After Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam Darcy have been married about a year, Elizabeth invites her mother to stay at Pemberley with them for Christmas. Other guests at their home include Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Caroline Bingley, and Elizabeth's sister Jane and her family.
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Despite the motley gathering of guests, Elizabeth is determined to enjoy herself. She looks forward to the Christmas party which she has helped to organize for the children of the estate workers. Already feeling somewhat estranged from her new husband, partly due to her inability to conceive, Elizabeth is sorely disappointed when Darcy cancels the party without consulting her. He further frustrates her when he also cancels the Christmas ball which has taken place at Pemberely for years.
Lady Catherine makes a point of reminding Elizabeth of her duty to bring forth an heir to Pemberely or the estate will be turned over to Darcy's distance cousin, Thomas Roper. Caroline Bingley maliciously mentions a mysterious "French woman," who everyone seems to know about accept Elizabeth herself. When Elizabeth spots Darcy in the village walking with a small boy, she assumes the boy is the offspring of this French woman and Mr. Darcy. She determines to run away and become a governess, leaving for Longbourne to visit her friend Charlotte while she makes her plans. It is here that she discovers she is expecting a child.
When Elizabeth gets word that her sister Jane, who has recently given birth to her second child, has become seriously ill, she goes to the Bingley estate to be with her. She then discovers the true identity of the French woman, and is reunited with her husband.
The review of this Book prepared by Megan E. Davis
