A Season of Misunderstanding by Meg Osborne

Author:Meg Osborne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Jane Austen Fanfiction, Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth Bennet, Pride and Prejudice Variations and Retellings
Publisher: Meg Osborne
Published: 2021-04-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

The last person Darcy had expected to meet that day had been Elizabeth Bennet. He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised for he knew from their short acquaintance in Hertfordshire that she had a wide range of interests and that this particular exhibition was just something that might capture her attention. Still, I cannot hide indoors to avoid her! he thought, squirming a little at the notion that Elizabeth Bennet’s presence had chased him from one county and still continued to plague him. He glanced over, admiring the light in her eyes as she examined one painting after another. He felt his own expression lift to mirror the smile that crept onto her face when she saw something she particularly liked. Perhaps he did not mind it so very much.

“I did not take you for a devotee of art, Mr Darcy.”

He had been so lost in his thoughts that it took him a moment to realise she had addressed him. Clearing his throat, he hurried out a response.

“I do not know that one needs slavish devotion in order to appreciate talent. Art is always a fine investment,” he added.

“Ah, then you are in the market to purchase something?”

He was not. He had no idea why he had even mentioned investing at all. He had come to the exhibition merely because he longed to leave his house for a while but cared little to call on any of his numerous friends and acquaintances. He might just as easily have taken a circuit of the park, but Richard had been away from the house and he had no desire to walk alone. The exhibition had seemed a safer alternative, one he could peruse at his leisure, without being forced to make conversation and, if he was, with an easy topic of discussion before him.

“This is a pleasant landscape,” he muttered, directing Elizabeth’s attention away from him and back to the painting before them. “Spain, I believe.”

“How can you tell?” Elizabeth’s eyes widened in genuine curiosity. A second glance at her confirmed that she was not mocking him but genuinely wished to understand his deduction.

“I have read of this coastline,” he remarked, lifting a hand to a blue peak. “And the town that occupies it.”

Elizabeth turned shining eyes towards him.

“You have been there?”

Darcy wished he could answer in the affirmative. Many places he had travelled to, but this was not one of them.

“Alas, no.” He smiled, stiffly. “I have only read about it.”

“That is more, even, than I have done!” Elizabeth sighed. “I have given up reading of faraway places for it makes me so restless and eager to travel and I know I shall never have the opportunity.”

“Never?” Darcy began to walk again and she fell into step with him in a way that was both reassuring and comforting. “Miss Elizabeth you have travelled already! You are in London, which is itself quite different from Hertfordshire, is not it?” He looked around them. “And here, you are afforded a glimpse into tens of places further away still.

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