Hello! I have no clue if anybody is going to read this, but I am truly so excited about all the kind reviews and follows from the first chapter. It was quite unexpected to be honest! I'm sorry it has been so long since updating, I'm sure each of you knows how life seems to just get crazy when you least expect it. Regardless, I am so appreciative of those of you who commented on the story - it was fun to get feedback and also helpful in making me realize what I need to think about a bit more! :) I'm excited to be back.
Anyhow, on with the story. Enjoy!
Caroline drummed her fingers along the windowsill, with every hit of her fingers correlating with a raise of one eyebrow higher and higher. She was deep in thought about just how effective her most recent plan to win the hand of one Fitzwilliam Darcy would pan out to be. Here she sat, under the guise of being an amiable summertime visitor to Anne De Bourgh, and yet she felt no more closer to being with Mr. Darcy than she had a week ago, a month ago, a year ago…
Her maintained acquaintance with Georgiana Darcy, Mr. Darcy's younger sister, had proven useful in her pursuit of the man to this place. She had been introduced to Lady Catherine de Bourgh through Georgiana via a series of letters. The kind girl had informed the Lady of Rosings Park that Caroline would be traveling the countryside and that she had offered to look in on the young Miss De Bourgh in the hopes of being a cheerful acquaintance. It benefited Caroline that Lady Catherine had never met her, as the lady recognized immediately that Caroline Bingley was not quite the warm, giving, pleasant young woman that the optimistic Georgiana had painted her as. However, Caroline did not particularly care. She had one intention and one intention only of being here, and she was not going to let that slip through her fingers.
Caroline's eyes were locked on the horizon, trailing along with a bird of prey soaring above the treeline. Swooping and soaring through the air, patiently waiting for its prey to make itself known. That was her, she thought, her eyebrow rising again as the thought crossed her head. Patience. Patience. Although with no sighting of Mr. Darcy all afternoon, it was seeming more futile that today would be a day of any great success.
Upon hearing Lady Catherine headed down the hallway, Caroline rose and settled back in on the settee near Anne and began a banal conversation about needlepoint. Under suspicious and occasionally withering stares from Lady Catherine, Caroline attempted the facade of congeniality until she exhausted her stay at the grand house.
With another day in near silence and definite boredom finished, Caroline chose to reward herself with shopping. The village near Rosings was a quaint place interspersed with small parks, sprawling trees, and a babbling stream winding its way in, around, and under some of the paths. Caroline despised it. The people dressed so simply, the stores sold so little, and her boredom could not be greater.
As she scanned a window display, her eyes tracked as a beetle worked its way out under from a dress skirt and scurried towards her. With a huff of disgust, she glided away with a full shudder taking over her body as she rounded the corner. Her momentum was soon stopped as she ran straight into a solid wall of man.
She scoffed and glared upwards - right into the face of Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam - and could do little to suppress the groan that emanated out of her throat.
"Ah, what a joy it is to see you as well, Miss Bingley. I have been counting the minutes since we last parted," the colonel said with a smirk tipping up one side of his mouth.
"Truthfully, sir, I have not the time, interest, or enthusiasm for this encounter today and must beg of you to leave me be. I have a distinct mission and I will not have it sidetracked - particularly when I have a strange feeling that distraction is your primary objective," she replied coolly. She backed up her ire with a glare focused right into his eyes. His very blue, blue eyes.
"Ah, but Miss Bingley, any day could be a shopping day. I merely wish to continue our most pleasant acquaintance that has been resurrected as of the other evening."
"Oddly, you may find that you are alone in your sentiments about this relationship," she responded. "As if today could not get any worse, I find myself tiring quickly and wishing only to go home, freshen up, and dream of being back in London."
"So this is you at your least fresh?" he cocked his head at her. "You are a picture of perfection, I cannot imagine what you must look like at the first light of day."
Unwillingly, his words evoked thoughts of a morning spent waking up to him in her mind. How horrifying. "As stated previously, I have no time for your carefree attitude. Now please, if you'll excuse me, I am off to meet my sister back at our cottage."
Just as she nodded to him and began to walk around him, she felt him reach to grasp her wrist, just like the other day at Rosings. And just like that day, he raised her hand to his lips. Before he could succeed, she tugged her hand away. Unable to stop a slight grin from coloring her face, she curtsied and looked upwards at him.
"Good day, Colonel."
Watching as she walked away, it was all Richard could do to keep himself from laughing aloud. He wasn't nearly done with flirting with this spitfire of a woman, that was for certain.
