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English
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Little Black Dress 2022
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Published:
2022-07-02
Words:
285
Chapters:
1/1
Comments:
12
Kudos:
41
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534

a great deal too apt

Summary:

Caroline Bingley and the women that could-have-been.

Notes:

Work Text:

Out of all the men (and women) in the world, Caroline had to fall for ones most detrimental to her own social mobility. Not that it was quite robust on its own - doubly so with her... fascination in the female gender. She was resigned to her fate: nothing official, but small scraps of satisfaction. A living partner as they became spinsterly together, a hand in hers in the long nights. But even so, there had to have been a plethora of suitable candidates in the area surrounding Netherfield Park.

Her brother's Jane, so demure and lovely. Sweet like an apple plucked fresh from the tree, the first bite of the rosy, plump skin almost more tender than the fruit inside. Mr. Darcy's 'Lizzie' perhaps, all spunk and teeth and claws. They might have torn everything to shreds together, argued until the sun descended below the horizon and then retired to a bedroom together to sleep and start it all over again in the morning. Then the blow that hurt the most, perhaps. Charlotte. Wit and dry consignment, a steadfast pillar where Caroline had served her own time. Fingers skimming lightly over keyboard ivories and an insightful gaze as Jane and Elizabeth weaved their own romances and she and Charlotte stood together at the corner of the ballroom. Taken too by the promise of stability, the sacrifice of ambition and want for security.

Many could have been a suitable match. Frankly, none were possessions of the men they'd chosen, but it was easier to think of it that way. These women were never hers to lose - better to have lost and never won at all, then win and lose everything else Caroline had been fighting for.