Mrs Bennet Makes a Match Release Day!

It’s release day for my latest novella, Mrs Bennet Makes a Match! 🥳 To help celebrate, I’m sharing a snippet  from Chapter 2. I posted an excerpt (Chapter 1) previously; you can find it here.

In this segment of the second chapter, Mr Darcy and Mr Bingley have come to dinner, and the party is now in the drawing room after the meal. Mrs Bennet has been looking on with pleasure at the resumption of Jane and Bingley’s romance, when… Well, read on, and you’ll see!

As Mrs Bennet covered a dismissive huff with a quiet cough, her sight landed on Mr Darcy, and she saw the most curious thing ever. He was watching someone with an expression you would use for a dearly loved child…or wife! There was no one in the room upon whom he might bestow a paternal feeling, thus it could only mean he liked one of her girls. Shock robbed her of her breath. Surely, it could not be! But she was not mistaken. There was a softness about his eyes, and his smile, although slight, was somehow powerful—even more so than one of Mr Bingley’s grins—because Mr Darcy rarely wore such a gesture of approbation. The gentleman quickly schooled his features and turned away from the object of his scrutiny.

Which of her daughters had he been observing? Based on where Jane sat, it was not her, thank goodness. Despite it being a romantic notion, Mrs Bennet knew it would in actuality be terrible if the two gentlemen fought over her most beautiful daughter.

To call such a man my son-in-law would be something! But did it even matter that Mr Darcy harboured such an affection? None of the girls take any notice of him. I doubt they have thought of him since he left Hertfordshire last November, and Lizzy positively despises him. Yet he is so rich and high born.

Mrs Bennet then recalled thinking that he was observing Elizabeth the other morning. But that was a look of disapproval, surely! The pair had never liked each other and—Mrs Bennet forced her jaw closed to avoid gaping at her daughter. Elizabeth—Elizabeth!—had glanced at Mr Darcy, her countenance showing what appeared to be sadness and regret!

Suddenly overcome by these startling events, Mrs Bennet excused herself from the room for several minutes to regain her composure in private. When she returned, she ignored Jane and Mr Bingley to study Mr Darcy and Elizabeth. Sure enough, throughout the remaining hour the gentlemen were at Longbourn, the pair often stole peeks at each other, although their eyes never seemed to meet.

Could there be more to their connexion than she, Elizabeth’s own mother, knew? Had Elizabeth’s feelings for him changed that much?

I don’t know. What do you think? Is it possible Mrs Bennet doesn’t know something about her dear second eldest?

You can read a longer sample of the novella at BookFunnel. Mrs Bennet Makes a Match is available through Amazon in print, e-book, and through Kindle Unlimited.

Thanks for reading! Lucy 🌸