Elizabeth of East Hampton: A Contemporary Retelling of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice by Audrey Bellezza & Emily Harding

Author:Audrey Bellezza & Emily Harding [Bellezza, Audrey & Harding, Emily]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Pride and Prejudice & Related Fandoms, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting
ISBN: 9781668052563
Google: VxjdEAAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 199898023
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published: 2024-08-06T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 20

The rain had finally stopped and it was almost dark by the time Will turned onto Old Montauk Highway. His car flew past the low trees and brush silhouetted against the darkening sky, weaving its way down to the cracked asphalt as the road’s two lanes became an ambiguous one. He rolled down the windows, letting in the cold evening air. The sterile smell of the leather interior was lost in the overwhelming scent of ocean salt. God, he had missed this. He took a deep breath, and for the first time in an hour, felt his pulse begin to slow.

After leaving the bakery—and Elizabeth Bennet—behind, Will had debated going back to the city. But then his mind filled with a thousand obligations waiting for him there, and he could think of only one place he could go to get away from all of them.

The road ended abruptly and he turned right, down the private drive almost completely hidden by overgrown sumac trees and switchgrass. Despite knowing this journey by heart, he still turned on his headlights, dissolving the shadows left by the low branches on either side.

A slight curve to the left, a hard right, and then, there it was.

The scaffold that had surrounded the house for months had finally been dismantled last week, so the shingle siding, gray and weathered from years of exposure to sea air, made the house glow against the purple-and-orange sky. Two stories, with a sloped roof interrupted by a number of windows peeking out in all directions—one of which he’d broken when he tried to sneak out in eighth grade. Slate floors in the kitchen, with one loose tile in the far corner where his dad used to hide messages for him to find. A porch that wrapped around the back, facing the cliffside and the ocean beyond. It was a view he had loved since childhood, a permanent thing he assumed would be there forever.

It will be. Just not for you, a voice inside his head murmured.

He cut the engine and went inside.

The house was large—probably bigger than Charlie’s rental—but deceptively so thanks to low ceilings and a maze of cozy rooms spread across both floors. Will dropped his keys on the small table by the front door and passed the beadboard-paneled walls lined with family photos on his way to the living room. It was spacious, with a hulking stone fireplace along the far wall and a piano in the opposite corner. In the center there was a worn leather sofa flanked by two armchairs. They had been red once, but thanks to years of use and sun, they had faded to a muted pink. Behind them was a bookcase, his destination. His father had kept his liquor on the top shelf—a joke that he repeated to anyone who would listen—but Will had never been a fan of whiskey or gin, so it had been neglected over the past few years.

But not now. Right now, Will needed scotch.

He reached up and grabbed the first bottle he could find and poured himself a glass, then took a deep sip.

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