A Rare Ability: A Darcy and Elizabeth Pride and Prejudice Variation (A Pemberley Romance Book 10)

by Harriet Knowles

  A Rare Ability

  Only Elizabeth Bennet can see Darcy's secret, but will he discover in time that she also holds his heart?

  Reluctantly, painfully, searching for a wife among society’s best in the London season, Darcy breaks free and escapes to the country. And without warning, that is where he finds her.

  Darcy knows deep inside him that Elizabeth Bennet is what he needs and who he wants, although the rules of society are against him.

  But his affections cannot be denied. Just as he decides his future must be with Elizabeth Bennet, she is lost to him.

  Darcy must risk his reputation, the regard of his family, even his very life. Will he ever win Elizabeth's love?

  A Rare Ability is a sweet and clean Regency Romance of over 88 thousand words.

  A Rare Ability

  Harriet Knowles

  Thank you for downloading this eBook.

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  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Chapter 69

  Harriet Knowles

  Chapter 1

  Darcy scowled as he glared out of the window at the gardens. Although they were extensive by London standards, he still felt hemmed in after the great estates of Pemberley. It had been too long since he had seen them.

  Tonight was going to be torture — he knew of no better word for it. Torture, yet again, and there was no escaping it.

  “Stop scowling so fiercely, Darcy! Or you will meet with no success tonight once again, and we will have to repeat the exercise weekly right through the next season, too.” His cousin Richard clapped him on the shoulder as he came to stand beside him.

  Darcy shrugged. “I cannot think how you can view the prospect of this evening with such an equable temper, Richard. But you never seem concerned by such ventures, so I must assume that it does not trouble you as much as it does me.” He turned his head. Richard seemed calm and at ease. “Why do I so dislike such occasions?”

  He glanced down. His cousin’s uniform fitted him perfectly, and his boots gleamed, the result of many hours’ patient work by his batman. Darcy glanced at his own dress shoes, and his lip curled. He was dressed as a gentleman was expected to be at a ball. But in his view, his appearance was not nearly as impressive as Richard in full dress uniform beside him.

  “Why, because you have never taken the trouble to look at other people as if they are interesting or worth taking the time to get to know.” Richard turned as the footman gave a slight cough.

  Darcy turned too, and smiled at Georgiana as she entered the drawing room. Her answering smile was shy, but he could detect the anxiety behind it. With his sister, at least, he could read her emotions.

  “You look very handsome, William,” she said as he bowed over her hand. “But I have to say that I’m glad I am too young to be out. I would be fearful about attending a ball where I do not know many people.”

  Richard laughed. “It is not necessary for every Darcy to disdain society, Georgiana. I think you will enjoy making friends of your own age and developing interests and going to new places.”

  “Oh, yes!” Her eyes sparkled a little. “And I’m looking forward to going to Ramsgate in the summer.” She blushed slightly. “It was good of Mrs. Younge to select me to go with her. The other pupils are — not pleased.”

  Darcy smiled. “I understand it is because you have worked the hardest at improving your talents and accomplishments.”

  Richard laughed. “You must enjoy your reward, Georgiana. You have undoubtedly earned it.” He glanced at the clock.

  “Come on, Darcy. You can delay no longer.”

  Darcy muttered under his breath, and Georgiana reached out to him.

  “William, I know how difficult this is for you. But if you find yourself reluctant to choose, remember I’d enjoy having a sister.” Her worried little smile warmed him.

  “Thank you, Georgiana. I confess I am not enjoying the occupation as much as everyone else seems to.”

  “I think Mother is no longer enjoying it, if it makes you feel better,” Richard shook his head. “She has lined up so many suitable young ladies, and you seem to have rejected each one.”

  Darcy did not let himself scowl. “Not one has seen me. They only see the prize of becoming mistress of Pemberley.”

  Richard chuckled. “But you are the same. You have not seen one of them as an individual person, either. You haven’t even tried to get to know a single one of them as someone with hopes and dreams of her own.” He nodded at the butler, who had come to the door.

  “Come on, Darcy. Your Mr. Jones has come to tell us the coach is waiting.” He winked at Georgiana before looking back at Darcy. “I would suggest you choose Lady Louise. She is from a very good family, with a good fortune of her own. She knows exactly what her duties would be, and she is quiet enough to stay out of your way unless you need her to be the hostess on occasion.” He took a step towards the door. “And she is very pretty, too.”

  Darcy sighed. He turned to his sister. “Do not worry about me, Georgiana. It is something I have to do.”

  She stepped closer to him. “I know how difficult you find it all, William. I will be thinking of you,” she whispered, and then stepped back and curtsied.

  He bowed his head to her. “I will see you in the morning, Georgiana.”

  * * *

  He tapped his shoe absently with his cane as he and Richard drove towards Almack’s. Somehow this place was worse than the others. If they were at a ball being held by any of their friends or acqua
intances, it didn’t seem quite so — forced. But Almack’s was a marriage mart, that was all.

  The great gilded rooms and the falsely high laughs and giggles of the young ladies newly out, and their rapacious mothers — he despised them all.

  But he must marry. This summer, he would be eight and twenty years old. His Aunt Alice, in particular, had decreed that he had left it far too late and she would select a few young ladies from some highly suitable families.

  His duty was to dance with them and attend all the balls that the season offered. He sighed. They had all been the same, prattling of inane things, interested only in themselves and their experiences, talking in awe of how beautiful Pemberley must be. His scowl deepened. At least Aunt had not expected him to marry Cousin Anne.

  He smiled wryly to himself. He had heard Aunt Catherine and Aunt Alice disagreeing about that from far down the hall of Matlock House and had sought refuge in his uncle’s library. Even the stench of the Earl’s pipe was better than facing Lady Catherine, and his uncle had laughed.

  “Who are you going to ask for the first dance, then, Darcy?” Richard leaned back against the coach seats, interrupting Darcy’s train of thought. “Or must I drag you to them, one by one?”

  Darcy growled and glowered out of the window, and his cousin chuckled.

  “You might just as well have chosen one of them during the first dance, you know. You would have been saved from all these dreadful evenings and might even be married and able to get on with your life.”

  “What life?” Darcy stared incredulously at Richard. “I would not be free to come and go as I please, once I am wed. I would only be able to go to places that — my wife —” he spat the words, “wanted to go to, and I would always have to consider another in everything I did.”

  Richard became serious. “You are used to considering Georgiana before your own wishes already. I know you are devoted to her, and you did not choose her as your sister. I know you’ll stay in London while she is in Ramsgate, so that you are close by if she needs you, even though you long to go to Pemberley.” He shrugged. “I imagine being married is like that. You can still travel where you wish, you just need to have made suitable arrangements for whomever you choose.”

  Darcy was sunk in gloom. “I suppose I shall have to.”

  “Yes, you will.” Richard sounded even more serious. “The longer you leave it, the worse it will be for Georgiana. At present, it is not only her great fortune that makes her vulnerable to a fortune-hunter. If she is to stay as heir to Pemberley for much longer, she becomes even more of a target for someone unscrupulous.”

  Darcy sighed. “You’re right, Richard. What should I do?”

  His cousin leaned forward. “We’ve arrived.” He glanced round. “Stay with me. Dance with a number of young ladies. Ask Lady Louise for the supper dance and be attentive to what she says over dinner.” His hand reached for the door handle. “Then, over the summer, you might call on her once or twice a week.”

  Darcy pulled at his cravat. Suddenly it seemed to be much tighter, strangling him as he stepped down from the coach behind his cousin. It was too soon. He wasn’t ready.

  He looked at the sky as he followed Richard. It was going to be a long summer.

  Chapter 2

  It had been a long summer. Elizabeth didn’t know why she was so restless as Michaelmas drew near, unless it was because she had just passed her twentieth birthday.

  She smiled slightly. She had taken time yesterday to go for a walk and had lain down in the far meadow. She had stared into the sky as the high streaks of cloud raced across her view.

  What did she want from her life? She didn’t feel old. But society decreed that she had only a few years left to make a good marriage, before it would be too late for her. She gazed at the clouds. Would she have married John Lucas, had he lived? He had always been there, because Charlotte was her friend.

  It was many years since he’d died, of course; having been terribly wounded during the battle of Trafalgar, he had eventually succumbed to his injuries at the grim Haslar Hospital near Portsmouth.

  Elizabeth found herself trying to remember his face as she’d seen him during his final leave — his thin, serious face, older than his years, but proud of his new lieutenant’s uniform.

  She smiled wryly. Looking back, Elizabeth knew she had merely had a childish infatuation with Charlotte’s brother, and a wish to help him. But after he’d gone, she had reinvented this childlike adoration into a great love affair, using it as an excuse for not allowing her affections to be touched again.

  She rolled over and propped herself on her elbows, gazing at the tiny wildflowers dotting the grass. She’d come back to the meadow today to continue her thoughts.

  She wasn’t really getting too old. Jane was three and twenty and Charlotte was four years older than Jane.

  Elizabeth bit her lip. Charlotte was indeed considered by many too old now to make a suitable match and Elizabeth’s heart ached for her friend. She wished Mama was more circumspect in her remarks about the matter. It mortified her when she knew Charlotte could hear every word.

  A small beetle climbed determinedly up a blade of grass a few inches in front of her nose. She sighed. There was nobody here in Meryton, no possible suitable match for Charlotte — or for Jane and herself, either.

  The blade of grass bent under the weight of the beetle, and Elizabeth sighed again, pushing herself to her feet. It was nearly time to go home and join her family for tea.

  But first she had time to put down her thoughts, preserve them to read again, should she wish to.

  She strolled to the top of the meadow, and climbed the stile. There, hidden in a hollow tree stump, she kept her supplies in a small chest. Sheets of notepaper, pen and ink, together with a blotter.

  Half-an-hour later, she blew over the completed sheets to hasten the drying of the ink. She felt better, having marshalled her thoughts to note them down. She rolled the sheets of paper, and tucked them in her reticule to carry back to her chamber. She smiled wryly. She was amassing quite a quantity of paper and was at rather a loss as to how to bind them into a journal. She looked at the final sheet with only a few sentences on it, and tucked it into the corner of the blotter as she packed everything into the chest. She would write more on it next time.

  She picked up her bonnet from the grass beside her and shook her head before tying the ribbons beneath her chin, ready to make her way home.

  Smiling, she wondered how long Mama would wait before settling on a firm course of action to find Jane a suitable husband. Of one thing she was certain, Jane would not get to seven and twenty without greater efforts being taken.

  She climbed back over the stile, holding her skirts carefully, and jumped down, thankful that the ground was dry. No. Mama would not wait much longer. She would send Jane to stay with Aunt and Uncle Gardiner in London. Elizabeth ran down the lane. She might even send her this coming season. As she turned onto the footpath to take the short cut back to Longbourn, she wondered if she might prevail upon Mama and Papa to permit her to go too.

  She slowed a little as the path sloped up, and frowned. She wasn’t under any illusion that it would be easier to meet a suitable gentleman in London. Aunt Gardiner was a dear and wonderful lady, but Uncle Gardiner was in trade, and therefore her aunt would never be invited to the best balls or gain vouchers to Almack’s.

  As she turned down the lane towards Longbourn, Elizabeth wondered if there was any benefit to be gained by going to London if they were not welcome within society?

  * * *

  She shook the thoughts away as she went indoors, hearing her mother’s voice calling for her, and the giggling of Lydia and Kitty.

  “I’m home, Mama!” she called back as she removed her hat and placed it on the side table. “What is causing such excitement?”

  Lydia ran into the hall and dragged her towards the sitting room. “Come on, Lizzy! You’ve missed the news! Mama wants to tell you.”

  “What n
ews?” Elizabeth laughed as she allowed herself to be tugged into the room to join the rest of the family. Mama was sitting in her favourite chair, fanning herself in her excitement.

  “There you are, Lizzy! Where have you been? There is a new gentleman who has taken Netherfield Park — a single gentleman — and he has a large fortune!” Mama didn’t wait for Elizabeth to answer her questions, but rattled on. “It’s such a fine thing, a new tenant at the estate. I began to think it would never be let. But now we can meet him, and I am sure he will fall in love with Jane.”

  She beamed at her eldest daughter. “You cannot possibly be so beautiful for nothing!”

  Elizabeth looked at her sister.

  Jane blushed slightly. “We must not embarrass the gentleman, Mama,” she protested. “I am sure that he should be able to settle into the neighbourhood without all the families trying to persuade him to marry one of their daughters.”