Longbourn Lovespells

A Pride and Prejudice Possibility

By: Carrie Mollenkopf

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Hertfordshire, England 1813….
Margaret Bennet, with skirts hiked past her ankles, ran across the kitchen garden, caring not who either witnessed her unladylike scamper, nor who got in her way. Resembling a hen in search of a wayward egg, she quite blended in with the chickens in the yard who took flight from their nests at the sight of her. But haste was to be made, and there was not a moment to lose. Netherfield Park had been let, and even better, to a gentleman, reportedly of great wealth, nearly five thousand a year. And although her inconsiderate husband had yet to call upon the newcomers, Mrs. Bennet was no such lay-about, not when it came to the future of her daughters…and herself.
“This time it will work! It must!” she vowed, pushing open the wooden portal to the small stone shed that served as the estate’s distillery. Inside, were all manner of bottles and casks lining the walls, each one labeled for contents and the year in which it was brewed. Overhead, herbs dried, pervading the musty air with a muddled, but pleasant perfume. But it was not to these mundane things that the mistress of Longbourn rushed, no it was to the small corner cupboard, with its fitted worktable. There, kept locked from the prying eyes and fingers of the world, Margaret Bennet kept all manner of things. Things, that if seen, had caused more than one of her ancestors to be accused of witchery. But this was no mission of evil upon which she was bent. It was one of pure survival, and she did it as much for her daughters as for herself. For it was a man’s world, and women were often forced to drastic measures