Reversed Fortune: A Regency Romance inspired by P&P by Sydney Salier

Author:Sydney Salier [Salier, Sydney]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-01-22T22:00:00+00:00

15 Escape

After her encounter with Mr Darcy, Elizabeth slowly made her way back to Longbourn. To avoid encountering William, she entered the house through the backdoor and made her way to her room via the servant’s stair.

Along the way she encountered Mrs Hill and informed the housekeeper that she had a headache and would take a tray in her chambers.

Once she reached the sanctuary of her room, Elizabeth locked the door and collapsed onto her bed. As she did so, she realised that she had not lied to Mrs Hill, she did indeed have a headache which had been brought on by this most stressful of days.

The man whom she loved had embraced another woman, and the man whom she despised despite his apology, had proposed to her. What was worse, in his arrogance the man refused to accept that she was not interested in marriage with him.

She curled up on her bed and allowed herself the luxury of another good cry.

~~RF~~

Elizabeth’s absence at dinner was noted but dismissed by Mrs Bennet, who was most curious about the visit by the Earl of Matlock and his son.

‘The Earl was concerned about a member of his family, and I was able to reassure him about the wellbeing of that relation,’ William explained. As Mrs Bennet was still curious, he added quite truthfully, ‘my patron, Sir Lewis de Bourgh, is the brother-in-law of the Earl and Lady Anne.’

Fortunately, Mrs Bennet was distracted by Lydia’s complaints about being confined to Longbourn.

‘I have written to my brother Gardiner to engage a companion for you. Soon you will have more interesting things to keep your mind occupied,’ chided Mrs Bennet with some asperity.

Now that she was curtailing Lydia’s idea of fun, she realised how badly she had raised her daughter. She started to understand why her husband generally locked himself away in his library.

It did not take long for that gentleman to leave the table and invite his cousin to join him in his retreat.

Once the gentlemen were comfortably ensconced in front of the fire, Mr Bennet told his guest, ‘Mr… ah… Darcy has been to see me to request permission to marry Elizabeth.’

William’s reaction was all for which he could hope. The young man paled and immediately sat up straight. ‘Miss Elizabeth accepted a proposal from him?’ he asked in dismay.

‘Mr Darcy is convinced that she only rejected his first proposal to inflame his passions.’

‘She refused him and yet he still came to you for your permission to marry?’

Bennet grinned at him. ‘He most certainly did.’

‘Did… did you accede to his request?’ William asked hesitantly.

‘What do you think?’

William slumped in his chair and could not meet Mr Bennet’s eyes. ‘He is the heir of Longbourn. You were in favour of my marrying one of your daughters to keep the estate in the family. If his choice is Miss Elizabeth…’ He raised his eyes and gave a beseeching look to his host.

The pleading look on the young man’s countenance softened Mr Bennet’s heart and he stopped teasing him.

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.