An Autumn Accord: A Pride and Prejudice Novella Variation (Seasons of Serendipity Book 4) Read Online Free PDF

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    “ Fret not, I am not offended. I know I am not thought to be as clever as Lizzie, but I was prepared to hear the poor news.” Mary continued to smile in hopes of encouraging him out of his sour mood. Instead, the Colonel’s face began to turn a most violent shade of red.
    “ But, don’t you understand what this means? Poor news . . . poor news is a relative delayed on a visit. I possess no manner with which to provide for you the lifestyle you deserve. I cannot offer to protect you, to care for you, when I own not even a wretched hovel.”
    Mary caught her breath in an audible gasp, ignoring the angry burn threatening the corners of her eyes. “We do not lack the funds to purchase a hovel, I am fairly certain it would perhaps even be above wretched status, though there is no shame in humble dwellings as Scripture tells us we – -“
    “ Spare me your sermons this time, woman. I will not spend your money.”
    Although it was never a bother before for him to think of his marriage prospects as requiring a wealthy heiress, moving from an abstract concept to one of actual execution left more than distaste in Richard Fitzwilliam’s mouth. It bitterly burned as ineptitude. Why had he not allowed his father to purchase him a higher rank years ago? He would not now be a lowly colonel awaiting the rank and salary to support a family.
    As they continued to walk, Mary remained silent and Richard proved the most passive of escorts. The park was far too public a place for Mary to willingly engage in a discussion about marriage with a man who had yet to propose. A man who had just very neatly insulted her!
    Quickening her steps, Richard matched Mary’s pace and they rapidly caught up the two younger girls ahead on the path. Without blinking, for fear tears might fall, Mary released the arm of the Colonel and joined her sister’s side to hear their conversation about Kitty’s novel. Feigning interest in the heroine’s moral motivations, the remainder of the stroll continued with nothing amiss to distress Georgiana and Kitty. The entire time they walked the trek, Mary Bennet began to consider if she ought to load a carriage and join her sensible sisters in Scotland.
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    Mrs. Bennet, the most distinguished widow of Hertfordshire, soon found herself without the companionship of her friends as she lived mainly alone in Meryton. Aside from a few visits from her sister Phillips every week or so, the previous grand matron of Hertfordshire Society spent her days with a wine glass, fussing over her small home. She wrote many letters to her daughters Jane and Lydia but had not found their correspondence to keep a similar pace.
    At the suggestion of her newest housekeeper, Mrs. Bennet donned a dress trimmed in gray for a shopping excursion. Her first attempt to greet familiar friends in town met with initially shock at how altered her appearance had become followed by half-hearted compliments. Once a robust and cheerful woman, Francine Bennet had lost considerable mass and tone, her complexion without bloom. Her reliance of the numbness from drink aged her features in a profound manner.
    Spotting her harrowed reflection in a shop’s window, her eyes refocused on the lettering of the sign above the door. She stepped into the small hamlet’s new sundry shop promising lotions and finely crafted soaps of elegant ingredients. Carefully fingering the small display of lavender soaps stacked neatly on the counter, her heart panged at the loss of her daughters. Her Jane and Lydia both preferred lavender, but they were gone now, off in Scotland on holiday and none cared for their poor Mama. There was no room on the back of her home to dry flowers and herbs like there had been at Longbourn, nor a garden or young ladies to tend the plantings.
    “ Pardon me madam, would you know the direction of the book shop?” A handsome stranger with dashing dark looks asked a seemingly innocuous question.
    “ Oh my