Page 16 of The Winter of Our Discontent (Pride and Prejudice Variations #1)

FITZWILLIAM DARCY

I returned to Pemberley from Fairhaven in Crossly after a satisfying day in which I felt like Darcy of Pemberley again, deep in the everyday work of my estate, speaking of horses and of the commodities market, and such.

There awaited Johnson, however, with a look of gravity on his face.

I recalled he had taken Mrs Darcy out to meet tenants, and so I barked out, “What now?”

My mood of useful satisfaction, erased in an instant, gave way to extreme irritation as he spoke. I listened to my steward with impatience and called for Mrs Darcy.