Resolution

An excerpt for something I have been working on– the cover reveal and preorders are Feb 18th!  Hope you enjoy it!

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It was two weeks before my wedding when by chance I saw him. Being exceedingly careful to keep myself in the shadows of the curtains, I peered out onto the street below. There was a carriage, not Bingley’s, and there was Bingley on the side, laughing and talking. 

And there was he.

My blood ran cold, then hot, and I had to pause a moment, leaning against the dressing table in Jane’s guest apartment until the fever had abated. Was it really him?

I could not see very much of him from where I stood, but there was no mistaking; it was him. The little curl of hair beneath his hat, his form, long and lean under his greatcoat—there was and is no one else like him. My heart pounded in my throat, and without thinking, I raised my hand to press against my chest, trying to calm the unruly beast. 

Bingley laughed, and Mr. Darcy did too, a low chuckle, barely audible. 

I pressed my fist to my mouth and scarcely breathed while I watched the two old friends conclude their conversation. Then the two men tipped their hats to one another; Mr. Darcy climbed into his carriage and Bingley entered the house. I heard the front door close  behind my brother-in-law just as I stared at the back of Mr. Darcy’s chaise being pulled away by four horses which seemed damnably, regrettably quick. 

I was still staring at the spot where he was last visible when Jane burst into my bedchamber, already in a fine lather. “You are not even dressed!” she cried out in dismay. “Where is Vickery? I declare I shall wring that woman’s neck if she does not stop disappearing at the most inconvenient times!” 

I had to laugh; she sounded so much like my mother. “Jane, calm down. Is it not hours until the first guests arrive?” 

“One hour! And pray do not tell me to calm down. My husband seems to think he can simply go about Town all afternoon inviting anyone he sees to come to the house for dinner! And people accept it! I declare, I never knew anything like it. It is as if all of society has collectively decided good manners mean nothing and they should all just wander about, stopping hither and yon wherever they feel so moved to dine!” 

While she ranted, Jane had managed to push me into the seat by the vanity. Evidently my sister, not seeing her maid instantly before her, had decided she would dress me herself. Her nimble fingers began to plait wildly even as she continued her diatribe. 

“I said to him, ‘Charles, my love, surely Mr. Darcy has already plans for this evening’—”

“Jane, you are hurting my head―”  

“And just as happy as you please, my husband tells me—”

“What the devil! My head!” I said with extra emphasis, in case she had not heard me before. 

“‘Oh but I persuaded him to send his regrets to them and come to our party.’ I declare sometimes I think marriage turns a man into a half-wit! And then—”

“Mr. Darcy? Mr. Darcy is coming here tonight?” 

Jane gave me a cross look in the mirror. “Are you listening to anything I am telling you? Yes! Charles just came home from his club, told me he saw Mr. Darcy, and has invited Mr. Darcy to the party!” 

“Oh no!” It felt as though my heart had plummeted into my shoes. 

Perversely, Jane seemed even more vexed by my protest. In a trice, she neatly switched to the other side of the argument. “Surely you do not still despise him? You need to grow up and stop holding such silly grudges against people.” 

“I do not hold grudges!” 

“Then what difference does it make if he comes to your engagement dinner or not? He is Charles’s dear friend, and Charles has not seen him in an age; I am sure I should be delighted to have him here as should you.”

Vickery entered then in a flurry of apologies and excuses, and Jane was able to take herself off to do whatever wifely duties were required of her. Vickery immediately set to work on my hair, clucking mournfully over the frantic plaits my sister had installed, and I was left to my thoughts.

Mr. Darcy. After all this time. 

We had a strange history, Mr. Darcy and I. He had insulted me at an assembly, and I responded by teasing him and tormenting him—it seemed a sure spur to my genius to dislike him so heartily when all the others were fawning around him. But then he proposed to me—forever ago, really, an April night at Hunsford parsonage that surely everyone has forgot but me—and then gave me a letter revealing his whole self. As it was, I had been wrong about everything I thought I knew about him. Was it any surprise that I found myself falling in love with him when we met in Derbyshire that summer? As Shakespeare himself said: “My only love sprung from my only hate! Too early seen unknown, and known too late!”

But then came Lydia’s big mistake which nearly ruined her and my entire family—I say nearly because he saved her and us. After that, he corrected his error with Bingley, leading to Jane’s ultimate happiness when she was reunited with and married to her true love. 

What he did not do, however, was return to me. For whatever feelings he once had, they seemed to have died somewhere between late summer in Derbyshire and autumn in Hertfordshire. It plagued me for a long time, wondering why he forgot me, but after too many months repining, I decided I must put it aside or risk ending a spinster, living on the charity of my relations.

That was when Mr. Julius Timpson came along.

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In case you are wondering, YES there is a happily ever after for D&E in this story!