Truly Madly Darcy by Kate Bedlow

Author:Kate Bedlow [Bedlow, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Pride and Prejudice & Related Fandoms, Not in Amazon Library, To Transfer
ISBN: 9781973199557
Google: wnMptAEACAAJ
Amazon: B0771X3JFX
Goodreads: 36513841
Publisher: Beastie Press
Published: 2017-10-30T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Bingley

On Saturday the rain stopped. Charles was torn between joy in the sunshine and wishing the storm would return to ensure Miss Jane Bennet remained at Netherfield. Fortunately, the break looked to be temporary.

He went downstairs to ask Darcy and Hurst to join him in a ride while the opportunity presented and found his friend in the breakfast room with Caroline and Louisa. But no Hurst.

Poor Louisa. Her husband had not turned out as they had all hoped. Hurst was a decent enough fellow—liked a good brandy and a game of cards (perhaps too well) and was ready to ride and shoot as often as one liked. But as a husband, Charles’s brother-in-law was not quite up to the mark. Hurst was not… companionable. That was the word. Charles often sensed his sister was lonely for the sort of deep friendship to be found only with one’s partner in matrimony.

Perhaps he was a flibbertigibbet (at present), but of one thing he was sure: when he did give his heart, it would be forever and unwavering, steady as the Rock of Gibraltar. His greatest desire in life was—had always been—to love and be loved. The difficulty was that there was so much to love in the world! So many pretty and accomplished young ladies. It was too easy to love, so very hard to settle. And yet…

He sighed at the empty chair where he had already grown used to seeing Jane Bennet of a morning. Stilling his disappointment, and went to the sideboard to fill his plate.

Of all Mrs. Bennet’s daughters, had he seen Jane first at the Meryton assembly ball, would he have dropped his idle infatuation with Lydia and asked her to dance? (For he now realized Darcy had been right; an idle fancy was all he felt—had ever felt, could ever feel—for Lydia Bennet.)

Oh why had he not followed his friend’s counsel? The excellent fellow had taken great pains to guide him through the treacherous waters of society and more—how to transition from the thoughtless and carefree young cove he had been to the mature and true gentleman he desired to be. Where best to invest the fortune he’d inherited. How far he was obliged to care for his sisters—and where their demands upon him were unreasonable. How to navigate a Season without going under, to guard against saying anything so particular to a young lady that he put himself under obligation.

All for naught! He had made such a muck of things!

He was as obligated to Lydia Bennet as if he had asked her to be his wife before her family and all of Hertfordshire. And while Jane Bennet gave no outward sign that she preferred Captain Carter above all others, that gentleman certainly behaved as if she had given him private assurances of her favor. The captain sat beside her at every gathering, and though she rarely danced, when she did it was with that coxcomb.

There was no hope. This was how it would be. If he did not ask Lydia Bennet to marry him soon, it would be a terrible scandal.

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