapped the heel of her boot on the floor, turned to count the large fieldstones used to build the long bar on the back wall, and tried to guess where each of the customers had come from. Local? Tourist? Embassy?
At last, fifteen minutes past their meeting time and just before she stood to leave, Elizabeth Bennet saw him. Standing a few feet away, hands on his hips, canvassing the room before spotting her behind him, was Major Richard Fitzwilliam.
“Staff Sergeant,” he said amiably.
“Sir,” she replied with a grin.
He raised his hand to attract the attention of a waitress. When a buxom redhead wearing black pants and a tight t-shirt turned and saw him, he held up two fingers and she disappeared behind the bar.
“You made me wait,” she chided, showing the display on her phone. “Hardly the way to say, ‘Thank you for saving my life.’”
Major Fitzwilliam shook his head. “Last meeting ran long.” He tossed his sunglasses down on the table. Elizabeth noted the tailored fit of his brown khakis and dark green polo shirt—casual wear that appeared expensive. Everyone looks so different out of uniform, she thought. He slid into the booth opposite her.
“A regular, I see,” Elizabeth teased. She stretched her toes out in her boots, feeling comfortable at last. She’d spent her shift working on the embassy’s computer network, including carting away some truly ancient desktops and swapping them out for newer models. Then she’d needed to update the software. The assignment was way below her pay grade and boring as dirt. But it was easy enough, and it meant she was stationed in Brussels, so she wasn’t complaining.
Elizabeth had found the major surprisingly good-natured for an officer in the months since she’d arrived in Europe. She’d worried a bit at first that he was flirting with her, but it turned out he teased just about everyone. She knew now that Major Fitzwilliam was too dedicated a Marine ever to break the regulation on fraternization. That being the case, Elizabeth felt safe enjoying his friendly banter. It was a bit like having a charming and sarcastic older brother.
The major ran a hand through his sandy hair in a gesture that indicated a long day. “I am, but I’m not a lush, if that’s what you’re implying,” he said flippantly.
“Well, sir, it would explain how you managed to purge thirty significant documents from your computer . . . don’t you officers know how to back up files?”
“I’m still not sure how that happened.” He exhaled dramatically and tossed his hands up in frustration. “The entire program for the conference next month, including the papers, and the translations, all in the correct formatting. I could have gathered them all again, but it would have taken forever to redo the translations. You didn’t save my life, Staff Sergeant, but you sure saved my weekend.”
“You’re welcome,” she replied, a little smug. “And because you are being so polite, and you’re buying me a beer, I’ll let you in on a secret.” She arched one eyebrow.
“How do you do that?” he asked, leaning forward. “Move just one eyebrow?”
She shrugged. “Dunno. I can’t roll my tongue or wiggle my ears, so it all evens out, I guess.”
The corners of his mouth turned up. “You’re damn cheerful for all the menial labor I saw you put in today.” He leaned forward. “So tell me, what’s the big secret?”
She raised both eyebrows before saying, “First, you really should back up your files.”
He rolled his eyes. “Yes, so I’ve been told.” He motioned for her to continue.
“You didn’t lose anything. The general logged onto your computer and tried to send the files to her own. She’s the one who did the damage.” Satisfied, she leaned back in her seat. “Sir.”
“Son of a bitch!” Richard growled, banging a fist on the table. “I knew it! The old gorgon turned it on me before she even took a breath.” He spoke through his nose in imitation of the general, “‘It’s your computer, Fitzwilliam.’”
“It’s unfathomable, really,” she said with a chuckle, “how the woman can command an embassy as well as she does and yet be so entirely computer illiterate. How difficult is it to transfer files?”
Elizabeth’s playful mocking was interrupted by the arrival of what looked like a wine bottle and two substantial steins. The major allowed his eyes to linger just a bit too long on the prominently displayed breasts of their server, and Elizabeth grimaced. Was it really necessary to ogle the waitress? She made a face at him and he responded by lifting one shoulder and letting it drop before he poured them each a beer from the bottle. She lifted her stein and sipped from it.
“What is this?” she asked. “It’s really good.”
“It’s Fou’Foune,” he replied, taking a long draught of his own.
She took another sip. “Mmm.”
Richard heard a happy “tap, tap” on the wooden floor and shook his head. Sometimes he forgot how young she was. Twenty-two, twenty-three, maybe? Not so young for a Marine. I’m just getting old.
“So,” he said, leaning back, relaxing. “Few months in Brussels so far, right? Like it?”
Bennet nodded. “I’m hoping to get to see a bit more of Europe. They’ve had me everywhere but Europe. I was in Japan for a while, and that was nice, but my broken Spanish wasn’t much help.”
“I was in Asia a few years ago,” he said amiably, reaching for his drink. “My Japanese isn’t great, though. My Dutch is good, French is better, and my Arabic isn’t terrible. I also speak a little Pilipino.”
“Is that the same as Tagalog?” she asked.
He nodded.
“The Philippines,” she mused. She gave him an assessing look. “I suppose you know Kali?”
Kali was one name for the knife fighting style he’d learned there. “I know enough.”
She seemed to be waiting for more, but there wasn’t much he was authorized to say about his work in the Philippines. “I now carve a hell of a Thanksgiving turkey,” he said simply. “How’d you hear of it?”
“I like to read,” she replied with a shrug. She took a drink. “I had a few tours in Afghanistan and Iraq and other places in the Middle East,” she said, “but I mainly stayed on base setting up networks, working out kinks in the existing computer systems and searching for intrusions and vulnerabilities. I was in Africa, too, but I couldn’t tell you where—we were usually in concrete bunkers doing our thing. It’s been really nice to have normal off-hours, even a weekend here and there, do some sightseeing.” She set her beer down. “Everything’s so close here—it took me less than two hours to get to Paris. And the work—well, it’s not exactly challenging, but that’s okay.”
He thought she didn’t seem particularly concerned about it and asked her why.
“I’m planning to separate at the end of my six. So coasting for a few more months doesn’t bother me at all.”
He nodded. It made sense. “I’m getting pretty
close to my ten.”
“Are you thinking about separating?” she asked curiously.
He shrugged. “Haven’t decided,” he replied.
As Bennet set her mug on the table and reached for a menu, Richard saw her frown and tilt her head slightly to peer around the end of the booth. She became very still, very serious.
“Sir,” she said, in a low, urgent whisper and gestured behind him with a slight movement of her eyes.
Richard turned, careful not to move too quickly, and spied four men swaggering to the bar, dressed too warmly for the weather. They were looking around but not sitting. “Another . . . ?” he asked in a murmur, tipping his head behind him, towards the entrance.
She responded with a minute nod of her head, indicating the approximate position of a fifth man.
“Damn,” he muttered.
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Acknowledgments
I want to thank all of the people who were invaluable in helping me write this book. Thank you to all of my lovely readers on AHA who read along as I wrote and made suggestions and pointed out inconsistencies along the way. The story is better because of your support!
I especially thank my critique partner and beta-reader, Melanie Rachel, whose experience and sense of humor helped so much to make this book what it is.
Thanks also to Sarah Pesce at Lopt&Cropt for her editing and clever suggestions.
Finally, thank you to my family, who have been constantly supportive and understanding about the costs of time and money involved in writing and publishing a book. My daughter Elisabeth has fantastic ideas, and she has been a good source of information for what kids would and would not do and say.
About the Author
Sarah is a homeschooling mom of six kids, ages twelve to two. Her first introduction to Jane Austen was the BBC mini-series of Pride and Prejudice, which aired when she was fifteen. The first scene she ever saw was Mr. Wickham telling his story to Elizabeth Bennet, and Sarah asked her mother if he was meant to be the hero. She didn't like him and didn't plan to continue watching if he was. Assured by her mother that he was not the hero, she kept watching and fell in love with Jane Austen's most beloved work. The first time she read the novel, she read the final page and immediately flipped back to the first to start again, unwilling to let it go.
Facebook: facebook.com/author.sarahcourtney
A Good Name: A Modern Pride and Prejudice Variation Page 31
