Longbourn's Lark: A Pride and Prejudice Variation (A Convenient Marriage, #1) by Meg Osborne

Author:Meg Osborne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: 19th Century, Love, Elizabeth and Darcy, Mary Bennet, Colonel Fitzwilliam, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen Fan Fiction, Jane Austen, JAFF, Regency
Publisher: Meg Osborne
Published: 2017-07-31T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Darcy scowled as he retreated through the crowd of dancers and into the corridor, rejoicing only to find himself at last alone, and in quiet, with just the faintest traces of the piano. He was annoyed, but not by Elizabeth Bennet. His annoyance rested solely on his own shoulders. She had thrown his own words back at him, and he could offer no defence. It was an opinion he had formed quickly, as he so often did. Usually, such instincts were rewarded as being accurate. How long, after all, had he held out for Wickham's good, insisting in the face of all the evidence his tenants' reports, that his friend was merely maligned and misunderstood? It had taken Wickham's running away with Georgiana for Darcy to realise his folly, and he had sworn then to always and only trust his first instinct. He had known Wickham's true character as a child and softened to him only at his father's insistence. This was the last gift he could offer the late Mr Darcy, to defend and support his father's godson, and to treat the man as a friend, himself. How had that trust been repaid?

So, yes, Darcy made decisions in an instant. He had grown cautious and was reluctant to trust without some evidence that that trust would be deserved. How much he repented now of his first assessment of Elizabeth Bennet! He might have deemed her unworthy of his attention at Meryton but that was his own prejudice against any woman likely to be showing an interest in him solely on account of his wealth. Was that not the last insult George Wickham had hurled at him? To suggest that Darcy’s character, his perpetual bad temper was hardly an enticing prospect for any woman. How fortunate, William, that you have wealth on your side. Women will flock to you for your pocketbook, and learn to tolerate your mood. He had thought so of Elizabeth, and in his least generous moments, he still thought so of Jane. It was only when he took the time to notice Charles and Jane Bennet together that he realised there must be some true affection there, and if it was a little stronger on his friend’s side than hers, she was sweet tempered enough to grow in affection as their relationship developed. He had ceased to be concerned for Charles' future and determined no longer to stand in the way of their forming any kind of connection. His cousin's comments lodged in his mind. We all wish to fall in love sometime...there is one easy solution to Aunt Catherine’s schemes: marry someone else. Darcy grimaced. What advice would his expert cousin offer, he wondered, if the woman one could, at last, see oneself marrying was unable to forgive an earlier judgment made in haste, and repented of at leisure?

“Here you are!”

A door behind him swung open, and Charles Bingley appeared in the corridor, concern dimming his usually bright smile. “I feared you were taken ill, with the pace at which you fled the dancing.

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