Revelations an adaption of Pride and Prejudice

chapter 107

Author's note

An extra chapter to liven up the holiday season and to celebrate the new year. And to celebrate the return of Revelations to Amazon, in a revised second edition, re-written in the past tense and split in two parts to improve the reading experience. I've also removed several anachronisms like ladies' underwear, and some words and expressions that weren't used at that time. To prevent bad reviews I have reduced most of the adult material to a mere mentioning of acts of love. Sadly, but better sales mean more time to spend on writing.

The current story is drawing to a close with the entire party moving to Pemberley after Georgiana's wedding (I'm quite a few chapters ahead of you, writing), but there are so many loose ends I expect Revelations to keep me occupied for much of 2017.

Chapter 107

Just a few days after Fitzwilliam's tour of the army camp, Anne finds herself hard put to stick to her own resolve of not letting regrets over losing Nick spoil her memories of a perfect time with him. She has even avoided contact with the Blackwood girls, seeing Nick again hit her so hard when she had just reached a certain level of acceptance. She's quite happy if she just doesn't meet him, so she avoids temptation by avoiding the house and its inhabitants. She has stopped going to the concerts for the same reason, and though Frederick obviously thinks she is crazy, he hasn't tried to convince her of Nick's loving her anymore either. He merely comforts her when she needs it, and treats her like nothing is wrong when she doesn't.

But with everyone out on a Saturday night it's lonely in the big house, and she cannot help feeling a bit forlorn and inclined to recall their evening dancing together in every single little detail, from the look in Nick's brown eyes to the feeling of safety filling her when they were dancing intimately. And how he guarded his charges, taking full responsibility until Felicity practically forced him to let it go. Then their night together, how he loved her until she forgot everything in the world except him. Her eyes burn with unshed tears. Maybe going out with someone else will help. Lieutenant Talbot has sent her an invitation just this morning to have coffee Tuesday afternoon in a very fashionable place in town and she hasn't sent him a reply, yet. She is inclined to refuse, but frankly that won't help her. She has to consider a proper marriage with an eligible gentleman as seriously as an exciting union with a master-schemer. Even though sitting in a parlour all day doing needlework and amusing several children doesn't appeal to her at all. But maybe that is not what most gentlemen expect from their spouses, she thinks they do but what if she is mistaken?

Deciding then and there to send him a note tomorrow to accept his invitation, Anne feels much better. But she will not attend any more concerts, every semblance of peace of mind she can talk herself into will instantly disappear should she see Nick's face again, hear his voice, she'd want to touch his cheeks and his hair, and have him hold her close and give her those little loving kisses.

At first there is no-one to see her tears fall and to put an arm around her and tell her all will be well again. But of course Simon knows what direction her thoughts will take, he has been in love, too, a lot more hopelessly, for years. He knows what she will be suffering all by herself in a large house that is made warm and comfortable not by expensive furniture, but by the welcoming people inhabiting it. He knows he will find Anne in tears, and since he likes her a lot no matter what she decides in the matter of marrying Frederick, he breaks his own unspoken rule to not be familiar with his master's family and their friends anymore. Since his rise in rank and the start of his liaison with Frederick he deems it wiser to act the perfect servant within the drawing-room and any other room in the general part of the house. Private rooms are all right to be familiar in, the servants' quarters reasonably so, the drawing-room is off limits. But Anne's heartbreak cannot be ignored, and he sits beside her and takes her in his arms, letting her cry herself out against his much narrower chest, smelling of a gentleman's perfume.