Page 13 of The Winter of Our Discontent (Pride and Prejudice Variations #1)

FITZWILLIAM DARCY, PEMBERLEY

Madam—

While artifice and disguise are arts unfamiliar to me, they must constitute the crown jewels of your talents, and I submit to your schemes and charades. In the event I choose to avoid your bride visits, I will be supervising the construction of a bridge at the south entrance to the estate.

I suffered a twinge of conscience over my bitterly worded reply. Had I not promised to be civil to her?

I had.

In truth, however, I was still too furious to behave as a gentleman ought, and I handed this note to my valet and took a kind of evil pleasure in it.