Mr. Darcy's Feigned Engagement: a Pride and Prejudice variation by Lennox Valerie

Author:Lennox, Valerie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Punk Rawk Books
Published: 2023-12-31T00:00:00+00:00

“ONE MOMENT IF you please,” called a voice from within a doorway.

Mr. Darcy was standing in the foyer of a boarding house in a sordid part of London.

“If you’ll have a gander at the list of prices there. Payment’s upfront for any of the girls, and so—” Mrs. Younge appeared in the doorway, and at the sight of him, her voice cut off. “Mr. Darcy.”

“Mrs. Younge,” he said, clasping his hands together.

“Oh, I suppose you’re not here for…”

“No,” he said. “And I suppose this isn’t really a boarding house.”

She sighed. “Well, not a lot of options for a woman turned out with no reference, it’s true. I’m doing the best I can.”

He looked her over. “I want you to go back to what you were trying to say the day I sacked you.”

“What, sir?”

“I cut you off and wouldn’t let you speak, and I want to hear what it was now,” he said. Elizabeth’s speech had moved him a bit, he supposed, because Mrs. Younge’s options were quite limited.

“Well, it all seems foolish now, though.”

“Does it?”

“I wanted to say I’d have nothing to do with him from then on, and that I hadn’t any real idea what he was about,” said Mrs. Younge. “She seemed taken with him, and I told myself it was some kind of love story, I suppose. But then I saw it wasn’t. I saw what he was. He frightens me. But he got me this position here, and he’s always coming round, and I have… I can’t afford to cross him, you know? I don’t want to be on the other side of his holding a grudge.”

Mr. Darcy felt something inside him twist. “So, this is what I did to you, then, Mrs. Younge? Threw you to him, and he’s made you descend to this?”

She ducked down her chin. “I don’t… I’m not a whore, Mr. Darcy. I’ll leave before I do that. I’ve been thinking about leaving anyway. Perhaps on a ship to America, put an ocean between me and him. He’s the devil. How he talked me into doing that to your sister…” Her eyes filled with tears. “I’m just so sorry.”

“Does he talk to you?” said Mr. Darcy.

“What do you mean? Yes. Obviously, he talks to me.”

“Does he share his plans with you?”

“Oh.” She lifted a shoulder. “Well, not as such, I’m afraid.”

“Do you think you could get him to?”

“I… without his figuring out what I was up to?”

“Maybe this is harsh, Mrs. Younge, but here’s what I want to offer you. You find out what he’s planning to do to me, give me good information about his plans, and I shall bring you back into my household. I don’t think you can be responsible for my sister ever again, but I’ll find something for you. She misses you, you know.”

Mrs. Younge’s lips parted. “What brings this on? Is it that pretty girl in the unfashionable part of town, the one he said you were engaged to? I said, ‘Mr. Darcy would never become engaged to a girl like that.

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