Darcy and Elizabeth: Fair Trade (A Pride and Prejudice Variation)

They were of a respectable family in the north of England; a circumstance more deeply impressed on their memories than that their brother's fortune and their own had been acquired by trade.       ~ Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

The morning after the Netherfield ball, Elizabeth Bennet refuses an offer of marriage, setting off a row in the Bennet household that ends tragically.

Faced with homelessness and untenable poverty, Elizabeth receives a different sort of offer--from quite an unexpected quarter--and finds herself considering the once-inconceivable prospect of going into trade.

When Elizabeth and her sisters open a tea shop in Meryton, she must deal with Mary's penchant for entertaining the customers, Mama's enthusiasm for the officers, Kitty's fear of French spies, Caroline Bingley's relentless attempts to degrade her and her family ~ and Mr. Darcy's irritating refusal to get out of her life.