Misunderstood: A Pride and Prejudice Novella: Love at Pemberley, #4

By Reina M. Williams

Miss Maria Lucas, after jilting her fiancé, has traveled to Pemberley for the Christmas season. She hopes her visit to childhood friends Kitty and Lizzy will ease the discomfort she’s felt at home after disappointing her parents’ plans for her marriage. But she could not marry the man they chose—there is only one man she can give her heart to, a man she believes she will never see again.

Mr. Denny arrives at Pemberley, not a very welcome guest to Mr. Darcy. But, as a friend of Darcy’s new brother-in-law, Sir Camden, Darcy opens his home to Denny. Soon, Denny finds himself opening to new feelings for the lovely Miss Maria Lucas, and he acts to make this Christmastide one of new beginnings. As Denny shows the party at Pemberley his true nature, Maria hides some of her truths from Denny. Forgiveness and happiness dance within reach—can they claim their partners by Twelfth Night?

Heat level: Sweet

Length: 72 pages

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rickrack Books
• Release date: Oct 30, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386172314

Book preview

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to places, establishments, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental and the work of the author’s imagination.

Copyright © Reina M. Williams 2014

Rickrack Books/rickrackbooks.com

Cover design by Christy C. of Gilded Heart Design

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any format without permission from the author.

First Edition/December 2014

***

Miss Maria Lucas, after jilting her fiancé, has traveled to Pemberley for the Christmas season. She hopes her visit to childhood friends Kitty and Lizzy will ease the discomfort she’s felt at home after disappointing her parents’ plans for her marriage. But she could not marry the man they chose—there is only one man she can give her heart to, and she believes she will never see him again.

Mr. Denny arrives at Pemberley, not a very welcome guest to Mr. Darcy. But, as a friend of Darcy’s new brother-in-law, Sir Camden, Darcy opens his home to Denny. Soon, Denny finds himself opening to new feelings for the lovely Miss Maria Lucas, and he acts to make this Christmastide one of new beginnings. As Denny shows the party at Pemberley his true nature, Maria hides some of her truths from Denny. Forgiveness and happiness dance within reach—can they claim their partners by Twelfth Night?

Chapter One

Maria Lucas! It is a pleasure to see you! Lizzy Darcy, née Bennet, greeted Maria with a squeeze of her hands. They walked down the hall of Pemberley, where Lizzy lived with her husband, Fitzwilliam Darcy. Lizzy smiled and nodded at the housekeeper who had been taking Maria to the drawing room. I’ll see her in from here, thank you, Mrs. Reynolds.

Mrs. Reynolds inclined her head and disappeared around the corner. Maria had not visited Pemberley before, and though she had lost some of her former awe at such grand places, she was silent at the grandeur of the high-ceilinged hall lit with a multitude of candles and a delicately patterned carpet. Also, she still admired Lizzy’s sparkling, and strong, person. In her recent decision, Maria had been guided by Lizzy’s example, rather than that of her own sister, Charlotte.

Have you heard from Charlotte of late? Lizzy asked in her usual mirthful tone. She had not changed since Maria had seen her some year since. Perhaps she was even more beautiful, with a special glow in her soft features and dark hair Maria had noticed in a few new wives and mothers of her acquaintance.

Oh, yes. I’m afraid she doesn’t think much of my breaking my engagement to Sir Richard.

Lizzy stopped before they reached the drawing room. Thinking is not the only guide, especially in choosing a marriage partner. Did you follow your heart?

I did, Maria whispered.

Charlotte will be glad, eventually. Lizzy’s mirth held a mischievous hint.

I am not so sure about my mama. She and Papa went to much trouble, and expense, for my season, and making me ready to meet such as Sir Richard. They had been so happy in his proposal. She laced her fingers together, her palms itching at the remembrance of Sir Richard’s ring on her finger. An irritation, that’s what the entire engagement had proven. Yet sometimes an irritation was just the thing to get one to notice a problem.

You will receive more proposals, I am sure. I heard you were quite the belle of London. Lizzy smiled warmly at her. It can only be to you to be more circumspect in whom you accept.

Maria nodded. There was only one man she would accept. One man she would never see again. I am here to begin again.

Pemberley is the place for it. They entered the drawing room. It was a grand apartment, with several sofas in blues and jonquil, Adam chairs, an elegant mantle and surround to the bright fireplace, and heavy velvet drapes drawn against the windows. Books lining a case and a pianoforte in one corner provided amusement and the landscape paintings lent added beauty and depth to the already well-appointed and vast space.

Maria! Kitty Fitzwilliam rushed to her and embraced her. The two had been good friends, though this friendship was often strained by Kitty’s former attachment to her younger sister, Lydia. Now Kitty was, like her other sisters, a married woman. Kitty grasped her hand, as she used to when they were girls, and pulled her to the large sofa near the blazing fire in the hearth. We are so glad you are here. You will come and stay with James and me too, will you not?

Kitty had invited her to visit her nearby home, where she lived with her husband, Colonel James Fitzwilliam, Mr. Darcy’s cousin. Maria still had difficulty envisioning Kitty married to such a gentleman as Colonel Fitzwilliam. Maria had met him in what seemed another lifetime, when she and Lizzy had visited a newly-married Charlotte over two years before.

Maria smiled and nodded again. She felt as dumbstruck as she had on that visit, especially when they had visited Rosings, the imposing home of the equally imposing Lady Catherine de Bourgh, the aunt of Mr. Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam.

"James and Darcy are pleased you will be here. They remember you from your visits with Lizzy to Rosings. And Anne and dear Alfred will be here for dinner. You remember Anne, too, don’t you? You met her at Rosings. Only Georgiana and Camden and Jane and Charles are at home, and Mary and Nathaniel are visiting them. Oh, Lizzy, why do you not stop me from nattering on! I cannot seem to stop since