The Correction of Folly: A Sense and Sensibility Variation (What Might Have Been Book 1) by Christine Combe

Author:Christine Combe [Combe, Christine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Black Room Press
Published: 2018-07-11T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

Friday, 23 March 1798

E linor woke suddenly from a sound sleep, and for a moment had to stop and think where she was.

Pemberley, she recalled. They had brought Georgiana Darcy home at last.

She was held quite securely in the arms of her husband, both of them well satisfied from their lovemaking—so why was she now awake?

“Elinor?” Alan sleepily mumbled at her back.

Elinor turned onto her back. “Forgive me, I did not mean to disturb you.”

“You didn’t,” he replied, before pressing a kiss to her shoulder. “I was awake as well.”

She huffed softly. “I cannot imagine why—we were both of us weary from travel and then we…”

She felt his lips smiling against her through her nightdress, then Alan sighed. “I think I know—it is about the hour when Miss Darcy would wake from her nightmares.”

“You’re probably right, though as we were not woken by the poor girl’s screams, I would say the laudanum worked well. However, I did not imagine she would be sleeping so long.”

“Go.”

Elinor looked at him. “Whatever do you mean?”

Shifting his head on the pillow to meet her gaze in the dim light from the low fire across the room, Alan said to her, “I know you want to check on her. Go on and do so.”

“But Alan, we’ve not been able to share a bed in a week’s time—I’ve no wish to hurt you by leaving you now,” she said.

“That you feel that way is a comfort to me, my dear, and there is a part of me that desires to keep you here,” Alan told her. “But we would neither of us rest without knowing Miss Darcy was well. Go on and look in on her. I’ll be here when you get back.”

Elinor smiled in the dark and leaned forward to press her lips to his. She then slipped out of the bed and hurried to don a dressing gown and slippers, then went for a candle on the mantle and lit it. She turned at the door to the bedroom and waved at Alan, waiting until he lifted a hand in return before she slipped out the door and crossed through the sitting room and out into the hall. Orienting herself for a moment, she turned left and headed for the wing of the house where the family had their rooms. Some minutes later she was outside of Georgiana’s door, which she opened as quietly as she could.

The young lady’s private parlor was dark, but the chambers were not silent. From the direction of the bedroom she could hear muffled weeping, and so she hurried across to the room to the bedchamber door. Inside she noted that the bed was a mess, but Georgiana was not in it. Elinor found her on the floor in a corner of the room, huddled into a ball with her knees drawn up.

Her heart breaking for the younger woman, Elinor set her candle on a nearby shelf and moved to sit beside her. When she put her arms around Georgiana, the girl began to shake with silent sobs.

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