Miss Bennet Blooms: A Pride and Prejudice Novella (Love at Pemberley #3) by Reina M. Williams

Author:Reina M. Williams
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Others POV, Sequel - Canon Compliant, Pride and Prejudice & Related Fandoms
ISBN: 9781386906896
Publisher: ​Rickrack Books
Published: 2017-10-30T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Mary escaped once again to the library. The presence of so many people was too much after the morning entire. She had certainly been pleased, visiting with Kitty and Colonel Fitzwilliam, Lizzy and Darcy, Georgiana, Jane and Charles, playing with the babies, and even a brief talk with Papa after he introduced her to some few new to the party.

Her skirts rustled as she moved them to shut the door. The library teemed with blessed silence. Except the swish of fabric from near the window. Mary stopped.

Mr. Bingley rose from a tall wing-backed chair which faced the window. He placed a book on the occasional table and bowed. His lean frame was outlined in the light from the windows, his hair an unruly contrast to his composure.

Mary knew etiquette dictated she leave, for they ought not be alone. But she remained still.

“I see we both seek refuge again, Miss Bennet. I shall leave it to you, since I have already been here some time.” He stepped around the chair.

That explained his absence from the latter part of their gathering. She had endured. She had missed his presence. She compressed her lips tightly.

“A gentleman should…” No, she would not hide behind dictums and dogma anymore. Such had not given her the gifts she sought, of affection, admiration, and belonging.

Mr. Bingley studied her for a moment and then looked to the door. Mary clasped her hands behind her and pressed them into her back. Being left alone had been a commonplace occurrence.

She had sought solitude, and now wished for company.

He strode to the door, passing close. His scent was of the woodland, the scent of the oaks, elms, and birches he’d been tromping among. She stared forward, her hands so tight she felt the tension, a thread pulled too tight, tangling.

“I do not mind your company, sir.” A true statement, as much from her heart, and as brave a one as Mary had ever uttered, considering his turn earlier, after the christening.

“And I enjoy yours, Miss Bennet. But, I should not wish to…presume too much.”

“I do not see that you are. We are friends. There is nothing untoward in that.”

“You are as good as you are beautiful,” Mr. Bingley said. His voice, low and breaking, smote through her as the crack of a branch in a storm.

She released her hands in a start. His arm brushed hers. He opened the door. He was gone.

He was the first man to ever say she was beautiful. The first man to really notice her. To appreciate her qualities, not only of mind and spirit, but also of body.

She rubbed her arms and skipped a step into the room. She let out a breath and walked with measured steps to the window. The day grew brighter, the trees changing into their autumnal robes, birds braving the breeze, soon to be chilled and frosty. The scene spoke to her, a message of living, of becoming what she was meant to be.

She smiled. She did not quite

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