The Bennet Wardrobe

As Meryton burns, a new character is forged and refined. Love ignites in the fiery ashes and smolders until the couple can be reunited. Mary Bennet spent her life fighting to be herself. If only she knew what that was. For years, trying to be exceptional, she buried her nose in the fusty musings of Fordyce’s Sermons to Young Women. With Jane and Elizabeth wed and gone, Mary must find her way as Longbourn’s eldest daughter.

Henry travels over 30 years into the future to land in the middle of the most awful conflict in human history - World War I. His brief time at the Front teaches him that there is no longer any room on the battlefield for heroic combat. Rather he discovers the horrors of “modern” warfare and the incredible waste of young men’s lives. Henry's two weeks spent recuperating at the Beach House in Deauville irrevocably changes his life.

Longbourn, December 1811. The day after Jane and Lizzy marry dawns especially cold for young Kitty Bennet. Called to Papa’s bookroom, she is faced with a resolute Mr. Bennet who intends to punish her complicity in her sister’s elopement. She will be sent packing to a seminary in far-off Cornwall. She reacts like any teenager chafing under the “burden” of parental rules - she throws a tantrum. In her fury, she slams her hands against the doors of The Bennet Wardrobe. Her heart’s desire? "I wish they were dead! Anywhere but Cornwall! Anywhere but here!"

The universe was shaken once again on Midsummer’s Day in 1801. The Bennet Wardrobe’s door to the future was opened in the book room at Longbourn. This time, the most impertinent Bennet of them all, Elizabeth, tumbled through the gateway. Except she left not as the grown women with whom we have become so familiar, but rather as a 10-year-old girl who had been playing a simple game of hide-and-seek. What/where/when was her destination?

The Exile: The Countess Visits Longbourn is the second part and conclusion of the Bennet Wardrobe volume, chronicling the life of Kitty Bennet in the Wardrobe’s universe. This novel takes listeners on a journey that stretches from the early 19th into the mid 20th centuries.

Thomas Bennet, Master of Longbourn, had always counted himself amongst the few educated gentlemen of his acquaintance. But, he had to travel over 120 years into the future to discover how little he knew about the woman sharing his life. Once again, the amazing Bennet Wardrobe proved to be the schoolmaster. Tom Bennet’s lesson? Mrs. Bennet had been formed especially for him. Fanny Bennet also would uncover deep wells of courage and inspiration as she stood by her man’s side in the bleak years after World War II.

Does it matter how a man fills out his regimentals? Miss Austen never considered that query. Yet, this question marks the beginning of an education - and the longest life - in the Bennet Wardrobe saga. Lydia Bennet, Longbourn’s most wayward daughter, embarks on her quest in The Pilgrim: Lydia Bennet and a Soldier’s Portion. This biography reveals how the Wardrobe helps young Mrs. Wickham learn that honor and bravery grow not from the color of the uniform - or the gender of its wearer - but rather from the contents of the heart.

The Grail: The Saving of Elizabeth Darcy closes out the Bennet Wardrobe series. The disparate threads spun by the remarkable women born to a Hertfordshire couple of insignificant fortune are woven together. These lives have become the tapestry that records the destiny of Jane Austen’s lovers, immortal in any here/now or where/when.

The Darcys know the changes age brings. Now, as birthday candles for Darcy multiply, how will time affect Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam’s love? Time is painfully short for Fanny Bennet as she faces the loss of an ailing husband she dearly loves. Another hour or day with Thomas Bennet would be a treasure. Thomas Bennet left Longbourn one last time to find a long-lost daughter. Now wearing a countess’s tiara, Kate Fitzwilliam has needed her family for decades, especially during the festive season.