A Father's Sins: A Pride and Prejudice Variation Read Online Free PDF Page B

rest.” Elizabeth laid
her back on her pillows and watched Jane’s eyes close; the long, thick, dark
lashes they shared like shadows on her pale face. “ I love her with all my
heart, ” she thought to herself.
     
    Elizabeth
and Sarah tended her through the rest of the day and night. Several times they
woke her sister to give her some of the powders she had brought in her
apothecary case. The medicine, which seemed to help with fever and pain, had
helped others in the past. Each time, Jane complained of the taste, but drank
it down.
     
    _ _ _
     
    After
Miss Elizabeth was escorted upstairs to her sister, Darcy headed to the rarely
used library to reflect on this chance meeting. He sat in one of the chairs,
close to the roaring fireplace. Picking up a book on a side table, he weighed
it in his hands, not paying attention to the title or content. Bennet was not
an uncommon name and neither was the Christian name, Elizabeth. It had been a
pleasant surprise to find that it was the same person from the bookstore.
Thinking over the time that had passed since he first spoke with her in
Hatchards, he wondered how her life had been impacted by the passage of years. 
In his mind, on occasion, when he had thought of her as he picked up a book on
geography or travel, she had remained unchanged; still the young girl from the
bookstore. How pleased he was to officially be introduced to her as a young
woman.
     
    He
had wondered, when his sister had inquired as to the correctness of writing to
Miss Jane Bennet’s sister, if it was the same young woman. At the few social
gatherings that he had attended in Meryton, he had been impressed with Miss
Jane Bennet who was tall, slim, fair-haired, blue-eyed, and elegantly calm. However,
her quiet nature was so similar to Darcy’s and her place in society so far
removed from theirs that he quickly passed up the opportunity to know her
better. Bingley did not have that concern and after being acquainted with her
for a mere two hours, proclaimed her “his angel”.  The young girl, Miss
Elizabeth Bennet, from his memory, resembled her older sister not in the
slightest.
     
    Darcy’s
time had been filled with adapting to his role as Master of Pemberley and
guardian to his young sister. Like his father before him, he had determined to
fulfill his duties with diligence, dignity, and pride; to be a successful and
caring landowner. Under Darcy’s guidance, the coffers of Pemberley had
increased dramatically and the reputation of the Darcy name had finally
returned to the height it had been over the generations previous to his father.
Unlike his father, he remained moral, constantly aware of how the smallest
indiscretion could taint the family reputation. This self-restraint moved him
to remove himself from certain associations, especially in the presence of
vice, be it of a sexual nature, or gambling, or any other dissolute behaviors.
His wealth and stature made him the target of women of all ages, single or
married. Their grasping, clinging stratagems were an affront to his normally
shy nature. He knew, for example, that Caroline Bingley would never have looked
at him twice if he did not own one of the largest estates in all of England,
other smaller properties, a house in town, and fine carriages and horseflesh.
Over the years that he had known her, she had made clear her desire to be the
next Mistress of Pemberley. That would not happen!
     
    Darcy,
in his heart, longed for a companion, one who understood the pressures he was
under, one who could be a sister and companion to Georgiana, and one who would
bring back the joy and laughter that had been missing from his life since his
mother died. He was lonely.
     
    He
thought of the twinkle in Miss Elizabeth’s eyes when she teased him in the
entryway and how she endeavored to immediately put Georgiana at ease. Her
politeness and dignity in the face of Miss Bingley’s intolerance indicated that
her manners were far superior to those of her