“Are you well?” Richard wrapped one arm around Anne’s waist and pulled her back against him.
“I am.” She leaned back into him lightly.
“I’ll not break or topple, Anne,” he whispered in her ear.
“But your leg…”
“Is healing as it should. I have been a very good patient…a task which has not been easy, I assure you.”
She laughed. “I have seen you scowl. I know it has tried your patience.” She leaned back a bit more and tilted her head up to look at him. “Thank you. I know you do it for me.”
“I would do most anything for you.”
“You always have,” said Anne. “I have been thinking about this lately. Darcy would often question when I asked for assistance, but you would do whatever I asked without a moment’s hesitation. If it made me happy, it was done ─ even if it put you at risk of getting into trouble. You only ever refused if you thought it would do me harm.”
“But it is Darcy’s nature to question.”
She turned to face him. “Yes, but it is your nature as well. You always questioned him. You were not so willing to bear your father’s wrath for him.”
“But he was a boy.”
She smiled at him. “Perhaps.” Her arms wound around his neck. “Or perhaps you have always held a special place in your heart for me.”
[From Listen To Your Heart]
Published to YouTube by saved by grace on Jan 22, 2015
I cannot tell you how excited I was to find this video this past week. This song has been a longtime favourite of mine — and I love Sense and Sensibility. I think the song fits Colonel Brandon so well!
But my love of the song is not the only reason I decided to share this video with you today. I have finished my first short story in the series of short stories that I wish to do (called Nature’s Fury and Delights), and I have moved on to the second one. It has only 430 words to it at present, but it has been started!
The first story (Thunder) is a different first meeting for Darcy and Elizabeth. The second story (Morning Mist) is going to be another first meeting and for two characters and a Jane Austen book that I have never before attempted. This story will be a different sort of meeting for Colonel Brandon and Marianne…and that’s all I am going to tell you about it for now.
I hope to have at least three short stories written and edited before I start releasing them, but that plan is flexible and will be dependent on how my writing times go because I do have a deadline in mind. There is a short excerpt from Thunder in my Austen Author post tomorrow, and for now, that’s the only excerpt that I plan to share. I’m trying very hard to keep these under wraps until I have more of the series idea fleshed out and written. You have no idea how hard that is for me! LOL I just want to share it all right now. 😀 But I am going to be good and refrain.
In other writing news, poor Miss Crawford has been neglected for yet another week. 🙁 I hope to get to her story this week, but I am pushing to get Assessing Mr. Darcy finished soon, so choices have to be made and unfortunately, Miss Crawford is not the most pressing choice. I also have excerpts from each of these stories as well as Delighting Mrs. Bennet in tomorrow’s Austen Authors post.
Below is a portion of the chapter from Assessing Mr. Darcy that I will post on Patreon later today. As always, this excerpt may contain spoilers, so read at your own risk. 🙂
AN EXCERPT FROM Assessing Mr. Darcy:
Jane took her hat from the hook on the wall near the door at the rear of the house.
“Forgive me,” Elizabeth said as soon as their feet had reached the garden path. “I should not have argued.”
“No, you should not have,” Jane agreed. “When will you learn to hold your tongue?”
Elizabeth sighed. “Not soon enough, I am afraid.”
Gaining Jane’s forgiveness was only the first step in setting things to right. She also needed to speak to William, whom she had seen circling the garden from the window in the sitting room.
“Let me talk to William. There must be something we can do to fix this mess I have created. Mr. Darcy’s response to my insistence was not so very unusual. I am certain any gentleman would have been less than polite when his foot was injured. I should have considered that.”
Jane wrapped her arm around Elizabeth’s. “I cannot believe William wishes to cut ties with both Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley over a few cross words.”
“I do not believe he truly will once he has had time for his anger to cool.”
“He is very protective of us,” Jane said. “He may not change his mind.”
It was a possibility that Elizabeth had considered. William could be stubborn to a fault at times, especially when it came to family and how they should be treated. While it was an endearing trait of his that he cared so much for his sisters, there were moments when it did become a hindrance – such as now.
“Even if he does not change his mind, I will find a way for you to see Mr. Bingley, even if I have to walk to Netherfield myself and apologize to Mr. Darcy.”
“You would do that for me?”
Elizabeth nodded. “I would do just about anything for you, my dear sister, even humiliating myself by begging forgiveness from a gentleman who should be seeking it from me.”
Jane laughed lightly. “You are too good.”
“I am not, and you know it. That is why our brother is stomping about the garden. Be careful of the rose bushes,” she called to William, who was swatting at the trees and bushes with his walking stick as he moved along the path.
“I would not dare harm them,” William called back. “And, I am not going to change my mind, Lizzy.” He straightened his shoulders and lifted his chin. “No matter how pathetic Jane might attempt to look. Those gentlemen are not the sort who deserve my sisters.”
“Everyone spits an angry word at one time or another,” Elizabeth replied. “And I am very good at provoking such words.” She smiled at William.
He sighed and shook his head. “You are a proficient at it, but it is more than that. They are just not the sort of gentlemen with whom I would like to see my sisters.”
“What is it then?” Elizabeth asked. “You cannot just declare someone unfit to marry without reason. You know I will not just accept your decree without proof.”
William scowled at the veracity of such a statement.
“You have not liked Mr. Darcy since you heard his name,” Elizabeth continued. “You were cautious about him as if you knew something about him. Yet, Lydia has not found anything unflattering in the papers tied to his name, so what are you not saying?”
William held Elizabeth’s gaze for a long, silent, stubborn minute. “Very well,” he finally said. “I have heard that he is not as he appears, but gossip is not right.”
“Neither is sending away a perfectly amiable and handsome gentleman who I like very much for no apparent reason,” Jane said firmly. “I do not wish to die a beautiful spinster, William – at least, not without knowing why it must be so.”
William handed her his handkerchief. “There is no need for tears.”
“There is when you are three and twenty and not allowed to marry anyone!” Jane cried with a stamp of her foot – a rare display of temper for her.
William turned away from them, walking three paces forward and then returning. That he did not wish to say anything was evident in his every feature, yet he could not look at Jane dabbing her eyes with his handkerchief without shaking his head and beginning an explanation.
~*~*~
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