An Heir for Pemberley: A Pride and Prejudice Variation Short Story by Jane Grix

Author:Jane Grix
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Read, Sequels, Short Stories, Purchased, Pride and Prejudice & Related Fandoms
Published: 2016-02-04T05:00:00+00:00

* * *

Seven hours. Darcy closed his pocket watch and sighed. He had tried to read as Elizabeth had suggested, but the words seemed to swim on the page. And he could not look at his book of accounts. All he could do was imagine her in pain.

In the thousands of years since men had been on earth, how could they bear it, waiting for their women to give birth, knowing that they might not survive? Because they had no choice, he realized.

Mrs. Reynolds sent a footman to ask when he wanted dinner, but he declined.

He walked down to Pemberley’s chapel and said yet another prayer there. He hoped the good Lord was listening, but he knew that his father had prayed as well.

Afterwards he walked to the gallery to look at his family paintings. It was comforting to see his grandparents and then his parents. He smiled at the painting of himself as a young boy, wearing a blue velvet coat and his hair in dark ringlets. Then another of himself and Georgiana when he was a lad, and eventually solitary portraits of each member of his family. His father looked calm and prosperous with hunting dogs at his feet and Pemberley in the background. Darcy wondered if he would look the same in thirty years.

Georgiana’s portrait was more recent. She was a young woman now, wearing one of the elegant evening gowns he had bought for her season in London. He had not been eager for her to wed. Indeed, Elizabeth joked that he would not give his consent until she was thirty. But then she fell love with a Baronet twelve years her senior. The man was calm and steady with an income of his own – nothing like Wickham – so eventually Darcy had agreed to the wedding. She had married this past spring and was currently travelling. From her letters she appeared to be happy.

He looked closely at the last painting of his mother. She had been painted in one of her favourite dresses, a lovely striped gown of pink and white. The style was old fashioned now, with a narrow waist and wide skirt, but he thought she was lovely. The artist had captured the look of her, including a hint of a smile.

Darcy wished his mother could have met Elizabeth. He thought she would have approved of his choice. Despite Lady Catherine’s claims, he did not think she would have wanted him to marry his cousin Anne.

Poor Anne. She had a sad life with her ill health and being forever under her mother’s thumb. Anne had caught an inflammation of the lungs a year before and died. Lady Catherine wore all black now and was a shadow of her former self. She no longer spent her days bossing the Collinses and all her neighbours. Instead she kept to herself, grieving.

Elizabeth had written to her several times, inviting her to Pemberley, but Darcy did not know if his aunt would accept.

But he did not want to think of death.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.