- A Happy Announcement -
Henry Crawford had been expecting it for sometime actually. He would of considered himself even more of a fool if he hadn't of seen it. Before he fell in love with her, when she was an oddity in his peripheral, her ardent gaze for her cousin, her agreeableness to his speech, it was so obvious a case of a child in love that he took a great pleasure in being the only one to see it. Laughing about it silently to himself, a child's love so sweet and innocent, so doomed for unhappiness, more so since his sister had set an eye on the man. Little Fanny would get her heart broken then get it mended with a few dances and walks and never think of it again. That is what he thought, then he became bored and wanted some sport so he sought to make her blush and fidget, to give her a taste of being made love to, he had not been prepared for her.
He had been so swept up in her tenderness, in her firmness, in her unyielding manner. In finding the ways to enchant, to awe, to make her look his way. Finding her resolve an absolute necessity, her gentleness a treasure, her tolerance above all reproach. He fell in love and completely forgot that she did not love him, could not love him until her heart had been broke.
He knew that in his fall from grace she would think nothing of him because she never had, in his darkened rooms he remembered her smile, her laugh, her blush. Recollected what had brought them about and finally discovered his folly, that he should not of only perused her, made her think of him, but to of applied himself to helping his sister advance in her quest as well, one that if given the right company could of seen her happy and in the city and not doomed to a country life. He'd no one but himself to blame for this folly, for this loss. So when the announcement finally came and the name of Bertram and Price were side by side he flung the paper from him, startling his servants.
His curiosity over came him later in the day though and he took it up again to read the description of the woman he loved, to see if they had gotten it right. His breath did catch though and he had to start again to make sure his eyes did not deceive him, where there should have been an Edmund, there was a Thomas, where there should have been a second son of, there was Heir to. It was unexpected and therefore shocking, he sat and stared at the words, trying to understand their meaning, their reason, the how of it all. He read the rest, there was no mention of her lack of fortune, of her father being just a sailor, and only a line of the mothers being sisters. There was no hint of their having lived in the same house. Incredibly simple and devoid of detail, she would be the talk of the city by dinner, speculation on how they met, how they fell in love, it was unlikely they would know who she was, this woman who had the name Bertram back in the papers.
There was only one thing that Henry wanted to know though, when? When had her heart broke, when had her attention shifted from one to the other, when had the elder seen what the youngest had not, when had the father changed his position and welcomed niece to daughter? Until when had he needed to wait to be fixed in wife and love? Surely it was as easy at that, to of experienced her first heartbreak and to look around at what was nearest to love, if only he had been there he could of surely won the day. There was no doubt that another would eventually see her, would love her, but against him they surely would of failed to gain her love in return.
He set the paper down and remembered once again, finding no hint of it in his memories, no reason for it, he concluded that Tom's illness had done him good, made him look about himself, find the best thing in his life and hold on to it. Though he could find no reason for her to sink so he was willing to concede that the title of Lady would fit her well, and while her life would of course have been far happier with him, it was most certainly better than that of a country preacher's wife.
Henry Crawford looked around himself, his house, his life, surely he could go back out now, this happy news must mark the end of his exile, to of lost the woman he loved to a family that did not deserve her, they must be well if giving him this injustice. He would go out and have some fun again and if he played it well enough perhaps he'd cross paths with Mrs. Bertram, perhaps he could make her blush.
~ fin ~