Mr. Darcy Forever Read Online Free PDF Page A

Willoughby!’ Mia said excitedly, scrambling up from the carpet.
    ‘ What are you doing?’
    ‘ I’m trying to see who it is?’
    ‘ Well, can’t you answer the door properly?’ Sarah said.
    ‘ I can’t answer it looking like this!’ Mia said, motioning to her pyjamas.
    ‘ Well, I haven’t got any make-up on!’
    ‘ Oh, I can’t see who it is,’ Mia said.
    ‘ Who on earth could be knocking? We’re in the middle of Devon!’
    ‘ The owner?’ Mia suggested. ‘A mad axe-man?’
    ‘ Don’t even joke about such things.’
    Mia jiggled the curtains. ‘It’s no use. I can't see him.’
    ‘ How do you know it's a “he”, then?’
    ‘ Just wishful thinking,’ she said.
    ‘ I thought we'd made a pact to swear off men,’ Sarah said. ‘At least for a week.’
    Mia shrugged. ‘Those sorts of pacts never last.’
    There was a second knock on the door.
    ‘ He’s not giving up whoever he is,’ Mia said and then she dived behind the curtain. ‘Oh, my goodness! I think he saw me!’
    ‘ Is it a he?’
    Mia nodded. ‘A young he too.’
    Sarah got up from the floor and joined her sister by the curtain before daring to look out of the window herself. ‘What do you think he wanted?’
    ‘ To meet two young beautiful women, of course.’
    ‘ Do you think we should call him back?’
    ‘ I’m still in my pyjamas,’ Mia said.
    ‘ You’re right. We’ll have to hope he calls again. Do you think he will?’
    ‘ I should think so,’ Mia said, little knowing what problems it would cause them.

Chapter 5
     
    Shelley Quantock was anxiously looking out of the window of her Georgian terrace. Mia was late. Not that there was anything new in that. In all of their years together at drama school, she’d never known her friend to be punctual. Still, it didn't stop Shelley from hoping and she continued to pace back and forth between the window and the bookcase until her friend arrived.
    At least it was a nice room to pace in, she mused, thinking of the last phone call she'd had with Mia and how she hated the thought of her friend stuck in a grimy bedsit in London.
    ‘ Why don't you move in with me? There's plenty of room,’ Shelley had pleaded.
    ‘ I can't leave London,’ Mia had said.
    ‘ Why not? I did and it hasn't done me any harm.’
    ‘ Yes but you don't want to set the world on fire, do you?’
    And it was true. Even at drama school, Shelley hadn't ever really burned with the same sort of ambition that most of the other students had. Was that a failing? she wondered. She'd never wanted to set the world alight – she’d only ever wanted to have fun. That's all drama school had been for her - a fun way of passing the time but she knew that her friend was different. She pined for the big time – of making a name for herself and seeing that name up in lights. But, if Shelley was absolutely honest, she rather preferred the quiet life. For all her loudness and easy confidence, she really couldn’t imagine hankering after a life in the public eye although she had once had a brief brush with fame doing the voice-over to one of her father’s herbal tea commercials.
    Hugh Quantock was huge in herbal teas and could quite easily have bought Shelley and Mia a deluxe flat in the very best part of London when they’d graduated but he’d refused. However, a couple of years later, he purchased 6 Southville Terrace in Bath, a beautiful honey-coloured house with a huge bay window. It had been an investment, he said, not wanting his daughter to think she was being mollycoddled. Besides, Bath was the gateway to the South West - an area he had his eye on in terms of business development. Shelley felt as if she didn’t deserve such a beautiful house because she’d never really worked a day in her life but her father had bought it as an investment and expected her to pay him rent.
    So, she’d got herself a part-time job at Tumble Tots nursery and surprised herself by how much she loved looking after the little ones