Three Weeks in Kent by Meg Osborne

Author:Meg Osborne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: 19th Century, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen Fan Fiction, Jane Austen, Regency, Love, Colonel Fitzwilliam, Mary Bennet, Elizabeth and Darcy, JAFF
Publisher: Meg Osborne
Published: 2017-08-31T00:00:00+00:00

AT MR DARCY’S DEPARTURE, Elizabeth watched the empty space where he had been standing just half a moment before, before walking a step towards a chair, and sinking down into its smooth frame.

I wonder if you might permit me to consult you on a matter of some importance, Mr Darcy had said. Elizabeth had been inclined to laugh, to ask what he could possibly find so important as to require her opinion on, at two o'clock on a quiet afternoon, but when she noticed his serious expression and the way he kept his hands fixed to his side, her amusement vanished. Instantly, she anticipated the worst.

There is no problem, I hope? she had asked, her voice shaking slightly in a way that she could not control.

Problem? He had seemed surprised, and his eyebrows lifted, before drawing into one another in an expression of concern. There is no problem, in fact, I speak to you of solutions - a way of resolving certain problems we are both facing...

That had been the moment that Lady Catherine's imperious voice had broken through the quiet library, and interrupted their conversation. Mr Darcy had straightened, glanced towards the door, and evidently considered ignoring the summons, before it came again, with increasing insistence. One bow towards Elizabeth, an apologetic half-smile, and he had gone.

Elizabeth reached for a book at random from the shelf and opened it, but could not settle to reading. She scanned one page and then another, before groaning and closing the book, returning it to its home, and leaning back in her chair.

I speak to you of solutions... What solution could Mr Darcy offer to her current situation? She was at an impasse: her mother would not relent on the subject of her marrying Mr Collins, and she certainly was not about to acquiesce and surrender any chance she had at future happiness simply to please her family. Her lips quirked. No doubt that does make me selfish, as Charlotte asserts, but alas, if that is true then I must embrace my besetting sin and live with the consequences. No doubt Jane or Mary or even Kitty would happily do as Mama compels them. She thought of the eye-rolling and giggling that had taken place between her two youngest sisters whenever Mr Collins opened his mouth at the dining table and sighed. Well, perhaps none of them would quite comply happily, but I do not doubt they would obey eventually. Am I so very different to my sisters? For one startling moment, she recognised that of the four, it was Lydia who was most like her in this instance. Lydia, who never did anything other than precisely what she pleased.

This sobering thought brought her up sharp, and she straightened in her seat. I am no Lydia. But I must do as I think right, make the best decision I can for the future, and that certainly does not involve marrying Mr Collins. She felt that even more strongly than she had at Longbourn. For, here, she could see the people that she would be pressed into common society with.

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