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Wendy Soliman
Category:
Historical Fiction
Publisher: Bookbaby
Type: Fiction
Pages: 215
Copyright: January 26, 2016
ISBN-13: 9781483561349
Price: $2.99 (eBook)
When Eleanor Bingley's glamour neighbour attracts her interest a rebellious side to her nature she did not know she possessed shows itself.
Eleanor Bingley is attracted to her glamorous new neighbour Ross Enfield but Ross is working tirelessly to save the Enfield Brewery from the point of collapse and has no time to spare for romance.
Bella Darcy is distrubed when Emily Walton, her fiance's former mistress and Ross's aunt, takes up permanent residence in Derbyshire with Ross's family. When Tobias Porter, Wickham's illigitimate son, is hired by Emily to murder Bella, shocking secrets are revealed that threaten the fabric of Ross's family.
Will Bella survive the attempt on her life and can Ross and Ellie overcome the obstacles littering their path to happiness...
Excerpt
Chapter One
Derbyshire, April 1817
‘Thank you, Aunt Jane.’ Arabella Darcy reverently fingered the sample of bronze figured silk, held it against her cheek and regarded her image in a nearby mirror with a critical eye. As well as being a favourite of hers, the colour brought out the brown in her eyes and enhanced her pale skin. ‘You are right, both about the colour and the fabric, and my mind is now quite made up.’
‘That is what you said about the pink sarsnet.’ Eleanor Bingley took the fabric sample from Bella’s hand and smiled at her cousin. ‘You must be absolutely sure. There will be no further opportunities to change your mind. Mrs. Mandleson is a miracle-worker; that is undeniable but even she needs time to actually make your wedding gown.’ Ellie motioned towards the modiste who stood with her assistant a respectful distance away from the ladies in Pemberley’s sumptuous drawing room. ‘The ceremony is now only four weeks away, in case that fact had slipped your mind.’
Bella wrinkled her nose. ‘We should have married straight away, as soon as Chris proposed. That way there would have been no time to be indecisive and none of you would have been inconvenienced by my dithering.’
‘Your brothers had to return to Cambridge and you would not have wanted to marry without the three of them there to witness the event,’ Mama chided.
‘No, of course not.’ Bella sighed. ‘Take no notice of me. I am jittery, that’s all.’
‘You? Nervous?’ Bella’s sister Susie looked astonished. ‘I never thought I would live to see the day. You are the most self-assured person I know, Bella, and are never anxious about anything.’
Bella flashed a wry smiled. ‘I have never been on the point of matrimony before.’
Mama’s lips curved. ‘I am sorry if our excitement is making you nervous, my dear, but surely you would not deny your papa and me the pleasure of giving our daughter the best possible wedding that we can? And I am afraid that means we must agonise over every little detail; including your gown. Especially that.’
‘Now you have made me feel quite selfish, Mama.’
‘Which was not my intention.’
‘Well anyway, Chris is determined to put Ripon Castle into a better state of repair before I make it my home, so we could not have married before now anyway.’
‘It is only natural that you want to look your very best for Mr. Warner,’ Aunt Jane said, sharing a smile with Bella’s mama. ‘You are not being at all indecisive. Your mama and I were just as torn about things in the weeks leading up to our own wedding day.’
‘You did not have to worry about looking your very best when you married my uncle,’ Bella replied. ‘I am quite convinced of that. You are naturally lovely, and sweet and amiable and kind, Aunt Jane, and would look beautiful if you wore a sack. I declare I have never heard you say a bad word about anyone. Whereas I—’
‘You take after me, I am afraid,’ Mama said with a regretful smile, ‘much as your cousin Emma takes after Jane.’
‘But I do not favour Mama, which is grossly unfair,’ Ellie said. ‘However, at least now that Emma is married I am no longer constantly being compared to her and found wanting.’
‘And when Bella leaves Pemberley to live in Yorkshire I shall be the only Miss Darcy of Pemberley,’ Susie said on a note of considerable satisfaction. ‘We shall set new styles in the area, Ellie, and break a dozen hearts whilst we are at it.’
‘So keen to see the back of me, sister?’ Bella asked playfully.
‘Not in the least. I shall enjoy telling anyone who will listen that my sister will be a countess one day.’
‘Not for a long time, I hope,’ Bella replied. ‘Chris is very fond of his uncle and in no particular hurry to assume his title and responsibilities.’
‘What nonsense you do speak, my dear!’ Aunt Jane said, addressing the comment to her own daughter. ‘You and Emma have very different characters, it is true, and—’
‘And we lesser mortals cannot help feeling inferior to our siblings,’ Mama added. ‘I know exactly what you mean, Ellie. Not that you are anything but lovely and amiable in your own right but, growing up, none of us Bennet girls could hold a candle to Jane. Our mama was fond of scolding us for not being more like her; as though it was our own faults that we did not possess her beauty or goodness of character. All Mama’s laments achieved was to make us feel inferior to our sister.’
‘Oh, Lizzy!’ Aunt Jane said, looking embarrassed.
‘Even so, Aunt Lizzy,’ Ellie said. ‘It was you who captured Mr. Darcy’s heart. I have heard it often said that he was quite the most eligible bachelor in the whole of Derbyshire and dozens of hearts were broken when he brought you to Pemberley as his bride.’
Mama laughed. ‘A salutary lesson, Ellie. Gentlemen worthy of one’s regard look beyond physical perfection when selecting a wife.’
‘Chris certainly did,’ Bella muttered.
‘Now then, Bella, what colour do you think would best suit your bridesmaids?’ Aunt Jane, who had appointed herself as wardrobe mistress for Bella’s forthcoming nuptials, handed Bella a swatch of the palest pink satin. ‘You were keen on pink for yourself. This shade will not clash with your bronze and will suit Susie, Ellie and Rosie.’
‘It is a shame Rosie cannot be here,’ Bella replied, referring to her Aunt Kitty’s daughter. ‘But you are right, as always, Aunt Jane, the colour would suit them all. What is your opinion, girls?’
Ellie and Susie agreed, prompting a further debate about styles. Sketches supplied by the patiently waiting modiste were examined and decisions eventually reached. The modiste and her assistant then took themselves off, looking delighted to have been commissioned to make the wedding gown for the future Countess of Ripon.
‘Well,’ Mama said. ‘I am very glad that we have finally made a decision and that you are happy with your selections, Bella. That is all that really signifies. Now, I think we all deserve a restorative cup of tea.’
Susie rang the bell and the anticipated tea was served with the prompt efficiency Bella was accustomed to expecting at Pemberley. Mama and Aunt Jane lost themselves in recollections of their own wedding day, reliving the moment when they had left the doors of the church in their native Hertfordshire on the arms of their new husbands, apprehensive at embarking upon the next phases of their lives. Bella appreciated how they must have felt since she was plagued with similar misgivings about the responsibilities she was about to assume.
Bella drank her own tea quickly but declined the sandwiches and cake on offer. Chris would be arriving tomorrow. Other than a brief visit to act as groomsman to her cousin Naomi’s new husband in February, Bella had not seen him since he had left Derbyshire with his uncle directly after Christmas. A part of her wondered if, when he saw her again, he would regret committing himself to a female as unremarkable as she was, accounting for her unsettled state on mind. Christian Warner was imposing—yes, that word perfectly described the vital, handsome, self-assured and alarmingly intelligent heir to the Earl of Ripon. She was in possession of a decent dowry, but Chris had no particular need of that, and she had little else to recommend her. She was merely tolerable to look at; outspoken, opinionated and looked at the world with a cynical eye—far from admirable traits in a future countess. And yet Chris seemed to prefer those attributes above the more compliant traits evidenced in the many young ladies who had attempted to attract him.
Ellie’s earlier concerns about her lack of physical beauty echoed Bella’s private thoughts on the matter, increasing her anxiety. She had been cooped up indoors for too long and was in need of fresh air. The wind would hopefully blow away the cobwebs in her brain. Bella snatched up her shawl and asked her sister and cousin if they would like to join her. She was not surprised when they readily agreed and the three of them stepped through the drawing room doors, directly onto the terrace. Astor, Bella’s brother Marc’s terrier, stirred himself from his spot in front of the fire and followed them. Whenever Marc was away Astor attached himself to Bella. What he would do when Bella left Pemberley in a few weeks’ time she could not imagine. Happily Marc was in his final term at Cambridge and would be home for good in the summer so Astor would not be an orphan for long.
Spring flowers in a riot of colours waved their heads in the breeze as the girls headed for their favourite walk around the lake. The trees were waking up from their winter slumbers and she could see fresh green shoots on their branches. They would be in leaf by the time she and Chris made their vows; a fitting tribute to a new beginning. But, she decided, she would only become Chris’s wife if she was satisfied when she was him that he did not regret his decision. If she even suspected that he did then she would break off the engagement, regardless of the trouble it would cause. She loved Chris with an abiding passion that sometimes frightened her but unless she was satisfied that his feelings were similarly engaged…well, she would know the moment she saw him whether she was destined for the life of an eccentric spinster, tolerated by her brother’s wife as a permanent fixture at Pemberley and talked about in hushed tones as to the woman who rejected a future earl.
‘What news of Mr. Enfield?’ Susie asked as Bella bent to pick up a stick and throw it for the expectant Astor. ‘You seem a little downhearted today.’
Shaking off her introspective thoughts, Bella too was curious to know how things stood between Ellie and her new neighbour’s son, Mr. Ross Enfield. At sixteen, Ellie was young to be forming attachments of that nature but there again, Ellie had a great deal of common sense as well as a resolute—some might term it stubborn—nature. If there was something she very much wanted she could be single-mindedly tenacious in her pursuit of it and, unless Bella mistook the matter, Ellie had already settled her interest upon Mr. Enfield.
The Enfields were of considerable interest to Bella, partly because Chris’s former mistress, Mrs. Emily Watson, was Mrs. Enfield’s sister and now appeared to spend more time in Derbyshire than she did at her own home in Yorkshire. If that was because Chris had ended their arrangement when he became engaged, Bella had no way of knowing. She was both relieved and surprised that she had not put up more of a fight to hold on to him, not sharing Chris’s opinion that she would accept his decision without rancour.
Bella was relieved that her glamorous rival had removed herself from Chris’s immediate sphere but wondered at her continual presence in Derbyshire. Bella had been unable to help seeing the admittedly attractive woman within local society and it did not surprise her to observe that she was a great favourite with the gentlemen. She was perfectly polite to Bella, congratulated her warmly upon her betrothal, and gave Bella no reason to suspect her motives. But there was something about the way in which she looked at Bella with such piercing intensity—as though she couldn’t comprehend what Chris saw in such an unremarkable female—that put Bella on her guard. Common sense told her there was absolutely nothing Mrs. Watson could do to spoil Bella’s happiness but the feeling of unease endured. If Bella was any judge, Mrs. Watson harboured strong objections to being displaced by Bella.
‘The Enfields dined with us last evening,’ Ellie said in response to Susie’s question. ‘Well, not just with them. Mama invited over twenty people.’
‘But you managed, purely by chance, to have Mr. Enfield take you in,’ Bella suggested with a playful smile.
‘I didn’t put myself forward, if that is what you are implying,’ Ellie replied. ‘I observed the way you were with Mr. Warner, Bella. You didn’t seem to encourage him attentions, many others did and yet it was you whom he pursued.’
‘You imply that no gentleman takes an interest in a lady who show too much interest in him,’ Susie said with a wry smile. ‘I will remember that if I happen to meet a man who stirs my passions.’
‘I am unsure what Mr. Enfield stirs in me,’ Ellie replied with her usual blunt forthrightness, ‘but I do know I would be unwise to read too much into the attraction.’
‘Whatever makes you say so?’ Bella asked. ‘You are young, it’s true, but you have always known your own mind. Mr. Enfield’s family seems respectable and I know nothing to that gentleman’s detriment. Why should you not like him, or he you?’
Ellie wrinkled her nose. ‘Mrs. Watson, his aunt, kindly put me on my guard.’
‘Did she indeed.’ Bella’s shoulders stiffened. ‘What business is it of hers, I wonder.’
Ellie shrugged. ‘She more or less lives with her sister nowadays and is very close her nephew.’
‘And yet she did not see her relations for some time following the death of her husband. I heard it said that there was a rift between her and her sister.’ When Ellie and Susie both stared at Bella with open interest she realised she had said too much and could not possibly tell the truth about how she came to know so much about Mrs. Watson’s affairs. ‘Mrs. Watson is an acquaintance of Chris’s,’ she explained. ‘He knew her slightly in Ripon and she mentioned the feud to him.’
‘Well, if there was a falling out,’ Ellie said, ‘it is all forgotten now. Anyway, Mr. Enfield is an only child and his mother…well, idolises him and I don’t suppose any lady who interests him will measure up in his mother’s eyes, so I shall not get my hopes up. Mrs. Watson explained to me that there is a lot of expectation resting upon her nephew’s shoulders.’
‘As his father’s son and heir I am sure there must be, but what of it?’ Bella asked.
Ellie twisted her lips, her expression pensive. ‘He is twenty eight; a lot older than me. I am probably not worldly enough to retain his interest.’
‘Nonsense! Besides, at his age he ought to be turning his thoughts towards matrimony,’ Susie said briskly. ‘Obviously, they have not long lived in the area so I have only met him once or twice but it is obvious to me that he likes you very much, Ellie, so at least we know he is a sensible man of good taste.’
‘Why did Mrs. Watson warn you off?’ Bella asked, although she had a good idea. If her instinctive feeling that Mrs. Watson still had designs upon Chris was correct then she would want to sever all ties with Bella’s family.
‘Their family own the Enfield Brewery based in Derby,’ Ellie said.
‘Of course! I had not made the connection,’ Susie said. ‘I have seen their beautiful dray horses making deliveries but still did not realise.’
‘And your Mr. Enfield will take over the reins, so to speak,’ Bella said. ‘I fail to see why that should prevent him from enjoying your society, Ellie. Mrs. Watson would do better to keep her advice to herself.’
‘Oh, she was just being kind. She and I have become quite friendly as a matter of fact. She is very interested in our family and asks me lots of questions about us all. Anyway, she seems to think that Mr. Enfield senior has already settled upon a wife for his son. Not that Mrs. Watson actually said so, but she implied it. Obviously, she has sensed my interest in her nephew and tried to put me on my guard.’
‘Presumably Mr. Enfield has some say in his choice,’ Bella said. ‘Besides, if he is already promised elsewhere he would not constantly single you out. And, for that matter, why have we not met this mysterious female?’
‘She lives in the south, apparently, and is the daughter of another brewer.’
‘Ah, now I understand.’ Bella nodded, endeavouring to contain her anger. ‘Enfield wants to expand his business empire and, presumably, the brewery he wishes to incorporate into it is owned by a man who wants to see his daughter advantageously married.’ She sighed. ‘Poor Mr. Enfield.’
‘Yes well, as you say, Bella, I am still young and will doubtless get over my mild infatuation. I am grateful to Mrs. Watson for letting me know the lie of the land since I shall be careful if I am in Mr. Enfield’s company not to make an almighty fool of myself.’
‘Mr. Enfield will be the fool if he does not follow his heart,’ Bella said, giving Ellie’s hand a reassuring pat. The veiled despondency in her cousin’s eye made Bella suppose that Ellie’s feelings were already invested in Mr. Enfield and hoped her heart would not be broken.
The girls circled the lake but found there was still a bitter edge to the wind that prevented them from lingering out of doors. They returned to the house in time to enjoy toasted crumpets dripping with butter and drank more tea. The walk had revived Bella’s appetite. She ate her fair share but took little part in the conversation, her mind dwelling upon Mrs. Watson’s interference in her cousin’s affairs.
‘What time ought we to expect Mr. Warner tomorrow, Bella?’ Mama asked.
‘He hopes to be here shortly after luncheon, Mama.’
‘You must be looking forward to seeing him, Bella,’ Aunt Jane said.
Bella smiled. ‘I wonder if I will recognise him, it has been so long.’
‘They say absence makes the heart grow fonder,’ Susie remarked.
‘And memories fade,’ Bella replied.
‘You are suffering from pre-wedding nerves,’ Mama said in a soothing tone. ‘That is perfectly natural.’
Aunt Jane stood and gathered up her things. ‘I had best be on my way,’ she said. ‘I shall see you on Wednesday for the first fittings of your gowns. Come, Ellie, I believe I can see our carriage waiting.’
Bella wished her aunt and cousin farewell, deep in thought about all she had just learned regarding Mr. Enfield’s circumstances. Sometimes having an enquiring mind could be a curse, she decided. Ellie seemed perfectly happy to accept Mrs. Watson’s warning and look upon it as a kindness. It was really none of Bella’s business and she ought to do the same. She knew nothing to Mrs. Watson’s detriment, other than that she had once been Chris’s mistress, and had absolutely no reason to suppose that she had ulterior motives.
Even so, Bella’s disquiet continued for the rest of the day and was still with her when she woke the following morning.
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