Pride And Prejudice: Might Have Been (PG)
Summary: Of course she's happy everything turned out so well. But sometimes, Georgiana Darcy wonders what it would have been like if things had been different.
Notes: Originally written for Porn Battle's prompt of 'Georgiana/Bingley, AU.' I'm not sure this is what the original prompter intended, but this was as close as I could come.
MIGHT HAVE BEEN
*
Georgiana is not in love with Mr. Bingley. She never has been. He is kind and amiable and friendly and altogether too many adjectives that could just as well describe a puppy, which is not the sort of realization that lends itself to love.
But sometimes, as she grows older and learns more about the ways of men and women, she allows herself a very private dream, wherein she never met Mr. Wickham at Ramsgate, and Mr. Bingley never went down to Hertfordshire. In her dream, during her first Season, Mr. Bingley suddenly realizes that she is a beautiful young woman rather than merely his friend's little sister, and he falls prostrate at her feet (along with as many other handsome young men as she chooses -- this is her dream, after all). He woos her properly, with dances and driving out in the Park and decorous conversation under her chaperone's approving eye, and then at the end of the Season, they marry. Georgiana devotes quite a lot of the dream to the details of the wedding: who would be invited, what should be served at the wedding breakfast afterwards, what sort of lace she would have on her sleeves.
The year she is to have her come-out, Georgiana goes on a visit to Mr. and Mrs. Bingley. Perhaps she should not: the Season begins in only a few weeks, and there are still last-minute fittings and plannings. But truly, dearly though she loves her brother, another three weeks of his restless intensity would drive her mad. Elizabeth understands, but Georgiana cannot use Elizabeth's tricks against her brother, and Elizabeth cannot be forever distracting Darcy from inadvertently intimidating his sister, so off to the Bingleys Georgiana goes.
Mr. and Mrs. Bingley are as sweet and kind (and amiable and friendly and...) as ever, which is just what Georgiana's nerves require. She is considerably more settled, and even beginning to look forward to the Season, when one evening she happens upon Mr. Bingley kissing his wife. She is quiet, and they don't realize she is there. Mr. Bingley's mouth is open against Jane's, and moving, and her arms are twined around his neck as she makes soft yielding noises against him.
Georgiana retreats as quietly as she came, and hides in her room. For the first time, the dream comes of its own accord: the Season, the young men, Mr. Bingley, the wedding. But the dream doesn't stop there, this time.
This time, when Mr. Bingley kisses her at the church, it's not the chaste, decorous sort of kiss that she's always imagined before. It's something harder, more demanding. Not like Wickham's kisses, which are the only comparison she has: it's a loving demand.
Skip, blur, jump: the wedding night. Changing out of her wedding dress into something discreet and lacy, then dismissing her maid and waiting until Mr. Bingley comes in. He gently pulls free the ribbon holding together her discreet lacy something, and equally gently nudges it off her shoulders, so she's left standing there, blushing. This is her wedded husband. There's no need to be shy.
He kisses her again, and his mouth opens against hers. It's warm, and wet, and...
...and messy. It's not proper. It's not right, Georgiana tells herself miserably. In her tiny experience of kissing, there was a faint thrill at her own wickedness in allowing a man not yet her husband to kiss her, but nothing to make her melt against him the way Jane Bingley was melting against her husband. Perhaps it's something specific to Bingley, and if so, she'll never know what comes after kissing on the wedding night, never enjoy it the way Elizabeth has (very privately) assured her it's possible to enjoy a woman's marriage duties.
Georgiana is not in love with Mr. Bingley. But that doesn't mean she can't occasionally wonder how things could have been, if everything had been different.
-end-
This entry is crossposted at Dreamwidth.
Notes: Originally written for Porn Battle's prompt of 'Georgiana/Bingley, AU.' I'm not sure this is what the original prompter intended, but this was as close as I could come.
MIGHT HAVE BEEN
*
Georgiana is not in love with Mr. Bingley. She never has been. He is kind and amiable and friendly and altogether too many adjectives that could just as well describe a puppy, which is not the sort of realization that lends itself to love.
But sometimes, as she grows older and learns more about the ways of men and women, she allows herself a very private dream, wherein she never met Mr. Wickham at Ramsgate, and Mr. Bingley never went down to Hertfordshire. In her dream, during her first Season, Mr. Bingley suddenly realizes that she is a beautiful young woman rather than merely his friend's little sister, and he falls prostrate at her feet (along with as many other handsome young men as she chooses -- this is her dream, after all). He woos her properly, with dances and driving out in the Park and decorous conversation under her chaperone's approving eye, and then at the end of the Season, they marry. Georgiana devotes quite a lot of the dream to the details of the wedding: who would be invited, what should be served at the wedding breakfast afterwards, what sort of lace she would have on her sleeves.
The year she is to have her come-out, Georgiana goes on a visit to Mr. and Mrs. Bingley. Perhaps she should not: the Season begins in only a few weeks, and there are still last-minute fittings and plannings. But truly, dearly though she loves her brother, another three weeks of his restless intensity would drive her mad. Elizabeth understands, but Georgiana cannot use Elizabeth's tricks against her brother, and Elizabeth cannot be forever distracting Darcy from inadvertently intimidating his sister, so off to the Bingleys Georgiana goes.
Mr. and Mrs. Bingley are as sweet and kind (and amiable and friendly and...) as ever, which is just what Georgiana's nerves require. She is considerably more settled, and even beginning to look forward to the Season, when one evening she happens upon Mr. Bingley kissing his wife. She is quiet, and they don't realize she is there. Mr. Bingley's mouth is open against Jane's, and moving, and her arms are twined around his neck as she makes soft yielding noises against him.
Georgiana retreats as quietly as she came, and hides in her room. For the first time, the dream comes of its own accord: the Season, the young men, Mr. Bingley, the wedding. But the dream doesn't stop there, this time.
This time, when Mr. Bingley kisses her at the church, it's not the chaste, decorous sort of kiss that she's always imagined before. It's something harder, more demanding. Not like Wickham's kisses, which are the only comparison she has: it's a loving demand.
Skip, blur, jump: the wedding night. Changing out of her wedding dress into something discreet and lacy, then dismissing her maid and waiting until Mr. Bingley comes in. He gently pulls free the ribbon holding together her discreet lacy something, and equally gently nudges it off her shoulders, so she's left standing there, blushing. This is her wedded husband. There's no need to be shy.
He kisses her again, and his mouth opens against hers. It's warm, and wet, and...
...and messy. It's not proper. It's not right, Georgiana tells herself miserably. In her tiny experience of kissing, there was a faint thrill at her own wickedness in allowing a man not yet her husband to kiss her, but nothing to make her melt against him the way Jane Bingley was melting against her husband. Perhaps it's something specific to Bingley, and if so, she'll never know what comes after kissing on the wedding night, never enjoy it the way Elizabeth has (very privately) assured her it's possible to enjoy a woman's marriage duties.
Georgiana is not in love with Mr. Bingley. But that doesn't mean she can't occasionally wonder how things could have been, if everything had been different.
-end-
This entry is crossposted at Dreamwidth.