AN: Fairy Tail belongs to the wonderful Hiro Mashima! XD
Hey! Really sorry this is 3 weeks late! I just got my laptop back late last night, so this is my first post in 3 weeks! Technology hates me, but I'm trying to fight it to get you stories! ;P Glad to be back, and I hope this chapter will be worth the wait!
Chapter Two – The Report of the Gossipers
"Levy my dear girl, would you deliver this to the blacksmith? I would ask your sister to do it as usual, but it is the ball tonight and she has just got her allowance – I can trust you not to spend all of your money on silly trinkets." Mr Conbolt called, walking out of his study.
Levy took the sealed envelope from her father, accepting her task. She was not one for enjoying a walk into town unless it was to go to church, but that was tomorrow. Today was the day of the last ball of the season, and for once Levy was looking forward to putting on her dress, she just was not looking forward to the ball. She put on her brown bonnet that matched her usual dress colour perfectly, and walked out the door, closing it quietly so as not to let her father down by letting Lucy know she was leaving.
She started the short walk into town, leaving their small estate behind. She hoped to have one of her own some day, preferably as the wife of a respected clergyman, but her chances of that were slowly decreasing as she made her way through her twenties. She only had three years left until she became the undesirable eight and twenty.
She could hear all the whispers as she walked up the main street. She only ever came into town when her sister dragged her in to find something – at least it was not 'someone' anymore – but for Levy to appear on her own? To the townspeople it must be worthy gossip, for they were gossiping very loudly indeed. She politely ignored their stares and words whispered loudly behind shielding hands. The giggles met her ears as she got closer to the Blacksmith's workshop. She knew her sister usually did the errands in town, but why should Levy doing it cause so much hilarity? She was about to find out.
Levy stepped in and immediately stepped back out again, the giggles now turned into obvious laughter. Had that been a woman working? She stood in horror as she tried to remember what she had just seen. The person certainly had to be at least six foot, and that mass of long black hair! At least it had looked like hair, maybe it had been a fur mantle? No respectable man would have so much unkempt hair!
Levy took a deep breath to steady herself, still ignoring the spectators around her, and stepped back in. She was met with a wall of black hair once again. She looked up to see strong tanned shoulders coming out of where the long, thick black hair had been roughly tied back at the nape of the neck with a long, thin piece of soot-coated pale material.
Levy opened her eyes to find herself lying along a strange, aged-looking, hard grey sofa in what was clearly some sort of office. She looked around her and remembered having walked in, but she had no idea what she was doing laying on the Blacksmith's sofa in his office, for that was the only place she could reason it to be, with the sounds of metal clashing with metal calling clearly through the office door that lead to the small yard outside.
She sat up slowly, her head pounding as she moved. She placed a hand to her head and promptly panicked, realising her bonnet was gone. Her hair was on clear display, and to top it off, it was a complete mess where someone had clearly been trying to deal with the rather large bump on her head. She looked around the room in horror from where she sat, as she tried to locate her bonnet.
"You're up then." A chill went down her spine as she recognised the man's voice.
He was the man from the river. He was the man who had argued with Miss Loxar. He was the man she had been eaves dropping on, and he was the man she was here to see. The tall man with the rough voice and harsh vocabulary was in fact the blacksmith. Her sister had been forced to come see this man for the last few years, and Levy could not help but feel guilty for not accompanying Lucy before now. Right now she wished her sister here very dearly. She felt small and vulnerable in front of this muscular giant. He was nothing like the two tall gardeners that liked to entertain her when her parents were not looking. Levy nodded, not looking up at the man. She could not look him in the eye after eavesdropping so openly.
"Well, Miss Conbolt, I got the letter you came to deliver. It is usually Miss Lucy Conbolt who comes in – your sister I believe? And Mrs Fernandes too." He stepped forward, closing the door behind him, and walked over to his desk, "Miss Lucy fainted too the first time she came in, but Mrs Fernandes just made some jesting remark on my appearance, about how it could scare any gentlewoman to near death. After seeing your reaction, Miss Conbolt, I am inclined to believe her."
"I am sure my sisters meant no offence, Sir. I certainly did not, but I must confess I have never fainted at the sight of such a tall male before." She replied, still not looking at the man, but rather looking away from him to hide her face.
"Tall 'male', huh?" Levy flinched as his almost gentlemanly conversation slipped slightly, "you are a very intriguing young lady indeed, Miss Conbolt. I did not mean to frighten you, and you have certainly gained a rather large bump for your troubles. I shall see you home safely to your parents, and give your father my reply in person."
Levy's eyes widened in surprise. He was going to take her home? Such an ominous appearing man was to walk her home? The gossip outside, just at her being in town alone, was bad enough without such a rough looking man walking her through the town, especially considering how long she must have been here, alone in his office. Had he been outside in his yard working the whole time while she had been in here? She blinked as a brown piece of material found its way in front of her. She took her bonnet from the giant and asked politely if there was a mirror.
As she looked in the surprisingly clean mirror, she found herself staring in horror at her appearance. Her blue hair looked no different than as if she had just woken. Not only had she left herself vulnerable in this man's office, she had allowed him to see her in such a state. What must he think of her? She had successfully shamed her father yet again.
She politely requested a brush, to which surprisingly she was handed a very clean, large brush. She had expected she would be lucky to have received a filthy comb from such an unkempt man. She could feel his eyes watching her as she reorganised her hair the best she could. She would have to ask Lucy or Aries to correct it for her before the ball. She replaced the bonnet over her hair with a small blush, still refusing to look at the man who would so kindly walk her home.
They walked back in silence. They had both ignored the gossip as they had walked through the town, and Levy was tempted to ask if he was perhaps married. It was unusual for a man to act so calmly in such conditions – she had only seen it two times before, and those two men had successfully married her sisters. Mr Fernandes had taken some persuading to ignore the townspeople's gossip. Levy reached the path that lead to the front of the house and politely thanked the man before turning to walk in, only to find him to continue walking beside her.
"I agreed to see you safely to your parents, and told you that I would speak to your father in person concerning his request. "
Levy watched out of her bedroom window as the tall man left only an hour later. She had retreated to her room to lie down as soon as she had taken the man to her father. She could not help but be curious about the strange man, and her sister, who was currently lounging on her bed, was perfectly happy to answer her questions.
"What, pray, is his name? He never introduced himself, which I believe to be in terrible manner, I must say." Lucy giggled at her sister; it had been some time since she had shown this much interest in a man, even if it was just to give him a bad report.
"His name, I believe, is Mr Redfox. He is the only known living son of the late Mr Redfox. I am afraid I do not know much of his family, however I have heard rumours of blue haired girls spending an unusual amount of time with him. I do not jest at your expense, my dear Levy. I asked around town yesterday about a Miss Loxar, and I believe she is a childhood friend of Mr Redfox's as it turns out. Her family is actually surprisingly wealthy; her father earns four thousand pounds a year!" Lucy explained happily, sitting up from the bed.
Levy nodded quietly to inform her sister that she was in fact listening, only vaguely aware of her sister's coy smile as she continued to look out of the window from her little chair.
"I also heard tell of a young girl, also of blue hair, who spends many an afternoon with him. Rumours say her to be his daughter, but that he is not married. He is a respected tradesman, but not considered a gentleman. He is obviously quite a scandalous man, Levy. I have never braved to glance at his face, but I have heard tell of him being rather handsome. Did you think him handsome, Levy?" Levy turned her gaze from the now empty path towards her sister, a slightly confused expression on her face.
"I did not look at his face, dear sister, but I believe I can agree that he is no gentleman. I even believe him to be the man from the river, which leads me to believe him to be the least civilised man in history. It would not surprise me if he had a child out with marriage; in fact it would not surprise me if he had several! He probably gets drunk and takes the innocence of young girls on a daily basis. He is certainly no man of the Lord." Levy responded with almost perfect calm, refusing to let her anger show in more than just her words.
"Levy! Those are harsh words indeed! Just because he is a tradesman and not a clergyman, does not mean that he does such terrible things! What must you think of the poor soldiers I like to dance with?" Lucy asked, standing up and taking hold of her sister's hands.
"I still worry that you may fall prey to such men, and become a disgrace such as your dear Millianna, but I hope you will not – I have grown rather fawned of you, dear Lucy, and wish you great happiness." Levy smiled honestly, hoping her sister did not take offence.
Lucy shook her head, smiling, and hugged her sister. They had had so many misunderstanding in the past because of her awkwardness, but now Lucy knew how to understand her sister, and knew that Levy had had no intension of offending her, as much as her comment on 'falling prey' to the soldiers had hurt, she knew her sister did not mean it how it sounded. She guided her sister over to the chair in front of the large mirror and started to work on Levy's hair in preparation for the ball. If Levy put up a fuss now, she had some sly comments she could make about the 'uncivil' man that had walked her dear sister home after she had fainted.
Will Levy meet the 'uncivil' Mr Redfox again? Which side of him will she accept as the real one? Who is the young blue-haired girl that who spends her afternoons in his yard? Is she really his daughter? Or is that just gossip? Will the two meet at the ball tonight? Or will she successfully avoid him?
Hope you enjoyed this chapter! ^_^ Please let me know what you think; I'm trying to write in the style of Jane Austen using Hiro Mashima's characters...both very big shoes to fill...one is a famous author and the other is a totally awesome Mangaka! I'm really nervous!
Thanks for not giving up on me! I hope you all understand, and the first thing I'm doing when I get money next Friday is go out to buy a new USB stick, as hinted by MistyQueHarper – promise I will! I don't want to go through all that again...I even have my passwords written down, which was something I was trying to avoid...I'm quite easily distracted and having access to fanfiction from anywhere? Yeah...oops? 0:) Anyway, I'm ecstatic to be back, and I hope you've enjoyed today's Fairy Tail chapter update! Oh, and do you want additional updates until we get back to where we should be, since today should have been Ch4, or are you ok with just sticking to 1 update a week?
MakeItHayle, I'm so glad you liked the first chapter ^_^ Sorry this update is so late! They're normally weekly (give or take a day)! Thank you for letting me know you'd read the update! It actually made me feel a little better knowing that at least some of the lovely people reading this were aware of what was going on! Hope you liked this chapter too! There's 9 chapters so it's not exactly short 0:) Trying to change the characters to fit into Pride and Prejudice but still keeping them in character is hilariously hard – one of my friends told me it wasn't possible when I told him what I was doing, but by that point I'd written the first four chapters! XD As for guilty pleasure, I've read it 4 times and have all the adaptations on video/DVD! 0:) I kept borrowing my Mum's fancy hardback copy of all of them, and the paper is as fine as the paper in the bible, so she bought me all six novels in paperback for my birthday 0:) Anyway, thanks and hope you enjoyed this chapter!
'Guest', glad you loved it! Hope this chapter was to your liking too! ^_^ What makes you think Natsu will appear? ;P ;P
shiftgiggles, you've hit the nail on the head! Yip, I'm trying to continue to write as if it was a continuation of P&P, so yeah, just a little wordy! ;P I actually got my Mum to proofread this (my only proofread story! My parents live 50miles away...that is how far I went to get this proofread!)...she just suddenly shouted out 'BLUE HAIR?' and accidentally startled the sleeping boxer at her feet! XD She had to calm my brother's dog back down before she could continue reading, but she was not impressed by there being blue hair XD I can't help Juvia's, Levy's and 'the young girl's' hair colour! Mashima-sensei designed that! XD So, hope you enjoyed this 2nd chapter and you're still finding the story just as interesting! ^_^ Sorry about the wait! :(
Erin Bloodrein Sage, it makes me really happy to hear that! XD Thank you! I'm really sorry about this being so late! Updates are usually weekly! Hope you're continuing to love it! ^_^
Sunday One-Shot: Ma Forte Peu Mellorine (My Strong Little Mellorine) – My first Sanami.
One Piece Tuesday: The Twisting String that is Fate Ch2 – Zorobin.
Fairy Tail Friday: Conceit and Crudity Ch3(4?) – GaLe/Gajevy & others! ^_^
If you let me know by Sunday if you want additional updates, I'll post another chapter with the one-shot ^_^ Thanks!