No Indignity So Abhorrent - Jann Rowland

"Assistance is impossible; condolence, insufferable. Let them triumph over us at a distance, and be satisfied."

In a world where a single misstep by a woman is injurious to all her family, the Bennets of Longbourn finds themselves shunned and despised by all their friends when one sister runs away with an officer. Mr. Bennet rouses himself from his beloved books and pursues the lovers to London, but returns empty-handed, his daughter lost forever.

When the Bingley party arrives at Netherfield Park, they discover a neighborhood with a salacious scandal and a family ostracized from their midst. Though Miss Bingley revels in the gossip she learns from those with little sense and less discretion, Fitzwilliam Darcy keeps himself aloof, unwilling to join the condemnation without proof of poor behavior.

Thus, when Darcy meets Miss Bennet by chance on a secluded path of her father's estate, he finds her strangely compelling. The compulsion to continue to meet with her is strong, in defiance of the consequences if they should be discovered. Elizabeth Bennet finds herself equally intrigued, so much so that she begins to dream of a life free of scandal, where the Bennets have some hope of redemption.

This re-imagination of Jane Austen's beloved Pride and Prejudice answers the question of what might have happened had Fitzwilliam Darcy arrived in Meryton to find a Bennet family mired in scandal, one that he can do nothing to repair. Though many challenges lay in their path, including fallen sisters, despicable libertines, and a neighborhood determined to denounce the Bennets as depraved, Darcy and Elizabeth are convinced that their future happiness lies together.